follow the link is information about E61group head. it is very details about the… Continue

A "full" or complete E61 group refers to the "leva" versions of the machines - they have the E61 grouphead, the pre-infusion chamber (the chrome cylindrical shape below the grouphead) and the manual lever for operating the brew cycle on the right side of the group. The machines that only have the E61 grouphead have just that, the grouphead, but lack the pre-infusion chamber and the manual lever (they have a button or a keypad of some sort instead).



All of the machines such as Giotto,… Continue

Setting the Scene:

The big city street life was new to Frank Lucas’ brothers and cousins. They were used to country life in the backwoods of North Carolina before being recruited into Lucas’ drug empire. Once in the game, these young men had instant status and inordinate wealth thrust upon them. It’s hard to stay humble when fame and fortune comes so easily.



Huey Lucas, Frank’s oldest brother, became friends with the flamboyant and always dapper Nicky Barnes. Soon after… Continue

Setting the Scene:

Frank Lucas’ “Blue Magic” heroin became the market leader in New York City. Rivals said he had “upended the natural order of things” by selling heroin that is twice as good for half as much. Competitors left the heroin market because “nobody wants to compete with a monopoly.”



To accelerate growth of the “Blue Magic” business, Frank arranged wholesale distribution agreements with other drug lords and mafia families. This shift in business strategy made… Continue

Setting the Scene:

“Blue Magic” has transformed Frank Lucas from a nobody to a somebody. Business is booming and Frank needs people he can trust to run his daily operation. For years Frank was estranged from his large extended family in Greensboro, North Carolina. However, family is family and he trusts his brothers and cousins to help him expand his heroin business. The Lucas family is uprooted from Greensboro to live and work in the new family business of “Blue Magic”… Continue

Setting the Scene:

In the early 70s, heroin was widely available in the streets of New York City. Common practice was to dilute the heroin with sugars, chalk, flour, or powdered milk. By diluting the heroin, dealers were able to significantly stretch their product inventory and maintain their high prices without upsetting their customer base. Customers had come to expect lower potency heroin as the only choice despite a growing number of dealers.





Launching a… Continue

Setting the Scene:

Bumpy Johnson was an organized crime kingpin in Harlem. His considerable wealth, street smarts education, penchant for violence, and charitable community efforts made him a larger-than-life figure. For over 15 years, Frank Lucas served as Bumpy’s driver, bodyguard, and collector. Everything Frank learned, he learned from Bumpy. So when Bumpy suffered a heart attack, Frank vowed to continue what his mentor started.



Frank Lucas on Bumpy Johnson

“He… Continue

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-schultz/staying-real-in-an-instan_b_167381.html



Shouldn’t Starbucks be more concerned with disrupting and reinventing their core retail business and not the instant coffee category? this question is from "brand autopsy".



why starbucks? if people wants to chase a global dream, we should study from them. I respect them because they have build a coffee empire within short time. if you google "starbucks", millions sites talk about them.… Continue

Vietnam is the epicenter of robusta production, funded at a furious pace by the big corporate coffee buyers, which helped create the "coffee crisis" (more background on the coffee crisis here, with many links). Forests are cleared for these sun coffee monocultures. More than 182,000 acres of forest have been cleared in Dac Lac province alone; water shortages and soil erosion have been problems in coffee-growing areas.



A small percentage of the crop is arabica, and there is some… Continue

I was surprised when I saw Starbucks logo in Sihanouk street. Some questions in my head, why does not it have "starbucks coffee" panel in font of the building. When does it come to Cambodia?



I walked inside the store and saw starbucks logo in the menu board. The barista did not wear starbucks uniform. of course, it is green color. The espresso machine is not LM. it is unknown brand. I ordered an espresso. Oh my gosh, it looked terrible, little crema was on the cup wall, black coffee… Continue

The term "specialty coffee" refers to the highest-quality green coffee beans roasted to their greatest flavor potential by true craftspeople and then properly brewed to well-established standards. Specialty coffee is not defined by a brewing method, such as the use of an espresso machine.



The definition of specialty coffee begins at the origin of coffee, the planting of a particular varietal into a particular growing region of the world. But the definition cannot stop there. The… Continue

Coffee was first grown in Vietnam about 150 years ago (1857). Vietnam’s coffee industry is young compared to other coffee growing nations: Indonesia in 1699, Brazil in 1760 (Rio de Janeiro) and Colombia in 1723 (coffee has been Colombia’s traditional main export, accounting for up to 80% of export value in 1925).



Vietnam is currently chiefly growing Robusta coffee (coffee canephor Pierre var. Robusta) with only about 20,000 hectares (about 5% total coffee growing area) reserved for… Continue