TIM CASTLE
Might Specialty Coffee Finally Be Cut Adrift from its Market Moorings?
There’s a lot going on in the world of coffee but the headline right now is this: The internationally traded prices for coffee have fallen dramatically over the past few months while at the same time, the outlook for the…
A New Page: Coffee in the Media
I used to think I was a coffee expert, when I knew a whole lot less about coffee. Even still, though, coffee is the thing I know the most about and when I hear something in the news about coffee…
Yet More On Coffee in Restaurants
There’s was some discussion several weeks ago about the efforts that a particular restaurant, Noma in Copenhagen, was making to serve a very good cup of coffee. First, there was this article by Oliver Strand on Sprudge.com, Oliver Strand On…
The Aroma of Coffee and the Memory of it…
Has Coffee Ever Lived up to it's Promise? Has the taste of coffee ever lived up to the seducing aroma of its first whiff? For me it has not. From the time I was allowed coffee as a child, I…
Some (slightly re-heated) comments on Climate Change (& Coffee)
Warning: This post contains curmudgeonly chest-beating, credit-taking and self-serving horn-tooting that some readers may find objectionable; especially in view of the tragic situation that the author is claiming to have foreseen. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< First the chest-beating: in 1996 I was Christmas…
“High Praise” for “Strong Coffee” (The beverage, if not my actual post…)
NPR has a podcast called “It’s All Politics” that I highly recommend and the two guys (Ron Elving and Ken Rudin) that put it together and are featured on it each week often refer to their “listener” in the singular…although…
So, what’s “strong” coffee?
So what do I mean by STRONG (see last post)? It is, after all, a relative term. Here is how I brew coffee: 1) I use freshly boiled water that is either filterer or bottled (the important thing is getting…
Weak Coffee, Part One
Weak Coffee I do not understand weak coffee and never have… I used to think, when I first got in the coffee business, that this had something to do with the cost of coffee; that coffee drinkers were being stingy,…
He’s ALIVE! (My POST-Halloween, awaking from a coma, etc, Post.)
Oh, the slings and arrows (all self-shot*) of my outrageous fortune…I lift a listless paw, backhanded, to my deeply furrowed brow (can everyone see the furrowed brow?) and beseech my non-existent reader (almost made the plural, with an “s” —?!?hah!)…
“Issue” Coffee and “Sustainability”
"Issue" Coffee and "Sustainability" and our appreciation of it... It’s well documented that our preconceptions of a gustatory product have a strong influence on our perceived appreciation of it (whether it be negative or positive). Those preconceptions can be bundled…
The “best” coffee…a “favorite” coffee and what IS a Yrgacheffe, anyway?
Yrgacheffe and a favorite coffee… (a follow up to my previous post, for those of you with looong memories!). As a curmudgeon I take it with high dudgeon (cute, huh?) that people appreciate the transient nuances and subtle differences of…
What is the Best Coffee? Part One…
The Taste of Coffee The Taste FOR Coffee …and The Perfect Cup (Or, put another way, “What is the Best Coffee?”) It is UNFAILING, that for those of us fortunate enough to be in the coffee business, that…