COFFEE LINKS:

LifeHacker tells us What Caffeine Actually Does to Y(Our) Brain! Interesting…

Daily Shot of Coffee shows us the Coffee Calorie Calculator.

What are the most overused words for describing coffee? Coffee Nate has a list of abused coffee terms for us.

Art in My Coffee post of the week – hearts!!

LOCAL LINKS:

This past weekend was the third annual Troy Pig Out in Troy, N.Y. featuring the most concentrated existence of meat a carnivore could ever hope for. Tablehopping has the winners of the People’s Choice Awards.

Check out Artie the dog’s Saratoga Seen style! Artie loves chillin’ on our patio, for sure.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Infared video of cold cream being mixed into hot coffee by researchers at Yale and Bath Universities… wild visuals. (via Shot Zombies)

COFFEE LINKS:

Steve Dolinsky interviews World Barista Champion Mike Phillips. This is a great piece that details the preparation that goes into this competition

Brewed Coffee tells us the Four Ms of Espresso.

Imagine a 235 year old mug. You can’t, right? Daily Mail shows us otherwise…

Art in My Coffee post of the week – pile of hearts, with mist!!

LOCAL LINKS:

Saratoga Seen has photos from this past weekend’s NYC Ballet Gala at SPAC.

Steve Barnes at Tablehopping tells us how we can help to attempt to break the world’s record for “largest can drum ensemble” this week at the Plaza in Albany. We would love to point out that the attempt is being made with “cans” of Pringles potato chips!

Flickr user TCSuliv has a great set of photos from Albany, NY’s Independence Day fireworks.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Another funny coffee ad. This one’s a bit DIY, in the vein of OK Go’s treadmill music video…

COFFEE RECIPE LINKS:

Daily Shot of Coffee has a “Espresso’ed Steak For The Grill” recipe.

Jamie at The Coffee Adventures has an interesting “Coffee Punch” recipe!

Old Recipes features an “Iced Coffee with Orange” concoction from an old recipe book.

Chaos in the Kitchen gives us a really intriguing Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream recipe. If anyone has an ice cream maker and feels like making some and bringing a sample by the store, we’d love you even more than we already do!

This Pork with Coffee and Oyster Sauce recipe from Overseas Pinoy Cooking was wild sounding enough to include, despite calling for instant coffee.

Chef Lagniappe brings New Orleans inspired cuisine to France with this Blueberry Coffee Barbeque sauce. Sounds perfect for some grillin’ this summer!

What are your favorite recipes involving coffee?

( front page image by Flickr user LemonFlavor )

COFFEE LINKS:

Brewed Coffee Blog offers Three Coffee Myths You Shouldn’t Believe. ( Myth #1 is one we often find that our customers are stymied by until explained… )

Congratulations to Mike Phillips for winning the World Barista Championships this past weekend in London! Mike is the first person from the United States to win the championship.

Art in My Coffee post of the week – “dream of purity” – gorgeous!!

LOCAL LINKS:

If you find yourself in Lake George over the next few summer months, the Adirondack Chick tells us to stop in to the Adirondack Brewery to try out their new “Cafe Vero Coffee Stout” beer. Sounds delicious from here!

Our condolences to the family and friends of David Taylor Miller, who recently died in service in Afghanistan.

Check out this photo of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, by Flickr user SkunkworksPhotographic.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Check out WBC Finalist Stefanos Domatiotis competing in last week’s championships!

( Front page image by Flickr user confusedbee used under a Creative Commons license. )

Pre-cut, side view.

Last week, we participated in All Over Albany’s “Lunch Week” by sharing a sandwich concoction that included almost everything on our menu in one bagel sandwich.

You can see our submission among a bunch of other fun submissions here.

After much deliberation and brainstorming, we decided that the sandwich would be hereby named “MEAT MOUNTAIN“.

If you want to climb Meat Mountain, you’ll have to pay for it.

It’s a little costly (~$12.90), but for someone who’s really hungry?

Priceless.

Meat Mountain Weighing-in.

COFFEE LINKS:

Kettle and Kup shows us the 20 Worst Beverages in America for us to mull over. (Wow.)

This Blog Rules tells us 15 Things You Should Know About Caffeine.

Art in My Coffee post of the week – stars!!

LOCAL LINKS:

Saratoga Seen reveals some logos for this week’s upcoming Jazz Fest at SPAC as well as this year’s Travers racing event.

Check out this photo of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, by Flickr user SkunkworksPhotographic.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Another funny coffee commercial!

The largest sandwich we've ever made...

Our friends at All Over Albany are holding “Lunch Week” this week. It’s a celebration of one of our favorite parts of the day, featuring posts on unique lunch deals, experiences and places you might not have heard of in the Capital Region.

Another portion of Lunch Week is that AOA requested that folks send in photos of what they ate for lunch, specifically on Wednesday, June 16th (yesterday).

We thought we’d have fun with this and came up with the most gigantic bagel sandwich we’ve ever put together and submitted it for their review. Let’s just say it’s ridiculous and completely off-the-chain. Everyone working behind the counter yesterday wanted to just stare at it in awe.

Above is a teaser pic of Matthew trying to get a bite out of it… All Over Albany should be posting some of the entries sometime tomorrow… stay tuned!

Yarrrr! or Yee-haw?

At Uncommon Grounds, we are often asked what “those little stickers” we have available at the register are for. Those fun stickers are called “Cruzin’ Caps” which are used to prevent coffee lids from spilling liquids in transit.

While we hope that the Cruzin’ Caps are used for what they are intended to be used for and certainly don’t condone the defacing of public property. However, the above image gave us a chuckle.

Is it a pirate?

Is it a cowboy?

Yes, that's a Saratoga Springs Fire Department truck, hovering over the store to check out the chimney/roaster fire.

By now you may have heard that Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga Springs had a bit of a fire on Monday afternoon. It was a brief conflagration involving our coffee roaster and chimney which was swiftly dealt with by Saratoga Springs Fire Department and the Police Department.

The photo above is from one of our employees who watched as SSFD hoisted a tower ladder over a tree to peer onto the store’s roof.

After the fire was contained, the staff cleaned up and the store re-opened within two hours of the incident.

Thanks for your patience and well-wishes.

Extra thanks to the fire fighters and police folks who are there to protect us from situations like this every day.

COFFEE LINKS:

DIY Life tells us 21 Ways to Use Old Coffee Grounds! (via Daily Shot of Coffee)

Kettle and Cup talks about a serious problem for coffee drinkers: Caffeine Immunity!

Brewed Coffee has a delicious looking Coffee BBQ Sauce. Let us know if you try it this summer, or perhaps we’ll beat you to it!

Art in My Coffee post of the week – intense swan mocha!!

LOCAL LINKS:

Saratoga Seen tells us about an exhibition at the Canfield Casino – “The Historic Fires of Saratoga“. Although the discussion has passed, the photos will be on display until March 2011.

Here’s a Flickr photo of the week from user Phyllis Featherstone – “Motorcycles on Broadway“.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Funny coffee ad from Thailand…