Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

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!"

At the Starbucks Annual Meeting; "The Memo"

At this morning's annual meeting for Starbucks shareholders, Chairman Howard Schultz appeared sternly defensive about what he called, "The Memo," a critical note to the company's board of directors (see "The Commoditization of Starbucks, by Howard Schultz"). Although a small portion of the two-plus hour meeting mentioned the memo specifically, the tone of the presentation seemed focused on pushing the positive aspects of Starbucks's business practices in order to challenge recent criticisms from inside and outside the company.

[Part of] "my role in the company is to ask questions," Schultz said, noting that his 25 years' worth of memos demonstrate an "entrepreneurial push". Within the memo in question, Schultz voiced concerns about the switch to super-automatic espresso machines ("...we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the La Mazocca machines") and the cookie-cutter nature of the stores ("...stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store"). He said that contrary to some reports, the memo was not intended for public consumption.

He was a little more visibly agitated by the way Starbucks is often held up as a negative symbol of U.S. capitalism and other global concerns. "We welcome debate," he said, "[we] just want it to be an honest appraisal." Outside McCaw hall in Seattle, a group of protestors (and accompanying large inflatable rat) picketed for fair prices for coffee farmers, unionization for Starbucks employees, and in support of Ethiopia's move to trademark coffee names from associated regions such as Yirgacheffe and Sidamo.

On the latter point, Starbucks President and CEO James Donald stated that the company believes regional certification and its C.A.F.E (coffee and farmer equity) practices are better than the Ethiopian government's trademark move.

Much of the presentation reinforced the idea that Schultz brought up early: "Can a company grow, get big, and stay small?"

Donald said that Starbucks planned to double the amount of coffee bought from east Africa in the coming year, and that in 2006 the company purchased 14 percent of the world's fair-trade certified coffee (it buys 2 percent of the world's coffee, a number I expected to be higher given the company's size). Toward the end of the meeting, the President of the Republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame addressed the crowd, heaping praises on the company and its worldwide efforts, and making an amusing plea for Starbucks to open a store in Rwanda ("Really, please do," I think he said).

Oh, and I can't forget the appearance (via satellite, unfortunately) of Sir Paul McCartney, who just signed with the new Starbucks Hear Music label. I wonder if Sir Paul gets tired of people saying things like, "I can't believe I just talked to a Beatle!"

I attended the meeting as the guest of a friend whose mother is a shareholder; I don't own any Starbucks stock, but couldn't help but be envious when Schultz displayed a slide that showed a $10,000 investment in 1992 being worth $467,000 now. Mostly, I wanted to hear what was said about The Memo, and get a sense of what a big public Starbucks event is like.

The meeting started at 10 a.m., but seating opened up at 8 a.m.. When I arrived at 9, McCaw hall was full and my friend and I were led into an overflow pavilion. In addition to chairs and three large displays set up to watch the presentation, this room featured several espresso machine and barista setups (and extremely long lines of shareholders ponying up for free caffeine fixes). Drip coffee and free pastries were also available; I watched two elderly, affluent-looking shareholders transfer probably five muffins and eight cookies to purse and pockets. (I desperately wanted to get a photo of them, but wasn't able to.)

A couple of displays caught my attention. A pair of women were offering free samples of canned, heated coffee from a vending machine that Starbucks expects to introduce in 2008. (The machine is heated, not the cans, unlike a recent self-heating invention.) The cans will cost about $2.00 each.

I tried this Italian Roast Coffee with Whole Milk and Sugar, which tasted like... a Starbucks coffee with milk and sugar. Not something I'd go out of my way for, but would be a nice beverage while waiting for jury duty or someplace else where coffee is typically terrible.

At another display, a large super-automatic, individual-serving coffee maker was being demonstrated. Designed for other self-serve environments such as gas stations or office break rooms, the attractive machine sports two bean hoppers and an easy interface for making a cup of coffee: choose a size (short, tall, or two sizes of carafes), indicate which bean bin to get the source from (for regular and decaf) as well as options for including milk or cocoa, and then press start. It takes a couple of minutes to brew each cup, which, again, didn't taste bad.

I didn't stay for the Q&A session, and was handed a gift bag on my way out containing a bag of ground Costa Rica Tarrazú coffee, a metal Starbucks tumbler (green and nubby), a can of Iced Coffee Light that scares me a little (I'm not a big fan of iced coffee), and a packet of Tazo tea.

02:38 PM in Coffee | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 09, 2007

Camping Out in Cafés

In a post's comments, reader Rick writes:

RE: your recent review of Seattle coffeehouses and how nice it is to do work in them: Grr... Jeff, hate to say it, but it's people like you, i.e. those folks who camp out in Seattle coffee houses all day to do their day jobs or homework, that take up 00% if not all the available seats and ruin it for the rest of us. The decor of our coffee houses is now a sea of laptops surrounded by textbooks and workpapers on all the tables. These selfish ones studiously ignore us regular people, who wander the isles looking for a spare seat or corner of a table to hang out for a while with a cup of joe.

  Dean's Office B.A. 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

Actually, Rick, I agree with you. There are a lot of people who camp out for hours at a time. I've found that I can do maybe up to two hours of work in a coffeeshop before I need to move on, but usually I've gone to a cafe as a change of pace, not as a second office.

I'm glad to see that places like Caffe Ladro and Fremont Coffee Company are using a system where you get a code from the counter to get onto their wireless networks, which expires after a set amount of time (usually 1-2 hours). My colleague Glenn Fleishman wrote an article for the New York Times about Victrola when they decided to turn the Wi-Fi off on the weekends.

It's true that some people will just park at a table, laptop or no, and hang out all day. I don't know what can be done except to find ways to discourage them (politely) from doing so. It does annoy me when one person is taking up a four-person table with all their crap. But I'm sure they had this problem in the early coffeehouses in England, too.

12:28 AM in Coffee, Rants | Permalink | Comments (2)

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