A Rich Gourmet Coffee Break Need Not Cost a Cup of Gold

A cup of coffee has become really cool. Iced coffee was the in drink over the summer. Coffee boutiques have been popping up all over town, and others are brewing.

The coffee specialty shop in my neighborhood has been getting my business for the last couple of years with so-called gourmet coffees whose names stir up irresistible visions of delectability. Vanilla Nut, Irish Cream, Chocolate Almond, Macadamia Nut are $7.95 a pound.

Mention these coffees to a connoisseur, and you’ll see the same grimace a seasoned bartender makes when someone orders a Scotch and ginger ale.

At the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Sherman Oaks, I told owner Herb Hyman--who has 30 years of experience in the coffee industry--that I loved Irish Cream, and he flinched like that bartender. When I asked him about Jamaican Blue Mountain, he told me he doesn’t carry it. Nor does he sell Kona or Celebes Kolossi, all the kinds that get big prices at the boutiques.

In Germany, where the standards for coffees are set, those varieties don’t even count, said Hyman, who owns the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf chain and learned about coffee in Germany, Switzerland and Finland.

The menu at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf reads: Bourbon Santos (from Brazil), Colombian, Costa Rican, Viennese (from Costa Rica and Brazil), Mocha Java (from Ethiopia), Kenya and Sumatra coffees--and none of the designer coffees I expected.

I sampled Bourbon Santos (alas, no Bourbon) and Costa Rican. Both have what my grandmother called authority. My favorite was Costa Rican, for the flavor and the texture: It feels like satin in your mouth and tastes the way I always think coffee should taste but rarely does. But then, I have yet to sample the Mocha Java from Ethiopia, or the Sumatra.

According to Hyman, the smart coffee buyer should look for three factors--aroma, flavor and texture. The higher the altitude where the coffee beans are grown, the harder the bean and the finer the flavor. When properly prepared, these high-altitude coffees are the cleanest, or purest, coffees.

At first, the prices didn’t look like a bargain. One pound of coffee is $7.99. But Hyman works on a volume discount system, so five pounds cost $6.99 a pound; 10 pounds, $5.99 a pound, and 20 pounds, $4.99 a pound.

And coffee, of course, can be frozen and shared. I also learned that the special scoop that comes with each pound is much smaller than the one we are accustomed to, and that I would use about half as much coffee as usual. Another savings.

All the coffees at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stores are roasted daily in their own roasting plant in Camarillo. That’s how they maintain control over the quality, Hyman said.

The caffeine-free coffees are decaffeinated in Europe. Since about 40% of coffee drinkers who prefer decaffeinated are also affected by the acid in coffee, Hyman decided to have the acids neutralized in all the decaffeinated coffees. These are the same price and get the same volume discount as regular coffees.

If you still want those “gourmet coffee” flavorings, the cheerful staff at any Coffee Bean store will add your choice of flavored crystals (crystallized oils) to the ground coffee. Also add $2 per pound.

As I sip a cup of just-brewed Costa Rican coffee (black, of course) and savor the flavor, I realize I have graduated from “designer” to “haute couture”-- a quantum leap in coffee appreciation. On my next visit to a Coffee Bean, I think I’ll take a crash course in tea.

In the San Fernando Valley, the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is in Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, 14006 Riverside Drive, (818) 906-0504, and in Tarzana at 18458 Clark St. (818) 996-1011. Others are in Beverly Hills, Camarillo, Costa Mesa, Glendale, Los Angeles, Malibu, Marina del Rey, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Westwood.

Geri Cook’s Bargains column runs every Thursday in Valley View. Questions about shopping may be sent to her, in care of Valley View, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. Letters will not be answered individually, but topics of general interest will be discussed in future columns.