Salon.com > Coffee

D.C.-area Starbucks writing “come together” on cups

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Starbucks stores in the D.C. area will write "Come Together" on all of their coffee cups from now through December 28, in the hopes that it will encourage lawmakers to reach a "fiscal cliff" deal.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wrote in a blog post on the company's website that “Rather than be bystanders, we have an opportunity — and I believe a responsibility — to use our company’s scale for good by sending a respectful and optimistic message to our elected officials to come together and reach common ground on this important issue.”

"It’s a small gesture, but the power of small gestures is what Starbucks is about! Imagine the power of our partners and hundreds of thousands of customers each sharing such a simple message, one cup at a time," Schultz writes.

Weird news: Elephant dung coffee fetches $50 a cup

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:57:00 +0000

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Thailand (AP) -- In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is excreting some of the world's most expensive coffee.

Trumpeted as earthy in flavor and smooth on the palate, the exotic new brew is made from beans eaten by Thai elephants and plucked a day later from their dung. A gut reaction inside the elephant creates what its founder calls the coffee's unique taste.

Stomach turning or oddly alluring, this is not just one of the world's most unusual specialty coffees. At $1,100 per kilogram ($500 per pound), it's also among the world's priciest.

For now, only the wealthy or well-traveled have access to the cuppa, which is called Black Ivory Coffee. It was launched last month at a few luxury hotels in remote corners of the world -- first in northern Thailand, then the Maldives and now Abu Dhabi - with the price tag of about $50 a serving.

The Associated Press traveled to the coffee's production site in the Golden Triangle, an area historically known for producing drugs more potent than coffee, to see the jumbo baristas at work. And to sip the finished product from a dainty demitasse.

Coffee beans at risk of extinction

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:24:00 +0000

Seventy percent of the world's coffee could be wiped out by 2080, according to research from the U.K. and Ethiopia. The forecasts, published in the journal Plos One and flagged by CBC, predict how climate change might make land unsuitable for Arabica plants (which make most coffee).

Via CBC:

Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew and the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia looked at how climate change might make some land unsuitable for Arabica plants, which are highly vulnerable to temperature change and other dangers including pests and disease.

They came up with a best-case scenario that predicts a 38 per cent reduction in land capable of yielding Arabica by 2080. The worst-case scenario puts the loss at between 90 per cent and 100 per cent.

There is a “high risk of extinction” says the study.

Great gear for making coffee

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000

There is no one "best" method of making coffee. So, there is no best gear for making coffee.

Declaring such a thing would be like declaring that deep frying is the best way to cook anything. It's partly a matter of personal taste — you might really like the results that deep frying produces! — and a matter of what you're making. The same is true for coffee-making methods: siphon or pourover is probably my favorite way to prepare coffee, but some people really like press pots. The point is that you can't quite declare one piece of coffee making equipment to the best, no more than you can say that the T-Fal ActiFry is the best way to cook anything. (That said, pod machines are truly awful.)

But I can give you some advice and options on the best gear for a given way to prepare coffee.

When coffee caused a revolution

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:45:00 +0000

The café is synonymous with Egyptian society and, more generally, the Arab world. Unlike their European counterparts, Egyptian cafes are chaotic places of informal and raw discussion. Café Riche, once the intellectual and literary hangout of Cairo, awoke from its long slumber as a tourist attraction, with what seemed like eternal appeal, during last year's revolution. The wood paneling and white tablecloths speak to a forgotten Cairo era; one unashamed of its colonial pedigree, catering to foreign journalists replete with a selection of imported alcohol. These days, in post-revolutionary, perhaps revolutionary Cairo, Egyptian intellectuals and activists once again filter in for interviews in various languages beneath the high ceilings of the cafe.

During the height of the revolution that forced out former President Hosni Mubarak, Café Riche reestablished itself as a space where revolution was observed, unpacked, and understood. A stone’s throw from Tahrir Square, the physical embodiment of current Middle Eastern Revolution, the café even became a makeshift hospital for injured activists fleeing the street battles engulfing Cairo.