Monday, 22 February 2016

Rick Fox -- Kobe's Finger Injury Was Nothing ... He's Been Through Worse (VIDEO)

There was one guy unimpressed with Kobe Bryant popping his finger back in place and playing an NBA game ... Rick Fox ... who says a dislocated finger is cake compared to Mamba's other injuries. Fox was at LAX (guy flies more than Superman) when we


Coffee and Cocoa: The Twin Peaks of Shark Mountain Coffee

coffee and chocolate Shark Mountain
Chocolate and coffee have plenty in common. Theyre both grown in the tropics, fermented during their processing phases, and roasted and ground before reaching their culinary conclusions. One would therefore...

Sunday, 21 February 2016

'Hollywood Divas' Star Elise Neal -- A Light Fell on My Head at Work ... So I Quit!

"Hollywood Divas" star Elise Neal says she bailed on her show after equipment busted her head open during a shoot, and producers refused to foot the medical bills. Neal tells TMZ she was taping a scene at a bowling alley when a...


Saturday, 20 February 2016

'Mob Wives' Big Ang -- Friends, Family & Co-stars Attend Memorial (PHOTOS)

"Mob Wives" star Big Ang was remembered in Brooklyn Saturday, with hundreds of friends, family and cast members gathering for the service. The event was held at Scarpaci Funeral Home and lines for the visitation stretched around the block. "Mob...


Friday, 19 February 2016

Don't Miss Breakfast! Register For Lockex 2016 Today

Don't Miss Breakfast! Register For Lockex 2016 Today

Lockex is offering the first 1,500 locksmiths to register their attendance a free breakfast.


The first 1,500 locksmiths to register online are entitled to a FREE ?5 lunch voucher and a bacon sandwich for breakfast.


Read more...

Vigilante Coffee Unmasks Beautifully Remodeled DC-Area Flagship

image1 (7)
Some vigilantes don a mask and dispense justice outside the law. Others believe in total transparency and dispense coffee in full accordance with local, state and federal regulations. Chris Vigilante...

Kanye West -- I'm a Paparazzi Peacemaker Now!!! (VIDEO)

Kanye West has completed his metamorphosis ... he's gone from fighting paparazzi at the airport to breaking up paparazzi fights. Check out our video ... Kanye not only steps in when 2 photogs go for each other's face, he ends up hugging one of them...


Thursday, 18 February 2016

The 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind' Solution to the Capsule Sustainability Problem

Used Nespresso capsules
There's a reason an anti-capsule campaign would state that the number of discarded capsules in a given year could circle the earth 10.5 million times. As simple humans, we need the...

Lynnhaven Coffee Drops Anchor in Virginia Beach

IMG_20150724_070427
Coffee and dairy have a complicated relationship. While an increasing number of roasters strive for coffee of such high quality and complexity that they hope to highlight as purely as...

Moka Magnate Renato Bialetti Meets His Maker in a Moka Pot

moka pot urn
Renato Bialetti, the man who helped turn the moka pot into one of the world's most popular coffee brewing devices through the development of his Italian family business, passed away last...

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Cafe Review: Coffee Department in Istanbul

Cafe Review: Coffee Department in Istanbul by Michael


Coffee Department Istanbul


Not that many years ago, few visitors would have wandered the backstreets of Balat, Istanbul's old Jewish quarter. The mass exodus of Turkey's religious minorities in the early 20th century left the area vacant and in disrepair. But the neighborhood has "good bones" and in an booming megacity like Istanbul it's only a matter of time before a craft coffee shop pops up on some unexpected backstreet. Enter the Coffee Department.Coffee Department


Whether it's the original wood exterior or the hand-painted tile floor, Coffee Department is a pearl in the middle of a modernist sea of concrete. In fact, it was the building's miraculously preserved character that inspired Coffee Department founder Metin Benbasat to choose the up-and-coming Balat over the more established Beyoglu, which boasts most of Istanbul's third wave cafes. The interior is spacious by Istanbul standards, although Coffee Department's 1.5 Kilo Probatino coffee roaster and assorted bags of green coffee take up a sizable footprint.

Coffee Department


When I asked Metin why he opened up a cafe and microroastery, he replied simply. "Because I love it." After I tried a Chemex of his Kochere, Ethiopia, I realized what he didn't mention: that he's also really good at it. Floral aromatics gave way to a sweet, juicy coffee that ranked among the best cups of filter coffee I had during my recent two week stint in Istanbul. Being a two-cups-a-day kind of person, I also had a shot of his Colombia, Aromas Del Sur which was dense, sweet, and immensely enjoyable.


Coffee Department The understated charm and the exceptional coffee quality of Coffee Department make it one of my top coffee destinations in Istanbul. Coffee Department is a short, five-minute walk from the Greek Patriarchate in Fener. For tourists, the easiest way to get to Balat is by bus from Eminonu. If it's a nice day, take a long but enjoyable walk along the shore of the Golden Horn. Regardless how you get there, make sure you don't miss this gem when you visit Istanbul.


Cafe Review: Coffee Department in Istanbul was first posted by Michael on The Coffee Compass, The Coffee Compass - Your Guide for Craft Coffee

With Dual Espresso Counters, Jubala Coffee Pulls a Double Shop

All photos courtesy of Jubala Coffee
In food service, as in comedy, timing is everything. So when a quality-focused coffeehouse is faced with the mixed blessing of long lines, the potential bottleneck at the drink-crafting station...

'Mobwives' Big Ang -- Rep Says Still Alive ... Fighting For Her Life

"Mobwives" star Angela "Big Ang" Raiola is still alive and surrounded by family members at a Manhattan hospital despite multiple reports saying she died according to a statement from a rep. Outlets first reported Ang had passed away after a battle...


Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Titus Young -- Ex-NFL Star Sued for Battery ... 'Deep Wounds to Head'

Ex-NFL wide receiver Titus Young ducked out of a court-ordered treatment center and beat a guy so badly, the dude was hospitalized with brutal injuries ... this according to a lawsuit obtained by TMZ Sports. We broke the story, the former Detroit...


It's Like Wine in a Box, but It's Slingshot Coffee

slingshot coffee
In seems like everybody is cold-brewing and bottling or canning coffee these days. But if we go all the way back to 2012, among the modern cold movement's trailblazers was Raleigh's...

Roasters: Send Us your "Macro-Lot" Samples

We review many superb "micro-lots" at Coffee Review, small lots of special, extremely refined green coffees. For next month, however, we are reviewing what we are calling "macro-lot" coffees, coffees produced from large lots of green coffee, coffees that are likely to be sold over weeks or months, and represent the sort of staple offerings that anchor a roaster's regular business, week in and week out.


Our general definition of macro-lot is at least 100 bags (roughly) of the same green coffee, owned or contracted for by the roaster. The 100 bags do not need to be held in the roaster's facility at this moment, and it's obviously fine if the roaster started with around 100 bags and now is down to fewer.


But we think readers may want to know about the great, staple, day-in-day-out dependable single-origin coffees available from their favorite roasters.


If you're a roaster and you have a fine single-origin coffee from a larger lot, please send us a sample or contact Kim Westerman at kim@coffeereview.com for instructions on sending it. We are extending the deadline to February 25.



The post Roasters: Send Us your "Macro-Lot" Samples appeared first on Coffee Review.

Monday, 15 February 2016

Adele -- Hello ... Where'd My Audio Go?

Adele's Grammy performance Monday night should have been the highlight of the show ... but the sound engineer had different ideas. The singer took the stage towards the end of the night to perform "All I Ask," but her mic cut out early in the song...


Rost Coffee Shines the Light in Chillicothe, Ohio

Photos courtesy of Rost
Sometimes a coffee scene is much like a photograph, in that a lack of exposure lets darkness prevail. "Underexposed" is the diplomatic term Trent Fannin used to describe the coffee...

Sasa Sestic Leading 'Best of' El Salvador and Honduras Auctions

Sasa Sestic
2015 World Barista Championship Sasa Sestic of Australia is leveraging his profile and his partnerships to lead "best of" green coffee competitions and auctions this year in El Salvador and Honduras....

Antonio Tarver -- I'm Not a Cheater ... 'I Was Framed'

Boxer Antonio Tarver says he was SET UP -- claiming he never used banned substances for his August '15 fight with Steve Cunningham ... and claims he's the victim in a diabolical frame job. Tarver was suspended 6 months by the New Jersey State...


Jay Z -- Best Reaction To '14 Year Drug Dealer' Slam (VIDEO)

Jay Z finally responded to online anchor Tomi Lahren's attack on Beyonce's halftime show and his criminal past ... and it's awesome. Lahren's rant went viral when she called out Bey, saying ... "Your husband was a drug dealer for 14...


Per'La Roasters a New Jewel in South Florida's Specialty Scene

unspecified-1
This is why you should stay in better touch with your friends and family. In March of last year, Paul Massard sent his University of Miami buddy and fraternity brother...

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Kanye West Album -- T.L.O.P. Stands for ...

Forget "Swish" and "Waves" ... Kanye West just revealed the new title of his album, and it appears to be a shout out to the biggest drug lord in history. West tweeted the answer to the T.L.O.P. riddle -- he challenged fans to guess what the...


Crimson Cup Cuts the Ribbon on Innovation Lab in Columbus

crimson_cup_lab
Progress continues in leaps and bounds for the Roast Magazine 2016 Roaster of the Year, Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea. Back in January of 2015, the company fired up production in a...

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

Viral 'Family Feud' Contestant -- Sorry, Steve Harvey... But I'm Not the 'Worst Ever' (VIDEO)

The "Family Feud" contestant Steve Harvey ripped for delivering the "worst answer ever" ... says she's positive she's NOT the worst -- although proving it might be difficult. Sheila Patterson tells TMZ ... her phone's been ringing off the...


New Production HQ an Antidote to Black Medicine's Growing Pains in Oakland

Black Medicine founder Chris Cooper during an interview with a local television news team. Black Medicine photo.
There is only so much grocery shelf space in the world, but RTD specialty coffee drinks have been aggressively staking claim to that real estate over the past two...

Monday, 8 February 2016

Backstreet Boys -- Quit Playing Games With Our Yuan! Chinese Co. Sues Promoter

The Backstreet Boys are in the middle of a little showdown in big China -- between a concert touring company and a promoter accused of pulling a $2 million scam. The touring company says it forked over the cash to a woman named Angela Wong, who...


Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Huckleberry Roasters

huckleberry coffee
In today's unpacking coffee, Kandace and Ray dig deep into packaging with Denver's Huckleberry Roasters, which in four years of business has continued to up their packaging investments whenever possible....

Sunday, 7 February 2016

Beyonce -- Sorry Gamblers ... No Cleavage Tonight!

Beyonce's boobs were a no-go at the Super Bowl halftime show ... meaning gamblers who bet she'd rock cleavage lost money -- AND had to endure that boring as hell Coldplay performance. As we previously reported, Beyonce's chest situation...


Saturday, 6 February 2016

Orlando Bloom & Katy Perry -- Together Again ... and They Gotta Be Bangin' (PHOTO)

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom just can't get enough of each other ... hanging out twice in less than a week. Perry was seen in Bloom's backseat Saturday after a party at Robert Downey Jr's Malibu pad, and she looks pretty cozy. Bloom's 5-year-old son...


Friday, 5 February 2016

Johnny Manziel -- Dallas Cops Open Investigation

Johnny Manziel is now the subject of a Dallas PD investigation. 24 hours after cops said they would not arrest Manziel for allegedly beating Colleen Crowley last weekend -- police now say they will investigate because Crowley is cooperating.


From Oaxaca to Oakland, Proyecto Diaz Offers the Promise of Progress

pdc_warehouse
Recently the State of California made permanent a dazzling LED light sculpture, created in partnership with renowned artist Leo Villareal, on the suspension cables of the west span of the...

Thursday, 4 February 2016

Model Katie May -- 'Queen of Snapchat' Dies at 34

Katie May, a hugely successful model and social media star, died after suffering a stroke on Monday. May had been hospitalized since a blockage in her carotid artery caused the "catastrophic" stroke. She remained in critical condition until her…


Trolling the Supermarkets for Single-Origin Coffees

Every month Coffee Review publishes reviews of exceptional, often extraordinary single-origin coffees: green coffees produced in a single country, from a single crop, from a single farm or cooperative and, often, from a single variety of tree. These coffees are usually roasted and packaged by smaller roasting companies, however, so unless you happen to live in the immediate neighborhood of one of these companies you need to buy these very distinctive single-origin coffees online.


What options, we wondered, are available in the way of exciting, distinctive single-origin coffees at the local supermarket or big specialty food store? Are there coffees that consumers can just pull off the shelf and toss in their carts during a weekly shopping run that at least come close in quality and character to those available from the websites of smaller, higher-end roasting companies?


Although various cities and neighborhoods in our home base, the San Francisco Bay Area, regularly enjoy periods of self-congratulatory "it's all happening here, folks" culinary buzz (Oakland is enjoying one of those moments as I write), the actual array of supermarket, specialty food and big box chains in our area is typical of those found in most large U.S. urban centers. We scouted the aisles of Safeway, by far the dominant supermarket chain in our region, of Target, of Costco, of Trader Joe's, the innovating value-oriented specialty food chain, and of Whole Foods, the more upmarket innovating specialty food chain.


Although we bought coffees for which "single origin" was defined by the broadest of criteria - coffee produced in a single country from a single crop year - we particularly focused on finding coffees that fit the single-origin epithet more closely: coffees from a single farm or coop, or even a special selection from a single farm or coop.


An Overview


Very roughly, the roasters of the coffees we bought fell into the following categories: 1) major national or international brands (Maxwell House, Lavazza, Gevalia, Dunkin' Donuts, McCafe, Illy); 2) national specialty coffee chains (Starbucks, Peet's); 3) proprietary store brands (Trader Joe's, Target's Archer Farms, Whole Foods' Allegro, Safeway Select); 3) elite specialty roasters with increasing national presence and satellite roasting facilities in our area (Intelligentsia Coffee, Counter Culture Coffee); and a scattering of offerings from genuinely local-only specialty roasting companies of varying sizes (in this case the largish Mr. Espresso in Oakland and the smaller Ritual Coffee Roasters and Sightglass Coffee in San Francisco).


We bought and tested thirty-eight samples. We did not, alas, find any 94- or 95-rated, palate-blowing gems. But the top twelve, nine of which are reviewed here, netted rather impressive ratings of 88 to 93. The entire array of thirty-eight coffees averaged around 85. Since we were able to buy more Colombias than any other single-origin, and because we wanted to convey some sense of the overall range of coffee quality and character we experienced, we added to the nine reviews of high-rated samples a review of a mid-rated Colombia (the 84-rated Safeway Kitchens 100% Colombia) and a very low-rated Colombia (the 75-rated Maxwell House 100% Colombia Medium Roast).


Big-Store Coffee Shopping: Some Issues and Answers


Cupping for this report raised an interesting set of issues and questions, more interesting than I had expected. Here, from a consumer perspective, are some questions and answers provoked by our little sampling.


Q: How important is buying coffee as whole bean and grinding it yourself as opposed to buying it pre-ground?


A: Apparently quite important. Of the six coffees rated 90 or higher, five were whole bean. The average rating for whole bean samples was 86; for pre-ground 84. This should come as no surprise, of course. Roasted beans are natural packages protecting the delicate aromatic substances that give coffee its sensory appeal. Break them open and even the most sophisticated packaging techniques are feeble compensation for the protection lost by premature grinding.


Q: What is the best origin to buy at supermarkets or specialty food stores?


A: Clearly, based on this very limited sampling, Kenya. We tested only two Kenyas; both placed among the three top-rated coffees in the cupping: the Ritual Coffee Kenya Karatina AA Espresso topped the ratings at 93 (tested here for brewed coffee applications, not espresso) and the Trader Joe's Kenya AA Medium Roast tied for second at 92. However, another origin that regularly attracts high ratings on Coffee Review, Ethiopia, did not burn through the ratings this time round: three samples, high 88, low 84, average 87. Guatemala did well (three samples, including the 92-rated Allegro Organic Guatemala Asuvim Micro-Lot: high 92, low 85, average 88). Central Africa (Rwanda and Tanzania) also did rather well (four samples: high 89; low 83; average 87).


It should come as no surprise, however, that Colombia turned out to be the most frequently appearing single-origin on store shelves. Colombia has recovered from its recent weather-related crisis and is currently producing very large quantities of often quite good coffee at reasonable prices. Plus there is still the residual impact of decades of effective marketing of Colombia coffee around the photogenic Juan Valdez character and his donkey. Fourteen of the thirty-eight samples we tested were Colombias. However, they ranged enormously in quality, from a high of 90 to a low of 69, with an average of 84.


Two Colombias attracted the 90 rating. One was a surprise: the McCafe 100% Colombian, the highest-rated pre-ground sample in the cupping. The other 90-rated Colombia was a more predictably successful offering, a whole-bean Colombia Narino Medium Roast from a respected, long-established local roasting company, Mr. Espresso. Other solid Colombias were the pre-ground Colombia Luminosa from Peet's Coffee (88) and the whole-bean "Big Trouble" Colombia from Counter Culture Coffee (88). With the exception of the 90-rated McCafe Colombia, pre-ground Colombias from other major national brands ranged from disappointing to outright bad: Dunkin' Donuts Colombian (83); Folgers 100% Colombian Medium Dark (77), and the 75-rated Maxwell House 100% Colombian Medium Roast.


Q: Is it a safer bet to buy a supermarket coffee produced by a local roaster than one from a nationally branded roaster?


A: Based on our modest sampling, the answer is a qualified yes, particularly when considering the coffees at the very top of the ratings: Four of the total of six 90-plus-rated coffees we tested came from roasters identified as local. Two were from San-Francisco-based Ritual Coffee and one was from the largish Oakland wholesale roaster Mr. Espresso. We included the 92-rated Allegro Guatemala Asuvim in the local category because it was roasted in Allegro's nearby Berkeley small-batch roasting facility, not in Allegro's large national facility. On the other hand, a classic small-roaster single-origin coffee (Sumatra Siliban Village) from Sightglass Coffee , a highly-regarded San Francisco company, did only moderately well at 87, and a locally, satellite-roasted Intelligentsia coffee disappointed (probably owing mainly to roast and packaging issues) at 86. Keep in mind that small, local roasters typically do not use expensive, sophisticated packaging techniques to protect coffee (see our section on Supermarket Packaging and Freshness later in this report), so if a store's inventory of these local, small-roaster coffees is not refreshed regularly, quality suffers.


Q: What about roast?


A: As is usual with our surveys, the highest-rated coffees were brought to a medium roast, although this month's samples showed a wide range of medium, with some samples quite light, like the top-rated Ritual Coffee Kenya Karatina (93), and others darkish like the 90-rated McCafe 100% Colombian.


And, as usual, we ran into a few coffees roasted so dark that putting an origin name on the bag constituted a meaningless gesture. Furthermore, with these super-dark-roasted coffees the roast name on the bag often had little connection to what appeared inside. The word "Medium" might appear on the bag, while inside a dark- (sometimes very dark-) roasted coffee showed up. Nevertheless, with most of the samples we tested, the roast description on the bag more or less matched the actual roast style of the coffee.


Q: Which of the supermarket/specialty foods/big box chains surveyed appeared to do best by single-origin coffees?


A: All chain locations we visited offered a more or less reasonable selection of decent single-origin coffees except our local Costco, which seems to have given up on carrying much in the way of coffee aside from a handful of super-dark-roasted selections produced by Starbucks. Our neighborhood Safeway seems to be mounting a significant effort to carry local roasters among its generally wide, if rather motley, selection of nationally-branded, mostly pre-ground coffees. Whole Foods, as usual, offered a good range of single-origin coffees, including locally roasted selections from Allegro Coffee, its specialty coffee subsidiary. The very interesting lineup of rather sophisticated single-origin coffees offered by Target's Archer Farms brand was in part compromised by their pre-ground format, although scores were still solid (three samples; high of 89, low of 85, average 87). Trader Joe's, on the other hand, sells its robust if rather generically described line of single-origin coffees in whole-bean format only (four samples; high 92, low 84, average 87.5).


Supermarket Packaging and Freshness


Packaging strategies used to protect freshly roasted coffee from the staling impact of oxygen are complex. As I noted earlier, all packaging works best when the coffee inside the packaging is whole bean rather than ground. Pre-grinding coffee enormously ups the freshness ante, making technically superior packaging absolutely essential. What follows is an overview of how coffee packaging works and can be evaluated. If you are not interested in the technical details, stop here - I hope you enjoyed the portion of our report you have already read. But if you are interested, here goes.


The Small Roaster Strategy


Most smaller roasting companies use a simple packaging strategy. They seal freshly roasted whole-bean coffee inside foil bags with little one-way valves embedded in the foil. (From the outside these valves look like slightly elevated, nickel-sized circles with a hole in the middle.) The valves allow the large flows of CO2 emitted by the freshly roasted beans to exit the bag, along the way forcing out, or diluting, most of the oxygen-bearing air inside the bag. The valve, if it works right, prevents air/oxygen from re-entering the bag after the flow of CO2 has diminished. This strategy more or less works to protect whole-bean coffee over short periods of time, say two or three weeks. The best smaller roasters supplement this approach by printing "roasted on" dates on the packaging, so that consumers can make their own judgment regarding whether the coffee inside these bags is likely to be fresh enough for them.


This month's top-rated, locally roasted Ritual Coffee Kenya Karatina (93), for example, a coffee almost certainly packaged using a variation on the simple strategy outlined above and bearing a prominent "roasted on" date, showed 4.5% residual oxygen still in the bag with the coffee, considerably less than the approximate 21% oxygen in the atmosphere. It came across on the cupping table as relatively fresh and lively, presumably because it was recently roasted and the oxygen exposure inside the bag was modest.


The Big Roaster Strategy


Understandably, larger roasting companies with national, or even international, reach cannot depend on such simple packaging expedients. Their business models require a longer shelf life: in the United States usually between eight months and a year, in Europe even longer. These large companies typically use the same foil bags with one-way valve as used by small roasters, but they also employ sophisticated packaging machinery that clears the bags of oxygen-bearing atmosphere at the moment the coffee drops into the bags and a split-second before they are sealed. In the most frequently used technique, the oxygen-bearing atmosphere is displaced in the bag at the moment of filling by an injection of pure nitrogen gas, which, unlike oxygen, does not promote staling.


The majority of the nationally branded coffees we tested were clearly packaged using variations on this more sophisticated technique, often called "nitrogen flushing" or simply "flushing." Sometimes cans or jars are used in place of the foil bags, and the crucial one-way valve is embedded in the foil that seals the top of the can or jar rather than appearing on the side of a bag. If all has gone well, such flushed packaging almost always registers 0% residual oxygen inside the package by the time it reaches store shelves and the consumer. In other words, no unabsorbed oxygen remains in the bag or can with the coffee until the moment it is opened.


For example, the best-rated of the pre-ground samples we tested, the McCafe Colombia, showed 0% oxygen. On the other hand, some lower rated nationally or internationally branded samples also showed 0%, yet still were listless or faded in the cup, probably because (still another variable) they were ground in advance of packaging and needed to be allowed to sit before packaging in order to dissipate the first explosive volumes of CO2 initially liberated by roasting and grinding (a process called "degassing"). Or they may have been feeble green coffees to begin with.


Some Takeaways


Still with me? I hope so. To sum up, whole-bean coffees packaged by small companies with recent "roasted on" dates are a good bet for freshness, as are whole bean coffees packaged by large companies using sophisticated equipment. To repeat, preground coffees are likely to be at least a little faded no matter how well-executed the packaging.


Finally, there are occasional major failures. Whole-bean coffees in simple packaging with no "roasted on" dates may be allowed to stale on the shelves (we tested one such semi-staled sample, produced by a very respectable local roaster). And pre-ground coffees in sophisticated packaging may on occasion turn up with that packaging compromised by malfunctioning valves or leaky bag seams. Such flaws can expose the coffee to staling oxygen for months. One of the two Lavazza coffees we tested (Santa Marta Colombia, 69) showed 20% residual oxygen in the bag and a cup so faded that it tasted like vaguely sweetened cardboard. In fact we found three out of approximately twenty-two big-company coffee samples with their sophisticated packaging compromised and showing around 20% residual oxygen, suggesting a failure rate of about 14% for this kind of packaging, a figure that some realists in the packaging industry probably would not find surprising, although many large companies appear to do much better.


You may ask, why not use both this fancy oxygen-reducing procedure and print a "roasted on" date on the packaging? Our locally based but nationally present neighbor Peet's Coffee appears to do just that. On the side of each bag of Peet's coffee we bought at our local supermarket we got the date on which the coffee was actually roasted as well as the usual "best by" date, which in Peet's case was three months out from roasting, a rather reassuring figure given the eight months to a year the coffee industry more typically applies to such coffee packaging. And both of the Peet's coffees we tested (high 88, low 87) showed 0% residual oxygen. Too bad we don't resonate to Peet's darker roast styles. Having worked our way through this exercise, however, we have to love Peet's packaging practices and the integrity those practices suggest.



The post Trolling the Supermarkets for Single-Origin Coffees appeared first on Coffee Review.

Monarch Methods Vies for Throne in the Kingdom of Manual Brew Gear

Chris Chekan at the Workshop. All photos courtesy of Monarch Methods.
As pourover kettles evolved last year into higher-tech items of sleeker design, such as the Brewista Smart Brew Digital Kettle and the debonair Stagg Kettle, respectively, there was another company...

ABUS was set up to beat the burglar - Sometimes we defeat the locksmith too!

ABUS was set up to beat the burglar - Sometimes we defeat the locksmith too!

Carl Jacque, owner of Pick & Fix Locksmiths in Caister is used to having to remove locks. When he was called out to remove a brass padlock with lost keys he felt his trusty 24" bolt cutters would be more than sufficient for the task.


Read more...

Wednesday, 3 February 2016

Help KC's Blip Roasters Rebuild After a Terrible Fire

Facebook photo by Blip Roasters showing damage from the fire.
While a competitive swath of the U.S. barista community is currently in Kansas City for the qualifying rounds of the U.S. Coffee Championships, which will take place in April in Atlanta,...

Union at the Locksmith Expo 2016

Union at the Locksmith Expo 2016

Attending for the seventh consecutive year since the show began in 2010, UNION, from ASSA ABLOY Security Solutions a UK division of ASSA ABLOY, the global leader in door opening solutions, will be exhibiting at the Locksmith Expo 2016.


Read more...

Feds fight release of draft indictments against Hillary...


Feds fight release of draft indictments against Hillary...


(Top headline, 1st story, link)
Related stories:


Waka Flocka Flame -- That Blonde Chick and I Tricked Everyone (VIDEO)

Waka Flocka Flame is not just a rapper, he's a comedian and accidental sociologist who's now copping to pulling one over on the Internet with a viral video. We caught up with Waka at LAX and he confessed that viral video of a random…


Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Hilary Duff, Mike Comrie -- Divorce Final ... Rich Property Split

Hilary Duff is now a single woman, and former NHL star Mike Comrie's a single guy, because their divorce is now final. According to new legal docs making the divorce official, Hilary must pay Mike $2,408,786 to settle their financial split. She…


Butter Coffee Comes to Canned Conclusion in Grass Fed Coffee

coffee
The inevitable next step for the butter coffee fad has arrived in the form of Grass Fed Coffee, a Los Angeles startup with wide distribution plans for an RTD, canned...

Monday, 1 February 2016

Cindy Crawford -- I'm Kinda Flakey On Retirement

It's a good thing Cindy Crawford looks hot in sandals (and everything else) -- cause the chick is flip flopping big time on quitting the modeling game. Cindy says she tells her kids every year that she's retiring and its become a "running joke in…


Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Elm Coffee Roasters

elm coffee
In today's Unpacking Coffee, Kandace and Ray dig into the roasting and branding roots of Elm Coffee Roasters, which recently celebrated the first anniversary of its roastery and cafĂ© in the heart of...