Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee

Cruisin' A-hunnert: Snapshots: 24-hour Starbucks (Hwy. 100)

I'm at the 24-hour Starbucks (there's only one in Southeastern Wisconsin that I know of) on Hwy. 100 and I-94 in Wauwatosa.  I purchased a $15 Starbucks card at Walgreens this afternoon, and this is my second SBUX visit today.  It occured to me that I'd perhaps been shutting out Big Green to a greater extent than deserved, though this store was always in a league of its own in my view.  Earlier today, I was at the Shorewood store, which is at the opposite end of the continuum.

The AT&T Wi-Fi service--two hours of which are free per day with a registered Starbucks card--is truly revolutionary. Even more so is the current appearance of the Shorewood store, now that it's been stripped of CDs and other extraneous merchandise. As I've noticed on earlier visits, this is one of the more "meat market-y" coffee houses in the area. I might add, heterosexual meat. There are folk here that I'd peg as gay or lesbian, but also many who aren't. My usual haunts are a little too stereotypically lesbilicious. As the old saying goes, that and a (buck and a) quarter will get me. . .a cup of coffee.

Decaf: Trader Joe's Bay Blend

Another area of coffee frequently overlooked by enthusiasts is decaf.  I try to drink half-caf where possible for health reasons—and simply because at this stage of my life, I try to stay largely substance-free and thus find anything more than the mildest caffeine buzz unpleasant.  While grocery shopping at Trader Joe's tonight, I picked up a container of Trader Joes' Decaf Bay Blend, and, as is my custom, opened it in my car immediately after purchase to take a whiff.  It smells darn good!  I look forward to blending it with the several varieties of Jeff Roasts I have on hand.  Jeff roasts quite light—which gives the coffee an amazing, almost pepper-like aroma—and I like a little more "bass" in my cup, for lack of a better analogy, so I almost always blend his stuff with darker beans (usually decaf).

UPDATE (9/10): The coffee, alas, is stale—not so much that I have to toss it, but enough that I have to use very little of it in a blend so as not to ruin it.  Really, it's no better than Folger's Decaf, which I bought in a similar situation (too lazy to go to make another stop for the little bit of decaf I need).  It's the only less-than-stellar Trader Joe's experience I've had—I've purchased coffee there that was good, but decaf no doubt sits on the shelf longer.