Don Senneville and Jim White
It is true that dogs have achieved a special status among us humans? We had coffee this week whose bean price included 20% to a “save the dogs” deal. Jim thought his coffee smelled like dog and Don thought 20% was too little. Really. Do dogs have to be 10 years old in order to be on Medicare?
We saw a little dog in a baby stroller being pushed around the Carefree gardens. Jim’s sister makes and sells dog clothes on Etsy. She donates them to the “Amish Puppy Mills of Kentucky”. Quite an image! We truly have gone to the dogs.
We are now parked by Local Jonny’s sitting in the rain enjoying a to-go coffee, waiting for a horse or two to wander by. As one approaches the metal buffalo herd on Schoolhouse Road, we anticipate some type of reaction by the horse. There was none. Horses are no fools. We were. Don wants a buffalo or two for his front yard. He wonders if it might deter javelinas. (It’s not clear if he’s serious about this.)
His neighbor has a giant metal buffalo in his yard, and there haven’t been any javelinas over there for a long time. They say only mountain lions deter javelinas. Any metal ones out there?
Speaking of coffee, Don recently sent himself on assignment to Flagstaff, where he visited a restaurant that’s getting a lot of attention lately – Forêt Flg – to see what they’re doing with coffee. He gave no reason for choosing that destination, but as he reports, their coffee drinks are, well, creative – from quirky to extreme. We’ve been noting some of Starbucks’s quirky coffee drinks, such as the Pistachio Latte, the Hazelnut Oat Milk Shaken Espresso, not to mention a new drink, originally from Sicily, that has oat milk and olive oil in addition to espresso. Olive oil? Really. Cactus Jack drinks his coffee black. So does Big Earl.
Forêt has strong roots in French cooking, so Don, knowing very little about French cooking, figures that oat milk and olive oil must have migrated north from Sicily as things to put in coffee.
We are not sure why. He ordered an Americano (not to-go) and found it to be good (bon). He says he wanted to sit for a while in this atmosphere of young people, sun shining outside, snow on the ground (temp coming up from around 11 degrees), and study the coffee menu. Ingredients in The Toff: Oat milk, toffee, sea salt; Espresso Sunrise: Fresh squeezed orange juice, sea salt. (OK, maybe the salt thing we noted in our last article relating to tea has caught on.) Don’s favorite (actually a coffee dessert) was Affogato with Pizzicletta Olive Oil Gelato.
Enough! Jim does not drink what he cannot pronounce. We’ll be watching the invasion of olive oil and sea salt in coffee.
Send us a most unusual coffee story or place to The CUP at [email protected].
