The DC area’s Fox affiliate is doing a series on its morning news show this week on coffee. Started today at Vigilante Coffee, one of my favorite local roasters. Nice overview of the roasting process. Check out the video here.
We all know about one-hit wonders, but what about acts that successfully chart two songs and are never heard from again?
You can have your Tone Loc and your Paula Cole, but for me the best was the Greg Kihn Band. Both hits are undeniably ear candy that are fun to sing along with (especially in your car with the windows down on a nice day), you get a little bit of jangling guitar in one and some white boy funk in the other, and the clincher? One was the source material for a Weird Al song. Game, set and match. If you weren’t into early 80’s rock, just play ‘em 21x in a row and you’ll see.
The good people at Sprudge are doing their own tournament this month, and the sweet sixteen is now set.
MA-CCHI-A-TO!!! clap clap clapclap clap
First round losses by pumpkin spice latte, iced vanilla latte, caramel macchiato, and mocha frappuccino? Pump it straight into my veins!
A short time ago I mentioned that for some reason the people at Coca-Cola thought combining their iconic cola with “rich, luxurious” coffee was a good idea. I tried to forget about it, but recently I saw that Jenn Chen at Sprudge did a taste test and my curiosity got the better of me. I purposely didn’t read the article first, since I was already coming into this with negative preconceptions. Stopped by a local market, plunked down my money for a can of the stuff, opened it up and gave it a whirl.
Oof. No bueno. What seemed like a bad idea may be even worse in reality.
I won’t bore you with a long, detailed review. Basically, here’s the deal: if you like Coke, you will be disappointed. If you like coffee, you’ll really be disappointed.
Each sip starts with the underwhelming flavor of a poor quality off-brand cola that is nowhere near as good as Coke, and finishes with a flavorless sensation of weak, bland coffee. There is nothing rich or luxurious about it. They’ve combined two things many like and worsened them. They may be going for 1 + 1 = 3, but they flunked and ended up at 1 + 1 = -7.
….. when they give you a gift like this.
Really looking forward to digging into this.
Until recently I had never heard of Geisha coffee, the hyper-expensive specialty beans grown in Latin America, often at very high altitude. The name is not related to the traditional Japanese entertainers, but the Gesha region of Ethiopia, where the bean originated before being taken to Latin America. You can fall down the historical rabbit hole of the name derivation and the “is it geisha or gesha” coffee nerd battle here.
I was talking with a colleague who is from Bolivia and the conversation turned to coffee. She told me her family back home has a coffee plantation that produces this super premium coffee in very small lots, which they sell to a very limited clientele of roasters around the world. The company, Takesi, has the highest elevation plantation in the world. Takesi sells in the US to Intelligentsia, and the beans sell out in fast order when they are available. I’m hoping to get a chance at some point to try it.
Continue readingGreat local news piece on La Casa del Caffe, home of the world’s finest cup of coffee. Anna is such a treasure. Watching this should help you understand why I always go out of my way to visit any time I’m near New York city.
Great artist. Great song. Great back story. Enjoy it 21x in a row.