Nicholas Bate

The £50 espresso

In all the recent advice thrown at the (slightly) troubled Starbucks, what worries me most is too much (of the advice) would take the business away from its core which seems to me to be great coffee in great surroundings served by great staff. If any one of these is negelected e.g. some of the early stores in the States now look very tired or some of the staff in Paris, France do tend to neglect preparation (warm those espresso mugs, s'il vous plait!), then business will fall. But to actually get all three factors right consistently is tough but if done is a winner. All else is a distracton.
As is a £50 espresso.

Down-size; up-size

Decide to
down-size
-the number of e-mail you send
-the numbers of negative criticisms you make of others
-your eating of junk-food
up-size
-the amount of praise you give
-your time with the kids
-the money you invest in your own skill development

Peppermint Tea

Trying to find a hot drink as an alternative to tea and coffee as you would like to cut down a bit on the latter? And you have noticed most herbal drinks look and sound attractive but actually taste disgusting?

Try peppermint tea. Of course you'll probabaly need to give it a couple of tries, but most people end up loving it. Especially refreshing in the summer and brilliant if you can get you hands on the fresh leaves.

Start brewing now.

Love books? Love food?

Then try this via a favourite site execupundit.com. I'd add anything by JP Donleavy; he really knows how to describe a full Irish breakfast.

Chocolate

I've learnt many things from running many workshops. And one thing is a lot of people love a lot of chocolate. If that's you, here are two great sites to check out. Mrchocolate. And Artisanduchocolat.

Letter from Copenhagen

The new restrictions pose particular challenges for our more notherly-based smokers. In both Copenhagen and Stockholm I now see smokers perched outside clubs and bars and cafes in serious-tog rated parkas grabbing a quick cigarette. In these temperatures, you have to be serious to leave all your comforts behind. No wonder smoking has dropped by 15% already in Sweden. And that was in an 'easy' winter.

Denmark reminds me how wonderful it would be we could have dedicated, wide, ubiquitous cycle-ways as they have: they are a joy to use.

Love chocolate?

Then this site is for you. Rococo chocolates are serious about chocolate. Try their amazing artisan organic bars in flavours such as: earl grey, chilli pepper, arabic spices.....

And where else can you get a 100% (yes, 100%) chocolate bar: the Plus Noir Que Noir?!