Coffee, tea or cola in sleepers?

[crescent-zephyr]

Alas, I DO appreciate the taste of a Good well prepared cup of coffee, which Starbuck's ain't.

A Starbucks Reserve made to order on the clover or French press is both good quality and well prepared.

 

[NYP2NFL01]

Does anyone still drink Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee? My Dad worked at their commissary in Secaucus, NJ where they prepared the food for the restaurants. I remember the smell of their coffee brewing in my parent’s home in those days! Recently I stumbled across their Midtown Blend K-Cup Pod. IMHO it’s the best Keurig blend I had up until now.

 

[Danib62]

They definitely still advertise it on Yankees radio broadcasts...

 

[Devil's Advocate]

All this talk about Starbucks ... doesn't anyone get coffee from Dunkin?

After Dunkin ceased making fresh donuts on-site and converted to stale factory food I stopped visiting.

Turkish coffee is great and the best part is it requires very little specialized equipment to make! Maybe that's what Amtrak should switch to...

Right now most people seem to be craving a return to normalcy so maybe Amtrak should resume the same coffee process and availability as before.

Starbucks is simply a way to separate people with too much money from some of that money.

I'm not a fan myself but they managed to turn the act of drinking coffee into a lifestyle brand and exported it worldwide. Now if they could just find a way to make the base coffee taste good without adding a bunch of flavors and sweeteners I might even drink it.

 

[drdumont]

Does anyone still drink Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee? My Dad worked at their commissary in Secaucus, NJ where they prepared the food for the restaurants. I remember the smell of their coffee brewing in my parent’s home in those days! Recently I stumbled across their Midtown Blend K-Cup Pod. IMHO it’s the best Keurig blend I had up until now.

We bought it in cans for a long while. Loved it. Supply dried up down here in Texas for a while, then I discovered Cafe Bustelo...
But the CFoN was always dependably good coffee at home and in the shops. Didn't taste burned and I didn't have to get a second mortgage and learn cutesy terminology to order it.
We are big fans of the Keurig system. I miss the old Norelco pods, but the Keurig does well enough for day to day.
Now if we had the old Pyrex percolator and a pound of Admiration or even Folgers... After that pot had been reheated a couple of times, wow! Put hair on your chest.

 

[PVD]

Chock has recently been running "nostalgic" radio commercials "remember when the best coffee came in steel cans, well it still does" of course they refer to them as "fully recycleable steel cans" CFoN is available in K cups for the Keurig devotees their website has a search by zip to see who has it in your area

 

[drdumont]

Chock has recently been running "nostalgic" radio commercials "remember when the best coffee came in steel cans, well it still does" of course they refer to them as "fully recycleable steel cans" CFoN is available in K cups for the Keurig devotees their website has a search by zip to see who has it in your area

Ecshually, Old Bean, the K-Cup version is pretty good!

And you never heard a commercial for the Douwe Egberts' coffee from the machine using the concentrate slop.
What a terrible thing to do to good coffee.

CUE NEXT COMMERCIAL:
SOM: Cue the music:

"Chock Full Of Nuts is the Heavenly Coffee..
Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy...".

EOM:ROLL NEXT COMMERCIAL
----------------------------

OK... Extra credit... Why was it called "Chock Full O' Nuts"??

 

[Danib62]

the name comes from the name of a small chain of nut shops that later started serving coffee. What do I win??

 

[drdumont]

the name comes from the name of a small chain of nut shops that later started serving coffee. What do I win??

Very Good!
Details of which I was unaware:
"The chain was founded by William Black, who sold nuts in Times Square to theater-goers. In 1926, he opened a store on Broadway and 43rd Street, eventually adding 17 more. When the Depression settled in, New Yorkers could no longer afford the luxury of shelled nuts, so Black converted his shops into lunch counters, selling coffee and sandwiches.[1]

Their signature "nutted cheese" sandwich, made of cream cheese and chopped nuts on dark raisin bread, cost a nickel with a cup of coffee when the company was founded."

Lore has it that they said their sandwich was "Chock Full O' Nuts and it caught on.

What do you win? Credit for helping to add to the General Fund of Knowledge of New York City Lore.

Next Up:

Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?

 

[PVD]

Sneakily, both General and Mrs. Grant. But the story of why he is buried there is interesting - in that era, all military cemeteries and installations did not allow women to be buried with their husbands, and Mrs Grant was not going to allow for them to be apart forever.......actually though on the nutted cheese, it was neufchatel rather than cream cheese, extremely similar but a lower fat content (I actually use it) many people mistakenly believed it was date nut bread, that's an item that used to be available in many stores, now just in a few specialty bakeries.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

That sandwich sounds delicious!

I love Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee, although I’m not sure it tastes as good as it did when I was growing up.

But then again, what does?

 

[Tlcooper44]

La Colombe, brewed in the Lounge at Moynihan is excellent. A real shame that it isn’t served in sleepers and first class.

that coffee alone would (nearly) excuse flex dining for me...

 

[MARC Rider]

I'm of the opinion that the brand of coffee is less important to its quality than the fact that the beans are freshly roasted and the proportions of ground coffee and water are correct. Pre-ground coffee in a sealed can is actually pretty good when the can is first opened, but it's important to use up the open can as soon as possible. I grind my own, buying beans from a local roaster who puts the date of roasting on each package. I make it my business to look at packages to find the most recently roasted beans. I have a blade coffee grinder, which is not supposed to the the best way to do it, but it's not that inferior. For each cup I grind 20 grams of coffee beans for 20 seconds, put that in a Melitta filter cone and pour the hot water through.

As for the commercially available coffees served as beverages, I think that both Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts coffee are perfectly fine if they're freshly made. Even the no-name coffees made up by the sleeping car attendants is perfectly good when it's fresh.

 

[PVD]

decent water and clean equipment make a big difference.....obviously if it sits too long, that is a real problem also

 

[Qapla]

decent water and clean equipment make a big difference

Desalinated ocean water and a 24/7 steam kettle with grounds stewed in the bottom was my Dad's favorite coffee - he would call "decent water and clean equipment" coffee as too weak.

 

[drdumont]

Sneakily, both General and Mrs. Grant. But the story of why he is buried there is interesting - <SNIP>

I love it when on a forum such as this, one little item leads to another, and nifty details come out. And indeed, I originally heard it was date nut bread, then that was disproven.
Great dialogue!

 

[NYP2NFL01]

Another bit of Chock Full O' Nuts trivia: the great Jackie Robinson was the Vice President for Personnel from 1957 to 1964. He was the first Black American to serve as vice president of a major American corporation.

 

[drdumont]

Another bit of Chock Full O' Nuts trivia: the great Jackie Robinson was the Vice President for Personnel from 1957 to 1964. He was the first Black American to serve as vice president of a major American corporation.

As Martin and Charlie Sheen only can say so well...

"I did not know that!"

More trivia! Great!

 

[drdumont]

Desalinated ocean water and a 24/7 steam kettle with grounds stewed in the bottom was my Dad's favorite coffee - he would call "decent water and clean equipment" coffee as too weak.

Was he a swabbie? Sounds like Midrats coffee. Very welcome on an exposed bridge in the middle of the night in those handleless cups. Hot enough to melt the enamel offn yer teeth.
OBTW, NOT a derogatory label. As a bubblehead from the era, before submariners were known as bubbleheads. My better breeding prevents me from referring to what most skimmer sailors called us....

 

[Tlcooper44]

Back to the OP:

On my Silver Meteor northbound trip on 9/28, there was no coffee or tea in the sleepers. It was a shame.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Back to the OP:

On my Silver Meteor northbound trip on 9/28, there was no coffee or tea in the sleepers. It was a shame.

Was it easy to get drinks from the diner?

 

[Qapla]

I never worry about if there is coffee or not ... I sue hope they don't run out of ice, though

Was he a swabbie?

He was a GMC and did 20 years during WWII and Korea - drank it hot, strong and black

 

[Tlcooper44]

Was it easy to get drinks from the diner?

Most of the time yes. Definitely would have appreciated it in our sleeper though, as the diner was a long and unstable walk three cars up.
First world problems though. It was fine to get stuff from the diner.

 

[flitcraft]

I wonder if things have changed, with respect to coffee in the sleepers. We found coffee stations in the sleepers on both the Capitol Limited and the Empire Builder within the past two weeks. Nice to have a quick cup early before getting ready for breakfast, though Amtrak coffee is nothing to write home about. At home, our coffee of choice is usually one of the Lavazza whole bean coffees --Super Crema, Gold, or Gran Barista. We order the one kilo bags from an East Coast source--it works out to about 10 dollars a pound for really excellent coffee--if you like Italian roasted coffee. Which we obviously do...

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Most of the time yes. Definitely would have appreciated it in our sleeper though, as the diner was a long and unstable walk three cars up.
First world problems though. It was fine to get stuff from the diner.

Yes. The closer the coffee is the better! Plus waking up and smelling it down the hallway is nice.