Tag Archive 'barista_training'

The Art of the Italian Espresso | PRI’s The World

Posted by TheShot on 28 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Foreign Brew, Starbucks

Yesterday Public Radio International’s (PRI) The World aired a broadcast on the Italian espresso: Espresso | PRI’s The World. While every news outlet in America was regurgitating Starbucks‘ publicity over their token three-hour store closure for employee training, reporter David Leveille took a different approach by interviewing the art of the espresso from a distinctly [...]

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Italian Scientists Unveil Coffee-Making Robot

Posted by TheShot on 21 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Local Brew, Starbucks

This just in from Italy: Putting EU Money to Good Use: Italian Scientists Unveil Coffee-Making Robot - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News. “A coffee-making robot?,” you ask? More than the specialized Swiss jobs we’ve talked about, we’re actually talking 1940’s Popular Mechanics/The Jetsons‘ Rosie … that kind of robot. The kind we’ve been promised [...]

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Coffee Klatch Roasting Celebrates Starbucks Store Closures With Free Coffee for Everyone

Posted by TheShot on 19 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Quality Issues, Starbucks

It’s a rather snarky press release, but we confess to being amused by it: Coffee Klatch Roasting Celebrates Starbucks Store Closures With Free Coffee for Everyone.
These days, Howard Schultz’s return to the CEO post at Starbucks has resembled nothing short of a panicked man caught on a runaway bulldozer, pulling every lever and knob he [...]

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Andy Newbom of Silicon Valley - Founder of Barefoot Coffee Roasters

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 [...]

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Black Magic: The Perfect Espresso

Posted by TheShot on 14 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Barista, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues

TIME magazine posted a “Summer Journey” special documenting the theme of “we are what we eat.” One of the stops of this photo essay is an espresso bar in southwest Rome: Black Magic: The Perfect Espresso - TIME’s Summer Journey | TIME. The author, a California expatriate and recovered Starbucks addict, waxes on the joys [...]

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Coffee vendors teaching wholesale customers to brew’em right

Posted by TheShot on 10 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Barista, Quality Issues

This AP story ran across the wire yesterday: KOMO-TV - Seattle, Washington - Local & Regional - Coffee vendors teaching wholesale customers to brew’em right. It is about espresso training for the competitive professional market. Roasters such as Zoka Coffee Roaster & Tea Co. and Caffe D’Arte of Seattle have been successfully offering weekend training [...]

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All the King’s Horses, and All the King’s Marketing Consultants…

Posted by TheShot on 06 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Machine, Quality Issues, Starbucks

The news of Starbucks‘ death has been greatly exaggerated.
That’s all I could think of when reading the media and blogosphere response over the past week to an executive memo written by Starbucks’ founder and corporate chairman, Howard Schultz (as reported here on Feb. 24). In the memo, the founder lamented the loss of Starbucks’ “romance” [...]

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Coffee is Hot at the 2007 National Restaurant Show

Posted by TheShot on 12 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee

Last month I scoffed at a National Restaurant Association survey showing that espresso was “hot” among restaurant trends. In order for an item to be “hot”, isn’t it a pre-requisite that restaurants should at least be half-way competent at it?
In today’s news, the “NRA” announced a presentation at the annual hotel-motel restaurant convention this May [...]

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Trip Report: Barefoot Coffee Roasters

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 [...]

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Trip Report: The French Laundry

Posted by TheShot on 14 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Local Brew, Restaurant Coffee

An espresso review for a restaurant where the cheapest item on the dinner menu is $210 may seem a bit irrelevant, but it is important for what it represents: a gold standard for food and wine. Back in September, we reviewed one of San Francisco’s most highly regarded dining establishments, Michael Mina. But to many [...]

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