Archive for category ‘happening elsewhere’

radblog

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

you should probably read the RodBlog exactly because of how defensive it makes those protective coffee insiders. note: the above link doesn't go to the blog itself. for "rod thoughts," click your way from the home page. top left.

speaking of pure taste experiences that have nothing at all, in any way to do with rank status-mongering …

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

when it comes to those "ellusive" and "exhilirating" coffee experiences, this blog can hardly think of anything more joyous than a good cologne and coffee pairing involving, possibly, a "coffee taster's helmet." what will these studly taste geniuses think of next -- that is, when they get back from trotting ...

what we need is a platinum cupper’s card

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

CI conspiracy theorizes so you don't have to: is there some clued-in coffee person on the new york times staff -- someone, say, with very close third-wave relations -- behind the paper's curious recent tandem of quality coffee coverage with snarky, skeptical starbucks riffs? or is it just deeply american ...

usbc: crickets

Monday, May 5th, 2008

disbelief: that when this blog, in its work tie, stumbled into the vicinity of a computer at 5:20 p.m. looking for the name of this country's new national barista champeen, there was no one to tell us -- nary a typewritten word within reach! that for all the live, gooey ...

usbc: bleary blogging

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

it's hard to discern the bigger trend: the sea salt in the competition signature beverages, the simultaneous spro, the widespread use of gravy boats or the sheer staggering volume of online barista hair jokes aimed in the general direction of those coffee persons most follicularly endowed. to say this blog ...

usbc: gawking

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

when it comes to respectful, dignified usbc spectatorship, this blog realizes that it falls miserably short -- somewhere between "spooky voyeur" and "slobbering fanboy."

usbc: chip shots

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

breathless, knee-jerk reaction after a day-trip to the coast leaves this blog doing wee-hours competition catch-up: that's it?! actually, no. th' feeds, we're swimmin' in 'em. * noted: that blogging spasmodic girl is playing all five scaa bloggers to a draw, when it comes to value-added hilarity. "solid and woody" indeed. also, ...

usbc: armchair afar-blogging

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

that's the thing about blogging -- it's better if you're ignorant! maxims for life from the u.s. barista championship, day one: * live, streaming video of barista glitterati in action -- even hiccuping video with warpy sound -- is flabbergastingly more compelling than youtubed competition videos. clips: eh. everybody does it ...

usbc: moving pictures

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

this blog and the barista-poet are trying desperately not to dominate the live conversation over here, where in a few meager minutes the u.s. barista competition will be unfolding on these useful internets before your very eyes ... but it's ... so ... hard.

at last: spectatorship

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

if this blog were going to embark on long-awaited, long called-for total live-blogging blanket coverage of the biggest u.s. coffee event of the year, it might go ahead and start, you know, posting stuff. so that real people -- forum surfers, casual blog readers, non-insiders -- might get some notice! ...

arbitrage

Friday, March 21st, 2008

--- "why don't you blog about the clover?" they said. "everybody's doing it!" this blog has been mostly surprised -- and mostly in agreement -- with the various coffee thinkers we've encountered in recent weeks who, in the end, find the ballyhooed clover single-cup brewer overrated as a taste machine. it's ...

linky stall

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

true's got the weekend pics, into which this blog's camcorder hand intruded a regrettable number of times. we're still wrassling with our video encoders, and are about to resort to the rude, crude, youtube. meanwhile, some girl with lip is mega-blogging the great lakes regional barista competition. told you those trophies ...

forget those third-party competition bloggers

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

is it just this blog, or is what we all want from the unfolding mountain regional barista competition (we snorking, angst-addled, competition fanboys) a forehead-mounted webcam from the barista-poet come blogger while he competes? you know, jon lewis performing live a la radiohead -- "lookit me! i am the perpetual ...

what happens when it’s only a drug

Friday, February 29th, 2008

hat tip: barry.

hudgens ante-ups

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

leaving aside the sober implications of the mermaid closing for three hours today (how badly do their baristi need training?), it's worth noting the nimble and complementary (with an "e") approach of c-n-c's hudgens, who's serving all-free spro during the same time period. on its surface, a tactical move to ...

news, with a soundtrack

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

somewhere in our aesthetic subconscious, this works: while absorbing the audio collage cockver10 from alarm will sound, blog learns that octane's ben takes 5 big g's from the latest latte art competition, putting a halt to other creepy juggernauts of latte art fame and cementing the reputation of a resurgent ...

this week in c-n-c: regime change

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

good authority: c-n-c's hudgens has ditched terroir for his regular coffee supply. judging solely by the price tags on the retail bags we flunkies buy off the counter, the boston-based terroir appeared to charge the roughly same for 12 ounces of regular priced single origin that north carolina's crema coffee ...

if baristi are nothing, then that makes this blog …

Friday, December 7th, 2007

doesn't the logic contained in the first post of uberbarista chris owens' new blog more or less mean that the barista, relatively speaking, is the least vital link in the seed-to-cup coffee process? just asking! p.s. no wonder those barista trips to coffee countries and local farmer symposiums are suddenly en ...

better than poker

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

as if june's latte art purse winner layla osberg needed another wad. are we seeing the beginnings of career latte artists? layla's raked in $26,000 in five months ...

good coffee: sexist, racist, generationist, hedonist?!

Monday, November 12th, 2007

this blog has yet to thoroughly peruse middlebury college's economics discussion paper no. 07-11, but slate scribe tim harford is already pondering out loud the ramifications of a coffee movement that, apparently, makes women wait longer than men, "blacks wait longer than whites, the young wait longer than the old, ...

CI debunks the booch

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

this blog has never met kyle larson. which sort of makes it hard to tell: is he a well-meaning tipster or conniving bio-terrorist? this blog reports, you decide. the problem, see, is that this blog is NOT suffering a flare-up, as once supposed, of the previously contracted malaria. (what does the ...

trendspotting the nordic barista cup

Monday, September 24th, 2007

potentially revelatory nuggets (to this blog) spotted at the nordic barista cup through the fuzzy lens of these interwebs: * first there were no nords in this year's world barista championship final round. then we come to understand that copenhagen's heavily decorated europa isn't even spro-centric any more. and now ...

triple-waveists to the new guy: join our club! please!

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007

here's some more slobbering overstatement for you re: CI's quasi-mysterious new commenter "true": he's the most. popular. guy. not already equipped with a laminated VIP pass to the specialty coffee echo chamber! it's amazing what a little fresh, guileless opinionating will do for an aspiring florida shop owner's reputation. take jon ...

the O.D.: spro doze

Monday, August 13th, 2007

raise your hand if you've ever slammed at least 14 shots in one sitting. this blog finds itself guilty, yet strangely unable to recount hijinks comparable to the british lass. which raises a burning, snobbish question: was it robusta? UPDATE: british curmudgeon hasbean steve calls "publicity stunt!" UPDATE: this blog is deeply ashamed. ...

hoffmann watch: day 63

Saturday, August 4th, 2007

james reveals all. or ... actually, very little. still! we can now claim to have thoroughly bludgeoned the subject of his future into a state of microscopic worm food. square mile coffee roasters -- "quite special." explained here, first on the interwebs! UPDATE: and still the speculative hoffmann theories burble up in ...

WBC: parity?

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007

the most stunning thing, at first blush, about the newly minted list of world barista championship finalists might be who isn't there -- e.g. the scandinavians. is it the end of an era? brazil? japan? at long last, though, we have coverage -- not independent-minded coverage, mind you, but something close ...

hoffmann watch: day 21

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007

never again will this blog wrangle with feelings of abashedment while floating hyperventilating conspiracy theories -- because, it turns out, exactly half of the blogging, western-european-isle-based, road-tripping barista duo is, in fact, hooking up with the burgeoning intelligentsia juggernaut of global espresso duress! (scroll down to find the news.) you ...

ways people enshrine their brew

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

it's at times like these, frankly, that this blog has trouble striking the right tone (there's a tone to this blog? you ask) -- or rather, avoiding the complete alienation of those readers (both of them) for whom good brew is simply a beverage, desireable, appreciated and on aesthetic par ...

hoffmann watch, day ten

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

a vague purpose for the road trip emerges. [T]he roadtrip isn’t about cups of coffee, or at least certainly not in an evaluative way. It is about people, cafes, ideas and inspiration and having some fun. mmmmmm-hmmmmmmm. UPDATE: for bonus points, read the entire dispatch and pull yourself an overdosed triple ristretto ...

cfest iii: movving pictures

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

video -- funny video -- of ancillary topics surrounding coffee fest atlanta is burbling up right here.