The Reading Room

Like hundreds of thousands of other Californians, I am in the unemployment club. I did not choose to be in this non-prestigious organization, but am a member nontheless. When you are living on the checks of unemployment, you must force...

Summer in some parts of the country can be a bummer for coffee lovers. A hot drink just does not entice so invitingly as Iced Lemonade, smoothies, and, the best of show, if you aren’t counting calories: Italian sodas!!/files/u3/iced-coffee.jpg" title="Iced...

This is the third installment in a series of articles. *Disclaimer- If I am incorrect on anything mentioned here, I apologize, and appreciate being informed of such. I am still learning this fascinating industry, and hope to continue doing so...

Edited for content 7-25-2010Part 2 of a series:You've heard it before, probably countless times. "I wish coffee would just taste as good as it smells!" And I can understand that, really. I have had coffee that smelled perfectly fine. But...

This article is the first in a series of four discussing the process of brewing coffee. Please enjoy! Making a great cup of coffee is no accident. It requires at least a basic understanding of coffee, and its extraction. The...

If you’re reading this post, you probably already have seen the results of Hawai‘i’s second statewide cupping competition.  If not, the top 10 list can be found at the blog of Andrew Hetzel (Cafemakers), notable industry consultant, friend, and colleague. ...

In my opinion the best coffee comes from a method using a full immersion technique.   There are a few options out there, but today I'm going to talk about the French Press also known as a Press Pot. So what...

One would think that living in Los Angeles, it would not be very hard to find some good coffee houses. Wrong! While serving in the United States Navy, I was stationed in Bangor Washington, just across the way from Seattle....

Using different water sources for my coffee In the past couple of weeks we have gotten major storms. Inches of rain in a very short time (flooding, streets closed - all that fun stuff). I got the idea to collect...

My first cup of really fresh, unique, and delicious coffee was a French roast blend brewed in a French press, (oui, oui). That distinctive dark, bittersweet, slightly charred taste served as my benchmark for all that was good and right...

I grew up drinking Turkish coffee...rich flavorful, not very sophisticated. As years went by (and so did my hair) I developed a taste for espresso. Don't get me wrong, I've had espresso before, but I am talking about really, really...

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Here is my little espresso piece of heaven: 

I finally upgraded my Gaggia Baby to a Quickmill Anita. What a difference! Anita is a heat exchanger machine (compared to a single boiler Gaggia) with a E61 brewing group. I am now able to produce better shots with more...

  Decaffeination Unplugged     There are two people groups in the world - the Cafs, and the Caf-nots. The Cafs love their caffeine and the buzz it provides. To the Caf-nots, the buzz is anywhere from annoying to debilitating...