Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Coffee Drinkers Take Notice: BBC News
For those of you coffee drinkers seriously considering leaving Earth on November 5th if the your horse doesn't win the presidential race, you may want to check out this invention by two Costa Rican students. The BBC reports that the two men believe they have figured out a way to brew coffee in space.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Slurp, Slurp, Slurp
I, my friends, am a coffee fiend. Not those six-dollar, caramel laced, whip-cream infused confections that better qualify as cake-in-a-cup. I like coffee. Hot, black, and strong enough to stunt the growth of a T-Rex. From eighth-grade on, I've been a steady pot-a-day consumer. By this point, you could brew my java-saturated blood, label it dark roast, and sell it fair trade.
So, when Starbuck's announced last week that it was fomenting a revolution in the coffee industry, my interest was piqued. In a town where quaint, ma-and-pa coffee shops outnumber the hipster grad students who frequent them, a Starbuck's is the embodiment of pure evil. Akin to Wal-Mart, it's depicted as a greedy, corporate whore- peddling egregiously overpriced novelty drinks, crippling local startups, and smiling all the while.
But, apparently, Starbuck's was going to revolutionize coffee as we know it. It's method? Introducing a new, "smoother, bolder" blend of coffee that would star as their daily-workhorse. A fresh pot always on tap and consistent brews a guarantee. The new blend was dubbed "Pikes Place Blend," and its release was accompanied by an all out advertising blitz. Full page ads in the New York Times hailed 4/08/2008, the day it was introduced, as the second-coming of the Messiah.
Coffee connoisseurs the world over, however, were leary. While Starbucks focused on creating impossibly titled, chocolate-swirled "creations," the quality of its raw coffee dipped lower than ever. Even a light roast tasted like charcoal that had been simmering for two=days. It promised to eliminate the bitter overtones and burnt flavor. The Pikes Place blend, it said, was created after years of consumer research and careful testing. A medium-bodied, slightly fruity blend that appeals to the same crowd that sips on McDonald's and Dunkin' Donut's joe.
So, a few days after its star-studded introduction, I paid $1.80 for a cup of this proclaimed manna and took a deep gulp.
How was it?
Awful. Unlike its predecessors, the new blend has no distinct nuttiness. The dark, brooding flavor is gone. In its place is a homogenized blandness paired with a weird, tingly sweetness. Indeed, the 6-dollar-cake-in-a-cup got their wish. A coffee that is so normal, so unremarkable, it exists merely as a vessel for half-and-half, cinnamon, and sugar. But, Starbucks, pulling from Wal-Mart's play book, got this one exactly right.
It's an American coffee, for the American people. Middle of the road, easy to swallow and easy to forget. I predict it will be hugely popular.
So, when Starbuck's announced last week that it was fomenting a revolution in the coffee industry, my interest was piqued. In a town where quaint, ma-and-pa coffee shops outnumber the hipster grad students who frequent them, a Starbuck's is the embodiment of pure evil. Akin to Wal-Mart, it's depicted as a greedy, corporate whore- peddling egregiously overpriced novelty drinks, crippling local startups, and smiling all the while.
But, apparently, Starbuck's was going to revolutionize coffee as we know it. It's method? Introducing a new, "smoother, bolder" blend of coffee that would star as their daily-workhorse. A fresh pot always on tap and consistent brews a guarantee. The new blend was dubbed "Pikes Place Blend," and its release was accompanied by an all out advertising blitz. Full page ads in the New York Times hailed 4/08/2008, the day it was introduced, as the second-coming of the Messiah.
Coffee connoisseurs the world over, however, were leary. While Starbucks focused on creating impossibly titled, chocolate-swirled "creations," the quality of its raw coffee dipped lower than ever. Even a light roast tasted like charcoal that had been simmering for two=days. It promised to eliminate the bitter overtones and burnt flavor. The Pikes Place blend, it said, was created after years of consumer research and careful testing. A medium-bodied, slightly fruity blend that appeals to the same crowd that sips on McDonald's and Dunkin' Donut's joe.
So, a few days after its star-studded introduction, I paid $1.80 for a cup of this proclaimed manna and took a deep gulp.
How was it?
Awful. Unlike its predecessors, the new blend has no distinct nuttiness. The dark, brooding flavor is gone. In its place is a homogenized blandness paired with a weird, tingly sweetness. Indeed, the 6-dollar-cake-in-a-cup got their wish. A coffee that is so normal, so unremarkable, it exists merely as a vessel for half-and-half, cinnamon, and sugar. But, Starbucks, pulling from Wal-Mart's play book, got this one exactly right.
It's an American coffee, for the American people. Middle of the road, easy to swallow and easy to forget. I predict it will be hugely popular.
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