The Coffee and Tea Festival (#8)

Hello and welcome to the 8th edition of the Coffee and Tea Festival. This festival will be a look into what I think are the best articles from around the coffee and tea trade journals and also feature a few other articles that were submitted. If you have anything you would like to have featured in the next edition of this festival, send them over! Let's begin... Joe Kissell has another interesting post for us this week. He presents Mate: Interesting Thing of the Day posted at Interesting Thing of the Day. The national beverage of Argentina (and a few other South American countries) is vaguely reminiscent of tea, but you can't just drink it; you have to have the right equipment and understand the rituals. I have been exploring Mate myself in the past few months and am really enjoying it. I would say I have a lot to learn about the drink however. Do you watch the labels when heading to your coffee house? Do you order the "skinny" mocha with extra whip? Elaine Magee presents Healthy Recipes - Find tasty and healthy recipes for the whole family posted at Healthy Recipes. While this post is highlighting drinks from the green mermaid, keep in mind that other independents can also created a masterpiece of a summer drink. We all know the importance of a great menu at our favorite coffee or tea stop but what also is important for these places to thrive? Great barista are essential to coffee house success says Karen Wagner in this months edition of Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine. I wrote about this about this a few weeks ago as well. If you are going into o a shop, take a look at the people that are serving you. These are the owners picks and it says a lot about the business they run. In Karen's article, she talks about to to train (or re-train) your staff, what qualities to look for, and how to find them. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal has a nice article about the benefits of loose tea. The article is defending the point that loose leaf teas provide a premium quality, flavor, merchandising options, and a surprisingly lower priced product that can't simply be found in teabags alone. While most of the article is geared towards the business side of tea, it is good to know what you are drinking. I would love to see a shop that can expert in both fine coffees and teas. Know any? That concludes this week's edition of the Coffee and Tea Festival. Thank you very much to all that sent in their posts. The next festival will be on August 7th, right here at A Thought Over Coffee. As always, you can submit your posts with this fantastic little form. Thanks for reading and sending in great posts! Keep them coming! (a quick note about this festival -- articles came from new copies of the listed trade journals. No links are yet available to the post discussed.) ..be bold Tagged: coffee and tea festival, blog carnival, espresso, coffee, tea