Posted by TheShot on 24 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Roasting, Robusta
Today Condé Nast posted an general consumer article on what to look for in good coffee: Coffee Drinking Guide - Portfolio.com. However, it reads more as a quick guide to following what’s “trendy” today — rather than as a guide to seeking good quality coffee experiences. (Not to mention that the article’s title, “Eat Sheet: [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 May 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Robusta
One definition of “overly ambitious” is attempting to write an article about the relationship between coffee and a pluralistic nation of over 1.1 billion people. Compounding this is the nature of India itself — where not only can you find evidence of just about everything, but for everything you find to be true you will [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 24 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Consumer Trends, Fair Trade, Quality Issues, Robusta
Corporate spokespeople frequently speak volumes more in what’s left unsaid than in what they say. Take yesterday’s Reuters news release from The Big 4’s Kraft Foods. Kraft’s flagship coffee, Maxwell House, has desensitized American coffee taste buds for decades. Kraft has just recently decided to use 100% arabica beans in Maxwell House’s cans of unholy [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Café Society, Fair Trade, Starbucks
Today Voice of America News broadcast an executive summary of sorts on specialty coffee consumption in America: VOA News - Good to the Last Drop: Coffee Culture Is Alive and Well in the US. Like many things VOA, it’s spoken in slow and clearly annunciated English. Think the clinical drone of NPR presented at the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 06 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Home Brew, Quality Issues, Robusta
Last week, C. Clairborne Ray of the New York Times answered this question as part of the paper’s Q&A feature: bookofjoe: What makes coffee bitter?. (I’m citing it on another blogger’s post instead of the original NY Times source — in case you are religiously opposed to NYT logins.)
As the article states, coffee is a [...]
Posted by TheShot on 05 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Restaurant Coffee
According to an article in today’s USA Today, hotels are still slowly catching up on the rest of society when it comes to serving better quality coffee: Upscale coffee selections brewing at more hotels - USATODAY.com. As the article opens, “Good coffee is the next big thing at hotels.” Business travelers, accustomed to better coffee [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 18 May 2007 | Tagged as: Coffee Health, Robusta
The uncontrollable urge to assign shamanic powers of eternal life or instant death to coffee are still in full bloom. Last December, we reported on the UK introduction of CoffeeSlender (a.k.a. Café Bulimia), a coffee drink that claimed to help consumers lose weight through something called Svetol — a derivative of green coffee beans. Today [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 21 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Quality Issues, Robusta
David Lebovitz is a fairly well-known pastry chef and foodie who launched his career through a long tour of duty at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Lately he’s taken on a great interest in making the kind of espresso he can get in Italy — but not in the U.S. as easily. Following his pursuit of [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Fair Trade
Today the Chicago Maroon, an independent student newspaper of the University of Chicago, published a curious indictment of the Fair Trade movement: Chicago Maroon » Hurting the third world one latte at a time. Being the University of Chicago, the author takes a more world economic view of the issue.
While I completely disagree with [...]
Posted by TheShot on 11 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Machine, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee, Robusta
Tomorrow’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution nails it with this article headline: Espresso done right is intense — a full-bodied, stop-time moment to savor | ajc.com. Somewhat surprisingly, what follows the headline isn’t half bad either.
The author, John Kessler, goes on to note how rare a decent espresso is in this country — and in fancy restaurants in [...]
Recent Posts