Sunday, February 08, 2004


bags are for tea

leave it to kraft to take the coffee pod and run with it.

yup, those pre-ground and thus stale paper raviolis we see too frequently in the espresso arena are now spreading to drip. kraft will soon move with larger coffee pods, like big tea bags, for home coffeemakers.

no fuss, no muss -- but most importantly, inferior taste. and the best part is that these things will actually require an entire new appliance! you won't be able to use them in a standard drip maker.

kraft must just be rubbing its hands with glee. why sell relatively low-margin ground coffee in a can when you can sell "value-added" coffee in a bag and also get a cut of the coffeemaker people will have to buy for it?

do people wonder why i hold commercial coffee in contempt? just because they are out to completely rip off consumers by offering a low-quality, stale product at an ever-higher price, why that's no reason to shake your head. is it?

with this news, i'm heartened to read about dunkin donuts espresso roll-out. i think by now nearly everyone has seen the new ads on tv for their "authentic" drinks.

the camera lovingly shows caramel and chocolate sauce drizzling on stiff foam, then cuts to harried mom in a huge drill-the-arctic-now vehicle rolling thru the drive-thru to find a moment's peace.

notice that the coffee is never shown. alas, my dear friend spencer turer, the head coffee honcho for dunkin who's actually also a former chef, isn't selling beverages here, but rather calgon. escape into a hot milkshake, o working mom!

despite my minor niggles, i still have to applaud spencer for working to bring espresso to a larger audience, even tho' i wish he would sell on quality. which he could do, since he is using specialty coffee that's even fair trade. long-time readers know that kimberly easson of wica and transfairusa is a dear bccy pal.

this dunkin effort is of interest in other ways: for example, another old bccy friend, dom chieco of liemco, is supplying the schaerer superauto machines. and so it was nice to read this article about the dunkin espresso roll-out hitting new york state, esp. since it has a great quote from one of bccy's personal coffee heros, scaa chief ted lingle.

again, we here at bccy remain convinced that once people (condescending advertising to women aside) cotton to specialty coffee, even in the flavored latte, they will soon discover that coffee can get better still. and thus coffee appreciation overall will rapidly increase. . . .

let me repeat myself: one world under specialty coffee's passionate sway.

posted by fortune | 10:04 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments