Happy Extremely Belated New Year, you fine feathered tasters.  2009 is a year of change, and it starts with this blog: from now on, it gets updated (on a semi-regular basis).

Just a few quick notes on what's in the pipes for the year.  There are a few post topics kicking around, including "Why IPA's make us so sleepy & why we drink them all night anyway".  But it all starts with trying out new brews and covering the standards.

On the docket so far:

• Gorilla Coffee (hat tip to The Green Square)
• Kopi Luwak coffee-slash-what the hell is it?
• Jack's Stir Coffee
• Bud American Ale (I've actually tasted this but I want to elaborate. It was quite surprising.)
• Magic Hat, Six Point, Brooklyn, and Blue Point (all somewhat regional to NY, all deserving some blog ink)
• Stoudt's (I'm not sure where I heard of this, but hey, why not?)

In addition, I'll be organizing some trips to the NYC breweries.  Considering how long I've been living in Brooklyn, it's actually quite shameful that I haven't yet been to any of them.  So keep an eye out for updates here and on our Facebook page.  If and when opportunities arise to see firsthand some out-of-town breweries - Magic Hat in Burlington = the dream - you can be sure I'll jerk the wheel to the right and get off the highway licketysplit.

And in keeping with the original ambitions of this blog, the ultimate goal is still to start getting free coffee and beers sent to try out and write about.  In this economy, even if the beans are less than fresh, or the beer is one of those godawful Heifenweisers, Sweet Brews will not be choosy.  We just can't afford to be.  Sweet Brews will drink them all.

Except Heifenweisers.

As we violently rock in the tent-poled bookends that are The Holiday Season months, personal time plummets and subsequently, our beautiful, angelic newborn blog suffers horrible colic.  But instead of keeping us awake with intriguing, engaging content, it allows us to sleep soundly.  Without deep black thoughts of coffee.  Without goggled hazy images of beers.

So in the best interest of the liveliness of said baby, here's some fresh content from someone else.

In today's opinion section of the New York Times, a person I never heard of posted something clever and perty.  It's a visualized short story about his love of coffee.  It's not the biggest roffle in the world, but the illustrations are neat and it's the kind of thing that I would have loved to read with the morning newspaper, if I actually got morning newspapers.

If you use Twitter, you can follow Gimme! Coffee for deals on coffee and news relevant to the company, coffee growers, and social communities at large.  Follow 'em here: @gimmecoffee.

It should also be noted that Gimme! Coffee will inevitably be covered quite frequently here.  Just tune it out if you're not hip to their bean.

Over the last couple of years, it's been hard to escape the presence of Illy Coffee in NYC.  It's everywhere, from the krappy Key Foods to the C-for-effort Gristedes, up to the self-inflicted bourgeois Whole Foods aisles.

I tried it a few years ago, and in an emergency coffee bind, recently picked some up for home.  It wasn't bad at all, but it wasn't very good either.  I take my coffee with a moderate amount of milk and sugar, and my cups of Illy coffee tasted like the milk and sugar only.  In between cups, I had a drink of it straight, and frankly it was just bland.

On that note, let's take a sec: if you love Illy coffee, just go ahead and spout.  Let it all out.  Call me ignorant, call me tasteless.  Yell at me for "probably brewing my pots with poor proportions".  Berate me for calling out your little branded badge of hipsterdom.  Tell me to go places.

Breathe.  Breathe.  Now let's agree to disagree and move on.

So I don't care for the flavor of Illy.  And I certaintly don't care for the price.  FreshDirect.com sells the standard 8.8 oz. Illy can for $12.99, whereas a full pound of FreshDirect French Roast goes for $6.99.  If you're going to spend over 12 bucks on coffee, you might as well a) get a full 16 oz. worth and b) get the great stuff.

So what's the allure?  According to their website, Illy (the man) began brewing in 1933, and it's now "available in more than 140 countries in all five continents".  It's definitely making the rounds internationally.  And I'll be the first to plead ignorance when it comes to my own worldly exposure to coffee.  I couldn't tell you the difference between South American and Asia beans, or which one is reputably 'better'.

Ultimately, despite Illy's global successes and commitment to "the global culture of coffee through all the elements contributing to a perfect cup of coffee", it always comes back to taste, and personally, I just don't have the tongue for it.  Am I missing something alluring about the flavor?  Am I missing something about the culture?

What's your opinion of Illy Coffee?

To kick off Sweet Brews, let us set two bars.  A large part of this blog's purpose is to discover new coffees and beers, and find the best flavors ever tasted.  We'll keep a running list of what I would consider to be the best of both worlds - coffee & beer - and to see if over time, a new brew can topple the current kings.  And of course, we always want to hear your thoughts on your favorites.  As of site launch, here are our current picks for Best Beer and Best Coffee, and the how, when, and where behind the discovery of each.

Coffee
Between August 1998 and May 2005, I lived, learned, and worked in Ithaca, New York.  Ithaca is an absolutely beautiful town, and home to my alma mater, Ithaca College, and the slightly more well-known institution, Cornell University.  Ithaca is not only gorgeous (or Gorges), it's very progressive and home to dozens of socially- and environmentally-conscious companies and organizations.

One such company is Gimme! Coffee.  Started in 2000, Gimme! showed up quietly somewhere during my undergrad years.  It wasn't until 2002 did I discover it, when I graduated and began working full-time, in that pre-Starbucks Era point in a person's life when they really start to drink coffee.  The now-defunct-but-infinitely-awesome Wownet Cafe, directly across the street from our office, was one of Gimme!'s first early suppliers.  I like to think that I was one of Gimme!'s first real lovers.

The cafe cycled through serving a number of Gimme!'s wide variety of brews over the years.  But I always went back to the Deep Disco blend more than any others.  Since moving from Ithaca in 2005 (indirectly) to New York City, I've gotten by on other brews.  But thankfully, Gimme! moved into Williamsburg in Brooklyn somewhere around the same time, so I've had a direct, in-person supply line.  (As a socially-responsible company, I've never liked the idea of shipping their coffee.)  And, as a fantastic twist of fate, they've since opened another cafe 2 blocks from my current job in Manhattan.  Every afternoon a fresh cup, and when needed a resupply for home.

The Deep Disco blend is just as its label describes: a medium-dark blend with a smooth body, though I think tobacco is more prevalent in the aroma than in the aftertaste.  The best way I can describe Deep Disco is the way in which I drink it: it's my staple coffee.  It's the solid, always dependable brew I would make every single day if I didn't mix half-caffs during the week.

There are other Gimme! Coffee blends I love, which I'll cover here, but none so great as Deep Disco.  And as a socially-conscious coffee company who cares about where their beans come from and the people behind them, you can feel good drinking Gimme! in mind, body, and soul.

Beer
The following year after Ithaca, I settled in with my girlfriend in Brooklyn Heights, and discovered a neighborhood blog that mentioned a quaint-sounding local restaurant, Jack the Horse Tavern, with a particularly selective bartender who keeps no more than six hand-selected craft beers on tap at any given time, usually rotating through one or two at a time based on availabilities and general seasonals.

So one night, we moseyed on over and discovered not only the best gourmet cheeseburgers we've ever had, but I found Smuttynose Finestkind IPA, and the greater world of India Pale Ales.  When the hoppy flavor hit me, I knew immediately that IPA beers were the kind of beers I had been searching for for years.  I've had always loved beer. But until that point, what I would have considered my favorite beers had always left me desiring more in flavor, but never wanting more than two or so.

When I finished that first pint of Smuttynose, I was enlightened and overjoyed.  While I drink coffee everyday, and even my favorite coffee blends I would still consider myself passionate about, there is nothing more I would rather drink at just about any given time (under the right circumstances, of course) than a Smuttynose IPA.  My deep love of Deep Disco coffee is all about frequency, but my exotic love of Smuttynose India Pale Ale is all about amplitude.

There you have it, my absolute favorite brews on earth: Gimme! Coffee Deep Disco and Smuttynose IPA.  Over time, we'll try new and exciting coffees and beers, and really delving into both worlds.

So what is your favorite coffee and favorite beer?  And what do you think about Gimme!, and their Deep Disco?  What about Smuttynose's brews, and their IPA?  Dark and bold?  Or light and blonde?