Brew Review

It's no secret that I love coffee. I'm not a morning person, but knowing that I will have coffee waiting for me makes waking up a little more bearable. How fitting is this sign I found last week? I should hang it up in my kitchen.

In honor of my love of coffee, I am starting a weekly series called "Brew Review." I enjoying trying different brands of coffee, especially cold brew, which lately is everywhere (Starbucks jumped on the cold brew bandwagon recently, as did Peet's Coffee).

What is cold brew? It's basically soaking ground coffee in cold water for a certain number of hours and then straining it, thus producing a coffee extract that can then be mixed with equal parts milk (my preference) or water, and then adding ice cubes. If you brew the same coffee hot or cold, the results are quite different: coffee that is cold brewed is less acidic and smoother tasting, and pretty darn good.

So, without further ado, the first brew to be reviewed is:  Blue Bottle Coffee's New Orleans Iced Coffee.

This is one of my favorite cold brews. I was first introduced to it 4 years ago on a visit to San Francisco (they are a NorCal based company) and was immediately hooked on it. The drink has chicory in it, which gives it a unique (but yummy) flavor.

Since Blue Bottle didn't have any stores in SoCal up until recently, I used to purchase the New Orleans Iced Kit online and make the concoction myself at home, which was just as tasty.

Recently, I also discovered that Blue Bottle Coffee has started selling their New Orleans Iced Coffee in specialty stores such as Whole Foods. It comes in a cute milk carton that reminds me of grade school.

Finally, for all you SoCal people, you can visit a Blue Bottle Coffee cafe at one of these locations:

Abbot Kinney
1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291

Arts District
582 Mateo St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Beverly Grove
8301 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Try the New Orleans iced coffee...you will thank me later.