Coffee for Hipsters

Verve Coffee Roasters' Colby Barr on the current state of coffee's "pretentious" fans.

On one level the “it’s just coffee” mindset is the old school, World War II, canned coffee for 25 cents with free refills idea — that whole culture of American coffee that it’s an industrialized nation and coffee’s the fuel for it.

The other side of it is people that don’t resonate with words like hipster or foodie — it’s something they don’t relate to and if you don’t relate to it, you can be put off by it or be defensive.

via Inside Scoop SFGate

A Tumbler to Rule Them All

If you travel as much as I do, or find yourself commuting for long periods of time, hang on to your Contigo Travel Mug!  As long as you don't forget yours in the plane, you'll be happy with the Contigo 20oz Travel Mug a.k.a. Best Coffee Tumbler EVER.  It's a pure winner.  It's 100% leak proof and the kicker stats are that the vacuum insulated double wall stainless steel keeps beverages hot for 6 hours and cold for 18 hours! It kept my coffee scalding hot for so long that I had to keep the lid open for over 30 minutes just so I could sip the darn thing!  I highly recommend the 20oz version as it can hold a full can of soda with ice or a vent coffee.  If you're wondering how it tests for cold beverages, I've tested it through and through and was able to reuse the ice for multiple can refills of Mug Root Beer for a couple of hours as it seemed to never melt.

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Ideally, it's a tremendous coffee cup or coffee tumbler.  Just hit up your local drip and filler up!  In case you're wondering, I'm referring to Bird Rock Coffee Roasters!

Update: In 2013, I went through two Contigo Coffee Tumblers and one Zojirushi.  I left them all in airplanes and have only gotten one back to yet leave it in another aircraft.  I just bought another one today, February 1, 2014 and chose to go with Contigo as I wanted to actually be able to drink out of the tumbler within the first hour. The Zojirushi on the other hand, keeps your beverage scalding hot for over 2 hours so it's best for transporting and only enjoying a poured cup of coffee only in my opinion.

Coffee!

If you haven't started drinking coffee, it's not too late! New York Times Well Blog lays out some benefits that recent studies have found. I'll also admit that this is just a healthy reaffirmation of my latest hobby. http://instagram.com/p/KDNMo_u4fI/

Other recent studies have linked moderate coffee drinking — the equivalent of three or four 5-ounce cups of coffee a day or a single venti-size Starbucks — with more specific advantages: a reduction in the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, basal cell carcinoma (the most common skin cancer), prostate cancer, oral cancer and breast cancer recurrence.

But a cup or three of coffee “has been popular for a long, long time,” Dr. Freund says, “and there’s probably good reasons for that.”

via NYT: Well Blog "This Is Your Brain on Coffee"

Hario V60 Day 1

After acquiring the essential tools over the past week, I was able to produce a great cup of coffee; first for my mother-in-law and then myself. What a difference this method makes! I'll post pictures of my setup in later this week.

I couldn't' have made a better video than these guys but I will try in the future. For now, check these guys out!

Hario V60 from doubleshot - pražírna kávy on Vimeo.