http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/dining/10coffee.html
IMO, as good an article as one could expect from major media
edit: Print edition lists notable cafes and gives stars to "outstanding" ones. With decent accuracy, IMO.

Thoughts from "malachi":

http://godshot.blogspot.com/2010/03/jou...icist.html

Full of mis-information and touts Blue Bottle as one of NYC's 30 best though written before it even opened. Pathetically weak job from what used to be a newspaper with high standards for written English and reportage--both of which are missing from the work of the "reporter," Oscar Strand. Check out the ridiculous "Glossary of Coffee Terms" that he slapped together and was also included in today's paper.

I find that NYT remains in the top tier of newspapers, Manhattan is in the top tier of urban good-coffee locales, and this "Dining" interest-feature is among the best (length and approximate accuracy) of any in a newspaper. The New York coffee scene will be better because of it.

Of course, "tiers" are relative, and "among the best" is quite a loose category. (Is this one of the top 30 newspaper articles on cafes we've read? --don't know that I've read 30)

The Times is generally accurate and persuasive--if not convincing--for all those topics about which I know embarrassingly little. There are a couple of fields in which I might be called an "expert." When I read these articles, especially analysis or opinion, I shudder at the pathetic ignorance and superficiality of the Times and most other papers (not to mention, other "experts.") Invariably, I would have done a much better job (given 3 weeks, 6 times the space, and a decent editor who also knows the field.)

So I think we might cut the Times, the city, the reporter, and the less-than-top-three cafes a little slack here.

Martin wrote:The Times is generally accurate and persuasive--if not convincing--for all those topics about which I know embarrassingly little.

Persuasive, perhaps. But how would you recognize accuracy on a topic about which you know embarrassingly little?

Sorry, but I can't cut any slack to the Times when it used to be much better than it is today. It remains among the best newspapers in the country but it has chosen to allow/enable a lower standard in the quality of its writing and reportage. This is not something to applaud.

I have to agree with espressoed re NY Times. Its really gone downhill, look at the hatchet job they did on the governor. Whatever the merits of the domestic violence charges, since when is it inappropriate for the governor to get free yankee tickets? Former mayor Rudy did without any ballyhoo.

Marvin

C'mon guys, put this into the context of the state of competence and the intentions of mainstream media. NYT is better than most; and this coffee article is better than most. Have journalism standards declined? Yah, yah, and so have the halcyon days of sports, education, high work ethic, and percolated coffee

You can say that the media sucks and the article is error ridden. And I would agree. But the Times sucks less, and the article is more accurate and supportive of a good coffee culture, than any significant media representation that I have seen.

I think it's a tribute to HB and many of the posters here that this article is as good as it is. So, without irony, congratulations to those who press for high standards. Your work on the "fringe" moves the center toward drinkable coffee.

Of course it's better done than what you see in "the average newspaper."
It SHOULD be better.
It's the freakin' New York Times!!!

Being supportive of a good coffee culture requires not just rewarding those who do good - but also at least NOT rewarding those who do bad (I would argue it requires punishing those who do bad).

Martin, if you're OK with mediocrity in the place of what once was hands-down excellence that's your prerogative. I don't play that, and call it out when I see it. When it comes to the NYT I couldn't care less how bad the rest of the media is, I just care about the NYT.

Chock Full O' Nuts as a "control" coffee for their decaf tasting in the companion article today, rated at the bottom of the tasting along with Counter Culture's Decaf Valle Del Santuario (misspelled in the article) and Stumptown's House Decaf?

As a New Yorker it's akin to watching Willie Mays at the end of his career, with the Mets. No one with an objective perspective would have suggested we were watching one of the greats. We were watching one of the all-time greats in great decline as he embarrassed himself in the outfield time and again, and it hurt. Such is the case with the Times.

What is great is that coffee is being written about more and more in the greatest city in the world, and its coffee is getting better all the time. Still a long way to go.

So what happened to Oren's Daily Roast? He's one of he best roasters in the US, or at least used to be.