Archive for March, 2002

Posted on March 6, 2002 - by deCadmus

Office Perks

Does the latest office perk include throwing the perc away? At the height of the dotcom boom — with companies in cutthroat competition for the best and the brightest tech employees — specialty coffee gained a toehold in the workplace, an environment that had long been wasteland of oversized coffee urns and weak, bitter brew. It seems those employees who ducked the pendulum’s swing have dug in their heels on the coffee front, to the delight of coffee sellers like Peet’s and Starbucks, as well as Mom and Pop shops across the land.

Office coffee is a huge market — at US $3 billion or so — so it’s not surprising that the gourmet Goliath’s are in full pursuit. But does high quality pre-ground coffee translate into a great office cup? Not if it’s business-as-usual… and a quick survey of the office coffee machine will tell the tale.

The essentials of brewing are the same whether you’re brewing a solo cup at home, or a big pot for the office crowd. Mind your grind, ratio, time and temperature, and — at the very least — clean that icky brewer!

Posted on March 5, 2002 - by deCadmus

A children’s riddle…

Q: What has four eyes but can’t see? A: The Mississippi river.

There’s another four-eyed monster that’s puzzled by that whole “vision” thing… the collective of Information Designers, Interaction Designers, Interface Designers and Information Architects. The “Four I” designation comes from Christina at elegant hack, who has, for some time now, tracked the progression of the fifth I — the Identity — of these complexly interrelated fields. In addition to entries in her daily gleanings, she offers a collection of definitions of Information Architecture [IA] in particular.

The identity issue isn’t new… and it embodies far more than the simple question of what’s in a name, although, since at least part of Information Architecture involves labeling systems, the name issue is particularly frustrating for some. Other questions are far more important, and more difficult to answer. What is the role of the Information Architect? What are the IA’s methods? What are the boundaries of the IA’s domain? And, perhaps most important [for me, certainly,] what are the goals of Information Architecture?

I’m not certain that the final question has been adequately answered… what’s more, I suspect the answer will reveal quite a lot about the emerging identity of Information Architecture, and maybe say something about all those other I’s. It’s a riddle worth solving.

Posted on March 5, 2002 - by deCadmus

Coffee is 98 percent water…

… so if you want to brew great tasting coffee, start with great tasting water. Simple, right? Not always.

For years I used a Brita water pitcher to filter my tap water. It definitely improved the taste of the water… and the smell. [This was two moves ago, and the water in that house smelled awful... we never knew why.] The Brita pitcher, however, was inconvenient to keep filled, and, if its filter cycle wasn’t complete it would dribble unfiltered water while you poured. Newer designs have, I understand, resolved some of the sloppy factor, and a recent model that holds two gallons would likely be an improvement… but there’s still those filters to replace every month or two.

Of course, you can buy tasty filtered water at the grocery store — in liters, gallons, or even five gallon jugs — but who really wants to slog that much water home from the store… and at such a premium price? [Lots of people evidently, and my wife among them.] And there there are those dongles — faucet-mount filters — which may or may not fit your faucet, and which look pretty silly, besides.

A ready supply of fresh, great-tasting water really demands a full-time solution… one that requires minimal futzing with filters, and — hopefully — one that’s more or less invisible. There’s a huge variety of under-sink, plumbed in water filters… enough to make the decision of which one to buy a bit tedious.

The winner in terms of sheer filtering capability are reverse-osmosis [RO] filters. Fact is, they can filter too well, by eliminating virtually all mineral content from the water. Without minerals, the water-level sensors in auto-filling espresso machines get confused. More to the point, RO water tastes a bit peculiar, and many companies that produce filtered water with RO methods actually put some minerals back in to improve the taste. Finally, RO filters can waste as much as eight gallons for each gallon of water that they purify. We’ll call that strike three, and move on.

There are single, dual and triple-stage filters with cartridges that remove chemicals, heavy metals, and organic things that live in your water supply. There are also cartridges that soften water. These are great for espresso — eliminating scale before it ever starts — but not so good for brewed coffee, as softened water doesn’t brew very well… it slows extraction. In general, it breaks down this way: a single-stage filter that has to do everything will require more frequent filter replacement than a dual or triple. A triple will last longest of all, but it requires three cartridges. A dual-stage filter struck me as a fair trade-off in convenience, capability and economy.

And so, this weekend I spent some quality time under my kitchen sink installing a Plymouth Products dual-stage filter. It was a snap to install — particularly compared to the kitchen faucet I replaced at the same time — good instructions, and no leaks. [Given my plumbing skills, this is quite remarkable.]

The water? Very tasty. And I think there’s a marked improvement in the taste of my coffee. In particular, I think there’s a bit less of the “muddy” aspect to earthy coffees like Sumatra Mandheling, and Costa Rica Tres Rios. I think there may be a bit more of a floral note in the killer Ethiopian Yrgacheffe that was part of the Mystery Cup Challenge. ‘Course, I might be imagining these things, and it will take a number of rounds of blind cupping to know anything for certain.

What is already *very* clear is that all of the coffees I’ve brewed with this new water system are better over time… that is, they maintain better flavor while being held in a thermal carafe. Not that a pot of coffee lasts that long in this house…

Posted on March 4, 2002 - by deCadmus

And sometimes it’s just a catalog…

In the last weeks I’ve heaped praise upon The Coffee Project and Peet’s for their very informative newsletter-cum-catalogs — they’re terrific examples of these companies’ efforts to make us all more aware of the diverse origins, flavors and nuances of specialty coffees. Today, by a stroke of fortuity [or keen marketeering, your pick] Starbucks Early Spring catalog arrived.

I begin by noting Starbucks has evidently tapped into the part of my cerebral cortex that screams “Buy it! Buy it! You really *need* this!” The Black Clay Pottery Mugs on page 4 were the first to trip this alarm. The Abaca Table Runner and Art Deco Coasters on page 5 set off bells, too. Do I *need* any of these things? ‘Course not… I merely covet them. A lot. Merchandising score: 5 out of 5.

Let’s turn to the educating the consumer aspect… On page 9 there is a one-quarter page blurb on the fundamentals of brewing: Freshness, Grind, Proportion and Water. And that’s about it. Mind you, this is a 24 page catalog. By my calculations, Starbucks — the Goliath of specialty coffee — devotes less than five percent of its very slick, very trendy catalog to truly informing its consumer about its raison d’etre: specialty coffee. But wait! there’s more….

Starbucks has introduced new “coffee stamps” to offer an at-a-glance summary of what the coffee inside the bag is all about. In Starbucks’ view a coffee is Bold, Mild or Smooth. Depending on where you sit, rolling the entire lexicon of specialty coffee into three little words is either a remarkable achievement, or an audacious example of dumbing-down the specialty coffee trade. From where I sit, it’s very, very sad. Education score: somewhere deep in the negative numbers.

Posted on March 1, 2002 - by deCadmus

Let’s review…

Let’s review… a “solo” is a single, a “tall” is a large. A “brewing event” is a… well, by golly, it’s a sale! That’s right, kids, those keen wordsmiths and coffee merchants from Seattle are havin’ a blowout on their coffee brewers, and there’s bargains afoot. The quirky, cranky Utopia vac-pot is marked down to $89, and espresso machines are a hundred bucks off, too. The well-regarded [so far as drip pots go] Barista Aroma can be picked up for $99 and its just-introduced little brother, the four-cupper Barista Quattro can be yours for $69. [And, it's cute.] Head on over to the nearest corner-store, or snag ‘em online.

Posted on March 1, 2002 - by deCadmus

Sell Coffee Like Wine..

“The only way in which farmers of quality coffee in Kenya and other African countries are going to get a good return for their endeavours is if they market their product in much the same way quality wines are marketed around the world.”

Posted on March 1, 2002 - by deCadmus

Newsletter redux…

The folks at The Coffee Project were kind enough to send a handful of back-issues of Ground Control, their ever-more-frequent print newsletter.

There’s some good stuff here… recent articles cover such varied topics as how to read a coffee bag [you know.. the big ones] and the effects of altitude on coffee production — as well as a closer look at some world origins by the gang at Royal Coffee, and roasting tips from Mike Sivetz. You’ll find some of the feature articles online… but many more are available to subscribers only.