So, now on topic, I highly recommend seeing the movie “Black Gold”. Not a perfect or unbiased documentary, but if you love coffee it’s awesome: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492447/

Now, off-topc again:

My fave boutique roaster (in the U.S.) has to be Small World Coffee in (of all places) Princeton, New Jersey. I can’t sing their praises enough: http://www.smallworldcoffee.com. Their house and Grumpy Monkey blends are awesome for drip. Their Rocket Fuel makes a subtle espresso. I find they don’t overroast so you get a lot of character in the coffee, as well as a substantial amount of caffeine.

If anyone can recommend a boutique roaster in Canada (specifically Ottawa) that’s real quality I’d appreciate the recommendation. The current crop is poor from what I’ve seen, IMHO.

If you like your fancy espressos/ristrettos/etc, try Caffe Artigiano in Vancouver: http://www.caffeartigiano.com/. These guys are the quintessential baristas.

In the UK, try the Costa chain and avoid Starbucks.

And my fave coffee sites: http://www.coffeegeek.com and http://projectamericano.com

Thanks for reading an old man’s caffeine-induced ramblings.

Finally, one of these blogs I visit every day has someone who *knows what they are talking about* when they talk about coffee and espresso. I don’t think Tony will be pimping the Nespresso-based Miele built in that Gizmodo did a few days ago ;)