Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

We honestly don’t like repeating ourselves, but we will anyway. No, this has nothing to do with the Cafe Grumpy $12 cup of coffee scuttlebutt going around — where New Yorkers once again find something in their backyard and therefore presume they must have invented it. (Curiously, this came up one month after CNN reported [...]

Our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series takes us back to Alba, Italy for Golosi di Salute — a café that’s certainly known more for its edibles than anything you can drink here. But that doesn’t mean the espresso is a slouch. Luca Montersino is famous for making pastries and sweets with natural and local, [...]

This installment of our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series comes from the very small town of Pollenzo, practically in the middle of nowhere. At least geographically speaking. But on the food map of Italy, this place is one of the country’s brightest stars. One of the reasons is that it is home to the [...]

Continuing our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series, we turn to a local roaster who does a whole lot more than the typical torrefazione/caffè in Italy. This one is located in the bustling small town of Asti — as in SF’s Palio d’Asti, which itself is named after the famous bareback horse race in the [...]

Time for the next installment in our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series. On the north end of Alba, you can often catch the potent, sweet smell of chocolate and hazelnuts as the nearby Ferrero factory makes another batch of Nutella. Just past it, and just past the weekend flea markets at the northern edge [...]

Piemonte, or Piedmont, is a province located in the Italy’s northwest — near the Alps. Other than the 2006 Winter Olympics, the region has largely been a blind spot on the tourist’s map. Travel guidebooks and TV programs routinely ignore it. And that’s just the way we like it. For example, in Torino — Piemonte’s [...]

The London Times today published a business section interview of Andrea Illy, the head of IllyCaffè: The original Mr Bean – Times Online. More of a financial/business article, it discusses Illy’s role in the world of specialty coffee — touching on Illy’s technical innovations (some of them regrettable, IMO), brand positioning, and even Mr. Illy’s [...]

Today Bloomberg published an article about the latest generation of restaurant and home espresso machines, designed with the idiot in mind: Idiot-Proof Espresso Machines End Excuses, Target U.S. Market – Bloomberg.com: Spend. Andrea Illy of Illycaffè has to be very careful not to speak out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, [...]

This Montgomery St. café is named for a famous Medieval bareback horse race in Italy’s Piemonte region, the parent restaurant around the corner (Palio d’Asti), and, well, Italian sandwiches. (Note: there’s a sister café on the UCSF campus.) They have many café tables in an airy space with large, high windows facing street traffic. This [...]

As Torino readies to host the world at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, many unwary tourists will discover Torino for the first time. One of the things tourists will discover is their excellent cafés and coffee: USATODAY.com – Take a coffee break in Torino. For the record, I love Torino. It is one of my [...]