Posted by TheShot on 27 May 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Robusta
One definition of “overly ambitious” is attempting to write an article about the relationship between coffee and a pluralistic nation of over 1.1 billion people. Compounding this is the nature of India itself — where not only can you find evidence of just about everything, but for everything you find to be true you will [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 25 May 2008 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew
Who doesn’t love a great cup of airport espresso? We sure do — but in extra measure because such a thing simply does not exist. Sure, things have improved since the era of $4 cups of rancid airport coffee, unburdened by quality concerns. But airport coffee today is still characterized by inflated prices, poor quality [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 23 May 2008 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Starbucks
Located in the Outer Ring (’L’ block, more precisely) of what the locals call “CP”, this café in the vast UK chain’s armada is reportedly the largest in South Asia. It’s actually a bit impressive, particularly given that the chain has designs on adding 300 more Costa Coffee outlets in India over the next four [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 21 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew, Roasting
Yesterday’s Independent (London) interviewed Giuseppe Lavazza, the “crown prince of the world’s biggest independent coffee company” — a.k.a. Lavazza: The family that grew rich on the other black stuff - Business Analysis & Features, Business - The Independent.
The coffee story from Lavazza is that, at least in Italy, espresso is not a commodity but rather [...]
Posted by TheShot on 17 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Starbucks
Today’s Globe and Mail (Canada) surveyed the rise of coffee consumption among India’s growing middle class: reportonbusiness.com: Tea-drinking India warms to coffee house culture. We mentioned this trend a year ago, and today apparently one coffee company — Café Coffee Day — owns two-thirds of India’s coffee houses. This is a luxury that Starbucks doesn’t [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 06 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Fair Trade
In a previous article, I made the curious observation that coffee has become a lightning rod for social and environmental angst in a way that is disproportionate with just about any other export. (As if nobody buys children’s toys or clothing from Wal-Mart.) As a point of comparison, I noted that while we obsess over [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 31 May 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew
In the world of espresso, India may be known for its Monsooned Malabar and premium robusta beans — both of which are excellent components of an espresso blend (and these beans often make it into the roasts I make at home). But with globalization and the resulting growth in India’s middle class, India has developed [...]
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