Jot Coffee

If you use social media (like I do) and depending on what your click history have been, you may have come across advertisements of a coffee product called Jot Coffee. I started seeing their advertisements sometime last year along with Cometeer Coffee. From what I can tell, Jot Coffee is a direct to consumer company that sells concentrated coffee/espresso in small jars. Drinkers can dilute the concentrate into many different coffee based drinks (iced coffee, americano, latte, machiatto, cortado, etc). Like most direct to consumer based companies, Jot Coffee is also a subscription based service that will charge you for regular dilvery of their concentrated coffee product.

I think their maybe a few key benefit that Jot Coffee wants to sell to you.
1) If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of buying beans or knowing what type of roast or knowing the lcation of the beans or even using a subscription service like Drink Trade Coffee (yes shameless referral plug), Jot Coffee wants to make it easy for you by just having two simple choices: Original blend or Dark blend. The drinker can decide which blend they prefer and stick to that blend for future deliveries.
2) If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of having to pull your own espresso shot with a machine or even using manual methods to make your drink (pourovers, aeropress, cold brew, etc), Jot Coffee also wants to make it easy for you. All you need to do is mix their concentrated extract to make your own drink. The concentrate pretty much is a stronger pulled espresso shot.
3) And finally, Jot Coffee just wants to be your coffee of choice by making it easy to make all your favorite drinks. Their instructions say to just mix 8oz of their concentrate with whatever and however much you desire. Jot also provided a measuring spoon to make things super easy to measure 8oz.

So Jot Coffee clearly intrigued me enough that I put it on one of my things to buy list. However, at the time when I saw these advertisements, I head many bags of Kona and Hawaii beans to drink. I had even paused both my coffee subscriptions in order to “catch up.” By now, readers of this blog should know that I’ve restarted both subscriptions and I’m starting to post about coffee again. Fortunately for me, Jot Coffee apparently sells both the original and dark blend on Amazon. This was actually really good because I didn’t have to bother with any subscription sign up and cancellation follow up. So I ended buying an original and dark blend.

I opened the dark blend first. The concentrate looks super thick. It actually covered the 8oz measuring spoon with this luscious brown liquid. Adding the recommended amount of milk to make a latte, the first thing I taste is the bold espresso flavor. I can’t taste any distinct floral, nutty or fruity flavors. If I over dilute with milk, I end up with a nice chocolate milk drink. However, if I don’t add enough milk, the espresso flavor remains and minimizes any sort of “milk” after taste.

After finishing the dark blend, the original blend also has similar concentrate consistency. Measuring out the original blend into a latte, the color of latte is surprisingly similar to the dark blend. The taste of the latte however is a much milder flavor compared to the dark. If I gave dark a score of 10 on how bold the espresso flavor is, then the original blend is roughly a score of 5 in espresso flavor. I’m able to taste a pleasant nutty flavor that balances the espresso and milk flavor. Between dark and original, I actually prefer the dark blend.

Overall, I think Jot Coffee is an interesting alternative to buying and grinding beans to make espresso. I wouldn’t buy this product for normal daily use. However, I would buy this for trips where grinding coffee might not be very feasible so long as there’s refrigeration to store the Jot Coffee espresso concentrate. The one thing I do miss when making my latte with Jot Coffee is the smell of freshly ground beans. Starting the day with the smell of freshly ground beans adds to the simple pleasures of life.

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Good Citizen Coffee Company

Trade Coffee sent me these single origin beans from Good Citizen Coffee Company. The beans are from the Narino which is in southern Columbia. I haven’t had too many beans from Columbia so these beans should be a treat.

Opening the bag, I’m greeted with a pleasant floral aroma. Aside from the typical coffee aromas, there’s nothing else outstanding about the aromas. Making my latte, I taste a subtle citrus and nutty flavors. After each sip though, I start getting a pleasant sweet chocolate flavor aftertaste that I enjoy. The subtleness of this sweet chocolate aftertaste really makes these beans enjoyable.

I hope I’m able to get more beans from Central and South America to taste.

Coffee AspectsYes / No
Intense AromaNo
Balanced AromaYes
Other AromaNo
Intense 1st sipNo
Balanced FlavorNo
Chocolate FlavorYes
2nd cup?No

Did the California DMV get hacked?

I don’t understand why the California DMV OTP challenge page to confirm my “identity” is in Chinese. Did they do some sort of upgrade and failed to keep the OTP challenge in English? Or… Did they get hacked? When a US or state goverment system goes to some foreign language page… it doesn’t really boost the confidence in that web page.

The DMV page also made it difficult. I could not contact a service representitave nor a technical representative to ask about the validity of this OTP challenge in real time. The chat bots are UTTERLY useless. I ended up having to ping them on Facebook and Twitter… but of course… tech service isn’t available their either.

Queen City Coffee Roasters

After four months, I restarted the coffee subscriptions services for Angels Cup and Trade Coffee. I managed to stagger them roughly 2 weeks apart so I can finish one and have the other pretty much ready to be drunk.

The first coffee to come is from Angels Cup. They sent a bag from Queen City Coffee Roasters which apparently is from India! I am pleaseantly surprised with these beans because it’s not from the usual African, Central/South America or Southeast Asia sources.

The beans have a such a subdued aroma of nuts and dried fruit. Making my latte, I was surprised at the first sip with this bold chocolate taste followed that is mellowed by peach and berries. With each subsequent sip, the chocolate flavor disappears leaving with nothing but this pleasant nutty flavor after finishing the cup.

Here’s what I think of the beans…4/7

Coffee AspectsYes / No
Intense AromaNo
Balanced AromaYes
Other AromaNo
Intense 1st sipYes
Balanced FlavorYes
Chocolate FlavorYes
2nd cup?No