Espresso News and Reviews - TheShot.coffeeratings.com

In the mixed feelings department, the Washington Business Journal recently reported on Counter Culture Coffee’s newest regional training center in D.C.: Counter Culture Coffee opens training center in Adams Morgan - Washington Business Journal:. As with Counter Culture’s other training centers, it is designed to educate industry wonks and general consumers alike on coffee flavors [...]

Tags: coffee_cupping, coffee_pairing, counter_culture_coffee, dc_coffee, fair_trade, organic_coffee, wine_analogy

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Today InsideBayArea.com featured an article on Pete Rogers of the San Leandro-based Rogers Family Co.: Inside Bay Area - Compassion drives coffee company’s success. The article emphasized the Rogers Family Co.’s commitment to helping Central and South American coffee growers by buying directly from them and working to improve their living conditions. Most recently, Peter [...]

Tags: fair_trade, organic_coffee, rogers_family_co

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Today’s Santa Barbara Independent published one of the more informed, and hence balanced, views of Fair Trade coffee I’ve seen in the past year: The Santa Barbara Independent :: cover story :: Bean Counting. By choosing Fair Trade coffee, you’re essentially outsourcing your ethical decisions to a third party proxy. All is well and good [...]

Tags: coffee_certifications, coffee_growers, fair_trade, organic_coffee

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Some of you may recall just how much the zombie children of the Fair Trade cult scare the bejeezus outta me. Ritual Coffee Roasters barista, Gabriel Boscana, wrote a much more tactful and civil approach to these single-issue customers in this month’s issue of Barista Magazine: FebMarch 07 - Certified Coffee Pusher. It was oddly [...]

Tags: Barista, barista_championships, cafe_customers, coca-cola, coffee_certifications, fair_trade, organic_coffee, ritual_roasters, wrbc

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The umlaut in the name might suggest a 1980’s metal band (pronounced ‘let-TOOOSE‘?), but this place is actually an ultra-organic café. It follows the trend of ‘preachy’ eateries that cross the line from espousing sustainable, organic agriculture to slapping you across the face with it.
Now I apprciate the Slow Food movement as much as anybody. [...]

Tags: espresso_review, fair_trade, marina, organic_coffee, rio_machine, slow_food

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Some of the enjoyment I get adding new cafés to CoffeeRatings.com is in finding completely obscure places that make surprisingly decent (though never great) espresso. Last Saturday night I was visiting some friends for an event over at the ArtSF community center near the sketchier cross section of 16th and Capp Streets in the Mission. [...]

Tags: cafe_con_leche, cortado, crem, espresso_review, fair_trade, mission, mr-espresso, organic_coffee, spanish_coffee

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Deep inside Rincon Center One (now how apocalyptic does that sound?), this espresso counter serves coffee among the food court seating. It’s right next to the indoor, five-story “Rain Column” waterfall — so if you can find the insides of building, you won’t miss it. NaS uses a portable boom box of sorts to play [...]

Tags: embarcadero, espresso_review, fair_trade, nuova_simonelli, organic_coffee, soma

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Today Reuters reported on organic coffee’s diminishing financial appeal for Nicaraguan growers: Organic coffee loses appeal for Nicaragua growers | World Crises | Reuters.com.
Organic coffee certification involves a process where a farm typically takes years to demonstrate itself “chemical free” (of pesticides, growth additives, etc.). Between this expense and the lower per-acre yields of organic [...]

Tags: coffee_certifications, nicaragua_coffee, organic_coffee, sustainability

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In the shameless press-release-as-news-item department, today’s San Francisco Chronicle ran an article by Gregory Dicum promoting the new edition of his new book, The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry From Crop to the Last Drop (GREEN / A Cup of Hope: Coffee’s Lessons).
The article is actually a nice briefing on the past ten hopeful [...]

Tags: fair_trade, organic_coffee, ritual_roasters, third_wave

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Opening just this month, this café was started by The Rogers Family Company (perhaps best known for their ‘inorganic’ and dirt cheap San Francisco Bay Coffee Co. beans, available at Costco) and other investors. It’s heavy on the Fair Trade organic coffees, and that’s just where its social causes begin.
They heavily brand their devotion to [...]

Tags: cafe_employees, espresso_review, fair_trade, futurmat, nuova_point, organic_coffee, rogers_family_co, sustainability

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