Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The buzz on a new brew

I signed up with BzzAgent, a word of mouth marketing organization, a few months ago, largely because I was impressed with the presentations they'd made at the two WOMMA conferences I'd attended, but also because I like trying new products and I'm not shy about sharing my opinions.

Anyway, I didn't qualify for any campaigns for quite a while, but yesterday I received a free 1/2 pound of Storyville Coffee in the mail. Josh ground and brewed it in the Chemex this morning, and we found it to be a very good basic cup of coffee. A nutty and mild blend of beans from around the world, but not as interesting as the single origin coffees we've been enjoying from Intelligentsia. The beans were very fresh since it had only been days since they were roasted, and I think that most consumers will be impressed with the difference fresh roasted beans can make. But we're jaded. We've been using fresh coffee beans from the Intelligentsia roasting plant in Chicago for a year. And the price for Storyville is $16 a pound, $20 if you include shipping. A little too rich, if you ask me.