Dethroner » Coffee

Stumptown Coffee: Gotta Love this Email

Jason — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:50:56 +0000

Dear Jason,

Your order (#XXXX) will be roasted and shipped tomorrow.

If you have any questions, please contact us at ordering@stumptowncoffee.com or 503.230.7797.

Thank You,
Stumptown Coffee Roasters

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I Like My Women Like I Like My Coffee…

Joel — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:47:19 +0000

The old saw gets a (somewhat) new take via this webcomics parody. I think we can do better.

For one, I’ve always preferred “…black.”

[Tailsteak.com]

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Coffee Health Possibly-Facts

Joel — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:15:17 +0000

An interesting collection of stats and figures about coffee, if by “interesting” you’ll allow “numbers a guy put on his web page that I didn’t fact check.” (He does seem to link studies for all his claims.) For instance:

Reports of coffee elevating blood pressure are misleading, because they aren’t done they way we drink coffee: daily. Going from nothing to a triple espresso raises blood pressure; but chronic coffee drinking eventually allows for normalized blood pressure.

For example, the much repeated finding “unfiltered boiled coffee causes a significant elevation in blood pressure, especially in women” is misleading: the study actually found that if you switch exclusively to boiled unfltered coffee from filtered coffe, your systolic blood pressure rises about 4mm Hg. However, switching from filtered coffee to abstinence did not have any effect on blood pressure or heart rate. Another study found a trivial change in blood pressure (-3.4mm Hg) after two months of abstinence (afgter 5 cups/d.)

What Is The Best and Healthiest Coffee To Drink? [The Last Psychiatrist]

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Coffee + Motorcycles = East Hollywood’s “Choke”

Joel — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:15:28 +0000

Choke is a motorcycle shop in East Hollywood that doubles as a coffee shop, where owner Jeff Johnsen welcomes folks to come in and sip an espresso while looking at the bikes—or at least the scooters, since that seems to make up the majority of bikes that Johnsen works on. What aren’t scooters look to be low-displacement little runabouts, and that’s fine by me. More people should be riding little bikes around in cities anyway, saving the big cruisers for the weekend.

Everybody in this shop looks so hip that I’d almost be intimidated to stop by, but if you’re in LA you should buck up in my place and tell us what you think. The idea of luring people in for coffee and atmosphere, then possibly selling them a bike in the future, is pretty bright.

Company Page [ChokeMotorcycleShop.com via Men.Style.com]

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Fancy Fresh Online Tea Store: The Simple Leaf

Joel — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:23:37 +0000

Can’t say I’ve ever bought anything from these folks, but I like the cut of their jib: “The Simple Leaf” is a pleasant-looking site that educates you about the tea you’re ordering, from its history to a Google Maps mash-up showing its origin. You can use their “Tea Finder Tool” to discover what teas go well with certain foods, what makes good iced tea, and what teas a coffee lover might enjoy.

In addition to teas, The Simple Leaf also sells tea-making supplies and mugs. For every $100 worth of stuff you order, you earn $5 worth of points redeemable for merchandise. (I’d rather they just take off the price at checkout, but that’s not good marketing, I suppose.)

Home Page [TheSimpleLeaf.com]

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Ineeka Tea Bags Expensive, Lovely

Joel — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:41:34 +0000

These tea bags are poncey to the max and pricey, to boot—$10 for 14 bags—but I think the design is just lovely. I don’t know how much swirling up the tea and other flavorings is really important (somewhat?) but I like a neat bit of design when I see it.

That said, bulk, loose tea is cheap, as are metal, reusable tea balls.

Great Design – Ineeka Tea [Arghyle]

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George Orwell on Tea

Joel — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:46:10 +0000

George Orwell was really fussy about his tea. Two take-home tips: the water should be boiling; the milk should be added after the pour. (Mind you, there is endless debate about both points.) [Booksatoz.com]

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Sweet Maria’s Weblog

Joel — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:56:38 +0000

Tom from Sweet Maria’s now has a weblog, where he discusses new coffees they’ve gotten in. [SweetMarias.com]

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Roasted Coffee Bean Gradient

Joel — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:51:53 +0000

I’m still working on that Coffee PDF. (Yes, I am actually making some progress, but layout and editing is hard work, not to mention the sections that need to be written still.) I asked Tonx if he had any pictures of roasted beans that I could use to illustrate the different shades of roasts and he showed me this picture he’d taken of Guatemalan beans showing a the full gradient from green to what I can only presume would be like a “Spanish” or “Italian” roast or something. Really, really dark.

Anyway, the point: what an awesome picture! I’ll be using it in the PDF, but I couldn’t wait to show you guys here.

palm reading [Flickr]

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FreshRoast Plus 8: Coffee Increasingly Delicious at Chalet Dethroner

Joel — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:51:29 +0000

I’m sipping a cup of Peru Penachi coffee that came bundled with my new Freshroast 8. Frankly, it’s not the best cup of coffee I’ve ever made, but it holds a lot of promise. The smells of the freshly roasted beans last night was stunning—almost as great as they smelled this morning when I brewed them. The taste is good, but weak. (I’m still adjusting grinds and ratios.) However, I’m starting to understand what Tonx was saying about coffee not actually being bitter.

Before you go run out and buy the Freshroast 8, though, I would point out something else that I learned by using it just a single time: my old converted air popper was way over-roasting the beans. Six minutes in the Freshroast brings a new roast between medium to full with no smoke at all. My previous roasting attempts with the popcorn popper caused a literal cloud of acrid smoke to billow up. Apparently that’s not actually necessary. Now I know! If you’ve been having problems with an air popper or pan-roasting, keep that in mind.

The does mean the only thing missing in our house now is a good burr grinder. Tonx has informed me he’s working on a piece about that very thing for a magazine, so hopefully once (and if) it’s online we can link it up for you. I also haven’t forgotten about the “Dethroner Guide to Coffee” PDF idea—I just worked on it some yesterday, in fact—ut it’s going to take a lot more work than I anticipated. Good thing I have all this coffee.

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Putting The “Bare” In Barista

Alex — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:01:04 +0000

In the cutthroat world of the Seattle area’s coffee trade, no prisoners are taken, no quarter is given. It’s all out war to brew the best cup of joe, and the stakes only get higher. At the Cowgirls Espresso in Tukwila, just south of downtown Seattle, the skirts are getting higher too.

The new weapon in the coffee wars is sex. From the sound of things, it’s a doomsday device that is putting the more timid element out of business.

Dethroner gracefully resists the urge to quip along the lines of, “well, she could sure steam my milk.”

Some coffee stands get steamier [seattletimes.nwsource.com]

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Java Logs

Joel — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:36:59 +0000

Java Logs aren’t the things that take you by surprise about 10 o’clock in the morning—they’re fire logs made from pressed coffee grounds. 6 for $50 is sort of painful, though. [Whole Latte Love]

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Cocaine Energy Drink Powered by Caffeine, Not “Drugs”

Joel — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:44:50 +0000

Almost every energy drink is powered by sugar and caffeine, including the new “Cocaine”-branded one. But its creators are idiots: “We knew kids would find it cool, but we also wanted to stress the idea that it’s an energy drink, you don’t need drugs.” Caffeine is a drug (and arguably, so is sugar). This is what happens when a company wants the cache of drug use, but none of the responsibility. [CityNews.ca]

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Red Bull Gives You Pangs

Joel — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:55:06 +0000

If you have a bad heart, mixing Red Bull (or other energy drinks, including coffee) with alcohol might be sort of bad for you. Maybe. Probably not, actually, but that wouldn’t give ABC News something to write four pages about. However: “Bartenders serve the popular Red Bull and vodka combination, coined the “Friday Flattener” and “Dirty Pompadour” in some places and the “Eye-opener” or a “Klenfield” in others.” Informed! [ABC News]

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Morning Tonic: Pal’s Coffee House

Joel — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:00:51 +0000

I’m not entirely sure what “bloney” is but I’ll try anything for a nickel. (Okay, it’s most certainly “bologna”.)

It’s not the prices that make me wistful when looking at this picture, but the menu selection, full of hearty/heart-stopping soups, sandwiches, and steaks. If only the fast food of today sounded so delicious!

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Pass the SCAA’s Sensory Test

Brian — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 18:33:26 +0000

How to pass the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s judging sensory test. [Home-Barista]

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Dethroner Asks You: Final Coffee Tips and Suggestions

Joel — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:55:14 +0000

First, thanks again to Tonx for last week’s great introduction to the dark art of coffee. His posts will lay the groundwork for our first-ever “Dethroner Guide to…” which we hope to publish this week in PDF form. If you have any final tips, suggestions, or anecdotes about coffee that you would like to offer for inclusion in the guide, please post them right here.

I am currently working on a “State of the Blog” report that I’ll be putting up shortly which will serve as the icebreaker for what I hope to be an interesting end of year discussion, as well as the first post of a general “Year’s Best” theme. Expect that post within an hour.

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Clothed Coffeemaker – the Eva Solo

Tonx — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 00:07:11 +0000

So elegant and design-y that owning one requires you to be comfortable in your masculinity, the Eva Solononetheless makes a mean cup of coffee.

We’ve been playing around with one all week here and I really love it. Of the many brewing methods in our arsenal, nothing comes closer to true cupping (the standard industry method for evaluating coffee), revealing the full clarity of the beans.

This is another full immersion brewing method, like a french press, which on the surface seems absurdly simple, but produces something much closer to perfection than typical press pots. Coarse freshly ground coffee is added to the neoprene jacketed glass, water right off the boil is poured on top, a bit of stirring, the filter/lid is placed on top and four minutes later great coffee pours out beautifully. Coffeegeek loved it (rating it a 10 out of 10) and has a detailed review and photos of the whole brewing process.

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