Coffee on AMTRAK

[jim schlegel]

Hi All,

About a month ago my wife and i had a cross country trip from New York to Denver to Washington DC and Philadelphia. We really enjoyed the Coffee served in the Sleepers, Dinning Cars, and the two longes we visited. It was consistent and really good. My question is what brand Coffee do they serve and where can I purchase some for home use/

Thnaks for your answers.

jim Schlegel

 

[EMDF9A]

Hi All,

About a month ago my wife and i had a cross country trip from New York to Denver to Washington DC and Philadelphia. We really enjoyed the Coffee served in the Sleepers, Dinning Cars, and the two longes we visited. It was consistent and really good. My question is what brand Coffee do they serve and where can I purchase some for home use/

Thnaks for your answers.

jim Schlegel

Unless they have recently changed contracts, They use Douwe Egberts on the LD trains. Not sure if this effects the state supported services or not. http://www.decoffeecompany.com/

 

[Guest]

I thought it was Green Mountain or S&D ????

 

[railiner]

I hadn't noticed what they are currently using, but in the past, they used airliner coffeemakers, designed for safety and stability on a moving vehicle. These utilized ground coffee in a pre-measured filter bag designed to fit in the Grimes coffee makers. These used a higher than household voltage, and could brew a whole carafe in about a minute or so...I think several coffee brands made these bags.....

 

[caravanman]

I say chaps! The jolly old Amtrak tea leaves a lot to be desired, don't you know!!!

Ed

 

[Gene Herd]

Sleeping car attendants have been known to bring their own coffee aboard. Ours said that she supplied her own Colombian coffee.

 

[AlanB]

I thought it was Green Mountain or S&D ????

Green Mountain went away at least 2 or 3 years ago. They stopped making the filter pack size that Amtrak needed, so they were dropped.

 

[the_traveler]

Green Mountain went away at least 2 or 3 years ago.

The Green Mountains went away? :huh: Now where do you go skiing Alan, if you can't go to Vermont? :giggle:

 

[Phil S]

Standard banter/humor for me riding sleeper is to pick which car's coffee I like best, then tell that to the SCA. I've never had one disagree with me. And all agree that the sleeper car coffee is much much better than the coffee in the diner.

Just a heads up, in case a few of you don't already know this --- real coffee is made from Cafe arabica, which can only be grown under shade. There's another species of "coffee", Cafe robusta, that grows in sun, grows much faster, has less insect/disease problems, and produces larger beans, all of which makes growing/harvesting cheaper. It also tastes really bad in comparison with "Arabica". Selling "Robusta" as coffee is illegal in many countries (or at least used to be). But most cheap American coffee (like Maxwell House or Folgers) is a mix of the two and therefore will never taste very good, no matter how it's roasted, stored, brewed or how clean the coffee makers are kept.

Colombian coffee (or any coffee from a specified location world-wide) is almost certainly Arabica. So if some SCAs are buying it out of their pockets -- well, fantastic! Maybe they use our tip money to pay for it?

Cheers

 

[fredevad]

I'm an all day sleeper coffee drinker - so the only issue I've had with sleeper coffee is that you start getting that "burned" taste in the afternoon and evening if the SCA doesn't make a fresh pot. However, that doesn't stop me.

 

[rickycourtney]

Most recent pictures I've seen show that the sleepers still use a heated carafe (I believe the coffee was brewed in the diner)... but I've heard the plan is to install the Douwe Egberts coffee makers in each car.

Does anyone know if that's still the case? If it is, how far along is Amtrak on the conversion (most of the sleepers?, a few?)

On a side note... Amtrak California still sells fresh brewed coffee onboard the San Joaquin and Capitol Corridor trains. The beans are roasted by Oakland-based Peerless Coffee. I think it's hands-down one of the best cups of coffee money can buy. I often skip the Starbucks near the Fresno station (even when I'm blurry-eyed tired), just so I can grab a cup of coffee in the Café car.