A Different Type of Coffee Shop

I don't know about you but when I head to a coffee shop I am usually in one of two modes. Mode one grab and run. This is when I have a place to be and need some fuel to get there. Mode two drink and chill. This mode is drink a brew and hang with friends, even been known to break out the chess board. There is however a trend in NY that is only giving you one option and that is Mode One.

Hers is one of a growing number of coffee bars that have opened recently around the country, particularly in New York. Instead of idling at a chair, customers at these establishments stand or perch on a stool to down a cappuccino or an iced coffee at the counter. By doing away with the comfy seats, roomy tables and working outlets that many customers now seem to believe are included in the price of a macchiato, the new coffee bars challenge the archetypal American cafe.

Coffee-bar owners say that while space and rent can be considerations, they’re installing counters because they create a lively environment where it’s easy to have a quick, convivial exchange. “There’s clearly a philosophy behind the coffee bar,” said Christian Geckeler, who describes his ongoing odyssey to taste the country’s best coffee on Manseekingcoffee.com. “It puts the emphasis on the coffee and the barista.”

[via NY Times]
I'm not a fan. Coffee should be an experience not just pitstop. I'm not convinced that a counter will lead to more conversation. It might increase the interaction between barista and customer but won't increase the interaction between customers.

Mod Your Espresso Machine

I don't know what is up with Gizmodo but they have been focused on the coffee lately. This time they modify an espresso machine to give a better cup of espresso. Go the previous link to check out the full details.

The experimenters on alt.coffee who took temperature measurements of the Silvia discovered that when the heating-element light is off (which means it's ready to pull a shot of espresso), the temperature can vary by as much as 40 degrees. This amount of variation makes consistently good espresso a nearly impossible dream. But because the Silvia had so many other good qualities (including ease of tinkering), the alt.coffee gang decided not to abandon the machine. Instead, they compensated for the shortcoming by developing the temperature surfing technique Glanville had taught me.

Starbucks Doing Something Right?

I'll never be a fan of the giant corporate entity that is Starbucks but an article on Gizmodo hints to something they might be doing right. Clover arguably one of the best espresso machines out there with the ability to tweak nearly every parameter in the process. Starbucks bought Clover and only rolled the machines out to 50 locations which is approximately 0.000000001% of their total locations. (Percentage is completely made up but I don't think by much.) Well, times maybe are a changing and there are reports of Clover popping up.

Starbucks' first Clover showed up in New York around two months ago, in a nearly 20-year-old location that's been converted into a concept store. The thaw is beginning. Starbucks plans to finally expand the Clover's footprint gradually over the next 6-8 months, as they figure out how to integrate the machine into the natural rhythm of stores—which is basically dominated by Frappuccinos these days, not coffee.

In a way, it's a hard sell. The kind of people who would be most interested in coffee made via Clover, designed to pull the most out of a coffee—so shitty coffee would taste shittier—don't go to Starbucks. Starbucks is so reviled by people who actually like coffee that they've experimented with burying the Starbucks name at two pilot stores in Seattle which are designed to look more like the kind of place that serves Intelligentsia or Stumptown coffee. So it's heartening to see them try to live up a bit more to the ideals of caring about coffee and how it's served.

Special thanks to commenter FritzLaurel for giving us a shout out.

Avoid Magic Power Coffee

Chance are if you are reading this blog you don't buy instant coffee off the internet. Apparently there are people that do and hope that this coffee helps them in other ways. Check out this warning from the FDA via the Associated Press;

The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday urged consumers to stop using an instant coffee product that is being marketed as a sexual aphrodisiac, saying it could dangerously lower blood pressure.

In a statement, the FDA said Magic Power Coffee contains a chemical that could interact with some prescription drugs to significantly lower blood pressure. When blood pressure drops suddenly, the brain is deprived of an adequate blood supply, which can lead to dizziness or lightheadedness.

"Because this product is an instant coffee labeled as an 'all natural dietary supplement,' consumers may assume it is harmless and poses no health risk," said Deborah M. Autor, director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Office of Compliance. "In fact, Magic Power Coffee can cause serious harm."

So You Think You Drink a Lot of Coffee?

Spending money everyday in a shop to get your fix can add up. Check out this chart published in the WSJ (put together by Mint.com) to see which city racks up the biggest bills. Look how much more Seattle spends. As a transplant from the Pacific NW I can tell the two biggest factors in those numbers are the weather (miserable) and number of places to get coffee. You can't go more than a mile without hitting a coffee shop or drive-thru coffee stand.



The article is about saving money and one way would be to buy your beans from a local roaster and make that latte at home.

No First Morning Buzz for Regular Coffee Drinkers

From a study conducted of 379 volunteers in England.

The researchers asked the volunteers to abstain from consuming any caffeine for 16 hours and then gave them either caffeine or a placebo. Each participant then rated their levels of anxiety, alertness and whether they got a headache.

Those who consumed medium to high amounts of caffeine reported they were less alert and more likely to get a headache when they took the placebo but not when they got their caffeine fix, the researchers report in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Those who got caffeine reported levels of alertness that were no higher than those who typically don’t get much caffeine who received a placebo. That suggests that caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to their normal state, probably because they develop a tolerance for its effects over time.