Espresso News and Reviews - TheShot.coffeeratings.com

When PR flacks try to get their clients noticed above the crowd noise, a common and effective tactic is the city rivalry vanity/voyeurism survey. Hey, it worked for us. Which is why we’re reporting on the “news” that San Francisco/Oakland ranked #1 among least caffeinated cities in the country: Caffeine Survey Reveals Most, Least Caffeinated [...]

Tags: caffeine, coffee_consumption, press_releases

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Last year I asked the question, “Where are all my coffee varieties?”. Today a press release from a Florida roaster picked up where I left off: Espresso like no Other and perhaps a little like Wine.
The broken English is pretty amusing for a press release — even if they make an obligatory wine comparison (yes, [...]

Tags: coffee_choices, kenneth_davids, press_releases, wine_analogy

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Not all public relations professionals are brain-dead. Really. Unfortunately, there are armies of brain-dead PR zombies that routinely clog the media firehose with inane chatter.
One of their favorite zombie techniques? Take a rather inane topic that seems trendy in the media — say, oh, blogging. Then take whatever tired idea you have in front of [...]

Tags: bloggers, clover_brewer, coffee_tech, drip_coffee, press_releases, public_relations

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Has TheShot been taken over by “splogs” (spam blogs)?!
For anyone who has run a blog, I don’t mean the regular stream of bogus insurance adverts and “great post - I had never thought of that” comments. I mean all those splogs out there that have disguised themselves as online “lifestyle magazines” — i.e., shorthand for [...]

Tags: barefoot_roasters, bloggers, french_press, press_releases, public_relations

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Yesterday, Consumer Reports announced that their taste testers rated McDonald’s premium coffee as superior to Starbucks‘ coffee. (Isn’t that a bit like a beauty contest between Courtney Love and Joan Rivers?) But the real story behind this isn’t their ratings so much as the response to these ratings: Coffee taste test stirs hot debate - [...]

Tags: coffee_marketing, mcdonalds, press_releases, public_relations, Starbucks

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I came across a coffee-related press release yesterday (as I often do), and I truly resisted writing about it — hoping it would just go away unnoticed. But then the company behind it is based out of San Francisco, and the press release hit the Associated Press today: AP Wire | 01/11/2007 | Mysterious `Meth [...]

Tags: caffeine, coffee_marketing, energy_drinks, press_releases, tullys_coffee, wine_analogy

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Yesterday’s Sunday Times (London) ran a story concerning McDonald’s UK’s announcement of a coffee supply partnership with the Rainforest Alliance: McDonald’s brews up £1m fair trade deal - Sunday Times - Times Online. At first read, I opted not to add a blog entry on how the Rainforest Alliance served as another alternative example to [...]

Tags: big_four_coffee, coffee_marketing, fair_trade, mcdonalds, press_releases, public_relations, Robusta, sustainability, uk_coffee

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You know the phrase “knowing just enough to be dangerous”? A good example can be found in the regular stream of rip-and-read medical research press releases that appear in the daily media cesspool. And scuttlebutt on the health benefits and detriments of coffee are in steady supply.
I promise not to go off on my usual [...]

Tags: coffee_health, medical_journalism, portugal_pork, press_releases, tea, unpasteurized_cheese

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OK — it’s only Tuesday, and I have already found the winner for the most imbecilic coffee-related news item of the week.
So what do you do if you’re a coffee marketer desperate for an angle? How about selling coffee with those yellow rubber LIVESTRONG wristbands? Nah — not trendy enough. OK, how about a reality [...]

Tags: bloggers, coffee_marketing, nca, press_releases

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It’s no wonder why health care is in shambles in this country. Every two-bit researcher with a corporate-sponsored grant proposal collects their check, publishes their paper, and some low-wage PR grunt in their administrative office issues a press release. Major media, given their rip-and-read reporting laziness and blissful ignorance of science, publishes every piece of [...]

Tags: caffeine, coffee_health, just_plain_stupid, medical_journalism, press_releases

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