November 19, 2007
Danish Coffee Porn
As I mentioned to Upendra at lunch today — am I name dropping? — about once every four or five years I have a cup of coffee so good that I think to myself, "Damn it, if that isn't the best cup of coffee I've had in the last four or five years!" I'm not talking about espresso drinks, just good old-fashioned brewed coffee. It happened again yesterday, at the Silver Spring Panera Bread of all places, when I decanted myself a tall Holiday Blend. The taste was rich and bold, with bright, fruity highlights and a soupsant of ... oh, I can't go on. But it really was quite good.
Sadly, the caffeine kept me awake later that night, and I found myself killing time on the can with the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Thumbing through it, I chanced upon an article titled "The Magic Brewing Machine," about the pleasures of single-origin lighter-roast coffees and the fancy (and expensive) new brewing machines that best show off their flavor. Apparently a relatively new machine, the Clover, is creating the same kind of buzz in the world of coffeemakers that the Dyson did when it turned vacuum cleaners into fetish objects for twenty-something bachelors.
If the Clover's $11,000 asking price seems a bit much (it's targeted at coffee shops, not consumers), there's a "Do It Yourself" sidebar highlighting a more affordable but similarly modern and fashionable brewing device from Denmark, the CafeSolo:
Be sure to check out this video, too. The CafeSolo is available in both 0.6 liter and 1 liter sizes, for about $80 and $100, respectively. Cheap!
November 5, 2007
A Candy Bar By Any Other Name
Americans and Europeans have different names for various candy bars. It can be quite confusing to the hapless traveler or resident alien, and for some time I've been hoping to document this muddled state of affairs. Thanks to Sandra, I was able to bang out this handy conversion table on a used napkin during lunch:
Feel free to redistribute as needed.
