Cup Of Coffee

When Jeff Zablocki heard the theft alarm, he didn't stop to put his coffee down. He started running like Jackie Chan. A young guy in a floppy coat bolted through the front door at the Home Depot in Dundalk, and Zablocki, who just happened to be there to buy some lumber, took after him -- with the cup of coffee in his hand.About 50 feet into his run, Zablocki dropped the coffee and cranked up his foot speed. He chased the floppy coat across the parking lot. Packs of flashlight batteries came flying out of the shoplifter's pockets and bounced off the asphalt.

In a pale yellow room in the Schlesinger home in Arnold, sunlight pours in through two long windows. Avery, 3, is running her neon-colored toy around the edge of the coffee table, making engine noises. Her pink-framed glasses are slipping down her nose, her short brown hair a mess of tangles. She seems unaware that everyone in the room is talking about her. Her father is sitting in an armchair, her mother sinking into an overstuffed couch next to a 23-year-old woman from Germany she met two days ago. In another room, Avery's brother and sister are watching a cartoon, and its sounds flitter in and out of the conversation.

TOKYO -- American business may like the rise of the yen, but Americans living here are paying a heavy price for it.Consider, for example, Tokyo's infamous $5 cup of coffee. As of yesterday, with the dollar worth just about 100 yen, that cup of coffee has gone up to $6 since January.Never mind that the cost of the cup of coffee obviously has less to do with the cost of the bean than it does with the cost of serving it up in one of the world's most expensive cities. Six hundred yen is 600 yen.And if the economists are right it may not be long before that's $6.50, maybe even $7 as the dollar becomes worth as little as 90 or even 80 yen by the end of the year.

Lewis E. Pearce Sr., a retired Baltimore County herb farmer who ascribed his longevity to his wife's cooking - and especially her homemade fudge - died Saturday of congestive heart failure at his Glen Arm home. He was 107. Mr. Pearce was born at home in Glen Arm, and then moved to a 12-acre farm that his parents had purchased in 1906, where he would live and work for the rest of his life. "He was born Jan. 12, 1900, and often joked that if only his mother had gone into labor 12 days earlier, he could say that he had lived in three centuries," said Elaine Pearce, a daughter-in-law.

A struggle goes on here, although it's hard to tell by looking around. The Bean Hollow Roastery and Espresso on Main Street in Old Ellicott City drips charm on the worst day, and on the best day owner Gretchen Shuey should charge you for sticking your nose in the door and intoxicating yourself with the aroma of roasting coffee. That's her behind the counter, tending to the brewers or serving another customer or standing in the back at the small roaster, cooking another batch of Guatemalan, Ethiopian, something.

Tip -- True brew -- To brew a good cup of coffee, make sure to use fresh, cold filtered water. - Gevalia Kaffe

Whether they're coming from a nighttime job at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport or meeting a longtime friend for a regular cup of coffee, customers flock to Lexington Market in the early morning, looking to start - or finish - the day with some sustenance.

A thief broke into a car Tuesday, smoked a cigarette and had a cup of coffee, then stole $40 in quarters, county police said.The 1987 Dodge 600 was parked in the first block of Jamar Drive in Severna Park when the thief apparently pushed down a window and got in the car between 2 a.m. and 6:45 a.m.

I HAVE BECOME a bean counter. Now if I spill any coffee beans, I begin a full-scale, down- on-my-knees search for the missing ones. This aggressive, bean-chasing behavior is new for me.Not long ago, if I spilled beans while putting them in the grinder, I would only pick up the ones that were easy to find. I retrieved the beans sitting on the kitchen counter. But I ignored the ones that had fallen to the kitchen floor.Then the price of coffee went up, about $1 a pound for the kind of beans, Yirgacheffe and Golden Sumatra, that I buy, and my habits changed.

What it is: -- Infusion brewing coffee maker. How it works: -- Put coarsely ground coffee in the 18-ounce container, add boiling water to the brewer, stir and close the lid. After 4 minutes, put the brewer on top of a mug. The coffee drains through the filter and is ready to drink. To stop the flow of coffee, lift the brewer off the mug. What we like about it: -- Small enough to stash in a desk drawer, it lets you enjoy your favorite coffee at work. It's also great if you want to make a small amount of coffee in a hurry.

The name is long, Eric's Eatery and "Simply Delicious" Carry Out, but the menu is short and sweet. It's a new breakfast and lunch spot opening next week at 2334 N. Charles St. Linda Stewart-Byrd, who left a job with the state Department of Transportation to take the plunge with her husband, chef Eric Byrd, said the food will be American and Caribbean, and the focus will be "wholesome, nutritious and delicious food."

The all-in-one grind-and-brew coffee maker -- a machine that, with one press of a button the night before, has a hot, brewed pot of coffee waiting for you in the morning -- is a coffee lover's dream. But, like all utopian promises, you have to wonder if it's really possible. So we decided to put the three grind-and-brew machines on the market -- Melitta, Cuisinart and Capresso -- to the test. Only the Capresso offers the advantage of a burr grinder, which crushes the beans between rotating cones (rather than shredding them with a single blade)

Main Street served as the church aisle and fellow kaffeeklatschers as congregants. Champagne toast? Hardly. The bride sipped a breve drink with whipped cream and caramel, and the groom had his usual triple espresso with hazelnut macchiato. In a city that loves coffee as much as Annapolis does, this was a match made in Starbucks. George B. Sparks III and Leslie A. Baumhower, both in their 40s, met at the City Dock outlet of the ubiquitous coffee chain. And yesterday, it's where they held their wedding reception.

More than an hour has passed since the Ethiopian coffee ceremony began at Baltimore's Dukem restaurant, and still not a drop of coffee has been served. It is a purposely slow and deliberative process. Coffee here is not just coffee, it is a performance meant to stimulate conversation, a ritual guided by tradition and folk stories said to be as old as coffee itself. The green buna beans are roasted until flavorful smoke wafts over the diners gathered around tables or sitting on straw stools, like background music against the din of spirited chatter.

Whether they're coming from a nighttime job at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport or meeting a longtime friend for a regular cup of coffee, customers flock to Lexington Market in the early morning, looking to start - or finish - the day with some sustenance.

My sandy-haired, gap-toothed daughter has written "I love Daddy" in green chalk on the driveway, and of course it's gratifying to get this endorsement, but a father is never sure if he's doing the right thing or not. I am an indulgent parent who wants to make her happy, but instead of taking her to swim class, I wonder if I shouldn't send her to hoeing school. I learned to hoe when I was her age and soon thereafter to pick potatoes. How will she find happiness if she doesn't learn about work?

Broadway Joe Namath took off his jacket, grabbed a cup of coffee, sat down at the Wyndham Baltimore and explained why he'd come to town. He was here to promote the Arthritis Huddle, he said, a pharmaceutical-sponsored organization that seeks to educate arthritis sufferers about ways to reduce pain and improve the quality of their lives. The former quarterback, who has arthritis, is best known for guaranteeing and delivering the New York Jets' upset victory over the Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969.

A Taneytown woman who claims she was severely burned when a cup of coffee spilled on her at Harry's Main Street last year is suing the Westminster restaurant for $1 million.In the civil suit, filed in Carroll County Circuit Court, Carole A. Almond contends her injuries resulted from the negligence of an employee who failed to properly place a lid on a carryout cup and warn her the coffee was dangerously hot.Charles Mentzer, a Baltimore attorney representing Almond, said Wednesday his client has "bad burns, but that is all I can say [at this time]

For as long as I've been swilling coffee, my philosophy on the stuff has remained constant: Give me regular joe for regular Joes. I don't need all these fancy high-priced "specialty" coffees strong enough to leave you twitching at your work cubicle for a week. Don't need no lattes, espressos, cappuccinos or frappuccinos. Don't need no sleek plastic cups with little paper sleeves and space-age lids and little green emblems that feature the Goddess of Macchiato, or whoever she's supposed to be. Don't need no stinkin' baristas, either.

McDonald's Corp. is changing its conventional cup of coffee for the first time in 30 years, hoping that a stronger, richer blend will boost breakfast sales and better arm the burger giant in the ever hotter battle for coffee drinkers. The new "premium roast" coffee is being served in some stores, and a full nationwide rollout is expected Monday. To reinforce its premium name, the more robust coffee comes in a new paper-covered Styrofoam cup and black lid. The change appears to follow the realization made by Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks and Burger King years ago that Americans want a richer cup of joe than the nondescript blends they have been offered in the past.