Okay, we are hitting up coffee here again. Yes, I know, there is an incredible amount of information about coffee out there. There is a little spin today. Do you like interesting flavors like Almond Joy, or York Peppermint Patty? How about those Cinnabons that permeate the your nose, when you are walking around the shopping mall? Well, like them or not, we are going to review them because they have that interesting little niche that the alphageek likes. We want to thank Foodbeast for the inspiration here. You can read their announcement of these products at the following link. Maybe if we cite foodbeast, we can start getting some readers here!

I was in Wegmans and I found a couple of the creamers there. While on vacation, I also found one more, so I decided to sit down, and share my thoughts with you. Creamers are an interesting contrast for a coffee drinker like the alphageek. Good coffee should not be covered up by other flavors, or even cream. Black coffee is the way to go. However, I find I am drawn to these flavors, when the last cup or two of coffee needs to be reheated. Once you reheat coffee, the taste goes downhill anyway, so why not punch up the flavors with some fun, in the form of a flavored creamer? After all, a little sugar and fat in one container is a great way to go.

For this review, the creamer should evoke the thoughts of what the name says. If it says delicate roses, your coffee should taste like delicate roses, and not marigolds. Those little differences make a big difference to alphageek.

I am starting off with Cinnabon. I actually took a picture of Cinnabon. I added a little to my coffee and took a sip. All of the sudden, I had visions of walking around the mall, wondering where that darn booth is that always tries to get me to eat three giant buns, when I really only want one, and really should not eat any. Given that the flavor profile hit exactly, we rate this one as a definite buy.

Cinnabon Creamer (click to enlarge)

Moving along, we tried the York Peppermint Patty. It made the coffee taste just like a liquid York Peppermint Patty. The minty chocolate was just right, and we rate this one as a buy as well.

Finally, we tried the Almond Joy. Unfortunately, this one just did not hit the flavor profile. The taste was just too generic. It could have been any sort of flavor in there, but it most certainly did not have that distinctive Almond Joy coconut flavor. The coconut flavor was barely there at all, making this one a pass.

These flavors can be a fun addition to a cup of coffee, and certainly the Cinnabon and the York Peppermint Patty are worth a try. The Almond Joy is nothing special, so pass by it.

Have you tried these creamers? Why not share some of your research with us? How about leaving a comment in the comment section below. Even better, why not use one of the links here on the page to follow us and all things food? The twitter feed gets everything at Follow @ageekfood , or you can try our facebook page.

Today, I will tell you one step to making a great cup of coffee. More exactly, this short and to the point article deals specifically with storing the coffee after it is prepared. Making good coffee can be one of the most complex, and individualized out there in the expanding world of food. The opposite side of the coin is the number of cups of really bad coffee that are purchased, given away, or stolen by someone at work who drinks the last drop of crappy coffee and refuses to make more.
Yes, coffee runs the spectrum of good to bad. Sometimes, the place that serves the best coffee one ever had also serves coffee that tastes like it was heated by a Bunsen burner all day, until nothing but carbon is left in the pot, and any organic organism surely must have been destroyed down to the sub-atomic level.

Here at the headquarters, we use a drip coffee machine. No, we are not going to talk the whole process, please try to keep up. The single best thing we did to improve the coffee here was to buy one of those coffee makers that drips the coffee into a carafe. No leaving the coffee on a burning heater, if you want the second cup of coffee to be drinkable. We were happy for many years, until the carafe coffee maker was recalled. Not wanting to burn the house down due to an electrical short, we reluctantly parted with the maker and purchased a similar model.

The "similar model", to use a really technical term, sucked.

When pouring, it leaked coffee everywhere after few months, and the coffee cooled off in about ten minutes. The leaking indicates the carafe is not sealing properly, and the lack of a seal allows the coffee to cool quickly. This system needed an upgrade. The credit for this upgrade goes to Mrs. alphageek. She found a great solution. We purchased the Oggi carafe that you see below.

Coffee Carafe (click to enlarge)

Simply put, this carafe keeps the coffee hot, without the application of more heat. Here is the algorithm to use this carafe.

After coffee is prepared, pour any unused coffee IMMEDIATELY into the carafe. Do not leave it on the heater for the coffee maker, or on any other form of heat. Heat is the enemy of good coffee.

I don't get any money based on where you buy something like this. We purchased ours at T.J. MAXX, but we have also seen them at Marshals as well. These stores carry cooking items at some great prices, so we always check these stores out.

If you keep reading here, we might eventually get to making coffee from start to finish. To make sure you keep up with the latest action, why not follow us on the the links on the right, or follow our facebook page, linked right here below for you. You can also follow our twitter feed at Follow @ageekfood