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"He wages war
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"Through all the doubt,
somehow they knew..."
~ Alan Parsons Project
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"Jack and Pen"
certainly agree
Welcome to Cleo's
H a u n t e d
Bookshop
A mystery series
Cleo Coyle writes under
the pen name
Alice Kimberly
"He is hard boiled in the tradition of
Philip Marlowe, and she is a genteel Miss Marple; yet the two opposites make an explosive combination..."
—Midwest Book Review
Meet the widow,
bookshop owner...
Penelope
After her husband’s suicide, young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure moves herself and her young son from New York City back to her little New England hometown of Quindicott, Rhode Island. When she arrives, however, she finds her aunt Sadie Thornton in financial trouble and about to lose the family's old bookshop. Unwilling to allow the business to fail, Pen cashes her late husband’s life insurance money and uses every penny to overhaul the inventory and remodel the place. As fate would have it, the construction rouses the spirit of a dead man, a private investigator from New York who’d been gunned down on the premises in 1949 while investigating a murder. Waking from a half-century of slumber, the hard-boiled ghost is less than thrilled to find himself cosmically imprisoned within the fieldstone walls of Pen’s bookstore...
Meet the
Ghost...
Jack
Shepard, PI
In life, Jack's pulse pounded to the rhythm of the city streets: the smoky dice joints and swingin’ suds clubs. Why couldn’t he have been gunned down in a joint like that? Instead, he got lead poisoning in the god-forsaken sticks, eternity in cornpone alley. There was only one thing that made this backwater existence tolerable. Her name was Penelope.
Okay, so the broad was one of those annoying do-right, fair-play Jane types, but she had a nice face, a sweet voice, and Jack always had been a sucker for redheads. If he heard her thoughts right, Penelope didn’t even believe in ghosts. Well, he hadn’t believed in them, either. But, brother, had he been wrong. Now he was a disembodied spirit, sentenced for his sins to exist in a world he hardly knew. Lucky for him his purgatory came with an auburn haired angel, a doll named Penelope he couldn’t stop watching or watching over...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
READ THEIR BOOKS
In 2004, Cleo Coyle launched her Haunted Bookshop Mysteries under the
pen name Alice Kimberly. There are now 5 novels with the latest just published in January 2009 and
a 6th book in the works.
Scroll down to read more about this
nationally bestselling series.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Haunted
Bookshop #1
The Ghost and
Mrs. McClure
by
Alice Kimberly
The spirit is willing...
to catch a killer.
Young widow Penelope and her Aunt Sadie are making ends met by running their newly remodeled mystery bookshop, a quaint New England landmark, rumored to be haunted. Pen may not believe in ghosts, but she does believe in good publicity—like nabbing Timothy Brennan for a book signing. But soon after the bestselling thriller writer reveals a secret about the store's link to a 1940's murder, he keels over dead, right in the middle of the store's new Community Events space. Who gives Mrs. McClure the first clue that it was murder? The bookstore's full-time ghost, a PI who was murdered on the very spot more than fifty years before. Is he a figment of Pen's overactive imagination? Or is the oddly likeable fedora-wearing specter the only hope Pen has to solve the crime? You can bet your everlasting life on it.
Excerpt:
“Listen to me, baby, all that counts now is you and your son. You’re in it together. Isn’t that what you told the kid this morning?”
“I don’t believe it," I told the ghost. "You were there this morning? With us? Upstairs, in Spencer’s bedroom? You heard me say that?”
“Uh, so anyway, doll, let’s get back to the case—”
“Oh, no you don’t. I want you to answer my question. Were you spying on us? On me? Upstairs in our private rooms?”
“I like to think of it as surveillance.”
“Well I forbid you to go up there again.”
“Lady, you can’t lay down house rules to a man with no body.”
Click the link below to learn more
or purchase from Amazon:
The Ghost and Mrs. McClure
(Haunted Bookshop Mystery)
Haunted
Bookshop #2
The Ghost and
the Dead Deb
by
Alice Kimberly
Don't haunt the
customers!
This was the only rule bookshop owner had given her resident ghost, hard-boiled private eye Jack Shepard. But when the hot young author Angel Stark arrives at the store to promote her latest—a book of true crime—Jack can hardly contain himself. After all, crime is his specialty. Angel's books is an unsolved mystery about a debutante found strangled to death. And it's filled with juicy details that point a finger at a number of people in the deb's high society circle. But when the author winds up dead too—in precisely the same way—Pen is fast on the case...which means Jack is too. After all, a ghost detective never rests in peace.
Excerpt:
“In my day, dames with money from well-heeled families hired me to help them duck scandal on the QT. The last thing they’d ever do was write a book about it and tart it up in front of a ham-handed audience for applause.”
The booming, masculine voice in my head was either the ghost of PI Jack Shepard or a delusion of my half-demented mind. Which was true? Take your pick.
“It’s a different world than the ’40’s, Jack,” I silently replied.
“I liked my world better," Jack said. "The uptown crowd kept their trashy messes in the back alley, not on their bookshelf.”
Click the link below to learn more
or purchase from Amazon:
The Ghost and the Dead Deb
(Haunted Bookshop Mystery)
Haunted
Bookshop #3
The Ghost and the
Dead Man's Library
by
Alice Kimberly
Sleuth,
Nevermore?
Jack Shepard didn’t have much use for books when he was alive. Now that he's dead, he has even less interest in the crate of dusty old tomes that arrive at the bookshop he’s been haunting. Penelope, on the other hand, is thrilled with the delivery. The rare old Poe library was willed to her shop by an elderly admirer of her aunt Sadie’s. The dead man’s library is so valuable that Pen is inundated with astronomical offers for every volume in the set. Everything appears rosy, until Pen begins to sell the books, one by one…and one by one each buyer dies. The police don’t believe Pen’s theory—that these deaths are linked to the rare book purchases. In fact, the police don’t believe these deaths are murders at all. Pen, of course, knows differently, which means it’s time to persuade her hard-boiled haunter to stop resting in peace, start cracking some clues, and make sure this twisted Poe freak kills...nevermore.
Excerpt:
“Need a bedtime story, baby?”
“Jack?” I whispered into the dark.
“Well, it ain’t Clark Gable.”
I closed my eyes and sighed, happy to hear his voice. “Strange,” I whispered.
“What?” the ghost asked.
“I never would have thought there’d be so many things in life more disturbing than talking to a dead man.”
“Such as?”
My eyes opened again. I turned onto my side, hugged a pillow to me. “I can’t get the image out of my head.”
“You mean, Peter Chesley’s broken old body, lying like a pretzel at the base of the staircase he couldn’t climb?”
“I was right there, Jack...I was right there with Mr. Chesley, and I heard that crash upstairs. I knew something was wrong, but I left! I drove away!...He didn’t deserve to die like that. Nobody does.”
“Baby…who do you think you’re talking to?”
Click the link below to learn more
or purchase from Amazon:
The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library
(Haunted Bookshop Mystery)
.jpg)
Haunted
Bookshop #4
The Ghost
and the
Femme Fatale
by
Alice Kimberly
Haunted
by her past...
The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Penelope Thornton-McClure handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she's nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town's film noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.
With local police on the wrong track, Penelope enlists the help of Jack Shepard, PI. Okay, so Jack hasn't had a heartbeat since 1949, when he was gunned down in what is now Pen's store. But the hard-boiled ghost actually remembers Hedda's dark past and Penelope is sure he can help solve this case--even if he and his license did expire more than fifty years ago...
Excerpt One:
“Keep it down, Jack," I warned. "I’m watching a movie."
“I can see that, doll. I’m just surprised Hollywood took a turn for the worse. I thought by now they’d be making new pictures, not recycling the same old lamp-lit celluloid...”
“We’re not in your day anymore, Jack. This film isn’t being recycled for lack of product. It’s part of a retrospective on the film noir genre.”
“The film WHAT genre?”
“Film noir. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it. I know you were alive when it first emerged.” I named some of the genre’s titles to jog his memory.
“Yeah, okay...” Jack admitted. “I remember seeing some of those movies, but I can’t believe twenty-first century eggheads are getting hot and bothered about a bunch of B pictures that couldn’t afford color. Fancying them up with a French name’s about on the level with your generation’s buying water in a bottle...”
Excerpt Two:
I paced the bookstore’s aisles, passing McBain and McCrumb, Paretsky and Poe, Sayers and Spillane, while considering the myriad motives for murder.
“Is the killing over now? Or just getting started?”
“Listen, baby, you can’t solve a puzzle when half the pieces are missing.”
“People guess at half-solved puzzles all the time!” I pointed out. “What about Wheel of Fortune? You can buy a vowel and sound out the words. You don’t need all the pieces.”
“That’s a game show, dollface. Guessing’s fine when you’re playing for Cracker Jack prizes, not when you’re dealing out life and death—and believe me, sweetie, I’m the voice of experience.”
“Wait a second, Jack! You’re on the other side. Dr. Lilly is, too, now. Can’t you...I don’t know, commune with the spirit world? Maybe you can get in touch with Dr. Lilly. Ask her what happened when she was alone in the store.”
“Sorry, baby, but this tomb’s all mine. Unless you take me places, I’m a prisoner in this glorified library, like some poor yegg left in Sing-Sing solitary. And as far as 'communing' with my fellow dead, nobody’s ever stuck around here to tell me squat. I wish I could call up some company, sweetheart. I can think of a few hot skirts from my past I wouldn’t mind looking up...”
Click the link below to learn more
or purchase from Amazon:
The Ghost and the Femme Fatale
(Haunted Bookshop Mysteries, No. 4)
And just published in
January 2009...
Haunted Bookshop
Mystery #5:
THE GHOST
AND THE HAUNTED
MANSION
by
Alice Kimberly
Bookshop owner Penelope never
believed in ghosts, until she met the spirit
of Jack Shepard. Then Pen’s mailman, Seymour Tarnish, gets into deep trouble,
and Pen not only believes in her ghost,
she asks him for help...
An elderly lady has been found dead on posh Larchmont Avenue, her will recently (and suspiciously) revised to name Seymour as heir to her mansion. Many eyes turn to the hapless mailman as the murderer, but Seymour doesn't care. He's too busy settling into his new digs.
Unfortunately, Seymour's new mansion appears to be haunted and when the ghosts begin plaguing him, he tries to hire a team of parapsychologists to exorcise every last spirit from the town of Quindicott. Now Pen must not only solve a murder, she must act fast to save her beloved ghost, because if these spirit zappers actually do their job, then the ghost of Jack Shepard finally will be history. And that scares Pen a lot more than rattling chains and cold spots.
Click the link below to learn more
or purchase from Amazon:
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion
(Haunted Bookshop Mysteries, No. 5)
CLICK HERE to
download an exlcusive
excerpt.
§
Combining elements of cozy mysteries with detective noir, throwing in a bit of the paranormal, this is a series that will please any mystery fan"
—The Romance Reader's Connection.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
COMING SOON!
Jack and Pen's
next adventure!
HAUNTED BOOKSHOP #6
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A SPOOKY CONVERSATION!
Amanda Killgore, reviewer for Huntress and Eternal Night, interviewed Cleo/Alice about her Ghostly series. Cleo/Alice discusses inspirations for her Haunted Bookshop novels, including her love of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and (don't get spooked now) cemeteries.
Click here to read the interview
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Come back to learn more about the future books in Alice Kimberly's Haunted Bookshop Mystery series. Or sign up for "Cleo's Newsletter" to be sent updates by
e-mail on the future books.
:)
.
COFFEE COZY CLUB
Anxiously Waiting
A CTRR Reward for Holiday Grind – A Coffeehouse Mystery
THE READING
GUIDES
Coffeehouse Mystery Reading Guides
Download for free!
» Books 1 & 2, click here (pdf)
» Books 3 & 4, click here (pdf)
» Book 5, click here (pdf)
» Books 6 & 7 coming SOON!
NEW GUIDE!
JUST POSTED!
» HOLIDAY GRIND
READING GUIDE
FREE!
Click here (PDF)
If you need Adobe (PDF) reader software, you can get it free by clicking here.
NOW
AVAILABLE!
New in hardcover from
Penguin's
Berkley Prime Crime
HOLIDAY
GRIND
*
To order this very special entry in Cleo's mystery series, click on the Barnes & Noble.com link here or on logo below:
OR USE THE
AMAZON.COM
or BORDERS
LINK BELOW...
Holiday Grind
(A Coffeehouse Mystery) @Amazon.com
*
*
For a book description of Holiday Grind, click here or on the coffee cup in the left column labeled About the Coffeehouse Mystery Books...
*
To find an
Independent
Bookstore
near you,
ANNOUNCING
Cleo's
Next Book:
August 3, 2010
Early Cover Art
NOT YET FINAL!
Coming in hardcover from
Penguin's
Berkley Prime Crime
ROAST
MORTEM
*
To pre-order this HOT new entry in Cleo's mystery series, click on the link below:
Roast Mortem (Coffee House Mystery)
ANNOUNCING!
CLEO'S
COFFEE
PICK
for
THE NEW
YEAR!
French
Laundry
Estate
Blend
from
"2010 Roaster
of the Year"
To learn more
about the
French Laundry
Estate Blend,
created for
award-winning
Chef Thomas
Keller's
world-renowned
French Laundry
restaurant
CLICK
HERE
You can see Cleo's past COFFEE PICKS by scrolling all the way down this column...
JAVA
CHEERS!!
to
COUNTER
CULTURE
COFFEE
"Top Innovator"
DETAILS magazine recently named Counter Culture Coffee as #1 (of North Carolina) among five industry "innovators creating coffees that have the complexity of fine wines." Click here to read an excerpt. posted at BaristaExchange.com
I'm a big fan of Counter Culture and have written about them on this site and in my books. See my Coffeehouse Mystery: French Pressed or scroll down this column to my "Coffee Pick" list.
OR CLICK HERE
TO ORDER FROM
BARNES AND
NOBLE.COM
Says Counter Culture: "We hope that such media coverage helps spread awareness that coffee can not only be an authentic, delicious food experience, but also a conduit for community, sustainable agriculture, and cultural exchange."
Java Cheers!
~Cleo Coyle
2009 U.S.
BARISTA
CHAMP
Mike Phillips, the U.S. Barista Champ, finished among the top 3 baristas in this year's World competition, held in Atlanta, Georgia. How did he get there? "I really care about coffee and the entire chain of things, from where the coffee is grown and processed, all the way to the shop where it's prepared and the customers who enjoy it."
Mike works at Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea in Chicago, Illinois. There are several Intelligentsia locations in Chicago. Mike works at their flagship store at 3123 North Broadway. Click here to virtually visit the store.
VIDEO OF
WINNING
PERFOMANCE!
To see Mike competing
in this year's World
Championships,
click here.
Java Master Gives
Tips on Making
the Perfect Cup
Italian-born Gennaro Pelliccia is responsible for the taste of the 108 million cups of Costa coffee sold in Britain each year. His policy with Lloyd's of London insures his tongue for 10million pounds! Mr. P has some great tips on making the perfect cuppa bean juice:
Click here to read more...
FREE
EXCERPT!
for Cleo Coyle's
2nd series...
Haunted Bookshop
Mysteries
THE GHOST
AND THE
HAUNTED
MANSION
* National Mystery
Bestseller!
Independent Mystery
Booksellers Association
* A Fresh Fiction
Fresh Pick!
"The plot is marvelous,
the writing is top-notch..."
-Cozy Library
Click here to read
reviews of every
book in the
Haunted Bookshop
series @
CozyLibrary.com
Click here to get
Cleo's Free Excerpt
(PDF format)
MIKE'S BEAT
CRIME FILE
» NYPD: Official Website for New York's Finest
Want to Grow
Your Own
Coffee Plant?
Thanks to CM reader Linda for posting info about where to buy coffee plants and seeds. Click here to go to the coffee seed catalog page and scroll down. Look for the "coffea" plants listed in ITALIC alphabetically.
Coffea arabica $3.84 -12 seeds
Coffea catura $3.29 -12 seeds
Coffea kona $3.95 -12 seeds
Linda also says: "Gurney's Plant and Seed catalog has small coffee plants for $8.95 each. Click here and look for item # 11295 for coffee plants."
WAKE UP AND SMELL...
THE CANVAS!
"I started painting with coffee because I wanted a cheaper medium that was accessible to me," says Filipino artist Sunshine Plata. A tube of oil paint costs at least 500 pesos ($11), while a jar of instant coffee is only around 150 pesos ($3). Click here to read more about Sunshine and her coffee art.
COFFEE AND BABY FORMULA?!
I laughed out loud at this blog from Sarah Bates of Zanesville, Ohio. Click here to read how a baby changed everything for this coffee connoisseur.
—Cleo
Caffeine
Myths
.jpg)
A recent story by the amazing Jane Brody in The New York Times examines coffee and health, click here to read more. (I learned a lot about the myths of caffeine!)
Click here to read about a Harvard study that shows coffee's link to preventing heart disease.
Click here to read how a cup of coffee a day may offset Alzheimer's disease.
Book Lovers
Find Love!
My publisher (Penguin USA) is launching a dating website for readers. Learn more from theBookseller.com by clicking here.
Coffee Peeps
& Peter Pans
(Real Matteo Allegros?)
Shout-out to New York's Hampton Coffee Company!
Remember Murder Most Frothy? My 4th Coffeehouse Mystery gave Clare Cosi a summer job as a "coffee steward" at a posh new eatery in the Hamptons, the fabled seaside escape for New York's rich and famous. Well, click here to visit some real coffee peeps who work hard to give the Hamptons folks a great cuppa joe.
Click here to read about:
"Overstaying the Hamptons Party!"
A fascinating news story about "house shares" in the Hamptons and men who try to keep the postcollege "boys of summer" party going decades after their undergrad days. Shades of my character Matteo Allegro? You tell me!
In Memoriam
Sheena
2.21.2009
MOON DOGGIE
COFFEE
HELPS HOUNDS!
CM reader Laundrygoddess tells me she loves the Moon Doggie Coffee cafe in Northern New Jersey!
The folks at Moon Doggie micro-roast their own coffees (just like Clare Cosi) AND they rescue basset hounds, too. How cool is that? Let's give them some business!
Click here or on the photo above to visit Moon Doggie Coffee's online shop. They have a great list of coffees, including DECAF coffees and flavored varieties. If you're in NJ, stop by their shop and say hi to Nicole, their barista manager. Shop's locatiion: 108 W. Pleasant Ave. Maywood, NJ
Woof! —Cleo Coyle
Nuke Therapy
Feeling disgusted with increased pink slips while failed CEOs get golden parachutes? Well, click here and you'll feel MUCH better! The site is the brain child of a tres clever industrial designer who himself lives in the Hamptons, Miles Jaffe, author of The Hamptons Dictionary, a hilarious handbook of class warfare: CLICK HERE
THANKS, MARY T.!
Thanks to Coffeehouse Mystery reader Mary T. of Appleton, Wisconsin for the little missive below...
Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony!
Yes, like the Japanese with their tea traditions, the Ethiopians have a very special way of enjoying coffee. Click here to learn more!
COFFEE COMPOST!
Did you know that old coffee grounds = good compost for your garden? Click here to read more. (Who knew coffee repelled slugs? Now there's a hilarious metaphor for a CM book.)
Coffee Health News!
Coffee May Help Prevent Ovarian Cancer
A Harvard study found women who drank 3 or more cups of coffee or tea a day were 25% less likely to develop Ovarian Cancer than those who drank none. Click here to read more.
Coffee May Boost Memory
in Older Women
USA Today reports...
Women older than 65 who drank more than three cups of coffee a day — or the caffeine equivalent in tea — showed better memory retention than men, a French researcher reports. Click here to read the short USA Today report. Or click here to read a longer Scientific American article.
GOOD NEWS FOR FAIR TRADE!
Fair Trade Coffee prices went up in June 2008, which means coffee farmers will be getting more money for their Arabica beans. Because so many coffee farms are located in the poorest corners of the world, this is great news.
What is Fair Trade coffee?
Click here to learn more.
(For new Fair Trade pricing Click here.)
Coffee is Culinary!
Click here to read about a master chef Marcus Samuelsson's work with a master coffee blender to pair coffee with food. Coffee as a culinary experience: Clare would approve!
Coffee Recipes!
Acclaimed chef Marcus Sameulsson created a yummy Chocolate Cinnamon Bread recipe for Starbucks. If you'd like the recipe, click here!
MORE RECIPES...
The National Coffee Association has some great coffee recipes. Click here to get them.
For even more coffee recipes, click here
DOOR COUNTY COFFEE...
And for coffee recipes from DOOR COUNTY COFFEE, a family-run coffeehouse in Wisconsin, click here.
A shout-out of thanks to Mary T., a Coffeehouse Mystery fan, for mentioning her fave coffeehouse on my Coffee Talk Message Board (the green chalkboard at the top of this column).
STRANGER THAN FICTION
"Maid Cafes" of Japan
Click here to read about cafes where women dress as maids and their"geek" clientele are fighting crime by packing weapons...
Japan's Romance with Kona Coffee
Click here to read about the growing interest of Kona Coffee-drinking in Japan.
Coffee Lover Invents
"The Barista Game"
.jpg)
Did you know there's a new board game in which you win by making the perfect cup of coffee? Click here to read about the game designer who invented it.
BIG COFFEE NEWS!
Ethiopia announces commercial culitvation of low-caffeine coffee plants! Ric Gostwick's "dream" coffee from Decaffeinated Corpse is no longer fiction! To read about this amazing breakthrough, Click here
#1 Bestselling Paperback
When the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association published its list of top selling mystery novels for July 2007, Decaffeinated Corpse made the #1 spot on the paperback list. Thank you, Coffeehouse Mystery readers. You helped to make Decaffeinated Corpse a national bestseller.
AND NOW
FOR SOME
OF CLEO'S
PAST
COFFEE PICKS...
---------------------------
SEPTEMBER '07
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
MAGNOLIA GRILL BLEND
With the tip of a chef's hat to the married couple who run Magnolia Grill, Cleo's coffee pick for SEPTEMBER 2007 was Magnolia Grill Blend sold by Counter Culture Coffee roasters. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.
OCTOBER '07
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
GOMBE RESERVE
Cleo's pick for OCTOBER 2007 was Gombe Reserve sold by Green Mountain Coffee Co. and endorsed by Dr. Jane Goodall. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for youself, CLICK HERE.
NOVEMBER '07
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
MAJOR DICKASON'S BLEND
In tribute to the late, great Alfred Peet, Cleo's pick for NOVEMBER 2007 was Major Dickason's Blend sold by Peet's Coffee and Tea. To purchase this coffee for yourself, CLICK HERE. To read Cleo's past featured article "Alfred Peet and the Birth of Coffeehouse Culture" as well as the article after it about the Major Dickason coffee blend itself, go to Cleo's article archives by clicking here. Note that you must wait a minute or so for the archives to load.
DECEMBER '07
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
100% KONA PEABERRY
Behold the Kona
happy dance!
For DECEMBER 2007 Cleo's pick was 100% Kona Peaberry sold by Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.
JANUARY '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
"YIRG" - ETHIOPIAN YIRGACHEFFE
Cleo's pick for JANUARY 08 was Ethiopian Yirgacheffe sold by Counter Culture Coffee Company. This coffee was also featured in Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery: FRENCH PRESSED. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.
FEBRUARY '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
RWANDAN VILLAGE BLEND
Cleo's FEBRUARY '08 pick was Rwandan Village Blend sold by Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co. To purchase this excellent coffee for yourself, CLICK HERE. To read Cleo's archived article on this coffee, CLICK HERE.
MARCH '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
KENYA
Cleo's MARCH '08 pick was Kenya, sold by Counter Culture Coffee, Co. and Peet's Coffee. This coffee was also featured in Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery: FRENCH PRESSED. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.
APRIL '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
PURPLE PRINCESS
Cleo's April '08 pick was the amazing "Finca El Puente" from a coffee in Honduras nicknamed "Purple Princess" by the coffee director of Counter Culture Coffee of Durham, NC. This coffee was also featured in Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery: FRENCH PRESSED. To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.
MAY - JUNE '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Cleo's June '08 pick was the "Jamaica Blue Mountain" of the South Pacific. An award-winning coffee grown on the exotic island of Papua New Guinea (north of Australia). To read more about this coffee or purchase it for yourself, CLICK HERE.
JULY - AUGUST '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
SOLAR ROAST COFFEE
Cleo's July - August '08 pick was Solar Roast Coffee of Pueblo, Colorado, the only company in the world that roasts its coffee using solar energy! Meet Dave and Mike, the two brothers who invented this one-of-a-kind solar roaster, and learn how you can purchase their delicious coffees for yourself by CLICKING HERE and reading Cleo's archived article.
SEPT. - OCTOBER '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick:
JOE'S VIENNA ROAST
from the NYC coffeehouse:
Joe, The Art of Coffee
The September-October '08 pick was Joe's Vienna Roast, sold by Joe, The Art of Coffee café in Greenwich Village, New York, recently named one of the best coffee bars in the country by Food and Wine magazine (and one of Cleo Coyle's inspirations for her fictional Village Blend!). CLICK HERE to visit Joe's online store and order any one of their excellent coffees for yourself. (To read Cleo's archived article about the Joe cafe, click here.)
NOV. - DECEMBER '08
Cleo's Coffee Pick
BOUCHON BLEND
This smooth, delicious coffee is the House Blend served at Bouchon Bakeries, which are owned and run by award-winning chef Thomas Keller. This coffee was featured in Cleo Coyle's 7th Coffeehouse Mystery: ESPRESSO SHOT. It is blended and roasted by Equator Estate Coffee and Teas, a women-owned company based in northern California. Click here to learn more about the coffee or order it for yourself.
JANUARY 2009
Cleo's Coffee Pick
NOT KOPI LUWAK!
One of the rarest coffees on the planet, Kopi Luwak is also one of the most expensive. Kopi Luwak was also a featured coffee in Cleo's 7th and most recently released Coffeehouse Mystery: ESPRESSO SHOT. To read Cleo's brief archived article on Kopi Luwak and learn how it got its hilarious nickname: "cat poop coffee," click here.
SPRING 2009
Cleo's Coffee Pick
ROOSTER BROTHER's
LA MINITA ESTATE
(Costa Rica)
This outstanding single-origin bean is treated with love by the coffee team at Rooster Brother, a store for cooks housed in a historic Victorian building in Ellsworth, Maine. Master Roaster Gene (pictured) does a masterful job of bringing out the very best in this smooth, bright, delightful coffee with the kind of hints of citrus and berry usually found in high-quality African beans. Click here to visit George and Pamela Elias's Rooster Brother store online and order some of this superb coffee for yourself! (Thanks to Coffeehouse Mystery reader Bud Knickbocker of Bangor, Maine, for suggesting it!)
MAY - JUNE '09
Cleo's Coffee Pick
BISHOPS BLEND
Creating blends is a culinary art, and I'm happy to report that the roasters for Bishops Blend have done a masterful job at creating theirs. The beans are roasted medium dark and the package came to me (via UPS) freshly roasted, beautifully oily, and smelling of chocolate. The coffee is perfectly balanced; and as it cools, the notes include a slight vanilla flavor and a touch of cinnamon. Even better, when you purchase a bag, a percentage of the money goes toward ERD, a charity that provides disaster relief around the world as well as enabling people in the poorest communities on our planet to climb out of poverty. Buy a bag. Change a life. To learn more or purchase for yourself, click here.
SUMMER 2009
Cleo's Coffee Pick
DALLMAYR PRODOMO
Imported from Munich, Germany
To learn about this beloved German coffee brand, including tips on where to purchase it in America, read Cleo's article, now posted as the "Coffee Pick" feature in the center column of the Home Page at...
FALL 2009
Cleo's Coffee Pick
AMARO GAYO
(Ethiopia)
roasted by
Gimme! Coffee
To learn about this exotic Ethiopian coffee, including the outstanding roaster (gimme! Coffee) who takes pride in getting it to you expertly and freshly roasted, read Cleo's article, now posted as the "Coffee Pick" feature in the center column of the Home Page at...
WINTER 2010
Cleo's Coffee Pick
FRENCH LAUNDRY
ESTATE BLEND
roasted by
Equator Estates Coffee
"Roaster of the Year"
~ Roast Magazine
To learn more about this "chef's blend," created especially for award-winning Chef Thomas Keller's world-renowned French Laundry restauant, click here, and you will jump to the Equator Estates online shop. Scroll down to see the French Laundry blend among Equators other "chef's blend" offerings.
CLEO'S NEXT
COFFEE PICK
Will be announced
Spring 2010
FOR THE LOVE
OF OUR
WWII VETS
HONOR FLIGHT was created by a VA doctor when he discovered that his elderly patients (veterans of WW II) could not afford to make the trip to Wash. D.C. to actually SEE the WWII war memorial dedicated to them!
Now a national organization, Honor Flight raises money to help WWII vets make the trip to actually see the memorial that would not exist without their bravery and sacrifice. Our vets are dying every week. Time is running out to honor them. Cleo has happily donated. To learn more or donate yourself, click here.
McDONALD'S TO OPEN McCAFE
Click here to read the Wall Street Journal's Page One story about McDonald's plan to take on Starbucks to the tune of $1 Billion. Written by Janet Adamy.
"...McDonald's added a position to its crew: barista."
"Franchisees say that many of their customers don't know what a latte is."
Cleo suggests they read
LATTE TROUBLE!
