Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

La Colombe continues to play an interesting role in the modern evolution of consumer coffee tastes. Starting in 1985 in Seattle, co-founders Todd Carmichael and Jean Philippe (JP) Iberti joined forces and decided to set up their idea for a great American roaster in Philadelphia. Which was no small risk, given that Philadelphia isn’t the [...]

For the past couple of days, I’ve resisted writing about this topic: the recent SCAA conference and the tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon the following day. But I can’t escape it. Apologies in advance for adding little on the subject of coffee, but to do so exclusively would seem both disrespectful and inappropriate. This [...]

The specialty coffee industry has a strangely ambivalent, love/hate relationship with the mainstream. On the one hand, it thrives on an independent spirit rooted in independent businesses, an artisinal “craftsman” approach, an often bristling indifference to its customers, and it eschews much of anything that smells like the status quo (the stereotypes about things like [...]

With NFL fans facing a major void in their lives since the NY Giants won the NFL’s Survivor: Indianapolis competition, thankfully there are publications like Food Republic that have come up with their own “power rankings.” As if to prove just how much we’re not making this up, it took Food Republic less than two [...]

If the title of this post seems like the product of a copy-editor undergoing a seizure, it is intentional. It echoes the title of a new article on Esquire‘s Web site verbatim: Worst Coffee Trends – Bad Coffee Trends – Esquire. To thicken the plot, do note that this is the second article in a [...]

La Colombe Torrefaction, a Philadelphia-based roaster that’s been something of an East Coast analog to Blue Bottle Coffee Company, has regularly received national recognition for the quality of their roasted coffee. But on the West Coast, La Colombe may as well be based out of Belgium; they’re largely unknown around these parts. In an attempt [...]

This café was once highly regarded before a recent ownership change, but we never got around to trying their espresso until recently. It’s a sidewalk corner café located across of the SF Cable Car Museum. There is some outdoor seating along Mason and Washington Sts., and indoors there are several tables in a relatively quiet [...]

Today Voice of America News broadcast an executive summary of sorts on specialty coffee consumption in America: VOA News – Good to the Last Drop: Coffee Culture Is Alive and Well in the US. Like many things VOA, it’s spoken in slow and clearly annunciated English. Think the clinical drone of NPR presented at the [...]

I hate writing about espresso bars in regression when there’s every reason for us to expect progression. There’s a rising tide of coffee quality that should theoretically lift all boats: McDonald’s is offering premium roast from Gaviña, 7-Eleven is offering single origin Kenya AA and Hawaiian Kona … and late last year Café de la [...]

Over this past weekend, Sarah Gilbert posted in the blog Slashfood that Food & Wine Magazine named Ritual Roasters among America’s top coffee bars: Top U.S. coffee ‘bars’ include La Colombe, Ritual Coffee Roasters – Slashfood. Also honored was Philadelphia’s La Colombe Torrefaction and Manhattan’s Ninth Street Espresso. It’s great to see more people in [...]