Cultural Context and Coffee Tasting Notes
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...
Instant Coffee Past and Present
Smithsonian magazine started a recent article with the question, “is there a future for instant coffee?” For most of us reading this site, the answer is probably no (right?!) but this is an interesting point of departure for a tour of the current instant coffee market and its history. They point out that the instant...
FastCo profiles the inventor of the Aeropress
Fast Company has a nice interview with Aerobie AeroPress inventor, Alan Adler, covering his background briefly as well as some of the back story behind the development of the Aeropress. This is the coffee maker that spawned a legion of coffee geeks. Paired with a hand mill (like the $27 Hario Slim), it’s the cheapest...
The Social History of Coffee
If you’re in New York you should check out a lecture at Joe Coffee’s Pro Shop tomorrow night. Barista extraordinaire and scholar of cafe history Alex Bernson will be leading this class on the social history of coffee: Come join us for a special class that examines the history of cafes and coffee consumption in...
1960s London Cafes & Thoughts About Cafe Design
I’m loving this old video, shot in documentary style, looking at the wide variety of cafes that had opened up in London in the 1950s and 1960s. Part of its charm lies in its anthropological gaze, spending most of the allotted time on the unglamorous and precarious economic end of the business, while highlighting the...
