I (Matt) was fortunate enough to visit family in sunny California this past week and took the opportunity to visit some cafes in the L.A. area. I was fairly unaware of the coffee scene around L.A. before visiting, but came away impressed with a well developed coffee culture. Unfortunately, I coudn't make it around to all the shops I wanted to visit (see the list at the end of the post), but I did make it to four shops: Caffe Luxxe (Santa Monica), Paper or Plastik (L.A.), Intelligentsia (Venice), and Element Coffee (Camarillo). Highlights from these shops were: sensory station at Caffe Luxxe that allowed you to smell the grounds of the three coffees they were offering via pour-over, the option of six different single origin coffees to choose from at Element Cafe, having multiple roasters to choose from at Paper or Plastic, and being served up a tasty capp at one of my all-time favorite coffee bars, Intelligentsia Venice.

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Every trade has its tools, and manual coffee brewing is no exception. One of the most important tools, particularly for pour-over coffee brewing, is a pouring kettle. As the appreciation for culinary coffee continues to grow here in the states, so does the demand for a kettle that meets the needs and demands of the home and professional barista. We have made an effort to offer a limited, accessible offering of kettles that fit various budgets and needs, each kettle bringing different strengths to the plate. We hope you find this overview of our kettle offerings helpful!

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Since we do the whole online sales thing, we couldn't pass up continuing our deals for Cyber Monday. On Monday we will roll four deals for those still searching for the perfect home brewing gift.

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We've been trying to get into the seasonal spirit as best we can, and this week we are adding to the fun. On top of our daily deals we have been announcing via our twitter account, we are adding some new brewing bundles and some sweet Black Friday deals.

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Whether you’re ready for it or not, the holidays are quickly approaching. In an attempt to ease your holiday shopping anxiety, we’ve put together a holiday buying guide for home coffee brewing. In this guide, we've listed three degrees of coffee geekdom to help you choose the best gift selection: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. In addition, we have provided links to the products we’ve recommended for each category; these links takes you to the product listing where you can find more information as well as purchase the item.

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For those that don't know, NYC just so happens to be the place to get good coffee on the east coast. By and large, the east coast has been behind the specialty coffee curve, but things are starting to change.

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In an effort to better help our home espresso machine customers be ready to brew out of the box, we've decided to include a free espresso machine starter kit with the purchase of select espresso machines.

The kit options will vary depending on machine so make sure to click through and check out what the kit includes. There are some size variations available with our espresso glasses and steaming pitchers, so send us an e-mail or give us a call (888-837-7892) to discuss your options. Continue reading after the break to see a list of all qualifying espresso machines.

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My first trip to NY was a whirlwind. I spent twice as much time on a bus as I did in the city and just as much time walking as I did at the La Marzocco Strada EP event co-sponsored by Counter Culture Coffee. So why go through the hassle? Awesome Chinese food and free espresso....oh and some fancy machine called a Strada. No not a Strat but a Strada. Okay, so maybe the grub from Chinatown and the free drinks were a welcome surprise to the trip and maybe I already knew a few things about the latest big thing from La Marzocco, but nonetheless I would do it again every weekend for the rest of the summer if I could. Needless to say, the hour and a half I was able to spend with both the machine and new friends in the coffee community made the journey worth it and made me excited about the future of espresso. You can find details about the machine and why the coffee world won't be able to ignore it below.

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One of our goals at Prima is to offer the best manual coffee brewing methods available. We believe that manual brewing methods both produce excellent cups of coffee as well as exemplify the quality and care that goes into the production of that coffee. It is our desire to continually expand our offerings, and today we are proud to announce a new addition to our manual brewing selection. This new product is the Kalita Wave Dripper.

For those that have yet to hear or read about the Wave Drippers, we wanted to give you a brief preview of this new pour over device and how it differs from our other pour over brewers.

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Learning how to brew on a new manual coffee device like the Hario V60 can be intimidating. It doesn't help the fact that there are so many different brewing methods out there. As we seek to develop resources for helping inform home-brewers and baristas alike get the most out of their coffee gear, it is important for us to learn and glean from others in the coffee community.

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