Kim O'Donnel - Meat Lover's Meatless Celebrations

Modern Times Coffeehouse is proud to host Kim O'Donnel on Wednesday, October 31st at 7p.  An advocate for Meatless Monday, though still a meat-eater herself, O’Donnel, chef and USA Today food columnist, has whipped up a batch of terrific vegetarian recipes for the holidays. Whether you’ve been thinking about cutting out meat, or just want a change from the usual turkey or roast, O’Donnel has some great ideas. Come listen to O’Donnel and sample the fare.

 The Meat Lover's Meatless Celebrations: Year-Round Vegetarian Feasts (You Can Really Sink Your Teeth Into)

We will be setting up tables and chairs and turning off the wireless at 6p.  

open today at 11a

We were mostly spared by Sandy, the merciful.
We will open today, Tuesday, at 11a - functioning with a VERY limited menu.  

We're closed!

Sandy forced us to close early and run home to our loved ones. 
Depending on our power situation, we'll let you know if we open tomorrow.
Stay safe everyone!

Hurricane Sandy

Due to the arrival of Sandy, Modern Times Coffeehouse will close at 4p tomorrow, Monday, October 29. 
If the rapture has not occurred by Tuesday morning we will be open that day - if we have power and weather permitting.

Price Increase in October

Starting October 1st, we have chosen to add a slight increase to some of our drinks and food selections. We held off as long as we could, but we can no longer continue to absorb the increased cost of our wholesale ingredients, especially produce, dairy and bread - which, when you think about it, comprise fifty percent of our menu. On average, prices will go up four percent, but you will see the highest increase reflected in the price of some pastries that come from smaller vendors and sodas.  We will continue purchasing the best quality ingredients, sourcing from as many local vendors as possible, and preparing our food in-house.
We feel that our new price structure is comparable to similar businesses in the area. Plus, we have incorporated ways for you to save money:  aside from offering a fifty cent discount every time you use a Modern Times Coffeehouse Travel Mug, we have added a customer rewards punch card.  We offer a free drink after the purchase of thirteen beverages over the price of $2.50.  This means that beverages that were previously ineligible are now eligible. 
As always, we value your business and thank you for supporting your local independent coffeehouse.

Piracy (not the eye-patch, wooden leg kind)

We got a notice from our ISP warning us of possible legal action due to someone using our IP address to download copyrighted material ("Alphas" - Season 2, Episode 2 to be exact). Hey, if you're going to download movies or TV shows illegally, do it at home. Even better:  find some friends with cable or TiVo and watch "Alphas" at home, comfortably sitting on a couch. 

Please don't make us start blocking websites or posting spoilers. k-thanks

New Art on Display - Cutting People In

Modern Times Coffeehouse is pleased to host new work by Christina King.

Enjoy the show,, and please join us for the reception on Thursday, September 13th from 7-9pm.

It's official: we're having a baby.

Modern Times Coffeehouse will soon have a sister store to be exact.  Many of you have known about this, but I didn't want to make an announcement until things were official:  well, last week, we secured a lease for a space in the Takoma neighborhood of DC.  For this venture, I have partnered with Anna Petrillo, who has been with MTC almost since its inception.
It has been quite a journey already.  However, we know we've found the perfect space, filling a gap left by the closing of the Mayorga Coffee location earlier this year.
We want to open our doors by this winter, knowing that it will take a considerable build-out for that space to be ready; once it is done,  it will offer a different experience than Modern Times - a function of its size and location - while maintaining our attention to quality and connection to the surrounding community. In the meantime, we're considering holding some events at MTC specifically to raise some start-up funds.  We'd appreciate any suggestions for fund-raising events.
This does not mean Modern Times is going anywhere.  I'm proud to say that during the search (and beyond) James Bress has been doing a great job taking care of the daily operations at the shop.  We want to continue being an essential part of the neighborhood and the Politics and Prose family.    
I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Wish us luck - these are exciting times!

Time for Tea

(Our guest blogger this week is Kate Lindsey, our linguist-in-residence and friendly barista.  You can keep up with her globe-trotting adventures on her blog.)

Sure, we have fantastic espresso, delicious cold-brewed coffee and the best lattes and cappuccinos in town, but what about when you need a soothing chamomile and lavender infusion to take the edge off the day, or a shay bina'ina' whose minty fragrance holds visions of the Moroccan sahara, or our famous home-made ginger-infused chai to wake you back up? We like to take care of our tea-lovers too - which is why we get our large selection of teas, shay and chai from Serendipitea - high quality organic loose leaf teas.

I was chatting with some fellow tea-lovers the other day and we were talking about all the different words for tea. Tea, thé, tee, te, chai, shai, cha. What is most surprising however, is not their differences, but actually their similarities! The tea plant grows in a vast area that stretches from Assam (India) in the west to the east coast of China and southwards into Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Using the leaves of tea as a beverage is said to have originated in China. Most words for tea found among the world's languages, thus, come from Chinese origin.

Even in China, however, there are slight differences among the different linguistic communities. The Chinese character for tea is, and is pronounced cha in Mandarin. However in Min Nan chinese, they pronounce it tê. The Dutch East India Trading Company, which was the main importer of tea into Europe, had connections in the south of China in Fujian where Min Nan was spoken. Thus, the word they adopted for tea was thee, which spread (along with the tea leaves) all throughout Europe and former Dutch colonies. Communities that traded with China through different ports like Potrugal (chá) who traded through Macao (Cantonese: cha), or Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East who traded overland tend to use forms such as chai.

Below is a map from The World Atlas of Language Structures showing how the languages are divided. While only 230 (of nearly 6000) languages are included in this preliminary survey, it is interesting to see how many words are derived from cha (109), how many from te (81) and how many from other origins (only 40). Click here to interact with the map.

 









For all you coffee drinkers who I may have lost along the way - here are some fun facts about the origins of the words for latte!

 In Italian latte means milk. What in English-speaking countries is now called a latte is shorthand for "caffelatte" or "caffellatte" ("caffè e latte"). The Italian form means "coffee and milk", similar to the French café au lait, the Spanish café con leche and the Portuguese café com leite


Ordering a "latte" in Italy will get you a glass of hot or cold milk.

Closing Early Today

Lovely Modern Timers,

We will be joining Politics & Prose in closing early today, at 6pm, for a staff event. Food will stop being served at 5pm, though drinks will be available until close. Thank you for your help and understanding.

Happy Sunday,

MTC Staff