Bottom Line: Buying new, I would buy something better, but yes, I would buy a Breville based on my discoveries. Especially if it was a boiler model not another theromoblock.Read review...

We continue our review of President’s Choice Tassimo products today with their Gourmet Medium Roast T-Discs. Unlike their Great Canadian T-Discs, these aren’t supposed to be clones or knock-offs of anything, but rather just a regular everyday store-brand coffee. Brewing these T-Discs resulted in a mix of chocolate & smoky aromas with some faint raisin notes hiding underneath. Flavor was substantially better than their Great Canadian as this time we got stronger notes of smoke & dark chocolate which gave way to stronger sour notes in the acidity while things finished off with some oily notes and hints of mild hints of buried at the bottom end of the cup. Acidity was as we just mentioned, notably stronger with more pronounced sour notes at first sip which lingered around for a while before giving way to the spicier notes in the finish. We’re starting to think that President’s Choice should have named this roast as their Great Canadian since things were turning out considerably better this time around. Body was medium to dark brown in color with shades of red & hints of sunburst patterns when held in front of a light source. Mouth feel was less dry than the Great Canadian and seemed to be more leaning towards the oily side than watery, but all was still pretty smooth just the same. Finish was clean overall with some of the smoke & chocolate notes blending into an almost peppery aftertaste. Aroma – 8 – Strong with cereal notes and a faint hint of molasses lurking underneath. Acidity – 7 – Rather well-balanced overall with more of a presence on the back-end vs. the foreground. Body – 9 – Dark brown with notes of deep red when held to a light source. Reminded us of the coloring scheme used on the T-Disc label. Flavor – 8 – A decent enough punch to the tastebuds without being too strong. The reduced boldness of the espresso is present yet things are smooth throughout. Rather enjoyable overall. Mouth Feel – 9 – Smooth with somewhat oily notes in the background. Slightly sour finish with cereal notes in the aftertaste. Coffee Drinker – If you enjoy the sour tang of strong acidity blended together with a smoky, chocolaty flavor with hints of spice thrown in the background, then you’ll probably like this one. Suited best for medium roast fans who don’t mind some sour notes in their coffee. Overall Rating: 91 – Exceptional It’s surprising how much of a difference a roast can make in a coffee. Everything changes from aroma to flavor to acidity & mouth feel. Subtle notes that weren’t there before reveal themselves while other things such as acidity either take a turn for the better or a turn for the worse. As we noted earlier, we thought the Great Canadian T-Discs were ok, but nothing which merited the fanfare and adulation which it was trying to garner. Instead, we think that THESE Gourmet Medium Roast T-Discs are where it’s at and that the title of true Great Canadian coffee should be bestowed upon this coffee instead. There are just so many more things which earn extra points this time around that we can’t justify calling the previous T-Discs by that moniker. While not exactly the same as Tim Hortons regular coffee, this is the closest President’s Choice have come yet and to be honest, if it hasn’t earned the namesake of Great Canadian, it’s at least earned the right to be called Gourmet.   President’s Choice Gourmet Medium Roast T-Discs work in all Tassimo brewers (dual barcodes for home & professional models are on the discs) and are available in 14-packs for $6.99 CAD or lower at various Loblaws grocery store chains. You can find out more info via their product page at PresidentsChoice.ca. These T-Discs are not currently sold in USA. A special thanks to SH for providing this Single Serve Coffee staff review. We would also like to note that we purchased these T-Discs on our own for the purpose of this review.     Related StoriesReview: President’s Choice Great Canadian T-Dis

Like many people, I was intrigued by the results of the Sprudge barista pay survey. Mostly people are talking about how high the wages are in Australia, and there was some comment about the low wages in London/UK. A few concerns about the survey – I’m generally not blindly trusting of self reporting of wages (in any industry). I saw numerous tweets from Australian coffee people stating that the numbers looked somewhat inflated, and that fits with the discussions I’ve had with various people over the years. I’m glad Sprudge are investigating this further too. There may well be high outliers, but I don’t believe it is representative of the industry there. I do hope Sprudge keep these sorts of polls coming and I’d love to see a future poll talking to cafe owners about this, and having them submit anonymous data would be super informative. The incentive for the cafe is they get to see how they do compared to their competitors, something almost all would find valuable. Secondly – these numbers are both gross wages (before taxes are taken out) and converted to US dollars. (Currency exchange therefore playing a role). In the case of places like Norway the tax rates are very high, while a barista’s paycheck in London will have a little less tax taken out than one in NYC (though the undeclared and substantial portion of tips may make up for this). Finally, there is no factoring for cost of living. Numerous articles recently have highlighted the increasingly high cost of living in Australia, fuelled by a mining driven economy that didn’t suffer particularly in the global financial crisis. These criticisms are not particularly relevant to the point that I want to make: there is no magic Australian bullet. I would wager (and please shoot me down if I am miles away) that the financial model of an Australian cafe looks very similar to a London one or San Francisco one. This seems like a confusing statement at first, considering the apparent vast differences in wages, but I really think it is true. If we consider wage cost as a percentage of turnover (which we should) then I would be astonished to find that cafes in Australia are outside of the 25-35% range, which I believe most healthy cafes operate within. Higher than this and the cafe will likely lack sustainable profitability, lower than this and you’ve likely got an owner (or owners) working way too many hours on the floor. If we put wage costs of 25-35% another way – if a staff member earns $12.50/hr, then you need to bank approx $35-50 for every single hour they are paid. ($280-$400 per 8 hour day, per employee.) If you have 4 full time people on each day then you need to be pretty busy – and this is counting every staff member, not just those making coffee. For an Australian barista to earn double this then they simply need to bank double the cash per hour/day. This may be possible in places where drinks are expensive – $5 to $7 flat whites seem to be popping up in the Australian media more and more. The other option when trying to find more cash to pay staff is that you could sell higher margin products, allowing the staff cost to come up to the mid thirties, without damaging the bottom line. However, I don’t think margins in most cafes are enough to allow a staff cost of even 40% to be viable long term.  I think of things like $1 refills on drinks, and get depressed about how this affects a cafe’s ability to pay its staff more. The challenge and frustration of coffee is that espresso isn’t hugely scalable. To do more drinks quickly requires more people, more labour, more wage cost. Baristas could earn more if they were (in traditional terms) more productive. When designing a bar it is worth bearing in mind how it will scale from a labour perspective. How many staff to do 200, 350, 700 or over 1000 drinks? Cafe owners ought to be interested in technology that allows a barista to make more

This Burundi Kayanza Gatare coffee came to us from Oren’s Daily Roast in New York. This is a very distinctive coffee, with a full body, good acidity and a touch of dry fruit.

Using the UPShot solution, Hawaii Roasters 100% Kona Coffee, Single Serve For Keurig K-Cup Brewers looks delicious and the reviews for the coffee are also very good. The Hawaii Roasters Kona Single Serve Coffee cups will work in any K-Cup Brewers. All natural, hand-picked, sun-dried and farm-roasted by our master roasters, as it has been done for generations. Founded by a 3rd generation coffee family and featured on the Food & Wine Radio Network and KGO Radio. Filter is 100% recyclable and compatible with Keurig and other single serve brewers. For just a few cents more per cup than all the mass market brands that use imported coffee, you can buy local, U.S. grown 100% Hawaiian Kona Coffee and support the only coffee farmers in the U.S.     Related StoriesUpShot Single Serve Coffee Solution for Keurig K-Cup BrewersReview: Club Coffee Venetian Reserve Single Cup CapsulesPJ's Coffee of New Orleans Single Cups 

If you are looking for the best coffee makers, you first need to know about the different ways to brew coffee in a variety of coffee making machines...

A collection of coffee reviews, written in plain English.

Over at the The Verge there's talk of yet another competing standard being decided by yes - a coffee cup. Back in the day there was both RF and Wi-Fi on laptops - competing standards of wireless networking ultimately decided when Starbucks rolled out Wi-Fi nationwide to 2000+ coffee shops. Now there's another standard at war - wireless charging. We've seen this new wireless charging already being tested in Boston Starbucks, and we know if they roll it out nationwide yet again the PMA (Power Matters Alliance) will probably win over the other wireless charging formats. Right now you can use the Powermat at some Starbucks and it's presence alone made us curious about wireless charging for the first time.  Who do you think will win? We'd put our money on whoever Starbucks backs, and right now that looks like the Powermat.     Related StoriesCoffee Week on NPREspresso Maker Music Video from SanremoEspresso Manifesto Short Animated Film by Shaun Pitz 

Day one  Day one was calibration day, We started with a introduction to Cup of  Excellence from Jon Thompson our head judge, which was quickly followed by a solutions calibration- there were 9 solutions on the table and we had to pick which was which from: Ordinary Acids Ordinary acids with sweetness Body Rough Mouthfeel Smooth Mouthfeel Astrigent Complex acids with sweetness Complex acid Sweetness This was fun, until I hit the bowl that was body- it was like drinking a bowl of spit- it looked like water but was thick and had ‘body’ it was all kinds of gross (I got most of them right except I got the acids mixed up)  After this we cupped two tables, The first was 3 bowls, they were designed to fall within 3 main scoring categories  – high 70’s- low 80s, mid 80’s and  high 80’s -early 90‘s, this was so we could get a idea of what to expect of  a coffee within a score range, I think this was incredibly helpful to get a idea of what to expect within those ranges. The final table was a table of 6 bowls for

We recently received samples of the UpShot Solution - a single serve coffee cup compatible with Keurig K-Cup Brewers that features a recyclable K-Cups, and makes a pretty amazing cup of coffee. The Upshot Solution actually solves the non-eco friendly current offerings in the K-Cup format with a K-Cup that consumers will not be upset about throwing away because it can be recycled. Designed with smaller roasters in mind who can't get to market with their products due to cost and planet friendly desires on their mind, the UpShot Solution can come in a  variety of formats in how the outer "fresh seal" is done. Each Upshot Cup can be individually packaged or can come packaged in a sleeve - etc. This outer shell is called the fresh seal. Surrounds the UpShot Filter and protects coffee from oxygen, moisture and UV light.  Material is determined by the packaging needs of the customer (e.g. single unit or multi-pack) and the equipment used in the manufacturing process. The Upshot solution can be recyc