Coffee
I admit it. I am not one of those people giddy about the fact that Starbucks is closing 600 stores. I know that some people get their kicks watching the big guys crumble, and yes I agree that it is nice to get a strong cup of Joe at a mom & pop place (with hip tattooed barristers and blaring techno earth tones), but come on – Starbucks made the world a better place for coffee drinkers by making good coffee accessible and hip.
Don’t you remember the old days? You either got a cup of weak brown slop at the diner, or something at Dunkin Donuts (I was never much of a fan – sorry), or hoped for the best with the coffee at work. True – there were always the mom & pop places, but unless you were in a trendy urban center (like the Village, or in San Fran, or somewhere like that), the chances were slim-to-none that you were going to find a decent, local shop brewing the hard stuff.
Along came Starbucks and changed everything.
Now great coffee is everywhere (and thanks to the me-too copycats it is really everywhere). And what do coffee drinkers do? They laugh at Starbucks, hurl insults and relish at their misfortune. I am sorry but it is indicative of bad character and bad taste.
Give Starbucks the credit they deserve and buy coffee from them – we cannot go back to a world of bad coffee.
July 6th, 2008
Coffee is again making news and yes - again it comes out that coffee is good for you:
Talk of the Nation, June 20, 2008 · Just smelling the aroma of coffee is enough to change the activity of several genes in rats, researchers report this week in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The affected genes appear to help the animals deal with resistance to the stresses caused by sleep deprivation. Project neuroscientist Yoshinori Masuo of Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology talks about whether we should just sniff our morning coffee instead of drinking it.
When will the anti-coffee conspiracy put an end to their lies?
June 20th, 2008
I knew it! Daniel recently sent me this article that confirms what I knew all along – coffee – with caffeine – is healthy, good for you, and should be a regular part of your diet. All these hippie punks talking smack about this important beverage should silence themselves. Check out these cool facts:
To name just a few [health benefits that come from drinking coffee]: Some Arizona researchers recently discovered that caffeinated coffee helps improve memory in older adults. A new study from the United Kingdom suggests that small amounts of coffee consumed throughout the day can increase alertness and improve performance on all kinds of tasks, including those that require hand-to-eye coordination and attention to detail. Preliminary studies suggest regular coffee drinking may lower risk of type 2 diabetes. A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that people who drink a daily four to six cups have a 28 percent lower risk of developing this illness–which is fast becoming an epidemic in this country–than folks who drink less than two cups each day. Researchers arrived at those numbers by pooling the results of nine different studies from the United States and around the world. Speculation is that caffeine deserves the credit, though it could be an antioxidant phenolic compound called chlorogenic acid.
November 18th, 2007
There is one thing I don’t understand about Israel – it is a country populated by ambitious Jewish over-achievers (obvious night owl candidates and stressed out insomniacs) and yet you can’t find a decent cup of coffee anywhere. Everyone professes to love (or at least need) coffee, but no one seems to know a thing about drinking it. Everywhere you go are hot water urns, plastic spoons and jars of instant coffee… and that’s it.
Instant coffee?!?
A few snobbish intellectuals will even debate which brand of instant coffee is better. Unbelievable. (Instant coffee is basically just sand injected with brown food coloring and caffeine, and it makes my spine hurt).
I don’t get it, why isn’t there any good coffee in Israel? I was told that Starbucks tried to open up in Tel Aviv and it failed miserably. How could this be? Why is it that Israelis, who drink tons of the brown sap, can’t get into real coffee? Real coffee tastes better, it gives you a better a boost, it doesn’t make your spine hurt, can somebody please explain this to me?
I think Starbucks should try again, but this time they should open their first store in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Old City is crawling with expatriate Americans and tourists and I think it will do well. It may catch on and finally wake Israelis up to reality. Even if it doesn’t, at least I’ll be able to get a good cup of coffee in Israel.
June 28th, 2006
I got my free coffee at Peet’s for the last time today (I am a little sad because I didn’t know that today was April 30. I thought I could still go back tomorrow – bummer!). Peet’s was giving away free coffee every day from 1 – 3 PM in April in honor of their 40th anniversary. This was a great idea. I planed my days in April around the 1 – 3 slot so I could make it to Peet’s and get my free coffee fix. Peet’s is the strongest of the “hip” coffee chains and their coffee jolt is not for beginners. But for diehard coffee junkies like me, Peet’s is a real heavenly gift. True, it is also a pre-packaged, corporate joint like Starbucks, and true, it is not as hip as the ERC, but the coffee is good and I guess that is all that matters – I can get the coffee to go if I need a cooler environment. (BTW – I hate to destroy the myth, but the ERC is also a corporate joint, they are just undercover – check out their website and see how big they really are). Maybe we can start a campaign to get all the coffee places to give it away for free.
April 30th, 2006
A few years ago I wrote this article about Pink Floyd, Starbucks, and my rage against the MAN. (Note: read at your own risk – generally people over 30 think it is great, people under 30 think I am being condescending, I am not – but if you are under 30 and offended, please don’t hate me.) My underlying message was that the ultimate anti-establishment statement is to join the establishment. Don’t fight the MAN, become the MAN. (If you think about it, you’ll agree. Every non-conformist radical grows his hair, gets his chin pierced, buys organic lemon juice – it takes a rugged individualist to vote republican, only use Microsoft products, etc).
As part of my job, I spend most afternoons sitting in coffee shops talking philosophy, art, G-d, the whole nine (Tzvi you are so pretentious) and I happen to love the atmosphere (especially the music – I particularly dig the seventies funk jams, art jazz – I even loved the Madonna tribute they were playing at the ERC near BU last week). A few weeks ago I was meeting people in Providence and we decided to meet at Starbucks. “Perfect,” I thought, “I love their coffee and I can make my pro-establishment anti-establishment statement.”
What a let down. While their coffee was good, I just couldn’t get into the pre-packaged, cookie-cutter hip-ness. The Ray Charles tribute CD was too contrived and the art on the walls was too perfect. You can’t legislate cool from a boardroom.
Now I am back to square one. I think my aesthetic sensibilities are in stark contrast to my conformist rebellion – anyone care to comment?
April 24th, 2006
