The most important thing today for a brand is not the content that it talks about, but how it talks about it. The typeface becomes a critical part of that voice and DNA, with consistency, authenticity and believability becoming paramount requirements.

It is one part opportunity, one part necessity. Thanks to this global quality revolution, there are more wine-growing areas than ever that merit undivided attention, and the Internet has given wine journalists a cheap and easy platform from which to peddle that kind of particularized knowledge. But because of the Internet, there are also probably more people than ever writing about wine. Anyone with a computer and a corkscrew can be a critic now; offering regional expertise is a way of standing out in an increasingly crowded field.

But for those who want to do their own pairings, Hough suggests you ignore nuances and focus on broader characteristics: "How acidic it is, how sweet, how intense, the tannins, the intensity. Those characteristics tend to be consistent within a varietal."

Herein is mentioned the French 75 ...

“Two years ago, our first meeting had 22 women in attendance. Now our organization has more than 300 members. We’re not only promoting women’s professionalism in the beer industry, we’re also encouraging women to be educated consumers of beer.”

This makes me want to clean my kitchen. I mean thoroughly. Bless you, Bibulo.us!

In fact, with the opening of a Warsaw Starbucks, one might even say we have reached the end of a cycle. Born in Central Europe, where it embodied an ideal of luxury and a certain set of aspirations; landing in Seattle, where it came to embody a different kind of luxury and a different set of aspirations; now reimported to Central Europe, aesthetically transformed but essentially fulfilling the same function, the coffeehouse appears to have come full circle, at last.

Coffee drinkers who have scaled back the most since the beginning of the year, according to the online survey of 500 Americans conducted between Jan. 14 and 15, are consumers aged 45 to 54, with fully half (50.4%) saying they have "cut back a lot" on fancy or expensive takeout coffee. That was followed by consumers 35 to 44 (37.5%) and 25 to 34 (33.3%). As might be expected, those who had trimmed the expense the most were in the lower of the survey's income brackets (48.6% earned between $20,000 and $39,000, and 33.6% earned below $20,000; the latter presumably included college students, who are a sweet spot for Starbucks).
But salary didn't appear to be that big a factor among the 92% who said they are cutting back on back on expensive coffee to save money: The percentage was close to even across all income levels, including $75,000-plus.

"J.P. Morgan drank a Manhattan at the market's closing every day," Clarke said after a slow sip. "What did his Manhattan taste like? That's what I want to know -- what history tasted like."

"Making great coffee at home requires only a few basic steps. First, buy great beans. Most connoisseurs recommend Arabica beans, which tend to be milder and sweeter than other commercial varieties. Next, use the correct ratio of water to coffee. For drip coffee makers, this means a rounded tablespoon of coffee for every two cups of water. Last, serve while hot and fresh."

"First of all, she said, pick your battles. Second, bring something more to the job, no matter how low you are on the totem pole. Then, after a while, if getting coffee feels demeaning, it'll be easier to ask for a change."

"The mood and the food and the context really matters. It’s the neglected pairing.”

"Two things make Riesling the most versatile wine with our style of food: great acid profile and a little bit of sweetness – it's an off-dry wine. How many dishes do you know that aren't enhanced by a squeeze of lemon or a squeeze of lime?"

"The key finding of this study is that after alcohol exposure, threat-detecting brain circuits can't tell the difference between a threatening and non-threatening social stimulus."

"The truth is that the majority of beer drunk in the United States is some variance of a light lager. But craft beer is different. It has as much presence and body as good wine, and these days can contain as much alcohol as wine."

"The Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, and the English seem to have special relationships with the hangover. Why do societies drink? The answer is obvious, in a way, but not entirely."

"The troubled attitude of the English to alcohol seems often to stem from an anxiety about lack of supply. [...] Managed well, the drinking of alcohol is a beautiful experience — socially cohesive, possibly even enlightening."

"So what? The So What is this: Clover coffee machines are networked. They all speak to headquarters via CloverNet, and monitor EVERYTHING about your cup of coffee."

"The home of the caramel macchiato, Starbucks, has drawn some of the most consistent criticism, often from employees associated with the Industrial Workers of the World."

"There was a time when people would go to their local temple for advice on all sorts of problems, not just spiritual matters. This bar is just the same, a place where people can come and talk freely about their problems."

"The wise editor understands that quality journalism requires a bad attitude, foul words, a brawl, and sometimes a drink afterward."

"Everything changed, however, when I moved to Sonoma, a quaint small town in Northern California in an area better known as The Wine Country."

"For, far being from high-born, the original Down Guinnesses were probably of the helot-class, virtual slaves whose lack of blood or connection meant that they were excluded from positions of wealth or influence in patrilineal Gaelic society."

"Perhaps it is just a matter of time before some entrepreneur decides to set up a big chain of coffee shops with 'no men allowed' on the door." (Hammam time!)

"Starbucks prefers to be near dry cleaners and video stores, because they require two visits -- for dropping off and picking up."

"[I]f one were to direct that $900 (or five lattes a week for a year) annually into an investment with a 5 percent return rate, 'after 30 years, you would have $59,794.' "

"If we consider the way our world is changing and look ahead, the Puget Sound area will only get better for wine. But in California, they're going to have difficulty finding varietals that will grow in a hotter and hotter climate."

"At a recent tasting, I listened to one grower after another speak in glowing terms of the near perfect conditions in which their '05 rieslings were made. And the wines we tasted were indeed delicious."

At least a dozen half-shot tastings? On a old naval air base? With a great view of S.F.? For $10? Man, I'm going back, that's all there is to it.

"Even though more Americans said they preferred wine in that pool, beer still outsold wine 6 to 1. So either a very few people drink a whole lot of beer, or people are more stuck on beer than they let on."

"We know from international evidence that it’s measures that tackle price and availability where one can really make a difference. There is a very clear link between price and consumption. It’s never been cheaper in real terms than it is now."

"People were treating bottled water as if it had snob appeal. With higher income, people are acting as if it's like getting a fancier car. It's a way to show you're more sophisticated."

"In an odd and, I grant, surreal way, Starbucks may be one of the last remaining venues where Americans of different views can fraternize peaceably, united in their jonesing for caffeine. Put that in a memo."

"When someone tells me I’m lucky to have J, I agree. I’m fortunate I found him when I did, and not when I am 70. However, the fact remains, I refuse to settle for less. He’s equally lucky to have me. [...]"

“One of my favorite stories is this big beefy roofer, like 6-foot-5, deep voice, he walks up to our bar and he says, ‘I’d like a wedding cake latte please.' "

"There is a 27-year-old man who does almost exactly what I do, and he is already making more than me. I've been with the company for 42 years. And the court says that's fair? Well, I strongly disagree."

“She said, ‘If you never buy another bottle of wine in your life, and you drink a bottle each night with dinner, how long would it take you to drink up all you have?’ ”

"[... Y]ou are to be forgiven for thinking that Howard Schultz invented the Internet. The inconvenient truth is that when Mr. Schultz founded Starbucks, he focused on the romance and ritual of a newspaper culture. [...]"

“It appears that the thieves, whoever they were, had more faith in the stability and accruing value of the ultimate bottle of wine than the American dollar.”

"If I'm going to pay $4 for a cup of coffee, I'm not going to get served by a guy."

"There are these really ambiguous messages about alcohol that you end up receiving from the leadership of the country. The messages end up being very mixed up and very confusing. And this ambivalence has been around a long time."

"In my poor Spanish, I had been able to explain that I am a journalist and am working on a story. The men understood that, but they're telling each other, 'He is a writer; that's why he needs to make extra money.'"

"Americans tend to feel uncomfortable with wine. Puritan instincts live on: an 18-year-old can vote, marry or die in Iraq, but cannot legally drink a glass of wine."

"I think Coke has found its right use. Farmers have traditionally used sugary solutions to attract red ants to feed on insect larvae."