Author: Donna Wortman

We have had numerous customers stroll into the Shop looking for something other than coffee. Now, for me, The Dutchess, there’s really nothing else to look for than a real good cup of coffee. But… some people feel that way about a good cup of tea.

While we do have an assortment of English teas, it wasn’t until a customer asked for a “London Fog” for his wife that changed what we offer at Duke & Dutchess Coffee Shoppe. I gotta tell you, I’ve had people walk into the shop asking for a certain drink, and for the most part, they’re ok with me searching on Pinterest for the recipe. But this gentleman said since they’ve been staying down in this area, they haven’t been able to find a good London Fog and have been disappointed. “I hope we can get one from here”! 😳

Pressure was on, and really I felt my heart to start racing. After referring to my “guru” (Pinterest), there was no definitive recipe, just a jumble of ideas and different ways. 😲 So what do you do? Fake it til you make it.

I splashed in the vanilla flavor, steeped 2 bags of Earl Greys, a little honey, and frothed the milk, and with a wing & a prayer, handed it over. I gotta tell you, the pressure was real! I didn’t even know if you were supposed to take the tea bags out! I have no clue on tea etiquette. The man & his wife sat in their car for what seemed forever, then left. My mind entertained thoughts of them asking for their $$ back, they were writing a Yelp review, Google complaint, Facebook thumbs down…. 😮

I forgot about it, slept and the next day I opened the shop.

I heard car doors slam, a footsteps…. in walked the London Fog couple. The lady said she needed another one. That it was a delicious cuppa tea!! 😳😱 Wow! So now it’s on our Hot Drinks menu and you can grab your own London Fog tea.

Business/Life Lesson: Don’t ever doubt yourself, and be honest. I could have just pretended I knew what I was doing, made it wrong, and that couple probably would have written a bad review. As a business who takes pride in not only making things good, we want to make it THE best we can. And remember, the customer is always right! It’s them that you are trying to please, not yourself.

And have a great day!

When I hear a coffee is decaffeinated, I used to immediately think that it is a lesser of two evils.

My first impression is that the taste is inferior to “regular” coffee.
Second thought, how did they take out the caffeine?

People drink decaffeinated coffee mostly for health reasons. Regular coffee can make them feel jittery, make their heart race, or will not let them fall asleep.
While they are all valid reasons to drink decaffeinated, here’s a reason why you shouldn’t drink commercially decaffeinated coffee: how they remove that caffeine can be very unhealthy!

Looking up the process of decaffeination, the following statements have been made by multiple “experts” (their own definition) on how it all works.

Here is one thing they all agree on: There are various methods on how they remove the caffeine. And two, the method takes place before the roasting begins.
Some commercial coffee companies ie. seen on your store shelves, use “organic” solvents (insert eye roll 🙄 here) such as dichloromethane or ethyl acetate to extract caffeine.

Let’s look at dichloromethane first: In a nutshell…. https://pubchem.ncbi.nim.nih.gov states dichloro. is widely used as a solvent, paint stripper, and for the removal of caffeine from coffee & tea.

OK….. 😳

Ethyl Acetate (acetate, think nail polish remover) is used in glues, nail polish remover, on a large scale for solvents, and for the removal of caffeine from coffee beans and tea.

Sounds like what you can buy at your local hardware store!

So being The Duke and I try to offer healthy items at the coffee shop, how can we justify even offering decaffeinated coffee? Good question!
The coffee we offer at Duke & Dutchess Coffee Shoppe comes from locally roasted beans by Pamlico River Coffee here in Bath, NC. And…. the decaf beans they purchase to roast are not done chemically. The caffeine is extracted by the Swiss Water Process. Where was that method invented at? Come on…. take a guess….. If you guessed Switzerland, you are correct!! This method was pioneered in the 1930’s with the idea of if you had green coffee extract (green beans soaked to have a concentration of the green coffee properties), you can remove the caffeine naturally with no chemicals. In a nutshell, green beans full of caffeine are soaked for the needed time in water, the caffeine concentrated water is then run several times through carbon absorbers removing the caffeine from the GCE(green coffee extract). This process is repeated several times until 97%+ of caffeine is removed.

And this is what we offer to you, our friends at Duke & Dutchess Coffee Shoppe. It may cost a few pennies more but after all, why shouldn’t you treat yourself like royalty too!