What's Brewing

Burnout has existed for as long as humans have been around, but it seems like nowadays it is more prevalent than in previous decades. Why? Probably because We live in the age of hustling and overachievers. We take pride in working hard and accomplishing above the expected, and while there is goodness in this attitude, it is also true that we can crash.  Balance is everything, for it is not worth it to be super productive if later you will crash and mentally or emotionally hurt yourself to the point that you can’t keep up with your own work ethic....

If there is something more Italian than a well brewed coffee, it must be olive oil. Nonetheless, these two have not ever hung out together (at least officially) until this week when Starbucks announced that they have a new line of drinks containing one spoonful of olive oil. The line is called Oleato and the launch is exclusive to Italy, but the plan is that it will soon be served across the whole world.  The announcement has brought many mixed reactions and low approvals among Italians. It is understood that it is more of a business move than anything else....

Did you know that coffee beans are technically a coffee cherry pit? What are coffee cherries? And what can you do with them? Coffee grows in large bushes not much different from all other berries. Interestingly, when it comes to coffee cherries, it is the pit or bean, where we find the popular product from which the wonderful drinks and all its ways of serving come from.  After the cherries are picked they are put through a process to remove the pulp and prepare the beans by washing them and drying them before being roasted. From there, the beans travel all the...

We are fortunate to live in a coffee-friendly world these days, but things have not always been that way. Throughout history and across different cultures coffee has been a meeting point for politics, economics, and societal expectations. This meeting point is a quite interesting place as it is where we get to see what people from the past thought of coffee and how they related to it.  This list compiles laws that nowadays we would consider bizarre, but to rulers of these times and places, the laws made sense. Most of them revolve around roasting, growing, and policies around where...

What is a better person? While we all may have different values and cultures, it is interesting to think that our understanding of what a good person is does not vary too widely. Perhaps that is why the Romans and the Greeks have become The Classics, given that their pursuit of virtue is universally understood as the core of being a good person. Life can be distracting but in the simplicity of the coffee farms there is plenty to learn on how to become a better person.  Humility The Chinese thinker, Confucius once said "Humility is the solid foundation of...

I’ve never considered coffee simply a morning drink. Coffee is a constant companion and there’s room for it in pretty much any special and non-special moment of our day. On that note, have you tried a coffee cocktail? While not a new invention, coffee martinis are at a popular high at the moment.  Espresso Martini This classic drink originated in the late eighties. It was composed by the legendary bartender Dick Bradsell and it was originally called the vodka espresso. The drink became widely popular across bars in the nineties and then all of the sudden it went almost extinct....