The Reading Room

It goes to spraying water when I turn it on and hit the pump.  Let me back up for a moment.  This blog is a continuation of my experience with a second hand Nuova Simonelli Oscar espresso machine. The machine...

I have found coffee to be a demanding mistress. She does not arrive prepared; you have to prepare *her" with fastidious attention, lest she present you with off-putting astringency or straight-up blandness. And when she's gone, she's not--you still feel...

 Conventional wisdom is to brew coffee hot and drink it hot like a cowboy.  Fresh off the campfire. Have you experimented with temperature? We have at ROASTe and here's what we've found: /wp/wp-content/uploads/files/uploads/best-electric-kettle-capresso-h20-plus.jpg" alt="That's Too Hot" title="That's Too Hot" align="left"...

Australian drivers may prefer their mixed coffee drinks, (http://www.roaste.com/CafeRoaste/News/2011/08/17/Australians-Would-Rathe...) but that was comparing specialty drinks vs instant coffee. According to writer Tiffany Hsu, a study from Technomic comes to tell us that plain regular coffee is far from dead, but...

Like many a US state highway department, Australia’s Northern Territory offered free coffee to the area’s highway drivers since 2003. Drivers were invited to pull off the freeway and pick up a free coffee from participating roadhouses in the hopes...

We’ve seen the studies that show how many cancers are fought by coffee: prostrate, breast, uterine, liver and colon. A US study published Monday and reported by Newsmaxhealth.com showed that caffeinated coffee can cut the risk of another cancer, that...

Last year I experimented using coffee as hair coloring (it was subtle but my hair was soft and smelled nice) and as a body scrub. It made my skin very soft and made my bathroom smell really nice. I have read...

With the recent re-discovery of pour over coffee that has happened over the last couple years in the coffee culture a substantial bit of thought and discussion goes on with regard to filters. Paper filters tend to get the least amount...

As you watch the enticing brown brew fill your coffee pot as it also fills the air with heavy aroma, the rich brown liquid looks deceptively clear. But hidden in that delicious cup is a surprising nutrient that even amazed...

A high octane muscle car it’s not, but it just might be the most powerful use of recycled coffee grounds ever. We’ve seen, if not smelled, the vegetable oil-fueled car, and now comes a coffee-fueled design. Called the Expresso car,...

A coffee filter crisis occurs when you realize too late that you’ve used and tossed your last coffee filter and your to-do list is too long to allow you to run down to the store to buy replacements so you...

With all the talk lately about iced coffee here on ROASTe, I thought it would be appropriate to focus attention for a moment on the often overlooked but equally important component – the ice cube. Ice Cube FAQ: QUESTION: I...

Back in the late eighties drip coffee was hitting full stride with over fifty percent of the market but pour over and press still represented about fifteen percent of the market.  The final push for these customers began in earnest...

Oregon is serious coffee country.  With so much rain (drizzle...actually), Oregonians take their warm cups in little cafes with utter gravity.  In fact, it's safe to assume that Portland is perhaps the most important coffee city in America right now,...

I’ve been reluctant to recruit my fairly large network on Facebook in order to accumulate “likes” of my iced coffee recipe and thereby make it onto ROASTe’s leaderboard by Sunday night. Honestly, I didn’t want to “spam” my friends too...

A survey is being run by Supermarket Guru concerning coffee buying habits. It is still going on, and at present, 49% of voluntary responses state they will not cut back on coffee even if coffee prices keep rising. You can...

Today the Hawaiian coffee industry kicks off a week-long tribute to coffee and the industry in the state. Hawaii is not just the only US state in which coffee grows, but it’s the source of some of the most spectacular...

A day or two ago our news story featured the Brazilian trend toward mechanization. Today we go to the other side of the world and the opposite side of the issue, to Ethiopia, where the farmers pride themselves on hand...

Keurig, maker of the top-selling single serve coffee maker, had a few bumps in its road to success. Author Daniel McGinn calls Keurig’s development “a tale unlikely, ultra-caffeinated and sometimes explosive”. You have no idea what sacrifices the company’s inventors...

What’s been called “an industrial revolution” is occurring in Brazil’s coffee sector, as farmers respond to several labor conditions pushing them into mechanical harvesting. The resulting changes may help Brazil increase production to meet future demands as they help farmers...

I submitted a blog entry recently titled "My new (to me) espresso machine is on the way!" Thanks to our friends in the brown truck the Nuova Simonelli Oscar has landed safely at it's new home.  The machine is heavy...