Posted by TheShot on 05 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Barista, Local Brew, Machine, Restaurant Coffee
This more informal, osteria sister to the Quince restaurant next door (its name is Italian for “quince”) offers a mighty fine, albeit still somewhat pricey, Italian meal. (The old Quince relocated to Pacific Ave. here about a year ago.) The space showcases many wide glass windows, exposed woods (everything seems brown in here), and a [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 11 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Beans, Foreign Brew, Machine, Quality Issues
Call it coffee’s version of Hubble’s Law: the rate at which a local coffee scene evolves is inversely proportional to its maturity. What?!? Let us explain. Seattle and San Francisco are examples of well-established coffee cultures, and the rate of evolution and improvement we see in the coffee there tends to nudge along at a [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 26 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista, Foreign Brew, Machine, Quality Issues
Whereas we’ve written an SF-oriented post on the common cues for recognizing a good or bad espresso, today’s WAtoday (Western Australia) features an article on how to spot a dodgy coffee: Perth’s Best and Worst Coffee. We’ll simply quote it here: Mooba Subiaco manager Hannah Cameron told WAtoday.com.au the top five ways customers can see [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Barista, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Fair Trade, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
Among coffee aficionados in town, quality artisan coffee originates with Origin. Opening in 2006 in a more modest space, this place changed the face of coffee in Cape Town if not South Africa. Since its expansion, it is now three transparent levels of coffee, café, roasting, regional Synesso distributor, and barista training labs. If that [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 10 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Machine
Two curious, seemingly unrelated posts appeared simultaneously in the news yesterday. One on La Marzocco‘s new Strada machine and all its variable-pressure-control glory: Ristretto | Strada – T Magazine Blog – NYTimes.com. The other, Esquire installment #3 from Todd Carmichael, about the ridiculous MSRP/retail prices for professional espresso machines and what most people in the [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 May 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting, Starbucks
We wrap up our brief series on Seattle’s espresso and coffee culture with a few observations. First, it had been way, way too long since our last visit. Twelve years in fact. Which is all the more ridiculous given the kind of coffee tourists we’ve become. It was 15 years ago that I attended graduate [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 26 May 2010 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
After David Schomer lost the original Espresso Vivace Roasteria location on Denny Way to an eminent domain seizure in 2006, when the city of Seattle decided to place a new rail line station at its location, Espresso Vivace needed a new home where they could showcase their coffee and techniques. This Espresso Vivace location opened [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 25 May 2010 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
No coffee tour of Seattle is complete without a visit to our last of the three V’s in town: David Schomer‘s famed Espresso Vivace. The subtitle for this location is “a sidewalk espresso bar,” which it most certainly is. We normally have more than a few gripes about sidewalk coffee kiosks, but this one is [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 23 May 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Machine, Roasting
We continue our series on Seattle cafés with a visit to another another of the three V’s in town: this time it’s Caffé Vita in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district. This combination café and roaster is one of the bigger entities in this coffee-rich neighborhood. It has the bold Caffé Vita neon signage out front — [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 22 May 2010 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew
Don’t spro me, bro. That ridiculous sentence kept going through our heads when we visited Trabant Coffee & Chai near Pioneer Square. (Their other, mothership location is in the University District.) From afar, Trabant seems like they are trying to do some interesting things. They were voted Best Coffee in Seattle on CitySearch.com in 2005, [...]
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