Archive for August, 2005

An Ode to the Old Machines

Espressolab waxes poetic on the machines of days gone by.

Has something been lost in the translation from brass and chrome and Bakelite lever pulls to the high-performance, stainless steel, push-button ‘lectronic boxes of the present age?

Romance, certainly… and perchance some of the art of preparation.

In …

Tasting: Equal Exchange Mind, Body & Soul

Rating: ★★★½☆

Equal Exchange is an unusual company. It’s not simply an employee-owned business (a growing number of companies are, for a given value of employee owned) but is instead a worker-owned cooperative… which is a very interesting and balanced thing to be when one deals with a great many worker-owned coffee cooperatives. There’s kind of a Zen thing at play there.

For Want of Willing Workers?

Premium Gourmet Coffee beans from Puerto Rico go to waste because Puerto Rican coffee growers can’t find enough workers to harvest the beans, according to Julio Torres, executive vice president of Grupo Jimenez, the island nation’s leading producer. Jimenez is dismayed by the lack of willing harvest workers …

Tasting: Starbucks’ Rift Valley Blend

Rating: ★★★☆☆

I’m surprised as anyone to find myself reviewing two dark-roasted coffees back-to-back, and more surprised to find that they’re both African origins (the coffee immediately prior was Ancora’s Kenya AA Nyeri “Fine Cup”.) I guess it’s chaos theory in action: I ran out of coffee last week, …