Entries tagged with 'coffee'
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toothpastefordinner.com If you like coffee, why not try these other great suggestions from Drew of Toothpaste for Dinner? They're great if you're already addicted—but if not, oh, you will be....
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Diner's Journal reports that the Ethiopian government has accused the nation's six largest exporters of hoarding beans until world coffee prices rise. The second half of this news item explains how the "Yirgacheffe" designation may become all but meaningless....
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Seattle is almost synonymous with coffee, but San Francisco (and the Bay Area) holds its own. Mass market brews Folgers and Hill Bros. were founded there during the Gold Rush. Go a little more upscale and you have Peet's, founded in Berkeley in the '60s. And then you have Blue Bottle, which, with its individually brewed drip coffees and Japanese siphon-brew contraption, is in a league of its own. The San Francisco Chronicle takes us on an in-depth tour of the city's coffee culture, name-checking old standbys, "new-wave roasters," and a couple noteworthy restaurant cups. If you're a coffeehound from the Bay Area, you're probably familiar with a lot of these places, but it's a nice primer for anyone...
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On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. Photograph from Rob Qld on Flickr In 1925, a South African professor named A. I. Perold created a new grape variety by crossing Pinot Noir, everybody's favorite silky red, with Cinsault, a hearty grape variety that was known locally as Hermitage. The result is a grape called Pinotage. Pinotage is an acquired taste. Some people are turned off by its strong flavors. But what I've found is that if you absolutely adore coffee—thick, black, dark roasted—you will probably love Pinotage, too. It's the red wine for coffee addicts who can't go for more than a few hours without a taste of their favorite bitter brew. The...
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This Thai street vendor mixes coffee in a rather theatrical manner, first pouring in the condensed milk and then mixing in coffee by pouring it from one pitcher to another—all while performing a series of pirouettes. Not sure how much he’s spilling, but I’d assume not much....
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The coffee giant is closing 300 more stores (it closed 600 last summer) and will cut almost 7,000 workers. And, to cut back on waste, they'll only brew decaf by request after noon. (Previous policy was every half hour.)...
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This weekend, January 23 to 25, the 2009 Western Regional Barista Competition is being held at the Spring Arts Tower in downtown Los Angeles. The event is free and open to the public, so check it out if you want to see 25 competitors from California and Washington unleash their espresso-making skills. Of course, a steady stream of free coffee will be provided. [via Boing Boing]...
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It is with sadness that I write these words. Ricardo Montalban died this morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88. I have fond memories of Mr. Montalban's work—Fantasy Island, where he played the suave Mr. Roarke; Star Trek, where he brilliantly played the villian Khan ("KHANNNNN!"); and—who could forget?—all those commercials in which he touted the "rich Corinthian leather" of the Chrysler Cordoba. He also did a commercial for Maxwell House Coffee, which, of course, is overshadowed by his greater roles. But we thought we'd take you down memory lane with it. It appears after the jump. And we found a small bit in the 1953 movie Sombrero, the first part of which has several food references....
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Continuing The Year That Was, our year-end retrospective of food news. Wow, were there ever a ton of Starbucks items this year, starting with the news that McDonald's was entering the coffee business, challenging Starbucks in a big way. The rest of the year, we watched as the Seattle-based coffee chain attempted to answer that challenge and many more. Starbucks, whose stock declined over much of the year, brought back founder Howard Schultz as CEO, eliminated jobs, got rid of its breakfast sandwiches but then brought them back, started grinding beans fresh in-house, bought the Clover Equipment company, released a new milder brew but then brought back its old bitter "burnt-tasting" blend, redesigned its cups and then scrapped the redesign,...
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Photograph from mary pcb on Flickr Want to explore Seattle while being super caffeinated? Seattle By Foot offers walking tours specific to the city's coffee culture, as the Seattle Times reports this week. Vicki Schuman, a former airline business analyst, leads the 1.6 mile tour, which includes pit stops for a peppermint mocha from Seattle's Best Coffee, Panamanian and Colombian roasts from Seattle Coffee Works, Ephemere hot chocolate from Dilettante Mocha Café, and a demitasse of Clover machine-brewed Ethiopian Yirgacheffe at Trabant Coffee & Chai. While brewing, baristas at the cafes will explain the bean's history and filtration techniques. According to the Seattle by Foot's FAQ page, the amount of coffee you drink is at your discretion and restroom...
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