WBFO's Mark Scott and Buffalo Spree Editor Elizabeth Licata are drinking again on this week's Press Pass. But this time, it doesn't involve alcohol but coffee. Licata says most people can't get started without their morning cup of Joe. But she says few are paying attention to the quality of the coffee they're drinking.
Coffee suffers a peculiar curse: it is so effective and widely available that its actual quality gets very little attention.
That is, coffee provides caffeine, warmth, and a conversation starter no matter where the coffee came from, when it was roasted, how it was brewed or pulled, or even what it tastes like. You can entomb a delicately balanced espresso shot or two beneath warmed milk, but it can still provide the same utilitarian chemical kick as a drive-thru iced coffee. A Chemex-brewed mug made from beans given a New England roast just days ago may taste like nothing else you’ve had, and the client you’re meeting might never notice under all the sugar and cream.
Click here for more of Buffalo Spree writer Kevin Purdy's story on coffee.
Mark and Elizabeth also talk about Asian cuisine in Western New York and Buffalo Spree's recent move to a new home at the old FWS Warehouse on Elmwood Avenue.