Help Starbucks Find The Perfect Eco-Cup
The environment craze is far from over. At the rate things are going, more and more people are going to join this movement. If I had it my way, everyone should be more environment-conscious FOR REAL. You know what I mean, not mere lip service kind.
Anyhow, Starbucks is making a move that leans towards saving the environment. As for whether it is the real deal or the lip service type – you be the judge. Last month, they announced a contest which aims to help them find a solution to the disposable cup problem. Here’s the official announcement:
On April 1 we are officially launching an online contest to engage creative thinkers in solving the disposable cup waste problem through open collaboration.
We are especially excited to announce that Starbucks Coffee Company is sponsoring the contest as part of its aim to serve 100 percent of its hand-crafted beverages in reusable or recyclable cups by 2015.
Starbucks has provided $20,000 in cash prizes to be awarded for the most innovative ideas. The participant who submits the best idea, determined by an expert panel, will receive a $10,000 cash prize. In addition, participants whose ideas are among the top five selected by the community of collaborators will each be awarded a $2,000 cash prize.
I have to say that the intention is good, no doubt about that. I am a bit surprised, though, that the effort has to be this massive. Can’t they come up with a solution like, say, stop using disposable cups? Or am I being too simplistic here? Tell me!
The Quest For Real Weasel Coffee
I just realize now that I have been scammed. For all my talk about being street smart, and being able to smell a scammer from a mile away, I somehow always end up being ripped off one way or another. I don’t get scammed big time, but I do tend to fall for small scams – which have a way of adding up.
Anyway, when I was in Saigon last month, I was hell bent on buying as much coffee as I could. I didn’t particularly like the mocha coffee that my friend brought home last year, but I knew that Vietnam had more coffee to offer than the kind I originally tasted. So on my last day, I went around Ben Thanh market to take a look at the plethora of coffee beans that they sold there.
I should have known – when I saw practically every stall selling “Weasel Coffee” – that the stuff was probably not the real thing. Still, I disregarded my instinct and bought bags of the “awesome” coffee anyway. I was thinking, this is Vietnam. Everything’s cheaper here.
Now that I am drinking my nth cup of Weasel Coffee, I think that I might have paid good money for a fake. Everywhere online, I keep reading about the elusive weasel coffee and how replicas are sold all over Saigon and Hanoi; how tourists are being scammed every minute. Unfortunately, I think I am one of them.
So how do I get my hands on the real deal? Can anyone point me in the right direction?
How Late Do Coffee Shops Stay Open In Your Area?
I came across an article over at LAist targeting coffee shops in their area. After reading it, I didn’t realize just how much I took the coffee shops in my city for granted. Here in my city, you can find at least one coffee shop that stays open round the clock, especially during the weekend. The others are open till at least midnight or 2 a.m.
One would think that in a city such as Los Angeles, the coffee shops would ALL be open even at 3 in the morning, wouldn’t you? This is the plight of the coffeholics in LA:
Los Angeles, for all that it has to offer the late night set in the way of tacos, deli meats, dancing, and beautifully vacant streets, can’t seem to find it in its heart to make a goddamn chai latte past 11pm. Why? There are more than enough night-owl neurotics with script deadlines (or even term papers due) that you’d think every third Starbucks would be open around the clock. Yet there are vast swaths of our fine city that go dark to couture coffee culture once the clock chimes over to a new day.
This may be splitting hairs, but it sure feels like there is a sustainable subgroup of folks who don’t want to sit at a diner, slugging down pitch-black Folgers just because it’s the only 2am option. A recent scouring of Mid-City / Mid-Wilshire / Miracle Mile turned up nothing past 11pm, with the nearby Insomnia Cafe on Beverly kindly keeping the lights on until 1am.
I feel for these guys! Two or three a.m. is not that late for a lot of people. I cannot imagine not having an option at this time of the night.
How about in your city? Till what time do the coffee shops normally stay open? I am seriously curious.
Dark Brewed Coffee: Stomach Problem Cure
I must be pulling your leg, right? To be honest, I am not quite convinced about this piece of news, but it is just too good not to share. According to new research (we have new studies ALL THE TIME, don’t we?), there is something in dark brewed coffee that can help stomach problems.
This is what The Med Guru says:
People who were earlier forced to resist the much-desired morning coffee cup due to the fear of stomach pain can now have it without another thought, claimed the study.
“This discovery is going to help a lot of people who suffer from coffee sensitivity. As coffee-lovers, we’re very excited about this research,” said Dr. Veronika Somoza from the University of Vienna in Austria, and Dr. Thomas Hofmann, from the Technische Universitat Munchen in Germany, who conducted the study.
Don’t get me wrong – I am very much in support of the idea behind the study, but my experience does not seem to agree with the findings. I have a very acidic stomach, and it just gets worse whenever I have too much coffee. And, yes, I do drink black brewed coffee for the most part. As much as I love coffee, I have to admit that I have had to cut back so many times due to the stomach problems.
They say it’s all about this component:
The study found that the components that triggered molecular mechanism of acid production in the stomach cells were caffeine, catechols and N-alkanoly-5-hydroxytryptamides.
The finding revealed that there wasn’t one single irritant, but a mixture of compounds that caused the irritant property of coffee.
Moreover, one of the components, N-methylpyridium (NMP), helped in stagnating the production of hydrochloric acid by the stomach cells, which can reduce stomach irritation.
The darker roasted coffee beans contain almost twice the amount of NMP than the raw coffee beans. The level of NMP in the beans depends on the roasting method and the natural variety of the bean, revealed the researchers.
I guess it’s now a question of making sure that we get the component, isn’t it?
