Word: espresso
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Mixing alcohol, a depressant, with stimulants is nothing new. The Irish have their eponymous coffee, and any authentic Italian restaurant offers something called caffè corretto, a shot of espresso mixed with a shot of grappa or sambuca. (The wonderfully knowing name translates as "corrected coffee.") But alcoholic energy drinks are different because they are so obviously marketed to kids. Ads are found mainly online or in publications like Blender. The Sparks website looks like it was designed by a (very young, very Flash-savvy) student...
Technology put a man on the moon, but it has yet to enable the average Joe to make a perfect shot of espresso. Scores of websites are devoted to this topic. For my money, none is better than Coffeegeek.com which I scoured some years back to come up with my current rig: a Rancilio Silvia. I adore Miss Silvia and use her daily while my dog Sticky sits at my feet. But the machine is for people who like to fiddle--and not everyone wants to grind beans, pre-heat demitasses, tamp at just the right pressure, "temperature surf...
...with those consumers in mind that illycaffč, the innovative Italian maker of espresso machines (and the top European exporter of coffee to North America), recently made an audacious claim: Its new Francis Francis X7 would consistently create a "perfect shot of espresso." You can get a machine now for $395 at illyusa.com the X7 will be rolled out to national retailers shortly. I tried the machine for a week and have to concur; it did, indeed, produce perfect shots. Simply, cleanly and with no fuss--complete with a thick layer of crema atop the espresso...
...does the X7 make foolproof crema? "Pressure--this is the old story," says Andrea Illy, 43, a grandson of the company's founder. After years of research, "we ended up discovering we had to change the way espresso was prepared." Thus was born illy's iperEspresso brewing system. The X7 brews shots from capsules you purchase--prepacked plastic thimbles that hold about 7 g of espresso. Though the system sounds similar to what a competitor, Nespresso, has been selling for years, illy says the X7 has a unique, two-stage process: hot water is injected into a chamber and infuses...
Something new has been brewing in Harvard Square. Starbucks rolled out a new, high-end coffee machine to six Seattle and Boston stores, including one of Harvard Square’s Garage locations. The machine, called the “Clover,” retails for $11,000. Expensive espresso machines are nothing new—an espresso machine from Williams Sonoma can run close to $4,000. But the Clover only makes coffee—one, slow, meticulous, pressed cup at a time, which barista Teena L. Eggleston called “couture coffee.” The machine...