This is from Giorgio Milos, the 36-year-old is a professor at Illycaffe Universita del Caffe in Trieste, Italy.

Milos is an Italian barista champion who currently lives in New York and will be spending the rest of this year travelling North America representing Illycaffe.

The biggest mistake I’ve seen is an enormous quantity of coffee being used—way too much. I’m talking about 20 to 25 grams of coffee for a single espresso shot! It is like making a mojito with half a mint leaf, one ice cube, a few grains of sugar, and a gallon of rum. Undrinkable!

Espresso made this way—well, it’s not espresso, but I’ll call it that—turns out overly concentrated, and because of that it cannot delight the drinker with the magnificent aromas of toasted bread, chocolate, red fruit, orange, and jasmine flowers that are all present in a high-quality blend.

The beverages I tasted were almost syrups, full-bodied but with a very sour, almost salty taste. I suspect that beans that were roasted too recently played a part. After roasting, beans need a few days to breathe and mature. These too-young beans are a big problem. Also, I’ve visited too many coffee bars that don’t heat cups before serving, and in the process sacrifice flavor and aroma. Or that serve in wet cups, an espresso sin.

An espresso, a real one, requires seven to eight grams of freshly ground coffee roasted two to three days in advance, or preserved using pressurization. The water can’t be too soft, and must not exceed 200 degrees F to avoid burning, nor be lower than 190 F in order to extract all the best aromatic components.

The grind is also fundamental. A too-fine grind can create burnt coffee and extract unpleasantly bitter and woody flavors. This is why so many people describe espresso’s taste as “bitter.” An overly coarse grind doesn’t permit full extraction of certain key elements. The proper, medium grind permits extraction of one ounce of aromatic black liquid in 25 to 30 seconds, the ideal amount of time.

If all these variables are respected (amount of coffee, temperature, time, and volume), along with the right pressure (around nine atmospheric units or 130 psi), you get an opaque, perfumed liquid containing microscopic oil droplets releasing precious coffee aroma, set fully free on your taste buds.

A silky, persistent foam (“crema”) will appear on top, nut brown with red stripes, protecting the liquid underneath for a few minutes—just enough time to hold that ceramic cup in hand, feel the warmth, move it to the lips, and sense those freed aromas in the mouth, where they will combine to create a unique taste experience.

Otherwise known as espresso. A real espresso.

via A Winning Formula for Traditional Espresso – Food – The Atlantic.

A Greek study involved 485 men and women, aged 65 to 100, who live on a small island called Ikaria, in the Aegean Sea, where more than a third of people live to celebrate their 90th birthday.

Coffee Improves Blood Vessel Elasticity

Participants, all of whom had high blood pressure, underwent imaging scans to measure the stiffness of their blood vessels.

Of the total, 33% of participants drank no coffee or less than one cup of coffee a day, 56% drank one to two cups, and 11% drank three or more cups a day.

People who drank one to two cups of coffee a day had about a 25% greater elasticity in their major blood vessels than people who drank less coffee or none at all.

Their blood vessel elasticity was about five times greater than people who drank three or more cups a day.

The analysis took into account factors that can affect blood vessel aging — age, gender, smoking, education, physical activity, body weight, blood pressure, nutritional habits, and diabetes.

The study also showed that people who drank one to two cups of coffee a day were less likely to have diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, or to be overweight, compared to people who drank more coffee or less coffee, Chrysohoou says.

This study was presented at a medical conference but hasn’t been subjected to the “peer review” process yet.  Other factors in the Greek lifestyle may be responsible for these results.

via Coffee May Combat High Blood Pressure.

Yes, it is true. After about 12 years, I’ve finally decided to move the guide to using a La Pavoni manual lever espresso machine to another home.

The site has generated quite a bit of traffic over to years and I’ve met some great people through it, but various bits of functionality have stopped working. So, the decision was made a few years to move it to a more modern platform. Well, it took a while, but the new site is at Coffee Gurus

The site is still a work in progress. For now, you can add comments with tricks and tips etc. Have fun! Let me know if you have any suggestions.

This article pretty much reflects what Roger was ranting about a few months ago…

Coffee shops were the retail pioneers of Wi-Fi, flipping the switch to lure customers. But now some owners are pulling the plug. They’re finding that Wi-Fi freeloaders who camp out all day nursing a single cup of coffee are a drain on the bottom line. Others want to preserve a friendly vibe and keep their establishments from turning into “Matrix”-like zombie shacks where people type and don’t talk.

That shift could gather steam now that free Wi-Fi is less of a perk after coffee giant Starbucks stopped charging for it last month.

“There is now a market niche for not having Wi-Fi,” said Bryant Simon, a Temple University history professor and author of “Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America From Starbucks.”

via Coffeehouses unplugging Internet access to reconnect with customers – latimes.com.

In this Suntory Boss coffee commercial, Tommy Lee Jones stars as an alien/elevator guide who is spying on earth.

Bizarre.  Reminds me of Bill Murray’s character in “Lost in Translation”

As some of you may know, I’m traveling on business in New York City for the week.  NYC has got to be one of the foodie capitals of the world.  With the all the cosmopolitan flavours, the high density of people from all backgrounds, and the amount of cash (still) flowing here…it all adds up to the ability to find great eats at all price levels.

One envious colleague knows about my coffee fetish, and was wondered out loud whether even the coffee tastes better in NYC.  At first, I thought it was a silly comment, but you know what?  IT DOES!  Even your average cup from a street vendor tastes pretty good.

Sure there are artisanal roasting of superior beans here and yes, there are great barristas that care about their craft.  But do you know what I think makes the biggest difference???

The WATER.  Yep, the tap water here tastes great!  This goes against most people’s idea of the state of tap water in this bustling metropolis, but it is true.

I always thought the tap water tasted good, but never really put too much thought into it.  But, while at dinner with a friend that’s a local, she mentioned that NYC’s tap water consistently rates extremely highly as the healthiest and best tasting in the nation.

A bit of research shows that the municipal water system is fed by 19 reservoirs and three lakes in upstate New York.  Most of the supply is protected and filtered by the natural processes of the upstate ecosystems.  In blind taste tastes, NYC’s water frequently rates right at the very top.

So, it makes sense.  If, the main part of a cup of coffee is water, then BETTER WATER = BETTER COFFEE

For those of us that don’t have the luxury of having best tasting tap water, or have municipal water systems that add a lot of chemicals for treatment, the best thing you can do for the taste of your coffee is to run the water through something like a Brita filter.

The fact that NYC’s water may not be kosher is another story… 

I was sitting at a local Starbucks yesterday afternoon with my laptop in tow, a question occurred to me.  Has the modern day coffee shop taken away a social culture?

As I sat there sipping my coffee, I looked around and saw how many people were like me, taking advantage of the WiFi there and not so much being there for the coffee. This is definitely not the way it was or the way we see it on TV shows like Friends or Seinfeld where a group of friends would gather at a local coffee shop to engage in meaningful or meaningless conversation and enjoy a cup of coffee together. Instead, a new culture has been created where the norm seems to be engaging in conversation through an instant messaging service of some sort rather than with someone a couple of feet away.

What’s the worst part of all of this? I went to a coffee shop to use the Internet and I really can’t recall if the coffee was good or not… My suggestion to us all is that the next time we want to visit a coffee shop, try bringing a friend instead of your laptop.

Well, the the burr grinding of the PC Grinder was fine, the over quality of the grinder is NASTY. After a few months of messing with various bits falling off the grinder, the entire top bean hopper snapped off!

I reattached it with duct tape (yes, I’m a geek) and it worked for a while longer until I could no longer stand it!

It has since been replaced with a new burr grinder that was on sale at Starbucks. More later on that.

In the meantime, dear readers, my advice is to stay away from the PC Grinder!

In my never ending quest for a good deal, I wandered by my friendly neighborhood Loblaws (a large grocery chain in my neck of the woods). Along with foodstuffs, they are starting to sell VERY stylish small appliances and other household items for very low prices under the PC (President’s Choice) brand.

For instance, I bought a beautiful chrome toaster with bagel sized slots and even a defrost setting for $12. It works great and is on par with a toaster 10x as much. So, needless to say, I was quite excited to see a burr grinder for $29. Well, let’s just say that my enthusiasm was a bit misplaced.

The grinder looks good, has nice burrs, but the plastic bits aren’t up to snuff. The top hopper area attaches to the metal base with a few plastic prongs. Either while using the hopper to twist the grind settings (like I do on my Gaggia MDF) or just normal regular grinding, the plastic prongs snapped off…and probably got ground into smithereens.

Other than that, the coffee comes out of the chute and sprays coffee all over the counter unless the rubber seal is perfectly seated into the receptacle. I don’t know about you, but when I need a cup of coffee in the morning, I’m not exactly in a mood to be messing with aligning plastic bits with rubber bits yada yada.

The coffee that comes out is very nicely ground though, and not simply pulverized as in a whirlyblade grinder. This makes a big difference in the level of silt you get in a cup from using a french press.

I’m thinking of modifying the grinder to accept a glass hopper that is permanently affixed along with a longer chute into a metal coffee catcher. For now, my wife is using it but it is slowly driving me nuts.

Overall, I wouldn’t buy the grinder again. Looks great, has great features at a great price….but the performance and durability just isn’t there. $29 isn’t a bargain in this case, it is money misspent…