Posted by TheShot on 29 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Beans, Consumer Trends, Fair Trade, Quality Issues
One of coffee’s big stories of the past year has been the seemingly sudden discovery and public awareness of Fair Trade coffee. Twenty years after the founding of Equal Exchange, Fair Trade coffee awareness reached critical mass this year in the U.S., the U.K., and many other nations around the world.
This awareness began with a [...]
Posted by TheShot on 05 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: CoffeeRatings.com, Local Brew
Every once in a while it becomes necessary to celebrate an arbitrary milestone. And we have one today: for the first time, CoffeeRatings.com reached 500 active espresso ratings for San Francisco.
What’s so arbitrary about it? For one, the 500 milestone was actually passed many months ago. While CoffeeRatings.com’s focus has been San Francisco proper, there [...]
Posted by TheShot on 08 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Restaurant Coffee
The Staten Island Advance (Staten Island has news?!) published an article today that heralds the arrival of tea as America’s new hot beverage of choice over coffee: Tea time. For all the Oolong Frappucino and Chai Latte lovers out there, hey — more power to you. These are good times with more options. But before [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 04 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Roasting
I’ve built up a pretty good tolerance for caffeine over the years. This after the (shocking?) truth that I once gave up coffee, and virtually all forms of caffeine, for a couple of years after a personal “purification” experiment following sinus surgery in 2000. It only took a return trip to Rome for me to [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 05 May 2006 | Tagged as: Roasting
Today’s Spokane Journal of Business featured a lengthy article on Terry Patano, co-owner of the Coeur d’Alene, ID café and the esteemed word-of-mouth roaster, DOMA Coffee Roasting Company: Consumed by coffee - Spokane Journal of Business. Not only is Terry a detail-oriented roaster who is heavy into preparation, but he’s an everyday reader of TheShot [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 06 Apr 2006 | Tagged as: Barista, Local Brew
Today’s San Francisco Chronicle gives some pre-USBC competition pep rally props to local baristas Ryan Brown and Gabe Boscana of Ritual Roasters: SAN FRANCISCO / Pouring in the rain, they are the hot shop / Regional finalists in barista contest head to national championships for $1,000 prize
The pair are heading out to Charlotte, NC today [...]
Posted by TheShot on 15 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
Thanks to tips from some locals and fellow readers, I’ve recently learned that Café Organica has closed down momentarily for renovations. So unlike my initial presumption that Café Organica closed down this past Saturday in order to train for the U.S. Barista Championships, apparently last Saturday was the beginning of a larger project. San [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 13 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: Beans, Consumer Trends, Fair Trade, Local Brew, Roasting
Fair Trade, organic coffee drinkers unite!
This former Holey Bagel shop has earned an extremely loyal (dare I even suggest “partially blind”?) following in the central Haight district. On their front door, they boast themselves as the #1 coffee shop in San Francisco on the basis of their reviews on Yelp.com. So they must be fantastic, [...]
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 region [...]
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 and Hawai’i, [...]
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