The Reading Room

Is coffee (in other words the beans themselves) expensive or cheap?  To me coffee is amazingly cheap.  What other products in the world can you get the best in the world of for so little.  Yes a pound of coffee...

Once you realize that coffee has to be fresh and that it is a crop the next question is why must coffee be fresh and why can it be too fresh?  Also what should you do if you cannot drink...

Judging by the ads that coffee companies chose to promote their products halfway through the 20th century, men were jerks back then. Take a quick look here for a unique laugh-cringe combo involving Folgers. Can you imagine talking to anybody,...

One of the most overlooked aspects of good coffee is fresh coffee.  Even once it is taken into account it is easy to misunderstand it and its value.  I first realized just how important it was when I started roasting...

This is the final installment for a while in my journal detailing my repair of a used Oscar espresso machine I picked up for parts or repair.  After cleaning everything inside and out and searching out and eliminating all the...

As we mentioned before the key to good espresso is as much about the grinder as about the machine.  If you had the worlds best machine paired with a blade grinder you just could not pull good espresso.  If you...

Usually after I am asked what the cheapest way to make good coffee is people ask me, that is fine, but what if I want to make espresso?  That is a much harder thing to do in an economical way...

I just finished reading a scathing review of Mahogany Roasters Alice Espresso - this is a wonderful "comfort food" espresso blend that is easy to dial in and work with at a price that won't break the bank. It is...

An important question for any starting coffee enthusiast is “does it really cost that much to have good coffee?” The answer is, of course, as it usually is in life -  yes it does and no it doesn’t.  The answer...

Hi welcome to my blog.  I am a coffee addict.  I lived in Venice in 2005 and converted from a passion for brewed coffee to espresso at that time.  Unfortunately at the time the main thing I learned how to...

Justin informed us yesterday that Deep Cello has less than fifty pounds of Finca Hartmann Honey Process left.    We've heard that there is some kind of dispute with Hartmann and their importer. Sadly, we have not yet been invited...

Anyone who owns an espresso machine knows (or ultimately finds out) that it’s important to clean it regularly. I’m not a pro barista by any means, but I now have two different brushes designed to keep my Gaggia Classic’s group...

We are thrilled that the committee of experts at the Oregon Fair chose Deep Cello Black Tie™ and gave it the silver medal in two blind tastings!  The committee tasted over 50 coffees and added Deep Cello to the finalist...

Back to the hot coffee again! /files/autumn-coffee.jpg" alt="coffee rainbow" title="coffee rainbow" height="200" /> In the northern hemisphere, the calendar will soon turn from summer to fall, bringing its welcome seasonal change.  We look forward to football games, colorful leaves, big...

Eyal, I'd been wondering where all my coffee was going. Finally, I got fed up and installed a small motion-activated camera in the vicinity of my stash. Attached is an image that my system managed to capture overnight. Aliens! Now...

I tried a couple tricks to improve the coarse grinding for the Skerton and though there was improvement, I was not satisfied that it was as good as it could be.  I set about studying older mills and noticed the...

Picking up where we left off (here’s a refresher), coffee consumption by young children apparently varies by culture. I suppose it should be utterly unsurprising that Brazilians are by and large pro-“kids and coffee,” given that Brazil is the world’s...

Coincidentally or not, my interest in coffee really took off 3.5 years ago when our son was born. Now that our daughter is on the verge of entering this world (due in 2 weeks!), I’ve been thinking again about the...

In a previous post I spared you all the gory details of my experience cleaning the naked portafilter that came with my used Gaggia Carezza. I’d like to pick up where I left off and fill in the blanks a...

I need help confirming a theory I have about these machines and a pre-infusion technique I have been using for the past couple weeks.     First, here is some background on my machine. My Gaggia Coffee is similar to...

I just spent $70 on 8 oz. of coffee. And it never even passed through the intestinal tract of a weasel! The beans I’m referring to are Klatch’s Don Pachi Geisha, a coffee highly prized (and priced) for its complexity...