The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms formerly recognized 16 bottle sizes for domestic American wine and 27 sizes for imports….

And yet there’s ample evidence that paying attention to your coffee quality pays off:
http://theshot.coffeeratings.com/2007/05/michelin-guide-coffee/

But to Perry, Thomas Keller is a coffee pretender. Enough said ( http://theshot.coffeeratings.com/2007/10/french-laundry-panama-esmeralda/ ). Equator Estates may not be Peerless rotgut, but I have yet to taste one very good coffee from anywhere made with their beans, and I’ve had thousands in hundreds of different places. But despite the claims of some staff that Equator only supplies their filter coffee (and Illy their espresso), I’ve had several French Laundry staffers look me straight in the eyes and tell me that they use Equator, not Illy, in their substandard espresso shots. Perhaps they’ve gone over entirely to Illy pods in the past year (after doing so in 2005). But as of a year ago when this happened, they clearly stated Equator. Someone there is not telling the truth… even the Equator people believe it’s Illy when multiple staffers say it isn’t.

Restaurants with some of the finest reputations in the US don’t seem to get the coffee side. Agree, coffee is often a neglected part of the culinary experience.

For example, Bouchon and The French Laundry in Yountville, CA (of Thomas Keller fame). While they do source their coffee (for brewing) from Equator Coffees
http://www.equatorcoffees.com/, the espresso is a different story.

A modified Unic espresso machine that takes Illy pods. Yep, Illy pods – stale coffee in a pod that comes from half way around the world. I verified this as recently as a year ago. Not sure, but believe it’s still the case today.

See http://onocoffee.blogspot.com/2005/01/day-i-beat-thomas-keller.html

Perry

Allen Taylor