From a reader:
Happy New Year. I thought I would share a funny story regarding Mystic Monk Coffee. I recently received my first order for Christmas. I explained to my two boys ages 4 & 8 that it is roasted by monks in Wyoming.
My 4 year old is now pretending he is taking the train (dressed up as an engineer) to Wyoming to pick up some Mystic Monk coffee. He tells me the engineer loves his Mystic Monk coffee! He will drink overnight while he is driving the train.
Excellent. If only we had some video.
Meanwhile…
[CUE MUSIC]
When you’ve had a tough day driving that choo-choo allllll the waaaaay down the track to Wyoming, why not enjoy a WDTPRS mug filled to the brim with piping hot Mystic Monk Coffee?
Ordering coffee from the Wyoming Carmelites by the train car load is sure to make Fr. Z nod with approval, the monks smile quietly to themselves, liberals wring their hands and pout, and, of course, all four-year-olds very happy.
Even though four-year-olds have active imaginations, they are by nature conservative. And they behave better during traditional liturgy, too! Another good reason to buy some coffee, right?
Refresh your coffee supply now!
After all, …. it’s for the children.
Mystic Monk!
It’s swell!
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What would you recommend as a whole bean Mystic Monk blend to make espresso by a coffee lover who’s been buying, up to now, Danesi or Lavazza coffee blends with mostly Arabica but a slight amount of Robusta beans (the Robusta increases the ratio of oil, I find, and makes for a more persistent foam and slightly more viscous brew)?
Also, most Italian espresso blends (the Danesi and Lavazza above are no exception) are not really dark roasts. My favorite coffee in the whole world (S. Eustachio) is a medium roast at best. So I’m hesitant to buy the Mystic Monk espresso blend which is characterized as a “dark roast.”
Perhaps you could invite some of the mystic monks to give a guest blog entry on more in-depth description of their various blends? [You are raising some great questions! I have had hit and miss outcomes with one of the Mystic Monk offerings for use in my espresso machine. I find that Italian blends, such as the Lavazza, works as you describe and can achieve that creamy effect. I know Sant’Eustachio well, since my Roman residence is Via della Scrofa. For production coffee I also like Illy. I will experiment with the different Mystic Monk blends and figure out what works for me. And I hope the brothers could provide more information as well.]
Federico.
Had chocolate-cherry flavored Mystic Monk coffee just this morning…
It’s a good time to buy some MM Coffee and/ or donate as the monks are in need of some money as they begin to build the new monastery. (If you take the link from Fr. Z’s blog you help him and the birdies out too!)
http://www.newmountcarmelfoundation.org/updates/blogs/blog1.php/2010/12/24/praying-for-a-christmas-miracle
I’m not a coffee drinker, but I did enjoy giving bags of Mystic Monk coffee as Christmas gifts to a few of the non-believers on my staff. I’ll try just about anything to plant a seed in the hope that it will fall on fertile ground.
The Mystic Monk coffee was a BIG hit with my boss and the rest of the office: two up-country Methodists, an Independent Baptist, and a rock-ribbed Presbyterian.
Haven’t heard from my Methodist sister-in-law yet . . . .
“…help him out and the birdies too.” That’s what I meant. Not to put the birdies out.
Brewing some right this minute in the new Monk Press given to me by my husband for Christmas!
Since it is, liturgically, still Christmas I guess it’s not too late to order some for Christmas, is it? :-)
Also, that is such a cute story… it sounds like something my brother, a HUGE train buff, would have done when he was that age.
If he is driving to Wyoming he would have to take the Union Pacific; perhaps he could pretend to be driving their famous 4-8-8-4 “Big Boy” steam engine? Thomas the Tank Engine has nothing on this one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8f9VFlNyDQ&feature=related
I’ve ordered a good chunk of Mystic Monk Coffee…. Jingle Bell Javas smells amazing. I mix it with Mystic Monk Blend at a 1:1 ratio.
+++
alms. fasting. prayer.
I bought Christmas Blend for some friends and CB, Hazelnut and JingleBells Java for the family. We weren’t too keen on the CB, liked the JBJ and loved the Hazelnut. Friends liked the CB. We make the coffee in a stove top espresso pot, liking that taste better than a plunger (French press) coffee.
Well, for people who like that kind of thing, that’s the kind of thing they like.
bookworm,
What mighty engines those are! . . . but I have to put a word in for the Southern’s great 2-10-4 steam fast-freight that they bought from the old T&P and used for steam excursions (and actually to haul freight in a pinch) back in the 70s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INHokrqhLjk&feature=related
Love the way the engineer can make that old steam whistle sing . . . there’s a story about a Southern engineer high-balling through Danville VA one Sunday morning, playing “Oh, How I Love Jesus!” on the whistle. A preacher heard him and announced to his congregation, “There is a man of the Lord!” (no comment the following week when the engineer came down the mountain playing “How Dry I Am!”)
The grade at Danville is no joke, btw.
Girgadis says:
2 January 2011 at 7:44 pm
//I’m not a coffee drinker……//
I will pray for your conversion!
Yes, four year-olds behave better at traditional liturgy.I strongly suggest however that you only serve them decaf beforehand.
>>I thought I would share a funny story regarding Mystic Monk Coffee. I recently received my first order for Christmas. I explained to my two boys ages 4 & 8 that it is roasted by monks in Wyoming.<<
Do the monks actually do the roasting themselves, or do they contract it out? I suspect it's the latter, but I'd be happy to learn otherwise.
The monks do it. They bought themselves a coffee roaster, and some of the monks learned to do it.
(Pretty common to have light industry in small batches like this on monastic grounds. Back in the end of the Middle Ages, the Cistercians even made iron and steel. Till the French King took their lands, resources, and business away, that is.)
Oh, I see. That joke stuff on the website. Well, “Br. Java” is actually Brother Elias of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, who does the roasting. The blends are done by Brother Michael Mary. His sister used to own a coffee plantation, which goes to show that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Here’s an old article about them from back when they started.
Have been a happy customer for about five or so years now, since around the time they started. I have given their coffee as gifts and people in turn have become customers after enjoying the gift. A while back the monks were on EWTN’s Life on the Rock show and on that show they explained how they came to get into coffee roasting, as well as describing their daily life and the upsurge in vocations. Perhaps this episode is available at EWTN to download? They also send out a great newsletter from time to time. Perhaps curiously to some, and unpredictably enough, my neck of the woods has in fact yielded one vocation for this lively order! (You see even where there may be considerable darkness the Holy Spirit has a way of working!) They also have a lovely cd available. Finished the last of the Christmas Blend this morning but that’s no problem since I will be able to break out the Chocolate Cherry tomorrow as we continue to celebrate Christmastide…
We had a young train enthusiast in this house as well (and ancestral ties to railroad work) and I think that hobby is a great one to encourage all along the way of childhood…Have read that train set interest parallels the interest and development demonstrated in block-building activity which is still highly valued even in current educational circles…So far he has not shown any interest at all in coffee however he has regularly had tea, decaff generally, with honey or sugar or without, and, this Christmas, was permitted a very little taste of wine for the toast at dinner. Surprisingly he did not wince at all and later took another tiny sip. Warned him today to best keep it under his hat lest the parents of his peers get into a tizzy about the very idea…
Actually Father I think it is the parents who are behaved better at traditional liturgy, not the four year olds.
It can’t be often that one has an opportunity to mix religion and railroadiana on the same blog; as an active Catholic and a dyed-in-the-wool railfan, I completely approve. All aboard vobiscum.
Et cum locomotive tuo.