Some stories start out as a simple review. get a product, review the product, publish findings. I’m not going to lie, I love getting coffee sent to me to review.

AgroEco Nicaraguan coffee did more than teach me how to spell Nicaragua, it opened my eyes a bit. But before we get into the heavy stuff lets clear out the formalities.

The light roasted coffee which I received went through the standard taste testing here in the CaffiNation HQ, Grind, French Press and review. Simple and efficient. The fine folks at the Santa Cruz Roasters let me know that this roast was a light city roast, in that it wasn’t as dark as most americans usually drink their coffee. No problem here. This would be a bit lighter than the medium most people see in the stores.

Look: The beans look to be a nice deep brown color, with no imperfections or burnt beans in the batch that I saw. they were dry with absolutely no oil on the outside. You can wrap and handful up in a paper towel, and it’s still clean when you’re done. All that being said the coffee varied widely in size in this batch. This is one of the hallmarks of a true small production. It isn’t a bad thing either.

Smell: This  coffee has a wonderful light smell with earthy tone to it. A light hazlenut vibe was going on in the backround with a bit of fig in there too.

Taste: A smooth low acid cup with slight sour notes. Not bold at all. More fig and raisin notes with a bit of a mellow finish. Mild aftertaste.

Conclusion: Awesome Coffee, and a fun new addition to my mug.

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The wrong settings can ruin a cup for french press, destroy an espresso machine or make your autodrip nice and weak. Enter the latest item to cross my desk. The wondrous Breville Smart Grinder, BCG800XL. Breville was nice enough to send me the unit to review. I wanted to put the machine through a real world test, and that meant drinking a lot of coffee. I tried them all from French press to cold brew, espresso to Greek coffee.

I work alone, so as a coffee addict I lack certain opportunities that other people who work in a communal setting have. no talking around the water cooler, no chatting over coffee… But the real problem is that I make all the coffee and I drink all the coffee. I also have the clean the coffee pot. There is a lot more work involved both in consuming and upkeep when you are the only one responsible. First off let me state that I keep all of my coffee equipment at home in pristine shape. Things are always clean and the water fresh. But in the office were quantity weighs out over quality… standard for what is acceptable slip a bit. So my office coffee pot is a bit dirty… I a lot dirty in fact. I clean it roughly once a month, and even then it looks bad.

I was given the opportunity to try out a Product from Urnex, called Cleancaf. The fine folks at Urnex sent me a sample at no cost to review. The idea behind this product is that it cleans your coffee machine and carafe with minimal fuss. I blocked off a lunch time period where I could both clean the machine and take some pictures of the product in action. Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

So many things going on, and lots of blog activity this past week. I have been lucky enough to have been offered the chance to review some pretty interesting stuff, so in case you missed it we discuss them here

The Wings of Nature Almond Raisin Bars are a new type of snack bar on the market right now. They are gluten free, with no trans fat, and have no refined sugar added to them. That’s all well and good but how do they taste?

The Wings of Nature Espresso Coffee Bars are a new type of snack bar on the market right now. They are gluten free, with no trans fat, and have no refined sugar added to them. That’s all well and good but how do they taste?

Lego Mugs = things taste better

What has twitter done for you,Or Your Business? Has it ever made you coffee? Try as i might I hadn’t been able to make twitter give me anything good, until recently that is.

Twitter has been called everything from a frivolous nonsense website, to a fantastic business tool. And on many different levels both assertions are correct. However now I have Twitter to thank for some of the best coffee I’ve had in quite a while. Thanks to the Barista On Duty a Pan Roasting Coffee Fanatic Supreme! Read the rest of this entry »

The CaffiNation Podcast runs the Friis Coffee Savor through its paces, and finds out if it really does keep coffee fresh longer

The CaffiNation Podcast runs the new Ronco Coffeetime brew system through its paces and gives our final verdict on this new product

A short time ago i was approached about reviewing a caffeinated water product called Avitae, pronounced  ah-vee-tay. I jumped at the chance because their hook is that there are no extra flavors or chemicals in the beverage, just water and caffeine. I was intrigued, and frankly after trying and panning more than a few syrupy sweet energy drinks I was looking for a refreshing change.

The Claims:

I like simple  and easily provable claims to judge products on. Most companies that make simple statements don’t have anything to hide, which is what I like. Cut the buzzwords give me the facts.

• Claim #1: Water, Caffeine Nothing else
• Claim #2: Tastes like nothing
• Claim #3: Gives you a boost

Like I said Simple enough for anyone to give it a run down. Read the rest of this entry »

Overall Concept:

Its not very often that I get a technical book to come across my desk that makes me smile just from the cover. A Manga Guide to Databases seems absurd, as a concept. Seems overly cute as a book and a cover graphic. But could the concept actually work? Kids these days have cartoons teaching them about absolutely everything so why not comics doing the same.  Thinking about this book and this series from No Starch press as Schoolhouse Rock for Adults helps too. I have a couple other books by No Starch with my favorite being The Guide to Overclocking.

The author Mana Takahashi and Illustrator  Shoko Azuma have structured this book in a very logical way, but managed to weave a lesson into the story as well. The concept, comic art as instruction takes a bit of getting used to if you are used to strict technical manuals. Read the rest of this entry »

Overall Concept:

You can’t really judge a book by its cover, but you simply have to judge a book by its concept. Does the subject matter make sense to cover and do the methods that the author proposes actually make sense? The subject matter of this book, i.e. The Principles of Successful Freelancing are pretty self evident, and in times like these more people than ever are considering working for themselves, or attempting to turn their existing skill set into a source of direct income.

The author, Miles Burke, does a very good job laying the information out in an  easy to understand progression, designed to take one from an having an idea to starting a business with that idea. Read the rest of this entry »

How many people know the worth of their files?

You will only truly know after they are gone. I was recently asked to review a piece of backup software. Siber Systems Goodsync Pro. I have to tell you i was excited by the opportunity because this is one of the areas in my computer life where I am the least vigilant. As a technical support person I often tell people to backup their documents, on occasion I even do it myself. The process, either via Windows Briefcase, in house backup solutions or simply burning items to a CD is time consuming and frustrating. Quite often the users don’t end up backing anything up and I’m forced to try and recover their files or my own. I have had hard drives fail. All of my experiences have taught me something. The dirty truth about backing files up is that no one likes to do it because its boring, and is often justified as time that could be better off spent doing something else. Since no one likes to do it, its hard to figure out and takes up your time, no one does. And this is a problem waiting to happen.

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