Friday, April 16, 2004


latte art, squared

while latte art -- the hearts, tulips, rosettas, apples and the like drawn with microfoam in your cappuccino by a trained barista -- doesn't guarantee that the coffee's great, it does show that the coffeehouse in question cares about espresso cuisine.

it shows that the baristi takes themselves and their jobs seriously. thus today i was thrilled to read about an australian barista who's moved the art of latte art forward.

i expect madame x any day now.

long-time readers know that i'm constantly talking about the world-price depression known as the coffee crisis, and how it's harming specialty coffee by reducing the supply of high-quality beans.

the mermaid's now worried about this too. starbucks is expanding and needs more specialty-grade coffee; but it finds that farmers, after four years of reduced prices have hurtled them to the edge of bankruptcy, often just can't afford to take proper care of the crop!

i've spoken to several independent roaster/retailers who also report that they feel a squeeze, that it's just harder to find truly spectacular coffee this year. the mermaid is lucky because it has the resources to enter into relationships with farmers -- whole countries actually.

smaller independent roaster-retailers don't always have this ability. thus the roasters ("brownies") i've spoken too are thinking about new partnerships with their importers/brokers ("greenies") to see if some new mechanisms can be devised to allow them to get more involved in the relationship concept. . .

and speaking of coffee, it's just a week now until the scaa conference in atlanta. there's still time to become a consumer member and buy a cheap plane ticket!

the consumer member track just grows better by the day -- today we discovered that we had so many people registered that we need to get more espresso grinders! thanks to todd of the wonderful wholelattelove for coming thru! i'm sure other suppliers will also chip in. . .

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