Category: Coffee

First Crack 121. Drink Beer from a Cat’s Butt: Tasting of Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch

Now that Surly’s Coffee Bender has become the pinnacle of Coffee Stouts I’m on a quest for interesting and unique coffee beers. I picked up bottle of Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch – an oatmeal stout with civet coffee. After the civet coffee review with Sam Buchanan how could I not take this beer home. 10.9% […]

Dog-Eared

Some quick reviews of the handful of books I savored during my recent trip in Mexico. The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let It Happen I found this month’s Economics book club selection (my first Kindle purchase) an extra-ordinarily frustrating read mainly due to the Fox News-esque partisanship. Despite […]

The Roastery and Kopplin’s Offering Coffee Subscriptions

If you’re still looking for something delicious to give the fanatic coffee drinker in your life – I’m super excited to share that both Jeremy Raths, of The Roastery, and Andrew Kopplin, of Kopplin’s Coffee, are offering coffee subscriptions. The Roastery Regulars subscription, is $144, delivers 1 pound of coffee to your door every other […]

Jon Gordon’s Twin Cities Coffee WiFi Google Map Started

Jon Gordon‘s going to be in the Twin Cities for a while and he thought it’d be fun to review the local selection of independent coffee + wifi shops. As part of that effort, I’ve started a Google Map for listing and pin-pointing these places. There’s also a handful of invites floating around to for […]

First Crack 108. Coffee Review – Honduras, El Filo – 49th Parallel Roasters

This is the third in the monthly coffee review series at the First Crack Podcast. This month, I’m reviewing Miguel Moreno Leiva – El Filo as roasted by 49th Parallel Roasters. It’s a very subtle and floral cup with powerful aroma off the grind. Andrew described it to me as, “technically good.” I quite agree. […]

First Crack 106. Coffee Review – El Salvador: Finca La Montaña

This is the second in the monthly coffee review series at the First Crack Podcast. This month, I’m reviewing George Howell’s Terroir Coffee: El Salvador: Finca La Montaña The 2007 Cup of Excellence winner that was completely devastated by near hurricane-strength winds in January. Pushing the next harvest out to 2010. In response to this […]

First Crack 105. Coffee Review – Grand Cru Kenya: Mamuto, Kirinyaga

This podcast kicks off a new monthly coffee review series at the First Crack Podcast. This month, I’m reviewing: George Howell’s Terroir Coffee: Kenya Mamuto Kirinyaga First, it took me a while to tweak the grinder back for a good press pot. In that time, the time was ticking on the coffee itself. Lesson learned […]

RE: Starbucks Might Be Helping, Not Hurting, Independent Coffee Shops

“‘Anyone who complains about having a Starbucks put in next to you is crazy. You want to welcome the manager, give them flowers. It should be the best news that any local coffeehouse ever had.’” – Martin Diedrich, coffeehouse owner in Orange County, CA. Competition increases demand and you can succeed by outsourcing your marketing […]