Posted by TheShot on 03 Aug 2011 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Quality Issues
Several months after we declared that coffee’s golden age is over, famed Illy barista-in-chief, Giorgio Milos, posted this in The Atlantic today: America’s Golden Age of Coffee: Remarkably Like Italy’s Past – Giorgio Milos – Life – The Atlantic. You might recall Mr. Milos ruffling a few New World coffee feathers last year in The [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 07 Apr 2011 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Machine
This week the pipes and tubes of the Internetz delivered a couple of noteworthy articles on local coffee scenes. The first is a cover story in Portland’s Willamette Week (“Drip City: Everything old is new again in Portland’s coffee scene”). The other is a next-generation rehash of a “favorite coffeehouses” list from the Toronto Star [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 03 Apr 2011 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee
We’ve been lamenting the sorry state of restaurant coffee in these pages since 2005. But let it be known that, as of this moment forward, we have officially given up on the possibility of ever being reliably served good coffee in American restaurants. Sure, there have been a few successes and battles won along the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 16 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew
Taking up the space that was formerly Daniel Creamery and its cheese production, the Summit has tall ceilings in a wide open space converted for café and art space use. The main seating area is littered with rectangular tables and chairs with plenty of wall outlets and laptop zombies — making you feel like you [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 05 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Barista, Local Brew, Machine, Restaurant Coffee
This more informal, osteria sister to the Quince restaurant next door (its name is Italian for “quince”) offers a mighty fine, albeit still somewhat pricey, Italian meal. (The old Quince relocated to Pacific Ave. here about a year ago.) The space showcases many wide glass windows, exposed woods (everything seems brown in here), and a [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Foreign Brew, Machine, Quality Issues
Call it coffee’s version of Hubble’s Law: the rate at which a local coffee scene evolves is inversely proportional to its maturity. What?!? Let us explain. Seattle and San Francisco are examples of well-established coffee cultures, and the rate of evolution and improvement we see in the coffee there tends to nudge along at a [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 15 Nov 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Fair Trade, Foreign Brew, Local Brew, Quality Issues
Today’s The Korea Herald published a thought-provoking (if not debatable) piece about one-time Korea Barista Champion, Jeon Yong: Barista bringing coffee back to basics. Internal divisions within the national barista association prevented him from representing South Korea at the 2007 WBC in Tokyo, and he dismisses the notion that a training course can make one [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Machine, Quality Issues
Today Tim Wendelboe — World-Barista-Champion-turned-microroaster (and major influencer of the recently reviewed Espresso Lab Microroasters) — posted a rather thorough first-thoughts review of the new La Marzocco Strada on his official blog: Tim Wendelboe » Blog Archive » La Marzocco Strada – first thoughts. Of particular interest are some of his insights about the machine’s [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 20 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Foreign Brew
Mention the name “Woolworths” to an American, and they’ll think “Woolworth’s” [sic] (again with that possessive thing). Woolworth was founded in 1879 as one of America’s first five-and-dime stores — even if it has become known as Foot Locker since the turn of the millennium. For those who remember Woolworth as a discount dimestore, the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 25 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Barista
Clearly, America has become a Third World nation. That’s what The Daily Show‘s John Oliver said two days ago when Team USA qualified for the next round of the World Cup by dramatically defeating Algeria with a deserved injury-time goal to close the group stages. Mr. Oliver’s logic? We have the rampant unemployment, the devalued [...]
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