Coffee

Starbucks Is Dropping Their Prices

Not on their latte shmatte chai barista cocoa java lala hotchacha stuff, mind you. I'm talking about their prepackaged coffees.

Sam Lewontin of Everyman Espresso Won Big at the Northeast Barista Championships

Competitive barista-ing is a spectator sport. In addition to four judges seated at a high bar directly in front of the competing baristas, there was a boisterous, roaming audience at the 2013 Northeast Regional Barista Championship last week. Over three days at Attic Studios, an airy industrial loft ... More >>

Wake Up and Watch This Trailer for A Film About Coffee

San Francisco filmmaker Brandon Loper has released a trailer for his latest project, A Film About Coffee, which focuses on the current bean and brew obsession existing on the West Coast.

Pie Face Opens Second Location, Offers Free, Adorable Australian Meat Pies All Next Week

[See More Edible News: New York City Health Board Passes Bloomberg's Soda Ban Proposal | Sushi Costs More In New York Than Los Angeles Because, Well, Of Course It Does] These have to be the most adorable minced meat pies ever. Australian-based Pie Face is opening their second U.S. location in Murra ... More >>

When Coffee Snobs Attack

It was on my 6 a.m. train ride to work that I discovered with delight Sprudge's takedown of my last post, "How Not To Order Espresso." Sprudge, which I'd never heard of but admittedly now enjoy, is a site that focuses on coffee news and miscellany--and, apparently, writes critiques of other publicat ... More >>

How Not to Order Espresso

As a barista in Brooklyn, I deal with all breeds of customers: the genuinely inquisitive, the indecisive, the stubborn. Then there are others, the worst, and they're much easier to spot. They always begin with a question: "What's the roast date of your beans?"

Q&A: The Chipped Cup's Karen Cantor and Andrew Ding on the Coffee House Scene in Harlem, Part 2

[See More Interviews: Bitchin' Kitchen's Nadia G | Runner and Stone's Peter Endriss] Yesterday, Fork in the Road ran the first installment of this interview with owners Karen Cantor and Andrew Ding of the Chipped Cup, a new coffee shop in Harlem. Today, we follow-up and chat about the neighborhood ... More >>

Black Coffee Roasting Company Beans Arrive at Murray's

Certified organic, with the roasting date inked in by hand. Now that's artisanal! If you're a coffee fanatic, it calls for a little celebration every time a new coffee roaster hits town. In the last couple of years, we've seen the arrival of Stumptown (Portland), Intelligentsia (Chicago), and Blue ... More >>

The USA Champion Barista on Her Signature Beverage

The past weekend at the United States Barista Championship in Portland, Katie Carguilo of Counter Culture Coffee defeated 54 other contestants to become the first New Yorker ever to win the competition. This summer, she'll travel to Vienna to represent the United States in the World Barista Champion ... More >>

A Handheld Espresso Machine for Your Car?

According to an anecdotal survey conducted by the Times' Oliver Strand, Americans don't really drink straight espresso anymore. Most of owners of his favorite NYC coffee shops say that straight espresso accounts for about five percent of the coffee they sell, he wrote in the Times last week. If you ... More >>

Blue Bottle, Part Two

​Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble! Yesterday, I wrote about my first experience at West 15th Street's new Blue Bottle Coffee. I apologize for having been so interested in the pour-overs that I missed the espresso machine. The other observations and criticisms still stand, including my belie ... More >>

Blue Bottle: Coffee as Crack

​The sole output from Blue Bottle's downstairs is pour-overs -- no espressos! When San Francisco's Blue Bottle Coffee hit town two years ago in the Williamsburg outback, it changed the paradigm of the coffee bar. As a friend said to me, peering into the place's expansive premises, "Hey, whe ... More >>

Ritual Coffee Invades NYC -- Via Murray's Cheese

​Eschewing the brown paper bag of Blue Bottle and Stumptown, Ritual beans come in thick foil. I'm sitting here drinking a cup of coffee made from Ritual Coffee Roasters beans. Specifically, made from Ethiopian Koke coffee plants. It really is kind of like coke: full bodied, slightly tart, w ... More >>

La Colombe Torrefaction Opening on Lafayette Street on Monday

Lauren ShockeyLa Colombe Torrefaction, now even closer to The Village Voice!​ Coffee fans regularly flock to lower Lafayette Street to get their java fix at La Colombe Torrefaction (270 Lafayette Street, 212-625-1717), the Philadelphia-based coffee roaster that puts out a great cup of joe. Now ... More >>

The Vagabond Cafe Opened, Sells Chocolate Chip Cookie Lattes

Lauren Shockey​Wong might be the buzzier half of 7 Cornelia Street (212-989-3399), but we've recently become smitten with the Vagabond Cafe, located next door, and which opened a few weeks ago. Amid all the Starbucks and soulless coffee shops, this new cafe offers all that you need in a colle ... More >>

My Five Favorite Coffees

​Please don't say "But you forgot such and such brand!" I forgot nothing. These are my favorites, not a summary of every coffee ever made. And please forgive the fact that my tastes are on a grocery store level. I grew up sans pretensions--but I'd never grow up without coffee, three glorio ... More >>

Are Snobby Coffee Rules Made to Be Broken?

nate steiner/FlickrThird wave or reich?​It's easy to roll one's eyes at some of the serious -- a/k/a "third-wave" -- coffee bars in this town. The New York Post today rounds up some of the major no-nos certain high-end coffee shops simply will not tolerate. Like, espresso to go. Or grinding fr ... More >>

It's Hot. Drink Something Cold.

This is what a Google Image search for "ice tea" got us.​Say what you will about the temperatures outside, it's a banner day for cold beverages. And as luck would have it, Harold McGee has taken the time to answer readers' questions about coffee and tea over at Diner's Journal. We recommend ... More >>

Battle of the Iced Coffees: Think Coffee vs. MUD Truck

Lauren ShockeyThink Coffee on the left, MUD Truck on the right​On a day like today when the temperatures swell to unbearable levels, one mustn't spend much time outside. And if one must venture out into the steamy streets, it better be for an iced beverage. Spending more than five minutes o ... More >>

Take Your Java Jones East: Asian Instant Coffees

​If you love the convenience of Starbucks VIA but find it a tad expensive for your instant-coffee needs ($10 for 12 sticks), pop over to your closest Chinese supermarket in Chinatown or Flushing to look for these cheap and tasty alternatives, by way of Southeast Asia. (IOG in Fresh Meadows, Qu ... More >>

Fort Greene Coffee Snobs, Rejoice: WTF Brings First-Rate Java to the Neighborhood (Baked Goods Coming Soon)

Chantal MartineauWTF? Espresso, silly.​It used to be judged by the existence of a wine bar. Then, maybe, a cocktail lounge. Now, the way to be sure a neighborhood has arrived is when it gets a proper coffee bar. WTF in Fort Greene is serving not only excellent espresso prepared by skilled bari ... More >>

Is Nespresso's Kazaar Super-Strong Coffee Worth the Hype?

Little monster.​The Nespresso boutique that opened in SoHo last week is set up like a café, but you'd have to be insane to actually use it as such. A latte at the cafe is $6.50; a chamomile tea is $5.50; a grilled tuna sandwich is $16. Espresso is $4. Meanwhile, at the boutique part upstairs, ... More >>

Coffee for the Very Patient: 18-Hour Slow-Drip 'Kyoto' Coffee

Oliver StrandThe creature Strand discovered​ Earlier today saw instant-gratification coffee delivered to the masses via an Italian espresso maestro handing out shots at Lincoln Center. Downtown, they make you wait: At month-old Caffetteria SoHo, Blue Bottle Coffee vets brew coffee at room ... More >>

Why I Give Starbucks A Fake Name

​Order anything more complicated than a simple cup of coffee at Starbucks, and it happens. They want a name. For some of us, that's when the trouble starts. Recently, I realized that I wasn't the only one who had tired of being asked how to spell a name that people find difficult to handle ... More >>

Kahlúa Goes After Fancy Coffee Market, Turns Baristas into Mixologists

Kicking up your coffee, one shot of Kahlúa at a time.​Coffee liqueurs are getting upgraded, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, with such new and forthcoming releases as Firelit Spirits Coffee Liqueur, made with coveted Blue Bottle coffee, and Heering Coffee Liqueur from the maker of Ch ... More >>

Starbucks Introducing Vegan Frappuccinos

basheertome/FlickrNow with more vegans.​Looks like Starbucks is heeding the clarion call most recently trumpeted by the food scientists at Chipotle: it's introducing vegan frappuccinos.

A Photo Tour of Williamsburg's New Blue Bottle Coffee -- But What Is Missing?

​"Jeez! This place is gigantic," a friend exclaimed as we stepped inside Blue Bottle. (Click on the pictures for a better view.) It being one of the nicest days of the century, a friend and I decided to go to Williamsburg to check out Blue Bottle Coffee, Oakland, CA's contribution to the New ... More >>

The $4.25 Iced Coffee: Blue Bottle's 'Burg Debut

​ Behind these unassuming doors, does greatness lie? Wednesday was a benchmark moment for this city. In the great tradition of going to ridiculous lengths for pretty pedestrian things -- like waiting an hour just to score a $5 burger, or the blood sport of making reservations for a $30 burger ... More >>

Rupert Murdoch: Won't Die Until WSJ Quenches Thirst for Sulzberger Milkshake with $100K Coffee

​ Good Media Magnate Monday Morning! screams New York's website with media reporter Gabriel Sherman's deliriously fun cover story of an old, cranky, combative, elbows-out Rupert Murdoch who basically wants to destroy the New York Times with his most recent purchase, the Wall Street Journal, be ... More >>

Blue Bottle Coffee Co. Poised to Delight Williamsburg Coffee Snobs

Blue Bottle Coffee CompanySome of Blue Bottle's wares.​ Caffeine cultists, rejoice: The Bay Area's feverishly fetishized Blue Bottle Coffee Company is coming to Williamsburg, perhaps as early as tomorrow. Diner's Journal reports that the Oakland, Calif.-based company is opening a coffee bar on ... More >>

Roberta's and the Meat Hook Come Clean With Coffee Soap

Joe DiStefanoGoldie's: it will make you clean, and possibly wake you up.​Add another course to the clean-living regimen otherwise known as the Fork in the Road Diet: Goldie's Brooklyn Beef Tallow Soap. In a true Brooklyn locavore (or should that be "lavavore"?) spirit, the handmade soap is a ... More >>

Weekend Special: Christmas Leftovers

You've opened all your totally enjoyable presents, eaten literally thousands of decorated Christmas cookies, knocked back bumpers of nog and wassail--now's the time to sit back like Scrooge and take stock of the stranger Xmas apparitions...

Stumptown: Excellent Coffee With a Shot of Hipster

A medium latte​ "I love that band!" exclaimed my tattooed, be-hatted barista to the other barista, who sported a jacket, tie, and bored expression. It is news to exactly no one that Stumptown Coffee in the Ace Hotel is a hotbed of hipster-dom, so hipster-ish, in fact, that it crosses the parod ... More >>

Clip Job: Koch Cracks Down on Coffee Houses!

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archivesNovember 5, 1964, Vol. X, No. 3City Takes Tough Line Vs. CafesA crackdown on coffee houses in the crowded MacDougal Street area was ordered Monday night by City Corporation Counsel Leo Larkin. City action will take the form of permanent injunc ... More >>

Simon Sips, Now Without Simon

Michael Dominic/winetruth.net Simon Sips has lost its Simon. Seven months after opening the espresso and wine bar, which occupies the former Tasting Room space on East 1st Street, Simon Mammon has parted ways with his namesake operation. Mammon tells Fork in the Road that while the cause of his ... More >>

Clip Job: When Poets Battled the Bureaucrats

Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archivesApril 2, 1964, Vol. IX, No. 24City Softens Approach to Poets in CafesA vaguely positive ambiance resulted from last Wednesday's meeting between representatives of the City License Department and a delegation of poets whose readings at Le Metro, 1 ... More >>

Healthier Ice Cream; Greener Coffee & A Dog Fight

Mark Bittman points to an article in the SF Chronicle by his friend Marion Nestle about the benefits--or lack thereof--of organic food. Nestle answers such questions as "Aren't organics elitist?" [NY Times] "In the dog-eat-dog restaurant business..." Iconic Chicago hot dog stand SuperDawg is taking ... More >>

Those %#!& Tip Jar Inscriptions

photo courtesy of rottnpagan  Of the many indignities suffered by consumers in the first decade of the 21st century, the tip jar inscription is not the largest, but it may be the most annoying. I got to thinking about the subject after a friend emailed me complaining about the enthusia ... More >>

Room for Cream Season One: The Box Set!

Downtown's favorite lesbian serial stirs it up again

Clip Job: Coffee Houses 1, Police 0

Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archivesDecember 28, 1961, Vol. VII, No. 10Coffee Houses 'Victorious'By J.R. GoddardGreenwich Village's entertainment-type coffee houses last week welcomed a new law which defines the establishments, provides them with special licensing, and removes the ... More >>

Starbucks Has Ruined Our Economy!

Fuck you, Starbucks! For years you hypnotized Americans with your overpriced lattes, transfixing hordes of people to line up and pay huge wads of money on hot, silty shit with some foam on top and a fucking cinnamon stick in the middle. Their homes were being foreclosed, but these poor, thirsty cr ... More >>

Roastarama!

Clip Job: Harlan Ellison Reports from the Front Lines

Serious Coffee Comes to Williamsburg

Manhattan's Best Iced Coffee

Starbucks Wants to Dress You!

'Black Gold'

Coffee Abuse

Starbucks Christmas Lattes: What the hell?

One More Cup of CD for the Road

Starbucks boldly markets its mild music blend

Rage Against the Caffeine

Reverend Billy Preaches the Anticorporate Gospel to Starbucks