Filter Coffeehouse & Espresso Bar in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. has two coffee-themed bicycle racks, one is a french press coffee pot and the other is a steaming cup of coffee. The Washington Area Bicycle Association collaborated with DDOT’s BikeBrand Your Biz campaign to install the custom bike racks to accommodate the large number of customer bikes at Filter.

via Erin Pate and The Coffee Experiment

images via Washington Area Bicycle Association

Artist Gwyneth Leech creates intricate paintings and drawings on used coffee cups. Since September of last year, Leech has been filling the Sprint Prow ArtSpace at the Flatiron Building in Manhattan with hundreds of coffee cup artworks (more than 700 at last count). She can be seen working in the art space Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 2pm. The project, entitled “Hypergraphia,” runs through February 18.

I like my hot coffee or tea in a paper take-out cup, like millions of my fellow citizens. Even better than the contents, I like the used cup as a surface to draw and paint on. And before I begin I like to inscribe the date, location and occasion on which the beverage was consumed so that every cup becomes the record of a social moment.

photo 1 and 3 by Gwyneth Leech, photo 2 by Bernard Klevickas

Special Features Division of the Rank Organisation produced the ongoing newsreel series called Look at Life starting in the late 1950s which depicted scenes from (mostly) British life. Over a span of 10 years, they created over 500 episodes which served as cinema newsreels. This particular Look at Life film, circa 1959, visits the hip bohemian coffee bar scene in London’s SOHO district.

Swedish site, Nostalgoteket, describes a bit of what is shown in the film:

Very cool scene in the 2Is with a rock & roll band playing wildly and the crowd jiving away! A square invades a hipster coffee bar and all the cats give him the evil eye. “The French” is the most bohemian coffee house of the lot—with beatniks discussing planetary movements. Some of the coffee bars shown include: The 2Is, the French, the Macabre, Le Grande, Stockpot, Sam Widges, Melbray, Universal, La Roca, Freight Train, El Toro, Picasso, Las Vegas, Moka Bar, and more.

via swissmiss

Here are a few photos from last Wednesday’s opening of Coffee Common x NYC at A Startup Store. Check out the Coffee Common website for more info about what they are up to and plans for future events.

Coffee Common brings together world-class baristas and roasters with shared values, to create unique experiences that introduce people to the nuanced joys of exceptional coffee. We believe that great coffee is, at its best, a collaboration of an empowered coffee farmer, an artisan coffee roaster, a dedicated barista, and an enlightened consumer. We believe that great coffee requires study, experimentation, craftsmanship, and humility. These diverse roasters and baristas, who by most definitions would be considered competitors, come together as a community to proselytize the simple truths around coffee. We look forward to pouring you a cup of the most complex and extraordinary beverage in the world.

Thanks to my friend Sean Bonner who works with Coffee Common for the head’s up, it’s a really great concept.

photo by Scott Beale

Coffee Common is a united group of dedicated coffee roasters and baristas that collaborates “to proselytize the simple truths around coffee”. From January 19 through January 22, 2012, Coffee Common is hosting Coffee Common X NYC, a public event at A Startup Store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City “to make delicious coffee and help people understand how they can too”. Tickets for this multi-day event are $5 and available online.

Demand for quality coffee is on the rise, but a market filled with strange devices and alien vernacular can sometimes be intimidating. Luckily its easier than ever to find great coffees and to help you navigate all of this, Coffee Common has assembled crew of local and international baristas seeking to distill it all down so each attendee walks away equipped with the fundamentals of delicious coffee.

A Startup Store is “a new story-based retail concept” from entrepreneur and consultant Rachel Shechtman which operates as “a retail environment that has the point of view of a magazine, changes like gallery, and sells things like a store”.

photo by Brian W. Jones

The Nostalgia Electrics Retro Series 3-in-1 Breakfast Station makes toast, coffee and eggs and sausage in a lovely retro-styled case. Just $50 at Manufacturers Clearance.

via Bookofjoe and Nag on the Lake

Photographer Jack Long took this wonderful high speed photo of coffee splashing in a cup.

via The Telegraph, mikl-em, NPR, & BLOGGING via TYPEWRITER

“In Caffeine We Trust” by Column Five Media is a DIY infographic poster for tracking a person’s coffee consumption for one month. The caffeine addict marks their coffee intake on the poster using—what else—coffee as paint. The poster is available as a limited edition print.

via Coudal Partners

In the short film titled If 5 Year Olds Can Make Espresso…, 5-year olds Ellanie and Ethan make a cappuccino on the Izzo Duetto commercial espresso machine. Clive Coffee, a coffee machine company in Portland, Oregon, filmed the short to show how easy it is to make espresso.

via Doobybrain.com and Flwrider

Instant Human Just Add Coffee by SnorgTees

The Gentlemen’s Rant takes on Starbucks.

Eric Appel takes a look stereotypical Coffee Snobs with his latest video on Funny or Die.

>

Daily Fix, a new t-shirt by GlennzTees shows how you might kickstart the day by doing a coffee bong.

Evolution of a Coffee Addict by H. Caldwell Tanner

Grand Rapids production company, Hybrid Media, followed the baristas of Michigan-based Madcap Coffee Company in the short film titled Latte Art. The film showcases their work as latte artisans. A nice bonus of the film is watching the individual barista’s tamping style and custom tampers.

We posted about a film in a similar vein, Green Bean, from Hybrid Media in a post titled Green Bean, The Journey of a Coffee Bean From Roasting To Cup.

image via Hybrid Media

Sightglass Coffee Roasters recently opened their beautiful cafe in San Francisco after more than two years of construction. The New York Times is featuring wonderful photos of the new Sightglass cafe by Oliver Strand.

Here are some of my photos of Sightglass under construction back in 2009.

Glad to see they are open, can’t wait to check it out!

photo by Oliver Strand

App developer Jonathan Stark has posted the barcode to his Starbucks coffee card online so that anyone can get free coffee using his account. The card has a Twitter account, which tweets when the card is used or its balance is depleted (a frequent occurrence). Stark has also given instructions on how generous types can replenish the card’s funds online–a spin on the “take-a-penny, leave-a-penny” dish at a convenience store.

Stark notes in his write-up that he is not in any way at all affiliated with Starbucks.

UPDATE: Jonathan provides further clarification that he is not associated with Starbucks.

via Waxy

Meaghan Mountford of the food blog, The Decorated Cookie, describes herself as “somewhere between writer and cookie decorator”. With her latest post, she incorporates both skills quite well. While perfecting the process of making the ultimate summer beverage at home, iced coffee, she bakes up these wonderful chocolate-y coffee bean-shaped cookies to accompany her icy drink. Although the first batch of cookies didn’t have any coffee in them, it is a planned addition for future ones.

photos by The Decorated Cookie

See also:
- Melting Snowman Cookies
- Pizza Lollipops

Marcooooooo, known as ivejustquitsmoking on Threadless, not only illustrates t-shirt designs for Threadless but has also been incorporating candy, cereal and other foodstuffs for his whimsical still-life designs available on merchandise from Society6.

via JunkCulture Blog

photos by Marcoooooo

Matt Richardson at Make demonstrates how to process photo film negatives using a homebrewed developer recipe of coffee, vitamin C, and washing soda (aka Caffenol). Richardson’s recipe is based on one posted by Photojojo.

photo by Rusty Blazenhoff

Using single malt whiskey from St. George Spirits of Alameda and other unique local ingredients, Bay Area company Naia has created a new line of frozen gelato bars that is gaining a fast audience at Northern California Whole Foods Markets.

Naia’s line of frozen treats also includes gelato bars made from Oakland’s Blue Bottle coffee and San Francisco’s TCHO chocolate. While Naia has been around for years, the new line was made possible by a $25,000 loan from the Whole Foods Local Producer Loan Program that gives small businesses a jump start to bring their local products to a wider market. The bars retail for $2.00 each and are currently available in their own branded freezer case at Northern California Whole Foods Markets.

C. G. P. Grey takes a look at Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever.

Craft Coffee is a coffee-by-mail service that assembles a monthly tasting box of several coffees by artisan roasters from around the United States. The selection of beans will change to follow coffee growing seasons and to highlight different artisan roasters. Craft Coffee is based in Brooklyn.

The il Tiro Espresso Gun is an espresso machine design concept inspired by a revolver pistol (see the video demo.) It rather artfully achieves the convenience of a capsule espresso machine without the packaging waste, and as a bonus it looks like a giant anime handgun. The il Tiro was a semester project by Stefan Riegebauer, Christina Carli, Florian Kainz and Niko Schwarz of the Vienna University of Applied Arts.

via Yanko Design

graphic by Stefan Riegebauer

Hey Look! A Coffee Pot!, a flowchart that encourages the IT department to make more coffee when the pot is empty.

via Passive Aggressive Notes