Posted by TheShot on 05 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Roasting
From yesterday’s Vancouver Sun, the praise is rolling in for Vancouver’s 49th Parallel Roasters, a new coffee destination established by Vince and Mike Piccolo (the former of Caffè Artigiano fame): Vancouver’s new cafe wins best coffee in region.
Just don’t ask what Krups is doing as self-appointed tastemakers of good espresso via the annual Krups Kup [...]
Posted by TheShot on 14 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew, Roasting
Today’s Globe and Mail (Canada) reported on the arrival of the $15-a-cup (CAN$) Hacienda la Esmeralda Especial at Vancouver’s Caffè Artigiano: globeandmail.com: Pay up and smell the coffee. (Kopi luwak pretenders, take notice.)
The Panamanian coffee won the 2007 Roasters Guild Cupping competition at the 2007 SCAA annual conference. The coffee was sold in an online [...]
Posted by TheShot on 11 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Fair Trade, Starbucks
No, I’m not slated as the latest guest movie reviewer for TV’s Ebert & Roeper. (Though I would love to be backstage to witness Robert Roeper tell his guests, “My show. Got that? It’s my show now!”) But last night, KQED aired a coffee-crisis-themed documentary for PBS’s “Indepedent Lens,” titled Black Gold: Independent Lens . [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 24 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Café Society, Machine
This week Willamette Week (Portland, OR) reported on a new coffee maker — one that has been getting a ton of buzz in coffee aficionado circles — now in use at Portland’s Stumptown: Willamette Week Online | Post: ‘Holy Platinum Percolators! Stumptown’s $11,000 coffee makers’.
Made by Clover of Seattle, the uniqueness of its [...]
Posted by TheShot on 12 Nov 2006 | Tagged as: Home Brew, Machine
Yesterday’s Toronto Star featured a few interviews on what it takes to make a great espresso — including the opinions of Stuart Ross, an award-winning barista and co-owner of Bulldog Coffee in Toronto, and Coulter Jones, the 2006 Canadian barista champion from Vancouver’s Caffe Artigiano.
However, only Mark Prince, of coffeegeek.com, was able to answer their [...]
Posted by TheShot on 21 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Barista, Quality Issues
Knowing the difference between a good and bad espresso can be a curse to many a former barista. Or so says a former barista in today’s Georgia Straight, a popular Vancouver free weekly: Straight.com Vancouver | Best Eating | Locals have much to learn about espresso.
The author writes that, “The espresso, as it is pouring [...]
Posted by TheShot on 25 May 2006 | Tagged as: Barista
Today the WestEnder of Vancouver, Canada posted an article on one of my favorite baristas in the world, Sammy Piccolo: Canada’s quest for coffee supremacy. Sammy has made some of the best espresso I’ve ever had in North America … if not the world. Back in 2000, along with his brothers Vince and Michael, [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Jan 2006 | Tagged as: Beans
As Frank Sinatra used to swing it, “They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil.” But despite the disdain many coffee snobs have for boring old Brazilian beans, a lot a this year’s Cup of Excellence coffee auction netted almost $50/lb for some of Brazil’s finest: Brazil coffee fetches record $US49.75/lb.
Me? I love a [...]
Posted by TheShot on 31 Dec 2005 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew
Every once in a while I have the privilege of visiting some place else. Eventhough American cities are becoming more and more homogenized, not everything is a Starbucks. When it comes to espresso, Chicago has a few notable exceptions that I experienced this year.
Name
Address
Neighborhood
Espresso [info]
Cafe [info]
Overall [info]
Intelligentsia
53 W. Jackson Blvd.
Loop [...]
Posted by TheShot on 12 Dec 2005 | Tagged as: Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee, Starbucks
Or: A Good Espresso Is Hard to Find
After voluntarily drinking so many overextracted, weak, bitter, and unacceptably poor cups of espresso around the U.S., let alone the world, a few people who know me and my coffee have questioned my sanity. Meanwhile, I have often questioned why anyone should need a site like CoffeeRatings.com in [...]