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Caffe Vita Takes Advantage of Starbucks Closure with Free Java
In the wake of the announced Starbucks closures today for barista retraining (”re”-training?), local Seattle independent roasters Caffe Vita are taking advantage of the theoretical masses of caffeine-less coffee drinkers by offering free coffee and espresso at all of their locations during the three hours that every Starbucks will be closed–5:30-8:30pm PST.
It’s a sly move […]
“Congratulations, It’s a Roaster”
Our roasting machine arrived crated on a pallet today–I’m very excited. I took the crating apart, moved it off the pallet, cleaned the machine, and put it back together. We still need to hook it up to the afterburner and the gas line, but this was probably the most fun part.
Here’s the crated […]
A Good Coffee Omen…I Hope
We went to pick up the afterburner the other day and brought it over Snoqualmie Pass in a friend’s truck. We also palletized the roasting machine itself, and it might get here as soon as this afternoon. I hope so; we’ve got a ton of work ahead of us but I’m looking forward […]
Can a Coffee Robot Make Your Palette Obsolete?
Researchers and chemical engineers at Nestle in Switzerland have invented a machine that analyzes the gas espresso gives off when heated, “translating” the ion compositions into taste notes like “roasted, flowery, woody, toffee and acidity.” It’s imaginatively called an “electronic taster,” and was originally conceived as a quality control device for the major players in […]
Coffee Roasting Machine–Acquired
We finally found a proper roasting machine, a San Franciscan SF-25B. It’s in about a hundred pieces but it’s in solid shape and the price was right. We’ll palletize it and bring it over Snoqualmie Pass as soon as the snow lets us.
It’s an older machine, mostly manual the way I like it, […]
“You Win Because of the Coffee”
Another recent article in the New York Times describes a Starbucks closing down across the street from an indie coffee shop in Kansas City. For the first time the trend of Starbucks pushing out small shops seems to be reversing, and lagging sales and a stale formula has caused Howard Schultz to consider shutting […]
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