Coffee Tao

New York coffeeshop Roasting Plant Coffee Company is pioneering an interesting design for the sale and delivery of their coffee–by turning the entire store into a coffee machine. Dubbed the “Javabot”, in truth it seems to be really just the various aspects of a typical roasting plant and retail shop joined together by pneumatic […]

Starbucks announced the other day that it has bought the Coffee Equipment Company, makers of the much-ballyhooed Clover brewing machine, for an undisclosed sum. Apparently Starbucks intends to put Clovers in all but the smallest stores, as part of Howard Schultz’s overall push to increase quality in his stores and slow the recent but […]

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 […]

An article in the New York Times highlights the Blue Bottle Cafe in San Francisco and its interesting recent purchase–a $20,000 coffee brewing contraption imported from Japan.
Using halogen lamps for heat and enough glass bulbs to make any mad scientist proud, the “siphon bar” as its called uses a brewing principle similar to a stove-top […]

(This is Part 2 of a 4-part series called “The Four ‘M’s of Perfect Coffee”, in which we’ll talk about the four elements of making great espresso-based drinks at home: Machine, Mill, Mix (blend), and Method.)
The Second “M”: Mill
Unlike shopping for an espresso machine, which can require quite a bit of research and forethought, […]

This is part 2 of a holiday gift guide, aimed at making suggestions for the coffee lovers on your shopping list. Part 1 is here. I’m doing these posts because when I ran a retail floor, between October and January I was always bombarded with questions of what constitutes a good coffee-related gift. […]

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 […]

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

Perhaps your living room isn’t sparkly enough, or you want to add some pizazz to your next home coffee klatch. I submit the interactive LED coffee table:

The table was built by Jeffrey “Toast” McGrew and Jillian Northrup of Because We Can, a design-build firm operating out of a nondescript converted barn in Oakland. […]

If you’re not making your coffee with a laser then you’re clearly doing it wrong.