Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Coffee Bean checking! Who knew that Coffee Beans aren't ok when you get them. They come green before they're roasted, but to make it all tasty, they need to be checked out one bean at a time! See the beans in the picture? Here's some examples of common flaws. In a sack of beans that might be 50 lbs on the minimum, the quality of each bean is key, and who's going to be check that as diligent as you may? It's on the roaster to do it. Here's Ray from Balconi shows me a quick demo of things that can go wrong. In a minute he picked out a bunch that were flawed from a tiny sample on that plate. You might think, who cares if a few beans are messed up? But Ray states, “one bad bean can ruin a whole pot.”
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The Mutant Lemon brought on a competitor, The Bear Claw Daikon. My friend Jake Yasutomi of Yasutomi Farms (featured in GR) dug this one out. It's impressive and surprisingly symmetrical as well.
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Empire State A Love Story (or not) When does a graphic novel beat out a video game that's as anticipated at Marvel vs Capcom 3? Maybe this time? Empire State is an impressive hard cover mini epic that's unlike many of the Shiga books in the past. Not filled with brain teasing math, or Choose Your Own Adventure page turning fun, this is a straight story about a guy named Jimmy who works at a library and has a Jewish female friend, Sara. There are some rewind flash back scenes that explain what's going on, but overall, this is a conventional work, that does have a love story element. Will there be that sappy ending, will it be open ended? Drawn cleanly with great color work, by our friend John Pham, this is a fun story that captures a bit of the Shiga mind (what do some of those vocab words mean, anyway?) and a lot of his heart.
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