This Week in Coffee

First off, I have had the pleasure of tasting Starbucks’ Ethiopia Sun Dried Sidamo. It comes in a nice tin as do most of the other black apron coffees. More on that later

Also in the news, and still pretaining to Starbucks, coffee has had a serious setback with the announcement that the Seattle based coffee company is developing an instance coffee.

Via Bloomberg.com: The instant-coffee packets, marketed under the name Via, will be available in stores for $2.95 for a pack of three or $9.95 for 12, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company aims to tap into the $17 billion instant-coffee market as sales of its premium espresso-based drinks fall.

When I first heard this news I was very skeptical and more worried that this streamlined coffee process would trickle down (no pun intended) to their regular store coffee brewing. Although at this point, it doesn’t appear to be the case, you never know. It’s no surprise that the coffee giant has had some problems over the past year and if a highly-developed instant coffee is the solution, more power to them. As long as I can get my espresso the old fashioned way.

Finally, after a fine Valentine’s dinner, I had my espresso served in a stainless steel cup for the first time. I still prefer porcelain or glass.