Posted by TheShot on 19 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Machine, Starbucks
We really hate doing Starbucks posts if we don’t have to. After all, Starbucks hasn’t been relevant to quality espresso in over a decade. But if you’ve been following some of the Clover brewer posts here, you may be surprised to learn that Starbucks liked them enough to buy the company: Aroma comeback: Starbucks to [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 21 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Local Brew, Starbucks
This just in from Italy: Putting EU Money to Good Use: Italian Scientists Unveil Coffee-Making Robot - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News. “A coffee-making robot?,” you ask? More than the specialized Swiss jobs we’ve talked about, we’re actually talking 1940’s Popular Mechanics/The Jetsons‘ Rosie … that kind of robot. The kind we’ve been promised [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 19 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Quality Issues, Starbucks
It’s a rather snarky press release, but we confess to being amused by it: Coffee Klatch Roasting Celebrates Starbucks Store Closures With Free Coffee for Everyone.
These days, Howard Schultz’s return to the CEO post at Starbucks has resembled nothing short of a panicked man caught on a runaway bulldozer, pulling every lever and knob he [...]
Posted by TheShot on 09 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Quality Issues
What will those wacky Swiss think up next? Apparently, it’s an espresso-tasting machine: A machine with a taste-for espresso.
Yes, it’s the latest invention from the people who brought us yodeling and clandestine overseas bank accounts. But with the Swiss, it’s not all good stuff. They have also brought us brain-dead, monkey-operated, superautomated espresso machines — [...]
Posted by TheShot on 07 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee, Starbucks
One of the worst-kept secrets of the past few years is that McDonald’s has been trying to get into the espresso business. Today, news services such as Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that McDonald’s plans to launch coffee bars with the new employee position of “barista”: McDonald’s coffee bars to take on [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Machine, Quality Issues, Starbucks
While we’re on the subject of humorous opinions on coffee purveyors…
No matter what you might think of Arianna Huffington, you have to admire the cajones to publish today’s op-ed blog piece on The Huffington Post: Beverly Tan: Why I F**cking Hate Starbucks - Living on The Huffington Post. Author Beverly Tan, an admitted and yet [...]
Posted by TheShot on 26 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Home Brew
Today’s Guardian (London) featured a humorous (or is that humourous?) piece on Nespresso and its lifestyle magazine: Nespresso isn’t just coffee … it’s an aspirational lifestyle marketing exercise by desperate lunatics | Food and drink | Life and Health. What’s not to like about the dry and wickedly clever British sense of humor?
The author describes [...]
Posted by TheShot on 04 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Home Brew, Machine
Today’s New York Times Magazine published an article on the declining design aesthetic of the espresso machine: The Pod People - New York Times. As the author puts it, “Cape Canaveralesque control centers that have replaced those great machines.” And she blames the meteoric popularity of Starbucks, which inspired a great wave of ensuing greed [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 31 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Machine
Although its approach is more from the caterer’s perspective, the Web site for the UK magazine Caterer and Hotelkeeper published an article comparing the merits and tradeoffs off traditional versus automatic espresso machines: Coffee machines: traditional versus automatic.
The article cites analysis where traditional machines used up 22% more coffee than their automatic counterparts. However, the [...]
Posted by TheShot on 01 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Home Brew, Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee
Today Bloomberg published an article about the latest generation of restaurant and home espresso machines, designed with the idiot in mind: Idiot-Proof Espresso Machines End Excuses, Target U.S. Market - Bloomberg.com: Spend.
Andrea Illy of Illycaffè has to be very careful not to speak out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, today [...]