An interesting response to the question about super-automatic espresso machines:
The wrong assumption that underpins superautomatic espresso machines is that the critical variables in espresso coffee making can be standardized and controlled. They can go close, but superautomatic espresso machines cannot control some of the finer nuances that are necessary for quality espresso coffee making. Control and adjustment of these nuances typically requires the expert ‘eye’ and judgement of a skilled barista.
Today my wife and I wanted to grab some Greek food and drove over to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. They offered Greek Coffee so we had that with baklava for dessert. It is very similar to Turkish coffee… finely ground coffee beans, made in a briki, etc.
Manuel Santana-Bendix is quite possibly the only person who grows, processes, imports, and roasts coffee and lives in Arizona. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Thanks to Dana Desonie for emailing to let me know about Café de Doña Ella. From the web site:
Café de Doña Ella is an effort to bring you the best quality coffee, from the Highlands of El Salvador. It is farmed and processed by Manuel Alberto Santana-Bendix, a resident of Flagstaff who also owns his family’s small coffee farm in El Salvador (Finca Grano de Oro). On the farm he grows the Borbón (Bourbon) variety of Coffea arabica, arguably the best variety of coffee trees.
In 2004, his coffee was one of the winners in a Cup of Excellence. You can purchase his coffee in Flagstaff. To learn more, visit his web site at cafededonaella.com.
What a year! My wife had a baby girl (Emily), and we travelled all over the state visiting coffee shops. Visited Bisbee, Tucson, Flagstaff, and lots of other cities (still need to write about several of those stops).
Arizona Coffee has 6,676 followers on Twitter (up from 5,800 last year). Facebook is still a fraction of what is on Twitter, but I like the photo album aspect on Facebook. We have 527 fans on Facebook (up from 337 a year ago).
So without further ado, here’s the best posts from this year:
I have to admit, this sounds simply cool, but I don’t know why.
Stumptown rolled out an on-tap version of their Stumptown Cold Brew. It’s pulled from an actual beer tap, with a wooden tap handle, and served tall in a pint glass with ice.
Also, Sprudge notes that Stumptown is experimenting with a slow-bar concept… something I recall Cartel is planning to implement as well.
Last week after this tweet, the folks at Biscotea and Bis*coffee offered to send me a sampler package so I could try their product. I accepted, and must say they are quite delicious.
I haven’t had a chance to take photos of the actual biscotti product, but they look exactly like in the packaging photo. They’re a dry biscotti, so they’re not moist. My favorite so far is the espresso-flavor. It’s not overpowering in any way. You can purchase them at Sprouts in Phoenix, but I am unaware of any coffee shops that sell them. The product name is genius… biscotea / biscoffee. So smart.
This morning I saw this great little home-espresso machine on Kickstarter. For only $200 you can get a pretty decent machine. I’m wondering what you all think about it?
