Recently in Organic to Go Category

I've been brewing my own lately — Trader Joe's Bay Blend at the office, Nescafe Clasico instant (because it's cheaper!) at home.

But today I swung into the Organic to Go outlet at the Daily News' now-not-so-new office-park location for a cup of what used to be very good coffee.

No longer. Worthless and weak.

I tried both "blends," House and Peru, in my self-service cup, and it's easy to see what the problem is.

They're not putting enough ground coffee in the filter, and the result is brown, tasteless water.

Don't pull this streetcorner s&%# on me. Not that I can afford to purchase individual coffees day in and day out (remember where I'm working, and in what dying industry), so it's probably not much of a loss for Organic to Go that I won't be subjecting myself to this under-caffeinated travesty.

That and my robust supply of Starbucks gift cards.

Luckily my co-worker Jason Kandel just produced a fresh can of Bay Blend, which when made under the right conditions is better than Starbucks.

Remember this, Organic to Go: There are greater sins, there are lesser sins. But bad coffee is just bad business.

I won't go into excruciating detail about the Daily News' recent move after about 20 years on Oxnard Street in Warner Center to the shared but infinitely fancier confines of the nearby Warner Gateway office park (where Owensmouth Avenue meets the Ventura Freeway), what with the clean carpets, lack of grime on everything we didn't bring with us (meaning there's still plenty of grime to be had), and actual windows.

But there's one thing I will talk about:

Better coffee.

The Organic to Go company has a little cafe on "campus" (is that the right word for this grouping of buildings?) and while the place looks pretty nice, the employees are friendly (especially the ever-cheerful Damon) and the food looks OK (haven't had more than a bagel thus far), the one thing Damon and Co. do absolutely right is coffee.

All I'm saying is that the coffee at Organic to Go rocks extremely hard.

I had the Peru blend today, and it rivals the dark roasts at both Coffee Bean (Organic's is less bitter but still full-flavored) and Starbucks (which, if you follow this blog, you know is gutting the very core of its business with its insistence on pushing the mild, nondescript Pike Place Roast in place of its signature dark blends).

And best of all, at $1.80 for a large coffee, Organic to Go's coffee is not only better but cheaper than that at both S*Bucks and Coffee Bean.

Wait ... it gets better.

Organic to Go even has one of those "Buy 10 get 1 free" cards, which Starbucks never had and Coffee Bean abandoned at least two years ago, if I remember correctly (and I very well may not).

So yes, the moles of the Los Angeles Daily News have a clean carpet, phones not caked with two decades' accumulated grime, no rat traps under my desk (and yes, years ago I did unwittingly grab one — rat included — while looking for an errant pen on the floor), bathrooms with no-touch fixtures that'll probably save me six communicable diseases per year and real windows to the outside world (which here includes quite a few trees).

Still, nothing beats good coffee.