Monday Morning Coffee News

Happy Monday! Here’s what’s been going on in coffee news: The ISSpresso machine brewed its first espresso in space, Starbucks brought back Frappuccino Happy Hour & announced the winners of their Partner Cup Contest, and the inventors of the world’s first digital micro roaster have designed a home coffee roaster that works with the touch of a button.

"Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised." Fresh espresso in the new Zero-G cup! To boldly brew... pic.twitter.com/Zw2CllJgzF

— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) May 3, 2015

Although they’ve had it for a few weeks now, the International Space Station finally put the ISSpresso machine, an espresso machine specially designed by Italian aerospace company Argotec and Italian coffee company Lavazza, to good use on Sunday (you’d think they were busy or something 🙂 ). As was already decided, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti got the first cup. Or pouch? or both, seeing how the astronaut tweeted a photo of her sipping her authentic Italian espresso from the “Zero-G” cup (a cup that was designed at Portland State University for the express purpose of sipping espresso in space).

Starbucks Frappuccino Happy Hour has returned. From May 1st through May 10th (this upcoming Sunday), Frappuccino blended beverages, all sizes and flavors, are half-priced between the hours of 3-5 p.m. at participating locations. Starbucks also announced the winners of their Partner Cup Contest. The winning designs (pictured on right) will be produced on reusable cups that will be available for purchase (I really like the space-themed one).

IKAWA, the inventors of the world’s first digital micro roaster, have designed a home coffee roaster version that works with an app for your iOS or Android device. The app can be used to change roast duration, temperature and air flow of the roaster so home roasters can experiment with different roast recipes. The creators  gave a demo of the home coffee roaster at the London Coffee Festival this weekend, coinciding with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewstordy/ikawa-home-coffee-roaster

P.S. – After seeing pictures from the London Coffee Festival this weekend, I want to go so bad next year. It looks like all my dreams made reality. Did anybody attend? How was it?