Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee

Cold-Brew's Newest Fan Sounds Off

There's an excellent article by Scott Taves at seattlepi.com about cold-brewed coffee. An admitted hot java "purist", Taves became a cold-brew nut last month when he tasted Caribou Coffee's chilly offering in Chicago.

Setting his sights on making the stuff at home, he bought the Toddy Cold Brew System and has all sorts of good things say for the $38 machine. It also serves a second master, brewing tea as well.

More interesting to me though is the $85 Coffee Snob Cold Drip Coffee Maker. A fascinating contraption that stands 2 feet tall, it begs for a Victorian parlor to call home.

Link (via Coffee Talk)

Gadget Guy Doesn't Know Jack About Espresso

John Brownlee of Boing Boing Gadgets has managed to prove what we've suspected all along: that an otherwise knowledge person who writes about the latest gadgets and doodads but has never worked as a barista or taken the time to learn the subtle art of pulling shots knows nothing about espresso.

In a post about the Brunopasso PD-1 Pod Espresso Machine, designed by Tadahito Ishibashi for Tokyo-based deviceSTYLE, Brownlee whines about European espresso culture, while at the same time demonstrating his complete ignorance of how good espresso should be made.

I'm not a big fan of pod espresso machines, but the Brunopasso PD-1 is a thing of pure aesthetic beauty. My suggestion to Brownlee is to purchase this machine because no one, no one can eff up a shot from a pod.

Link (be sure to read the comments, too)

Coffee Nerds at Intelligentsia, Part 2

The folks over at Boing Boing have posted Part 2 of Mark Frauenfelder’s visit to Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea's roasting facility in Los Angeles. Kyle Glanville takes him through the process of making the perfect espresso with Mark’s own machine and gives a step-by-step tutorial in brewing with a vacuum pot.

Watch a super cool coffee nerd in action.

Naked Coffee

The Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages has a short and snappy post entitled “5 common coffee mistakes.” The brothers Meza of Paradise Roasters in Ramsey, MN are the sources on the piece and they know what they're talkin' 'bout, Willis, though I have to disagree with their pronouncement that you should never use milk in your premium bean coffee--I've got a stomach lining to preserve and need the occasional lactose buffer.

I do believe that when sampling a new coffee it should be naked. That way you can savor its inherent nuances and subtitles, or, if it's horrible, wallow in its appalling flavor, both on its way in and out your mouth.

Link (via Coffee Talk)

Reg Barber: The Cadillac of Tampers

Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow--espresso lover, blogger, author, jack-of-all-geeky-cool--just slapped down some major dough for a Reg Barber custom espresso tamper and, wouldn't you know, he loves it.

Reg Barber makes handmade custom coffee tampers, offering a wide selection of handles and bases--sold separately--so if you're an espresso accessory junkie, you may want to make this your next purchase. That is, if you're willing to spend a minimum of $76.00 CDN (roughly $78.00 USD at the time of this post), not including shipping. Oh, and by the way, they have no US distributors, so it'll ship from Canada.

This pretty little thing on the left, for instance, with the Chinese fire element character engraving, is $37.18 CDN (about $38.00 USD) for the handle alone. Wanna add a base? I would hope so, since ya can't do much with only a handle. How about a copper one? Sure. Just ante up $48.75 CDN (almost $50.00 USD). Need a specially sized base for your portafilter? Okay, tack on $20.00 CDN ($20.60 USD) for that.

Phew! So, where are we at? Hmm... Carry the one... That'll be $105.93 CDN / $108.75 USD, please, plus shipping.

That's a bit too steep for me, but for those of you who can't resist the lure of fully customized, pimped out coffee accessories, Cory knows that one of these will make you very, very happy.

Link (via Boing Boing)

So Beautiful, So Dangerous

The newest additions to the Francis Francis X-series home espresso machines, the X7 and X8, are set to debut this spring and java hipsters 'round the globe are trying their level best not to scream like little girls at a Beatles concert as they wait for their first look.

Designed by Milan architect Luca Trazzi, the series' first machine, the X1 (pictured left), was released in 1995, sending shock waves through the coffee enthusiast community. Sleek, sharp and oh so pretty, it was a huge hit among those who prefer their espresso machines to go beyond mere function and into the realm of chic appliance speak as it says all you need to know about the owner in one quick glance.

So, how much will the espresso fashion obsessed be expected to slap down for the X7 or X8? No word yet on that. The price range of the current X-series offerings is $500-$1000, so I'm betting that these two new machines are gonna be mighty dangerous to any hipster's bank account.

Link (via Coffee Talk)

D.I.Y. Coffee: Pod Espresso Machines

As I've hinted in recent posts, I usually like a fair amount of ceremony when preparing my coffee.  However, when it comes to espresso, I'm sometimes impatient with the rigamarole involved in obtaining 2 ounces or so of coffee—be it ever so delicious!  Also, I have a knack for breaking things (and am completely knackless when it comes to fixing them), so I'd be uncomfortable having an espresso machine at the kind of price point that would produce consistently excellent results.

For all these reasons and more, I'd love to have a pod espresso machine like the Gaggia K111d Caffitaly, pictured here.  Germany's two largest coffee outlets (I assume Starbucks hasn't caught up with them yet), namely Eduscho and Tschibo, resell these machines under their own respective brands—and, of course, offer pods.  In fact, I would probably buy one when I'm over there in October and bring or ship it back, but the voltage is incompatible (as far as I know, it would have to be adjustable to 110-120 V to work here).  So we can only hope that enough demand will be stirred up for Gaggia's US importer to carry them.

D.I.Y. Coffee: Top 10 Cool Things About Making Coffee at Home

(An ongoing series.)

10.  You don't have to help pay the wages of some twenty-year-old waste of space who just wants a job that's easy enough to allow for six hours of clubbing after an eight-hour shift, or an eight-hour shift after eight hours of clubbing with no sleep in between.

9.  Even your first try is almost guaranteed to be at least as good as Starbucks.

8.  You can take the money you save and feed the pig.

D.I.Y. Coffee: Jeff Roasts

For a few months now, I've been getting the better part of my coffee from Jeff Roasts.  The only reason I haven't mentioned him long ago was that he requested that I hold off until now.  I actually encountered his site while doing market research before starting this blog.  Check out his site and place an order—he has my highest recommendation.  While visiting his site, take a peek at his coffee blog and try not to think I ripped off his idea.  (He's too nice to have called me on it.)  Think. . .ink. . .co-inky-dink. . .

D.I.Y. Coffee: Cafe Britt

 As mentioned earlier, I ordered a 12-ounce bag of Cafe Britt and received it this week.  The organic shade-grown coffee came with a free bonus variety pack, which almost certainly adds up to another full pound or more—making the shipping cost worthwhile.  Unfortunately, that promotion has ended and an offer for free coffee candy with any order has been rotated in.  (OK, maybe not that unfortunately, as that just gives me an excuse to place another order and go off the wagon by eating candy so that I can review it here.)