California is considering putting cancer warnings on coffee. The reason is that it contains a compound called acrylamide that causes cancer in rats in large doses. The problem is acrylamide is also present in half the foods we eat. An article that makes a good case for the public health risks of over-warning about a problem.
In a short period of time most of the 3rd wave coffee roasters that have a national profile have either taken on major outside investors or been bought outright: Intelligentsia, Stumptown, La Colombe, and now Blue Bottle.
Is this a good thing or bad? Some will say, "It depends," but don't count me as one of them. To me it's pretty much all bad. None of these investors have any track record of making food better. They primarily make more of it and, typically, more cheaply by using cheaper ingredients, cheaper labor, cheaper whatever. They don't say any of that of course. They say "We'll expand Brand X's reach so more people have access to it," making them sound like they're doing it for the good of humanity. But the way they expand comes at a price, it always does. Look, these aren't crack coffee people buying coffee businesses. These are money people buying a chance to make more money. Conglomerate acquisitions are what they are, and they are not good for business creativity, they're not good for health, they're not good for the food.
I don't know the whole story behind any of these buy-outs. I do know that some of the companies, like Blue Bottle, had already taken on investors ($100 million in their case). That was several years earlier. After the first wave of investors came I noticed these 3rd wave notables started packaging cold brew coffee for supermarkets and opening shops and roasting plants far from home base. They were using investor money to expand their products and to expand geographically. The fact that they are now taking on more money—in some cases the new money is buying out the other investors—could mean the expansion went well. Or it could mean it went badly. Either way it'd be a good story. So far I haven't seen anyone writing about it, though. No one is talking about whether these deals were done in a climate of fear or opportunity.
One article that is particularly telling about some of the other elements in play is this interview with James Freeman, the founder of Blue Bottle. To him, fast growth is a given, as he says, "There are a few paths a company of our growth rate can take when we’re pursuing capital." To some extent you have to forgive the guy. He started his company in Oakland, just up the road from Silicon Valley. He had investors from Instagram and Twitter and elsewhere in tech. This is the way they all think. You must grow big. You must get capital big. You must sell out big. That is how success works in that world. It's classic Silicon Valley, down to the galling self-effacement of a mulitmillionaire shrugging off how rich he is after the buyout saying, "I’ve got kids at home, so security feels great."
The good news behind this, the news that enabled it in the first place, is that small roaster coffee technology has come a long way. You can install a roaster in a single shop and pretty much make the economics work. The big companies can buy what they will. They always do. I have faith the small coffee world will still thrive.
They have a few locations in New York City which, thankfully, share none of the twee sluggishness of their Bay Area origins, where it can take you fifteen minutes to get a cappuccino when you're fourth in line.
At each location they do a nice job of making a big menu feel manageable by turning it into two menus.
The first menu lists standards and it's posted big, in permanent metal, on the wall.
The second is the daily or weekly specials and it's posted small, on paper, on a clipboard.
The classics seem permanent. The specials, printed on a laserjet, seem like they're just here for the moment. It keeps things clean and organized, which, if you've ever visited a Blue Bottle shop, seems totally in sync with their semi-OCD look and feel. All in all, I thought it was a good way to differentiate a shop and organize what's offered—and price different coffees differently. Zoom in and you can read the prices for the different drip cups and espressos.
The Dean Street location in my neighborhood also has a sweet upholstery espresso machine cozy.
The TV show Top Chef started last night. If you didn't know this already, there's an Ann Arbor restaurateur in the group: Eve Aranoff, of Eve restaurant in Kerrytown. She just avoided the axe. If you don't know what Top Chef is you can probably move on and not lose much sleep. Instead, I suggest you stop by Eve on a Thursday evening when the restaurant turns into something more and Aaron Lindell and his partner spin good music late into the evening.
I first went to Italy almost two decades ago. Back then there was only one café in Ann Arbor, Espresso Royale on State Street. It was half the size. As students we all called it Café Pretentious and you could smoke there. This made it an instant substitute for the library. It was always busy.
Things are a lot different now. Yet while cafés have become a fixture across America, there’s still an aura surrounding Italian cafés and, along with it, a lot of myths and legends. It got me thinking and observing on my last visit as I made the trip to an espresso counter three or four times a day. Since American cafés have basically copied a lot of Italy’s espresso style and culture I thought it’s worth it to check in on some typical myths — and truths.
Myth or Truth: Italians only drink cappuccino in the morning, after that it’s espresso only.
Myth! Italians order every coffee drink every time of the day. At the end of dinner, though, espresso is definitely the norm.
Myth or Truth: Italians never order coffee To Go.
Truth. I’ve seen it once, maybe twice in a thousand coffees. There are no paper cups at an Italian cafe.
Myth or Truth: Italians drink coffee really fast.
Truth. I sipped a cappuccino at normal speed and the counter turned over three times. Once I was on a bus that made a stop at a red light and — no shit — the driver got out, bought and drank an espresso, and got back on the bus before the light turned green. The whole bus burst into applause. In Italy this is considered an act of athleticism.
Myth or Truth: Italians drink their coffee standing up.
Truth. Most cafés have no seats. If they have them, no one is sitting at them. (The coffee costs more when you’re seated.)
Truth or Myth: Italian coffee is affordable.
Truth. A shot of espresso runs about a euro ($1.40). A cappuccino, 1.40 ($2).
Myth or Truth: Italian espresso drinks are the best in the world.
Myth. This may have been true twenty years ago. Perhaps even ten years ago. But in the last few years I’ve had better coffee in London (Monmouth), Portland (Stumptown), Chicago (Intelligentsia), New York (Gimme!) and Ann Arbor (Zingerman’s). I would say, on average, you can get a better espresso drink in Italy than America. But the best cafés in America beat the best in Italy. And I hear New Zealand beats all of us, though I’ve never been there.
Truth or Myth: Italians don’t order coffee at a restaurant. They go hit a café after dinner.
Myth. Six Romans ordered espresso at a pizza joint next to me. Then three more next to them. They’re ordering coffee all over the place, all the time, restaurant or not. That said, an Italian may still hit a café on the way home for a post-espresso espresso. The shots are all singles.
Truth or Myth: Italians don’t drink drip brewed coffee.
Truth. In restaurants and cafes it’s not available. If an Italian doesn’t have an espresso machine at home they have one or two of the ubiquitous silver Mokha makers.
Truth or Myth: the foam on an Italian cappuccino is different.
Truth. They don’t heat the foam as much. It’s lighter and cooler than ours. Because of this and the fact that they use less milk overall, coffee lines in Italy move super fast. You never wait more than a couple minutes.
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