Here’s a fun article by Maja Tarateta from Wine X Magazine – what exactly does your coffee say about you?

Regular coffee, black: you’re a very direct, no-nonsense kinda person. You prefer to experience life in its truest form. You care less about fads and more about integrity.

Regular coffee, light (that’s sugar and cream): you’re a dreamer whose feet don’t touch the (coffee) ground(s). You believe people are generally good. You seek beauty and a bright (sweet?) side to every situation.

Espresso, short (ristretto): you’re very headstrong; a clear thinker who knows what you want and goes for it. Some people say you rush into things, but you’ve got a plan and won’t be swayed.

Espresso, long (lungo): same as above but you take a little longer to get what you want.

Grande decaf coffee: the head says, “Go out and get ‘em!” The body doesn’t respond. You often feel torn between doing what you want and what others want of you. If you take your decaf with sugar and cream, the head doesn’t even say, “Go get ‘em!” The head says, “Relax, be cool, things will go your way…” The body says, “Okay.”

Latte: you sometimes feel like Peter Pan — you long to return to your simpler childhood days, when a fun time meant picking out your Trapper Keeper for the next school year.

Cappuccino: if you consume this drink in the morning, you’re an authentic person who likes to relax and enjoy all the ups and downs life tosses your way. If you down this after dinner, you strive for truth, which sometimes eludes you and gets distorted along the way. For a life change, switch to espresso or regular coffee after your evening meal.

Chai latte: you often feel reticent to decide. Stay or go? Do or die? Coffee or tea? It’s all too much for you! You find yourself carefully tiptoeing across life’s tightrope, trying not to be swayed one way or another, but taking the middle road to keep yourself and those around you happy. You try to stay neutral, especially when it comes to dinner table discussions between Grandpa Joe and Uncle Bob.

Hot chocolate: there’s something missing in your life that leads you to seek warm, delectable chocolate sweetness in a cup. The Aztecs, after all, considered chocolate an aphrodisiac and an aid to spiritual development. If you order your hot choc with whipped cream, you’re really in trouble!

Any drink made with skim milk (or “no foam”): you feel better about yourself if you deny yourself even the simple pleasure of creamy milk or a foam-coated upper lip. But there’s still hope for you…unless you opt for artificial sweetener, too.

Hopefully this study will enable café goers to alter their lives simply by their beverage choices.

If April showers bring May flowers, what’s with this rainy Monday? Sure, we see an upswing in people wanting coffee, but I’d rather a bright, sunny day and smiling people. We’ll get through it, together.

My latest coffee news is information on the caffeine withdrawal headache. To justify everyone’s belief that yes, one does get headaches if you don’t get your coffee, a study was done that proves the effect is real. During the experiment, participants were given either caffeine or a placebo so the results could be tracked. What kind of a bad joke is a caffeine placebo, anyway? Personally, I don’t get headaches and can go days without my coffee, so I would not have been a good subject. But it was determined that, “stopping daily caffeine consumption produces changes in the cerebral blood flow and quantitative EEG that are likely related to the classic caffeine withdrawal symptoms of headache, drowsiness and decreased alertness.” Blah, blah, blah. I don’t think we need studies. People get headaches because they have as much a psychological as physiological withdrawal. As one cut to the chase shop has put it, Gimme Coffee! Nuf said.

Since coffee is our business, today’s caffeine lesson is brought to you by LifeScript, “The #1 Website Dedicated to Women’s Health;”  9 Caffeine Myths Explained. And yes, caffeine is the world’s most popular drug. I believe the key, as with anything, is not to abuse, and caffeine consumed within reason can actually be beneficial. We like to think our house blends really tastes good, so if it’s caffeine you want why not enjoy our cup of coffee — note the flavor and appreciate the difference between ours and just any coffee while getting your fix. Our house coffees (Mr. Smooth and InTheHouse), both featuring Sumatra (a medium to heavy body, a mild sharpness and a rich, smooth taste), are meant to satisfy those looking for a mellower coffee, but having a fairly bold taste. So, for that caffeine fix, one or two cups of our coffee not only satisfy, they’re good for you!

On another note: ahem, today’s date is significant to many so for anyone interested, your urban lesson for the day can be read here. Ours is not to place judgement but to inform.

Perusing the NY Times I stumbled onto an article about a pretty hip coffee shop opening in Venice, CA. We are blessed to have some national coffee roasters, i.e. Intelligentsia (found locally at 21st Street Coffee & Tea, Aldo Coffee, Big Dog Coffee, Dozens and possibly others), Parallel 49 (Voluto), Batdorf and Bronson (Tazza D’Oro) and Counture Culture (Bluehorse), represented locally. Simpatico is proud to serve local roaster, La Prima, but it’s important for a prospering coffee community to have choice, and Pittsburgh is now well stocked. Anyway, taking espresso culture one step further, Intelligentsia is combining a little history (the original Starbuck’s La Marzocco GS2 espresso machine) with contemporary espresso chic (four Synessos), and opening a pretty cool espresso bar in Cali. Nice.

Since moving here in 2000, I’ve watched the coffee community grow immensely. From a few scattered Starbuck’s to a plethora of indie shops, the crazy growth of Crazy Mocha (17 shops and counting), and over the past few years competition winning barista’s, Pittsburgh is taking it’s place in the upper echelon of specialty coffee communities. Case in point: Carl Hauptmann and Jake’s Java. This is cross-posted at AldoCoffee.com, and I thought it worth adding to our site for some more potential readership. Visit the Post-Gazette online: “Java anyone?” Carl and his son have turned a hobby into a small micro-roasting business, and the short video is nice insight into their joy, coffee, and roasting. Beaver Falls Coffee & Tea are another example of adding roasting to their business, and also worth a visit. With roasters like La Prima (our supplier), Kiva Han, Coffee Tree Roasters, Nicholas, Presto George, and others I’m forgetting, we have developed quite an expanded community. We hope others will learn to appreciate what we have: Pittsburgh is a coffee town!