Espresso Coffee Tips For Your Inner Barista

Living in Australia, we’re pretty blessed to have espresso coffee available in most cafe’s and shops. Thanks to a strong Italian influence, especially in the development of early ‘cafe culture’, espresso style coffee is very mainstream, and has been for over 25 years.

I do believe that once you’ve had this Italian style coffee, it is hard to go back to regular drip filter coffee, although French plunger coffee can be fantastic too. Of course, when you need a ‘pick-me-up’, any coffee will do!

What is the difference between drip and espresso coffee? Italian coffee is made very differently. It uses a high pressure to force water through the ground beans. Interestingly, whilst the water is very hot, it is not boiling. And the beans themselves are ground very fine and smooth. Contrary to some commercial presentation, this style of coffee is not dependant on one type of bean or roast. It is the process of making the beverage that makes it espresso coffee, nothing else. When a cafe refers to a dark, or stronger roast as an espresso roast, it is no more than an idiosyncrasy of marketing. All coffee beans used to make Italian coffee could be called espresso beans or roasts.

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Shanghai coffee company fined for infringing Starbucks trademark

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - A Shanghai coffee company has been fined 500,000 yuan for infringing on the trademark of coffeehouse chain Starbucks, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The company, Shanghai Xingbake Cafe, was also ordered by the Shanghai Municipal Higher People's Court to change its name and make a public apology to Starbucks (nasdaq: SBUX - news - people ) in a local newspaper, Xinhua said.

Starbucks and a Shanghai-based franchise, President Starbucks Coffee Co, filed a lawsuit against Shanghai Xingbake in 2003, claiming the latter had violated the rule of fair competition and infringed upon the Starbucks trademark, the news agency said.

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Coffee man to visit Third World growers

PAUL POST, The Saratogian
01/05/2007

WILTON -- Brian Crouth loves coffee, but he's also concerned about the people who grow it, which explains why he's headed to Nicaragua today.


The Wilton resident is national demonstration coordinator for Equal Exchange, a Boston-based Fair Trade company that puts a high priority on the welfare of Third World coffee growers.

The firm's $24 million annual sales represent a tiny fraction of the multi-billion dollar global coffee industry, but Crouth believes that both he and his company are making a difference.

'We've proved that doing an alternative business model, we can still be sustainable and profitable,' he said. 'We'd love the major coffee companies to follow our example.'

Typical Central and South American growers earn less than $1,000 per year, while Americans pay upwards of $2-per-cup or more at many trendy coffee shops. Middlemen, wholesalers and retailers quite often reap the profit, while farmers who perform the backbreaking labor lead subsistence-level lives.


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National Geographic looks at coffee buzz

By KEVIN McDONOUGH, United Features Syndicate
First published: Thursday, January 4, 2007

For many of us, life without coffee is unthinkable. The special "Coffee: Beans to Buzz" (9 p.m., National Geographic) presents a fact-filled survey history of the popular stimulant.

"Buzz" does a particularly good job of explaining how coffee and culture converge.

"Buzz" also presents short stories about corporate coffee giants. Much is also made of Starbucks and its enthusiasts and critics, and recent efforts to promote fair-trade coffee.

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What is Espresso Coffee?

Espresso coffee is more popular today than it has ever been at any time in its history, perhaps thanks to the marketing power of coffee giants such as Starbucks. Many of the most popular drinks that we consume everyday are made using espresso, rather than the more traditional filter or drip coffee. Drinks such as lattes, cappuccinos, mochas and machiatos.

Given this strong popularity for these espresso drinks, it’s surprising that many people don’t actually know what an espresso is. For anyone who has never had an espresso, the first taste can be quite shocking. An espresso is very concentrated, and comes in a very small cup. However, it packs a large punch and the flavor can take some getting used to. (In other words, your first impression might be that you just swallowed something vile. But don’t worry, it gets better with experience.)

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Coffee 101: Lessons from brewing school

By ERICA DIETSCHE The Record (Hackensack N.J.)

I love everything about coffee — that is, everything except the sky-high prices. Sick of making bad coffee at home and tired of paying lots of money for someone else to make it for me, I jumped at the chance to learn from people who make coffee for a living. Surely the coffee they make at home doesn’t taste like sludge!

Now, having learned my lessons at Brewing School, I feel almost as talented as a barista.

If only they could teach me how to give myself enough time in the morning to prepare it.

Lesson 1. You can try this at home.

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Coffee makers: weak or strong?

By Amy Scattergood
Times Staff Writer

The all-in-one grind-and-brew coffee maker - a machine that, with one press of a button the night before, has a hot, brewed pot of coffee waiting for you in the morning - is a coffee lover's dream. But, like all utopian promises, you have to wonder if it's really possible.

So we decided to put the three grind-and-brew machines on the market - Melitta, Cuisinart and Capresso - to the test.

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Getting Serious About Coffee

Java purists happy to invest big money in quality machines

Iain Ilich, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007

You've been drinking coffee since you were eight years old, and you know what you like at the neighbourhood coffee bar. You've dabbled with $100 espresso machines that break within months, and never produce a satisfactory shot. Maybe you're finally ready to take the next logical step -- upgrading your home coffee setup to something a bit more professional.

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Are coffee, tea, caffeine good for us or bad?

CGRMC News

Consumed virtually every day by more than 80 percent of the world's population, caffeine may well be the most widely used psychoactive drug. It's also one of the most widely researched drugs and after years of close study - undoubtedly fueled by numerous cups of coffee - scientists have yet to demonstrate whether, if caffeine consumption were stopped tomorrow, the worldwide results would be positive or negative.

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All the coffee, less of the fat

Wire Reports

AP/ELAINE THOMPSON
Treats in many Starbucks stores will no longer have trans fats.

SEATTLE -- Starting today, all doughnuts, muffins and other treats sold in half of Starbucks Corp.'s stand-alone U.S. stores will be free of trans fats, the company said. The unhealthy fats should be gone from the rest of its stores by year's end.

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Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year

From all of us to all of you, we wish for a great 2007.

We have been in Costa Rica for the past few days, seeing the beautiful country and drinking the great coffee. I highly recommend Costa Rica. We re-defined the word, "awesome" several times a day. The people are very friendly, polite, and they genuinely welcome North Americans to their country. Costa Rica Is 20% smaller than West Virginia but seems much larger because there is so much to see and do.

More later.

Robert