World Barista Championship 2015 Live Stream
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...
Where does coffee come from? A Colombian case study (Part 2)
If you missed Part 1 of my recent trip with Cafe de Colombia, check it out at “Where does coffee come from?.” We left off where farmer Alirio Rios and his pickers had harvested the coffee cherries. The next step is to remove the seeds at the beneficiadero, or processing station on the farm. It’s an...
Where does coffee come from? A Colombian Case Study
A lot of terms are thrown around to describe where coffee comes from. This is especially true in our world of ‘single origin’ coffees, where we’re more interested in epicurean discovery than a quick jolt of caffeine or a ‘bold,’ ‘balanced’ base for a cup full of milk and sugar. The more we focus on...
Intelligentsia, Herald Square, NY
UPDATE: apparently this location has already closed! During the holidays I made a pit-stop to catch up with a friend at the new Herald Square Intelligentsia. This is Intelli’s latest foray into New York’s coffee scene, following their earlier debut with a coffee bar in the Highline Hotel’s lobby. Apparently continuing on this cautious route,...
notNeutral GINO & LINO review
If you spend much time percolating around specialty cafes, you’ve probably noticed the drinkware of choice slowly starting to synchronize around sleek, organic looking ceramic cups that are simultaneously hefty and surprisingly comfortable in hand. That’s because these mugs, part of a set called Lino, were designed over several years in conjunction with the coffee talent...
Coffee Lover’s Holiday Gift Guide 2014
Happy holidays! I’ve put together a few items to help point friends & family toward desirable gifts for fellow coffee geeks, and to help guide you folks arriving here via Google find something that will delight the coffee lover in your life. Brewing Basics Under $100 Aerobie Aeropress $26 – perhaps the perfect single cup coffee brewer....
A Hazmat Suit for your Coffee Lid: The Clean Coffee Sabar
A solution in search of a problem? Some might think so, but inventor Bill Levey points to grubby customer & barista fingers – and an Arizona State University study showing that 17% of lids may be contaminated with fecal bacteria – to make a case for design innovation. Of course, this doesn’t solve the problem...
Review: Screaming Beans, Amsterdam
Hope you enjoy the final of three guest posts & photos by Alden Gewirtz below, highlighting his experience at Screaming Beans in Amsterdam! To the uneducated American traveler, Amsterdam might not seem like a destination for quality coffee (cannabis-selling “coffee shops” of Amsterdam not withstanding), but Googling a bit about The Netherlands’ history in the coffee trade...
Blacktop Coffee, Los Angeles
There’s a relatively fresh addition to Los Angeles’ rapidly blooming downtown coffee repertoire, located on a block that aptly showcases the new downtown LA. The new shop is called Blacktop Coffee, but its owner’s name isn’t new to anyone following specialty coffee – Tyler J. Wells was one of the founders of Handsome Coffee (now...
Starbucks for Spooks
I enjoyed this peek inside the CIA’s coffee culture. Not surprising, but a glimpse inside a hidden and curious world. I wonder if there’s a classified counter-culture of coffee geeks with Aeropresses and grinders in there? “Coffee culture is just huge in the military, and many in the CIA come from that culture ,” said...
Review: Ten Belles Cafe, Paris
Hope you enjoy the second of three guest posts & photos by Alden Gewirtz below, highlighting another must-visit Parisian cafe! Nestled in the hip, boutique-filled neighborhood around the Canal Saint-Martin, Ten Belles (10 Rue de la Grange aux Belles, 75010 Paris, France) makes you feel as if you’ve stepped off the rue and into a coffee house...
Review: Coutume Cafe, Paris
While I’m out visiting Los Angeles, we have a series of guest dispatches from Paris! Please enjoy the first of three posts & photos by Alden Gewirtz below. In the past few years, as the coffee revolution in the States and Australia started brewing in the post-Starbucks era, it became cliché for Americans to...
