De La Paz Coffee is located in San Francisco, Calif., and specializes in small batch coffee roasting focused on freshness and great tasting coffee. Call me a sucker for packaging, but I already have my eye on Bella Blend. Although it is specially roasted for the  Velo Bellas, an international women’s bicycle racing team, this medium [...]

Just this past weekend, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) presented the 2009 Western Regional Barista Competition January 23 through 25 at the Spring Arts Tower in downtown Los Angeles, Calif. The SCAA event was hosted by Intelligentsia, which is headquartered in Chicago but has coffee roasting and retailing locations in Los Angeles. Over 20 [...]

Although I adore collecting cute coffee/tea mugs all the time, there’s something to be said for the simplicity of glass mugs. They’re streamlined, see through, and make any beverage look great without trying too hard. I recently stumbled upon these Bodum Double-Walled Mugs and Glasses, and feel in love with their clean lines and various [...]

Flores is an island 200 miles east of Bali that features numerous volcanoes, which produce ashes that create soil perfect for coffee to thrive in. In 2005, the Indonesian Coffee & Cocoa Research Institute set out to work with small farmer groups to improve coffee quality and shorten the marketing chain from farmer to supplier. The [...]

The other day, I was busy debunking myths about caffeine consumption. Today, the news is even better. According to Dutch and American researchers, coffee actually reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes. The researchers spent time reviewing nine studies involving 193,473 people (including 8,394 cases with Type 2 diabetes) across Europe and the U.S. Their findings [...]

Times are tough, but before you give up your daily cup(s) of joe, there are some ways to save. First, buy a gold filter for your machine. They are inexpensive, long lasting and reduce waste–turns out the ultimate “green” filter is gold. Second, keep your machinery clean, which will help ensure you get the most [...]

You might be able to blame coffee for staining your teeth or keeping you up at night, but there are some assumptions about coffee and caffeine that can finally be put to rest. Caffeine & Hydration Last fall, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) reported in its “Nutrition Action Healthletter” that the [...]

Photo courtesy of Coffee Lab’s “Latte Art.” In Tarrytown, New York, owners Alicia Kelligrew and Mike Love opened Coffee Labs, which features sustainable coffee, the use of renewable energy, and is also dog friendly. Their motto is: “Any dog can be a Coffee Lab; he just has to like the shop!” Both the store’s logo and [...]

My husband recently started a new job, and one morning during his first week, he called to tell me the office has a Keurig coffee maker, which I have been secretly coveting for months. Apparently at his office they have the B3000 Keurig Brewing System, which features use of K-Cup® with automatic ejection and storage; direct line [...]

Remember when I told you about Ed? Well, he’s back, and he’s got the hand-crafted, home roasted beans to prove it. He’s been busy roasting Finca Mauritania beans lately, with the promise of a spring roast in the near future. To read about why he selected Finca Mauritania coffee, click here. In today’s economy especially, I’m a big advocate [...]