r e . a l i t y
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Espresso Porn
Jul 24th
I was doing some random surfing this evening, searching for inspiration while putting some ideas together for a new WordPress theme to use on coffeevibe.com, and found some pretty cool sites – and a couple cool photostream concepts.
I Google’d “espresso porn” – and here is what I found (not to worry – nothing here might be construed as offensive). The phrase itself is one that I’ve seen many times on the CoffeeGeek and Home Barista
The first result comes up with a site that I’ve seen before – Espresso Porn – I might have even blogged about it in the past. Some great shots of espresso extraction, shots, and lots of latte art.
About #6 or #7 in the list of Google results, I found an old post on a site called The Sect of Rama. This post contained a couple interesting links. The Espresso Buddies link – well, it gave me a chuckle anyway. The Flickr link was where things got interesting and more inspiring.
First was Espresso Tasting – and more Espresso Porn. Then I found a link to Tonx’s website, and was led to a very cool Timelapse project – where the photographer created a movie of a cafe in San Francisco. Extremely well done I thought. I would suggest giving it time to completely load – or just watch it twice, as the first time I found that it chunked out a bit as the movie buffered
Then I found a very neat concept by another photographers, entitled ‘First Cup’. Basically he was taking photos of the first cup of coffee each day… as of this evening, he had 1,097 photos!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Nine Inch Nails – less than one week away!
Jul 23rd
Getting excited about the upcoming “Lights in the Sky” concert – should be a blast!
And yesterday, they released a CD ‘digipak’…
This CD with bonus DVD edition will be a one time only worldwide run of 250,000 individually numbered digipacks. Each digipack features a six-panel layout, 24 page booklet and an exclusive three sticker set. Art direction by Rob Sheridan.
The bonus DVD includes 5 live performances filmed during rehearsals for Nine Inch Nails’ upcoming tour, including album tracks Echoplex, 1,000,000 and Letting You.
A gatefold vinyl version of The Slip which contains one 180gm vinyl LP and a 24-page booklet will also be released in the US and Canada on August 12 and in the UK on August 18.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Specialty Coffee Drinks
Jul 21st
There’s nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than I well made iced coffee drink – this time I’m not referring to the delicious Vietnamese iced coffee, but those other creamy, flavorful drinks that many cafe’s top with whipping cream and caramel or chocolate syrups. mmmm… get those donuts outta my way Homer, and pass me the coffee!
Just the other day, as I was going through my daily ritual in preparing my usual 6-shot Americano, I decided I didn’t want something so hot… and into my 20oz Planetary Design thermal mug I threw in a couple ice cubes on top of the espresso shots, added 1/2 oz Caramel, and then a 50/50 blend of 18% coffee cream and 1% milk. Deeeelicoussss!!!
The Gourmet Sleuth web site has links to recipes that readers have created to emulate many popular Starbucks specialty coffee drinks. Using coffee roasted fresh from a local roaster will without a doubt make significant improvements to these emulations of Starbucks recipes. You’ll also find some recipes to some of Starbucks other culinary treats, like some of their cookies and scones.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Gonzo!
Jul 11th
I was looking for something to protect my iPod, and didn’t care for the silicon wrappers – which prevented the iPod from conveniently being placed into my Belkin transmitter holder…. then I found these Gelaskin skins. And they had Dr. Gonzo! Had to get them and try out -
They seem to work really well so far. The fit into transmitter base is a touch more snug, but I think that I can resolve that. The base came with a number of spacers… or I’m sure sure I can shave things down a bit. The skins came with a vinyl piece for the front and back of the iPod, and they also included a “Gelascreen” – to protect the screen itself.
I ordered these from http://www.gelaskins.com/ – I took advantage of their buy 3 deal – and ordered skins for the rest of the family, as well as for my sons Sony PSP Lite.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Siphon-pot Coffee
Jul 5th
“You may have never heard of siphon coffee making. Then again, you may have read about it in the New York Times and thought it was some $20,000 gizmo used by crazy coffee nerds in San Francisco. You may have heard of it under a plethora of other names – vacpots, vacuum brewed coffee, siphon brewer, siphon vacuum coffee, and all sorts of word combinations.”
excerpt from Mark Prince’s
“Using a Siphon Coffee Maker” guide on coffeegeek.com
I’ve watched them brew coffee at Transcend using these Yama coffee makers, and it’s definitely a bit of a show. Haven’t actually tried the resulting coffee – which I think I’ll make a point of doing next time I’m there – and then perhaps pick one of these up. It’s nice having the tools to prepare coffee in different ways – and this is definitely a less expensive approach compared to bringing home a Technivorm ;^)
Popularity: unranked [?]
