Tag Archive 'la_marzocco'

Coffee in South India

Posted by on 03 Feb 2012 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Beans, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Home Brew, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee

If you were to read it in the current Roast magazine article (from the Jan-Feb 2012 issue), India is a coffee consumer desert. This week TIME magazine wrote about the entrance of Starbucks in the Indian market almost as if to dismiss any prior coffee consumption there. But after spending three weeks in South India’s [...]

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Q & A with Ambrose and Guy Pasquini: L.A.’s Single Espresso Origin

Posted by on 09 Nov 2011 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Foreign Brew, Home Brew, Machine, Starbucks

Today’s L.A. Weekly featured an interesting bio-piece on father and son L.A. espresso pioneers, Ambrose and Guy Pasquini: Q & A with Ambrose and Guy Pasquini: L.A.’s Single Espresso Origin – Los Angeles Restaurants and Dining – Squid Ink. You might recognize the Pasquini name for some of their excellent home espresso machines. But the [...]

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Trip Report: Paris Baguette (Palo Alto, CA)

Posted by on 10 Oct 2011 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Quality Issues

Ever eat a hamburger at a 1950s-themed American diner? In Hong Kong? Maybe their waffles didn’t taste like fish sauce, but it’s not uncommon to discover something lost in translation. (E.g., “Why does my hamburger bun taste like rice vinegar?”) On the spectrum of authenticity, this is the culinary equivalent to finding luxury handbags in [...]

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Trip Report: Stumptown Coffee Roasters (Downtown, Portland, OR)

Posted by on 29 Jul 2011 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Machine, Roasting

Shockingly, it’s taken us this long to make it to Portland, Oregon — considered by many to be ground zero (no café name pun intended) of American coffee culture. And if you’re going to start sampling the offerings in Portland, it only makes sense that you start with the legendary Stumptown Coffee Roasters. This despite [...]

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Trip Report: The French Press (Santa Barbara, CA)

Posted by on 24 Jul 2011 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues

California’s Santa Barbara County is a lot like the rest of America when it comes to coffee: it should face a tribunal for atrocities committed against the human taste bud. What makes these many crimes particularly heinous are the various local media outlets in these communities that celebrate certain local coffeehouses as some of the [...]

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Trip Report: Specialty’s Café & Bakery on Pine St.

Posted by on 21 Jul 2011 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew, Quality Issues

The story of coffee at Specialty’s Café & Bakery reflects the story of San Francisco’s consumer tastes for retail coffee. In the beginning, there was Faema + Prebica — and it was weak A decade ago, Specialty’s ran a small chain of bakery/cafés with coffee service areas. Some locations, like this one on Pine St., [...]

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Trip Report: Hooker’s Sweet Treats

Posted by on 29 Jun 2011 | Tagged as: Local Brew

With a name that sounds a lot naughtier for the neighborhood standard, Hooker’s Sweet Treats has probably disappointed more than a few thrill-seeking passersby in the Upper Tenderloin/Lower Nob Hill area. (What some realtor wannabes call the “Tendernob”.) But for those who venture here for coffee and confections, it’s something of a destination. Opening almost [...]

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Trip Report: Dash Cafe

Posted by on 10 Jun 2011 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Local Brew, Roasting

икониSince we’ve long tired of reading about Stumpgate, it’s time to change the coffee conversation. So instead of the global growth and ubiquity of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, we turn our attention to something closer to home: the growth and ubiquity of Blue Bottle coffee. This relatively new neighborhood café caters to local UCSF medical students [...]

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Trip Report: The Summit SF

Posted by on 16 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew

Taking up the space that was formerly Daniel Creamery and its cheese production, the Summit has tall ceilings in a wide open space converted for café and art space use. The main seating area is littered with rectangular tables and chairs with plenty of wall outlets and laptop zombies — making you feel like you [...]

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Trip Report: Grand Prix

Posted by on 14 Mar 2011 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Local Brew

Three years ago we identified something we called the low budget, ghetto chic conceptual art cafe — the said concept being consumers having to pay for full-priced espresso with the hipster privileges of having zero amenities. Last year some ad wizard decided these borderline coffee favelas should be called “coffee pop ups” (also formerly known [...]

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