Coffee

November 16, 2007 Next time you go out for gourmet coffee with your pampered pooch, fido won’t need to sit miserably under the table lapping at a tasteless bowl of water. Doggy Java is caffeine free, beef flavored “coffee” for dogs served in a Canine Cappuccino Cup with a Bonescotti Biscuit.  Read More

May 22, 2007 Coffee is the world’s second most traded commodity, behind only oil. The short “blast” afforded by a concentrated caffeine hit has become part of the daily ritual of hundreds of millions of people, yet, as any coffee connoisseur will tell you, producing a good coffee is something that is beyond most commercial food establishments on the planet. In recent times, a range of companies have attempted to replicate the perfect coffee by producing machinery that uses standardised pods and sophisticated circuitry to get the temperaures just right every time. The leader in this single-serve coffee segment is Nestle’s Nespresso, with a range of machines we’ve written about many times (Miele's built-in Nespresso machine, Nespresso's InCar coffee machine, Nespresso's Romeo, the Nespresso Essenza, and our original assessment of the Nespresso system back in 2003) and the company’s latest innovation has been done in concert with De’Longhi, the Italian household appliance designers. The Nespresso Lattissima machine is the manifestation of the companies’ mutual vision to create a machine that would enable connoisseurs to easily prepare a latte or cappuccino of the highest quality with a one-touch milk froth function.  Read More

February 8, 2007 The world’s caffeine addicts got some good news this week when it was announced that the genes involved in coffee quality have been identified. Since 2001, CIRAD and the Agricultural Institute of Paraná in Brazil (IAPAR) have been working on joint research into understanding the biological processes - flowering, fruit ripening, etc - that determine coffee’s distinctive characteristics. Some compounds (sugars, fats, caffeine, etc) are known to play a role in coffee quality. Their accumulation in the plant, and particularly in the beans, is a determining factor. Sucrose is considered to play a crucial role in coffee organoleptic quality, since its breakdown during roasting releases several aroma and flavour precursors.how coffee beans ripen. Using molecular biology and biochemistry techniques, they have characterized the key enzymes in the sucrose metabolism during coffee bean development. The quality of coffee makes a big difference at market, which is good news for all concerned as coffee is still the second most traded commodity in the world behind only petroleum.  Read More

November 17, 2006 Now here’s a must have for any self-respecting, caffeine-powered technophile – a coffee maker with real-time weather forecast information and the ability to brew a cup of coffee from either whole beans or ground coffee. The US$200 Melitta Smart Mill & Brew with MSN Direct incorporates Microsoft's Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) and automatically detects current weather conditions, the day's forecast, probability for precipitation, and sunrise and sunset times, without the need for outdoor sensors, through MSN Direct.  Read More

April 10, 2006 – “Design” and “innovation” were the buzz words this week as thousands converged at the Milan furniture fair Salone del Mobile. Creativity was also flowing at the Triennale, one of the primary centers for emerging trends of modern decorative and industrial arts, as the winners of the 2005 Nespresso Design Contest were announced. We love the the capsule-based single cup coffee concept which has grown remarkably over the last decade through the likes of Nespresso, Senseo, Tassimo et al. Given the compact nature of the pod-based coffee systems, Nespresso initiated a design contest encouraging European design students to explore and consider new innovations in the coffee lifestyle without boundaries—freeing themselves from traditional conceptions of coffee and coffee preparation. Students were also urged to consider how coffee rituals will evolve in the future. The results were fantastic, with the winning concept a “Nespresso Card” which holds coffee preferences for registered individuals, thus enabling them to access their favorite coffee anytime, anywhere. For our money though, the second-placed “Nespresso InCar” coffee machine aroused the most interest. Though only a concept we’ve got three people in our office alone who would buy one. The idea is that the machine fits conveniently into the centre console of a car and doubles as an armrest when travelling.  Read More

January 16, 2006 There’s always a better way – ALWAYS! Humans have been consuming coffee for 1200 years, the first coffee shops opened 500 years ago and coffee is the world’s second largest traded commodity, behind only oil. More than 1.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day with the US market for coffee machines at 20 million a year and growing. You’d think we would have already perfected the best way to produce a cup of coffee from coffee beans, but several years of research by Stanford University mechanical engineering lecturer Alan Adler (the inventor of the Aerobie flying disk which holds the world throwing record of more than a quarter mile) appear to have found a better coffee machine. Independent reviews suggest the new Aerobie AeroPress delivers the smoothest, richest, purest and fastest cup of coffee (under 30 seconds) you’re likely to find and the bonus is that the AeroPress costs just US$30. And while it might look like a French Press because both use immersion and pressure, it works quite differently.  Read More

September 5, 2005 There is ALWAYS a better way, no matter what the endeavour and it seems the capsule-based single cup brewer market comprised of Nespresso, Senseo, Illy's E.S.E Espresso pods, the Keurig system at al, is in for a further shake-up. The pod system offers convenience, cleanliness and in a world starved of the one commodity you can never get enough of (time), a semi-automated micro system providing top quality makes infinite sense, particularly when it comes to delivering one of the world's most loved commodities. Coffee is the world’s second largest traded commodity, second only to petroleum – 1.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day in the world, more than half the U.S. adult population drinks coffee daily and they average 3.5 cups a day. Coffee makers constitute the largest segment in the small kitchen appliance category with over 19 million coffee makers sold every year in the U.S. But now, there’s a new system that uses a microprocessor that makes intelligent decisions for you and refines the science of coffee making enough to give it a competitive edge – using barcode scanning. The Tassimo system has two key components: the Tassimo brewing machine and proprietary Tassimo discs (T-DISCS). Through Tassimo's smart technology, developed and designed by Kraft Foods, the machine's microprocessor reads the bar code printed on the T-DISC label after it is inserted into the machine and automatically calculates the correct water quantity, brewing time and temperature to prepare the perfect beverage.  Read More

August 17, 2005 Have you ever wondered what possesses human beings to heat liquids to boiling point and then systematically pour them on the second-most-sensitive area of their body? It’s what Jolex, the inventors of the Brugo travel mug calls the “perfect temperature zone” for drinking coffee, soup, tea – the most common liquids we use in a travel mug – and it’s estimated to be between 150 degrees and 170 degrees Fahrenheit (65-75 degrees Celsius). It’s the point at which the aroma and flavour are greatest, but it’s an elusive zone and one that heated liquids are only in for a short time. By using a simple “tip and sip” motion, BRUGO transfers sip-sized amounts (one fluid ounce) of the hot beverage to the temperature control chamber, where it immediately reaches this “perfect temperature zone.” Only the liquid in the chamber is cooled and only this liquid exits the sip opening. A seal keeps the remaining coffee at its hottest and most aromatic. This inventive system eliminates the need for coffee drinkers to blow on their beverage, add ice to it, or wait for it to cool. Instead, they have immediate access to their hot beverage, and they can enjoy it longer at its peak freshness and flavour.  Read More

August 17, 2005 Single Serve Coffee is a site devoted to the love of fine coffee and no sooner had we written up the Nespresso Essenza, which comes in at the compact-budget end of the Nespresso scale, than they came up with an actual review of the Nespresso Romeo before it launches this September. The Romeo will come in at the high end of the range for Nespresso, and utilizes the same coffee capsule loading system and is aptly named Romeo, as the coffee capsule is placed on a small balcony. Single Serve's review can be found here.  Read More