Arizona Coffee

In this video, barista Heather Perry demonstrates how she froths milk. Good job!

Jason Haeger just wrote from Texas to pass on news of the 2008 SWRBC:
Hi Chris,
I just wanted to inform you of the latest. The 2008 SWRBC will be held in Austin, TX in tandem with the SCRBC from October 31 through November 1. No word on the exact location yet.
The official […]

All the way from Australia the Barista Brothers talk about coffee. They’ve got a great start and I wish them success.

I discovered them on Viddler. They have a bunch more videos up there.

A few weeks ago I went into a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf since it had been a few years. I was surprised to see they now offered free wireless internet. Well, apparently it’s a plan to roll out free wireless internet at all of their locations. Good for them!

Ron Cortez also passed along an interesting article with some interesting facts. Granted, the facts are from Australia but maybe they apply here in the U.S.
Females aged 16 to 24 prefer chains to independents, which are more popular with older coffee-drinkers.
Company directors and senior managers also prefer an independently made coffee, while clerical and administrative […]

Ron Cortez passed along this interesting article which suggests that Starbucks no longer gives small coffee shops the jitters. I would agree. In talking with coffee house owners around Arizona, most don’t fear Starbucks (or never did). It’s obviously a different story if a Starbucks were to move into your retail complex. But that rarely […]

Intatto Coffee at Greenway and Tatum is having it’s 2nd Annual Artwalk today. It runs from 11am to 6pm and I hear they will have live music, food and of course coffee. I’m planning to be there around noon today.
Update: I had a really good time at Intatto on Saturday. There were about 25 people […]

A strange beverage (I think it is from Japan): Hello Boss Iced Coffee.

John Banks wrote to mention that Crave Espresso Bar in Tucson has just reopened.
From this week’s Tucson Weekly: “Crave Espresso Bar has reopened under a new owner, Aaron Triplett, who also owns Safehouse. You will probably still feel at home, because most of the staff remains as well. Crave is located at 4530 E. […]

I lost count at about a dozen. There have been an abnormally high number of coffee shops closing recently. Just this morning reading the comments on Arizona Coffee I learned that Areopagus Coffee has closed its store and decided to focus efforts on coffee roasting.
Its made me ponder the future of coffee shops in […]

In what appears to be a never ending string of bad fortune for The Willow House, they have been shut down by their landlord (for unpaid rent according to an employee).
Recap:

Willow House decides to move to a new location downtown. Story goes that the landlord isn’t keeping up the building maintenance.
After a few months […]

Steve P. writes to let us know that Anna Bean’s Coffee and Gelato closed its doors this past weekend. I tried phoning Anna Bean’s but the phone number has already been disconnected. They only opened in October of 2007. Not even a year ago.
Steve says “It’s sad because the owners and all the staff were […]

Louis writes:
The Joshua Tree Coffee Company’s roasting house is conveniently located at 26150 Pierce Ferry Rd in historic downtown Lake Mead City, one mile from the West Grand Canyon turnoff, serving Northern Arizona & Southern Nevada with the freshest locally roasted coffee.
We would love to be listed with the other AZ roasters.
Website: www.joshuatreecoffee.com

Beginning at 26:00 in this video you can watch Austin’s talk at Ignite Phoenix last night. The title of his talk was Running A Successful Coffee Establishment.

Austin did a great job, here are his points:

Atmosphere - Comfortable, relaxed
Drinks
Location, Location, Location
Seating
Wifi and other Amenities
Good Music
Friendly Staff — Friendly staff can make or break a coffee shop
Customers […]

A client emailed me a link to a discussion going on over at Serious Eats asking “What are your coffee shop expectations?” and I thought I’d propose that question here on Arizona Coffee.

Tonight our very own Austin Baker will be doing a 5 minute talk called Running A Successful Coffee Establishment. He’s doing the talk at an event called Ignite, which gives each presenter 5 minutes to talk and explain one topic. Everyone presenting has a slideshow that changes every 15 seconds. Here’s a list of topics […]

I ran across this today and thought it was pretty cool. The Triple Espresso Lamp, designed by François Legault.

An unexpected visit to Grinders Coffee Co. on Sunday left me with a mixed opinion about the place.
It’s not my first trip to Grinders. I visited back in 2007. They have what looks like an excellent location on the corner of Dunlap and Central. There was a crowd there when I first arrived but most […]

So by now most of you have probably heard the story of the Chicago police officer who was suspended because she demanded free coffee at Starbucks.
You can read the article here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-starbucks-cop-web-aug08,0,6874669.story
It brings up a question: Should coffee shops give free or discounted coffee drinks to cops and firefighters? If you run a coffee house, […]

In another random article from the newspaper, we have a “list of 8 cool coffeehouses:”
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dining/articles/0804coffeehouses.html

The Willow House
Jolta Java
Lux Coffee
Areopagus Coffee
The Village Coffee Roastery
Cave Creek Coffee Company
Copper Star Coffee
Cupz Coffee