Hipster Bingo – a social media win

Sightglass Bingo is a cool little app for playing bingo by spotting items at Sightglass Coffee, a hip and popular café and roaster in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. These kind of social bingo jokes seem to pop up pretty regularly (cf Queen’s Speech Bingo, Amnesty’s Human Rights Presidential Debate Bingo), and when they’re done right they can be quite funny. The iPhone app + Twitter aspect is a very nice upgrade, though.

Play bingo by spotting items at Sightglass Coffee in San Francisco.Development by David Kasper. Design by Caleb Elston.Built using parse. (via Sightglass Bingo.)

Some of the bingo entries are going to be practically automatic, they occur so frequently – “Payment w/Square” – whereas some are going to be pretty tricky, like “TechCrunch Article” or “VC” (presumably Venture Capitalist, given the context, and not Vice Chancellor, which was my first, inappropriate context reading).

I’m not sure if this is still active – the app hasn’t be updated since 2011 and there’s been almost no activity on the associated Twitter account (@SightglassBingo) – but I think it’s a great idea. And if it’s not active, let’s get it going again.

Well, actually, you’ll have to do that without me. I never go to Sightglass. (Long story. Short version: I’ve had to divide up the city with an asshole who can’t stand to be in the same place as me – no, not an ex – and he insisted on Sightglass as part of his domain.)  So I won’t be playing this, but it’s easy to see how this could be extended to pretty much any of the other hip, popular coffee spots without much if any modification.

In fact, it would probably work even better at Four Barrel or Ritual, both on Valencia St. in the Mission (and coffee spots that are in my domain).  A few modifications might be in order, though, to improve game play.  You never see them bagging beans at Ritual, for instance, and the roasters are gone. And obviously, you want to make sure that the “cards” are kept fresh – over time, the selection of what’s hip in clothing could change, you can add in the website of the moment, or the newest smartphone or facial hair style.  But the concept is sound, and a hoot.

Sightglass Bingo for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

Sightglass Bingo (SightglassBingo) on Twitter.

Filed under: Coffee, Tech, app, coffee, iPhone, San Francisco

A New Caffeine Delivery System

AeroShot is a caffeine inhaler.

I can think of lots of drugs (don’t even get me started) that might benefit from coming in the form of an inhaler.  Caffeine isn’t one of them.  Sometimes the old ways are best – with the attendant ritual, aroma, collective experience:

Or in a pinch I might settle for Penguin Mints.

And anyway they’re already under review by the FDA… which is looking out for our best interests, I’m sure.

FDA To Review Inhalable Caffeine:  AeroShot went on the market late last month in Massachusetts and New York, and it’s also available in France. Consumers put one end of the canister in their mouths and breathe in, releasing a fine powder that dissolves almost instantly.

Each grey-and-yellow plastic canister contains B vitamins, plus 100 milligrams of caffeine powder, about the equivalent of the caffeine in a large cup of coffee.

AeroShot inventor, Harvard biomedical engineering professor David Edwards, says the product is safe and doesn’t contain taurine and other common additives used to enhance the caffeine effect in energy drinks. (via Manufacturing.net.)

For more…

• Ritual Roasters :: Locations.
• AeroShot caffeine inhalers: The next club drug? – HealthPop – CBS News.
• Inhalable Caffeine Has Finals Week Write All Over It – Bright Futura.
• ThinkGeek :: Caffeine & Edibles.

Filed under: Coffee, coffee, drugs, Ritual Roasters

From Dung to Coffee Brew With No Aftertaste

“dung containing the world’s most expensive coffee beans” – get the straight poop at From Dung to Coffee Brew With No Aftertaste – NYTimes.com.

Filed under: Coffee, coffee

We love… black coffee

• Ella Fitzgerald – Best of Ella Fitzgerald – First Lady Of Song
• Sarah Vaughan – Gold
• Oscar Peterson – In A Romantic Mood
• Les Brown and His Orchestra with Lucy Ann Polk
• Julie London – Ultra-Lounge, Vol. 4: Bachelor Pad Royale
• Sinéad O’Connor – Am I Not Your Girl?
• Tricky, with Martina Topley Bird – Nearly God

Filed under: Coffee, Music, coffee, music

We love… our coffee rituals.

Ritual Coffee – “bold, nutty, and sweet.” And that’s the staff. The coffee’s good too. The quality of Web2.0 work declined noticeable when they removed power outlets from the Valencia St. café, but, hey, at least now you can get a seat in there sometimes.

Filed under: Coffee, coffee, cool, Mission District

We love… java with our social justice.

Nomad Cafe – Coffee, Community, Sustainability: Oakland, Ca

Filed under: Coffee, East Bay, coffee