Abigail M. Schilling

So a while back one of my co-workers (hi Courtney!) informs me that she has signed me up for free coffee. Yay!

The catch?

I have to blog about it. Amanda Mae called me a "semi-professional" "blogger" the other day and I think this makes it official.

Besides, was I convinced when they sent me free coffee and this wicked awesome hat?

Very yes.

So, today I decided to sample the first roast: New Media Mavericks

Boca Java was clever enough to give these coffees names geared for bloggers. And this if flavor boasts "unfiltered truth." I'm not really sure what that means but I can "lead the information reformation with this medium roast from the prized Tarrazu region of Costa Rica with excellent body and robust richness."

They sent me beans so I had to take them to work today and have them ground. Normally I have my beans ground at Starbucks but I have a feeling they'd be less willing to cater to my every need when it involved mail-order coffee.

We have a blade grinder at work that seemed to do the job fine. However, I noticed a lot of chaff in the grounds. (In case you were wondering, I learned all those words in italics today. Chaff: the husks of corn or other seed separated by winnowing or threshing. It's like that flakey stuff on peanuts. It's not good.) I'm not sure if the chaff is reflected at all in the taste of the coffee but it can't be a good thing. And I've never seen it in my Starbucks grounds.

You can see the chaff in this photo, it's the lighter colored bits. (And yes, that is a paper towel coffee filter. We are that white trash.)

We brewed a full pot since that seemed like the best way to get the most flavor out of the coffee. (Can you tell I really am not qualified to do this?)

Here I am pouring in the water. Heather is eating some chocolate chips to cleanse her palate.

Also, we figured that coffee tasting was more of a high-society activity and thus would be an appropriate time to get in our Garden Gatsby attire.

Here we are waiting for the coffee to brew and also discussing our friends, Claude and Virgil:

And then, we had to sniff before diving in:

Of course, it was hard to smell since everyone and their mom and stolen all the smell molecules, so we just had to go with taste.

I liked it. I don't know a lot about coffee and tastes and stuff but it was fine to me. It seemed less bitter than the Starbucks Yukon we've been having lately and I didn't feel compelled to mask the bitterness with sugar or syrup.

Heather, on the other hand, is more of a pansy and more of a coffee snob. She was disappointed in the coffee, saying it needed vanilla syrup to even be drinkable.

Her official review: "Full-bodied and a bit forward for my taste, Boca Java would be ideal for a palate accustomed to roasts more aggressive than your run-of-the-mill Starbucks breakfast blend."

That kinda contradicts my review (I think) so, uh, maybe you should be the judge. I polled the house as well:

Amanda: The coffee is good. I'd drink it again. It lingers on the roof of one's mouth.

Aaron: It has a bold start and a smooth finish.

Carolyn: It's cold. (This is mostly my fault but also she comes home really late on account of because of she is such a good student and hard worker. )

So, that's New Media Mavericks. Next up: Blogger's Beach Blast. ("Go ahead, make my blog.")