taster050112a:

Move Over, *Bux,
Daddy Peacebux Makes A Pumpkin Latte

Starbucks recently got a Burger King lease cancelled and wound up with one more coffee shop, with a drive-in window, in Santa Rosa, California. We have 160,000 people and another 40,000 close by, in a county with a half-million people. There are Starbucks everywhere, including this new one just across the road from one of our several McDonalds.

Mickey-D sells a refillable senior cup of the cheapest, and best, decaffeinated coffee I’ve found. I know that sounds funny, and in fact Mickey shares space with one of those gas-station convenience shops which has customers running in and out all day for their Suava Java. McDonalds for a few years now has served decaf and regular made in the proper grind, and amount, for really good coffee. I swear. I like it, and I’m not only fearless but fussy.

Okay. I’m home, pondering The Fearless Taster, my resurrected newsletter that I had written and published for 15 years on NewsNet. I cover _[fearlesstaster.com]_ food and wine and places to visit, but I’m stuck at my keyboard.

I remember I have some half and half left over from a holiday party, and I have a commercial pumpkin pie seasoning blend, and I have freshly ground decaffeinated dark black coffee and a real honest to goodness Mama’s stovetop espresso maker (“3 cups,” as they figure in Italy, where I’d bought it).

Pronto, a mug of espresso with three tablespoons of non-fat half and half, heated, and a pinch — less than a third of a teaspoon — of punkin’ pie seasoning; no sugar; and by golly, it’s fast and good and, er, cheap. That’s how Daddy Warbucks stayed a gazillionaire but I don’t make war bucks: Peacebux. Cheap I like; but not if it’s not good.

If you want to add sugar, or your guests do, why not? But I didn’t, and never do.

Now, is this note about wine, or a place to visit? It’s about two places to stay away from (*bux, and Suava Java), and it’s not about a wine. But it is a suggestion about food, even if you make it calorie-less. It fed my soul when I needed it.

_By Bob Cramer, The Fearless Taster_.