Chic style and efficiency team up for one terrific espresso machine. Designed by Italian architect and designer Lucca Trazzi, this shapely espresso machine looks more like sculpture than kitchen equipment. It’s more than a pretty face – the enamel-coated steel machine makes magnificent espresso with unbeatable crema, using either ground espresso beans or ESE (Easy Serving Espresso) pods. A temperature gauge lets you know precisely when the machine is ready. The professional steam mechanism provides ample power for light, frothy milk. Includes ground coffee holder, coffee pod holder and one package of Illy® coffee pods. Removable 48-ounce water reservoir. $799.99 from Amazon.com

These are some rough approximations:

• A commercial large-size coffee cup uses: 20-25 grams of ground beans.
• A kilogram of green coffee beans costs approximately:  US$2
• The estimated cost of roasting a kilogram of coffee is: 40 cents 
• A kilogram of green beans once roasted and dried, is reduced to about: 750 grams
• This then produces on average: 30 large cups of brewed coffee
• In coffee price alone, a cup costs approximately: 8 cents

This however does not tell us anything about the cost of producing a cup of coffee for commercial purposes, the actual numbers vary greatly depending on so many variables. We will tackle these estimates in future posts.

Coffee.info went online this week in soft-mode and for the initial post we thought that an explanation of where we want to take this blog is in order. Needless to say, coffee is one of those topics that has not had a shortage of coverage in the blogosphere! This makes it pretty hard to come up with an enduring and novel concept, so we decided that we will try our hands at a bit of everything from the promotion of coffee as a small-business vehicle to the review of things that add flare and enjoyment to the art of brewing one’s own cup. Feel free to drop us a comment with feedback, ideas and or tips.