Starbucks, Pumpkins and A Little Painting

Both Paulette and myself are big fans of Starbucks coffee, our personal favorite is the Kenya Bold blend. We always buy coffee beans and grind them fresh in our burr grinder.  We’ve been drinking Starbucks for several years now because we both like strong, bold, full-flavored coffee. 

So, it came as a bit of a surprise to both of us to see on the TV news that Starbucks has just introduced Via - their very first instant coffee.  What gives?  They have always said instant coffee could never compete with Starbucks!  Not any more. In their ads and promotional material, Starbucks says that “Via tastes just as good as any cup of freshly brewed Starbucks coffee”.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon, while in town, I happened to be next to a Starbucks and thought I’d give Via a  try.  Sure enough, there was a Taste Challenge test going on and the attendant poured me a small sample of the instant and brewed coffee – I couldn’t see which was which.  I drink coffee black so there was no danger of the taste being camouflaged by milk and sugar.  After taking a few sips out of each cup, I was able to guess which one was the brewed coffee and which was the instant – but, guess was the operative word.

Starbuck’s Via instant coffee is probably the best instant coffee I’ve ever tasted.  It was really good and I had to try the samples a few times before deciding which was instant.  I bought a pack of 3 Italian Roast Via’s to bring home for Paulette to try.  She agreed with me, you can tell the difference – but, it’s a pretty close call.  This could come in handy when we’re RV’ing and don’t feel like brewing a full pot of coffee.

On the way home from Starbucks, I stopped at the Old Farm Market to pick up a few veggies that Paulette wanted for the weekend.  I couldn’t help but notice that they have a huge pile of pumpkins out front.  We saw on the news last week that there is a bumper crop of pumpkins this year and they are harvesting them pretty early!  I wonder if this pile of pumpkins will make it to Halloween?  I kind of doubt it.

Around noon yesterday, I got my sander out and re-touched some of the spots on the garage doors.  The next step was to get a small brush and put a primer coat on all the bare metals spots on the doors.  That didn’t take long and now the doors are already for the final painting – probably two coats.  That looks like a job for this weekend as the weather forecast is for sunny skies and warm weather for the next 7 days.

We spent a quiet Friday evening at home, just watching TV and spending time on our computers.