Posted by TheShot on 09 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Consumer Trends, Machine, Quality Issues
Today Salon magazine posted their take on this whole “Hey baby, what’s your wave?” coffee business: Baristas gone wild: meet fourth-wave coffee – Coffee and tea – Salon.com. We most appreciated that they wrote the article from a coffee consumer’s perspective. What often gets lost in this feeding frenzy of hyperbole is that none of [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista, Beans, Café Society, CoffeeRatings.com, Quality Issues
For a few years now, we had an idea for a post that sat in our unpublished queue: how can you tell a good espresso shop from a bad one? (At least before sampling it.) Given the thousands of good, bad, and mediocre espresso shots we’ve reviewed over the years, we have definitely noticed some [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 May 2009 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Machine, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee, Roasting
We are not the only ones who have lamented the sorry state of restaurant coffee — particularly at some of the Bay Area’s finest restaurants. The San Francisco Chronicle made poor restaurant coffee a front-page headline as early as 1963.
In some ways, the elevated coffee standards that exist outside of the restaurant world are [...]
Posted by TheShot on 09 May 2009 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Quality Issues
Australians are no slouches when it comes to appreciating good coffee. But last month, an opinion piece in The Australian highlighted what the author, John Lethlean, felt was a lot of misplaced fuss, pomp, and circumstance going into coffee origins these days: Just a strong one, thanks | The Australian.
A self-described “coffee-geek groupie,” Mr. Lethlean [...]
Posted by TheShot on 21 Mar 2009 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Home Brew, Quality Issues
For the last installment of our three-part series on How future coffee “Waves” will come to disparage the so-called Third, we wrap up by examining two major social fads that have come to identify the Third Wave:
The focus on baristas
The role of coffee geeks
We’ll also touch on why, if quality coffee is to progress, we [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 07 Mar 2009 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune reported on a curious coffee bar concept planned for Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea’s latest location, currently under construction in Los Angeles’ Venice Beach. The concept includes featuring five different stations where five separate baristas personally attend to each customer, individually catering to their unique coffee whims: Intelligentsia plans a groundbreaking coffee bar [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 21 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Barista, Foreign Brew, Roasting
You have got to be kidding us. A runner’s supply store with outstanding espresso — perhaps the best in town? You bet. And a big thanks to veteran San Jose Coffee Geek, Gary Hutchison, for publicizing this unusual discovery.
This place ran as an online-only store for several years before opening this physical location in the [...]
Posted by TheShot on 16 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society
Recently we crossed paths again with an old TV pilot from 2006 that bears rewatching (apologies to those who have already seen it): PilotLite – Grounds Zero. Called Grounds Zero after its fictitious namesake café, this 25-minute episode is among the more entertaining TV pilots you’ll find — whether or not you like coffee shops [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Barista
If there ever was a news article that embodied what we’ve found unsatisfying about how barista competitions are promoted, this one from today’s News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) is up there: More than another cup of joe | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA.
Over the weekend, Tacoma hosted the Northwest Regional Barista Competition. Barista competitions may be old [...]
Posted by TheShot on 28 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Consumer Trends
The Travel section of today’s New York Times featured an article on the burgeoning cocktail scene in San Francisco’s bars: Journeys – In San Francisco Bars, a Cocktail Is Not Just a Drink – NYTimes.com. What does any of this have to do with coffee? A bit more than you might think, actually.
The cocktail may [...]
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