Posted by TheShot on 15 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: CoffeeRatings.com, Consumer Trends, Quality Issues
A long time ago we decided that coffee maps were an odd Internet fetish. Over the years we’ve been approached by people with special Internet maps APIs (call it Internet software for short), requests for Google maps views, and people building just about every coffee map variant under the sun. More recently, we have the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 30 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
A blogger in New Jersey posted an interview with Carlo Odello of the Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano, or the Italian National Espresso Institute: Espresso Italiano, Talking Coffee the Italian Way with Carlo Odello – Serge the Concierge. Mr. Odello (a friend of this Web site) was recently working Caffè Italia at the Summer Fancy Food [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 01 Apr 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Consumer Trends, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee
The Annual SCAA Exposition is upon us. This month — in addition to the usual gadget marketing, major sponsorship from suspect brands, and the U.S Barista Championship — the event organizers have added a new Culinary Track: SPECIALTY COFFEE ASSOCIATION ADDS CULINARY TRACK | Articles | Beverages. To quote the SCAA press release [pdf, 27kb]: [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 30 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
Today’s bit of European coffee controversy actually has nothing to do with the undropped espresso machine name from French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently demanded a decent espresso machine of his choice while visiting Columbia University: French President Nicolas Sarkozy demands special espresson machine during Columbia University visit – NYPOST.com. (Meanwhile, the French press made [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 28 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Starbucks
Has it really been a couple weeks since our last third wave rant? A few years after we thought this topic was dead and buried, lately newbie third wave coffee articles have been cropping up in local newspapers like teenage vampire profiteers. London, Oakland, and now Vancouver: Indie cafés perfectly poised to quench coffee aficionados’ [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 14 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Quality Issues
Last Friday, the UK edition of Wired magazine published one of those well-meaning articles that thoughtlessly got much of it all wrong: Computing the perfect coffee. At the article’s core is the myth of the “perfect” espresso — something we believe to be about as real as the tooth fairy. Blame for the modern myth [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 14 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
We’re rather shameless about our love for the espresso and cafés in Torino, Italy. So we could not pass on today’s travel article in The Guardian (UK): Lose the froth: Turin’s best cafes | Travel | The Guardian. So why do we love the espresso and cafés in Torino so much? To start with: grand [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 14 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
In case you haven’t come across this article from the Long Island Press yesterday: Everything You Know About Coffee Is Wrong | Long Island Press. Wow — local journalism is still producing thoughtful, lengthy pieces that might actually tell the average reader something they didn’t already know? Sure enough, it’s a rather well-written and thoughtful [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista, Beans, Café Society, CoffeeRatings.com, Quality Issues
For a few years now, we had an idea for a post that sat in our unpublished queue: how can you tell a good espresso shop from a bad one? (At least before sampling it.) Given the thousands of good, bad, and mediocre espresso shots we’ve reviewed over the years, we have definitely noticed some [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 14 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
Over the years, we’ve dropped notes about New York City’s coffee culture: from its origins as a desolate wasteland through its more recent redemption. Like the awkward and homely tomboy who first gussies herself up for the debutant ball, in the past year New York City has been running a major publicity campaign to promote [...]
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