Wednesday, October 13, 2004


having problems reconciling to autumn

sunny naples always calls! and so for the purposes of mutual nostalgia, i'm posting pix of the beautiful art nouveau gambrinus coffeehouse.

but autumn does seem to call out to me on the coffee cake front, and this recipe seems worth a try. . .

"we're trying to represent the common person and real coffee -- a genuine, good, solid, everyday cup of coffee."

long-time readers know that ever since i met 8-o'clock prez barbara roth at the rainforest alliance dinner, i've been sympathetic to her goal to relaunch the brand and improve quality. but marketing "retro-chic" alone won't do it.

canning specialty coffee is a trend, there's no doubt, and this is my advice to ms. roth: go with specialty beans! alas, with the world-price depression known as the "coffee crisis" still in swing despite some recent market increases, any savvy executive can move to specialty without taking a big hit on the bottom line.

even coffee farmers themselves recognize that improving quality and growing specialty is the only way to go. i'm sure ms. roth will come to the same conclusion.

everyone knows i love these "coffee as a health food" stories, which have the benefit of being basically true. the only better thing perhaps are "chocolate as a health food" stories; long-time readers recall we here at bccy are big fans of dr. joe "square dance" vinson.

i'd love to go to his latest lecture, wouldn't you?

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