You gotta try some Puerto Rican or Austrailain coffees..very similar in profile and character to their more famous cousins, and much more cost effective.  I'm gonna root around for a review of those two, be back in a second.

Never heard of an Aussie coffee. Would that be Joey for slang?

Rack

Absolutely it would be joey

A review of PR coffee I found:

There is a long tradition of coffee from Puerto Rico that was destroyed by a combination of hurricane damage and market pressures. In Europe, Puerto Rican coffees were considered the pinnacle of quality, because they have unparalleled body for an island coffee, and a soft low-acid flavor profile. The coffee is air-frieghted in small quantities to the US, so it is basically always fresh from the Yauco Selecto mill. For me, Yauco is not a year-round coffee, but rather has a seasonal peak that varies but is generally in the early part for the new year, through Spring. Too early in the crop cycle or too late and the delicate balance is upset by greenish cup flavors or by baggy old flavors. Then, there are whole years where we simply pass, when I feel that the weather has had a bad influence on the coffee. A mild cup can be easily ruined! I was happy to find this cup from new crop sample to have the character I remember: first and foremost a creamy, buttery body with nutty tones. The dry fragrance has a very attractive caramel smell with almond hint. It fades into bittersweetness in the wet aroma, but resurfaces in the cup flavors. Yet I would not characterize this as a super sweet coffee in the scheme of things; it is softly bittersweet, and with previously mentioned buttery-creamy body. I find that the Cona vacuum brew method is ideal for this coffee, bringing out the body and some subtle aromatic herbal character that I missed in the paper-drip brew; an excellent rosemary herby note. Yauco Selecto is pricey, but has the Jamaican "island cup profile", and in that repect it's half the price. I like it at a fairly light roast for drip coffee, but at Full City+ this coffee makes a really nice straight roast espresso, with great balance and body. I highly recommend this coffee for single-Estate straight roast espresso.

Review of Aussie coffee:

Mountain Top is a farm in SE Australia, about 2 hours south of Brisbane and 5 minutes west of Nimbin. This selected area is unique because of the altitude and unique volcanic red soils. The farm itself is on the slopes of the extinct volcano, Mt. Warning. The area is a lush, subtropical environment, and is unique in coffee since this is the southernmost growing area I am aware of. It's also unique in that this growing area is quite distant from where most Aussie coffees come from, at least the Skybury from Mareeba in the north, which is a fully mechanized farm akin to Kauai coffee. And this is the first time we have bought an Aussie coffee, after years of evaluating Skybury samples and finding the flavors to be somewhere between copy paper and plastic wrappers, this is such a relief. What is Bin 431? It is a special designation for a lot that was screen dried directly after the skin was removed from the coffee cherry, and then double-sorted, meaning that it was run through the density sorting table twice to remove defects. It's a very sweet and rounded cup. It has a peculiar rounded form which is somewhat like Bourbon cultivar, and somewhat like Mundo Novo. Interestingly, Mountain Top is using the new mylar bag packaging pioneered by Daterra in Brazil to preserve green coffee as it travels across the equator and through greatly varying climates (namely, varying humidities). Now the cup ... the best part ... The cup has a unique sweetness to it. If you showed this to me blind, I would guess it was a mix of a super high-quality, sweet Brasil (body, rustic sweetness) and a Central (it has more bright, liveliness than most Brazils). But there is something of the Island coffees here too, a mild roundness to the cup. It's an odd term but very appropriate here: juicy! This cup is very juicy and has a very nice sweetness to it that is almost like pine sap, rustically sweet. How many times can I use the word "sweet" in describing this coffee? It would be a great training tool to show people what "sweet" coffee is... and it has brightness, something I have never truly experienced in an Aussie coffee. Overall, the flavors exist in a compact range, and the sweet aftertaste seems to linger for an appropriate amount of time given the quality of the body; viscous

Nice work emind. My coffee quotient is increasing by the post.

Rack

You gotta share the things you love!!!  Now we gotta get you roasting

I'll have to warm my sweet wife up to the roasting hobby!

Rack

Its actually cheaper than buying premium beans in a store, if that helps your cause at all.

Check! Cheaper is a good argument.

Rack

I'm leery of a lot of Latin American coffees because many are robusto blends and I'm an arabica drinker. The coffee PRs drink in NYC is Bustelo and I'd rather drink tea.

Quoteljlemer - 3/7/2008  10:34 PM

I'm leery of a lot of Latin American coffees because many are robusto blends and I'm an arabica drinker. The coffee PRs drink in NYC is Bustelo and I'd rather drink tea.

The coffee I was referenceing is all single origin Arabica FWIW

I like some Bustelo every now and then.  I keep it in the mix.

Rack

I'm sitting here watching the Travel channel as the kids are down for their naps.  There's a story on Jamaica and they are currently talking about Blue Montain coffee.  Sounds interesting.  Grown in the mountains at no less than 3500 feet on 30,000 acres set aside for it.  They run all beans in a bed of water.  Floaters are thrown out because they are less quality.  The each haul goes through a smell and taste test.  Amazing the trouble they seem to go through.  They said it runs $35 in the US and $60 in Japan (their second largest buyer.)

Who knew?  Probably a lot more folks than me, but it was pretty interesting.

-Paul

thats cool Paul. The taste is distinctive and worth a premium for an every now and again treat. Just like high smokes!

Rack

I prefer a black cup of Sumatra over any other cup I've ever had

QuoteLoomisglx - 5/21/2010  4:30 PM

I prefer a black cup of Sumatra over any other cup I've ever had

I like Sumatran too, but Of everything I've had, IMHO you can't do better than Abyssinian coffees...  ( They call it Ethiopia now   )

QuoteSenorPablo - 3/8/2008  11:31 AM

I'm sitting here watching the Travel channel as the kids are down for their naps.  There's a story on Jamaica and they are currently talking about Blue Montain coffee.  Sounds interesting.  Grown in the mountains at no less than 3500 feet on 30,000 acres set aside for it.  They run all beans in a bed of water.  Floaters are thrown out because they are less quality.  The each haul goes through a smell and taste test.  Amazing the trouble they seem to go through.  They said it runs $35 in the US and $60 in Japan (their second largest buyer.)

Who knew?  Probably a lot more folks than me, but it was pretty interesting.

-Paul

Saw this same program and this coffee is Goooooooooood!  There are copies of this coffee in the stores that try to go by the same name but it isn't the same coffee, trust me.  Been to Jamaica a few times and always get that coffee just like I go to St. Thomas for their cheap booze....Grenada for their great spices.  I always liked coffee but since I've been on these cigar forums I have branched out into coffee now.  I don't use my Cuisinart CoffeeMaker anymore...it's in the basement and I French Press everyday in a 32 ounce maker...roast my beans...get some exotic tasting coffees from all over and make my own froth and will NEVER, EVER get coffee from any name brand stores again.  The coffee I make for the wife and I is second to none and I always thought anybody who talked about coffee and French Press were acting like snobs...ok, count me in that category.  There is a HUGE difference in what I drink now vs what I use to.

QuoteSenorPablo - 3/8/2008  11:31 AM

I'm sitting here watching the Travel channel as the kids are down for their naps.  There's a story on Jamaica and they are currently talking about Blue Montain coffee.  Sounds interesting.  Grown in the mountains at no less than 3500 feet on 30,000 acres set aside for it.  They run all beans in a bed of water.  Floaters are thrown out because they are less quality.  The each haul goes through a smell and taste test.  Amazing the trouble they seem to go through.  They said it runs $35 in the US and $60 in Japan (their second largest buyer.)

Who knew?  Probably a lot more folks than me, but it was pretty interesting.


-Paul

Hydroponic coffee? Gotta be GOOD!!!!!!
 

I've been drinking Puerto Rican coffe:

http://www.coffeefool.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1016

It's starting to go up in price, but not as outrageous as JBM.