Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 23, 2011

Many prefer the Kona.

Sanka instant, please.

Ok, true coffee snobs would be debating Mochas - “Yemeni or Ethiopian Harar?”, not cheap Western Hemisphere beans.

So a listener might indeed come to a different conclusion ….

Metro males.

No coke. Pepsi.

Flores bean from Indonesia, the very best. And roasted by Mike at Java Joe’s in Albuquerque.

I thought they were talking pot, not coffee.

I love Kona.

Bagpipers have the same problem, as we’re always talking about how much hemp to put in the joints.

I love being scornfully told about the social, economic, and political meaning of my coffee choice by a high school drop out earning $8.50 living in Mom’s basement.

“Cheap western hemisphere coffee?” Anyone priced (or tasted) Blue Mountain from Jamacia lately. Also, anyone outside Puerto Rico tasted their coffee? Both great.

I prefer Bustelo. I think it’s Cuban style.

Congratulations on almost getting the joke.

People not exposed to the liberal hippy drug culture will miss this one…

Haha! Very funny! I had just the exact same thought while reading this before I hit the punchline. I was thinking, “Uh… Jef, I am thinking you are talking about coffee… but it sure as heck sounds like a ’Cheech & Chong” movie"…. then the punchline! Very, very funny!

Kona is great, but Pilon ftw

LafInLarry, this is exciting! It sounds like you have a condition very close to that of my father: he has been unable to smell since he had rheumatic fever at the age of…five, I think?…in the early 1930s, anyway. At most he can sometimes “smell” very strong odors – never a skunk, so far as I know, but rubbing alcohol sometimes, and the tar or bitumen or whatever it was once when they were paving the street in front of our house forty years ago or so. So we’ve always been mystified by his excellent and subtle sense of taste; he’s a great cook. Can you direct me to further information about how this works?

I pass a Starbucks every morning, I see them lined up outside like it was a methadone clinic.

Loved your disclaimer, Laffin!

Olddog — But they didn’t mention Jamaica or Puerto Rican.

They only mentioned Mexican, Colombian and Costa Rican, none of which is terribly upscale or expensive

I wasn’t talking about what the best coffees might be; but about whether or not they sounded like coffee snobs, as opposed to drug dealers, which is the point of the joke.

Anyway, in my experience coffee snobs don’t talk about something as popularly known as Jamaica Blue Mountain or Kona — they want to show that they have rare and arcane tastes.

Just for the record though — personally I’ll take any good strong mocha peaberry bean over either JBM or Kona, which are both partially prized for their mellowness.

And in point of fact I can’t afford any of them, and drink supermarket ground coffee, like Yuban or Folgers, blended with a little cheap Italian Espresso or French roast from a vacuum packed bag. It’ll do.

Caffeine is a drug.

You want fancy coffee ?

I still think Frazz looks like Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes) grown up.

I have a friend who used to be the distributor for a coffee buying collective. He lived in a security-locked building, so he would occasionally have people standing in the courtyard at 6am yelling up to his window, “I need a pound of Columbian”.