Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

We’ve posted before about Melbourne’s claim as the coffee capital of Australia. In addition to the Melbourne Coffee Review Web site we noted back in 2007 (in operation since 2004), there is now a printed guide to Melbourne’s top 100 coffee shops with the title Melbourne Coffee Review: Crema of the crop – Epicure – [...]

We’ve long made it a policy to not cover superfluous news stories on Starbucks here because, well, they’ve long been irrelevant to quality coffee. But here’s one from Down Under today that is: Starbucks to close 61 Australian stores, cut 685 jobs | The Daily Telegraph. Now we like looking for the hidden story behind [...]

The truth is out. What do die hard coffee drinkers in coffee-obsessed Australia really order?: Caffeine connoisseurs say lattes are the cream of the crop | Herald Sun. Yes, it’s the boorish latte. (And written by a boorish reporter: “Caffeine connoisseurs”?!? It’s been a while since we’ve seen the tiresome caffeine riff.) Of course we’re [...]

One of the better espresso-themed events the world over is Sydney’s annual Aroma Coffee Festival at The Rocks, which will take place this year on Sunday, July 22: The Rocks – Sydney – Things to do in Sydney at The Rocks > What’s On at The Rocks > Aroma_Festival. OK, so they’ve since fattened up [...]

While we’re on the subject of international coffee, today’s The Hindu (India… and I guess quite obviously so) published an article documenting Melbourne, Australia’s claim to be at the heart of that nation’s coffee culture: The Hindu : Magazine / Columns : Coffee anyone?. Melbourne has a pretty strong case. They have a rich coffee [...]

In case liquid coffee extracts didn’t whet your coffee appetite, maybe instant self-heating coffee in a can will: Self-heating coffee launched in Australia > FOODweek Online > Main Features Page. Per the product description: To heat the coffee, the canister is tipped upside down and the tamper-proof seal is removed. An activation button is found [...]

CoffeeRatings.com was inspired by the importance of a scientific approach towards developing comparative reviews of espresso. But this somewhat clinical approach can at times take a little of the joy out of the espresso-sipping experience. Which is why I am oddly inspired by the purely linguistic constraints imposed by a Melbourne, Australia blogger: Five word [...]

Need any more evidence that Fair Trade coffee isn’t unquestionably the “right thing to do” when it comes to poverty and the world’s coffee growers? Today’s The Australian reported on two Melbourne academics who have lodged formal complaints against Oxfam Australia, which oversees Australian Fair Trade certification, challenging that Fair Trade doesn’t achieve what it [...]

In today’s news, Australian inventors secured an international licensing agreement that stands to revolutionize one of my least favorite subjects: to-go coffee (Aussie Invention Ready to ‘Wow’ U.S. Coffee Drinkers – QSR Magazine). With the introduction of new, temperature-sensitive coffee lids, apparently McDonald’s customers can now be entertained by a show of colors before they [...]

The meteoric growth in consumer demand for espresso has placed immense downward pressure on the skills of the average barista. Many coffee retailers (most notably Starbucks) have responded to this gap between supply and demand by introducing more automated machines and processes, enabling them to hire a wider availability of less skilled workers at lower [...]