Coffee Art & Style Extravaganza

Posted by : SimoneGallina™ giovedì 9 febbraio 2012

"QUANTUM SHOT" #752
Link - article by Avi Abrams

Have your cup of coffee with a smile! (and a vengeance)

Sophisticated, intense coffee drinking rituals demand the appropriate heights of style and imagination, nuances of taste and aroma, and most of all, that exhilarating geek coolness factor that goes far beyond simply loading up on caffeine.

Probably the most enchanting way to make coffee is in this Royal Coffee Maker. The "classic copper" model goes for $595 and there is a gold one (of course), which comes with a golden spoon.

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See all the models here. The site describes the process perfectly:

"Boiling water is pushed through the metal pipette. By the time the water reaches the grounds, it has cooled a few degrees. The result: coffee and water meet at the perfect temperature to extract the oils and flavors, but not so hot as to impart "scorched" taste. Unlike other methods - the Royal Coffee Machine - quickly siphons the brewed coffee away from the grounds. Aroma and flavor remain in the closed canister with the coffee while the bitter grounds stay in the glass carafe."

A gorgeous steampunk way of making coffee: Siphon brewers!

Read about particulars of making coffee in a siphon brewer here.

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Beautiful wood & steel coffee plunger - buy it here. On the right is the Alesso espresso pot:

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Here is also very cool concrete-styled espresso machine, designed by Shmuel Linski - more info:

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Sustainable coffee shop architecture: Shipping Container Starbucks Drive-thru in Tukwila, Washington - more info:

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A World-record coffee bean mosaic, made by Albanian artist Saimir Strati - this one is 25 square meters large, make sure to see his past projects:

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High-speed coffee splashes! Spectacular series of images, made by Jack Long - more info:

(images credit: Jack Long)

Looking for a picture that shows "everything you wanted to know about coffee but where afraid to ask"? Well, here is a helpful diagram for understanding coffee drinks:

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Another great infographic about coffee can be found at The Oatmeal.

Very interesting coffee is sold to-go in the vending machines in Japan (with some adventurous flavours):

"Processed"? Disgusting? or Simply Exclusive and High-Class?

Here is a coffee that you'd think twice before imbibing: Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee. It is the most expensive and rare to come by... and yet its fantastic taste and exclusivity come at an additional price: knowing that the beans were first eaten (and "processed") by a small cat-like creature - Asian Palm Civet:

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These cute guys belong to a family of medium-sized mammals, the viverrids, which usually feed on berries and fig tree fruits. And as for coffee... "Coffee cherries are eaten by a civet for their fruit pulp. After spending about a day and a half in the civet's digestive tract the beans are then defecated in clumps, having kept their shape and still covered with some of the fleshy berry's inner layers. They are gathered, thoroughly washed, sun dried and given only a light roast so as to keep the many intertwined flavors and lack of bitterness yielded inside the civet."

Anyone tried it? Apparently some varieties of this coffee are the most expensive the world: for example, the Vietnamese weasel coffee sells for $6600 per kilogram ($3000 per pound). Must have a really unique taste (mostly lacking bitterness)! It is also very hard to come by : Weasel coffee is produced in quantities of a few hundred kilograms a year.

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But be warned, there are some imitations on the market! "The problem is that the Vietnamese have perfected a roasting process that mimic’s that of the digestive tract of the weasel" - more info. So this is NOT the real thing:

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This New Zealand company seems to have the real thing, of course in limited quantities - try to order it here (last item on the page)

Beautiful Coffee Photography

Here is a fragment of a Dunlop Tires print ad:

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Inspiring, almost flavourful photography from Markus Reugels and Elena Stepanova:

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(image credit: Elena Stepanova)

(image credit: Natalia Klenova)

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At the brink of a latte ocean: part of a series of closeup photography by Oscar Cuitat

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Great and Creative Coffee Mug Designs

Somewhat humorous ceramic creations of Monique Goosens (left):

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Tippy coffee and tea set, made by Robert Lazzarini:

(image credit: Robert Lazzarini)

And then, there is a "Slim Cup" - designed by Sharona Merlin:

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Mustache Mugs, available from Shanware Pottery:

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"Mustache mugs were popular in Victorian times when men sported bushy handlebar mustaches."

"Zero Gravity" cup (left) and a "Labyrinth Coaster" (right):

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"Wallace & Gromit" cup allows you to watch your sugar intake (buy it here):

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This coffee set seems to be invaded by aliens - buy it from Finding Cheska:

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Coffee lights? No problem! - more info:

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Fantastic Examples of "Coffee Latte" Art

Want to have a short primer on how to make Latte Art? Click here.

Here is a portrait of Mio (part of K-ON Japanese girl group):

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Coffee with butterfly wings (part of a Blackberry wallpaper collection):

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Here is a great video on how to make "Bird" latte art - Click here

Did you ever see a three-dimensional latte art? Here is an example:

(image credit: Ekaterina Lokteva)

And then, there is quite another kind of coffee art by Karen Eland: more paint-like perhaps, but also using only espresso and water: