Certified organic, with the roasting date inked in by hand. Now that's artisanal!

If you're a coffee fanatic, it calls for a little celebration every time a new coffee roaster hits town. In the past couple of years, we've seen the arrival of Stumptown (Portland), Intelligentsia (Chicago), and Blue Bottle (Oakland/San Francisco); the formation of Oslo Coffee (Brooklyn) and Gorilla Coffee Roasters (Brooklyn); and the reinvigoration of the ancient Dallis Bros. Coffee (Queens). New long ago, Fork in the Road reported on the arrival of the legendary Ritual Coffee (San Francisco) at Murray's Cheese. Now the venerable cheese vendor has scoured the country and come up with another new brand of roasted beans from a surprising place.

More >>

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!

Yesterday, I wrote about my first experience at West 15th Street's new Blue Bottle Coffee. I apologize for having been so interested in the pour-overs that I missed the espresso machine. The other observations and criticisms still stand, including my belief that the coffee was on the thin side, the premises without creature comforts, the usual constellation of milk and soy products not present, and the place, on the whole, pretentious. While looking for somewhere to sit down, I discovered a stranger and more interesting coffee establishment above and behind the one I'd just patronized, approached by a narrow stair. You have to know it's there, because there's no sign. (And no, I didn't read the press release.)

More >>

The sole output from Blue Bottle's downstairs is pour-overs -- no espressos! [Correction: There are espressos.]

When San Francisco's Blue Bottle Coffee hit town two years ago in the Williamsburg outback, it changed the paradigm of the coffee bar. As a friend said to me, peering into the place's expansive premises, "Hey, where's the seating?"

More >>

Eschewing the brown paper bag of Blue Bottle and Stumptown, Ritual beans come in thick foil.

I'm sitting here drinking a cup of coffee made from Ritual Coffee Roasters beans. Specifically, made from Ethiopian Koke coffee plants. It really is kind of like coke: full-bodied, slightly tart, with delirious quantities of ccccafffffeinnnne.

More >>

nate steiner/Flickr

Third wave or reich?

It's easy to roll one's eyes at some of the serious -- a/k/a "third-wave" -- coffee bars in this town. The New York Post today rounds up some of the major no-nos certain high-end coffee shops simply will not tolerate. Like, espresso to go. Or grinding fresh-roasted beans. Of course, New York needs the kind of uncompromising java extremists such places breed in order to push the rest of us to aspire to better caffeination. But when does coffee snobbery go too far?

More >>

Oliver Strand

The creature Strand discovered.

Earlier today saw instant-gratification coffee delivered to the masses via an Italian espresso maestro handing out shots at Lincoln Center.

Downtown, they make you wait: At month-old Caffetteria SoHo, Blue Bottle Coffee vets brew coffee at room temperature for 18 hours before depositing it into your under-caffeinated paws.

More >>

"Jeez! This place is gigantic," a friend exclaimed as we stepped inside Blue Bottle. (Click on the pictures for a better view.)

It being one of the nicest days of the century, a friend and I decided to go to Williamsburg to check out Blue Bottle Coffee, Oakland, CA's contribution to the New York coffee wars, and a place enthusiastically recommended by Fork in the Road's San Francisco-based beer consultant, Tracy Van Dyk. The company describes itself as "Microroasters of Organic and Shade Grown Coffees."

More >>

The roaster itself is strangely compact at Roasting Plant Coffee

When I was in California's Silicon Valley not too long ago, I couldn't help but notice that many of the coffee bars had their own roasters - blackened and ancient looking apparati whose flues snaked across ceilings. And, without getting too analytical, I'd have to say the coffee tasted much better as a result.

Why not roast coffee on the same premises on which it is brewed? Local coffee bar owners have been talking about it for some time now, but few have moved to effectuate the idea. The usual reason offered is simply that there's no room for hulking roasters in the tiny coffee bars of Manhattan. But they all realize that adding roasting to their repertoire of techniques couldn't help but enhance their reputations and improve their coffee.

More >>