Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Get Yourself Some Real Coffee
Trying not to make this really long and preachy. Also trying not to screw up the links this post calls for. Apparently this Schultz feller over at Starbucks decided, as a foil to duly elected POTUS Donald J. Trump’s policies, to commit to hiring 10, 000 “refugees.” Ookay.
Black Rifle Coffee Company replied, “Well, we want to hire veterans, and we think Starbucks is on the wrong path.” My words, not theirs (hey, I’m trying to summarize, here. Here’s an article with the statement of BRCC’s CEO.
BRCC has some great ads (some, uh, not exactly PC, I’ll put those in the comments). But their Jumpmaster Dad video never fails to warm the cockles of my heart. For context, here’s a Jumpmaster performing his duties.
I like their punch-up response to Starbucks (full disclosure, I’ve never liked Starbucks; I’m a Dunkin Donuts/Turbo Shot guy myself), so I went on their website to order me some BRCC. Almost every blend was sold out. I got a caveat with my order of the “Blacker than black” blend of “due to extreme customer volume, your order might be delayed by two or three weeks.”
I brought a coupla/tree bags of BRCC Blacker Than Black into work. All the guys loved it. All the guys promptly went online to order it. Every blend of BRCC is sold out. ‘Murica. God bless this country.
Great Dads, Need Great Coffee. Black Rifle Coffee Company has you covered.
Posted by Black Rifle Coffee Company on Tuesday, May 31, 2016
As is Jameson, but only on weekends. Weekends after the week of which your wife hasn’t complained about how much you drink.
Interesting. I have a buddy with a big beach house on Surfside Beach where I try to go every summer. It’s a pretty quick hop over to Rockport, so maybe I’ll swing by there. It sounds like my kind of coffee snob place.
I wound you only because I dig for truth. Tell you what. I’ll give Silencer and Combat Fuel a try. If The Coffee Snob in me is pleased, I’ll try the BTB next.
Done and done, brother.
A warning: They also sell flavored coffee, which is usually a big red flag indicating that deep inside they hate coffee. But I noticed that they had a big sign on their grinders, warning employees not to put real coffee in the one used for grinding flavored coffee, and vice versa. So at least they understand the dangers.
Many years ago, when I still used a blade grinder, my sister came for a visit and put some of her flavored beans in the grinder. We all remained civil, but it took a long time to get those oils out. I can’t imagine what they would do to a burr grinder. (I don’t mind the smell of flavored coffees so much, but the taste…. And the stuff is harsh. It destroys the linings of your mouth and throat.)
Now, that’s funny, right there.
This will probably be an unpopular opinion around here, but I think it’s silly and counterproductive to base one’s shopping decisions on a social cause.
Buying coffee from a roaster who touts their hiring of veterans is really the right-wing equivalent of the left’s “Fair Trade” coffee movement. Taken even further, we end up with the ridiculous browser bungle that followed Brendan Eich’s firing from Mozilla, during which activist conservatives had to delete a new web browser from their computer every day for a week as it was discovered that (gasp!) nearly all software companies are run by liberals.
One reason our economy is so robust is because we buy the products that give us the best value and leave the social issues for politics and civic life. In the end, if a company is truly offering a superior product for the best price, they’re going to win over the competition no matter what their hiring practices.
That’s why I’m proud to support several veterans/wounded warrior organizations with my time and charitable donations, but will continue to buy the cheapest coffee that still packs a decent punch (as well as using Firefox). Happily, that means I don’t drink Starbucks: who wants to pay $3.50 for burnt cardboard in a cup?
That being said, everyone’s money is their own to spend as they choose. While I obviously have a clear opinion on the general topic of buying products to support social causes that make us feel warm and snuggly inside, it’s still each person’s own hard-earned cash, and I don’t want to come across sounding like I’m telling people what to do with their money.
Don’t blame the Vette, it was Randy’s fault she was not attentive in school… (and other reasons nerds do STEM)
Eh. Not seeing BRCC as so much a social cause. Let me lay down my reasoning in a (hopefully) clearer manner.
I don’t like Starbucks’ coffee.
I’m not a boycotter personality type, but I do find Schultz’ and his ilk’s moral preening odious.
I do like BRCC coffee.
These guys make me laugh as they give PC attitudes–like the Starbucks’ CEO’s–the bird.
If I can drink good coffee, get a laugh, throw some shekels to a veteran-owned company, and avoid a schlontze like Schultz, I don’t see a downside.
I’ve said for many years, ever since the left was busy saying how wrong it was for conservatives to boycott restaurant chains (in the early 90s, I think) that the boycott is an underutilized tool for social change. Boycotts are limited in what they can accomplish, but I’ve seen them matter, going back to around 1960 when there was a boycott over the issue of consolidating rural schools in our Nebraska community.
One problem now is that the left controls a lot more of the economy than it did in the early 90s, so it’s more difficult for our side to make its economic influence felt. The members of Congress who represent them have sold out that influence by appeasing the left with a little spending program here, and another one there, constantly shifting the balance of power leftward. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t boycott.
In ante-bellum Michigan there were a few odd people who refused to buy goods made in the south. Enough to have an economic impact? Hardly. But these oddballs called the attention of others to the slavery issue and gave them something to think about. It’s impossible to trace any chain of influence due to their actions, but that doesn’t mean their actions didn’t matter.
I gave up on Starbucks years ago after one of Schultz’s other political comments. But the truth is that was not such a big deal because I rarely went there anyway. I don’t like the foo-foo sweet stuff and their regular coffee isn’t great.
Blacker Than Black sounds good, but while I have a big caffeine addiction I will stay away from the CAF. I just can’t have babygirl looking through the cabinets and asking, “What does Caffeinated as F*ck mean?”
That all depends on how good the product is. Boycotting Starbucks over politics is something I can do, but would I boycott Ben & Jerry’s over the same issues . . . probably not.
Another vote for BRCC rocks. BRCC also sells through Amazon as well, so if you are lazy (or order a lot of stuff through them) that works too.
Black Rifle’s Just Black and Caf as F*ck blends are good (those are the two I tried). Not as bitter and over roasted as West Coast roasters tend to do (i.e. Starbucks). Also sold in K-cups, if your home/office has those.
Customer service will be a blast.
Yet another boycott in which I cannot participate because I never purchase the product anyways.
A few weeks ago a liberal friend posted all over Facebook about how no one should go to a certain local coffee joint because the owner was this terrible Christian. What ensued was a bunch of liberals engaging in moral preening, virtue signalling, and general coffee snobbery. I weighed in to say that I’m happy to stop there and get the coffee because it’s not bad and I don’t give a damn what the owner believes if the coffee is decent.
I’ll say the same thing here. I’ll stop in at Starbuck’s this afternoon and get my decaf Americano with a splash of half and half. I don’t care who they hire. I don’t care if every last one of them is a flaming socialist. I enjoy the coffee.
I’m glad that Black Rifle employs veterans. But that won’t get me to shop there. What will get me to shop there is a good product at a price I think is fair.
I would rather not give money to companies which support America’s enemies, foreign and domestic.
Good for these guys!
Wow … the next thing you’ll tell me is that you happily voted for Donald Trump too, right?!
WINNING!
I have always thought Starbuck’s coffee was utterly vile; the flavor equivalent of heated toe jam. I never go there so I can’t give it up… but I would if I could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btkx7xiCrXU
@bossmongo I tried to post last night but my computer or Ricochet stopped working when I pushed the post button.
We have tried the Black Beard’s Delight and it is very good. Not burned or bitter @jctpatriot . My husband drinks 2 double espressos every morning and agrees with this. @philturmel would probably insist that I don’t drink coffee because I do put warm milk in my espresso single shot. Whatever, it still tastes great.
We have yet to open Murdered Out and Beyond Black. Looking forward to trying them too.
Thanks, Ann! I trust Boss, but as Ronald said, it’s good to verify. :-)
My father, at 79, still loves Denny’s and so I meet him there for breakfast on occasion. You can’t really murder eggs and bacon any worse than the Army did, so Denny breakfasts are edible enough for me to wolf down. The coffee, on the other hand, is not. My dad stares at my cup for a minute after I put half-n-half in it, but at least I can force it down after that. It’s either that, or drink water, and I’m not drinking water for breakfast, sorry.
We have 2 Starbucks–a free standing store and a spot in Safeway. Their coffee still tastes burnt. A newer entry is a drive-up, Dutch Brothers, popular in the Pacific Northwest and based in blue collar Grants Pass, OR; they have entrepreneurial spirit, a high commitment to super customer service, oh, and great coffee. They always seem busier than Starbucks.
To my everlasting shame, I’m hooked on Seattle’s Best, owned by Starbucks.
Don’t be a hater.
I’m never a hater, hermano. Some are born lovers. Some are born fighters. I happen to’ve been born both.
But, c’mon, you love a certain drink. That drink appears not to be coffee, but a drink of which coffee is a wee component…
I stumbled onto these guys a month or two back, and ordered their coffee, just because.
It’s fantastic. And I’m not a big coffee snob, more of a coffee…..dewsh? But I did work at GMCR for a year, so maybe that puts me in into a different category.
Great stuff. Already ordered more. Will be going back again and again.
I will not exploit that comment for the obvious, uh, gold that can be mined from the phonetics. Itching to, but I don’t want to go off half cocked.