Michael Allen Smith is the founder, publisher and programmer of INeedCoffee. Michael resides in Seattle, WA. Michael's other web sites include CoffeeHero.com, DeepFitness.com, DigitalColony.com, MichaelAllenSmith.com
and CriticalMAS.com.
I respond to all emails. Sadly, my email filtering software has been flagging many emails from Hotmail as SPAM. If you didn't get response to a message, resend. Make sure you have a unique subject line.
| Article | Section | Topic |
|---|
| A Coffee Eulogy | Cafe Culture | Humor |
| A favorite coffee mug is eulogized after it breaks into pieces. |
| Alternatives To Using a Keurig Coffee Maker | Brewing Coffee | Brewing Options |
| You really do not want a Keurig Coffee Maker. Is making coffee really that hard? I don't think so. If you are considering buying a Keurig Coffee Maker, please read this article. |
| Anti-Starbucks Crusader To Run For New York City Mayor | Coffee People | Rev Billy |
| Bill Talen, who is better known as Reverend Billy, is now running to be the next Mayor of New York City. |
| Avoid Hydroxycut, Drink Coffee Instead | Coffee and Health | Caffeine |
| Since ephedra was removed as ingredient in fat loss pills, I kind of thought this supplement would disappear. |
| Avoiding Plastic – 3 Stainless Steel Electric Kettle Options | Brewing Coffee | Electric Kettle |
| I think I might have been the last person to get this memo: Hot Water + Plastic = Bad. |
| Black Coffee and Espresso - Not Calorie Free | Coffee and Health | Calories |
| For years I've been under the impression that coffee and its younger brother espresso had no calories. Well no calories until you started mucking around with it by adding sugar, dairy and what not. |
| Buying a French Press - Picking the Right One | Brewing Coffee | French Press |
| Every so often someone will ask me to help them pick a French Press. Of all the coffee equipment decisions to make, selecting a french press (aka press pot) is the easiest. |
| Buying Your First Home Coffee Roaster | Roasting Coffee | Buying A Roaster |
| I started home roasting coffee in June 1998. Since then I've used a number of different roasters and methods. I'll be the first to confess that I haven't kept up on all the different machines available to home coffee roasters. |
| Caffeine Consumption By Coffee Fanatics | Coffee and Health | Caffeine |
| Once people learn about the INeedCoffee web site, they always seem to come to the same conclusion. You must drink a lot of coffee! For the longest time I tried to defend myself by explaining that I prefer quality over quantity. |
| Chemex Brewing | Brewing Coffee | Chemex |
| An overview and tutorial on how to make coffee using the Chemex brewing system. |
| Coffee and Dieting | Coffee and Health | Dieting |
| The role of coffee in fat-loss diets. |
| Coffee and Tea Tasting Notes For Beginners | Tea | Tasting Notes |
| How do you take notes describing flavors that are difficult at first to detect or that you don't even have the vocabulary to describe? |
| Coffee Blending For the Home Roaster | Roasting Coffee | Blending |
| Blending can be broken down into two different camps: blending for espresso and blending for non-espresso (regular coffee). |
| Coffee Cup 2.0 | Coffee Business | Coffee Cups |
| Every year coffee hobbyists are exposed to many new brewing or home roasting gadgets. Not only is innovation occuring at the gadget level, but it is also occurring with the disposable coffee cup. |
| Coffee Grind Chart | Grinding Coffee | Chart |
| A visual chart explaining the differences in coffee grinds for each brewing style. |
| Coffee is Loaded With Antioxidants | Coffee and Health | Antioxidants |
| I always knew coffee had some antioxidants, but was unaware than it had more than tea. Antioxidants protect the body from free radicals. |
| Coffee Mugs of Coffee Fanatics | Cafe Culture | Mugs |
| A photo collection of the favorite coffee mugs of several INeedCoffee contributors. |
| Coffee Mugs of Coffee Fanatics Part 2 | Cafe Culture | Mugs |
| I really didn't expect to have a Part 2 so soon. Without further introduction, below are more Coffee Mugs of Coffee Fanatics. |
| Coffee on the Road - Grand Circle | Coffee Travel | Grand Canyon |
| Can one find espresso beauty while visiting the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon? |
| Coffee on the Road - Los Cabos, Mexico | Coffee Travel | Mexico |
| On the southern tip of Baja California is the region known as Los Cabos. This beautiful area which includes Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Del Cabo is just a short flight from Southern California. |
| Coffee Roundtable - Our Starbucks Idea | Coffee Business | Starbucks |
| I just saw a news story on how Starbucks is asking it's customers for ideas on how they can be a better company. Well good ideas are no fun if you can't share them with your friends. |
| CoffeeKid.com | Cafe Culture | Reviews |
| CoffeeKid.com is the March 2000 Site of the Month. This site includes tutorials, photos, and coffee equipment reviews. |
| Cold Brew Coffee with the Toddy Coffee Maker | Brewing Coffee | Cold Brew |
| About 10 years old when I knew far less about coffee than I do today, I attempted my first cold brew coffee. It was a disaster. The coffee was so vile and disgusting I threw it out after a single sip. |
| Cold Weather Coffee Roasting | Roasting Coffee | Cold Weather |
| Roasting coffee can be done indoors or outdoors. With my current pad, roasting on the outdoor patio is the only option. My smoke detector is hyper sensitive and requires an acrobat to disable. As the months went by and the temperature dropped, my roast times were getting longer and longer. |
| Common Grounds Coffee in Siem Reap, Cambodia | Coffee Travel | Siem Reap, Cambodia |
| Outside of the Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leafs and McCafes, most of the places that served espresso during my month trip through Southeast Asia were little more than kiosks. Few stood as fancy. |
| Designing a Web Site for a Coffee House | Coffee Business | Marketing |
| An important element to running a business is a web presence. This is especially true for the cafes. What elements go into creating a good web site for coffee houses? |
| Everything You Wanted to Know About Coffee From Hawaii | Coffee Travel | Hawaii |
| An overview of The Hawaii Coffee Book - A gourmet's Guide from Kona to Kaua'i by Shawn Steiman. |
| Extending the Life of Your Bodum Cordless Electric Kettle | Brewing Coffee | Bodum Kettle |
| Although there were various criticisms, the bulk of the complaints were related to the defective switch. I've owned one for years and I knew exactly what they were talking about. |
| Fearing Starbucks VIA Instant Coffee and My Solution | Brewing Coffee | Instant Coffee |
| I have always suspected it was possible to make a decent instant coffee. However, I feared Starbucks would fumble the project. |
| Gourmet Coffee Roaster | Roasting Coffee | Hearthware |
| An overview of home roasting with Hearthware's Gourmet Coffee Roaster. |
| GreatCoffee.com | Cafe Culture | Reviews |
| GreatCoffee.com is the April 2000 Site of the Month. GreatCoffee.com is an on line coffee retailer with excellent product descriptions and an intuitive shopping cart. |
| Hand Milk Frother Review | Cafe Culture | Reviews |
| What is a hand frother and how well does it work? |
| Home (Alone) Roasting | Roasting Coffee | Cold Weather |
| Michael Allen Smith learns a lesson on how NOT to home roast coffee in the wintertime. |
| Home Roasting Coffee in an Electric Oven | Roasting Coffee | Oven |
| Learn how to home roast coffee with your electric oven. |
| Home Roasting Coffee with a Gas Oven | Roasting Coffee | Oven |
| Learn how to roast coffee using a gas oven. |
| Home Roasting Coffee with the Fresh Roast | Roasting Coffee | Fresh Roast |
| Learn how to home roast coffee using the Fresh Roast coffee roaster. |
| Home Roasting with the Hearthware Precision | Roasting Coffee | Hearthware Precision |
| A demonstration on how easy it is to home roast coffee with the Hearthware Precision Coffee Roaster. |
| Hosting a Coffee Party | Cafe Culture | Party |
| As much as a I love the coffee shops here in Seattle, sometimes I just want to meet up with friends and family at home. I still want the coffee though. |
| How to Stereotype Roasters | Coffee Business | Roasting |
| Learn how to effectively stereotype a coffee roaster without sampling their wares. |
| Illy | Cafe Culture | Reviews |
| Illy is the March 2001 INeedCoffee Site of the Month award winner. |
| INeedCoffee Roast Color Chart | Roasting Coffee | Color Chart |
| A simple seven color roast chart for home coffee roasters to reference. Also can be used to articulate coffee color when roasting for others. |
| Internet Outpost Cafe | Cafe Culture | Reviews |
| Site Of the Month Award for 2/2000 is the Internet Outpost Cafe. They are located on St. Pete Beach, Florida. |
| Java Cabana | Cafe Culture | Reviews |
| Cuban espresso retailer Cafe Pilon has created Java Cabana. It is the October 2000 INeedCoffee Site Of the Month. |
| Kona Coffee Confusion | Coffee Business | Kona |
| I forgot the exact dollar amount, but I recall during college a friend telling me they got a full pound of Hawaiian Kona coffee at price that seemed too good to be true. |
| Locating a Decent Coffee During Mardi Gras in New Orleans | Coffee Travel | New Orleans |
| This year I left the espresso comfort of Seattle and ventured to The Big Easy for my first trip to New Orleans. Bringing my Rancilio Silvia and a pound of espresso was not an option. |
| Meeting Up With The Green Coffee Buying Club | Roasting Coffee | Buying Club |
| Coffee cooperatives are groups that pool their money together to buy sizes of unroasted coffee that are usually only available to commercial roasters. |
| Melitta Mishap | Roasting Coffee | Melitta |
| Home Roasting with the Melitta AromaRoast is a bit more difficult than other methods. In an effort to discover a perfect roasting environment, one of the basic lessons of roasting was forgotten. |
| My Cat Kato vs. The Kona Coffee Plant | Cafe Culture | Humor |
| The story of a kitten that doesn't get along with a kona coffee plant. |
| My Worst Cup of Coffee Was My First Cup of Coffee | Cafe Culture | Essay |
| I was 17 years old and I never tasted coffee. I had no interest in the beverage. What I was interested in was finding a way to pay for college, so I joined the Army National Guard. |
| Ninety-Four Coffee – Bangkok, Thailand | Coffee Travel | Bangkok, Thailand |
| No matter where I travel in this world, I always seem to attract 1970s American pop music. Thailand was no different and 94 Coffee delivered. |
| No Coffee or Tea For At Least 2 Weeks | Coffee and Health | Teeth Whitening |
| I messed up. I messed up bad. A few weeks ago I got a direct mail advertisement for a dentist offering new patients a free Zoom teeth whitening with the purchase of a cleaning and X-rays. |
| Picking Your Top 10 Coffee Accessories | Brewing Coffee | Top 10 |
| When it comes to coffee gear, what makes it into the Top 10 list? |
| Popper Roasting Tips | Roasting Coffee | Popper |
| A few helpful tips for beginner home roasters using a popcorn popper for roasting. Another name for this article might be Roast Your Own 2. |
| Press Pot Tutorial | Brewing Coffee | Press Pot |
| Learn how to brew press pot coffee and discover how to correct the most common brewing mistakes. |
| Preventing the Flu By Gargling Tea | Coffee and Health | Flu |
| Recently I was reading up on the latest H1N1 virus information and came across an interesting study that measured how tea could prevent influenza. |
| Red Espresso is Espresso Style Rooibos | Tea | Rooibos |
| Red Espresso is a finely ground version of pure rooibos, which makes it possible to pull espresso shots. As a fan of rooibos and an espresso fanatic, I was excited to try this product. |
| Responding to the Enemies of Coffee | Cafe Culture | Wisdom |
| I know several people that don’t like coffee. I’m OK with that. But every so often I’ll meet someone that after learning about my love for coffee wants to rant to me about how awful the beverage is and that they would never drink it. |
| Ristretto Rant | Espresso | Ristretto |
| My coffee drink of choice for the past few years has been the straight espresso shot. All my other coffee equipment has either been packed away or is gathering dust. For me it is all about espresso now. |
| Roasting Coffee in a Popcorn Popper | Roasting Coffee | Popper |
| A tutorial on how to home roast coffee using the Westbend Poppery. |
| Senseo Coffee Brewing | Brewing Coffee | Senseo |
| An overview and tutorial on brewing with the Senseo Coffee Machine. |
| Senseo Revisited | Brewing Coffee | Senseo |
| The article Senseo Coffee Brewing has caused quite a reaction and some confusion. This follow-up hopes to address some the common questions. |
| Shopping For the Coffee Fan | Cafe Culture | Shopping |
| Some simple advice on how to buy coffee as a gift. |
| Sleepy Starbucks and Caffinated Sins in Phuket, Thailand | Coffee Travel | Phuket, Thailand |
| Just because I am on vacation doesn’t mean that I don’t still wake up early and seek out coffee. |
| Starbucks Coffee College | Coffee Business | Starbucks |
| When I accepted the offer to attend Starbucks Coffee College, I decided I would not let my past Starbucks experiences cloud my judgment. It was time to listen and learn. I was going back to college. |
| Stovetop Roasting with the Whirley-Pop | Roasting Coffee | Popper |
| Learn how to home roast coffee on your stovetop using the Whirley-Pop. |
| SweetMarias.com | Cafe Culture | Review |
| The first site of the month winner for INeedCoffee.com is Sweet Maria's. |
| Table Top Press Pot Review | Brewing Coffee | Review |
| Earlier this year, I posted an article titled Buying a French Press – Picking the Right One. I isolated the only three variables that I felt were necessary to make a purchase decision. |
| Teach A Fish To Make Espresso | Cafe Culture | Humor |
| True story about what happens when Starbucks tried to sell Michael Allen Smith a home espresso machine. |
| The 2 Best Cups of Coffee I've Ever Had | Coffee Business | Pricing |
| I don’t believe there is always a direct correlation between price and quality. To illustrate this point, I’d like to describe the two best cups of coffee I’ve ever had. |
| The Coffee Breakfast Cereal | Coffee Business | Cereal |
| Is there a coffee flavored breakfast cereal? Let me share with you what my research turned up. |
| The Coffee Song | Coffee People | Frank Sinatra |
| I thought I was a Frank Sinatra fan, but somehow this tune escaped me. Back in 1946, Frank Sinatra sang The Coffee Song. |
| The Hamilton Beach Cool Touch Tea Kettle Review | Brewing Coffee | Tea Kettle Review |
| I wanted an electric tea kettle that had no exposed plastic parts and ended up purchasing the Hamilton Beach 40898 Cool Touch Tea Kettle. Here is my review. |
| The Longest Coffee Roast Ever? | Roasting Coffee | Stir Crazy |
| Slow roasted coffee just took on a new meaning. |
| The Naturally Caffeine-Free Coffee Plant | Coffee Agriculture | Coffee Plant |
| A coffee plant that can produce coffee without caffeine is a major breakthrough. |
| The Quest for Good Coffee in the Office | Cafe Culture | Journeys |
| Working in an office building doesn't mean you must drink bad coffee. |
| The Quick Economics of Home Roasting Coffee | Roasting Coffee | Economics |
| Let me go through the numbers and show you how much money you could save by home roasting your own coffee. |
| The Year 2000 Coffee News Review | Coffee History | News |
| A brief rundown of the top news stories of the year 2000 that relate to coffee. |
| Tips for Quick and Easy Iced Coffee | Brewing Coffee | Drinks |
| Coffee is a fantastic drink at any time of day, during any season of the year. That being said, a steaming hot cup of java isn’t always welcome once summer rolls around. Don’t let the summer heat deprive you of your favorite beverage when you can switch to iced coffee! |
| Troubleshooting French Press Coffee | Brewing Coffee | French Press |
| It's been five years since I wrote the Press Pot Tutorial. Since then I've brewed a lot of coffee in my press pot. A lot of coffee. Along the way I've developed a checklist of steps to take to improve the taste of French Press coffee. |
| Vancouver Espresso Vacation | Coffee Travel | Vancouver |
| Memorial Day Weekend was approaching so I decided it would be an ideal time to take off on a little vacation. Where should I go? Since it was almost summer, I decided a return visit to Vancouver, Canada would be perfect. |
