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 23 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew, Roasting
Occasionally this Web site can be the source of a real life story, and the story of Caffè Mokabar is a good one. For a little background, after a couple weeks of espresso research in Piemonte, Italy last October, we were most duly impressed with Caffè Mokabar among all the coffee roasters we encountered. So [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 30 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew
It’s been a long time coming. After three years of laziness, I found a clean way to add non-SF espresso bars to the online database without having them muck up the SF sorts and ratings. It’s not a lot, and there are still a few kinks to work out, but it’s progress.
And the timing may [...]
Posted by TheShot on 06 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
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 [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 22 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Home Brew
A Peninsula people-watching Mecca, typically filled with large crowds throughout the day and skirmishes over available outdoor tables. It’s been that way here since I first entered this place 15 years ago. They have large indoor and outdoor seating areas, local art, occasional musicians, and obligatory patrons in bike shorts.
One of the most indelible memories [...]
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 21 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Home Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
Today’s The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) posted an article on home coffee roasting: Coffee fans toast what they roast | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA. What I particularly liked was that they use the term I do for fresh roasted coffee: fresh baked bread.
Too often, restaurants, cafés, stores, and, well, coffee drinkers treat roasted coffee as [...]
Posted by TheShot on 25 Nov 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew
This old school, Calabrian-themed Italian pastry shop once had a touch for good espresso under its longtime ownership. They owner had been using Graffeo beans religiously since 1985. However, by 2006 they switched to Lavazza beans and began making inferior espresso (though the two aren’t exactly cause-and-effect). I’ve been unable to confirm with certainty, but [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
Two years ago when I visited the San Tommaso café in Torino, the birthplace of Lavazza, they were promoting a menu item called espesso that wasn’t exactly what you’d expect.
“Espresso in Italy? How crazy is that?!” But hold on… Note that what we call espresso here in America is called simply a café in Italy… [...]
Posted by TheShot on 04 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Home Brew
An article published in tomorrow’s The Age (Australia) explores the growing popularity in home espresso equipment — and in new training courses and centers for the home barista: Cafe society, BYO machine - Epicure - Entertainment - theage.com.au.
For example, Lavazza has been running courses in Australia for industry and home enthusiasts for the past decade. [...]