Wonderstate Coffee Review - The Ghost of coffee past

Greetings my fabulous Fox River Roustabouts, welcome to another Blue-collar Coffee Review. This review is somewhat special. The coffee I’m trying is no longer available because the company has changed its name and branding. In December of 2019 (11 months ago as of this post) I was given two bags of coffee beans from my boss at the time Mike as a christmas gift. The beans he gave me were from a Wisconsin roaster called Kickapoo Coffee Roaster. As I was doing research for the review video I discovered that they had decided to change their name in order to be more socially conscious with regards to cultural appropriation. They are now doing business as Wonderstate Coffee.

I could sit here and describe all the very interesting things they do as a progressive coffee company (like being 100% solar at their facilities!) but I really suggest you go to their website and spend some time learning about these wonderful Wisconsinites. Their website is easy to navigate and makes for some really good reading. Especially as you drink some of their coffee(wink, wink). Oh, What’s that? You’ve always liked coffee and are thinking about upgrading your brew set up but are not sure what you need? No problem, Wonderstate has your back with their own, hand picked “Brew Kits”. I’ll be honest, when I get a little side cash saved, I am very likely going to pick up one of these kits myself. As I said, the beans I’m trying were a gift; this is not a sponsored review and my opinions are wholly my own. I do hope you enjoy the video. Give it a “like” and subscribe to see what happens next in the shop. Halloween is just around the corner….

Die-grinder bit holder and organizer

Today in the shop I decided to organize all the bits I use with my die-grinder and drills and such. I was tired of them rolling around in a drawer and having to dig through them to find what I need. This was a very quick build with a minimum amount of effort put into it and it still came out pretty good. Some minor sanding and a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil and done.

Check out the whole video here.

Spyhouse Coffee Roasters - Orion Signature Blend

Greetings my fellow Fox River Roustabouts, welcome back to the shop. It’s time for another video from our coffee review series. Today I am featuring some coffee gifted to me by a long-time friend and band-mate Aaron. I was chatting with him after seeing a picture of his home coffee station and when I mentioned I was doing coffee reviews he said he had some coffee he thought I would like and offered to grind up a pot worth. The coffee he gave me is from a bag of “Orion Signature Blend” coffee he bought in Minnesota at Spyhouse Coffee Roasters. While making the video I desperately wanted to use the Metallica song “Orion” off their epic 1986 album “Master of Puppets”. It is one of my favorite songs from the band but of course I would almost immediately get hit for song licensing issues so I settled for adding a hyperlink to the song title above. Even though I couldn’t use the song, I still enjoyed the stars out of this coffee. Enjoy!

Gearhead - Beadlock Texas Pecan Roast

Greetings my fellow Fox River Roustabouts and welcome back to the shop. It is about time for another coffee review and since it’s International Coffee Day I figured let's roll!! Today I will be reviewing Gearhead’s “Beadlock Texas Pecan Roast” coffee. This is part of the sample pack I purchased from Gearhead a while back. I have several friends who own Jeeps and it’s because of them that I knew a beadlock is a device used, especially on vehicles built for rough offroad use, it helps keep the bead of the tire seated in the rim when the tire is experiencing abnormal stress. Often when off roading in rocky terrain drivers will decrease the pressure in their tires to allow the softer tires to grip the available surfaces a little better. If they did this without a beadlock there is a chance the tire could pop off the rim and cause a real problem. This coffee definitely got a grip on me. Enjoy.