Mourning a Lost Blend of Great Coffee

I started my morning yesterday with a cup of Peet's Anniversary Blend--and its Garuda, Espresso Forte, Decaf Mocca-Java, and Decaf House Blends. I'm still in mourning, you see for, Peet's Sierra Dorada, which none other than Jerry Baldwin himself recommend to us from behind the cash register at the grand opening of the Peet's we buy our coffee at every Saturday, in Brookline's Coolidge Corner. We asked which blend--Peet's specializes in blends, unlike other stores that mostly feature single-origin coffees--would show best in our method of choice, the stovetop moka. Sierra Dorada, he said, and for years we never strayed.

Then cruel fate forced us to. Or, rather, a marketing decision to switch up the blends on offer in any given month. It's been over a year now, and one of fruitless yearning and more-fruitful, but not happy-ending, experimentation. We aim to duplicate Sierra Dorada's mixing of African and Latein American coffees, but though we find many pleasing diversions--Blue Batak was a particular favorite this winter while It lasted--we haven't found nirvana. Jerry, if I promise to make it only in a press pot, will Peet's please bring back Sierra Dorada??

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2009/04/mourning-a-lost-blend-of-great-coffee/7253/