What's Brewing

Various outlets have been encouraging people to start their Christmas shopping early due to the global supply chain disruption and the fact that it does not seem it will be fixed in time for the Holidays season. Maybe this is the year we take a leaf from Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the classics written to inspire us and remind us what Christmas is all about.  My hope is that this year we raise the quality of our gifts. Given that buying what is in-style, or what advertisements have convinced us we must have is...

It was the fifties and the world was changing, when a group of Colombian coffee growers stepped into a skyscraper in New York City and met with the advertising giant William Bernbach. They wanted to sell coffee in America, but more than that, they wanted to show Americans what coffee meant to them and hopefully America could come to see and love coffee as they loved it.  Bernbach was already famous for having said, “The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” This statement deeply resonated with his work; instead of creating a flashy character, Bernbach created Juan Valdez,...

Most of the stories about Teddy Roosevelt are simply unbelievable. Perhaps if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a President and naturally so much of his life was lived in public and consequently well recorded, he could have simply become a legend of a man we wished existed.    As a kid, Roosevelt repeatedly came face to face with death. He suffered from asthma attacks which put pressure on his heart and according to the family doctor it affected his overall development, making him a small, skinny child. At the time the treatments for asthma were very limited...

At times it is daunting to acknowledge the fact that slavery has been a constant theme of our world’s history. It is also inspiring to see civilians such as William Wilberforce, Frederick Douglas, and Martin Luther King become renowned heroes. They dedicated their lives and work to change the status quo and open the gates for a more fair world. Thanks to their relentless work, justice systems around the world lean favorably against slavery; but sadly, modern slavery still exists and some alarming statistics even suggest that slavery is currently at its worst.   What is the job of our...

There you are, seating at home, or somebody else’s home, or a café, with a warm cup of coffee in hand. You have managed to secure yourself a coffee date, and while those dates are the easiest way to get to know someone in a relaxed and comfortable environment, usually there could be a certain tension around having your chance to make this one-on-one time an experience worthwhile.  Coffee dates are convenient for their casual and relaxed manner. A bulletproof occasion to perhaps enjoy fancier coffee than what you would usually drink, and so if the date is not worth...

Waking up to the smell of cinnamon, cloves, and the sweetness of panela roaming around the air. A reminder of the charm of fall, which for some reason, seems to be the prime season for flavored coffee. As soon as the first leaf falls, every imaginable flavor for coffee is restocked in the supermarket shelves. Before you run to try the bottled up flavors or new offers at coffee shops, you must try the original flavored coffee. Disclaimer: You may stop buying artificially flavored coffee after trying this.  This traditional mexican recipe reflects the aroma of the country and the...