Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

One of the things that the big coffee chains do well is consistency. Or at least that’s the conventional wisdom, lifted straight from the fast food chain playbook. A McDonald’s french fry is pretty much the same everywhere, and the coffee served at a big chain is little different. Or so we’ve all been told. [...]

Tags: blue_bottle, coffee_chains, consistency, illy, la_marzocco, mr-espresso, paper_cups, peets_coffee, Starbucks, verismo

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We’ve previously posted about the phenomenon of well-heeled consumers paying for the privilege of performing manual labor in food production that our country could otherwise only get illegal immigrants to do. But here’s a new twist on the continued glamorization of the food service industry — yesterday Microsoft announced a new video game for the [...]

Tags: Barista, barista_championships, Starbucks, verismo, video_games

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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 [...]

Tags: clover_brewer, mastrena, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines, verismo

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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 [...]

Tags: espresso_tasting, nespresso, siphon_bars, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines, swiss_espresso_machines, verismo

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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 [...]

Tags: la_marzocco, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines, verismo

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Starbucks executives bristle at the suggestion that their corporation represents the fast food of coffee. (This despite lamenting memos from the chairman to the contrary.) But when was the last time Starbucks made a corporate decision that favored quality over quantity? Case and point … the new chocolate partnership Starbucks announced this week: Starbucks, Hershey [...]

Tags: chocolate, coffee_prices, coffee_quality, drive_thru_coffee, fast_food_coffee, Starbucks, torrefazione_italia, verismo

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Today’s Toronto Star featured an article on the growth of Toronto area independent coffee shops (many of which call themselves “espresso bars”, per the article): TheStar.com – living – Toronto’s love affair with espresso bars heats up. Toronto now has a mixture of established independent espresso bars and a growing array of newer ones. (A [...]

Tags: barista_championships, canada_coffee, customer_service, espresso_drinks, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines, toronto, toronto_cafes, toronto_coffee, verismo

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The news of Starbucks‘ death has been greatly exaggerated. That’s all I could think of when reading the media and blogosphere response over the past week to an executive memo written by Starbucks’ founder and corporate chairman, Howard Schultz (as reported here on Feb. 24). In the memo, the founder lamented the loss of Starbucks’ [...]

Tags: Barista, barista_training, coffee_chains, fast_food_coffee, flavored_coffees, la_marzocco, mcdonalds, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines, verismo

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In the news today from Bangalore, India has applied for a Geographic Indication (GI) for Monsooned Malabar coffee: Malabar coffee set to get GI brand : Malabar Coffee, Monsooned Malabars, Geographic Indication mark, GI : IBNLive.com : CNN-IBN. Some love the stuff, others can’t stand its “funkiness” at times. Whatever it is, it makes a [...]

Tags: coffee_growers, malabar, trademarks, verismo

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Changes are brewing at the Tully’s Coffee chain, as American Express announced Tully’s as their latest ExpressPay partner: American Express signs Tully’s Coffee to contactless payments system – Assodigitale – Associazione Italiana Operatori Industria e Media Digitali. Think of ExpressPay as FasTrak® for the rush hour coffee queue — where customers can swipe credit cards [...]

Tags: Barista, coffee_chains, la_marzocco, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines, tullys_coffee, verismo

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