The Reading Room

Boxes of Goodies
It's always a wonderful thing when you get that fresh bag of coffee in the mail. Sometimes, though, your shipments of treats and goodies all converge and wind up on your doorstep at once. And what an extra special occasion...
Still in its Prime
Still in its Prime I blogged just before I signed up for Roaste.com Prime about what a great idea it seemed like to me.  Then I signed up for it and now I have been using it for a while...
"Camping" coffee?
My drip coffee maker stopped working. Waah! Since I do not have any other coffee makers (my french press broke) I was not sure what alternatives I had. I remembered reading articles about "camping" coffee so looked online and deciced...
What a Week!
It's been a heck of a week here at Chez Chamie. The roommate landed in the hospital last Tuesday when he woke up in the morning with no sensation in his lower leg. Turned out that the stent from an...
Tonx, Craft, and the element of surprise
Last June I posted about how much I enjoy trying a wide variety of coffees from different roasters. Fast-forward 7 months, and that’s more true than ever. While there are still plenty of options here on ROASTe that I have...
A shout to Brown Coffee Co.
I am surprised that there has not been another blog post about this recent addition to the roasters here at Roaste, Brown Coffee Co. I know it seems like there is always a new roaster starting to sell here, but...
How often do you change coffees?
Get the <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/i/339e1298-c93f-4180-8d1c-a8cb3c8846e2&... mce_href="http://www.widgetbox.com/i/339e1298-c93f-4180-8d1c-a8cb3c8846e2&... Creator Pro</a> widget and many other <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/" mce_href="http://www.widgetbox.com/"&... free widgets</a> at <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com" mce_href="http://www.widgetbox.com"&a...! Not seeing a widget? (<a href="http://support.widgetbox.com/" mce_href="http://support.widgetbox.com/"&... info</a>) How often do you change coffees in a week? I notice one...
First post: Some Background
I grew up in a coffee drinking family and have been drinking coffee as long as I can remember. That said, the coffee was never great, but it was never bad. About three years ago I decided to seek out...
Wanna save a cool grand?
As I was part of the job search group about a year and half ago now, I still get a lot of those emails from recruiting sites and other professional newsletters. Anyway, today in my email was a link to...
The corner bar - Starbucks?
The Starbucks bar experiment National Public Radio said today as I was driving home that Starbucks is launching a (yet another) grand experiment.  They are going to start having beers and wine in their stores.   I confess I was...
Klatch El Salvador - Orange Bourbon
/files/imagecache/image_230/files/EL_SAL_ORG_BOU-2T[1].jpg" height="163" width="230" align="left" border="0" />After having an absolutely wonderful El Salvador by Insight Coffee Roasters a few weeks back as I was visiting my in-laws, I had to get something to try and recreate the coffee that I had...
To Credit The Pour-over
/files/u1580/KalitaPourOver.jpg" title="Kalita Wave" align="middle" height="375" width="500" alt="Kalita Wave" /> Recently I seem to be reading more and more criticisms of the "by the cup", one-off style of brewing that's making waves in cafes. Now, there are a lot of valid...
Coffe cart still in limbo...
I posted a while back about the cart I was going to build for my espresso machine and a few have asked about its status.  I started it and in some sense did most of the hard work and then...
A Dead Man In Guatemala
The Sweet Marias twitter account posted not too long ago the following: It's a very distinct revelation about the countries that grow our coffee, that persistent issues of violence, poverty, militarism, and other life-limiting factors are far more common than you...
The Coffee Wars
It's so funny that people really get worked up about all sorts of things, I happened to be looking through a few online fourms this afternoon that I frequent and encountered a particular discussion that had kind of turned a...
Plumbing in – removing some of the mystery.
Plumbing in – removing some of the mystery. I recently plumbed in my espresso machine and I had never really been around a plumbed in machine before except in coffee shops and there I never noticed the plumbing one way...
What I'm Drinking (Olympia Coffee Roasting -Guatemala El Socorro Maracaturra)
This is the seventh post on the coffees I’m working my way through. Up this time is Olympia Coffee Roasting’s Guatemala El Socorro Maracaturra roast (I’m glad I can just write this and don’t have to pronounce it). Also this...
A Case for Flavored Coffees?
The other day, at my school we had a seminar where a professor from other school came to give a talk about his research and refreshment was served during the seminar. Among the refreshment was the familar various types of...
A quick look at the Baratza Preciso.
A quick look at the Baratza Preciso.    I recently got the chance to take a Baratza Preciso for a spin.  This grinder falls in price between the Vario and the Maestro in the Baratza line up, but truth be...