Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

It had been eleven years since I last visited the Azores. A remote archipelago of Portugal, this small group of volcanic islands — isolated in the middle of the Atlantic — is the very verdant-but-austere birthplace of my in-laws. Since my last visit, Portugal converted from the escudo to the Euro, tying the country more [...]

Particularly since the late 1980s, the plight of the coffee farmer has not been a pleasant one. Public awareness of this major problem gave rise to mitigation strategies such as Fair Trade and Direct Trade. A couple months ago, you may have seen the press releases for Traceable Coffee.org — a project of Pachamama, a [...]

It wasn’t long ago that the word obsession conjured up much more negative connotations in society. Today obsession is practically treated like a virtue — something to aspire to — and it can apply to something as neurotically trivial as the cup of coffee you drink when you are traveling. Case and point with an [...]

One of the most important, and most tragic, stories of human history since the age of the Portuguese explorers is the story of Colonialism. Today the vestiges of Colonialism are apparent everywhere from globalization to the impact of slavery and race relations around the world. For example, to look at the history of Cape Town, [...]

We’re a little slow on the discovery of this great article on the coffee in Portugal from earlier this month: Portugal’s Coffee: A Sumptuous and Delectible Treat – Catavino. Catavino is primarily a European wine blog that focuses on the growing regions of the Iberian peninsula (i.e., Spain and Portugal), but they often get into [...]

The travel section in today’s New York Times featured an article on Rio de Janeiro coffee bars: Coffee Bars in Rio de Janeiro – Travel – New York Times. Brazilian botequins — sort of café/lunch counter/bistro combinations — can sometimes be pretty awful. Despite Brazil’s esteemed coffee status — this is a nation where the [...]

Today the Associated Press reported that Starbucks entered the Brazilian market with two cafés in São Paulo: Starbucks enters competitive Brazilian coffee market with 2 Sao Paulo stores – Business – International Herald Tribune. Starbucks demonstrated success at establishing over 100 cafés in Mexico, which is generally not known as a coffee-drinking (let alone espresso-drinking) [...]

Back in July we reported on Illy‘s strategy for opening licensed Illy Espressamente cafés across Europe. During my travels in Portugal last month, I had the pleasure of encountering my first one in the unlikeliest of places. In the perimeter wall of the recently remodelled Praça de Touros do Campo Pequeno bullfighting arena, this fully [...]

In my last post on espresso in Portugal, I reviewed a handful of notable cafés in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon. For this installment, I review notable cafés in other parts of Portugal. Namely, futher north … where I generally found the espresso to be even better than that in Lisbon. Name Address City Espresso [info] Cafe [...]

In a previous post, I noted some generalizations about the espresso in Portugal. For this post, I’ve selected a few notable cafés to review in Portugal’s political and cultural capital, Lisbon. Name Address Neighborhood Espresso [info] Cafe [info] Overall [info] A Brasileira Rua Garrett, 120 Chiado 6.60 7.00 6.800 Café Nicola Rua 1° Dezembro, 20 [...]