Friday, August 03, 2001


very hot sticky day today! made me really feel like some iced coffee. but i was on my way to the dentist. . .late as usual.

after i finished my little procedure, the dentist talked to me about a tooth-whitening process that's very popular here in new york now, britesmile. it uses lasers and takes about an hour.

the dentist looked at my teeth and shook her head, "you drink coffee, don't you?" she clucked. "that's why your teeth are a shade 3.5. with britesmile we could bring you back up to an almost perfect 1.5."

i looked at her in horror. "i can get a near-perfect dazzling smile, but i'd have to give up coffee forever?" shivers ran down my spine and my toe nail polish nearly cracked from terror.

"oh no," she said. "we new yorkers will never give up our coffee. that's too much to expect." "then how does the treatment last for more than a couple of months?" i asked.

"well," she leaned in conspiratorially to divulge the secret,"drink all your coffee through a straw. that way it hits the back of your teeth and the front stays so beautiful. . ."

through a straw! that's thinking outta the box, kiddies!

as everyone knows, to reach the summit of espresso, you must climb the hard cliff of finetuning your barista skills. unless you have a US$2,000 superautomatic-grinder-built-in espresso machine with frother, you're going to have to learn to grind, tamp, and time your shots. then you have to practice make micro-frothed milk.

seems difficult, no? after all, those kids working full-time at the famous chains often can't seem to learn these skills.

if you're thinking about getting a home espresso machine, but are afraid of the learning curve, let me direct you to the ultimate source -- david schomer's espresso coffee: professional techniques. this is the book you need to learn how to make the best coffee you'll get outside of europe.

check out the archives on the lucid cafe site; just a few pages from their archive will convince you that this is the book you need for better coffee!

posted by fortune | 7:17 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments