Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

An article in yesterday’s Dublin Independent perhaps thought it was exalting the Nespresso espresso. However, it did more to underscore how clueless high-end restaurants are when it comes to espresso quality: The cult of Nespresso – Food & Drink, Lifestyle – Independent.ie. Pre-ground coffee that has aged for weeks in plastic pods since the second [...]

La Colombe Torrefaction, a Philadelphia-based roaster that’s been something of an East Coast analog to Blue Bottle Coffee Company, has regularly received national recognition for the quality of their roasted coffee. But on the West Coast, La Colombe may as well be based out of Belgium; they’re largely unknown around these parts. In an attempt [...]

It’s not just us — other Bay Area restaurant connoisseurs have noted the horrendous state of restaurant coffee. Today the SF Chronicle‘s food editor, Michael Bauer, wrote in his blog about readers who suggested he could do more to play up the coffee quality in his restaurant reviews: Michael Bauer: Between Meals : Coffee talk [...]

Yesterday Atlanta’s The Sunday Paper published an article on Batdorf & Bronson, an artisinal coffee roaster in Olympia, WA who supplies a number of top-rated restaurants in the Atlanta area, as well as cafés and retailers such as Whole Foods Market: 05/06/07 FOOD: Zen and the art of coffee roasting > SundayPaper.com > Current Articles. [...]

Most people have their favorite local getaways. Mine, among many other Bay Area locals, happens to be the Monterey Peninsula — i.e., the Pacific Grove/Carmel/Monterey region. It’s a great place to kick back for a relaxing weekend, along the sea, away from the S.F. crowds, near the natural splendor of Big Sur and the protected [...]

Today the Chicagoist blog published an interview with Intelligentsia founder and CEO, Doug Zell: Chicagoist: Chicagoist Grills: Intelligentsia Coffee & Roasting Works CEO Doug Zell. Intelligentsia not only boasts some of the best roasted coffee in the country, and the reigning U.S. barista champion from one of their cafés, but they also helped set a [...]

Last month I scoffed at a National Restaurant Association survey showing that espresso was “hot” among restaurant trends. In order for an item to be “hot”, isn’t it a pre-requisite that restaurants should at least be half-way competent at it? In today’s news, the “NRA” announced a presentation at the annual hotel-motel restaurant convention this [...]

Today the press release mill churned out the announcement of the next SCAA conference: 10,000 Leaders Shape the Future of Specialty Coffee May 4 – 7, 2007 in Long Beach, Calif. Yes, there will be the usual plethora of speakers, exhibitors, mixers, courses, workshops, and awards. Yes, there’s the circus entertainment of the U.S. Barista [...]

In October 2006, the National Restaurant Association conducted a survey of 1,146 member chefs for what they felt were “hot”, “cool/passé”, or “perennial” items in restaurants today. I’ve always wondered why so many SF restaurants seem to come out with the same trends at the same time — moments where suddenly every restaurant is offering [...]

A friend and CoffeeRatings.com reader, Jeremy Nisen, occasionally writes for SFist — which many rightfully recognize as San Francisco’s best local blog. (Jeremy interviewed me for it earlier this year.) Yesterday he pointed me to his most recent article on the site: SFist: Um, Yeah, But What Kind of Grinder Did They Use?. In it, [...]