Coffee Zone

This just in...

The Perfect Espresso?

Mark Frauenfelder brings his own espresso machine to US Barista Champion, Kyle Glanville, to learn how to make the perfect espresso. Kyle also gives a hands-on demonstration of the "ultimate nerd's way to make coffee." [Boing Boing]

With Rocket Fuel... you live forever

"One of the largest and longest studies of coffee drinking suggests that coffee may indeed boost your lifespan – providing you drink enough of the stuff, that is. The study tracked 129,000 men and women over two decades. It found that people who consumed several cups of coffee every day were less likely to die of heart disease than those who shied away from the stuff. Heart disease is an umbrella term for conditions including heart attacks, stroke, and arrhythmia.

The researchers found that women who drank four to five cups per day were 34% less likely to die of heart disease, while men who had more than five cups a day were 44% less likely to die." [NewScientist]

Download a cup of Rocket Fuel

The serious Coffee Zone Web Head is gonna want to take a long, hard look at the Jura F90 Coffee Maker... with the Internet Connection Kit.

"Enable the Jura Impressa F90 to communicate with the Internet, via a PC. Download parameters to configure your espresso machine to your own personal taste. If there's a problem, the engineers can run diagnostic tests and advise on the solution without your machine ever leaving the kitchen."

The lads in the Coffee Zone R&D lab have one of these rascals on the bench and just added an audio component. With each cup of coffee, the F90 greets you with:

"Hello, grandma!"
"It's almost Friday"
"Everything is peachy"

...and more than a dozen other expressions, all delivered in a charming Middle Eastern accent.

Yanis BBQ

Taisir's favorite father-in-law, Dan, whipped up this little beauty for T's recent birthday. Can you say BBQ Gyro? Yum!

Latte

A latte is one of those "pretty" coffee drinks. At least here at the Coffee Zone. Taisir makes his lattes 3/4 milk, a double-shot of espresso with a spoonful of foam on top. (No, we don't have any of those little sprinkle things)

Wikipedia: "In Italy, caffe latte is almost always prepared at home, for breakfast only. The coffee is brewed with a stovetop Moka and poured into a cup containing heated milk. (The Moka does not produce true espresso, but rather a double-strength coffee. Also, unlike the international latte drink, the milk in the Italian original is not foamed.)

Outside Italy, a latte is typically prepared with approximately one third espresso and two-thirds steamed milk, with a layer of foamed milk approximately 5 mm (¼ inch) thick on the top.

"The little cup makes me feel like a giant!"

Coffee Zone regular (and volunteer web monkey) Steve Mays had his first shot of espresso on Saturday morning. Steve has had enough Rocket Fuel to float an aircraft carrier but had never tried espresso, although he admitted he thinks the tiny cups are cute.

You see him here after just being brow-beaten by Kevin Perry and George Kopp. George and Kevin explained the importance of extending the pinky when drinking espresso.

$50 cup of coffee

Reuters is reporting a luxury cafe in Tokyo introduced a limited offer menu on Thursday combining a cup of Bourbon Pointu coffee -- beloved of author Honore de Balzac and monarch Louis XV -- with champagne and chocolates for 5,250 yen ($49.57). A day later, there were still no takers, although some customers did order coffee beans at close to $70 for 100 grams.

Taisir says he's raising his prices as soon as a famous author and a French king start hanging at the Coffee Zone.

Katie is back!

Here's a photo of Katie and Taisir as they get ready to greet the day on Katie's first day back at the Coffee Zone. She'll be working every Friday.

Coffee Zone espresso makes you smack your lips

When the Zoner in line in front of you asks for a "shot," he/she is referring to a shot of espresso (raise your hand if you thought it was a shot of whiskey).

For all you latte dolls and Rocket Fuel junkies, here's the short version on espresso from Wikipedia:

Espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing very hot (but not boiling) water under high pressure through coffee that has been ground to a consistency between extremely fine and powder.

Espresso was developed in Milan, Italy in the early 20th century, but up until the mid-1940s it was a beverage produced solely with steam pressure. The invention of the spring piston lever machine and its subsequent commercial success changed espresso into the beverage we know today.