Coffee

Portland Press. A French Press in Mason Jar.

Sitting in Estes Park this morning while drinking a cup of vacation coffee, and surfing the internet I came across this French press coffee maker from Portland Press. Designed and made in Portland Oregon from all natural materials, Portland Press wanted to create something that would improve your coffee making experiences with quality materials as nice as the coffee you’re drinking.

The Portland Press is a french press designed to work with a Mason jar, out of materials sourced in the USA. This is a simple, clean, practical design made out of basic materials like: glass, wool, steel, and wood. Oh one nice thing, if the Mason jar is easy to replace if it breaks, and the rest of the Portland Press is backed with a lifetime warranty.

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STANDERT a Coffee Loving Cycling Dream.

Having recently moved to a loft downtown, I am getting acquainted with the new building. One thing I am very aware of is the office/retail space that is currently vacant on the first floor. Since our building sits right next the footbridge that leads to bike trails, I was thinking it would be a perfect space for a bike shop. A friend of mine said it would be the perfect spot for a bike shop/coffee shop, and I can’t agree more. This got me to thinking about what that would look like, which led to me searching the web for similar spaces. What did I find? I found plenty, but one that stood out was Standert in Berlin.

This small footprint shop is located at Invalidenstraße 157 · 10115 Berlin. The small shop features full service bike service, sales, repairs, and equipment, plus a full service coffee and other tasty beverages. From the look of the photos, this is the kind of place I could seriously spend some time in. The cafe menu includes the cyclist beer Velosophe, as well as pastries, soups, bagels, homemade popsicles, coffee, tea, and a variety of espresso drinks.

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Have Your Coffee and Eat It Too.

20130112-101737.jpgFor the last couple of days I’ve been dealing with some sort of sinus/flu thing. The one thing it and my meds have done is take away any form of taste. I’m talking about physical taste, the kind you get from your tongue. This morning I made coffee and thanks to my medicine it has fabulous metallic quality to it. I can’t wait until I can taste a full body espresso, with a fabulous crema.

All this coffee talk leads me to this, the “Cookie Cup” from Venezuelan designer Enrique Luis is an edible Cookie Cup for Italian coffee company Lavazza. The cookie cup is made of pastry that is covered with a special icing sugar that works as an insulator making the cup waterproof and sweetening at the same time. Pretty ingenious design if you ask me.

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Espresso, Vertigo, Go.

Yesterday morning I suffered a massive vertigo attack. I’ve never had it before, and I hope I never have it again. Here it is 36 hours later, and I’m still dizzy with occasional waves of nausea. One of the side effects of vertigo comes from the meds they give you. That side effect is “drowsiness”, and like the dizziness it sucks.

What better way to overcome drowsiness than a fine cup of espresso, and what a better way to serve it up than with a fine espresso machine like this one designed by Arvid Hauser.

The espresso machine is wall mounted, and manufactured from porcelain and wood. The wall mount helps free up kitchen counter space, and the exposed components “make the coffee preparation process comprehensible for the user”.  I just like the sculptural quality of the espresso machine and the natural materials used to construct it.

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