Coffee Nerds

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 ...

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 Cof...

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 ...