Tag Archive 'Robusta'

New York Times thinks robusta detractors set the espresso blend standards for everybody

Posted by TheShot on 23 Mar 2009 | Tagged as: Beans, Consumer Trends, Robusta

Just when we write about the stifling conformity among roasters and coffee professionals of this modern era, today’s New York Times blog reports on the use of robusta beans in espresso blends: Robusta Economy – Times Topics Blog – NYTimes.com. Although there’s nothing in the post we haven’t heard before, it’s the tone of the [...]

[view full post]

Digital City’s “The 21 Best Cups of Coffee in America”

Posted by TheShot on 02 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Fair Trade, Quality Issues

To the uninitiated, CoffeeRatings.com might look more like a horse racing tip sheet than a coffee Web site. But there are very good reasons why we’ve gone through the effort to quantify things. Just look at the chaos that can ensue when you don’t follow a system nor a simple baseline set of evaluation criteria: [...]

[view full post]

In defense of “food snobbery”

Posted by TheShot on 11 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: Quality Issues, Robusta

Whether it’s coffee or Slow Food Nation (or both), today there’s a strong public undercurrent of knee-jerk, reactionary dismissiveness of anybody who dares suggest that the generic brand-X-in-a-can isn’t good enough for them. The mistaken public belief is that most of the things we eat and drink today are somehow normal, inevitable, and “natural” outcomes [...]

[view full post]

Condé Nast’s Coffee Drinking Guide

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]

Coffee in India

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]

Maxwell House coffee to go 100 pct arabica

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]

VOA News – Good to the Last Drop: Coffee Culture Is Alive and Well in the US

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]

What makes coffee bitter?

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 [...]

[view full post]

Upscale coffee selections brewing at more hotels

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]

Green Coffee capsules – all the weight loss benefits, none of the bitter taste!

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]

Older Entries »