A friend came to me the other day with a problem. This friend, a musician, has been struggling. He is in the middle of a 52 week project in which he writes, records, and produces one song a week.* Unfortunately for my friend, like most musicians he is not yet famous, which means that on top of his 52 week project, he works another job. This in turn means that my friend wants to drink coffee. Lots of coffee. But my friend struggles to find high quality, delicious coffee at a price he can afford. His case is by no means extraordinary. I have no doubt many of you struggle with the same thing; you work too much and you want to drink coffee all the time. You may have free coffee at work, but what do you do in the morning? Do you wait until you get into the office? Do you stop at Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts on your way to work? Do you make your own coffee in the morning? Like my friend, do you buy in bulk from whatever store has the cheapest coffee?
Surely the state of the economy is not news to anyone, we all know we are in a recession. Jobs are being cut and budgets are being slashed, but is this necessarily a bad thing for coffee? Over the coming weeks, we here at Manhattan Roasts will be publishing a series of articles on coffee in the declining economy. We will examine how to not only save money by roasting and brewing your own coffee (starting with green coffee beans!), but also how to get the highest quality coffee you have ever tasted. Perhaps once this recession is over, you will not even be tempted to return to your high-cost, low quality ways, since you know you can create something so much better for so much less money. This series will also look at the economy of coffee as a whole. Industry giants like Starbucks and Peets Coffee, once on every corner now shrinking into the background and reducing their stores and their stranglehold on the American palate.
Follow this series, learn about coffee, and maybe even give your palate a little treat. As always, if you have any questions about anything we write here, please comment or write us at contact@manhattanroasts.com.
*Find Abe Kinkopf and his 52 week music project over at 52pickup.us.
