Coffee 4 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Mmmmm – love the whole bean …

Mmmmm – love the whole bean caramel coffee at Safeway.

Is it too much to find …

Is it too much to find a 10+ cup coffee maker with a thermal carafe that has an easy reservoir, uses real coffee, but doesn’t grind its own coffee beans? Evidently so.

It’s annoying when you can’t remember …

It’s annoying when you can’t remember/figure out how to set the coffee maker to brew later (rather than right now). Bad User Interface.

I refuse to buy a $300 coffee …

I refuse to buy a $300 coffee maker. I’d rather call Starbucks to have coffee delivered to my doorstep and save the counter space.

“My body is a temple — I only put real sugar into it!”

Well, I used to say that, before I counted up how many calories were in a regular soda and realized that there were acceptable diet drinks (once you got used to them) on the market.

But a bigger issue for regular soda drinkers has been the shift (since the mid-80s) from Real Sugar to “High Fructose Corn Syrup.” Though the Dire Warnings from Medical Experts about HFCS read a bit like warnings about getting brain tumors from cell phones (odors of smoke, but no flames to be seen), a lot of folks simply think the reformulated sodas just don’t taste as good.

To that end, Mexican versions of beverages such as Coca-Cola have become big — we can get flats of Mexican Coke with Real Sugar in it at our local CostCo. And now the beverage giants seem to be sensing that pent-up taste, as it appears PepsiCo will be putting out some “Throwback” versions of both Pepsi and Mountain Dew which sport Real Sugar instead of HFCS. Coke will no doubt not be far behind.

Which is great news for regular soda drinkers … but given the overcrowding of the soda shelves already, it makes you wonder what other drinks/flavors you might like will get shoved off into the ether. I keep waiting for a Decaf Coke Zero …

(via Les)

Soda Popped

Evidently the freeze-to-bursting point for Caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper is about 9 degrees Fahrenheit. And that of other sodas is a bit lower. This has been today’s Unexpected Science…

Evidently the freeze-to-bursting point for Caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper is about 9 degrees Fahrenheit. And that of other sodas is a bit lower.

This has been today’s Unexpected Science Moment.

Starbucks closures

Remarkably enough, Starbucks has published a full list of the 600-odd company-operated stores they are closing in the US, a contraction from a building spree that has impacted the…

Remarkably enough, Starbucks has published a full list of the 600-odd company-operated stores they are closing in the US, a contraction from a building spree that has impacted the company’s future.

There are 9 in Colorado, and only two I’m familiar with — 16th & Wynkoop (the one catty-corner from the Rock Bottom on the 16th Street Mall, I believe), and the Denver Newspaper Agency building (on Colfax right north of the downtown plaza). That leaves only approximately eleventy-zillion in the downtown Denver area (Katherine counted five on our walk over to the Rock Bottom for dinner on Wednesday, and I can think of three within a couple of blocks of the DNA building), plus various Peets, Peaberry’s, and Daz Bog’s.

I’m not sure, to be sure, how many of those plethora of Starbucks remaining are “company operated” stores. The ones you see in Barnes & Noble stores, for example, are not.

Interestingly, in Chicago, at least, the closures are meeting with some controversy, the ironic opposite of the “Oh my God, another Starbucks?” reaction that so many people seem to have. Many of the stores closing are in “largely minority areas in the south suburbs as well as neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West Sides.”

The closings include stores in largely minority areas in the south suburbs as well as neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West Sides. “Starbucks became symbolic of a community that was changing and in transition,” said Earnest Gates, executive director of the Near West Side Community Development Corp. “To take that away, it’s a blow to a community.”
[…] “It’s horrible it’s closing down,” Phil Jackson, associate pastor at Lawndale Community Church, said of the location in his neighborhood. “We can’t stand for that place to be closing down. It’s jobs. We’ve got college students working there, adults that have management skills that can be seen and observed by Starbucks. They could run their own store one day.”
[…] “The people in the community have to make it family, make it a part of their own, and sometimes that takes longer than a year and a half,” he said. “For Starbucks to look at all the communities that are already suffering, and then to close the stores that they are closing is really kind of hypocritical. [They] started the store knowing what the community was all about. You come here so you can uplift the community.”

Well, no, Starbucks came there to “do well by doing good” — not as a charity, but as a chance to make money while (we’ll be generous) doing something good for a community. But the bottom line remains the bottom line, unfortunately (for all concerned). And, for that matter, if it takes “longer than a year and a half” for a store to become enough of a part of the community to become “part of their own” and start turning a profit … I’m not sure that’s actually Starbucks’ fault, is it?

(via Ginny)

A Starbucks City

I’m a bit disappointed by the map out of Google Maps look-up “denver colorado starbucks.” I think it’s just incorrect or has gaps. I would be willing to swear…

I’m a bit disappointed by the map out of Google Maps look-up “denver colorado starbucks.” I think it’s just incorrect or has gaps. I would be willing to swear that there’s a Starbucks on every other corner on 16th St., and maybe ever third corner on 17th.

The map does leave out some “coffee by Starbucks” places (e.g., Barnes & Noble at Denver Pavillions). I know that there’s one not only where it shows next to my office (kinda), but a smaller cafe across the street. And, of course, it doesn’t count the various Peaberry’s, Caribou Coffees, and Peet’s that fill in all the gaps, such that one never has to travel in the snow or sun more than 50 yards to buy a $4 cup of coffee …

Poor Starbucks

Usually it’s just being lambasted by coffee aficionados, local business supporters, pop culture critics, American culture critics, or people who question their “Fair Trade” policies with coffee growers. Add to the list certain religious zealots. It seems that the temporary revival of the “classic” Starbucks logo has their knickers in a twist because it features … wait for it … boobies.

The Resistance says the new image “has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute,” Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. “Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks.”
The group, which claims more than 3,000 members nationwide and has found a place on the fringe advancing various conspiracy theories, is calling for a national boycott of the coffee-selling giant.

The revived image of a siren (or melusine) is actually less risqué than the original it was modeled from, in which the hair didn’t cover the nipplage (and there was a navel, too) — let alone the 15th Century Norse woodcut it was based on.

The more I read the article, and the underlying news release, though, the less sanguine I am that this is much more than an attempt to get fifteen minute of fundie fame. Still, I’m sure that some, somewhere out there, dislikes the whole female torso Starbucks thang, considering it lewd, lascivious, and sinful (because I am sure that there are teenage boys out there doing unspeakable acts as they gaze longingly at the logo on their Starbucks cup).

Crazy world. Though, for what it’s worth, I’m not a big fan of the retro look, and am glad it’s just temporary. Fact is, I find the original logo (and colors) just unattractive.

Good for you! Bad for you! Eat it! Avoid it!

Chocolate, red meat, nuts, coffee, eggs, wine, beer — how (or in what way) they’re “good” for you, “bad” for you, and what to do about it. (The latter is basically,…

Chocolate, red meat, nuts, coffee, eggs, wine, beer — how (or in what way) they’re “good” for you, “bad” for you, and what to do about it. (The latter is basically, “consume in moderation,” duh.)

Mugs

I have taken to choosing mugs as my “wow, I like this graphic / want to remember this place / want to show of my fanboyishness about this book / movie…

I have taken to choosing mugs as my “wow, I like this graphic / want to remember this place / want to show of my fanboyishness about this book / movie / TV show” icon of choice. Used to be t-shirts, but they have two big problems. (1) It’s way too easy to get too many t-shirts (just glance in my closet some time, please don’t), and (2) t-shirts, if you wear them, wear out. Then you have to get rid of them, which is sorrowful, or they go into the gardening / knock-around t-shirt drawer, which also quickly spirals into “old man living alone found crushed under pile of old t-shirts” proportions.

So I’ve changed to mugs, since they usually don’t fade much, they are useful, you can put them into peoples’ hands (or let them search through themselves), they don’t take up much space, and are generally much more durable (Jackie’s chortling maniacally right now).

We have a lot of mugs in the basement, but here’s what we have up in the kitchen cabinet at the moment. Consider this one of those personal “surveys of stuff” that either reveals all sorts of stuff about Margie and my psyche, or else is utterly boring and you should go on to the next post.

Or, maybe, I should make this one of those “meme” thangs — Besides the stock coffee cups in your dinnerware, what sort of coffee mugs do you have sitting around your house?

Far Side “Fat Woman Being Sucked into a Candy Store”
Hellboy BPRD logo.
The Tiger that Katherine drew for her art class last fall.
IX
Les Miserables (from the UK)
Stonehenge (from the UK)
Reduced Shakespeare Company “I Love My Willy” (from the UK)
Dilbert “Supermodel”
Dork Tower “Igor ‘Huzzah!'”
Mars (part of a series of planet mugs I got from the Field Museum in the late 80s)
London Transport “Mind the Gap” (from the UK)
Cheshire Cat (vanishes when the cup is empty, except for the smile)
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, with sheep logo
ZEBRA ALERT!
Starbucks “Cymru / Wales” (from the UK)
Starbucks Skyline Series One “Denver”
Starbucks “Colorado”
Starbucks “Los Angeles”
Starbucks City Scenes “Los Angeles”
9 Chickweed Lane “What is Love?”
Foglio “Ask Me About My Evil Plan”
Foglio “Winslow ‘Hi!'”
Foglio “… is a BAD PLAN!”
Foglio “Heterodyne Coffee”
Foglio “Don’t Make Me Come Over There!”
Scenic Colorado
Scenic Los Angeles*
EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival 2006 (shaped like a garden pot)
Disney – Pooh Drawing Guide
Disney – Tigger Drawing Guide
Disney “Stitch Hawaiian Coffee”
Disney “Tink Fairyland English Tea”
Disney “Tink Walt Disney World”
Disney “Many Faces of Tink”
Get Fuzzy “My and the Shirt’s Nerdnesses Stack”

*Yes, Colorado/Denver and California/LA mugs are pretty standard gifts-from-Dave’s-business-trips items.

Tea recommendation

Stash Premium Lemon-Ginger Caffeine Free Herbal Tea. Ginger-spicy with excellent lemon notes. Very tasty. The only drawback is that, in a clear-glass tea cup, it looks like you’re drinking…

Stash Premium Lemon-Ginger Caffeine Free Herbal Tea. Ginger-spicy with excellent lemon notes. Very tasty. The only drawback is that, in a clear-glass tea cup, it looks like you’re drinking urine. But very tasty urine.

(Had some at the retreat. Also available via Amazon and at our local Safeway.)

Bad week for Coke

First indicators that caffeine may be tied to increased risk of miscarriages. Now evidence that colas may increase the risk of kidney disease much more than non-colas. Think I’ll have a beer….

First indicators that caffeine may be tied to increased risk of miscarriages. Now evidence that colas may increase the risk of kidney disease much more than non-colas.

Think I’ll have a beer.

The Starbucks Effect

The assumption is that Starbucks is like Wal-Mart — when one moves in, all the independent competitors in the area get hosed. Instead, it looks like the opposite is…

The assumption is that Starbucks is like Wal-Mart — when one moves in, all the independent competitors in the area get hosed. Instead, it looks like the opposite is true: a nearby (even neighboring) Starbucks is good for business for smaller operators (except to the extent that they buy up all the good locations).

Soon after declining Starbucks’s buyout offer, Hyman received the expected news that the company was opening up next to one of his stores. But instead of panicking, he decided to call his friend Jim Stewart, founder of the Seattle’s Best Coffee chain, to find out what really happens when a Starbucks opens nearby. “You’re going to love it,” Stewart reported. “They’ll do all of your marketing for you, and your sales will soar.” The prediction came true: Each new Starbucks store created a local buzz, drawing new converts to the latte-drinking fold. When the lines at Starbucks grew beyond the point of reason, these converts started venturing out—and, Look! There was another coffeehouse right next-door! Hyman’s new neighbor boosted his sales so much that he decided to turn the tactic around and start targeting Starbucks. “We bought a Chinese restaurant right next to one of their stores and converted it, and by God, it was doing $1 million a year right away,” he said.

Not that Starbucks isn’t a ruthless competitor — nor above dubious tactics to sink the competition — but in general the publicity, the development of a larger local coffee-drinking clientele, and the opportunistic comparison that indy coffee shops enjoy all make the net effect, generally, a positive one. And a big reason is that Starbucks isn’t actually any tastier, or cheaper, than its competitors — just more recognizable and ubiquitous. And it actually operates at a disadvantage in terms of local promotions and non-standard goodies and the like.

In other words, a new Starbucks doesn’t prevent customers from visiting independents in the same way Wal-Mart does—especially since coffee addicts need a fix every day, yet they don’t always need to hit the same place for it. When Starbucks opens a store next to a mom and pop, it creates a sort of coffee nexus where people can go whenever they think “coffee.” Local consumers might have a formative experience with a Java Chip Frappuccino, but chances are they’ll branch out to the cheaper, less crowded, and often higher-quality independent cafe later on. So when Starbucks blitzed Omaha with six new stores in 2002, for instance, business at all coffeehouses in town immediately went up as much as 25 percent.

A rising coffee cup floats all cafes …

At the airport

No road problems … Just wet. And there’s now a Caribou Coffee on Concourse A. Yay! UPDATE: This post obviously should have gone out this morning instead of this…

No road problems … Just wet. And there’s now a Caribou Coffee on Concourse A. Yay!

UPDATE: This post obviously should have gone out this morning instead of this afternoon. Flaky Flickr bits.

Java Jiveless

So I’ve pretty much stopped drinking coffee at the office, as I’ve shifted over to tea. I started off doing a cup of coffee, then cutting over for the…

So I’ve pretty much stopped drinking coffee at the office, as I’ve shifted over to tea. I started off doing a cup of coffee, then cutting over for the rest of the day, but I found the taste difference too annoying.

And, in fact, it’s all herbal tea — currently Celestial Seasonings Cranberry Cove first thing, then Good Earth Original for the rest of the day.

No headaches, no complete dragging in the morning — and my office smells nice when I open it up in the morning.

I’m still being the coffee fairy when I get in in the morning, just because.

All of which is calling this recent Onion article uncomfortably to mind.

I will note that I still swig coffee down like a lunatic at restaurants and at home on the weekends (or if I’m working from home). But, for whatever reason, I’m in tea mode at the office.

Tea Time

So in an attempt to address my somewhat elevated blood pressure, I’m trying to cut back on my coffee consumption — or, rather, my caffeine consumption. I’ve been something…

So in an attempt to address my somewhat elevated blood pressure, I’m trying to cut back on my coffee consumption — or, rather, my caffeine consumption. I’ve been something like a five cup a day man (plus a couple of sodas at lunch), but, honestly, that’s because I enjoying having something to sip at the office.

So now I’m drinking herbal tea after my first cup of the day. I was making use of the stash in the break room cabinets, but now I’ve brought in a couple of boxes from home for variety. We’ll see how that goes.

A bit less of the java jive is probably okay with me. And I’m not going to be religious about it — if I’m at a restaurant and there’s coffee being served, I’ll drink it (and caf, not decaf — generally don’t care for the latter as much).

Coffee, shampoo, holy water …

French airport officials strictly enforced their local anti-terrorism rules on the inaugural run of the Vatican’s new pilgrimage airline from Rome to Lourdes, by confiscating any unchecked holy water…

(via BoingBoing)

“Gimme some of that there refill!”

Spiffy graphics showing the makeup of different espresso drinks. I wish this was posted up at every Starbucks. Note that the graphic’s more for ingredients than actual proportions.) (via…

Spiffy graphics showing the makeup of different espresso drinks. I wish this was posted up at every Starbucks.

Note that the graphic’s more for ingredients than actual proportions.)

(via BoingBoing)

Time to switch to decaf, honey

Caffeine looks like it helps keep women over 65 mentally sharp — though not, alas, men. Mental acuity tended to diminish over the 4 years of follow-up throughout the…

Caffeine looks like it helps keep women over 65 mentally sharp — though not, alas, men.

Mental acuity tended to diminish over the 4 years of follow-up throughout the population, Ritchie’s team found. However, women who drank three or more cups of coffee per day stayed sharper, on average, than those who drank less of the brew. Ladies who downed six or more cups of regular tea per day—an amount delivering caffeine about equal to the critical coffee dose—received comparable cognitive protection, the researchers report in the Aug. 7 Neurology.
No matter how the researchers analyzed their data, they could find no evidence that heavy caffeine intake similarly benefited any of the 2,800 participating men. Although the study’s design precluded investigating the possible mechanism for a gender difference, Ritchie notes that at least one animal study published by others “suggests there’s an interaction between caffeine and the [female] sex hormones estrogen and progesterone.”
If caffeine’s protective effect works by interacting with receptors for estrogen on a women’s cells, this might explain another preliminary observation by the French team: that among heavy caffeine consumers, women over age 80 faced half the risk of significant cognitive decline during the study than ladies 65 to 80 did.

(via BoingBoing)