Posted by TheShot on 05 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
The return of baseball also marks the return of a popular form of that “North vs. South” rivalry — with San Franciscans channeling their hate for L.A. through the sport, and L.A. being, well, mostly oblivious. Last weekend, we witnessed that rivalry expressed through espresso — with San Francisco’s Chris Baca edging out the formidable [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 05 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends
It may be a new year, but often it is only the calendar that changes. Take this article in today’s New York Daily News — yet another installment in a long line of ever-popular wine analogy/”gee whiz, there’s this thing called cupping” pieces: Coffee: Hey, I’m no ordinary Joe. It comes with the obligatory Counter [...]
[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 never [...]
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 - [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 28 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Beans, Fair Trade, Roasting
From the print edition of The Economist, an article on Andrea Illy of Illycaffè: Face value | Head barista | Economist.com. Andrea Illy is the head of Trieste-based Illycaffè. And despite the standards gap between Italian espresso and the chain that made the most riches exporting their own version of it, Mr. Illy has only [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 13 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
New York City — that backwater of quality espresso that has long proven, if I may paraphrase Frank Sinatra, “If you can make decent espresso there, you can make it anywhere” — has reportedly been hit by a “wave” (here we go again) of better coffee. Or so says today’s New York Times: Espresso’s New [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew
Today’s New York Daily News claims “New York is, and always has been, a coffee town.” In the few times I’ve scouted much of Manhattan and Brooklyn in search of good coffee over the past few years, my conclusion is that “New York is, and always has been, a bad coffee town.” Award-winners from New [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 15 Feb 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Quality Issues
William Dupree, owner of a small business consultancy, published an article today on DailyIndia.com (of all places) about the marketing strategy he developed for a new 3,000 sq ft coffee shop that opened in New York City’s Greenwich Village: A Unique Marketing Spin for a Coffee Shop.
Even though the article does not reveal the name [...]