Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

Blue Bottle Siphon Coffee Brewing

Love This Photo of Coffee and Tylenol

Marco Arment (developer of Tumblr and Instapaper) has a cold. And a really great photo illustrating how he's fighting it:

Sampling Starbucks VIA, Instant Coffee

Several years ago, I was in Humboldt, Tennessee to attend a funeral. At the same time, I was at the end of a big editing project and needed to stay up late working in the hotel. The problem? This tiny hotel had no coffee in the room, and at 11 p.m. or so there was none to be had elsewhere. My wife an I embarked on a trip to find some, and because Humboldt isn't large, the best we could come up with was a large styrofoam cup of extremely old and burned java at a 7-11.

Yes, I was that desperate.

I'm reminded of that night not because of the quality of the coffee, but of its scarcity. I'm sitting in my office drinking what at the time was even lower on the list of acceptable caffeinated beverages: instant coffee. Only now, the coffee isn't bad at all. It's a packet of the new Starbucks VIA.

I'm drinking the "extra bold" Italian Roast, which is indeed bold but still smooth. It doesn't have that sharp, slightly chemical twang that I remember from the instant coffee my father would make as I was growing up. (He's since reformed.) In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the VIA's taste does come close to the cup of Starbucks drip coffee I started with this morning. Not as fresh-brewed, but not stale either, which is important.

That's also a downside: VIA shares the same over-roasted, slightly burned (but nothing like that pot in the 7-11) flavor that is characteristic of Starbucks. If you're not a fan of Starbucks in general, you won't be swayed by VIA. I find Starbucks to be tolerable, and that's largely because I can walk the same distance from my office in Fremont and get vastly better coffee and espresso at e.t.g.; a few more blocks of zombie shuffling in the morning offers a little bit of exercise and the delights of the Fremont Coffee Company and its across-the-street neighbor Caffe Ladro.

But I'd have no qualms about buying several packs of VIA to carry with me while traveling, or even to have while camping. Compared to most hotel-supplied coffee (even the packets you brew, which aren't instant but often taste like it), VIA is an improvement. It's decent enough that I'm now curious to try the medium-body Colombia blend.

VIA is currently available in Seattle and Chicago.

Profile of Stumptown Founder Duane Sorenson

The Tacoma News Tribune published a long feature profile of Duane Sorenson, founder of Stumptown Coffee: Coffee’s benevolent Mr. Bean.

If you've wondered what the big deal is with Northwest coffee (specifically in Seattle and Portland), this article gives you a good flavor. It's not just a matter of how to spice up your daily latté - it's a focus on the coffee beans, where they come from, paying better-than-fair prices for good crops, and making sure that the coffee people taste is as good as your own high standards. Plus, Duane just sounds like a cool guy.

Long Hours

Midnight Pavoni Rendezvous
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

On Saturday, I planned on going to bed at the same time as Kim and get a good night's rest. We spent the day with family, watching my 2 year old niece for a few hours and then having dinner at my sister's house. She lives in Bremerton, a little over an hour away (either by ferry or by driving around Puget Sound), so as a result we didn't get home until about 11:30. Still, that was the earliest I'd been to bed all week by about 3 hours.

I'm spending most of my time updating my iMovie/iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide (the new edition isn't yet listed at Amazon), which is more work this time around because iMovie '08 is a completely new video-editing program. I'm starting to warm up to the changes Apple made, and realizing that this version is deeper than I expected it to be (which means more work for me to suss out those depths).

I'm also helping to update a colleague's book in roughly the same timeframe. And since Adobe just released Photoshop Elements 6, the update to the Elements Visual QuickStart Guide is in the mix, too. Sprinkle a few article assignments in there as well.

But why should work occupy all of my attention? Why not do something really out of the ordinary, like have hardwood floors installed in our house (finally)? Heck, I might as well start a family while I'm at it.

This explains why my trusty La Pavoni espresso maker pictured here has become a reliable friend late at night and early every morning. I'm not complaining (much), because I did say yes to all of these projects. It's fun in that overwhelming sort of way. I just don't know where September and October went.

Caffeine Nap

I need to try this soon:

Scientists say that a successful midday nap depends on two things: timing and (no kidding) caffeine consumption. Experiments performed at Loughborough University in the UK showed that the sleep-deprived need only a cup of coffee and 15 minutes of shut-eye to feel amazingly refreshed.

coffee?
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

(From Wired, via Lifehacker)

Helvetica Coffee Mug

Love love love love love this:

(Found via the excellent swiss miss)

Coffee Drinks Illustrated

This is a great, simple-to-understand diagram of popular coffee drinks: Coffee Drinks Illustrated. Click to view the whole thing.

This would make a great poster.

Dear Indy Hipster Coffee Shop Near Where I Work

Radio personality and author John Moe posted a great open letter on his blog to a cafe near his work. I'm curious to know which one, of course, though what he describes isn't unique to just that one shop: Dear Indy Hipster Coffee Shop Near Where I Work.

I know you have a lot on your mind lately, what with the play you're directing at the tiny theater, the band you may or may not be in, and your busy scowling schedule, but maybe when I come by you could sometimes look at me with a hint of welcome. Like I'm not a burden. Maybe you could treat me like the one bringing the money, and really the activity, into this relationship. Because that's what I am.

Making Perfect Espresso at Illy

Chef David Lebovitz is in living in Europe for a while, and went to Trieste to learn about espresso from the masters at Illy: Making Perfect Espresso at Illy. It's a good read, though it does sound like Illy set things up so that they come off as the heroes (see theshot.coffeeratings.com, where I first found the link, for explanation).

I know, I should just turn this into a coffee blog; as JG says, "That Carlson sure does like coffee!"