Archive for February, 2002

Posted on February 28, 2002 - by deCadmus

The Birth of CoffeeReview

The folks at Bellissimo’s Coffee Universe have finally gotten a revamped Coffee Review off the ground… and in a fairly substantial way. Not only are Ken David’s [sometimes] monthly reviews back online, but so are what appear to be the complete archive of his reviews.

This month Ken cups Kona. While he offers kudos to small farm Konas in general, I’m disappointed that my favorite growers, Bob and Cea at Smithfarm’s, didn’t make his radar. Still, Davids offers a rounded point of view, and his companion article, Are Kona Coffee’s Worth It? sums up the question of Kona well…

“…the higher price this coffee commands enables a lot of passionately committed, often innovative small farmers to pursue both quality and distinction and get paid something resembling fair prices for their efforts. Would that were true right now elsewhere in the world of fine coffee.”

Amen.

Posted on February 28, 2002 - by deCadmus

Bad Analog

In Chapter 31 of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the author recounts the tragic story of a freak wormhole, an accidental insult, and the consequences of gross miscalculation of scale — in which the joint battle fleet of the Vl’Hurgs and the G’Gugvuntt’s tear through space for a thousand years and descend upon our lonely blue planet only to be accidentally swallowed by a small dog. [Full text here.]

I bring this to your attention because it’s the only analog in memory to describe the grave miscalculation recently made by PC Magazine’s John Dvorak in his fateful decision to take on the collective not only of webloggers everywhere, but the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto. That’s right kids: Dvorak, vs. Rageboy. This one’s got my vote for the Darwin Awards.

Posted on February 27, 2002 - by deCadmus

A Coffee Experience

This evening at the local Borders I ordered a double espresso. This is *not* something I would ordinarily do… in-store coffee shops have a dismal track record in my book, serving coffee that is all over the map in terms of quality. But the two young ladies behind the counter were 1) clearly interested in whether the customers they’d just served liked their coffee, and 2) clearly having a very good time.

Me: I’d like a double espresso.
Girl #1: Great! [beaming smile] Would you like in one of our really *cute* little cups?
Girl #2: [raises a cup and saucer in a pose that would do Vanna White proud.]
Me: Absolutely!

I should note: this is the first time I’ve *ever* been offered a real cup — I’ve always had to state my own preference — even in specialty coffee shops that should know better.

[grinder noises. tamping noises. grunting noises. grunting?]

I catch bits and pieces of the girls’ conversation… I hear “tweaked the grinder” and “about forty pounds” and “look! It’s perfect!”. Beaming, Girl #2 sets a cup on the counter. It’s about 2.5 ounces, the crema is slightly pale. I try it… and it’s not bad. It’s not bad at all.

What’s more, it was a very positive customer experience… the girls behind the counter were clearly trying very hard, and taking pride in their efforts. They get extra points for style… and enthusiasm.

Posted on February 27, 2002 - by deCadmus

Polly want espresso?

Polly want espresso? Polly want espresso? Polly want espresso? Polly want espresso? Polly want espresso! Polly want espresso? Polly want espresso?

Posted on February 27, 2002 - by deCadmus

Storing roasted coffee…

A frequently asked question on alt.coffee: how do I best store roasted coffee? Will a zippy bag do?

Inexpensive zippy bags don’t do much to keep gasses from wafting this way and that — in and out of the bag. They may be water-tight… but they are gas permeable. In my experience, some are also *reactive* in that beans stored in them take on a “plastic-ey” aroma. [Ewww]

Better bags — freezer bags, for example, and those made for home vacuum-sealing — are far less permeable. As a result, these bags can burst open from the pressure of outgassing CO2, which can leave you no better than you were with the cheap zippy bags.

Then there are coffee storage bags — bags made for the express purpose of storing coffee. These feature one-way valves that allow CO2 to escape, and multiple layers of non-permeable films. They’re not cheap, but they’re highly reusable, and they don’t shatter when you drop them on the floor. ;)

I’ve switched to these bags pretty much exclusively. As a result, I’ve got a cupboard full of decorative little glass jars that I now use when giving coffee as a gift. While the recipient is welcome to keep the jar, when I give roasted coffee in a valve-bag, I want the bag back!

Posted on February 27, 2002 - by deCadmus

Coffee Maker Usability

Mark Hurst of Creative Good has found his voice again. Among his first new blog entries is a shot at coffee makers…

“I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but one morning last week I was interested to see a friend of mine struggling with a new coffee maker. It was too hard to use. This Cuisinart model, some sort of all-in-one grinder and percolator, was loaded with high-tech buttons that seemed to do everything except make coffee. My friend — a technologist and veteran coffee drinker — was stumped. Maybe Starbucks sells so much overpriced brew because no one knows *how* to make coffee any more.”

As I spend an inordinate amount of time at the curious intersection of the user experience and specialty coffee, I simply had to write…

“…it’s far worse than you realize. Not only are latter-day coffee makers atrocities of user design, they are examples of utterly failed engineering throughout. Even if you were to successfully articulate the proper sequence of button pressing and clock setting; even if you loaded just-roasted coffee and purified water in their respective reservoirs; even if you follow *every* instruction to seven decimal places, you’ll end up with lousy coffee.

Why? Because there isn’t a single “home-use” auto-drip coffee maker on the U.S. market that meets the essential standards for water temperature, brew-time, turbulence, and extraction rates proscribed by the Specialty Coffee Association of America [the preeminent specialty coffee trade association.] You’ll achieve great coffee only by manually wresting control of one or more of these factors by choosing a comparatively “primitive” brew method: a coffee press, manual vacuum pot, or manual drip filter.”

I don’t think Mark will follow-up on his original article… he’s found that the coffee community can be quite vocal, and apparently the Cuisinart in question has some fierce proponents. Personally, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such mixed reviews for a single product.

Posted on February 25, 2002 - by deCadmus

Cuppa Joe, Easy on the Tummy

WIRED — “Some people can’t start their day without a caffeine jolt from a cup of coffee. But for those with sensitive stomachs, even drinking decaffeinated coffee can be uncomfortable.

Coffee entrepreneur Johann Wulff insists there’s another option. Coffee Legends markets The Considerate Coffee, which claims to be gentler on the stomach than the usual beans sold at coffeehouses and supermarkets.”

Posted on February 23, 2002 - by deCadmus

Usable Reviews on Amazon

Last fall Amazon inked a deal with Target in which Amazon takes over much of Target.com’s distribution, customer service and eBiz infrastructure, while Target.com will sell books and music from Amazon.

Recent visits to Amazon suggest that at least part of the deal was about Amazon getting access to the sassy, sensually designed bric a brac that is the work of architect/designer Michael Graves. From coffee grinders to clocks, kettles to digital phones, Graves’ designs are curvy, playful and decidedly easy to look at — and they’re splashed all over the Amazon site.

The juxtaposition of Michael Graves’ trendy product line and Amazon’s system of consumer ratings and reviews offers an intriguing perspective…

The Graves Cordless Phone: “It is hard to hear people even with it cranked up to full volume. Confusing to use. Now has a red light flashing on it and I do not know why.” “The design is nice, but it is totally unusable as a phone. It makes a constant loud electronic sound like the sounds in sci fi movies from the ’50s.” “The phone had static no matter what channel you used and sometimes you could not answer it no matter how many times you pressed the talk button!!!”

The Graves Programmable Coffeemaker: “It looks so cute but just try to pour a freakin cup of coffee and it will go everywhere but your cup.” “No matter how careful or how slowly you try to pour it’s just a mess. I guess it’s a bad design. Sure it’s cute, but believe me that is the only thing good about this coffeemaker.”

The Graves Spinner Whistle Teakettle: “It doesn’t have any additional features other than its unique appearance, which frankly, looks more appealing on the web than in my kitchen.”

Easy to look at simply does not equate with easy to use… even when the products, and the designer, have won awards.

Posted on February 22, 2002 - by deCadmus

Peetniks -R- Us

I remain a big fan of Peet’s, despite the fact that I roast my own coffee these days. Peet’s has a remarkable history — one of quality, and consumer education. The company, and its people, have made an indelible contribution to the world we now know as specialty coffee.

Alfred Peet provided coffee to Starbuck’s way back when their mermaid had something to blush about. He even allowed the young Seattle company’s founders to copy his store’s design for their tiny shop in the Pacific Northwest. The story goes that Starbuck’s grew quickly, and Peet had to tell the gang to get their own roaster… and taught them how to use it.

In time, Starbuck’s Jerry Baldwin bought Peet’s, and moved to the San Francisco Bay with his head roaster, Jim Reynolds, to concentrate on Peet’s alone. At the same time, he sold Starbuck’s to Howard Schultz… a guy who sold plastic, and had visions of a coffee bar on every corner.

These days Peet’s, too, has IPOed — and is growing its business nationwide — but the business is still very much about the coffee, and about educating consumers. The Peet’s Winter 2002 newsletter [sorry, postal mail only, but you can sign up online] bears this out, with particularly insightful articles on blending, and on growing relationships with coffee producers. Sure, it’s a catalog… but it’s also a lucid glimpse at the folks on the other side of the counter.

Posted on February 21, 2002 - by deCadmus

The other puck…

It’s been a challenge to write much of anything today, between far too many blue-screens [I'm behind in my Windows re-install regimen] and today’s incredible Olympic hockey schedule [go, USA!] I find myself rebooting and cursing between periods. I’m watching games that are massively time-shifted by CNBC and MSNBC as my TiVo is misbehaving… so I stick my fingers in my ears every time the play-by-play turns to discussion of games that I haven’t seen yet. I’m gonna watch the Czech Republic and Belarus matches if I have to stay up all night to catch ‘em. And I probably will.

Add to this dogpile the fact that my better half is under the weather with something flu-like, her parents are visiting [her mother also has something flu-like] and I’ve had grocery shopping to do and dinner to cook…

Of course, I did manage to roast a couple pounds of coffee. A man’s gotta have his priorities.

If you haven’t sampled any of this season’s Papua New Guinea Kimel Estate, you really should. It’s a gold medal contender.