Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

Jack Hanna of Canberra, Australia is the reigning world champion of latte art — at least according to the recent World Latte Art Championships held in Belgium this past May: Aussie cappuccino king says coffee art not all froth | Lifestyle | Living | Reuters. Australia has won the title two years running. (No surprise, [...]

This week, The Guardian (UK) posted an article on the elusive quality cappuccino: How’s your crapuccino? from Guardian Unlimited: Word of Mouth. While the Brits may disparage the “dirty dishwater” that is American coffee, even in London you’re helpless to find a cappuccino that isn’t served in a gargantuan bowl, filled mostly with milk, and [...]

This week’s The Brooklyn Paper published an article on espresso quality standards and their general absence in the fine borough, interviewing noneother than Third Wave pulpit banger, Nick Cho: The Brooklyn Paper: Coffee guru espresses his disgust. Nick discusses the “seafoam problem” with cappuccinos, which he describes as, “When the milk is over-steamed, the bubbles [...]

Despite Portugal’s prominent historical role in the development of the coffee trade (for example, they introduced coffee production to Brazil), and the degree with which coffee is “interwoven throughout Portugal’s social, literary and economic history”, I’ve found surprisingly little written about the espresso in this small-but-influential coffee nation. Last month I took advantage of some [...]

The lengths some people will go to save a buck… This story was cited in a few publications around Seattle yesterday (this version from The Seattle Times): The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Baristas are having a cow over dairy “thefts”. It seems some baristas are up in arms over the covert, money-saving habit of [...]

In a personal piece in today’s Napa Valley Register, a father relates the story of how her daughter became a cappuccino professional — if not a “cappuccino Nazi”: A cappuccino moment | Napa Valley Register Online | Kevin Courtney Columnists. When it comes to cappuccino, besides great espresso preparation, a lot of the quality comes [...]

In today’s Western Mail from Wales, author Marcus Leroux espouses the virtues of the “diminutive espresso” above all other forms of coffee, whether adulterated with milk foam or not: icWales – We love… Espresso. He looks at Wales and the UK coffee scene and decides, quite rightfully, the single espresso is the king of coffee, [...]

A barista championship in Petaluma? Yesterday (Saturday, March 4) I attended my first SCAA barista competition. Held at the Sheraton Sonoma County in Petaluma, the Western Regionals are a competitive prelude to next month’s U.S. Barista Championship. (Petaluma: it’s not just world arm wrestling championships anymore.) The annual Western Regionals covers competitive baristas across California [...]

This upscale, Italian-styled espresso café at the base of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel also serves your basic breakfast and lunch fare. It attracts well-heeled business types with a good international tourist contingent — given the hotel proximity. And it is one of the few places in SF where you can down an espresso Italian-style: [...]

Since 1982, this playfully-themed café has served soda fountain drinks, coffee, and sandwiches. The owner, Jesse, has lined its walls with old toys, a PEZ dispenser collection, cartoon figurines, and model airplanes. A coin-operated horse ride sits in its center. Outdoors there is a bench and a single table. Hipster young women (and men) behind [...]