Barring monks and weirdos, we all drink coffee. And we have two types of coffee shops from which to choose: the trendy, independently owned spots or Starbucks. Traditionally, the eco-conscious, local-loving, soy milk-drinking people patronize the indie shops while the mainstreamers get their brew fix from one of the 21,000…
Starbucks recently announced a new beverage meant to attract customers who are cutting back calorie consumption after the holidays. It’s called the flat white, and boasts stronger coffee flavor with less milk, making the drink easier on the waistline. Yes, the company that sells caramel Frappuccinos that clock in at…
If the baristas at Mudsmith in East Dallas are anything, they are curious coffee makers. I’ve developed a habit of newspaper-reading while sitting at the bar, and on a few occasions I’ve watched as they tinker with something new. There was a brief stage where mixing stout and coffee seemed…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other extended interviews in our coffee archive, or see them all in one place in this week’s feature story, “Roasting Dallas.” Clay Eiland talks about his roaster with the beaming face of a dad describing his four-year-old’s soccer…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other extended interviews in our coffee archive, or see them all in one place in this week’s feature story, “Roasting Dallas.” Every Saturday, Kevin and Mara Sprague get up before the sun and set up their tent, table…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other entries from the series in our coffee archive. A few years back, after years spent behind coffee bars, Gerald LaRue decided it was time to delve deeper into the business of coffee. He ended up in Juno,…
Like craft beer and chef-driven restaurants before it, specialty coffee is having its moment, finally, in Dallas: Davis Street Espresso, in Oak Cliff, has found that a lack of Wi-Fi and to-go cups has not meant a lack of customers. Ascension, in the Design District, hums all day, despite limited…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other entries from the series in our coffee archive. Kevin Betts and Ryan Smith are chasing the perfect cup. This never-ending pursuit eventually pulled these two brothers-in-law into forming Novel Coffee. Both have been involved in the coffee…
There is no day on your future schedule, none whatsover, in which you will get more work done than the day you sipped a Kyoto Brew from Ascension. You know that level of caffenination when you find yourself saying words at ten times the normal volume, and your laughs burst…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. Monday we introduced you to the guy behind Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters, and yesterday the guys behind Tweed. Jonathan Meadows was 18 when he started working at White Rock Coffee and fell in love with coffee culture. “A big…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. Yesterday, we introduced you to the guy behind Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters. When it was announced, almost a year ago, that the original Pearl Cup coffee shop on Henderson Avenue would close, highly caffeinated tears were shed: It was…
Shannon Neffendorf’s entry into coffee roasting came out of selfish necessity. His job with Blockbuster (remember that) required work trips to Milan several times a year, and he soon found himself meeting with friends for cappuccino in the morning and taking a break for an espresso in the afternoon. “I…
On Saturday afternoon, the smoke was a beacon, luring cars and trucks from nearby Beckley Avenue as they drove towards Urban Acres. One truck hit the brakes hard to pull into the lot before passing by as owner Steven Bailey tended the coals that were putting up the thick, white…
It’s become an annual tradition, and I’m not sure how. While other food-freaks try to consume deep-fried everything at the State Fair of Texas, I get to know one dish — always the winner of the Big Tex Choice Awards — a little more intimately. So far my experiences haven’t…
It started with a simple desire to steer State Fair goers away from lesser grub. I was ready to take things one step further than Alice Laussade, who opined in her State Fair guide that the Big Tex Choice Awards for most creative were fried bullshit. In fact, I wanted…
Ever wanted to make your State Fair trip a little… competitive? Yeah, we got you. Right here at the top of this post you can find your very own State Fair bingo card, and clicking on the little words below it will pump it up to size. Print several, hand…
If The State Fair of Texas is Fried Christmas, Abel Gonzales Jr. is its Fried Jesus. The first year of the Big Tex Choice Awards, he won with Fried Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich. The second year, he won with Fried Coke. Third year: Fried Cookie Dough was his winner…
The 10th Big Tex Choice Awards were held inside the Tower Building at the State Fair of Texas this year. Unlike in previous years, there was a huge crowd; usually it’s just the finalists, the judges, their families, and media, but the State Fair sold tickets to the public to…
Remember when I ate that fried Cuban thing that was more of an egg roll and less of a sandwich? Remember when Hanna Raskin hurked after biting into a ravioli of deep-fried beer? Remember when Alice Laussade pointed out that this whole oil-logged Big Tex Choice Awards were getting a…
America’s number one source of minor heart palpitations just got a little more expensive. Food manufacturer J.M. Smucker recently announced a 9-percent price increase for Dunkin Donuts and Folgers (the bestselling brand in the U.S.) coffees. Thanks to stockpiles of Arabica, Smucker has been able to delay passing costs onto…
If coffee is important to you in a biological or emotional way, then you probably have an attachment to a coffee shop. If your love/addiction runs deep, you have a go-to place in every neighborhood in town. But what makes a coffee shop really good? The kind of good that…
People take their coffee very seriously, or at least take their coffee ritual very seriously. For me, coffee is a part of the rhythm of my life. Drinking coffee is my first order of business every morning without exception. I begin looking forward to that first sip of coffee in…
