Posted by TheShot on 04 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
Something strange about the human condition requires us to finish the year by sorting, filtering, and ranking things in order. This perhaps only seems odd to us because we do it continuously. Whether or not you think the world could do without another year-end top 10 list, the coffee consultants behind New York City’s TampTamp [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 09 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
A fine line exists between the point where you’ve truly arrived and the point where you’d like everyone else to believe that you’ve truly arrived. It’s analogous to comparing “old money” and “new money.” While old money supposedly maintains a low profile and doesn’t feel the need to prove their status, new money pulls up [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society
Last week the Wall Street Journal published yet another recession-themed article that was cited all over the Internet: No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users – WSJ.com. It seemed that every local media outlet followed suit (Coffee Shops Serve Laptop Users a New Blend | NBC Bay Area), with the story [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 14 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
Over the years, we’ve dropped notes about New York City’s coffee culture: from its origins as a desolate wasteland through its more recent redemption. Like the awkward and homely tomboy who first gussies herself up for the debutant ball, in the past year New York City has been running a major publicity campaign to promote [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 09 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Starbucks
Today’s post is really a series of news citations where coffee-making rivals duke it out in various venues. First we have New York City-based BlackBook praising a rather healthy list of cafés to check out in Vancouver, BC: Vancouver: Top 10 Cups of Coffee – BlackBook. Sure, they seem to say more about waffles and [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 06 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew, Home Brew, Machine, Quality Issues, Roasting
Today we came across a New York Times-syndicated article that alluded to the shortcomings of most home espresso machines: Life: Get off to a healthy start in the morning | juice, cup, milk, divide, servings – OCRegister.com. What attracted us to it was some “unconventional” wisdom about home espresso machines — something we rarely find [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 26 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Barista, Foreign Brew
Yesterday’s New York magazine online reviewed the new East Village coffee bar named Abraço: Abraço — New York Magazine Restaurant Review. Just opened Oct. 17th of this year, one of its partners is also famously the former Blue Bottle Coffee Co. barista, Jamie McCormick. The review also oddly noted, “The thought of ranking coffee bars [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 04 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Home Brew, Machine
Today’s New York Times Magazine published an article on the declining design aesthetic of the espresso machine: The Pod People – New York Times. As the author puts it, “Cape Canaveralesque control centers that have replaced those great machines.” And she blames the meteoric popularity of Starbucks, which inspired a great wave of ensuing greed [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee
Today’s The Sydney Morning Herald ponders how Australia’s Italian immigrants could bring a culture of appreciation for some of the best espresso in the world, and yet New York City — no stranger to Italian immigrants — is such a puzzling espresso wasteland: Brew ha ha in city that falls short on espresso – Opinion [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 04 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew
Until only recently, naming New York City’s best espresso bars was a bit like naming Pauly Shore‘s best movie acting roles. For those few espresso bars that now stand out among Gotham’s dysfunctional coffee scene, Gridskipper turned their boundless enamor with the Google Maps API towards a top 8 list: New York Espresso Bars – [...]
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