Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

Two months ago we reported on our trials with a superautomatic home espresso machine representing much of the state-of-the-art: the Philips Saeco Syntia Focus. Reading Saeco’s product literature and marketing communications, you’d be led to believe that this machine made “the perfect espresso” every time. But to most people who read our original post two [...]

The sad state of home espresso machines is a topic we’ve tried to avoid for long stretches. After our last depressing installment in 2009, we’ve been blissfully ignorant — ratcheting up the solid-but-rarely-outstanding shot pulls on our relatively decent home espresso setup of a Gaggia G106 Factory manual lever machine and a Mazzer Mini grinder. [...]

The Internet is so overstuffed with information, it suffers from a kind of amnesia. Something may have been posted 20,000 times before, but that 20,001st time — as if we all really needed it — might still be worth a mention because Internet users have either forgotten or have yet to notice. Which explains the [...]

The Atlantic continues their recent spate of coffee coverage with a random nostalgia piece today on Italian espresso from food writer and Joy of Coffee author, Corby Kummer: Coffee Glamour: Italians Do It Better – The Atlantic Food Channel. Among other things, the article mentions the infamous Sant’Eustachio il caffè and how they, too, are [...]

If you love espresso, live in San Francisco, and don’t know who Thomas E. Cara is, well, shame on you. Although Caffè Trieste may be a historical West Coast espresso landmark, Thomas E. Cara goes back a decade further. Espresso first enchanted Thomas Cara while he was stationed in Italy during WWII. So much so [...]

Last week, the Guardian (UK) published an article on a home espresso enthusiast’s journey to obsession: In pursuit of the ‘God shot’ | Food and drink | Life and Health. Having reviewed almost 600 espresso shots in SF proper ourselves — most of them pretty bad — we’d like to believe we know a thing [...]

Our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series turns back to Torino for an espresso at Eataly — which has taken over the former Carpano vermouth factory across the street of Torino’s massive Lingotto complex. Torino is also the birthplace of vermouth and consequently the apéritif. (I am also quite a longtime fan of Carpano Antica.) [...]

In my last post on espresso in Portugal, I reviewed a handful of notable cafés in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon. For this installment, I review notable cafés in other parts of Portugal. Namely, futher north … where I generally found the espresso to be even better than that in Lisbon. Name Address City Espresso [info] Cafe [...]

In a previous post, I noted some generalizations about the espresso in Portugal. For this post, I’ve selected a few notable cafés to review in Portugal’s political and cultural capital, Lisbon. Name Address Neighborhood Espresso [info] Cafe [info] Overall [info] A Brasileira Rua Garrett, 120 Chiado 6.60 7.00 6.800 Café Nicola Rua 1° Dezembro, 20 [...]