Bucky, I think the boiling and bandana method is the same one Starbucks uses. It's modification is to first burn the pits.
(It's going to take me a while to get used to calling the beans 'pits'.)

Bucky, most of your questions about coffee can be answered at the Sweet Maria's Coffee Library. He's also got great photos of coffee trees, cherries, green beans, roasted beans, half roasted beans, coffee roasters and mountains.

(Full disclosure - I'm a long time customer of Tom's [Maria is his wife] and have roasted my own coffee for...at least 10 years. So, you do *not* want to get me going on coffee. Or on why Consumer's Reports has their head up their three point corner when it comes to coffee. Or American cars. They don't seem to know much about cheese, either.)

I think you missed an opportunity here. Just because it's called a coffee cherry doesn't mean that the meat is a delicious cherry-flavored treat. I propose that the bean is in fact so delicious (to humans) that they are willing to go to extreme measures to get at it.

Now I know that I'm on the borderline of EL's good taste here, but really, what's worse - talking about it or drinking it for breakfast?

For the record, I've never been to a Starbucks and am not a coffee fan. If I were to drink it I prefer it unadulterated on the streets of Madrid or Istanbul. What I cannot bear is American coffee drinkers and their petty addictive adornments of masturbatory ritual.

Lissa, I would love to hear your thoughts about Consumer Reports re: coffee and american cars. Really!

What about those coffee beans that are processed via animals. Basically, they eat the coffee cherries and then poop out the pits, which are then made into coffee. Zekes sometimes has it. It kinda makes me gag to think of that.

Bucky -- imagine the reaction of the guy who discovered coffee when his first customer took a sip, swirled it in his mouth, spat it out and said "This is the pits!"

My husband prefers Wawa coffee. He says it is the best.

What do you figure the thought process was...

Without googling and relying on memory (or supposed memory) coffe comes from Central American countries. (home of Juan Valdez) I'm going to guess that the locals discovered that coffee cherry pits could be chewed for the caffeine high and the brewing process was an elaboration of chewing.

What about peyote says "chew me for a good time"?

(A friend whose son is involved with Drs Without Borders has forwarded some of his email in which he's astounded by mankind's ability to find things to chew in order to get high.)

The coffee and the bandana was the best cup ever (except for the bottom half of the pot). I think the camp fire and the brisk morning air had a lot to do with the fond memory.

Bucky, there are two kinds of coffee in this world: fresh and not.

I've eaten coffee cherrie fruit, pick from the tree. It is pleasant enough, although unremarkable. (Keep in mind my unrefined palate, here.) It's not a like a grape...the skin is tough, so you need to peel it to eat the fruit.

Speaking of fresh coffee...

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Sun's sister paper, quoted a Bloomberg article a couple of weeks ago which said that Starbucks would no longer keep the decaf brewing after noon because of lack of customer demand. They would continue to sell it, but customers would have to wait about 4 minutes while it brewed.

Less waste. Fresh coffee [albeit, Satrbucks]. I fail to see a down side to this policy.

bra1nchild - agree - 4 minutes is really not long to wait and far less waste probably. Interestingly though, I tend to drink "hightest" in the morning but the later in day it gets, the more likely I am to get decaf - it almost seems backwards in the time sense.

Eve - In other countries those who figure out transforming qualities of plants are known as Medicine People in this country they are known as dope fiends.

Enh. Honestly, once you're down to rating stale beans, you're just aiming for "Please don't be robusta".

I'm not as much a purist as Lissa (roasting beans when done right is definitely awesome but not a pursuit for the new parent), but the real benefit of drinking a cup of coffee, made with water at the proper temperature and from a fresh bean is that it emphasizes and highlights the actual individual characteristics and results in a vastly different taste between types of beans.

Course, it probably also helps that I drink my coffee black, so there's no milk or sugar or syrup or whatever to mask the coffee flavored coffee.

Eve, Ethiopia is the home of coffee. It spread from there. There is a folk tale about a goat herder noticing that goats who ate the coffee tree were frisky, so he chewed the cherries, but who knows?

It isn't that difficult to roast coffee (I do it in a hot air popcorn popper). It isn't that difficult to brew it properly (hint-almost no one in this country does). But, the results are analogous to baking your own bread.

Decaf coffee is stupid. Same with non-alcoholic beer.

As for where coffee is from, you are not listening to the commercials that tout the finest arabica beans. Guess where they originated. Coffee is originally native to Ethiopia.

There is a very entertaining novel called Memoir From Antproof Case by Mark Helprin. One of the main features is the protagonists lifelong hatred of coffee. It's very funny.

Juan Valdz is Ethiopian? Who knew?

Laura Lee - there's my palate for you. I can tell fresh from not.

Juan Valdez is a marketing tool, as real (and as racist) as Aunt Jemina.

Josh is totally right about "not stale" and "not robusta".

I'm grateful to Starbucks for teaching me that not all coffee was like Maxwell House. But, man, have they gone downhill!

War is not the only means to stop war" give 'em Starbucks.

Laura Lee - there's my palate for you.

Wow, I read that the wrong way at first.

Just remember to never give coffee to a drunk to sober her or him up. You only wind up with a wide awake drunk.

Personally, I have never bought into the coffee culture. Maybe two or three cups a year. I WAS in a Starbucks about a year and a half ago. Went with a group of co-workers who HAD to stop for their morning fix. I got a hot chocolate and couldn't even drink it because it was w-a-a-a-y too hot to drink.

My DW, on the other hand, just has to have her coffee. Bought her one of those one-cup brewers that takes single plastic cups. She seems to be able to tell the difference and we usually have five or six different types of coffee on hand. A small price to keep her happy.

Stacy, I'm not ignoring you, I've just been having an argument with myself all day over whether or not Consumer's Reports ignorance about coffee (and cars) isn't actually a good thing. They are reflecting the tastes of the average person (since we can't all be experts on everything).

However, since they hold themselves up as scientific, objective reviewers, I can't help but think that a little bit of knowledge about what they are reviewing might be useful.

They don't understand proper brewing. They don't understand grinding fresh. They can't tell the difference between robusta and arabica beans. Those are all basics, learned in under 5 min. from any roaster, the Sweet Maria's website or in a speed-rant from me.

So, I can't take CR seriously. I'd rather hear what someone with a jot of knowledge in the field has to say. You might as well set me to judging fashion as set CR to judging coffee.

R-i-E - is it a Keurig coffee maker you are talking about? We got one as a gift for Christmas and it is, indeed a handy-dandy little machine. Although I think that's probably the most expensive way to drink coffee in your own home.

Ethiopia makes sense as the birthplace of coffee, given what I read not too long ago about Rwanda. Just in the past 10 years ago, probably just after that terrible genocide, Rwanda discovered that the coffee growing on their mountains was quite good. As it turns out, quite in demand worldwide. So the locals there can harvest the beans and make some much-needed money.

That is the short-version of the story.

Rwandan coffee can be very good.

The most heart-warming coffee story is probably East Timor. When the Indonesians were in charge (killing over one sixth of the population, etc.), the Army took over the coffee plantations. They just stripped them. In the 20+ years the Indonesian Army ran the country, no fertilizer or pesticides were imported.

So, when East Timor got its freedom, various NGOs helped the coffee farmers with the paperwork, and because of the neglect of the Army, were able to get organic status very quickly.

It is pretty nice coffee, too. East Timor and Papua New Guinea both have very interesting coffees. And every time I drink a cuppa of the Timor, I'm mentally spitting in the eye of the Indonesian Army.

Loved the scene from The Bucket List where Morgan Freeman informed "Jack" about the origin of the uber-exclusive Kopi Luwak coffee that he insisted on trying every morning... just the thought of it made me throw in my mouth just a little bit.

Bucky,
That's the one. Yeah its expensive. But still cheaper than brewing a pot and drinking only one cup. Several times a day. With the Keurig she can have Dark Roast in the morning and Half-Caf in the afternoon. As I'm sure you know, If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

The coffee and the bandana was the best cup ever (except for the bottom half of the pot)

On my 50th birthday I did a sunrise traill ride tthrough Red Rock Canyon in/ouside/near Sedona, followed by "Trail Breakfast"where I believe the coffee was made in this fashion, but without the bandana. I couldn't get a mouthful that wasn't mostly grounds.

My favorite Bucket List line:

Morgan Freeman looks over the top of his glasses and says to Jack, "I've taken baths deeper than you are."

I have camped a whole lot, both "car camping" where you bring your car and all your stuff right up to the campsite and unload, and backpacking, where you carry all your stuff in. If we car camp, we have a percolator that brews our coffee the right way. If we backpack, I (ashamed to say) we use instant coffee. Hey, its easier to make and motivation to get out on the trail to the next stop. Now that I think of it, some good English breakfast tea would be better.

CR is almost a bible to me (can I say that?). Guess I'm just an slobbering, ignorant commoner.

Can you please provide an update on the status of the Lost City Diner? I thought they were supposed to open several months ago. My kids really want to go there as soon as it opens