Forget about Starbucks and all the coffee chains you’ll find in just about every corner of every city. I’m talking about the little shops that no one else in the world might know about, but that locals swear on. If you have a coffee shop in mind, you might want to enter your fave shop for the “KRUPS Best Brew Awards 2012″.

The awards is KRUPS way of honoring the best coffee shops throughout New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. Those who want to have a say on who wins only need to go to KRUPS USA Facebook page to be able to cast your vote. Note that voting will be limited to coffee shops on their list (from last year’s awards), but you still get to do a write up on your fave coffee shop in case it isn’t on the list.

Voting started yesterday and is only open till February 24, so you’d better start spreading the word if you’re rooting for a shop.

The best baristas also get a nod from KRUPS as they accept entries for a seat on the “KRUPS Coffee Council”, who with the rest of the Coffee Council members will get to help KRUPS out year round during regional events and promotions, media opportunities, new product demonstrations and more. If you want to be a coffee council entrant, you must submit a “video of yourself (3 minutes or less), in which you describe who you are as a person and as a barista, explain why you would be the best barista in your area to sit on the KRUPS Coffee Council, and demonstrate your knowledge and skill in preparing one coffee or espresso-based beverage.”

Image via KrupsUSA

The suit, a discrimination charge against the company, was filed by Elsa Sallard, who was born with dwarfism. Sallard claimed that she was discriminated because of her height. During an orientation for possible Starbucks employees, Sallard suggested that she can use a stool so that she can perform other tasks that are part of the job. But on the same day of the orientation, she was fired allegedly because she will likely put her co-employees and customers in danger.

Sallard’s suit was filed through the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC, and charged Starbucks of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The settlement amounts to $75,000 which Starbucks will pay to Sallard. The company will also give ADA training to all of Starbucks’ managers and supervisory employees.

I understand Sallard’s grievance and equality should be something that all companies and people should strive for. But I do understand where Starbucks is coming from. Handling extremely hot beverages is a work hazard and there really is an increased likelihood of a mishap or accident if a person, even if she is extremely capable, goes up and down a stool. There’s political correctness but then there’s also common sense.

Bikini Espresso has opened in Torrance, California and it does not take smarts to realize that their highlight involves bikini clad servers and baristas. They have only been open for several days but it seems that the people in the neighborhood think that they have a hit in their hands.

Barista Chelsea Turnbo says that they are having a lot of fun and that their clientele has been varied. While more men queue up for drinks, they also get women – even old ladies!

Perhaps the fact that they are quite near to the beach adds to the accepting spirit of the customers. Then again, customers are saying that while the bikini clad baristas are the unique feature of the coffee shop, the coffee isn’t all that bad. In fact, they say that the coffee is quite good.

Still, the coffee isn’t so good that the critics have been silenced. There are still those who don’t favor the idea. It is no surprise, I think. I think that it is not that much of a big deal, though. I mean, you see people in bikinis every time. What might be more interesting is to actually work in the shop, don’t ya think? Not that I would even be considered for the position!

Simmermon reportedly ordered a triple shot of espresso dumped over ice. Now you probably know that this is not commonly done but hey, who said you had to drink coffee in a certain way? Well, the management of Murky Coffee says so. Read the barista’s reaction as Simmermon himself described it:

And the guy at the counter looked me in the eye with a straight face and said “I’m sorry, we can’t serve iced espresso here. It’s against our policy.”

This reminded so much of a similar incident that my husband and I experienced at a local Starbucks store. The coffee became lukewarm because we were chatting and smoking. So he went back to the counter to ask for it to be reheated. We know that purists disallow reheating coffee as the heat “ruins” it. Despite my husband’s repeated requests, they wouldn’t heat the coffee!

So what is the deal here? Preserving the integrity of coffee or giving in to a customer’s request? Probably because I am not a purist, I tend to lean towards the latter. We all enjoy our coffee in different ways, give us some leeway here!

Photo courtesy of Aaron Landry

This girl in Canada, Laura Perry, thinks otherwise and judges of the Eastern Regional Barista Championship in Montreal agree with her! The story featured in Ottawa Citizen narrates her victory:

Mascarpone cheese is not the first ingredient the average coffee drinker would put into an espresso. But Kanata’s Laura Perry is no ordinary coffee aficionado, using the unusual concoction to win the Eastern Regional Barista Championship this week in Montreal.

The 22-year-old’s victory will make her the only Ottawa resident to compete in October at the Canadian National Barista Championships, the Grey Cup of competitive coffee-making in Canada.

The drink, named Mascarpone Macchiato, is a shot of espresso marked with a bit of steam milk. It is blended with a variety of ingredients, including whipped mascarpone cheese, sugar cane and cinnamon bark.

For those who wince at cheese and coffee, Perry says she uses mascarpone for its light cream qualities. “It doesn’t really taste like cheese.”

For someone who likes cheese, I am pretty ignorant about a lot of types and I have not heard of mascarpone before. I found this at Wikipedia:

Mascarpone is a triple-cream cheese (though more accurately a lightly-whipped cream) made from crème fraîche, denatured with tartaric acid. Mascarpone is milky-white in color and is easily spread. When fresh, it smells like milk and cream. It is used in various dishes of the Lombardy region of Italy, where it is a specialty. It is a main ingredient of tiramisu.

I feel a bit stupid as I love tiramisu but now I understand how mascarpone can go well with coffee. I wonder if we’ll ever get to taste the likes of this coffee?

In a ruling that the company immediately said it would appeal, the judge said the company must pay back around $87 million in tips plus interest of $19 million.

Starbucks recently launched a series of initiatives aimed at boosting its business, which has suffered from a dip in sales and a near-50 per cent fall in share price over the past year.

It was not immediately clear how the $100 million might be divided up between the estimated 100,000 current and former baristas [who make the coffee] who have worked for Starbucks in California since 2000.

Terry Chapko, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that the baristas were “subsidising Starbucks labour costs” by helping the company pay its supervisors.

“This is about getting money back to the lowest-paid employees,” he said.

Do you give tips when you go to Starbucks? Does it bother you if the tip went to the supervisors as well as the baristas? I think they should all share it – but that’s just me. If I were a barista, I’d be one very happy camper right now, though.

Coffee jelly is something that is not different from the usual jelly bits that people would consume. The only difference is that of its color and appealing coffee flavor. There is no nutritional additives that would make coffee different from the usual beverage that a person would consume. It is more of a person finding some new ways of enhancing their drink wherever they may be.

One can say that such would be more of a psychological attribute towards drink or food consumption. But with regards to new food and beverage preferences, people will always find something different to make such things addictive to the average consumer.

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There is also the known use of percolating where continuous brewing of ground coffee beans are placed in boiling water which becomes the boiling coffee brew those coffee lovers would usually order in food establishments and coffee shops.

The Turkish or Greek manner of preparation entails boiling the finely grounded coffee beans that are brewed. In this type of preparation, sugar can be added once boiled or not, depending on the preference of the one making the actual brew.

Finally there is also the concentrated way of brewing where coffee preparation calls for large amounts of coffee brewed into small amounts of water brewed to make concentrated coffee. People who would want to drink a cup simply have to add some hot water to enjoy their coffee drink which can be hot or cold.

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Whiskey and wine may arouse the curiosity of minds, but surely, it has been a preferred coffee mixture today. Noticeable is that the cream would usually float above the coffee but due to its warmth, it melts and maintain its position on the upper part of the drink. A lot of manufacturers have taken up Irish coffee concoctions today such as Bailey�s and Kentucky coffee and has been common tag towards coffee to this day.

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Coffee with meetings has become a tradition for people. Some consume if because they have inherited it or actually see it from big-time executives. Individually, a person can resort to juice, tea or soda, but coffee has the distinct taste that people have identified as of late. And so in most coffee shops, this has been the sight.

Business professionals meeting up and talking, or even some doing paper work as they prefer to garner that tag of being a businessman at work aiming for the top and higher positions of the organization he is in.

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