Fresh Burnt Coffee Beans

[tiltjlp]

Growing up in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Fairmount during the 50s offered a boy room to run and play, and plenty of fresh air, usually. Besides the normal sights and sounds, every once in a while there were also some interesting smells. Across the street and a few doors down, Mouck’s bakery offered some sweet and tempting aromas. The smell of freshly baked bread was one I never got tired of, but walking into their store in the morning was even better. An assortment of Danish pastries, yeast donuts, and streusel were hard to resist.

I always enjoyed going to the bakery, especially for bread, so I could watch them use the slicing machine. I wanted the heel with the paper label on it, for some reason I’d thought it brought me good luck.

It seemed as if every store in Fairmount had its own set of odd or intriguing smells, which weren’t always pleasant, but were distinctive. The dry cleaners often had a mild chemical stench, while the auto repair shop usually had a heavy oily scent coming from inside. Anne’s Delicatessen, which was right next to that auto shop, had a mixture of tantalizing aromas, mostly from the meat counter and vegetable bin. Art’s Candy Store, just across the street from Ann’s, had some of the most inviting aromas of all.

Art’s sold penny candy, which in those days really cost a penny, from wide, glass-fronted cases. Topping those cases were giant glass jars filled with more candy, as well as cookies, brownies, and even pretzel rods. Art’s was the first place most of us boys and girls ran to whenever we had a few pennies burning a hole in our pockets.

We would spend what seemed like forever, trying to decide what to buy on each visit. We all had our favorites, but all those sweet and luscious aromas made choosing very difficult. I often bought Lunch Bars, which were only three cents each, compared to better known brands such as Hershey, for five cents. Chocolate licorice was another favorite at two for a penny.

Another sweet smelling store was Schmidt’s Grocery, which was a block down the street, across from the Kenross Drug Store. They had installed the first creamy whip machine in the neighborhood, and the sweet, sugary aroma was almost as wonderful as the cool and velvety taste. Kenross Drug Store, which had a soda fountain along the left side of the store, had an odd mixture of smells, with the soda fountain competing with the medicine counter. When you went there enough, you usually were able to ignore the smell of the medicine, especially when you were enjoying a sundae or a banana split.

The most overwhelming aroma of all came from about three miles away, from one of many Kroger food processing plants around Cincinnati. Kroger, a grocery giant even in the 50s, was begun locally by Barney Kroger, and produced a wide array of grocery items. The plant near 8th and State, which may have canned other things as well, roasted coffee. The majority of the time, we’d enjoy the bracing aroma of fresh roasted coffee. But every few weeks or so, we would have to suffer the overpowering stench of fresh burnt coffee beans. I can assure you that there are few smells as distracting as burnt coffee, especially if it lingers in the air for days at a time. I’m still quite surprised that I eventually became a coffee drinker.

Nowadays I use instant coffee, since I only have an occasional cup. But I remember when, as a boy, I’d watch my mother use the coffee grinding and bagging machine at the Kroger Grocery on our street. The aroma of freshly ground beans was heavenly. I don’t know if groceries still have those coffee grinding machines or not. If not, modern children are missing quite an experience. I also wonder if they have ever figured out how to stop burning coffee beans when they roast them.

 

[StevOz]

Interesting read John and I do enjoy a cup of instant most mornings. Though on the weekends it's the real deal, yes you can still make a real coffee, in fact it is becoming the more popular choice it seems to me. I have an electric coffee grinder to grind the beans and one of those electric coffee filter machines to brew a batch of up to 12 cups. You see that is where it's not really viable to make less then 4 cups at a time, thus the instant on weekdays.

We also have several cafes in town, not that I frequent them but 2 of them do roast there own beans, so I sure nose they are there and I must say those fumes from the roasting, smell rather toxic to say the least. I'm sure they really should not be doing it during the day.

 

[faralos]

I grew up with a local store called (Rowe Manse Emporium now closed)
that also had their own coffee bean area that always smelled delicious!
also they had a cigar room that also had the best odors wafting out of it!
I hate smoking cigars but love their smell
and that room always had at least one person in it testing a stogie!
but the coffee beans could be smelled outside the store and when we went by it always made us salivate!
and in answer to your question, yes most larger foodstores nowadays
have a coffee grinder in it so shoppers can grind their own
and about once a month I splurge for good fresh ground coffee (decaf if I can find it) and love to hang around that grinder
smelling all that delicious coffee being ground up!

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Well John, I'm sort of speechless after reading your post, surely it's the best thing I've read on the internets this year, your memories of your town and the smells amaze me.

Unfortunately, I grew up in a bunch of towns in a bunch of States and the names of the awesome smell producers get replaced by others and names get blurred by ones that aren't as good, usually. I must admit that I miss the smell of hot spring geyser's and it's the worst rotten egg smell you have ever imagined! Coffee grinding is for monkeys on a street corner, still smells great. I only know Kroger from the movie Animal House but might have been to one in my life without remembering, was in Cinci in the early 90's.