It’s the busiest week of the year. The return of thousands of students to University of Idaho and Washington State University. Welcome back everyone who may have had a dearth of good espresso over the summer. Start the days out right.
Filed under: Announcements on August 26th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
One of the few cooking blogs I follow is cafefernando.com, written by a young Turkish food enthusiast. He only writes a couple times a month, but it’s always interesting and includes beautiful photos. A few weeks ago, he posted a recipe for making “Vietnamese” coffee ice cream at home using sweetened condensed milk. I decided to give it a go:
Ingredients
Filed under: Food, Home Brew on August 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »
For years, Otto Keyes has been a sought-after harp technician and piano tuner. Now, settling down in Moscow, he’s gotten more serious about one of his hobbies: coffee roasting. Starting a few years ago with a popcorn popper, moving to a converted chicken rotisserie, banished from the house for the smoke, he now has a top-of-the line roaster setup and the experience with it to make some very nice beans.
Filed under: Roasting on August 1st, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The new Sharis restaurant (next to Applebees), is now open!
Finally, Moscow has a 24-hour breakfast joint again. I’ve heard that years ago, The Pantry was open all night, but didn’t like college students hanging out there for long periods of time to study. Big surprise, eh? Denny’s in Pullman has been the only 24-hours place around here for a long time (20 years?), but they also don’t like people hanging out. Go in there, order some coffee and read a book, and you will be asked to leave. Seriously. How’s that for service? Hopefully Sharis will be more friendly to people that want to camp out. Even if they’re not, at least we now have an option for a late-night pick-me-up.
Filed under: Business on July 30th, 2008 | No Comments »
I have some upcoming posts in the works when time allows. This includes info and photos on our other local roaster, Otto Keyes and his Redfinn brand. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Announcements on July 29th, 2008 | No Comments »
An Impromptu Poem:
Another day another dollar
Another dollar another coffee
Another coffee and
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Another day.
Filed under: Uncategorized on June 25th, 2008 | No Comments »
The Safeway over in Eastside Marketplace is feverishly remodeling. There was even a crew of workers on scissor lifts at 10:30 PM when I was there last Sunday evening. I overheard that a new in-store Starbucks is going in where the deli is now. Now at least there will be a source of coffee within walking distance when I take my kids to the indoor “tree slide” playground. The mall there has been without coffee for several years, ever since “The Daily Cup” moved to 3rd and Main and then proceeded to go belly-up.
Safeway has been doing this with a lot of their stores. It was so successful a few years ago with their Pullman location that it practically put the regular Starbucks retail shop down the street out of business! Also, I’ve heard that corporate Starbucks has a mixed relationship with these satellite stores. They aren’t able to exert near as much branding and management control over them. One thing that drew people to the Pullman Safeway Starbucks was their promotions. They had a buy-seven-get-one-free drink special (tied to your Safeway card) going for several years. They also printed up in-house coupons for free drinks and would sometimes put them in the local paper or send them to certain email lists. The retail store down the street was prohibited from doing any of these things. At the in-store Starbucks, you could also buy a 50 cent bagel at the bakery a few feet away instead of shelling out $1.50 for the (usually stale) Starbucks bagel behind the coffee counter. In the end though, I think the retail location’s tiny parking lot on Stadium Way was their #1 problem.
I believe the new Eastside Marketplace Safeway Starbucks is set to open in late August, just in time for the fall semester.
In other news, New Starbucks Opens In Rest Room of Existing Starbucks.
Filed under: Business, Starbucks on June 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Tonight, my wife and I tried roasting coffee at home for the first time. We had a blast! She documented the excursion on her blog. Here it is in full.
For years now, Hubby and I have wanted to try roasting our own coffee from raw beans. The flavor from fresh-roasted coffee is always quite a bit better, not to mention it would be a fun, unique experience. Today Hubby picked up some green coffee beans from Bucer’s Coffee Pub where his friend is the manager and does the roasting. These beans, from Ethiopia, are said to have quite a bright flavor and the beans are on the small side.
Filed under: Home Brew on June 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
This is the third and final part of my interview with Brendan from Bucer’s Coffeehouse Pub. It’s mostly a topic grab-bag. Read on.
Filed under: Bucer's Coffeehouse Pub, Business, Interviews on May 29th, 2008 | No Comments »
My wife, recounting an outing from a few days ago…
On the north side of Moscow sits a store we have been visiting a LOT lately: Moscow Building Supply. You see, we’re moving and remodeling at the same time. We have purchased a new-old house next to East City park, a quaint, perfect little cottage where we will be quite happy after one thing happens. We need to move the washer and dryer up out of the basement. To do this we have needed to tear out a Very Solid Wall, paint, putty, run plumbing, hook up electrical… all of the typical DIY stuff and my dad, bless his heart has been doing most of it. What does this have to do with coffee, you ask? Relax, I’m getting there. Dad has sent us to MBS repeatedly to pick up supplies for his endeavors, plus we have been getting garden supplies, shelving and all sorts of goodies to set up our new place. Yes, I do have a coffee-related point. Don’t quit reading yet.
Across the street from MBS on the road out of town towards Coeur d’Alene sits a Java shack. It goes by the wittily clever (read with extensive sarcasm) name of Double Shot Espresso, only when we asked the Barista, it turns out only 16 or 20 ounce drinks actually come with a double shot.
Of course one one of our many trips to MBS we had to try it out, just because we had never been there before. My review written here is based on the exhaustive research, quantitative study and scientifically tallied results of that one trip. The first plus was that there was no line. Well, there is never a line at 4:00 PM in any coffee place. The lines happen at 7:30 AM. So we were able to drive up and place our order right away. Second positive: they have a trivia question. I LOVE Java shacks with trivia questions because if I answer it and get it right (usually by sheer dumb luck) then not only do I feel smart but I save myself enough cash to buy a whole gum ball when I next go to the mall. All Java shacks and coffee shops ought to have a trivia question. I think only Botticelli’s does.
Anyway, we ordered our drinks, a white mocha for me, a plain latte for Hubby, the Coffee Snob and a steamed milk for our three-year-old daughter, the Coffee Snob In Training. The Barista took the usual amount of time making our drinks. Hubby probably timed her shots but he didn’t say anything so I guess they fell within acceptable parameters. She steamed the milk to the temperature of volcanic lava, which would have been okay except that when she handed the mocha to Hubby she popped the lid off and spilled it all over the side of our car. Luckily she had some more lava-milk, so she just added it to the remainder in the cup stuck on a new lid and out it came. Whew! Wouldn’t want to waste that milk.
I have to say, I realize some people like their coffee to scald their tastebuds off their tongues, but I am not one of those people. I let my cup of coffee sit in the cupholder of my car through an entire trip to the grocery store before it was cool enough to drink. The first time I picked it up, the lid popped off again, spilling slightly-less-scalding-hot milk on my lap and the gearshift of the car. Oops.
Finally I got that doomed coffee to my lips. I’d give the quality a 5 out of 10. Typical Java shack fare. Definitely nothing to write home about. So if you’re headed to Coeur d’Alene, stop for a cuppa joe and bring plenty of paper towels along. You never know, you might need them!
Filed under: Drivethroughs, Guest Posts on May 14th, 2008 | No Comments »
