Espresso News and Reviews - TheShot.coffeeratings.com

Promising news for anyone who takes the gamble of ordering prepared coffee in restaurants: the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has recently announced a partnership with Durham, NC’s Counter Culture Coffee to develop a coffee curriculum: newsobserver.com | Coffee partnership forms. (Press release from last week.)
Unlike the closer-to-home CCA (California Culinary Academy) — which has [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, counter_culture_coffee, restaurant_coffee

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It may be a new year, but often it is only the calendar that changes. Take this article in today’s New York Daily News — yet another installment in a long line of ever-popular wine analogy/”gee whiz, there’s this thing called cupping” pieces: Coffee: Hey, I’m no ordinary Joe. It comes with the obligatory Counter [...]

Tags: ben_rogers, coffee_cupping, counter_culture_coffee, fair_trade, nyc_coffee, tom_sawyer, wine_analogy

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Here’s an appropriate story, given my current location in Alba, Piemonte — about 40 miles from Torino. Earlier this week, Reuters published an article on Michele Mastrantuono, one of Lavazza’s official coffee tasters: A day in the life of an Italian coffee taster | Lifestyle | Living | Reuters. Mr. Mastrantuono performs quality control on [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, lavazza, torino_coffee

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In the mixed feelings department, the Washington Business Journal recently reported on Counter Culture Coffee’s newest regional training center in D.C.: Counter Culture Coffee opens training center in Adams Morgan - Washington Business Journal:. As with Counter Culture’s other training centers, it is designed to educate industry wonks and general consumers alike on coffee flavors [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, coffee_pairing, counter_culture_coffee, dc_coffee, fair_trade, organic_coffee, wine_analogy

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Today’s New York Times featured an article on how the upper echelon of coffee roasters pursue the finest cup the world over: To Burundi and Beyond for Coffee’s Holy Grail - New York Times. Introducing a number of America’s celebrity roasters, including Stumptown and Intelligentsia, the article touches on some of the key tools of [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, coffee_growers, cup_of_excellence, direct_trade, fair_trade

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This famous Napa coffee roaster has locations in downtown Napa and in St. Helena, and it routinely receives “best coffeehouse” awards in Napa town. They not only roast their own coffee in 20-lb batches, but they also offer regular coffee cuppings. And although their location gives them every excuse to abuse misplaced wine tasting analogies [...]

Tags: bfc, coffee_cupping, diadema, espresso_review, napa, napa_cafes, napa_coffee, wine_analogy

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Today’s Seattle Times posted an article on the 19-strong “coffee educators” at Starbucks: The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Coffee educators gladly spread the java gospel. The article explains the role of coffee cupping at Starbucks as part of their basic training for coffee buyers and baristas.
The article also makes mention of Starbucks’ definitions of [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, coffee_education, Starbucks

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Coffee’s ever-popular wine analogy works well in the economics case. There are some people who appreciate what goes into a $100 bottle of wine, and there are others who prefer beer and don’t see how that bottle adds up to the price of a few good cases of their favorite brew.
On a social level, however, [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, coffee_pairing, wine_analogy

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A friend and CoffeeRatings.com reader, Jeremy Nisen, occasionally writes for SFist — which many rightfully recognize as San Francisco’s best local blog. (Jeremy interviewed me for it earlier this year.) Yesterday he pointed me to his most recent article on the site: SFist: Um, Yeah, But What Kind of Grinder Did They Use?.
In it, Jeremy [...]

Tags: best_coffee, blue_bottle, celebrity_chefs, coffee_cupping, coffee_roasters, espresso_tasting, graffeo, grinders, jeremy_nisen, los_angeles, los_angeles_coffee, restaurant_coffee, sfist

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Starbucks is about to find out.
Today, the company announced their strategy to counter the growing encroachment of fast food rivals vying for their coffee business: To stand out, Starbucks pushes coffee know-how | Consumer Products | Reuters.com. The plan includes holding coffee tastings in its North American stores. As reported here earlier this summer, this [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, coffee_education, coffee_marketing, podcasts, portafilter.net, Starbucks

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