Posts from — November 2007

BMW and manufacturer Saeco recently designed a Starbucks-branded home espresso machine, dubbed the “Sirena”, which at the moment is only available in certain Starbucks stores and online:

The press release conveyed an almost comical degree of intensity about the design:

[...]experts from BMW Group DesignworksUSA were intensively involved in the entire product development process. It was imperative that the new design language reflected both quality and functionality of the newly developed espresso machine as well as the fundamental values of the Starbucks brand. In this crucial stage it was necessary to translate the specific brand values into the appropriate product character with regard to product architecture, gesture, color, material, surface, operation and proportions.

BMW DesigngroupUSA reportedly spent two years developing a unit that looks more or less like any decent midrange espresso machine and comes with zero extra features. It doesn’t look like a bad machine, but I’m not sure what exactly it is I’m supposed to be excited about or why it took three companies two years to produce. It doesn’t even carry the BMW roundel, though considering how loose some car companies are with their brand name, that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

I turn 30 tomorrow, and as a bit of a celebratory drink I offer this simple but excellent drink idea from the blog Beers Beers Beers, to which I was pointed by the ever-on-top-of-things Mark.

The idea is incredibly simple: it’s a shot of espresso poured into a pint of Guinness. It’s one of those ideas that if, like me, you’d never heard of it, you’d wonder why you’d never thought of it. I’ve had “espresso stouts” before, where coffee grounds are used in the beer’s production, but the ones I’ve had have typically been underwhelming and hard to find in any case. The Dufrain cuts straight to the chase in a simple, pleasing way that anyone can make.

Upon hearing about it I had to try it, so I bopped over to Online Coffee on the way home and ordered a Guinness and an espresso. Unfortunately they only had Guinness in the can, which I typically dislike, but I tried it anyway.

The espresso looked good at least, with a rich, even crema. My ingredients assembled, I took the plunge:

The result? Actually, at first it wasn’t too great; canned Guinness tends to taste tinny and alkaline, and this held true here. But the closer I got to the bottom, where the espresso sediment had settled and the drink overall approached room temperature, I was rewarded with a thick, malt-like chocolate flavor with a tobacco-y finish that I really enjoyed. In a way the espresso “fills out” or adds heft to the mouthfeel of the Guinness, which, if you’re well versed in stouts, is actually pretty dry and somewhat lacking in body for a dark beer. I’d love to try it again with a properly-poured, room-temperature stout, and use a double-espresso instead of a single shot, but I liked this experiment enough to recommend it unreservedly.

This is some seriously great DIY work. No IT professional is complete without one of these in his server rack: