Best Coffee in the Miami Airport?

Forget Starbucks. Find a place that serves cafe con leche. Beg for a paper cup instead of Styrofoam. Enjoy!

I found mine at the Lorena Garcia Cocina immediately next to the Mojito Bar, (I know--it was a tough choice) at gate D-53 in the American Airlines Concourse.

OH YES! COFFEE ON A STICK!

http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2011/04/breakfast-for-dessert-boiled-custard.html

COFFEE FUELS SUCCESSFUL WOMEN

"Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee."*

There are good coffee days and there are not good coffee days.  It has nothing to do with the taste of the brew, although a weak blend can try anyone's patience. 

Good coffee days lend themselves to only one cup for the day.  It's a satisfying place to be.  I don't leave my coffee mug on the roof of the car as I exit the driveway. Things get done all the way to 'finish.'  Co-workers don't intrude on your space and the microwave doesn't steam lunch into a gooey mess.  The good coffee days are when you read an article that supports one's own prejudices about the benefits of drinking coffee—things like coffee provides antioxidants, may help fight against dementia, Parkinson's disease and type 2 Diabetes.  Women in a recent Swedish study who drank at least a cup of coffee every day had a 25 percent lower risk of stroke, compared to those who drank less coffee or none at all.  One appreciates these articles, as they offset another recent article that said coffee consumption results in heightened anxiety, caffeine addiction, or (gulp!) dry skin. 

Good organic, fair trade coffee purchased out of a bin at the local natural foods store makes me feel virtuous and right in supporting the workers of the world.  Coffee made at home in my beloved coffeemaker is the best.  This cup of coffee has just the right amount of organic, brown sugar and organic soy milk.  It's just the right temperature, as I pour it into my favorite insulated mug—the one that says “A day without coffee is like a day without coffee.”  Ah, a good coffee day.  The sun is shining, my laundry is folded and that ex-best friend from high school's Facebook picture makes her look ten years older than she really is.

The bad coffee days result in that afternoon second cup of brew.  Things are piled high on the desk and everything gets recorded on sticky notes instead of lining up neatly on the To Do pad.  The phone sits silent until the exact moment when I decide to place a call on my cell phone.  Bad coffee days are cloudy times when co-workers never seem to be able to put the new roll of paper towels on the roller in the kitchen.  Perhaps, I should type out instructions?  The bad coffee days include the ones where I wake up, stumble out to the kitchen, open the cupboard only to find that my suddenly new coffee drinker in the house, age 17, has neglected to tell me that he used the last of the ground beans during a late night study session over Skype.  On these days, I could almost be convinced that coffee consumption might result in high cholesterol or a stroke, if I had the time to worry about it. I'm certain that coffee's co-dependent partners are pastries and cookies.  My body can't ingest one without the other.  It doesn't help that a co-worker's two-day-old birthday cake is in the break room.  The one she brought to share, but later confessed she couldn't resist the temptation if she was left home alone with it.  Right now, the cake is plotting with the coffee pot against my waistline. However, let's be clear.  Chocolate in any form, even on bad coffee days, does not count as sugar consumption among any women I know. 

Here's a picture of my desk.  Was this a bad coffee day or a good one?  If I hadn't spilled my coffee all over my desk, I wouldn't have a photo opportunity to include in this blog post.  I wouldn't have been able to rationalize buying a replacement latte from our local barista, nor would I have gotten out the spray furniture polish and cleaned my entire desk.  It's actually perspective.  It's really not about the coffee. 

 

*coffee quote from Stephanie Piro, a cartoonist for Six Chix, who draws and writes “Fair Game.”  Her latest book is "My Cat Loves Me Naked.”

NO, YOU'RE NOT ALL THAT. . .

THE BANE: PHYSCIAL CLUTTER

Scientists find physical clutter negatively affects your ability to focus, process information | Unclutterer

 

FOAMING AT THE MOUTH

Salon is hosting a coffee art contest with prizes from Bodum.

Photo by Scooter Vagabond

TODAY ANY TIME YOU WANT IT

National Coffee Break is Jan 20, 2011

It's time for a coffee break!

THEY SHOULD HAVE SERVED

They Should Have Served That Cup of Coffee:  Seven Radical Remember the '60's, edited by Dick Cluster, published by South End Press.

COFFEE CHALLENGE

from the Evil Genius Store

IMPACT OF FAIR TRADE COFFEE

from Christine Rode, California College of the Arts

GRIND IT YOURSELF KINDA GIRL

from: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

MISPLACED

from the Evil Genius Store

MORE EVILS OF COFFEE

THE EVILS OF COFFEE

Well, that explains it.  From "The Evils of Coffee"

tin sign from www.popartuk.com

"Since the 1920s, coffee drinking has almost completely destroyed all decency and morality in the United States and Europe. During that time, violent crime, burglary, divorce and the inappropriate use of large vegetables by bored American women, have all increased to almost epidemic dimensions—if not to bubonic plague proportions.

"One's elders are laughed at, women smoke cigarettes quite openly, gentlemen go about bare-headed and girls as young as five and twenty expose their naked ankles to the gaze of passersby. The very fabric of society is warped beyond redemption and stretched to breaking point. Coincidence? I think not!

"Coffee, once an unusual and rare drink is now drunk openly on every street corner in every city from New York to San Francisco—and possibly even further west. Entire chains of coffee shops now brazenly sell their despicable wares on British High Streets and American Main Streets where even young children can see them.

"Thus from the very earliest age, our children begin to think of coffee drinking as stylish, or even fashionable. They are brainwashed into believing that coffee drinking is a perfectly acceptable alternative lifestyle, only to discover too late that it is a fast-track passport to ill-health, unbridled sexual promiscuity, greasy skin and debilitating headaches as my exhaustive research clearly proves."

COFFEE, PROCRASTINATION AND THE BIKE

I was on a deadline and still had managed to procrastinate away the largest part of the day.  The bike had to go to the shop.  I was leaving the next day. The bike and a new, as yet not-purchased heavy duty bike lock, had to be delivered 300+ miles south to my son waiting expectantly in his dorm room. 

What resulted was what each of us procrastinators hopes will happen every time, but almost never does.  I went by a small bike shop that recently opened in my neighborhood.  It was late in the afternoon, I noticed the sign said closing was in two hours.  Two bike guys took the dusty bike into their control.  "No problem, it'll be done tomorrow afternoon at the latest." 

"Actually, I'm leaving before noon tomorrow.  Could you work on it this afternoon?"

"No problem."

My heart soared.  Time to linger at a table outside the local coffee shop on a beautiful October day. I had tucked my laptop in my bag and now I had been gifted an hour and a half of free time. 

When I came back, it was fifteen minutes before closing and the bike was not done.  The bike shop owner said it would only be a few more minutes.  He offered me coffee--noting that he only brewed organic french press and free wi-fi.  I sat down on the couch in front of the picture window.  The gangly half puppy half adult dog joined me on the other faded cushion.   

When the bike was finished and loaded into my car, the owner pointed to his "car," a bicycle built for two.  He invited me to come by and hang out any time.  "We make coffee every morning and usually have fresh muffins."

This is indeed the reward that validates our procrastination.  

FAIR TRADE

I deposit my paycheck at my bank and in return they let me make
coffee from a new Keurig machine with a selection of blends that includes Newman's organic.  Is that fair trade?

Caffè breve

brevity was not his native language

SIPPING COFFEE

tiny crackles of free time:  bolts of lightning across a dark sky of boredom.

SWEETWATER COFFEE ROASTERS

Sweetwater Organic Coffee Company is a member of Cooperative Coffees (CC), a green coffee importing cooperative, committed to supporting and partnering with small-scale farmer organizations.

Roaster members stretch from Rhode Island to Washington State, and from the Northern Territory of the Yukon, Canada down to the panhandle of Florida. Some are roaster-retailers, others are roaster-wholesalers, but all a.

Sweetwater Organic Coffee is located in Gainesville, Florida, Home of the Florida Gators is committed to Fair Trade, Organic coffee and sustainability, roasting coffee daily in micro-batches to ensure freshness within each cup.re small-sized operations that are committed to selling sustainable coffees. 

COFFEE FILTERS

coffee?  latte.  Sweet'N Low? Stevia.  creamer?  soy milk.  second date?  nope.

hemp coffee filters

BROKEN HEART

This morning, the sun sparked the gold band on the barista's left hand:  seven days of heart shaped latte art - broken.  

photo by Karl Swedberg

COFFEE AS AN ART FORM

Andrew Saur and Angel Sarkela-Saur have been painting with coffee for several years now. It all started one summer when they planned their first art show in a coffee house in Duluth, Minnesota. They wanted to come up with something unique and creative. Since their show was going to take place in a coffee house, they thought it would be appropriate to use coffee as their medium. They tried several techniques, such as using the coffee bean to sketch with and making pastels out of coffee grounds. These techniques were not successful. So they finally decided to use the coffee as a watercolor.

 From Coffee Art

Download a coffee personality poster, recipes or a screen saver from Coffee Art and there are some unique, very inexpensive prints for sale that would compliment my kitchen decor.  

LAWYERS AND LATTE

The attorney raised his gaze from the retainer check to his client's blue eyes: yes, bad coffee can be grounds for divorce.

IF IT FEELS PRETTY COARSE, THEN IT PROBABLY IS

Intelligentsia Coffee, Venice, CA

SINGLE CUP COFFEE BREWER?

I've been looking around town for a single cup coffee maker for my office.  All I have found so far are either very expensive or the type with a carafe, which frankly don't heat to a correct brewing temperature.  I also don't want to be limited to having to buy a pod, a T or a K.  I like my beans fair trade and organic!

I was hoping the Coffee Detective could help.