My philosophy toward airline coffee has always been, “Take what you can get and make the best of it.” Certainly the flight attendant would prefer I sit down, shut up and accept her meager brew. But it hit me– why can’t I make my own on the plane? Is it even possible? We set out to find the answer. Caffeinated at 30,000 Feet: Mile High Brewing Setups The constraints of a typical economy cabin don’t leave many options open. High-flying brewers need equipment that is a) portable and b) doesn’t require electricity. In this day and time it would take a brave soul to power up an electric kettle in the cabin,...

Your mission: Save your laptop from a coffee spill disaster. Saving your electronic devices in the event of an unfortunate baptism by coffee can be a “Mission “Possible” – with a little luck and some lightening-fast reflexes. The basic parameters of the situation: Liquids can cause short-circuits. Short circuits damage electronic components. Your odds of successfully recovering from a spill depend the amount of liquid that was spilled, how corrosive and conductive the liquid is and how you react to the situation. Assuming the spill was an accident, the only factor you can control here is your reaction. To assist you in reacting like...

Coffee Krave reader and accomplished photographer Marek Lubacz got in touch with me last week and agreed to write a guest post about coffee in Poland under communism. It wasn’t until the formation of a new government in 1989 that Poland could begin to recover from communist rule. Today, the coffee culture is thriving, but Marek’s first-hand account of the state of coffee under communism made me realize how much I take freshly roasted beans for granted. You can see what a beautiful country Poland is here and  learn more about the history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 here. We greatly appreciate Marek’s contribution! He...

We have been in a list making mode recently at CoffeeKrave. To continue the trend, we present out Top Ten Coffee Makers. From the Espro Press to the Cona Vacuum Brewer . . . here are our takes on the top gear to grace your countertops. Authors Note: When Daniel, Editor and Chief here at CoffeeKrave, assigned me this article, I broke out in a cold sweat. Any “top ten” list is going to be subjective by nature, but a top ten coffee maker list? That’s one difficult combinatorial optimization problem right there. I decided the optimal way to constrain this search was to cut the cord. As in the power cord. In other words, this is the Top Ten...

For the past few years, talk surrounding the virtues of light roasts has been trending in the coffee community. I can remember the morning (November 29th, 2011) when I read “I’ll have a tall blonde please.” Starbucks, known for a distinctively dark roast, had announced that they were introducing a new line of lighter roasts. Starbucks went “blonde” in their terminology to avoid linguistic confusion – “light” (when removed from its roasting-specific content) having the potential to imply that something is missing or has been removed. My first response was to start a list recording how many variations of “insert inevitable...

With the majority of our daily communications happening online, it can get a little lonely in your mailbox. If there is room in your budget, consider signing up for a coffee subscription. It’s the best cure we know for coffee lovers who are channeling their inner Charlie Brown while peering into an empty mailbox. It’s also the best way to sample small batch beans from the top indie cult roasters. A few of our favorite subscription options: 1. Tonx The word on the street: “Tony is obsessed with coffee like a record store nerd is with vinyl . . . Me, I trust the guy’s taste. I just want really good coffee. Send me the beans.”...

We’ve talked before about the health benefits of coffee. Today we thought we would wander out of the kitchen and over to the spa to talk about the beauty benefits of coffee. Considering how many seriously expensive beauty products make good use of the beneficial effects of caffeine, we are recommending a more budget-friendly, DIY approach to making yourself more beautiful with coffee. Coffee Exfoliating Scrubs Ground coffee is one of the finest exfoliants we know. It’s right up there with brown sugar, and that duo is the basis for our favorite DIY scrub: Mix equal parts coffee grounds and brown sugar. Add enough olive oil to make the...

Coffee Krave is excited to announce that we’re giving away not ONE Espro Press, but TWO Espro Press French press coffee makers. This no-grit press won our love back in August and is a top French press pick. We recently rated it number one in a list of the top Kickstarter coffee projects. Thanks to the team at Espro, we’re able to give away a small (8 oz) and large (32 oz) Espro Press to our readers. Do one or multiple of the following to enter (please use the widget below to enter) Follow us on Twitter (two entries)– Current followers receive a free entry Like Coffee Krave on Facebook (two entries)– Current fans...

The best part of waking up is Folgers feline in my cup (I’d take cat hair over Folgers any day). These desk creatures have a knack for sitting on our keywords, tearing up toilet paper and yes, getting into our morning coffee. Yet what would we do without these lifelong companions? Here’s to coffee and cats. 1. I can’t make coffee until he moves! Photo: Thomas Cizauskas 2. This one gets away with everything Photo: Peter Clark 3. Just sleeping in Photo: Jonas Söderström 4. Coffee isn’t for cats, or is it? Photo: Rachid H 5. Coffee Kitty Photo: Paul Lewis 6. A True Companion Photo: Tammy Strobel 7. Cat...

When we are in need of occupying a spare minute (or hour . . . or two), we like to search for coffee-related projects on Kickstarter. The atmosphere of creativity and indie innovation makes browsing Kickstarter project descriptions feel like you have a front row seat to an ultra-exclusive think tank. Not yet familiar with the genius that is Kickstarter? It’s a crowd-funding platform for creative projects, and you can learn more about it here.   So, what coffee projects are trending? The Medium Espro Press: We haven’t been shy about our love for the large Espro Press. Back on Kickstarter by popular demand, this redesign project...

It’s beginning to look like 2013 will go down in the history books as the coffee world’s annus horribilis. It’s the Year of Rust, or more specifically, Hemileia vastatrix, the coffee rust fungus. While never a welcome sight, the telltale orange dust can, in a normal year, typically be described as seasonal, commonplace and mild. The adjectives that are being used in coffee rust conversations this year conjure up a very different reality: severe, devastating, crisis. The rust compromises the plant’s ability to photosynthesize. A severe outbreak can lead to defoliation and die-off at the plantation level. Losses are projected to...

Does the ambiance of a coffee-shop put you in a creative mood? If so, you are experiencing the positive benefits of ambient noise induced processing disfluency. (I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to drop that phrase into dinner party conversation . . . ) Researchers hypothesize that being moderately distracted pushes you to a higher construct level, resulting in more abstract and creative thinking. Low levels of noise don’t create the same effect, and with higher levels the beneficial effects are outweighed by your reduced capacity to process information. So where is that ambient noise level sweet spot? According to a recent...

  Daniel, Editor-in-Chief here at CoffeeKrave, knows the fastest way to this writer’s heart is to add “science” or “geek” or “tech” tags to any assignment. With our love of Venn diagrams, our obsessively documented citations and our tendency to drop in random science shout outs (Hi there, Evangelista Torricelli!), the staff at CoffeeKrave is extremely well qualified to present this roundup of the top coffee mugs for geeks.   It doesn’t get better than Tesla. Seriously, it doesn’t, and Matthew Inman’s I Heart Tesla mug has pride of place on this list. Inman’s ode to Tesla: “Nikola Tesla was an insane...

We had so much fun posting our roundup of savory coffee recipes last year, we knew we had to come back for Round 2. As previously noted, coffee adds depth of flavor and richness, while promoting caramelization. Think warm, deep, earthy flavors, with just the right amount of bitter. (In the right hands, a little bitter can be a very good thing.)   Here are five savory coffee recipes that caught our eye: Besides a cup of coffee, my favorite thing to see on a breakfast table is red-eye gravy! This Texas pulled pork recipe has me paraphrasing Lyle Lovett: That’s right, I’m not from Texas. But Texas wants me anyway. Edible Marin...

And what is a foam after all, but a big collection of bubbles? And what’s a bubble? It’s basically a very flimsy little latticework of proteins draped with water. – Alton Brown   Hypothetical Scenario: You, Dear Reader, have decided you want more foam in your life, on a consistent basis. Alas, you either don’t have a home espresso machine, or you have a home espresso machine but it isn’t up to the task.   Do you: a)      Make the daily trek to your local coffee shop b)      Go the DIY route c)       Buy a dedicated milk frother   If you answered “c” – buy a dedicated milk frother, this...