coffee

There's no getting around it: coffee is everywhere. Which is a good thing, because though having an endless supply of fuel available to power our daily activities may be a dream to modern society as a whole, but to an individual coffee-drinker, it is essential for just making it through the day. However readily accessible the beverage may be, its ubiquity isn't always all encompassing. Every weekend, households everywhere wake up to the realization that the particular cup of coffee they want is more than a pair of slippers and a robe away.

No latte or cappuccino is … Read more

The effects of coffee are well documented as a morning eye-opener and as a pick-me-up throughout the day. However, the caffeinated elixir has another associated trait that makes it enjoyable for coffee drinkers: it has ritual attached to it. Considering the amount of varieties that exist and the steps it takes to brew a pot, it is not surprising that the process is steeped in precision.

Precision is usually best handled by a machine, and for coffee-drinkers, there is the Saeco Bean To Brew 10-Cup Automatic Drip Coffee Maker And Burr Grinder. Available with either a thermal or glass carafe, … Read more

An economy of motion in the morning is a survival technique many coffee drinkers innately understand. As we find our way to the kitchen, there is no time for any wasted movements; to do so would just increase the time it takes to get to the magic elixir. If it so happens that the timer on the coffeemaker was not set the previous night, this efficiency becomes paramount as we stumble through the motions of producing a pot of coffee.

Making it easy to get to the important parts, the DeLonghi DCF2210TTC 10-cup thermal carafe drip coffeemaker provides a way … Read more

Coffee drinkers are a particular bunch; this is well known. However it's not all about whether they prefer a dark roast to a light roast or what temperature at which they like to have their coffee served. Other factors come in to play when it comes time to drink down the caffeinated elixir. (Assuming of course, that the choice of coffee is indeed caffeinated.) Brewing methods dominate a particularly large segment of the coffee drinker's preferences, but no matter which way the drink ends up in their hands, how old the coffee is always a factor.

For those … Read more

This week, Crave branches out onto our friendly neighborhood tech blogs to bring you a super fantastique, ultra huge, raver-friendly digital turntable thingie...and a bottle opener. Don't be too let down by that second one: it's over-priced and attaches to your bike, so it still has some cache. Also, Donald and Eric get extremely excited over a glorified statue, an electric Datsun leaves a Nissan GT-R in the dust, and a giant robot arm is put to good use. Plus, Jasmine squeals over an elephant with some monstrous dental work, and we take a look at a camera lens cleavage coffee mug.

Photography geeks know that all lenses--fisheye, wide-angle, zoom--serve a unique purpose. But they can be expensive, so here's one that won't break the bank: the camera lens mug being sold by Photojojo.

For $24, you can hold your morning pick-me-up in what appears to be a 24-105mm Canon lens. The stainless steel lining will keep your beverage hot, and a lens cap cover will save you from any spillage.

We wish the lens cap was a sip top, but the makers of the camera lens coffee mug wanted to preserve its authenticity--it looks just like the real thing. … Read more

Some kitchen appliances are meant for bigger and better things. Leaving underachievers behind, toasters have transformed into toaster ovens and indoor grills have become combination grills and griddles. With all these appliances just begging to become combination appliances, it would only make sense that a coffeemaker could strive for something more and become a coffeemaker with the ability to also serve hot water on demand.

The Cuisinart CHW-12 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker with Hot Water System provides a logical combination of coffeemaker with a hot water dispenser. After all, at the heart of all coffeemakers is the ability to heat water, … Read more

Times are tough, and even tougher for the music business, but that didn't stop Jeff Ogiba and Sommer Foster-Santoro from opening a new record store, Black Gold.

It's in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and I dropped by on Thursday to see how they were doing. Black Gold also sells freshly brewed coffee from Rook Coffee Roasters and baked goods from Scratchbread, so the shop has great ambiance. The vinyl selection covers rock, punk, hard-core, blues, jazz, hip-hop, and everything in between. Prices seem very fair, and I spotted one of my favorite Rolling Stones LPs, "Love You Live,&… Read more

It turns out that the winner of the Starbucks-sponsored Betacup Challenge, a design competition aiming to solve the problem of the billions of disposable coffee cups discarded annually, isn't a cup at all. Rather, it's a chalkboard.

Called "Karma Cup," the jury-selected winning concept envisions a chalkboard at the counter of every Starbucks. Bring a reusable cup for your coffee, and you get to put a check mark on the chalkboard. Every 10 check marks, the next person to come in with a reusable cup gets his or her coffee on the house. "Think of … Read more