coffee

The perpetual interest surrounding the humble coffee bean can in part be attributed to its ability to be served in so many different ways. But whether imbibers enjoy their beverage hot or cold, sweet or bitter, there always needs to be a way to get from bean to cup. And as strong as preferences tend to color cups of coffee, so too is that opinion found in brewing method.

The Aroma AEM-621SS Hot Moka X-Press Electric Moka Maker offers a tried-and-true brewing method updated for the modern home. Modeled after a popular stovetop coffeemaker, the device is geared for countertop … Read more

Meet Funranium Labs founder Phil Broughton.

He's a radiation safety specialist at the University of California at Berkeley. He was once a cryogenics technician for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole scientific research station. He's really into coffee and beer and finding the best way to deliver those products into his system, and he has boldly offered himself up as a guinea pig for science by personally testing and developing products for discerning geek customers.

Let's start with the Stein of Science. Each stein is crafted from a bench top liquid nitrogen dewar flask. That means it will keep your beer frosty cold for quite a long time. That also means it's not cheap. A 655-milliliter Stein of Science costs $230. Your fellow lab rats will be insanely jealous when you show up to the next party with one of these bad boys.… Read more

A world without K-Cups? The horror! While a K-Cupless world may not befall the caffeine-addicted anytime soon, single-serve coffee giant Keurig recently debuted a next-gen successor called Vue that could warm the hearts and hands of geeky java lovers.

For those wondering what I'm talking about, these small plastic capsules sell in the billions annually. They contain coffee (or another beverage) and a filter; putting a K-Cup in its specific brewing device creates a single serving of that drink in less than a minute without a mess.

We checked out a Vue test unit at a Bed Bath & Beyond, the first retailer to carry the new V700 brewer (other big retailers will sell it soon). Keurig's pricey $249 Vue roaster looks similar to existing K-Cup machines, and bears many familiar components, but it doesn't take long to spot the differences. … Read more

Nobody notices a hot cup of coffee, but they sure do notice a cold one.

The Cuisinart DCC-2900 Perfec Temp 12-Cup Thermal Programmable Coffeemaker is designed to brew at a higher temperature than comparable drip machines, delivering water to the brewing basket at just over 200-degrees Fahrenheit. For those who like it hot, a couple of additional features round out the machine, like a brew pause function and a programmable timer. Also included are a charcoal filter and a gold tone basket.

The coffeemaker includes a neat feature that might just save a few mornings.There's a 60-second recall … Read more

Unless you've been living under a rock, no doubt you've heard all about Apple's new iPad. It comes packed with plenty of welcome upgrades. Among these are a crisp Retina display, a new A5X processor with quad-core graphics to drive all those pixels, and an optional 4G LTE connection for swift cellular data. What slipped under the radar, though, was the iPad's Bluetooth 4.0 support. … Read more

The hardest thing about coffee is waiting for it to brew.

Coffee is easy; really it is. Despite all the accessories, methods and varieties, all it really comes down to is the interaction of water with crushed beans.

Coffee beans have the ability to transmute water into an elixir worthy of seeking out every morning (and afternoon, and sometimes night), but that ability doesn't mean there is only one way of going about it. Methods for brewing coffee are varied and with each technique comes its own sets of pros and cons. Usually, however, it being easy to make … Read more

If you're wondering whether you're too many cups or too many hours into the day for yet another jolt of caffeine, a free app developed by researchers at Pennsylvania State University aims to help.

In building the Caffeine Zone app, professors representing several disciplines relied on peer-reviewed studies to devise a simple formula: those with between 200 and 400 milligrams of caffeine in their bloodstream are in the optimal mental alertness zone, while anyone above 100 milligrams has entered the good-luck-sleeping-anytime-soon zone.

"Many people don't understand how caffeine levels in their bloodstream go up and how … Read more

If you're a city dweller who dreams of moving beyond growing mint on your kitchen windowsill, you can impress your friends with something more: oyster mushrooms.

As UC Berkeley students, the co-founders of "Back to the Roots" discovered they could grow mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. Now their DIY mushroom kit sells at grocery stores across the country.

The pair developed a "grow it at home" kit where the soil is made from used coffee grounds and mushroom spawn, or seed, gets mixed in. Co-founder Nikhil Arora tells SmartPlanet how the idea grew and about … Read more

Nokia continues to remain coy about its plans for a Windows 8 tablet, but a little thing like that isn't going to stop people from imagining what it might look like.

My Nokia Blog reader Tristan submitted this sleek concept called the Lumia Coffee Tab. Taking major design cues from the Nokia Lumia 800 and 900, Tristan imagines the tablet with a 9.7-inch AMOLED (1,280x800 pixel) clearback display for use with Windows 8's Metro touch user interface. … Read more