Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Wolf having coffee with breakfast.October 1974 National Archives Identifier: 412-DA-15851 Extra Special KDB and I have coffee with breakfast every morning. It looks nothing like this moment that Mr. and Mrs. Wolf are sharing. I have the luxury of taking early morning meetings in my underwear by teleconference with replicants three to twelve time zones away. She has to fly out the door to report to real-life skin jobs. I cook. We eat. I brew. We drink. I’ve been on a diet for over a year now in which I eat nearly the same breakfast each morning: 1 egg .5 cup of egg whites .5 cup of pinto or great northern beans (or lots of chard during the summer) Extra Special KDB gives a thumbs up to all that protein, so she has the same for breakfast. For coffee, it’s usually beans from Extracto or Ristretto, freshly ground and made in a Chemex. Her coffee goes in a travel mug with soy cream. My coffee goes in an enameled mug with heavy cream. Our 21st Century breakfast routine is a little frenetic. She’s grabbing bites of breakfast while going through her bathroom/wardrobe routine, frequently standing while she eats. I’m usually checking emails from co-workers and seeing what meeting invites have come in while I was asleep. We chat, and we’re connected, but it’s got an energy we’d both like to dump. So, we’ve just decided that it’s time to commit to one leisurely breakfast each week. It only requires a few minutes of planning the night before and rising fifteen minutes earlier than we normally do. We’re not sure which day, but we’d both like this idea. Now, if we can only get this amber light in our breakfast nook and a photographer to capture our coffee and breakfast moments… High-res

Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Wolf having coffee with breakfast.
October 1974
National Archives Identifier: 412-DA-15851

Extra Special KDB and I have coffee with breakfast every morning. It looks nothing like this moment that Mr. and Mrs. Wolf are sharing. I have the luxury of taking early morning meetings in my underwear by teleconference with replicants three to twelve time zones away. She has to fly out the door to report to real-life skin jobs.

I cook. We eat.

I brew. We drink.

I’ve been on a diet for over a year now in which I eat nearly the same breakfast each morning:

  • 1 egg
  • .5 cup of egg whites
  • .5 cup of pinto or great northern beans (or lots of chard during the summer)

Extra Special KDB gives a thumbs up to all that protein, so she has the same for breakfast. For coffee, it’s usually beans from Extracto or Ristretto, freshly ground and made in a Chemex.

Her coffee goes in a travel mug with soy cream.

My coffee goes in an enameled mug with heavy cream.

Our 21st Century breakfast routine is a little frenetic. She’s grabbing bites of breakfast while going through her bathroom/wardrobe routine, frequently standing while she eats. I’m usually checking emails from co-workers and seeing what meeting invites have come in while I was asleep. We chat, and we’re connected, but it’s got an energy we’d both like to dump.

So, we’ve just decided that it’s time to commit to one leisurely breakfast each week. It only requires a few minutes of planning the night before and rising fifteen minutes earlier than we normally do. We’re not sure which day, but we’d both like this idea.

Now, if we can only get this amber light in our breakfast nook and a photographer to capture our coffee and breakfast moments…

Ka-Pow! Coffee Bar

Go to any coffee shop, and you’ll most likely find some artisan chocolates at the counter lying in wait to tempt you with an impulsive purchase. It happens to me most of the time, though I have learned to largely say no to the beautifully packaged goodies from chocolatiers near and far. Since I’m loading up on calories with a latte or mocha, it’s easy to turn away from the ambushing chocolates.

Then I headed into Extracto Sunday to get some beans for home, and saw the Ka-Pow! bar lying in wait. I picked it up, and found that it wasn’t a chocolate bar but a coffee bar made by the folks at Sahagun Handmade Chocolates. What’s a coffee bar? A bar made of coffee beans, cocoa butter and a little sugar. That’s it, just those three ingredients.

Ka-Pow! Coffee Bar

The packaging is simple: a 3x5” (or so) mailing envelope with no flashy graphics and all of the basic information you might want to know about the bar (except how does it taste).

Three Varieties
Sahagun makes three varieties of the chocolates using beans roasted from three different regions by different roasters in Portland.

Since I was at Extracto, I grabbed the Sidamo Watadera bar.

Tasting Notes
Opening the package, I was immediately hit with a strong, but pleasant coffee aroma, a reminder and a warning that I wasn’t popping a piece of chocolate in my mouth. The mouth feel is what you might expect with a slight grainy (but not gritty) texture and a total lack of any velvety feeling that you’d get from anything chocolate. That’s not to say it’s unpleasant. If you’ve ever put coffee grounds in your mouth, because you have that kind of addiction to coffee, you’ll be pleased to know this might just be the perfect way to enjoy ground coffee when it’s not brewed or extracted in any way. Ground beans suspended in cocoa butter with just the slightest bit of sugar to sweeten it. Given the Sidamo bean’s normal hint of chocolate, it lends itself well to something that is trying hard and succeeding to be a replacement for a chocolate bar.

For me, it was best enjoyed in the front of the mouth, because letting a piece go to the middle of the tongue or further back let some of the graininess “get away” from me and just felt unpleasant. It also takes a good 15 to 20 seconds for it to start “giving way” in the mouth or coming up to a temperature that lets it work its magic. It doesn’t really melt; it slowly disintegrates. It might be off-putting to some. For me, it worked.

Ka-Pow! Coffee Bar

Final Verdict
It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re into coffee, especially if you’re going to be out some place where coffee isn’t readily available. Be advised that it’s $5.00 per 0.88oz bar which isn’t exactly cheap, and is more expensive than a latte or mocha at most places. One bar has just slightly less caffeine than a 2oz. espresso so it could be considered a late afternoon treat when you don’t want all those latte/mocha calories. It’s definitely worth indulging in once to see whether it’s up your alley. I plan to try the other varieties sometime soon.

NOTE: I know this isn’t a drink-related post, but since it’s about a coffee bar and coffee beans, I couldn’t resist throwing some words down about it.