Coffee Nerds

The recipe: 2 Heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin puree 4 Cups water 2 Scoops of Coffee Revise to preference. We basically put two big dollops of pumpkin in with the usual coffee grounds.

Today the 17th, is Evaluate Your Life day. Although it seems daunting it can be very useful. Seems a little scary but if you really put your mind to it and evaluate where you’ve been it makes it easier to make adjustments for your life now. You don’t have to evaluate your whole life either if that seems a bit too much. Perhaps the last year to make things easier. Either way you get a good idea of where you’ve been and where you want to go and to better correct your path to that goal. The recipe: 3-4 Scoops of organic canned Pumpkin Pie Mix (we recommend Farmer's Market brand, it's spiced to perfection.) 2 heaping scoops of coffee for every two cups of water (Kicking Horse "Hola" and bottled spring water work great) 1/3 cup of organic milk 

Harvey Ball, the creator of the smiley face, was a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts. He created the smiley in 1963. That image went on to become the most recognizable symbol of good will and good cheer on the planet. As the years passed Harvey Ball became concerned about the over-commercialization of his symbol, and how its original meaning and intent had become lost in the constant repetition of the marketplace. Out of that concern came his idea for World Smile Day. He thought that we, all of us, should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world. He declared that the first Friday in October each year would henceforth be World Smile Day. October 5th is World Smile Day this year. You can go to Ball's hometown and celebrate with their big festival, which has hot air balloons, sidewalk chalk art, and the world's largest human smiley. Or you could just smile. That's good too.

September 26th - Johnny Appleseed Day. The birthday of John Chapman, who became known as Johnny Appleseed as he traveled Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ontario planting appleseeds. A missionary, John Chapman preached the gospel as he traveled. He would plant apple trees in nurseries and then built fences around them to protect them from animals. He’s famous for scattering seeds at random but that’s more legend than truth. Johnny Appleseed is often shown with a cooking pot on his head. The is another half truth. He wore a tin hat that he could cook with, but it wasn’t an actual pot. His apples were tart, more likely to be used for cider than snacking. Supposedly the last surviving tree planted by Johnny is on a farm in Nova, Ohio. Apparently there’s a Johnny Appleseed museum in Urbana, Ohio. That’s Leuke's hometown!

Talk Like a Pirate Day lands every joyous September 19th. COFFEE: Lucky Jack's Triple Black Iced Coffee TRIVA: Hobbit Day is scheduled to land on September 22, Bilbo and Frodo's birthday in the famous books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Fans can celebrate by being barefoot all day, eat seven meals Hobbit style, Breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, or have a literary discussion and read some Tolkien. You could marathon the whole movie series or throw a party in honor of the "Long Awaited Party". No matter what you do you should totally celebrate Hobbit day! In other Hobbit history, the book itself was first published September 21, 1937, making this week the 81st anniversary of the classic novel. Tolkien himself designed the illustrations and cover art of the first edition. It was just 1500 copies which sold out quickly thanks to good reviews.

Batman's first appearance was in Detective Comics in 1939. Detective Comics had a variety of different stories and characters in a collected anthology format, and it's actually where the name DC came from in DC Comics. Originally Batman was drawn by creator Bob Kane in a red costume with wings and a very simple mask. Bill FInger suggested revising him to have the famous cape and cowl we're all familiar with. Bruce Wayne, Batman's secret identity, comes from two real life historical figures. Robert the Bruce, a famous Scottish hero, and Mad Anthony Wayne, a general who fought for the United States during the American Revolution. Other fun facts: The University of Victoria offers a college course about Batman Gotham City got its name when Bill Finger randomly placed his finger on "Gotham Jewelers" in the phone book.

August 30th is Frankenstein Day, in honor of Mary Shelley, the woman who wrote Frankenstein. Born in 1797, Shelley wrote the novel was just 18. The story of a man who creates a monster through scientific experiments, Frankenstein is one of the earliest known sci-fi stories, predating the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells by several centuries. Mary Shelly went on to write historical novels and a post-apocalyptic novel called the Last Man, which tells of a future world destroyed by plague. Frankenstein Day in honor of Mary Shelley, born August 30 1797 Toasted Marshmallow Day August 30th National Eat Outside Day - August 31st

National Potato Day! August 19th is National Potato Day. - Potatoes are one of the most common crops in the world. In fact, they're grown in all 50 states and 125 countries worldwide. Potatoes are high in starch, making them function like carbohydrates. They're also a good source of vitamin C and B6, so you become a pirate, you don't need lemons, just bite into a potato to keep the scurvy away. - The largest potato chip ever was 23" wide by 14" - In the past royalty, such as Marie Antoinette, wore potato blossoms in their hair. - Info is conflicting on the largest potato ever. One page i read said 18 pounds, but most other entries are a more conservative 7-8 pounds, which is far more realistic. - French fries date back to the 1600s, and actually originated from Belgium. Thomas Jefferson is credited with introducing them to America when he served them at the White House. - Potato crops date back to 5 to 8000 B.C. when they were discovered by Inc

Jokes from this week's episode! Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! I needed a password 8 characters long so I chose Snowwhite and the seven dwarves. A ham sandwich walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender says "Sorry, we don't serve food here." What do you call a pig that does karate? A pork chop! Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay they'd be bagels! Why does a chicken coop only have two doors? If it had four doors it would be called a chicken sedan. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants? In case he got a hole in one. What did the yoga instructor say when her landlord tried to evict her? Namaste How many apples grow on a tree? All of them. Why did the coffee file a police report? It got mugged. How did the hipster burn his tongue? He drank his coffee before it was cool. The oldest known joke was found recorded on a Sumerian tablet dating back to 1900

Apple just recently became the world’s first trillion dollar company. Stacked on top of each other, a trillion dollars in $100 bills would be 631 miles tall. That’s higher than the International Space Station. On August 8th the Columbia space shuttle took off on a secret mission. Space aliens?? Probably… or perhaps just a couple classified satellite launches. They also took a human skull sliced into ten layers. The intent was to study radiation penetration through human bones. Gross. Nagasaki was bombed on August 9, 1945. The atomic bomb was called “Fat Man”. In the Fallout series there’s a gun called the Fat Man that shoots tiny nukes. Until now I had no idea the name had historical connotations. Everyone knows the Declaration of Independence happened on July 4, 1776, when America declared independence from British rule, but in those days word traveled slow. The king didn’t actually learn of the declaration until August 10, over a month later. Parliament refused any kind of r

It’s the first day of August and you know what that means, National Catfish month is here! August 1st - Mountain Climbing Day - so declared in honor of two men who climbed 46 mountains in New York. On August 1st in 1774 Joseph Priestly, an English theologian, author, and chemist discovered oxygen. He did this by focusing sunlight on a lump of mercuric oxide. The gas produced made flames burn brighter and helped a mouse live four times longer than normal. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. August 2nd - Ice cream sandwich day. Yum. August 3rd 1958 - Operation Sunshine - The US atomic submarine USS Nautilus traveled underneath the North Pole. The first time anyone that we know of other than space aliens voyaged under the ice.

July 18th national caviar day, yuck! Caviar comes from the sturgeon fish. There are different species resulting in different colored eggs. They are very nutritious for you. Sturgeon almost went extinct in the early 1900s when they were big. They still haven’t reached a healthy number to this day. July 20th marks the 49th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing. It's been almost 50 years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. July 20 is also the birthday of explorer Edmund Hillary, who was born in 1919. In 1953, he along with his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay became the first confirmed to ascend Mount Everest July 24th is Amelia Earhart's birthday. Earhart famously went missing July 2, 1937 when she was flying her plane across the Pacific in a record-setting attempt to fly around the world. The US Navy searched 250,000 miles of ocean with no luck, causing conspiracy theories that have persisted over the years.

July 4th sidewalk egg frying day. It’s been so hot here in Colorado we probably could do this! The 5th is Apple turnover day. Yummy! I love me some apple turnover s And fried chicken day!!! 1937 spam is first introduced. According to its label, Spam's basic ingredients are pork, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Natural. By the 70s “spam” became genericized trademark used to describe any canned meat containing pork. July 5 1994 - Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos. Now the fourth largest company in the world, Amazon was originally going to be called Cadabra until someone misheard it as cadaver. July, 6 1699 - Captain William Kidd, the pirate, who also worked as a pirate hunter, was captured in Boston, MA, and deported back to England. Kidd was executed a few years later. The primary charge was murdering a member of his crew with a bucket. July 6 Louis Pasteur successfully tested an anti-rabies

The 27th is Sunglasses Day. The first sunglasses were invented in 12th century China. They didn't protect against UV rays, and they could still obscure the eyes. Chinese judges would wear smoke colored lenses to help themselves seem emotionally aloof while trying cases. The 28th is Paul Bunyan Day! There are a lot of crazy stories about Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox, Babe mostly dating to the late 1800s to early 1900s. Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes are Babe's footprints, the Grand Canyon was made by Paul dragging his ax behind him. It took five storks to carry Paul to his parents in Maine. He was that big already! They kept him in a bed off the coast of Maine and when he would rock it created such big waves it would flood the coastal towns. The townsfolk were not happy. When Paul was short on help he trained giant ants to help him. They weighted over 2000 pounds and ate nothing but the best Swedish stuff. The ants did the work of 50 ordinary men. In the winter Paul bundl

Last week we talked about Flag Day, this week it’s National Bald Eagle Day (or American Eagle Day). On this day in 1782, the eagle became the national symbol of America. At the time there was heated debate between the bald eagle and the turkey. Personally, I think we should have chosen the turkey, because I’ll bet bald eagles are delicious. National Take Your Dog to work day is also coming up on the 22nd. So take your dog to work! Log Cabin Day (25), Catfish Day (25), and Canoe Day (26) are also coming up, and suspiciously close to each other...

Flag Day June 14th is Flag Day, the day we celebrate the first official use of the American Flag, which happened June 14th, 1777, 241 years ago. A few things I learned about the American flag. We all learned in school that Betsy Ross was the creator of the flag, but there’s actually no solid evidence to prove this was the case, and in fact at the time there was a variety of different versions of the flag, because some of the guidelines were open to interpretation. Some of the earliest flags didn’t even put the stars for the 13 colonies in a circle like we so commonly see. There have been over two dozen variations of the flag. Each time a state is added to the union, a star is added to the flag on the following Independence Day. So if Puerto Rico and Canada play their cards right, they could be next. Kentucky also recently turned 226, having become a state on June 1, 1792. It missed being the first state added after the original 13 by just 1 year.  That honor went to Vermo

Today, June 6 is the anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, France by allied forces. It was the turning point of WWII and the largest seaborne invasion in history. 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed, and an estimated 10,000 lost their lives. On a lighter note, today is also National Yo-Yo day. No one actually knows who invented the yo-yo. Evidence of it dates all the way back to China, Egypt and Greece 500 BC Donald F. Duncan Sr popularized it in the early 1900s with the Duncan yo-yo. Also on this day in 1933, the first drive-in theater opened. Richard Hollingshead came up with the idea when he noticed how uncomfortable his mom would get in traditional theater seats, giving him the idea to create a theater where people could sit in their own cars.

This last week was the anniversary of a space mission you don’t hear as much about, Apollo 10. Apollo 10 was a practice run for the moon landing, and paved the way for that historic landing to come to pass. Apollo 10 and 11 were two of the earliest flights with veterans to space flight, with Thomas P. Stafford having flown on Gemini missions previously. Apollo 10 set a speed record for manned flight at 24,791 mile per hour. The command module was named Charlie Brown, and the Lunar Module, which never actually made it to the moon, was named Snoopy. The astronauts circled the Moon 31 times while in orbit, and once while floating over the dark side of the moon reported hearing a strange sound like “outer space type music.”, An odd whistling that lasted nearly an hour.  Many have tried to call it a coverup for UFOs, but NASA says it was just radio interference creating odd sounds.

Les Brown said “Don’t underestimate yourself, you are capable of more than you can ever imagine.” Joan of Arc Peasant girl who lead France to victory as a teenager. At the age of 13, Joan of Arc began to hear voices telling her to lead France to victory against the English and see the crown Prince, Charles, crowned king. Somehow Joan convinced him to allow her to lead his army. She won the battle, but was later captured by English sympathizers, who tried her for witchcraft and burnt her at the stake when she was just 19. Despite her tragic end, there’s no denying Joan of Arc changed the course of history by boldly seizing her destiny. Now, if a teenage peasant girl can lead an army to victory, what can you do? 3 Steps to help you not underestimate yourself 1. Avoid negative self-talk It’s easy to allow negative thoughts into our mind or thoughts that are not true. Thoughts of “there’s no way that I’m going to get this project done in time” or “I’m not smart enough to

Trivia:   This coming May 12th is National Train Day. On May 9th, 1869 the transcontinental railroad was completed. Talk about thinking big! For the first time in history, the East and West were connected by train.   Over the course of 6 years, 3 different companies laid tracks across 1,912 miles. From the West the train route began in Oakland, California. From the East, it began in Omaha, Nebraska.   They built from each direction until they met in the middle. The final railroad spike hammered in was made of gold. Well sort of last. At a ceremony they dropped in a gold spike, then almost immediately pulled it out, dropped in a regular iron spike, and sent the gold spike to a museum. Other big days coming up:   May 8th - V. E. Day May 9th - Lost Sock Memorial Day. :-‘( May 11th - Eat what you want day! May 12th - National Windmill Day - Big deal in the Netherlands. 950 Windmills open their doors to visitors. May 13th - Leprechaun Day AND Mother’s Day. Get your mama a

Today we’re going to talk about Wow experiences. What is a wow experience? It’s moments that go above and beyond expectations. Two moments that came to mind for me, one was visiting the Redwood forest in northern California. The trees and the landscape there are gorgeous. The other one was when I was 12 years old, waking up to the Nintendo 64 I’d saved up to buy for a year. The packaging was colorful and had bright pictures of all the amazing adventures I was about to have, everything was new and crisp, and I had a blast playing Super Mario 64 that day. Wow experiences— going above and beyond, don’t come naturally. We don’t have them every day. But just think if you could create one for someone else and connect in that way, what it might do for them. In his book Platform, Michael Hyatt mentions 10 principals to help you “Bake in the wow”, check it out to learn more. I think one of those principals, surprise, can be especially powerful, because it’s unexpected. We usually d

Stretch!  The importance of stretching is a known fact in sports, you but it’s also important in all areas of life. It’s important to always be reaching for the next thing. Alex Trebek said “Have you ever met a successful person who wasn’t restless— who was satisfied with where he or she was in life? They want new challenges. They want to get up and go, and that’s one of the reasons they’re successful.” How can we be better rubber bands? Stretching starts with a decision to stretch. Lots of people want to find a better job, lose weight, write a book, etc. but they don’t. Why is that? You can’t win a race if you never cross the starting line, and likewise you can’t win if you don’t try. Stretching always requires change. Always. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but that’s part of the process. Once it becomes habit, it can become a lifestyle. “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” -Mahatma G

Know Thyself -Greek Maxim Expanded on by Socrates: The unexamined life is not worth living. How do you get started in your quest to know yourself? Maxwell mostly talks about awareness in terms of your occupation. Pay attention to your passion. Do you like what you’re doing now? If not, what do you want? You will never find your destiny doing work you despise. There’s no energy or passion to be found there. How can you get where you want to go?  Albert Einstein once said “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Looking at what you’re curious about can help you find your passion. But what if, like me, you already found your passion? Knowing yourself is still important. You can continue to improve yourself and reach for greater successes. Other ways to know yourself: Ask yourself questions! Chinese proverb: “He who asks a question remains a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask remains a fool forever.” Not just for the outward. Asking yourself questions is the b

The Wright Brothers Perseverance and the First Flight Perseverance - You never know how close you are to a breakthrough. Last week we talked about Madeleine L’Engle . She was just a few years away from writing her most famous novel, and her persistence paid off. One of the most famous modern stories of persistence, the Wright Brothers invention of the first flying machine. April 16th is the anniversary of Wilbur’s birth. There’s no other major anniversaries in the discovery of flying machines. I think I mostly just thought it’d be cool to talk about the Wright Brothers. Wilbur and Orville ran a print shop (they actually built their own printing press!) and a bicycle shop before turning their attention to powered flight. Neither brother had engineering training or had even completed high school. They studied other aircraft of the age, and went to work on a glider. This alone came with plenty of difficulties.  The brothers put up with numerous setbacks and failures, their pro

Episode 38 Notes Success through Fear and Madeline L’Engle Coffee: God’s Gift to Gamers (Medium Roast) Overcoming Fear to Achieve Success In Crushing It, Gary Vee talks about three types of fear that can hold us back from being successful in a new endeavor. 1. Fear of Failure This can often boil down to fear of judgement by people whose opinions matter to us. You have to just push through this and do what it takes. “No one who played it safe ever made it big. This is your life, and I promise you the chances of truly ruining it are slim.” 2. Fear of Wasting Time We might be afraid our idea won’t pan out, and all that time will be wasted. But is all our time truly valuable? If all you’re giving up is TV time, what have you really got to lose? You can always go back to watching Netflix later. TV will always be there later when you come back. And as we’ve discussed, you can learn a lot from failure, maybe even more than from quick success. 3. Fear of Seeming Vain

Episode Notes In this week's episode we were drinking Player One Coffee Lab's "First Person Smoother." Though as we noted it did NOT taste like a light roast. I was able to peel up the label on mine and found a label for a different coffee, so we think that perhaps I got two of the "Leeroy Jenkins" in the sample pack. Patience and the Construction of the Eiffel Tower Leuke's Notes Gary Vaynerchuk created a $60 million dollar wine empire, but instead of blowing all the money right away, he was patient. He kept driving an older car. He lived in a one bedroom apartment. He used what he’d created and instead of living it up and blowing it all he leveraged it for even greater successes. There is no such thing as the overnight success. Most of the time it takes an incredible amount of hard work and patience to be make it. Put yourself last and your goals first, and it’ll pay off in the long run. Patience doesn’t have to mean going slow. It ca

Here's the notes for Episode 36! Piracy and Positive Problem Solving Some steps for positive problem solving: Courtesy Your Road Map for Success by John Maxwell The focus here is on family but these steps can be useful in other situations as well. 1. Attack the problem, never the person You’re (hopefully) on the same side. Try to fix the problem, not the person. You can’t make a person change but you can change a problem. 2. Get all the facts. Jumping to conclusions can be damaging. Before you seek solutions, make sure you fully understand what’s going on. 3. List all the options This can help you get an outside, unemotional view at an issue and look at it with objectivity 4. Choose the best solution Because why would you want anything else? This can be harder than it sounds when there are multiple good solutions are available, especially if people on opposite sides of a conflict are each pushing for their preferred solution. Maybe we should do an episode on

Creating an Environment For Self Improvement Aspects of a Growth Environment 1. Others are ahead of you You need people in your life who you can learn from. You can’t make all the mistakes yourself. There isn’t time. Learn from the experience of others. 2. You are still challenged Complacency kills growth. And it’s super boring. 3. Your focus is forward There’s no such thing as standing still. You’re either moving forward or your sliding backward. Time is vicious, and it’s especially hard on the idle.  Muscles atrophy, skills deteriorate, memories fade. Keep moving forward so you can keep what you have.  4. Atmosphere is affirming This goes back to the last episode and the power of positivity. 5. You are out of your comfort zone We also talked about the benefits of risk. Staying where you’re too comfortable eventually makes most improvement minded souls uncomfortable. 6. Others are growing If the people around you aren’t improving, then it’s going to be ha

Here's my notes from today's episode! BE POSITIVE Having a positive attitude is the best way to get ahead in life. It’s what put a man on the moon. Everyone thought that was impossible. The positive attitude came first. A powerful dream coupled with a positive attitude can move mountains. “The greatest discovery of my generation is that people can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” -William James Let’s be honest. Life isn’t really fair. We’ve all got challenges we have to work through. “Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” -John Wooden The problems are there whether we like it or not, so we may as well do our best to look on the bright side. Seven signs of a great attitude 1. Believe in yo’ self “Many people succeed when others do not believe in them. But rarely does a person succeed when he does not believe in himself. 2. Willingness to see the best in others. Put a 10 over their heads! 3. Ability to se

Here's my notes for this week's episode.  Success is a journey, not a destination. It’s easy to get caught up in “that one thing” if I have this one thing or that, I’ll be successful. But what do you do after you get that thing? You’ve got to find something else. By reframing success as an endless process, you can grow endlessly. When you let go of arriving at success someday in the future, it frees you to enjoy the everyday. You can be a success now, and you can build toward even greater successes over time. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -President Theodore Roosevelt Success isn’t a destination, but it can still be helpful to have a destination in mind. This has been huge for me in my writing. When I begin work on a new novel, I usually have the end in mind. Knowing where I’m going in that way helps me shape and guide everything that comes before it. Knowing the goal you want or the dream you have helps give you direction. It can give you

Here are my notes from Episode 32! Risk Take a risk! Risk taking can be really hard. You may wonder if it’s even worth it. Better to play it safe, right? WRONG Risk is your friend! “By reaching for what appears to be impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don’t quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done.”  -Jack Welch We often become fixated on comfort, but discomfort and the risks that come with it can often lead to positive change. “When it comes to meaningful achievement, comfort equals boredom and low engagement.” - Michael Hyatt Benefits of risk: Discomfort can lead to happiness, is a catalyst for growth, signals progress  John Maxwell called this the law of the Rubber Band. To get somewhere meaningful, sometimes you have to stretch yourself. George Lucas took a lot of huge risks on the original Star Wars. A lot of people in the industry expected him to fail, but he took a big risk and created one of the biggest m

In this week's episode we introduce our format change. We'll be covering two topics each week. One will be of the motivational or inspirational variety. The other will be still be trivia, but we'll be reaching for topics outside of coffee. Basically anything we think is cool is fair game now. The goal is two-fold, to improve the lives of our viewers in some small way, and to deliver a little bit of awesomeness via our podcast. It's been fun filming episodes each week and we're still working on improving the experience and the content. Below are my notes for the episode.  Benefits of Gratitude Valentine’s Day is all about being grateful for the people in your life. Thankfulness has many unexpected benefits in life. One of the fears can be it that it will make you lazy, but rather than making me complacent, I have found that it helps me to fight off discouragement and discontentment and keep pushing forward. Gratitude refocuses me away from what I don’t have

Afterthoughts:   Leuke:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ This is a great coffee. Grizzly Claw was a tough act to follow, and 454 Horsepower is good, but not as good as it's brother. Everything from the smell of the beans to the flavor and notes in the coffee itself were all very good, but also very much a step down from Grizzly Claw. This dark roast is still absolutely worth your time, but a little more bitter and less flavorful in my opinion. Chad:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 454 Horsepower was definitely good! It was dark and smooth. It had hints of nut, it was a little more bitter than the Grizzly Claw.   Next week we'll be mixing things up! A big format change is coming! I just finished editing the new episode and I think (hope) everyone will love it. We'll be covering a wider variety of topics and expanding the trivia beyond coffee.

Episode 29?! That's right, we're close to thirty episodes!This time we got to try one of my favorite coffees! Afterthoughts:   Leuke:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Maybe it's because the grizzly bear is my spirit animal (only half joking. My Colorado writing group called me Griz. Long story...) but I LOVE this coffee. You don't even know. The smell when you open the bag is almost worth the money by itself. Chad:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The dark richness of this coffee exited me. Just opening the bag got me inspired. This roast was almost black. It offers a smooth cup of coffee. It reminded me of chocolate with a slight hint of nut. It is a very good coffee in my books! I stopped posting transcripts of the trivia, mostly to save myself a little time since I was behind schedule on updating the blog. If anyone misses that feature though, drop us a comment and I'll go back through and add them in. Otherwise please continue to enjoy them at the end of every video!

The instant coffee quest concludes! We know there are more instant coffees out there, but we ran out of money to keep buying new ones (and we now have a hefty stockpile of instant coffee to finish even after just three instants). It was decided to declare a winner as soon as we found something good enough, and that moment arrived with episode 28. Afterthoughts:   Leuke:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ I have to admit, I didn't like this coffee at first. I almost didn't even like it the second time I tried it, but dang it, this one grew on me. It wasn't bad initially, it just didn't have much flavor. As noted in the episode, I didn't stir properly the first time. Second time around, I tasted a lot more flavor. This is the best instant coffee we've found so far.  Chad:  ★ ★ ★ ★ and a half This was my favorite instant coffee that we tried. It was a dark roast and tasted the least like instant coffee.  So there you have it, Simple Truth wins the first Coffee N

The Instant Coffee Quest rolls on with Cafe Altura, another organic fair trade coffee. Afterthoughts:   Leuke:  ★ ★ ★ and a half.  This one was very similar to the last. I liked it maybe a hair better, but still don't feel like we'd found "it" yet, the instant coffee that beat all instant coffees. The quest continues! Chad:  ★ ★ and a half   This coffee wasn’t too bad. I didn’t like it as much as the first instant coffee we tried. I think this one was a little bit of a lighter roast. Still a good instant coffee.

Roaming the interstate back and forth between Ohio and Colorado, I have had several opportunities to sample the coffees to be had on Interstate 70, both the good and the bad. One of the standout favorites for me has been Old School Coffee and Frozen Yogurt in Sweet Springs, Missouri. First, they earn the name old school. Every coffee is individually made via pour over. No sour, stale coffee sitting in a canister for hours. They do it right. For a true coffee nerd, getting good coffee on the go can be tough, when the only options are gas stations, McDonalds, and Starbucks. I prefer finding a local place or hitting up a Caribou, but even they can be hit or miss sometimes since they often let their coffee sit (though Caribou is usually good about swapping out their coffees when they get old). Old School made such an impression on my family the first time we found them, we remembered them fondly years later when we were finally able to return. The coffee was just as good the second