A Nice Cuppa

Matcha, green tea powder, is one of those magical ingredients that can wake up any standard dessert recipe and suddenly make it exotic and novel. Blogging bakers and cooks out there certainly know this secret, and there are scores of fantastic recipes illustrated with its brilliant green hue, like these from some of my favorites:
Keiko, […]

My head is spinning, and I’ve gone to the bathroom about 5 times now. Yes, I know that’s TMI, but I’m doing it for you. See, when I saw that Burman coffee traders had a Kaapi Royale Robusta bean with nearly 4x the typical caffeine, I knew that as a blogger it was […]

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Curry and coffee are not two flavors that I’d ever pair. But, when I read the award winning Insieme (Italian for Together) recipe for this funky mocha in Imbibe magazine, I thought I’d give it a try with my morning cup. Using a deep dark roasted Brazilian bean, […]

My recent roasting attempt didn’t do justice to these gorgeous, plump blonde beans from India via Burman Coffee Traders. The Malabar beans are swollen from their curing process, an accidental result from the long sea voyage the beans took long ago. As the coffee beans sat, absorbing the sea air, they swelled, and produced […]

Call it coincidence, but my new green coffee beans from Brazil arrived, just after I completed my FIFA World Cup pool with Brazil taking it all. Maybe my coffee juju will help them break the curse of a South American country winning on European soil. I watch and wait in anticipation, well caffeinated. […]

Remember how I said that Boca Java sent me a huge package to try their coffees? Well, I’m making my way through them. This past week, I’ve set the roaster aside, and focused on trying out two new blends before they are past their prime: Bloggers Fuel Boot-up Blend and Late-Night Login. […]

Don’t you just love being let in on a secret? One of my favorite columns in Bon App??tit, RSVP, answers readers inquiries on restaurants’ secret recipes. June’s issue revealed an iced tea recipe from Taste in West Hollywood. I don’t even typically like sweetened iced tea, but this recipe, sweetened with coconut, […]

About a month or so ago, Boca Java ran a promotion for bloggers… agree to sample and blog about their Bloggers Fuel beans, and they’ll send a ‘reviewers’ kit which included some of their blends as well as a nifty mug and baseball cap. The blogger-gimmick is a bit off-putting, but I like cool […]

Much like its Columbian South American neighbor, Honduran coffee has been thought of as big-can commercial… cheap and cheap tasting coffee. But this misconception is starting to change, and as Sweet Maria’s found, many Honduras growers are delivering high quality beans and drawing an interest in the specialty market.
These Fabio Caballero beans are […]

It’s starting to be Iced Latte Season. For me, that means it’s got to be pretty hot. I’m still quite happy drinking my coffee hot when it’s almost 80F out. Much beyond that, however, a hot latte just won’t do. And, as a home roaster, this means that I have to […]