Let’s be honest, in the competitive world of coffee having an attention grabbing name is crucial.
Faced with hundreds of choices and an olfactory overload walking through a coffee isle, many times a coffee choice comes down to the name that sounds the best.
When I first heard about “Bad Ass Coffee” I knew they had a name that would compel people to try their coffee.
I found myself instinctively wanting to buy it just to offer some bad ass coffee to my friends and family.
But like anything, what appeals to some infuriates others. That is the case in Arizona where a recently opened “Bad Add Coffee House” is causing quite the stir.
The Arizona Republic reports one such residents feelings:
“We all have small children . . . and we don’t want to swear around them,” Surprise mom Heather Sutton said. “Now, you drive down the street, and there’s a swear word on someone’s sign.”
Despite the fact that Bad Ass Coffee is based on a Hawaiian Legend, and used in the context to refer to a donkey, the collective wail to “Save the Children!” is being heard around the world (hey, it did make the internet).
Heather Sutton’s comments make me wonder if she understands that the word “ass” has another meaning other than its more derogatory reference to a derrière? Maybe this sign is a good opportunity for her and other residents to talk to their children, and teach them something about words with multiple meanings?
Some other words they might talk about could include — bitch (female dog), gay (happy), fag (cigarette), and why not touch upon the offending “ass” word while they are at it?
In the case of the “ass” word there is a great teaching guide they can use, its called the Holy Bible which uses this offending word seventy-six times (King James Version). Just how sensitive have we become as a society?
I have to say that I really enjoyed the Arizona Republic’s article. Apparently this is not the first time residents have responded to the word ass — Ass Kickin’ Hot Sauce has just learned to ignore the residents since coming to town in 1989.
Councilman Gary “Doc” Sullivan knows that this will not be the last time the residents get up in arms over a name, a dog grooming business has recently applied for a business license. Its name? Doggy Style.
Who knows, maybe it will invoke thoughts of Snoop Dog instead of its other meaning.
So many times when I think about the cultural aspects of coffee I tend to focus on the atmosphere, the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, and the possibility of making new ones.
Call it “Cultural Coffee Consumerism” — the act of consumption is the primary focus and for the most part we remain disconnected from the coffee making process aside from any interactions we might have with the barista.
You and I both know how satisfying a coffee house experience can be to all those involved. Its an opportunity to reconnect and share, and an opportunity to meet new people. But is this all that the coffee experience has to offer?
What about the act of making coffee? What social benefit does it give if any? Does the act of making coffee add anything to the overall experience for either the coffee maker or the coffee consumers? I believe it can.
This weekend we had a friend of ours over who loves to cook. She does the kind of cooking that makes your eyes flutter, decadent culinary treats the avoid terms like “low fat” and “healthy”. On the menu was stuffed French toast and egg casserole.
My contribution to this event was going to be freshly made cappuccinos. I happily dove into the task at hand and found myself getting emotionally invested in the act of making coffee for our guest cook, my wife and mother-in-law. Just knowing how much they would enjoy the cappuccinos caused me to enjoy the act of making the cappuccinos for them. I was having fun, and I felt a warm glow inside.
I’ve felt this same kind of glow before when volunteering with my wife at a homeless shelter. I think there is just something about doing something for another person out of the goodness of your heart that can make a person feel amazing.
So I took my time, and made some of the best cappuccinos I have ever made for all of us and I had fun doing it. Take my advice, have some friends over for coffee.
Make it a special event, do something interesting, become emotionally invested in serving coffee for your friends — you might just be surprised how it makes you feel.
Tempted by decaffeinated coffee? Thinking of making the switch because of high blood pressure or other health concerns? Unable to get past the thought of drinking coffee that has been made from beans that might have has sat in methylene chloride or ethyl acetate for ten plus hours?
If the answered yes to any of these questions, the time to make the switch may have finally come.
The Brazilian coffee company Daterra has announced recently that they have created a naturally decaffeinated coffee. It took over twelve and a half years of natural breeding (no genetic modification, done the old fashion way) but they have succeeded in producing a 100% Arabica coffee that has only 1% caffeine!
The Opus 1 Exotic coffee is Rainforest Alliance certified, ISO 14001, and Utz Kapeh certified and poses no threats to the environment like other GMO products.
The time and money invested to succeed in this project must have been staggering. With the bevy of decaffeinating processes available today seeing a project like this succeed it truly amazing. And not surprising given this information about Daterra from their press release:
“Daterra started 20 years ago as a project of premium and sustainable agricultural products. Today, 100% of the agricultural business of Daterra is coffee. Its vision is to preserve the planet and protect its people. These are the seeds for a better world and great coffee. Daterra’s values revolve around massive investment in research, quality improvement, solid partnerships and responsible governance, environmental protection, and social development. Daterra grows its own seedlings and uses organic composting in 100% of the plantation. Daterra coffees participated as finalists in two Cup of Excellence competitions and were the coffee of choice of the 2005 and 2006 World Barista Champions. “
This is certainly a coffee company to keep an eye on in years to come.
Picture this… you have a nice little coffee shop, you have built up a nice and loyal customer base, life is pretty good. One morning you hear that a new tenant will be move in next door.
You find yourself hoping they will be cool and begin to think about ways to generate more traffic for each other, whatever their business might be. And then you learn who is coming — Starbucks.
Time stops for what seems like eternity as you contemplate the horror and impending doom. But then you break the spell and decide you aren’t going to roll over and die, you decide to fight.
In what can only be described as a classic David versus Goliath fight, one Salt Lake City coffee house found itself in this exact situation.
For two months now the Cafe Villa Bella coffee house has been waging a veritable coffee war against Starbucks and using the leviathan’s reputation and consumer draw to the smaller shops advantage.
As independent shops, Bella Villa and other local merchants are free to add whatever they want to their menus, or stores. Starbucks is for the most part constrained by it’s corporate image and corporate approved products.
By incorporating unique aspects in their shops such as live music, local art, full meals, and any number of other unique measures that Starbucks cannot, they have been doing what so many independent coffee shops have failed to do — Use Starbucks against Starbucks.
Its an idea just crazy enough that it might work. Best of luck Bella Villa, we will be thinking about you!
Posted: 10:07 AM- OGDEN - A small coffee shop in Ogden has been serving up specialty brews for about seven months.
And for the last two, Cafe Ville Bella has had new neighbors — coffee behemoth Starbucks.
The owners of Ville Bella says it’s good and bad. Starbucks draws more people to the area, but the small shop is also in direct competition with the popular coffee chain.
Ville Bella and other independent shops have been trying to set their businesses apart by offering things like meals to local arts and music.
Usually I would associate “killer coffee” with some damn good brew made with a choice selection of beans. However in Williamsport, PA one woman’s plans for her ex-husband included cocaine spike coffee.
According to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, a bitter, no.. make that very bitter woman over her divorced came up with a plan to kill her husband. Her plan was to have his coffee spiked with cocaine to hopefully induce a heart attack. The poor fellow did have a bad ticker after all.
However, in what surely could make this woman a contender for a Darwin Award, she decided the best way to accomplish this murder would be to ask her ex-husband’s girlfriend to do the deed.
Needless to say, the police were notified. The drugs were allegedly give to the current girlfriend, several days later she called the ex-wife to tell her that she put the cocaine in his coffee and he was dead. The conversation — and the false information — was recorded.
Patricia Reiman was charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder, plus other offenses. The good news for Patricia is that I heard the coffee in the Williamsport County jail is killer.
The associated press recently reported that illy coffee, the Trieste,
Ready-to-drink coffee products are a ten billion dollar a year industry that is growing at a rate of around ten percent annually. The alliance of illy and Coca-Cola will harness illy’s coffee experience and couple it with Coca-Cola’s marketing and distribution engine.
Some may recall Coca-Cola Blak, Coke’s initial foray into the read-to-drink coffee market. An interesting product that had its merits but was not embraced by the public as I believe Coca-Cola had initially hoped it would.
The new illy/Coca-Cola coffee drink will be based on the illy freddo. Listen to what illy has to say about the illy freddo:
“illy freddo is the way to enjoy espresso even in summertime. The same blend is used and the coffee is always prepared on the spot: so the typical illy espresso aromas of honey, caramel and toasted bread are savored in an iced version…”
Based on my experience to date with illy espresso coffee, this is a coffee drink to keep an eye out for when it makes its appearance here in the U.S. and abroad. For those who have not had a chance to try illy coffee you might want to take a look at our review of illy Medium Roast Expresso Coffee.
Coffee brewing temperatures vary widely between brands running a gauntlet of temperatures. At 195 degrees, coffee can give third degree burns which is no laughing matter.
Everyone has different temperatures they like to drink their coffee at, my late Grandfather for instance insisted that it be almost boiling as crazy as that may sound.
Irregardless of person choice, there has been but one way to know when your coffee is ready to drink — taking a sip. That was until the Smart Lid.
Smart Lid Systems is a Sydney based product development company whose focus is the commercial application of smart packaging systems.
Their Smart Coffee lid starts out a uniform brown color ad quickly changes to bright red when put on a cup of coffee.
If the lid is not put on the coffee correctly, the uniform brown ring at its base will turn red. After just a few cups of coffee a person will be able to gauge what color matches the temperature that he or she likes to drink their coffee.
I think this is a great product that I hope coffee houses and chains will adopt. Providing an easy to understand safety measure like this is more than worth any additional cost over conventional lids. And I am sure would be a welcomed whole-heartedly by their Legal departments.
I love celebrity gossip and the invented drama over the simplest of things. Sometimes it makes me laugh at the fickle/excentric/idiotic/funny behavior of the celebrity; and sometimes it makes my laugh at the idiocy of the paparazzi.
Its no surprise that I take an interest when I run across something on the RSS feeds that deals both a celebrity and coffee. It would seem that the UK paparazzi is up in arms over a perceived diva transgression made by none other than Victoria Beckham.
While visiting her father-in-law Ted Beckham at a hospital where he was recovering from a heart attack, Victoria caused quite the stir when she asked if a cup of coffee she was offered was made with tap water or bottled water.
When informed that the coffee was indeed made with tap water, she politely refused the offer with a “No, thank you.” Does this make her a diva or just someone who is concerned about water quality?
Or maybe she feels like many that coffee taste better when its made with filtered water and a gold filter. I know I do. A lot of people do. Coffee does taste better in general with filtered water. Does fuels this perception? Is it due to the purity of the water or the relative lack of discernible taste smell that bottled water generally has over tap water?
Maybe Victoria like all the other people who spend billions of dollars each year on bottled water thinks its better than tap water? If that’s the case I personally know a lot of divas.
But, it made me start to wonder about tap water versus bottled water. Is it safer? Is it better? I’ve always meant to do some reading on this topic but never really got around to it, but thanks to Victoria Beckham, I did. What I found was not what I expected.
According to the National Research Defense Council’s report — “Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?” the first thing that surprised me was the difference in control and testing requirements used for tap versus bottled water.
Key Differences Between EPA Tap Water and FDA Bottled Water Rules
Bottled Water
| Disinfection Required? | No |
| Confirmed E. Coli & Fecal Coliform Banned? | No |
| Testing Frequency for Bacteria? | 1/week |
| Must Filter to Remove Pathogens, or Have Strictly Protected Source? (a) | No |
| Must Test for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Viruses? | 1/year |
| Testing Frequency for Most Synthetic Organic Chemicals? | No |
| Operator Must be Trained & Certified? | No |
| Must Test for and Meet Standards for Asbestos & Phthalate? | No |
| Must Use Certified Labs to Do Testing? | No |
| Must Report Violations to State, Feds? | No |
| Consumer Right to Know About Contamination? | No |
Carbonated or Seltzer Water
| Disinfection Required? | No | |
| Confirmed E. Coli & Fecal Coliform Banned? | No | |
| Testing Frequency for Bacteria? | None | |
| Must Filter to Remove Pathogens, or Have Strictly Protected Source? | No | |
| Must Test for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Viruses? | No | |
| Testing Frequency for Most Synthetic Organic Chemicals? | None | |
| Operator Must be Trained & Certified? | No | |
| Must Test for and Meet Standards for Asbestos & Phthalate? | No | |
| Must Use Certified Labs to Do Testing? | No | |
| Must Report Violations to State, Feds? | No | |
| Consumer Right to Know About Contamination? | No |
Big City Tap Water (using Surface water) (b)
| Disinfection Required? | Yes |
| Confirmed E. Coli & Fecal Coliform Banned? | Yes |
| Testing Frequency for Bacteria? | Hundreds/month |
| Must Filter to Remove Pathogens, or Have Strictly Protected Source? | Yes |
| Must Test for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Viruses? | Yes |
| Testing Frequency for Most Synthetic Organic Chemicals? | 1/quarter (limited waivers available if clean source) |
| Operator Must be Trained & Certified? (c) | Yes |
| Must Test for and Meet Standards for Asbestos & Phthalate? | Yes (though limited waivers available if clean source) |
| Must Use Certified Labs to Do Testing? | Yes |
| Must Report Violations to State, Feds? | Yes |
| Consumer Right to Know About Contamination? | Yes |
Small Town Tap Water (using a well) (d)
| Disinfection Required? | No (though new rule in 2002 will require if needed) |
| Confirmed E. Coli & Fecal Coliform Banned? | Yes |
| Testing Frequency for Bacteria? | 20/month |
| Must Filter to Remove Pathogens, or Have Strictly Protected Source? | No (unless subject to surface contamination) |
| Must Test for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Viruses? | No |
| Testing Frequency for Most Synthetic Organic Chemicals? | 1/quarter (waivers available if clean source) |
| Operator Must be Trained & Certified? | Yes |
| Must Test for and Meet Standards for Asbestos & Phthalate? | Yes (though waivers available if clean source) |
| Must Use Certified Labs to Do Testing? | Yes |
| Must Report Violations to State, Feds? | Yes |
| Consumer Right to Know About Contamination? | Yes |
| a. FDA requires state or local approval of bottled water sources, but there is no federal definition or control of what may be a bottled water source; the FDA “approved source” requirement thus has been called a “regulatory mirage.”
b. Big city refers to city system serving 100,000 people or more. A big city using only wells would have to comply with all requirements noted for a surface water-supplied city, except that if its wells were not under the influence of surface water, it currently would not have to disinfect, filter, or test for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, or viruses. A new rule for such groundwater-supplied systems must be issued in 2002, which may require some cities using wells to disinfect or filter and do additional microbial monitoring. c. The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 require states, subject to EPA guidelines, to train and certify operators of all public water systems. EPA’s rules to implement this provision are required to be issued by February 1999. d. Small town refers to a town of 20,000 people. Such a small town using surface water would have to comply with all the same requirements noted for a large city using surface water, except the monitoring frequency for coliform would be 20/month, and there currently are no Cryptosporidium, Giardia, or virus monitoring requirements for small towns. Source: NRDC |
Just looking at this data its clear that tap water goes through much more stringent testing and oversight than any bottled water. What then fuels public perception of bottled water being better? Certainly marketing plays a big role. I mean who wouldn’t want to drink water that comes from a mountain spring in Switzerland over water from Lake Michigan?
The principle problem seems to stem from the fact that most tap water smells different or has a slightly different taste than bottled water. Add in the hype that has been beaten into our heads about bottled water being “pure” and its no wonder we look at these abnormal tastes and smells as an indication of a deficiency in water quality.
Looking over this post its funny how a UK gossip rag’s ranting over Victoria Beckham’s coffee snobbery sparked my exploration of bottled water versus tap water safety, this is sure to be a great discussion over coffee with friends. But what water will I use?
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