Posted by TheShot on 05 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew
It may have been a while, but we have reviewed employee espresso bars before. What’s unusual this time is that the espresso bar doesn’t belong to a coffee business. But when said business is slinging shots of Barefoot Coffee Roasters beans out of UNIC Twin machines, we take an interest. The company in question is [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew, Roasting
Due to a number of reader comments, today’s SF Chronicle published a brief follow-up to a lengthy piece they published last month: Coffee lovers spill the beans on their favorite small-batch roasters. The article mentions SF’s De La Paz Coffee and the East Bay’s Catahoula Coffee Company & Roastery. Once again the emphasis is on [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 29 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
The American Chronicle can be a pretty hokey online rag, but once in a while they feature the occasional gem — like today’s interview with Barefoot Coffee Roasters‘ founder and all around cool guy, Andy Newbom: American Chronicle: Andy Newbom of Silicon Valley – Founder of Barefoot Coffee Roasters. In the interview, Andy reveals how [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 24 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Café Society, Local Brew, Quality Issues
Today The Oregonian published an interview with David Rittenhouse, who over the past summer started the Portland Oregon Espresso Tasting Society (or P.O.E.T.S.): Opinions flow. And you guessed it, his top tip for people ordering espresso…?: If someone pours you a bad shot, don’t be afraid to ask for another one. Everyone has a flat [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 13 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Home Brew, Machine
Has TheShot been taken over by “splogs” (spam blogs)?! For anyone who has run a blog, I don’t mean the regular stream of bogus insurance adverts and “great post – I had never thought of that” comments. I mean all those splogs out there that have disguised themselves as online “lifestyle magazines” — i.e., shorthand [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 08 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Local Brew
Today’s The Santa Clara (Santa Clara University‘s undergraduate paper) published a brief piece on the different café “atmosphere” options for coffee drinkers in the area: Finding the coffee shop that’s right for you – Scene. Ah, yes — the old “All coffees are created equal, but how about those curtains?!” trap. (I’m reminded of the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 23 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Fair Trade, Local Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
As a former resident of Palo Alto for several years, a trip down Santa Clara’s Stevens Creek Boulevard conjures up images of discount mattress stores, Denny’s, and strip malls as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately, that’s commercial real estate in the Silicon Valley — regardless of the hidden gems tucked away in Northern [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 06 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Local Brew
The Petaluma Hot List As I mentioned in a previous post, the 2006 Western Regional Barista Competition was held in Petaluma over this past weekend. Twenty-two baristas from across California and Hawai’i participated in the annual competition — many for their first time. In addition to bringing out some of the best espresso preparation the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 05 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Local Brew
A barista championship in Petaluma? Yesterday (Saturday, March 4) I attended my first SCAA barista competition. Held at the Sheraton Sonoma County in Petaluma, the Western Regionals are a competitive prelude to next month’s U.S. Barista Championship. (Petaluma: it’s not just world arm wrestling championships anymore.) The annual Western Regionals covers competitive baristas across California [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 15 Feb 2006 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Home Brew, Local Brew, Machine, Quality Issues
It took a moment for me to dig up an online version, but here it is. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the March 2006 issue of Food & Wine Magazine has a special report on coffee: An Obsessive’s Guide to Coffee | Food & Wine. The editors apparently “spent 410 man-hours tasting 157 coffees [...]
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