vintage brews

Chic Today, January 2008
"Vintage Brews"
page 21
by Genevieve Wang


The thought of certain foods brings me immediate feelings of comfort and happiness: mac n' cheese...Tollhouse cookies...buttered toast with jam...coffee, espresso, latte, macchiato...

I first met coffee in the frozen aisle of Star Market, in the form of Ben & Jerry's Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz (honestly, couldn't Ben & Jerry's make anything taste good to a kid?). I developed a habit for after-school Frappuccinos in my high school years, and adopted my college dining hall's flavorless joe as the base of my nutritional pyramid every finals period. Needless to say, I entered my adult years as a junkie and have gotten no better since.

Though I've had many a cup in my time, nothing I've seen in my experience can quite compare to the obsession with coffee I've discovered in the Bay Area. Small in-house roasters are a dime a dozen. Organic "microroaster" Blue Bottle Coffee Co. draws long lines out the door. There are two camps firmly at odds with one another - "those who patronize Starbucks" and "those who patronize Peet's" (it all depends on which paper cup you hold).

Having moved so close to the birthplace of Peet's, where Arthur Peet himself opened his first store, I've been quick to align myself with Peet's brown colors and dark roasts. I've even spent the past year and a half steadily working my way through every single roast on Peet's menu (there are about 20, not including decaf and special blends). A recent trip led me to discover Aged Sumatra. Being in the wine business, this concept of aging coffee fascinated me, and I decided to investigate.

My article about aged coffee can be found in the January 2008 issue of the fashion/lifestyle magazine Chic Today.