Dec 29, 2001, 12:20am

Hey. I was very remiss in not mentioning this here. But here goes, and what a lead in:

How'd you like to win a $430 espresso machine? Or a $140 grinder?

If you would, then head over to www.coffeegeek.com and check it out. Of course, I hope that you would want to check it out for more than just winning some cool stuff, but hey, if the chance of winning a pretty unique prize in the Internet world is the impetus to get you over there, then so be it :-)

In the meantime, after two years of work, yes, I, we, my company, my lead programmer Wayne Venables, we all managed to FINALLY get CoffeeGeek out the door. It's like giving birth, I tell you.

If you want to talk about a labour of love, this site is it. I've sunk so much funds into the development and initial promotion of this website, it isn't funny. I've spent literally 1000s of hours over the past few years developing designs, writing out business plans, coding pages, trashing both design and pages, starting over from scratch, then doing the whole circle again.

In the early Summer of 2001, I finalized on a design (the one you see at that site), then worked out strategies and plans with a wide variety of people - my programmer genius Wayne, friends in the coffee business, sponsors and partners for the site, coffee afficionados, my dog, you name it. We worked on community features, we worked on ways to get the kind of information people wanted. Probably the only thing we didn't entirely suss out was how to make money with the site.

Why? To be frank, it wasn't a priority for me. Call it stupid, call it naive, call it whatever, but the idea of making any kind of income off this website was about the furthest thing from my mind. If the site can support itself and its hosting costs, I'll be happy. If the site can make a few bucks for the content writers, I'll be overjoyed. If the site makes a profit, well, maybe, just maybe, I'll pay myself back some of the development costs. But more likely I'll just spend the money on prizes and promotional stuff for the website.

CoffeeGeek is an attempt to provide a community space to the coffee and espresso loving community. I hope like heck it succeeds. and I hope you enjoy it.

3 comments | reply

Mixelania

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Fiddlers Green by The Tragically Hip

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In the News

Burundi and Beyond - NY Times
Great article by Peter Meehan - provided some background.

St. Petersburg Times
Side mention in an article about good machines

AP Story on Espresso
Background and information provided

NY Times - Grinders Article
Especially proud of this one - got the reporter to focus on grinders

Globe and Mail
LOL - showing bad reporting, dude says I'm an American-based site!

The Olympian, WA
Talks about my love for the El Sal Siberia Pacamara

Seattle Times - Clover
Interviewed for comments on the Clover brewer

NY Times - How it Works
Background and information for various espresso machines

Time Mag Article
Just a brief mention, article about roasting beans.

NY Times
Front page article about consumers getting into specialty coffee.

Washington Monthly
Quoted reference to what I wrote in an article at CoffeeGeek.

USA Today - Barista Jam
Intereviewed for my thoughts on what the epitome of espresso is.

WSJ Article
The Wall Street Journal has interviewed me 3 times. This is the first time my name got in a story.

Reuters Interview
Interview with Reuters, Jan 2 - this is the USA Today version.

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CoffeeGeek
Launched Dec 22, 2001, this is THE online community for espresso and coffee fanatics.

CoffeeKid Website
It's all new, as of March, 2002. My personal coffee obsession site.

WebMotif Services
My company's site - needs an update!

Amazon WishList
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enGadget
Great gadget site run by the guy who used to do Gizmodo.

Google News
This is how I get my daily news fix.

DPReview Forums`
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Daily Zen
Need my Daily Zen fix!

Jalopnik
A blog about car stuff. Vroom Vroom.

MoCo Loco
An industrial design blog. Very cool stuff.

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Beata Blog
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Riddla on Flickr
Matt Riddle's flickr account, updated regularly

Irdy Photos
Irdy, my friend from Jakharta, on Flickr

Recent Acquisitions

Canon EF 24-105 f4 L Lens
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Canon 5D
A full frame dSLR, with luscious colour reproduction.

Alzo Digital Lights
Some amazing florescent cold lights for product photography

Canon Xsi dSLR
Amazing technology and image quality in a tiny package.

Canon 40D
Latest prosumer camera from Canon - a much better upgrade than the 30D

Fujitsu P1610
Great 2.2lb computer that does most of my travel / writing needs

28mm f1.8 Lens
A great lens for closeup work and full picture photography

Foodsaver Advanced
Finally got the right tools for freezing green coffee.

Canon 50mm 1.4
Most amazing lens I've ever owned. Produces stellar photos.

Canon 10-22mm
Super wide angle (full frame fisheye) zoom for my Canon 20D