I’ve got family in the Netherlands and I’ve never heard the name Freek. Not that my experience is to be taken as authoritative. Anyway …

The problem with coffee isn’t so much that the beans are the most important ingredient (which, well, they are), but that so many factors weigh into the cup besides the source(1) and roast(2) of the beans (namely, their freshness, the freshness and purity of the water, the temperature of the water, how long the brewed coffee sits exposed to oxygen, blah-de-blah-de-blah).

The risk with the coffee concentrate that DE uses would be that it would oxidize somewhere in the process, since that’s what makes coffee smell, as my college roommate put it, like cat piss (coffee is generally acidic, but oxidized coffee smells and tastes much more acrid). Other than that the risks are very much in line with those of “fresh brewed” coffee (bad water, bad temperature, unclean parts, etc). If you assume that the Dutch coffeeologists have figured out a way to keep the machine clean and within operating tolerances, and that there’s a good filter for the water that the BK employees keep clean (no minor feat, considering our experiences with BK — insert link to dynamic pricing page here), the DE machine very well should produce at least as good a cuppa as your local Starbucks.

Now. Whether it is in fact better than the Starbucks goes somewhat to personal taste and the consistency of each’s sourcing and production operations. Since I personally feel that Starbucks consistently overroasts its beans (”A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds,” as Emerson put it, but he may not have been thinking of coffee at the time) I can probably give the nod to Douwe Egberts based on my experience their prepackaged supermarket coffee without even trying the machines at BK.

1) I don’t go as far as to seek out the beans from civet dung (although their existence wasn’t actually news to me either) but I do think that coffee beans themselves are as peculiar and as strongly related to the resulting drink as grapes are to wine — and they’re known to be sensitive to climate and soil, as are grapes (I don’t claim to know whether the one is more or less sensitive than the other, but the ridiculous prices people pay for certain beans (Jamaican Blue Mountain to name one) or for certain wines (whatever the favorite snooty square mile of Bordeaux is this year) do make one think that the prices maybe aren’t quite in line with the differences in source quality.

2) As also with the production of wine, the roasting is where the coffee scientician shows his expertise and his tastes. And as too many wines are either “big and fruity” (the trendy Zinfandel and, until “Sideways,” Merlot) or “oaky” (all those Chardonnays with way too much mallolactic fermentation), too many coffee roasters go for a very dark roast, which to me tends to destroy (or, perhaps intentionally, mask) the flavor of any given bean. And as we’re now seeing a backlash against “big fruit” (and a smaller Chardonnay backlash involving aging the wine in steel instead of oak), I hope we’ll see a backlash against overroasted beans.

The DE concentrate is shipped in some kind of bag-in-box arrangement, I think, which precludes oxidization unless something goes horribly wrong — in which case the stuff probably wouldn’t be drunk anyway.

The resulting coffee does seem to oxidize more rapidly than ordinarily once it’s in the cup, though. By the time that’s happened, though, it’s cold anyway.

As far as the filter — the smart thing to do would be to match the capacity of the filter to the capacity of the concentrate reservoir, and then package both of them as one cartridge: replace the coffee juice and you replace the filter as well. I don’t think they actually do this, but as I’ve never had off-tasting coffee from one of these machines, they must have some system that works.

And I hope that the burnt-roast business falls out of fashion, too: all this burnt coffee lacks subtlety. Maybe BK is the vanguard.

That’s really interesting. I wonder how they brew it back at the factory — it sounds like it might even be cold-brewed. Poindexter now uses the Toddy Cafe to cold brew his coffee, and it makes a concentrate that has none of the harsh acids or burnt taste of hot-brewed coffee. It’s very pure — it tastes more like the coffee smells. He’s really happy with it.

I’m not a coffee snob, but on the rare times the sinus are clear, I find coffee made from cold concentrate pretty tasty. It sure doesn’t sound appealing to most people, though.

I always thought it would work out well for hiking, but everyone I’ve ever gone with has been pretty happy with a teabag (I’m OK with just pills).

Of course, when I make cold process coffee, I use an obscenely expensive, high tech devise known as a used mayonnaise jar.

Burger King has the worst tasting coffee! However, Hardees has the best tasting coffee.
I paid $1.59 for a cup of coffee at the TA in Whitestown, IN. Outrageous prices!

I think coffee is almost as complicated as wine. Everyone likes something different, and there’s a heck of a lot that can change.

Some people like the burnt beans, some don’t. Some like Chardonnay that’s others classify as “like licking an oak tree”

BK coffee is definitely the king of fast food coffee, but I’m pretty tolerant of the genre. It has to be HOT, it can’t taste sour and if it’s not good coffee to begin with, it can’t be brewed super strong. (I’m thinking of Waffle House here..)

You know who’s coffee is consistently not hot enough to even withstand half and half? Panera. They are doing something wrong with those thermoses.

I WANT A MACHINE, I DO BK JOE EVERY DAY. HOW DO I GET ONE?

Right now there are two of them on eBay for $250 each + freight from Nashville: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330012020694

Those are Cafitesse 300s, though, meant for high-volume use: you could run a hotel room service operation with one of those things. For home use, a Cafitesse 50 would probably be more the thing. They seem to be discontinued, but I’m sure they turn up on eBay now and again.

BK has the best tasting coffee I’ve ever tasted. Too bad we can’t buy a machine for the house. Someone would get rich on this idea! Love that stuff!

I have a C-300. Are there any other companies making frozen concentrate to fit this? Any exotic blends, etc?

BK Turbo is the best coffee I’ve ever had. Can you buy it for use at home?

We feel that BK coffee is the best around, hands down….we love it and would like to buy it for home consumption.

I also love BK coffee, enough to drive 6 miles some mornings just to get a cup. On a few occasions however I have received a bad tasting cup. I don’t know why this is, once I even called the BK where I purchased the cup to find out if they had changed their coffee, because if they had I was not going to buy it anymore, but they hadn’t—so why the bad taste? I’m thinking it may have been the new cups they were using or perhaps they need to clean their machine. Whatever the reason I would like to know how do I get a guarantied cup of good BK coffee?

Hooked on BK Coffee

About a month ago, I thought that I had gotten a bad cup of BK Joe. It was not the Joe, it was the creamer. The restaurants in the Chucktown area had switched to International Delight from CoffeeMate. It was a horrible decision and they soon found out and shortly thereafter they HAD to switch back to CoffeeMate. Douwe Egberts which makes BK and Seattle’s Best which make McD’s(makers of Starbucks coffee) puts Starbucks to shame. Let’s not begin to talk about the McD’s new cinnamon melts. Boy they are sure giving Cinnabon a swift kick (We do not have one here in Chucktown anymore), but since McD’s has cinmelts I do not miss it! Good cup of Joe and a Cinnamelt, mm-mm Good!!!!!

I’ve just recently tried Burger Kings BK Joe coffee.
It is the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. It is so rich in flavor. Will it eventually be available in markets for the consumer?

I do not like BK Joe. I miss the old coffee. Please let me have a choice.

[...] and head straight to Burger King for some simple, fresh-tasting (I have no idea how fresh it was, rumor says they use pre-brewed liquid coffee) coffee and maybe this time I’ll try some of those French Toast Sticks. October 23, 2007 | [...]

BK Coffee is horrible coffee…I think that whole donut, dunkin or even maxwell house is way better…please, I think people buy it cause its less expensive…their addicted to the caffine..that is my personal opinion…you asked and I told!

I LOVE BK coffee, and would love to own one of those machines, but think the cost is prohibitive. So guess I’ll just drive to BK every day for my cuppa “Joe”.

You can get the coffee at home. I purchased a Senseo coffee maker and the Senseo pods are Douwe Egberts

I have been a fan of DE coffee for some time. I had attended several conferences at high-end hotels and found I could “spot” this coffee with the first taste! I asked the servers at 2 different conferences and they both said DE but that it comes in a liquid form (I think it is shipped frozen) that can only be purchased for businesses. I did find the ground version and although smooth and certain a cut above all other brands is not quite the same.I also contacted Sara Lee and asked if they sell the liquid to the average consumer and they said no. So when I get a chance (daily) I stop by my local BK for a “CUP of Joe”.

Interesting read. I found this googling “burger king coffee” as I just had my first cup of coffee from BK in many years and was telling myself that though their breakfasts are weak even compared to McDs and Sonic, BK coffee rocks.