Shul coffee is better than Starbucks

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  • #617917
    Joseph
    Participant

    Not that there’s anything wrong with Starbucks (the ones that are kosher). But it isn’t any better than the Taster’s Choice in shul.

    #1158600
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    I wouldn’t know, but the coffee I make at home is definitely better than Taster’s Choice.

    #1158601
    Joseph
    Participant

    What coffee do you make at home?

    #1158602
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    I don’t know, I never had Starbucks coffee

    #1158603
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    What coffee do you make at home?

    Lavazza and Gevalia.

    I buy through Amazon Subscribe & Save, so it’s not that expensive.

    #1158604
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    CA: With a screen name like that, who’d have imagined?

    #1158605
    Joseph
    Participant

    Did you ever have shul coffee?

    #1158606
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Yes.

    #1158607
    theprof1
    Participant

    AT HOME NOW I HAVE GEVALIA. BEST COFFEE. I ALSO USE FOLGERS DECAF, REALLY GOOD. STARBUX IS WAY WAY OVERATED. DUNKIN IS MUCH BETTER. IN SHUL, ALL SHULS US THE SAME COFFEE, ITS GOOD. TASTERS CHOICE HOME BLEND.

    #1158608
    Joseph
    Participant

    I like Taster’s Choice better than Gevalia.

    #1158609
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Which Taster’s Choice, which Gevalia?

    #1158610
    Joseph
    Participant

    Regular caffinated, unflavored, in both cases.

    #1158611
    blubluh
    Participant

    In the shul belong to, instant coffee (and tea, etc) is offered without charge (though, there’s a sign requesting “donations” by a wall-mounted lock box and the provided disposable cups are just 7oz).

    So, I suppose the price and convenient location make it “better” than the offerings at the local barista.

    As for ratings of flavor or other qualities, I’ll leave that to the connoisseurs.

    #1158612
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Regular means House Blend?

    The prof1: Folgers is awful.

    The best decaf IMO is Dunkin’, but their regular, though good, is not as good as Gevalia (I like many varieties but usually get the House Blend) or Lavazza (I get the Crema e Gusto).

    #1158613
    Joseph
    Participant

    House Blend sounds correct. The most common regular on the shelf.

    #1158614
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    Yes, I’ve had shul coffee, it’s been four months since then but I remember putting a lot of sugar in it

    #1158615
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    Many years ago (40+)when I was a young married, we joined the shul in our neighborhood and I started to attend morning minyan. The shammos served coffee after minyan. It was the most vile liquid I had ever tasted.

    I asked a friend what was going on. I was told that the shammos took the leftover coffee from the Sunday morning men’s club breakfast and reheated it and served it all week. (this was the same shammos who would dry his teabag in a shot glass and reuse it all week…old habits from days of deprivation during the war die slowly).

    I left for work and asked the office manager for the number of the coffee service we used in our break room. I called and arranged for a coffee maker to be installed in the shul kitchen and ordered a case of coffee, filters, cups and stirrers to be delivered each month.

    It’s more than 4 decades later and I still pay the bill with pleasure, and I enjoy every cup I have after minyan.

    #1158616
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    That’s very nice of you.

    How is Mrs. CT doing?

    #1158617
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    B”H Mrs. CTLawyer returned home from the hospital after more than three weeks on life support in ICU. Her recovery is slow but steady. She even drove a few minutes this week. More surgeries coming, but with G-d’s help she will recover 90+ %.

    Baruch Hashem! Thank you for sharing good news, may it only continue. -29

    #1158618
    yehudayona
    Participant

    “All shuls use the same coffee?!” Have you been to all shuls? The shul I daven at uses fresh brewed coffee. They used to use instant during Pesach, but as of a couple of years ago, they got a machine for Pesach. It’s as good as what I make at home. No idea how it compares to Starbucks, since I’m not willing to spend $4 for a cup of coffee in a treif restaurant.

    #1158619
    popa_bar_abba
    Participant

    Starbucks is not the end-all.

    But comparing instant-coffee to brewed, is ridiculous.

    #1158620
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    I prefer instant. Once I’m breaking the rules of good coffee, I can go crazy and add instant tea and chocolate extract if I want to. I never do, but I could.

    #1158621
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    But comparing instant-coffee to brewed, is ridiculous.

    Except Via. That is excellent, and comparable to decent brewed coffee.

    #1158622
    MDG
    Participant

    “Except Via”

    Via is part pulverized coffee grounds, so you really get some fresh brewed coffee.

    Being that some of the coffee was not cooked already, it may present some issues on Shabbat. CYLOR.

    #1158623
    MDG
    Participant

    In my shul, there is freshly brewed coffee every morning, usually Starbucks sometimes Peets. That’s my incentive to help me come early and learn.

    I’m the one who buys it and makes it.

    #1158624
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Being that some of the coffee was not cooked already, it may present some issues on Shabbat. CYLOR.

    I have.

    The information I have is that it’s all undergone some type of cooking process, even if some is not brewed.

    I was told to use irui kli sheini, which has the din of kli shlishi.

    #1158625
    Participant

    The information I have is that it’s all undergone some type of cooking process, even if some is not brewed.

    The patents (US8114457,US8114458,US8114459) describe a process where not all of the microground coffee is “cooked”.

    I’m not sure why there are three different patents, they seem to be the same.

    #1158626
    theprof1
    Participant

    well excuse me if your uppity shul has brewed coffee. shuls that offer free coffee buy nestles tasters choice house blend because it generally the cheapest available.

    in general, the concept of which is best can’t be considered since taste is not a debatable issue. anybody here can attest to their own taste. the issue was coffee in shul, which i had stated was tasters choice house blend.

    #1158627
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @theprof1

    I take great offense at you calling all shuls uppity if they use/serve brewed coffee.

    Lots of us are old enough to remember when instant coffee was much more expensive than brewed coffee. Shuls could easily brew 40 cups from a 99 cent one pound can of Maxwell House…and accumulate free haggados.

    I’ve never belonged to a shul that served instant coffee on any kind of a regular basis. That said, they do keep a jar of instant decaf in our shul…I’ve never seen it used and think it must belong to the sisterhood, not the shul itself.

    #1158628
    yehudayona
    Participant

    theprof1, Taster’s Choice is one of the more expensive and one of the better tasting instant coffees. Clearly, whoever buys coffee at your shul (which I maintain is not every shul, since at least three people in this thread say their shul has fresh brewed coffee) has some rachmanus — he could easily have bought worse instant coffee.

    While taste is all a matter of taste, I think you’ll find most coffee drinkers prefer brewed coffee to instant coffee.

    #1158629
    MDG
    Participant

    “well excuse me if your uppity shul has brewed coffee….”

    If that was directed to me, I can say that I am proud to serve it. But I am the one who started the coffee table, paid for the equipment, supplies, and ingredients (minus a few occasional sponsorships). I am the one who gets there early to brew it and sometimes serve it cup by cup.

    #1158630
    theprof1
    Participant

    ground coffe has long ago gone away from 69 cent a lb. instant coffee is so much cheaper. a shul that serves brewed coffee is uppity, showing it can afford expensive coffee. i do know one very orthodox shul that has a keuring, it was donated. one member has a k-cup business and dnates all the k-cups. so that coffee is for free.

    #1158631
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @MDG………

    Kudos to you.

    As my earlier post stated I undertook the expense and responsibility for our shul’s coffee service more than 40 years ago.

    I used to do the brewing and setup as well, but that task has fallen to my 2nd oldest son in the past 10 years.

    #1158632
    yehudayona
    Participant

    A back of the envelope calculation gets me 10 cents per 8 ounce cup for Tasters Choice and 15 cents per 8 ounce cup for middlebrow brewed coffee. Also, in both MDG’s shul and CTL’s shul, the coffee is donated by a generous congregant (I suspect that’s also the case in my shul). So I think it’s mean spirited to refer to shuls that have a higher coffee standard than yours as “uppity.”

    #1158633
    apushatayid
    Participant

    “shuls that offer free coffee buy nestles tasters choice house blend because it generally the cheapest available.”

    Great Value (Walmart house brand) instant coffee is half the price (almost), those uppidty shuls by tasters choice!??!

    #1158634
    apushatayid
    Participant

    My shul has both fresh brewed (Kirkland regular flavor) and instant (Tastles). Both provide the needed caffeine kick at 5am.

    #1158635
    MDG
    Participant

    “I was told to use irui kli sheini, which has the din of kli shlishi. “

    My impression is that there is no cooking in a kli sheni (unless for things that cook very easily like tea). Besides which, the instant coffee is already cooked, so there is no more bishul.

    #1158636
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    MDG, coffee is very likely ??? ?????? just like tea.

    Don’t forget, were talking about Via, which is not the same as other instant coffee.

    There is even reason to be machmir to use ???? ??? ????? for ordinary instant coffee, but more so for Via.

    #1158637
    MDG
    Participant

    Thank you. I understand now.

    #1158638
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    I too take offense that shuls with brewed coffee are “uppity”. Just like I shop based on best prices for my own home, the shul buys coffee based on best prices. In my shul we have both brewed coffee and instant. We have a generous congregant who sponsors the brewed coffee. If for some reason he can’t supply the coffee we buy some cans. We make one pot of brewed coffee a day.

    #1158639
    golfer
    Participant

    For Via experts-

    I’m curious what would happen a)Halacha-wise & b)Taste-wise if one were to make coffee essence from Via the way we make tea essence for Shabbos.

    (I hope I’m allowed to post on this thread. I never drank a coffee in shul.)

    #1158640
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Halacha-wise, it depends how it was made, but could remove any possible chashashos of bishul.

    Taste-wise, I don’t know, but I would sooner make brewed coffee concentrate once I was patcka-ing.

    #1158641
    cherrybim
    Participant

    For the most part, I gave up on brewed coffee once I discovered VIA Instant Columbia, also it’s ok for Pesach. The best price is at Costco.

    #1158642
    Joseph
    Participant

    Nu, how do all of you coffee connoisseurs rate Starbucks in relation to VIA, Taster’s Choice and Gevalia?

    #1158643
    cherrybim
    Participant

    Joseph, fyi, VIA is a Starbucks instant coffee in a packet; comes in several varieties.

    #1158644
    Joseph
    Participant

    cherrybim, is VIA comparable in taste/quality to the stuff you buy in a Starbucks retail outlet?

    #1158645
    cherrybim
    Participant

    I don’t care for Starbucks brewed retail or otherwise, but I like the VIA Columbia.

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