Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is given credit by many for revolutionizing the American coffee drinking experience. The company however is both praised and criticized by environmentalists. Is Starbucks a leader of sustainability or greenwashed?

Newsweek’s Budget Travel weblog discusses the limitations of most drip coffee makers, then highlights how to brew a better pot despite those limitations. For example, the post claims that your drip coffee maker probably never reaches the perfect brewing temperature. The solution:

Do a “trial run” of your coffee maker—without coffee—to heat up the machine. Pour the heated water back into the device and brew your coffee as usual. While you won’t get the water to a perfect level of hotness, you will get it pretty darned close.

The post covers a few more smart hacks for accomplishing a better cup when your brewer isn’t ideal, so if a good cup of coffee is what keeps you going on a long day, these tips could save you the cost of a trip to your coffee shop but still provide you with a good cup. Photo by emdot.

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[Why, oh why did I feel it's appropriate to add this article to this blog??? Check out Point Number 9.]

Eliminating The Suspense

Esmeralda = emerald in Spanish, OK?

The Esmeralda That Was

Esmeralda is one of the coffees widely regarded as one of the world’s best; its reputation is that of a modern-day Jamaican Blue Mountain. Last year, my curiosity got the better of me and I arranged to procure some from Paradise Roasters. In blogging about it, I introduced it as follows:

I probably don’t need to write too much about this one. If you have been living under a rock, or if you just happen to be one of the few people who doesn’t follow the coffee auctions, you might not know that this is currently the world’s most expensive coffee. Previously, that dubious honour went to kopi luwak. (I’ll spare you the jokes - google it if it’s news to you.)

Esmeralda has an impressive back story; in a nutshell, the gesha varietal that makes up the Esmeralda Especial lot seems to have basically gone extinct except for a few random rediscoveries in Panama. It just so happens that this particular farm’s gesha offering has won something like four Best of Panama auctions and every single other cupping competition it has been entered in. In terms of scores, the consensus seems to be that it’s a 92 at a minimum, with some tasters going as high as 97!

The 2007 Paradise Roasters lot displayed a predominant and intense mandarin flavour in all brewing methods, …