Kansas City Food Blog

​Learn the story of how beans from around the globe make their way to Kansas City tomorrow morning when the Roasterie's founder Danny O'Neill talks about his coffee business and recent travels as part of Park University School of Business' Global Entrepreneurship Week.

O'Neill will be speaking in the McCoy Meetin' House at the Parkville campus at 11 a.m. His lecture at Park University -- he sits on the Board of Trustees -- is free and open to the public. 

​Last week, a series of stories focused on how Starbucks baristas were bristling at being forced to push the coffee shop's new instant brew product, Via, to each customer.

I stopped in the Starbucks at Ward Parkway to see if that was the case. The store was pushing Via in displays, but the marketing effort was no more overbearing than previous holiday offerings or seasonal goods. 

​On occasion, Fat City is written from the hallowed tables of coffee shops across the city and over the past several weeks, it's become apparent to me that everything but coffee seems to be going out the door.

Take for example a recent lunch hour I spent at Coffee Girls in Waldo -- here's a sample of the orders that I overheard at the counter: Toddy coffee (my order); double shot of espresso; a water; umm ... a Diet Coke; steamed skim milk and decaf coffee; hot tea. Not a single cup of unadulterated coffee was ordered by the crowd. Granted, the small sample population was likely between the ages of 18 and 40 and this was well after the standard morning rush. 

​In an effort to streamline its rewards program, Starbucks has announced it will phase out its two-tier loyalty system and move to a single loyalty card program with no membership fees.

As it stands now, Starbucks has two rewards programs. Starbuck Card Rewards is essentially a gift card with perks like free wi-fi access, refills, and syrups or shots. The next step up for frequent customers was the Starbucks Gold Card. It carried a $25 annual fee and entitles customers to a series of special discounts, including 10 percent off each purchase -- which not everyone saw as a winning proposition for the members.  

​If a Nintendo Wii and a Krups coffee maker had a baby, it might look like the BeMoved -- an interactive coffee machine that was unveiled this past Saturday during Dutch Design Week. 

With a digital touch screen and motion sensors, BeMoved (developed for the Netherlands-based coffee maker manufacturer Douwe Egberts) literally requires you to jump for your coffee, making you bounce up and down to help determine what you want to fill your cup. Engadget has the promotional video if you want to see how that works.

​For most of us the morning begins and ends with coffee -- it is the drink that signals our animal brain that it's time to wake up. But what would happen if you gave up coffee -- especially if you'd been drinking it since the age of 10.

That was the question asked by Robin Barooah, a coffee addict who had attempted to go "cold turkey" on several previous occasions but always succumbed to the withdrawal symptoms and pervasive belief that he needed coffee to concentrate.

But over concerns that mood swings and crashes were becoming a problem, this time he took a scientific approach, slowly weaning himself off coffee in small increments between April and July of this year. He would eliminate coffee altogether when he got down to half a shot glass each morning.

​Just as he has done with pizza and airline food, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is hoping to change the iced coffee market. Nation's Restaurant News reports that Puck will be rolling out a line of bottled iced coffee drinks along the line of Starbucks' Frapuccinos.

The Wolfgang Puck Culinary Iced Coffees will come in four flavors: Vanilla Fusion, Double Blend Mocha, Creme Caramel and Cafe Au Lait. A single bottle of the packaged coffee drink will cost $2.39, a four-pack $7.99.

"The coffees selected were sourced from some of the world's best, certified organic coffee farms in Ethiopia, Peru, Colombia and Mexico," Puck said. "As with any good recipe, we tinkered with just the right ratio of milk, sugar and organic ingredients to create a well-balanced and refreshing coffee drink."

In addition to being certified organic, the drinks will be kosher and contain only 120 calories per bottle. 

​Most of us can't operate heavy machinery without coffee, let alone face another day at the office. And it turns out there are some very specific chemical reasons why.

But before you discover what you're drinking, some weird coffee news has floated in over the transom. The Guinness Book of World Records has declared that Karl's Farm in Roevershagen, Germany, has the largest collection of china coffee pots in the world, at 13,267. So, next time you're in Roevershagen...

And back stateside, a good discussion is percolating about coffee customs on the Boston Globe's etiquette blog. Does your office have a responsibility to provide you with a coffee machine? And if so, who has to make sure the pot stays filled? A lot of offices with coffee have moved to the pod system, but those with standard coffee pots invariably have one dedicated volunteer who either makes the weakest or strongest cup you've ever had. 

On to what is in your coffee.

​Starbucks is hoping that a product from the past can bring the coffee chain into the future. Yesterday, the Seattle-based company rolled out a new instant coffee product -- Starbucks Via -- that it's been test-marketing for nearly eight months. 

If this were 1989 instead of 2009, I'd be excited about the prospects for Starbucks. But in reality, the age of instant coffee -- at least in the United States -- is likely well in the past. In addition, the cost -- nearly $1 per packet ($2.95 for a package of three) -- suggests that there is such a thing as premium instant coffee. That feels like a tough sell.

Initial reviews indicate that the flavor is somewhere between instant coffee and a cup of brewed coffee:

"I tried the medium and bold blends first black and then with milk, which is how I usually take my coffee. I found them both to have a decent normal coffee taste mixed with a funny taste that is not pleasant on the finish. The funny taste was worse with milk than black."

​If you were depressed before you got your morning cup of coffee, then feel free to add a shot of kahlua before you keep reading. This will be a shock, but apparently it's your coffee that is causing you to feel disconnected from the rest of the world.

Allow Temple University History Professor Bryant Simon to explain:

"As our sense of association and communalism have rolled back, buying has seeped in more and more aspects of daily life. Starbucks used that retreat in public life to sell us what we want."

This is the new Bowling Alone. In losing our connection to each other, we've searched for validation from our purchases. And in his new book, Everything But The Coffee: Learning From America About Starbucks, Simon argues it's Starbucks that offered us the chance to find a new community.

​There's been some concern percolating in the media and blogosphere -- and Wall Street! -- lately about the decision by Starbucks to raise the prices of some of their products -- you know, those "complex" drinks like fancy, Venti-sized lattes and such. Other, less complicated coffee drinks will see a slight price decline.

Will loyal Starbucks patrons stay loyal if their morning java drink costs a quarter more?

Before you imagine mass revolt of Starbucks addicts, consider this: currently, a 20-ounce Venti-sized latte at the 39th Street Starbucks sells for $3.55. This is post-price hike and without taxes. At the Filling Station, 2980 McGee Trafficway, a large latte is $3.30. JP Wine Bar and Coffee House at 1526 Walnut charges $3.50 for a large latte. That's the same price that the Broadway Cafe, 4106 Broadway, charges for a large latte. The Sweet Guy at 7439 Broadway charges $3.75 for a large latte. One of the costliest large lattes is, interestingly enough, at area McDonalds restaurants: $3.79 plus tax.  

 

 

(Image via Flickr: Redia_09)

Tags: Broadway Cafe, coffee, Filling Station, JP Wine Bar, large latte, McDonalds, Starbucks, The Sweet Guy

​The romantic notion is that the next great novel is being written in a coffee shop. The reality is that coffee shop owners struggle with how to make rent when a customer sets up camp at a table for the better part of the day after purchasing a small cup of coffee. 

​Starbucks continues to try and rejigger its brand, introducing toys for corporate training and a series of stealth stores.

In an effort to improve efficiency, and not just in the supply chain, Starbucks is hoping that "lean" production practices" will shorten the time it takes you to get your frappuccino. As part of the initiative under executive Scott Heydon ("vice president of lean thinking"), employees are being taught to use an economy of motion to achieve a task -- similar to the guiding ethos in many Japanese manufacturing facilities. For practice, store managers are putting together Mr. Potato Heads in an effort to see how they can approach a finite task and shorten the amount of time it takes.

​As kids, we kept hearing that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. Now it turns out the choices we're making in the morning can have some big ramifications on our health. From Eat This, Not That  (the sister blog of the book by the same title) comes a list of frozen coffee drinks that can take up a big chunk of your recommended daily calorie intake.

Consider the Oreo n' Cookies Cappuccino Blast from Baskin Robbins -- which runs you 950 calories, 37 grams of fat, and 111 grams of sugar. Although if your morning coffee run is to an ice cream shop, this might not come as a shock. The frozen mocha from Panera Bread (670 calories, 26g fat, and 79g sugar) or Java caramel chiller from Sonic (760 calories, 25g fat, 106g sugar) might be a bit more surprising.

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Outside of the major chains, drive-thru coffee isn't widely available in the metro area. The second Filling Station coffee shop is hoping to change that. The modern coffee stand, located in the shopping plaza at the corner of Westport Road and Southwest Trafficway, is housed within a former instant photo shop.

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Eight white stools sit on the concrete floor to the right of the service counter. The shop's signature cookies will be available -- think about Snickerdoodle -- as well as everything from drip coffee to a macchiato. The shop in Westport joins the original location at 2980 McGee Trafficway.

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Last Saturday was the last day of business for one of the sweetest little coffee houses in the city: Eljay's River Market Coffeehouse at 412 Delaware. Owned and operated by mother-daughter team Joy and Leah Koesten, the duo sent out an e-mail announcement last week stating "we gave it our best shot, but sales continued to fall short of our expectations for this great place in in light of the difficult economy, it doesn't look to improve in the near term."

I'll say it again: if you're particularly in love with a small, independently-owned cafe, bistro, restaurant or coffeehouse -- this is the time to support them. Too often these small business owners are hearing something to this effect: "You're closing? But I love this place! I meant to come in last week, but you know how things are."

Yes, they know.

The Coffee Girls has relocated from the Crossroads to Waldo, bringing toddy coffee and an updated menu to its new neighborhood. 

The coffee shop, which opened two weeks ago, sits adjacent to Kennedy's Bar. Both venues have the attractive feature of sliding glass windows that can be opened when the weather is nice. Coffee Girls also has a wraparound patio.

Coffee Girls is moving from the Crossroads to a new location at 7440 Washington in the same center as Kennedy's Bar & Grill.

It closes downtown on Friday afternoon and is scheduled to reopen in Waldo on July 1. Fat City's sister, Plog, talked to employee Adela Graf who said that the new space is going to be a "much more family-oriented location."

Do you buy your java at the local supermarket or big box store? I do -- with mixed luck. I usually buy what's cheapest or on sale: I've had good luck with those big bags of Roasterie coffee or even the house brand of bean coffee at Costco. I grind my own beans and the morning and those brands taste fresh -- but what do I know? I also buy marked-down bags of coffee beans at Tuesday Morning and TJ Maxx!

Jerry Baldwin, a co-founder of Starbucks, has written an article in The Atlantic about buying coffee at grocery stores. He doesn't think much of my frugal theory ("I hope you make your coffee choice based on your perceptions of quality and freshness, rather than what's on special this week," he writes). 

I have always been wary of the beans sitting in those clear plastic bins. And Baldwin confirms I was right: "Few markets date their bulk bins. If coffee is properly packaged in a valve bag (the bags with the internal buttons and little slits) it will probably taste fresher than bulk coffee, which has been exposed to the atmosphere. Put your nose up to the valve and squeeze the bag. Evaluate the aroma."

So if you see someone sniffing a plastic bag of coffee beans at your local supermarket, it might be me.

 

(Image via Flickr: Pleasant Valley Shopping)

 

 

 

Tags: coffee, coffee beans, freshness

Americans have drip coffee down pat. You put a filter, coffee and some water in the machine, turn a knob and bingo! Fool-proof hot coffee.

Iced coffee is a different beast. The ice dilutes the coffee, so it takes planning ahead to get the coffee strength correct. Then there is that whole waiting for the coffee to cool down.

Flickr: The Bitten Word

Unless you never heat the coffee at all. Matthew Yglesias has a post on how he cold-brews coffee. It's essentially the French press method, except not in a press and it takes a really long time,

Fill a pitcher with a mixture of water and coffee (if you're grinding your own, aim for a coarse grind) in a ratio of about 1 cup of coffee to about 4.5 cups of water. Stir it up to mix, and stick it in the fridge for, ideally, a 12 hour overnight brew. In the morning, strain the mixture.

The result is a coffee without acid or bitterness, which tend to occur when coffee is allowed to cool naturally. If you don't have 12 hours to wait, though, you might try the Japanese method -- brewing the coffee directly onto ice:

Flickr: Nate Steiner

Notice the ripples and bubbles that make this creama "tiger skin."

Pauline Fujita was a typical grad student who spent many a night guzzling coffee and studying. Until one day, she realized that she loved the brew in the cup more than the info in the book. Thus, a graduate-student determination to figure out what makes coffee coffee.

Her paper, Science on a Grande Scale, was published more than two years ago in Litmus Magazine. But it's getting attention now, with more people turning to home-brewed coffee and wondering how to make it better.

Take, for instance, something as small as one notch on the grinder:

the distribution of sizes of coffee grinds can mean the difference between a spiritual coffee experience and trauma for your taste buds. The size of the grinds determines the surface area of contact between the coffee and the hot water or steam being used to extract the tasty compounds from the coffee.

Fujita's biggest accomplishment is giving a name to the perfect crema on a head of espresso.

I was playing around on Fat City's Twitter page yesterday and feeling like a nap when the UPS man arrived bearing gifts. Caffeinated gifts! Specially, a package from Starbucks containing Via, the company's new instant coffee. When Starbucks announced it was releasing Via last month, I wasn't the only one criticizing the decision.

I said something to the effect that all instant coffee is crap. Well Via's Italian Roast and Colombia are not crap. They're good. Damn good. Better than the real cup of drip-coffee I made yesterday.

First and foremost, Via does not taste like any other instant coffee.

Flickr: Endlisnis

Manoranjan Misra of the University of Nevada at Reno may have solved a good chunk of the world's energy problem, while also giving coffee addicts like myself reason to drink that umpteenth cup of the day. Turns out that coffee is a biofuel and a pretty good one to boot. The Economist, which pushes coffee-as-fuel in an editorial, says "researchers found that coffee biodiesel is comparable to the best biodiesels on the market."

By now, all the biofuel pessimists like myself are going, "yes, but coffee prices will go through the roof like corn and ethanol." Not true. The beauty is the oil is in the coffee grounds. People have been putting coffee grounds on plants as fertilizers for hundreds of years and if plants can turn the grounds into fuel, so can we.

It gets even better.

Starbucks

If you stop by Starbucks today (or anytime in the near future), you'll notice things are a little different. Yes, the large menu signs with their $4 coffees from a different era will still be on the wall but next to them will be new signs, more pedestrian signs promoting the previously unheard-of Starbucks value menu.

It offers six meals, each for $3.95, which Starbucks says will save customers "as much as $1.20, and with 100 percent ethically traded coffee and high quality ingredients, they offer a value beyond price." Err... not sure about that value for price thing. There's only two coffee choices: a tall cup of drip coffee or a tall cafe latte. The latte comes with either a piece of cinnamon-swirl coffee cake or a bowl of oatmeal. Starbucks oatmeal has been a surprise hit since its debut last fall. The biggest knock on it is that it's instant, and instant oatmeal is even worse than instant coffee. (Speaking of which, Starbucks is also launching VIA packets today for people who pre-ordered them.)

With the drip coffee comes a breakfast sandwich. The choices include two new ones, the artisan bacon sandwich (with "parmesan egg frittata, four smoked bacon slices, and Gouda cheese") and an artisan ham one (with "parmesan egg frittata, three slices of Black Forest ham, and mild cheddar"). Starbucks claims each of these sandwiches weighs in at under 400 calories, which means that either they're skimping on the cheese or the artisan rolls are exceptionally light. The other two sandwiches on Starbucks' menu are a sausage breakfast sandwich with cheddar and a turkey bacon sandwich with white cheddar. Both sandwiches come on English muffins.

I could see these being a big hit for Starbucks simply because they'll be served all day. I am not a morning person, and often on weekends find myself waking up too late for McDonald's so-bad-yet-so-good breakfast sandwiches. Now I can go to Starbucks.

Flickr: Ton MJ

But two giant companies can. Both McDonald's and Starbucks are running promotions for free coffee but there's a catch to both.

McDonald's has a stealth deal called Freebruary (free-brew-airy?), in which it's giving away small cups of coffee from 6 to 9 a.m. until the end of the month. The catch: the deal is only available at a limited number of restaurants. The special seems to be tied to McCafe machines and espresso machines, and it also seems that franchisees were given the option of participating or not.

I tried three McDonald's on State Line, at 79th, 103rd and 133rd. The 79th Street one, which is franchisee-owned and does not have a McCafe machine, wasn't running the special. The other two both had McCafe machines and are owned by the corporation but the night crew at the 103rd one hadn't heard of the morning special and the 133rd Street location didn't pick up its phone. (Yes, McDonald's have phones.)

The best bet seems to be corporate-owned stores with McCafe machines. Fortunately McMissouri.com tells you exactly that info on stores in the area.

Starbucks' free coffee deal has to do with Via, the water-soluble (read: instant) coffee that the company announced last week, which was promptly torn apart by the press. The catch here is that it's a four-step process to get the free instant coffee. You have to give your name and e-mail address to the Via Web site and then, on March 3, the day of Via's release, the company will e-mail you a coupon, which you then must print off and take to the store. 

Both seem like a lot of work just to save a buck on coffee. But free is free.

I don't prophesy doom too much, but if I had told you six months ago that Starbucks would be selling instant coffee, you would have given me one of those looks saved for Japanese game shows and street preachers.

Well, start stockpiling gold bullion. Starbucks is selling instant coffee. As early as next month, it will introduce Via, which it's spinning as a "soluble-coffee" product. From Ad Age: "Starbucks declined to comment on the launch, which is said to be a long-term pet project of Chief Executive Howard Schultz and as such will get a significant marketing push... 'It's a breakthrough in soluble coffee,' said a person close to the project."

No matter how big a marketing push Via gets, instant coffee has a well-deserved reputation for awfulness. Instant coffee suffers from uncanny valley syndrome, where it looks like coffee and smells like coffee but is just off enough that my mouth rejects it. It doesn't help that the last memorable instant coffee was Folgers Crystals and that it was in the 1980s. It means that when I hear the words "instant coffee," I think of something like the video below:



If Starbucks' Via is successful, it won't be so immediately. It will take some time to change the perceptions of people, like myself, and to get the brand on grocery shelves and airplanes and trains and other normal instant-coffee venues. By then, the recession could well be over. So instant coffee may eventually be a winner for Starbucks, but it won't be what they really need -- an instant hit. 

Not to beat a dead-horse about Eight O'Clock coffee, but it was nice to see it get some press this week and beat out Starbucks. But what drove me to buy it in the first place a couple odd years ago was not the fact that it was getting lots of accolades (it wasn't) but that it had the coolest package among the cheap coffees.

Packages of Eight O'Clock coffee look retro -- not in a forced way but in an organic way, as if that's just the way the package has always looked. In fact, the colors and style have been updated slightly over the past 50 years but the packaging essentially has the same themes.


It's a cool, timeless design. So naturally the company is trying to change it. Eight O'Clock coffee is running a packaging makeover Web site, asking users to pick between two finalists. After signing your life over, you get to pick between these two choices.

Eli Pupovac's "Still Life with Doughnuts and Latte"

Crossroads art gallery cum coffee shop Pi has new hours.

Starting this Monday, Pi will now be serving coffee, breakfast and brunch from 7 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday hours are 8 a.m. to noon.

Don't worry, Pi will still have its new art show every first Friday and local chef Heather Hands will still help with a slew of special events and art dinners several night a month. (As always, Fat City will have the details.)

Pi isn't just another restaurant in an art gallery, it's The Pitch's best meal in an art gallery and yes, they do serve pie.

Not really. It's just that yesterday, Fat City mentioned what every coffee connoisseur on a budget already knows: Eight O'Clock Coffee is the best in the six-dollars-and-under range.

Today Consumer Reports decided to confirm that, and throw in a dis or two at Starbucks as well.

Consumer Reports tested 19 popular store-brand ground coffees, including the usual suspects like Folgers and Maxwell House but also premiums such as Starbucks and Peet's Coffee.

In a blow to snobby coffee drinkers everyone, Eight O'Clock Coffee beat the rest. "At $6.28 per lb, it topped the taste tests and cost less than half the price of brands including Gloria Jean's and Peet's."

I've never really thought that much about Eight O'Clock's flavor, but Consumer Reports' researchers did. They describe it as a "complex blend of earthy and fruity, with a bright, pleasing sourness."

There is a flaw with the study. It only tested Colombian blends, and Colombian blends never have the flavor differences you get with French roasts. The stronger the roast, the bigger the difference between good and bad beans and frankly, Colombian is a weak roast. 

Starbucks finished fourth but that's the least of the its worries. Things have gotten so bad that the company is turning to value meals. [Me faking shock by putting hand over mouth.]

Not only that but now Perez Hilton is the one breaking Starbucks news. Things have really gotten out of whack. Maybe the the chain should switch to Eight O'Clock Coffee.

Yesterday, Lifehacker published a piece on getting a great cup of coffee without spending loads of money. In other words, making the coffee you brew at home better. (Sorry, no matter how many Starbucks hacks there are, it'll never be that cheap.)

Lifehacker has six tips. While they're all helpful, as a serious coffee drinker -- we're talking 12 cups a morning -- I've found there's pretty much only one tip serious coffee drinkers need to know. So throw out the other five hints and focus on this one.