Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.
Mark Twain
Autumn has blown into our neck of the woods with a mighty draft of whirling leaves, the aroma of wood smoke wafting from neighbors’ hearths, and — hey, this is new — a raft of folks banging on an increasingly-dated review of single-serve coffee...
It was Napoleon who observed that, “An army travels on its stomach.” Of course, the little emperor observed this in the course of watching his own army — decimated by scurvy and hunger — foraging for food in the steppes of Russia. More...
You remember how Starbucks was exiled from the forbidden city, right? The story here is that, for Starbucks — one of the most iconic brands in the known universe — to lose the Forbidden City — one of China’s singular historic icons — well, that’s gotta smart. Even...
Stephen Leighton (coffee guy, blogger at Hasbean, one of the more permanent fixtures on Bloggle’s list of outbound links) has a featured article in the most recent issue of Barista magazine in which he wonders aloud, “Is this the death of the espresso...
From the Wall Street Journal: It’s the seasonal coffee-making challenge: You’ve got a houseful of holiday guests to entertain and a coffee maker that brews only a dozen cups at a time. You could make pot after pot in a frantic effort to keep the java...
Well… that sucks. My web host provider had a hard crash last nite, and restored service early this morning… unfortunately, they’ve apparently restored from an old back-up and have lost the month of October. I’ll see if I can find archived...
Is your twice-daily jumbo latte with sprinkles a status symbol? Is it the price of entry into a hyperactive workaday world? Or is it an affordable luxury that’s getting just a little bit tougher to afford? In its all-too-cleverly titled piece, The Latte Era...
Of all the world’s coffees, those of Yemen are likely the most inscrutable. Heirloom varietals are grown in garden plots in the labyrinthine, walled city of Sana’a, and the impenetrable highlands of Hirazi. Left to dry on the coffee tree itself or picked...
Portland’s Stumptown Coffee Roasters has been doing some mighty fine things on the ground in Rwanda for a while now. Stumpies have been key players in the PEARL Project, a public / private partnership with USAID and Michican State University to revitalize...
It’ll never happen to you, right? Annabell Ramirez said it all started with a small fire in a coffee-bean roaster. She said she tried to put it out, but the glass shattered and the fire spread quickly. “Before I knew it, flames were coming out of the...
Corby Kummer — author of The Joy of Coffee — offers a tribute to the late, great Alfred Peet this week. While most folks who’ve written about Mr. Peet have focused on the Peet’s / Starbucks relationship and the West Coast roast style, Corby...
It’s gotta come from somewhere… To the surprise of nobody at all, Starbucks is looking to double its coffee imports from Africa by 2009. “People are looking for something different, and East African coffee is very exotic in terms of its flavors and...
With apologies to Monty Python: ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im...
T. S. Eliot had it wrong… it’s not April, but September that’s the cruelest month. Whatever the reason — and there are usually many — my writing suffers in September. Looking through the Bloggle archives, there’s paltry few posts in...
Say what you will about the Grey Lady’s reporting, they still do a great obit, and their remembrance of Alfred Peet is warm and packed with fondness. More still, at The Daily Californian, and The Seattle Post Intelligencer. A little late to the party? The big...
