You always hear about holiday travel being a disaster, but, at least until this winter, I’d always been lucky. However, after delays, American Airlines canceling one of my tickets in error right before final boarding, and other travel chaos, I found myself spending Christmas eve in Washington, D.C. So, naturally, I found the closest cafe...
It’s that time of year again, if you’re looking for last-minute gift ideas for yourself, or the coffee lovers in your life, I’ve put together a few picks below. And of course, you can always go for a bag of fresh coffee from your favorite local coffee roaster! New Grinder for 2015...
What we in the US call the “French” press is one of the more mainstream gateways to a heightened appreciation for coffee. If you had asked someone whether they were into coffee prior to the renaissance (or fad, depending) in theatrical methods like siphons and pour-overs, they would have likely responded in the affirmative by...
Up on a hill in Usaquén, in the northern part of Bogotá, I had the pleasure of meeting Jaime Duque, owner of Catación Pública – and a man on a mission. You see, for many in Colombia, like most countries where coffee production is a major sector of the economy, the best coffee is often ironically out of...
If you ever wanted to see how all the different coffee varieties are related, this coffee variety family tree by Cafe Imports is pretty great. Most specialty coffee roasters include information about the coffee variety on their labels, but it can be difficult to keep track or make sense of – next time, take a...
If you’re not already reading it, you should check out Peter Giuliano’s blog “Pax Coffea” on Tumblr. The former director of coffee for Counter Culture and current head of the SCAA’s Symposium has a unique angle on coffee, and a wealth of knowledge to share. In a recent post he gets to the bottom of...
Last time I was in Los Angeles, I kept getting recommendations to visit a little shop called Menotti’s right next to the Venice Beach boardwalk – and I’m glad I did. Coffee service is lead by Nicely Abel Alameda, one of LA’s more affable, well-known baristas who’s developed something of a following as he’s moved...
Fellow Products has a nice looking pouring kettle named Stagg available for pre-order. Counter-weighted handle to shift the center of gravity, no-nonsense matte black finish, integrated temperature gauge. Sign me up. $50 pre-order until October, then it starts rising. Get one now and hold on to it for the holidays, you’ll be set for the...
Angels’ Cup’s Black Box ($20/mo – use code yemen25 for 25% off this weekend) is a coffee subscription with several twists. Each box contains four 78g (2.75oz) bags labeled only by a number. You pick one and enter the number into the Angels’ Cup app, which then guides you through a tasting & scoring process for roast level, aroma, acidity,...
Earlier this year I visited Colombia to see how coffee is grown, harvested, and processed. One of the most exciting, geeky parts of that trip was our visit to Cenicafé, Colombia’s 77 year old national coffee research center. Cenicafé is one of the world’s leading centers for scientific coffee research, looking for innovative ways to...
Cafe Devotion recently opened a beautiful new cafe & roastery in Brooklyn (called Cafe Devocion in the US), so when I learned that they’re based out of Bogotá, I had to visit when I was in Colombia. Serendipitously, just a few blocks from the hotel I was staying at, Devotion has a cafe at...
If you’re not immersed in the specialty coffee world, you might have missed that this is one of the biggest weekends in coffee – the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s humbly named annual “Event,” which also hosts the 2015 World Barista Championship. Now, these coffee competitions haven’t always been fun to watch. In fact, up...
