Above is shown the Coffee Cuff, a coffee sleeve handmade from reclaimed architectural veneer offcuts. A green alternative to the waste generated from all the cardboard sleeves.
A great alternative for the eco-minded. Stylish too!
Via iltli ; Image: contexture.ca ; Tags: coffee cuffs, bentwood, design, coffee, coffee sleeve, recycled, eco friendly, eco, green
Check out this 2008 illustrated coffee calendar by Mike Rohde. It features several unique drinks from various areas of the world. You can see all the illustrations in this Flickr page, and if you like them you can buy the calendar from Cafepress.
Japan’s Tsukioka Co. has created edible gold blocks to go in coffee. The "Kin Kirara" (Sparkly Gold) are thin, pure gold word and character blocks - Happy Birthday would set you back about $4
Via coolhunting
I’ve stumbled across some great gifts for Coffee Lovers that are Valentine’s inspired - not just fun coffee gifts, but fun and lovable coffee gifts.
Inspiration: slashfood ; Tags: coffee, tea, valentine’s day, heart, hearts, valentine, valentines
The Ceramic for Mix is a design concept to eliminate the need for a spoon in hot drinks like tea or coffee.
The ceramic ball will stir your tea and makes a beautiful ringing sound as it goes around the glass. No need to remove the ball, it is encased in the ring of the glass and will not come out when you tip the glass to sip.
"Function creates an new gestural and aesthetic appeal."
Via Josh Spear
You know coffee is ingrained into our culture when Baristas appear as toys:
This BARISTA figure is named Nico. "She’s the barista who pours your morning espresso. No other barista in town makes a latte like Nico. Her beans are always freshly ground, she never tamps the filter basket too tight and her foam is perfect: thick and decadent, like a pillow of edible clouds. Each 5 inch tall hard plastic Barista Action Figure has moveable arms and legs and comes with two interchangeable heads and two different sized cups (tall and grande) that she can hold in her hand. Comes on an illustrated blister card with Nico’s history and other valuable information on the back."
I think I’ve seen it all now. And love the tattoo.
Tags: barista, coffee, coffee culture, barista toy, barista action figure, weird toys
With the holidays just around the corner, you might be planning your Christmas shopping. If you have a coffee lover on your gift list, here are some ideas for gifts we’d recommend.
And for those of you who can’t decide, there are always Amazon Gift Certificates to give your coffee lover the choice of which machines, gadgets or gizmos they want to buy.
Don’t forget that Online Shopping will be great on Monday - it will be “Cyber Monday” in the US, after “Black Friday”, so be ready for some great deals!
Tags: coffee, coffee lovers, coffee gadgets, bodum, gifts, christmas, holidays, gift ideas, top 10, top 10 gifts, shopping, online shopping, gadgets, kitchen
I won’t admit to liking the coffee pod system since, well, I don’t. However, many many people like the convenience of it. So, for those of you, I present the Perfect Pod system.
The Perfect Pod Maker alows to to easily make your own pods using any coffee you like. So, you can choose a great roast, fresh, and make your pods in small batches. The machine will heat seal the pods, so no mess.
Makes pods for most brands, including Senseo, Melitta, Simple Human, Juan Valdez, Bunn Home Cafe, Bunn-o-matic, Mr. Coffee, Hamilton Beach, and more.
Via boing boing & popgadget
Tags: coffee pods, pod coffee, perfect pod, coffee, coffee machines
We’ve been using an electric kettle to boil our water when we want to drink coffee or tea. One of those that doesn’t even shut-off automatically, you have to pull the plug when you think the water is ready. So we started looking for a new kettle that would look nicer in the kitchen and would not burn the house down if we forgot to unplug it.
We looked in a few places: The Bay, Sears, various kitchen gadget stores. They all had the same stuff and the nice looking kettles where $90 minimum, so we gave up. That is until we wandered into a tea shop and saw the utiliTEA, a nice looking stainless steel kettle with temperature control.
The knob on the bottom allows you to control the water temperature when the kettle shutfs off. If you want to boild the water you crank it all the way to the right. On my kettle the middle setting heats the water to about 82C and the middle of the shaded area gives you about 92C. After some trial and error you can find out where the right setting is for whatever you are brewing: coffee, green tea, black tea.
The units are not calibrated so you have to use the kettle a few times to figure out where the temperatures are on your kettle, but it doesn’t take very long and the results are worth it. Compared to the other stainless steel kettles we saw the utiliTEA was about $20 cheaper at $70. And the other kettles didn’t have the temperature control.
Wanna know how to convert your popcorn machine into a coffee roaster? Well, I don’t but some may ;)
Anyway, if you think you can roast beans good enough for your taste, then hop on over to engadget for the step by step instructions. And be prepared - it looks like you’ll need to be quite specific about your parts and on how to put it together properly.
Check out this Caffeine Molecule Tshirt from Think Geek:
I’m not that much of a geek, though ;)
Via Arizona Coffee
Noix de Coco - art by Silvia Vassileva, makes me want to run off and make a hot chocolate. Mmm.
Via morning coffee & afternoon tea ; Tags: chocolate, hot chocolate, art
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Another picture of the Bodum Assam glass:
One of the gifts Arieanna gave me this Christmas was a couple of Bodum Assam double-wall glasses. These 7 ounce glasses have a double wall of glass which helps keep your hot drinks hot and cold ones cold. The pictures I took are really bad and they don’t make justice to how nice the glasses look, the coffee seems to be floating, a nice effect. Another benefit of the double wall is that the outside of the glass wont sweat so it wont leave any marks on the table.
I don’t have any actual data, but I do think that the coffee stayed hot longer than when using our regular cups. The outter wall didn’t get hot, just a little warm, so it was easy to hold it comfortably. Thanks Arieanna!
I will quite openly admit that I don’t know much about tamping, and tampers in specific. What makes one tamper better than the other? Not sure, want to research.
But as far as attractiveness goes, this one did catch my eye:
I also think I’m partial to ones that are more natural looking - you know, wood or steel or things like that. Granted, I’d need one seriously high end espresso machine to warrant this puppy, but maybe it’d be an appropriate decorative piece given our passion.
Tags: tamper, tamping, espresso, coffee, gadgets
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