Summer fun food and drink - Great coffee in Panama - a downside · Sunday July 27, 2008 by colin newell
Panama’s gourmet coffees fetch record prices for their prized flavors – and I know all too well just how wonderful Panama La Hacienda Esmeralda Geisha tastes – but the increasing demand has convinced some growers to clear land illegally… and plant in one of the country’s few protected highland forests.
Here are some facts. Coffee employs 12 to 15 million people World-wide, many of them complete families… all ages. And many of them live in a cycle of poverty. The average coffee bean changes hands over 100 times on its way from the coffee bush to your cup – often by people who never actually see the often – who live a World away from the environment that actually produces coffee.
The internet, on various levels, has changed some of that – for at least a some of these hard working folks: Online auctions and farm to roaster direct purchases have put the money where it belongs – in the hands of the farms (fincas) and the farmers and their community.
The upside is, the average family has gone from earning pennies on the pound to several dollars for a pound of green coffee – coffee you and I regularly pay 10 to 15$ a pound for roasted. This means food, health care, shelter (for the farmers) and an education for the children – and great coffee for you.
For Panama, having small tracts of incredible coffee that has been yielding upwards of $130/pound in the marketplace, the temptation to exploit this has been irresistible . Panama’s Environmental Protection Agency has uncovered rogue tracts of land in the Volcan Baru National Park, raising concerns that more park land could be endangered as the demand increases.
The nature preserve is ringed with coffee farms growing the country’s “geisha” beans, often described as the champagne of coffee for their subtle jasmine-like taste highly sought after by boutique roasters from North America, Europe and Japan. I have had this coffee. The descriptions do not do it justice – and if you do a google search, you will see that the net has been sprouting new Geisha sites every week.
And now, an insatiable demand for geisha beans have lured some growers well inside the park’s boundaries. It is ironic, but not surprising considering the kind of hardship coffee farmers have lived with.
The point of all of this? Get to know your coffee when you are drinking it. Get to know the farmers, the processes and the economy of coffee – look beyond the rim of your coffee cup and get the big picture.
Summer fun food and drink - Avoiding that mood killing moment in your favorite haunt · Thursday July 17, 2008 by colin newell
Picture this. You are just settling into your favorite table at your favorite cafe or bistro with your favorite girl or boy… the wine is poured… the music plays softly in the background… you have ordered your entrée…
and…
Pop… pop… pop…
The familiar report of a Glock 9MM semi-automatic pistol disturbs your serenity as a gun fight breaks out between patrons at an adjacent table.
Patrons dive for cover as the slugs cut a searing path through the restaurant. One projectile grazes your Hugo Boss sport coat – the one you wear for special occasions only. I guess this could be considered a special occasion.
Okay then. Let’s rewind shall we.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go out on a hot date and skip the gangland violence, gun fire and bloody carnage? And if you are as Gangsta as I am, you would really prefer to leave your Heckler&Koch MP5K machine pistol at home – I mean if only to avoid having to put down cover fire for your loyal buddie baddies…
Anyway. Digression. A new program in Vancouver hopes to quell nasty criminal activity in cooperating restaurants… at least during the dinner hour.
“Participating members of the Restaurant Watch program will display large decals to show that they strive to maintain safety for diners, Vancouver police said.”
Large decals? Like… “Gangsta? Shoo!” or “Packing? You ain’t snacking!”
Yea. Like that’s gonna work.
“Owners and staff of local restaurants have pledged to call police if they feel a customer fits the description of a gang member, gang associate, drug trafficker or someone with a propensity for violence.”
I have a better idea. Want to rid the restaurant of criminal riff-raff? Change the menu to vegetarian. You will never find a gangsta in a joint that sells tofu anything. No beef, no bullets I figure.
The Restaurant Watch program will give police more eyes and ears and ensure the public has a safe and enjoyable dining experience. Read the whole Story
I would have a way more enjoyable experience if I knew there weren’t going to be loud and annoying people there will cell phones…
But what you gonna do?
Bada Bing.
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Summer fun food and drink - Finding great coffee and cafes in Victoria B.C. · Tuesday July 15, 2008 by colin newell
Buon Amici’s – The Black Stilt Coffee Lounge – 2% Jazz – Bubby Roses – Habit Coffee and Culture – Sounds like Coffee – Discovery Coffee – and others.
Wherever you find your coffee and friendship or companionship… well, that is your best place. It is the best place… for you.
In the last 10 days or so we have had the fun exercise of polling our readers (and many people who have never seen this website before…) on where the Best cafe is in Victoria B.C. Canada.
It has been a fun, but largely pointless exercise… because the reality is: The great cafe is truly in the eye of the beholder. Some Examples:
(a.) Bubby Roses 2 Cafe – Andrea and I sat at Bubby Roses Bakery a few days ago while I spooned their Vegetarian chili into my tummy and shared some wonderful croissants.
At the next table was a very sweet looking young girl with crazy red hair sitting cross-legged in one of the chairs – and she was hand-writing a letter to her lover (and future husband) – Yes, I am naturally curious and yes, I have impeccable vision. He was somewhere far away – but she had this curious smile that would spontaneously appear when she checked out some of the people walking by. At some point a male friend appeared, asking her where her man was – she explained – and they sooned walked off down the Cook street sidewalk – hand in hand…
(b.) B.A.‘s – While at Buon Amici’s on Friday I talk with owner-creator Derek Lucas as he describes, in great detail, his model for the perfect cafe – his passion is measured in megawatts – his ideas flash pass me like a meteor shower. His clientele are urban professionals and all appear to be enjoying their environment.
(c.) The Drumroaster – At the Drumroaster Cafe South of Duncan (my pick for Island’s best cafe [maybe the next poll]) on Saturday Geir Oglend describes the latest and greatest pieces of new equipment for the leading edge cafe. Geir and his wife Pat run one of the few totally Mom and Pop third-wave places on Vancouver Island (and arguably British Columbia too) that is All Family oriented that produces coffee and espresso based drinks as good as they can possibly be – and the food is as good as it can possibly be as well. Bubby Roses, obsessed with every minute detail leader, Mark Engels, comes up with edibles that rival Geir’s – but they are neck and neck.
(d.) The Black Stilt Coffee Lounge is an interesting blend of fine design, eco-friendly deployment with an adult-oriented menu (they have a liquor license) – The coffee is good too. The staff are highly motivated, effusive, friendly and very professional. Half of the guests, tonight, were stationed behind lap-tops – surfing, texting, messaging and face-booking – some were even talking to each other. The space is warm – and even if you are alone, you feel like you are at home.
(e.) Habit Coffee and Culture is home to hipsters, scene-makers, artists, observers, hangers-on and wanna-bee’s – And yes, I am all of those things… especially that last one! If you are a hip chick or sick dude, you suck back your espresso at Habit – you might even find time to work on your sneer or perfect that utterly disinterested look.
So. Long story short. Buon Amici and Black Stilt may have cornered the market on the votes – but the reality is… The best cafe in Victoria B.C. Canada is the cafe you are sitting in right now. You know it better than I do.
But thanks for participating!
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Summer fun food and drink - Starbucks in decline chapter two · Thursday July 10, 2008 by colin newell
Listen here for our radio interview today… Flash thingie below – if you cannot see that, click here for the mp3.
Starbucks in decline chapter two
“We are immune to economic ups and downs!” At the dawn of the 21st century, that has always been the bleat of the Starbucks upper Echelon.
While most restaurants feel the squeeze in hard times, as consumers stay home for more Mac and Cheese, Starbucks’ Vente-latte-sipping well-to-dos will keep coming back for more. Or so the economic theory dictates.
Truth is – luxury brands attract premium customers who are less sensitive to economic swings. Better job security and more income to ride out the lows. “When Starbucks continued to rack up impressive gains through 2002 and 2003, analysts went so far as to label the company “recession-proof.” Like the Titanic I suppose.
The past few years have seen a multi-faceted rebuild and re-branding of the Starbucks mission. In its insatiable desire for unchecked growth, the company automated too much of the artistry once known as specialty Coffee. Out with the La Marzocco manual machines – and in with robotic coffee. Starbucks as a therapeutic “alternative – not the home not the office space” for its customers, has given way to drive-through windows, interstate off-ramp kiosks and questionable reconstituted greasy breakfast sandwiches and Cd shills.
Two sucker punches come along. Overbuilding and under-training, and coffee that suffered – even to my grizzled taste buds. As people became more educated about what a real coffee should taste like (thanking Starbucks in the 80’s): consumers sought out the mom-and-pop coffee shops (in the U.S. up 40 per cent to 14,000) — with an seemingly endless cortège of thirsty Starbucks refugees.
During one of its costume changes, Starbucks has attracted a new type of customer, one drawn to the fashion statement of the specialty coffee experience, but lacking the requisite bling to sustain a daily double-tall Vente Macchiato habit.
So, the U.S. housing market collapses – a threat of layoffs, these lower- and middle-income Americans are forgoing the to-go cups. Caramel lattes or a a gallon of gas? Gas wins.
They wanted to win everyones heart in order to sustain their growth – and have ended up leaving us with a caffeine withdrawal induced headache – that isn’t going away anytime soon.
Remember this? Chairman Howard Schultz once said coffee drinkers who try out cheaper competitors will upgrade to Starbucks.
“Those consumers over time are going to trade up. They’re going to trade up because they are not going to be satisfied with the commoditized experience or the flavor,” he said.
Your right Howard. We got sick of the flavor. And we moved on.
Thanks for the memories.
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