This is what my sunrise looks like...I wish.

Five o’ clock in the morning comes really early. I have to be to work by 6 a.m. in order to help keep the cogs of the Great Machine running. Half an hour spent getting showered and dressed, and the other half is spent driving. With all that, there’s nothing better to get the motor perked up in the morning than a nice hot cup of coffee. Kinda like my own shot of Nitro.

Normally, the girlfriend drinks Starbuck’s coffee, so that’s what’s usually on hand in the house. It’s pretty good (their Breakfast Blend) but I’m not the yuppie coffee-house type that cares much for the triple-mocha-latte-half-caf-espresso-chino varieties so I generally stick with the basics. I’m more of a regular guy that prefers a good cup of regular Joe.

My normal morning beverage

Recently, two of the members of the Helifreak forums who post under the names of RCSavager and TrexBecky decided to share another of their interests with the other members of the RC Helicopter community: coffee. Dale and Becky don’t settle for just any store-bought coffee. They get giant sacks of green coffee beans shipped to them from Bolivia, which they then roast and grind themselves.

Dale relates to us the rule of thumb regarding coffee beans: “…a green coffee bean will keep it’s flavor for up to 2 years. After it is roasted you have up to 2 weeks before it starts to lose it’s flavor. Once it’s ground you have about 2-5 days before you lose that highest quality taste. So roasting and grinding your morning coffee and them making a pot is seriously as fresh as it gets.”

This theory makes a lot of sense, but unfortunately, I don’t happen to have a coffee roaster here at HeliGeek World Headquarters, nor do really want to get up early enough in the morning on a weekday to roast, grind, and brew a pot. The good news is that now I don’t have to!!! With the encouragement of Becky (his significant other), Dale has begun to offer his freshly roasted and ground coffee for sale to Helifreakers and members of the RC Helicopter community!

A few weeks ago, I contacted Dale about getting some of his coffee, just to check it out. He suggested that I try out a third of a pound of each of his three roasts – light, medium, and dark so I could find the one that I liked the best. I thought that was a logical suggestion so that’s what I did. And yes, I paid for it just like everyone else… Dale and Becky’s coffee is priced better than the store bought stuff!

A few days later, my coffee arrived at my doorstep in a box that smelled so good that I’m surprised the mailman even left it. I couldn’t help but stick my face in and breathe deep. Beth caught a whiff of it and tried desperately to wrest the box from my clutches, but it was to no avail. I wasn’t giving this up. We decided to brew up a pot and try it out. I’m not really into the heavy, dark roast coffees, so we started with the light roast.

You know you want one of these mugs...

To say the least, we were astonished.

Quite honestly folks, this really is the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. I’m not the expert professional taster, but I’ve been drinking coffee a LOT longer than I’ve been flying helicopters and I’ll tell you one thing: Dale’s claims are no idle boasting! This is probably why he offers a money back guarantee. Dale says: “…you will LOVE our coffee and your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. If you don’t like our coffee give it back and we’ll give you your money back and drink it ourselves. Yes, it’s THAT good!”

I agree, but I’m going to fight anybody that tries to take this coffee out of my hands!

I like this coffee so much that after trying all three roasts, I actually prefer his dark roast. To my taste, it’s the most flavorful of the three, but is very smooth with no bitterness or aftertaste. I generally like my coffee light and sweet, but I’ve found that with this coffee, I am using less creamer and less sugar than I normally do and actually tasting more of the coffee itself. I wouldn’t hesitate to call this a gourmet coffee and I would gladly serve it to guests.

What began as a thread on the Helifreak board itself has grown into a small business for Dale and Becky. They now have a dedicated website where they offer their coffee for sale. The best part is, portions of the proceeds form each pound of coffee sold go to support the awesome communities of Helifreak.com.

Log in and find out!

Apart from being just a site on which to place an order, AZBeans.com offers a lot of good information on their coffee, such as a rundown of the type of beans they use and where they come from. Additionally, they offer a bit of swag, like Helifreak coffee mugs from which to drink your bean juice.

The prices are very reasonable. In fact, they’re downright cheap for coffee of this quality. More details are available on the website, but for a quick rundown, you can get a pound of Dale and Becky’s coffee for $5.25. It’s offered as un-roasted, green beans, roasted to order (light, med, dark, espresso) whole beans, and roasted and ground to order (coarse, fine espresso).

I don’t know what kind of coffee you buy at the store, but I know that the Starbuck’s Breakfast Blend we get is around 7 dollars for a 12 ounce bag. Yes, I said 12 ounces. Not even a full pound!!! The best part is that this coffee is a whole lot better. You can get a better deal on Dale’s coffee in 5-pound increments as well.

If you’re a coffee drinker, you owe it to yourself to try out some of Dale’s Morning Nitro coffee. I have no doubt you’ll love it! In the meantime, my cup runneth empty. I needs me some more!!!!

Dale’s Morning Nitro coffee (unofficial name??? ) is available for purchase at his website:

http://www.azbeans.com

As mentioned, some proceeds go to support the Helifreak RC Helicopter community:

http://www.helifreak.com

The HeliGeek coffee mug shown in the photo is a prototype. If you’d like your own, please drop us a line at heligeek@heligeek.com and let us know. If we get enough interest in them, we’ll offer them for sale on the HeliGeek Goodies page!