Of Flavored Coffee
I have nothing against flavored coffee. I actually like to have a cup of hazelnut coffee every now and then. Nothing really beats good old plain coffee in my eyes, though. Oh, I am sure the purists will scoff at my because I use a lot of cream and a bit of sugar on my coffee but at least it is plain unflavored coffee.
Why am talking about plain and flavored coffee? I read this feature in one of the New York Time blogs about how utterly ridiculous the world of coffee is becoming due to flavored coffee. The blogger shares his sentiments:
Maybe I shouldn’t pick on Green Mountain Coffee — they do fair trade, they work with Paul Newman, and so on — but this flavored coffee business has gotten completely out of hand.
These shots are from a gas station in Hatfield, Mass., and when I see these things — blueberry-, eggnog-, whatever-flavored coffee — I just have to laugh. And the descriptions! Here’s Cinnamon Cream Swirl: “The warm flavor of freshly baked cinnamon buns, dotted with butter, and swirled with sweet, creamy icing.”
I get his point. Flavored coffee is great sometimes but most of the time, if it is the taste of coffee that you really want, then plain is the way to go. Then again, this is just me talking. I am sure that there are many others who would disagree. Each to his own, no?
How about you, what do you think of the proliferation of flavored coffee?
Photo courtesy of y_katsuuu
Coffee After A Workout?
I am not that much of a fan of exercise, are you? I do have my moments but in general, I would rather sit in front of a computer or read a book while sipping a cup of joe. Then again, exercise is good for you, right? BUT the pain that I feel during and after working out just makes me cringe! Just thinking about makes me NOT want to get up from my chair right now…
Anyhow, I got to thinking about working out and exercising after reading a news item on how coffee can help people feel better if they drink some after exercising. WMTW reports:
Downing some strong coffee or an energy drink after a workout — along with a carbohydrate, such as pasta — can help people feel better more quickly, researchers said.
A team of Australian researchers said that people who recover with caffeine had 66 percent more glycogen in their muscles four hours after exercise. That means there is more energy for the next day’s training or performance, said senior author John A. Hawley.
Glycogen is the primary fuel for muscle during exercise, they said in a news release, which also said that caffeine had previously been shown to improve other areas of athletic performance.
I suppose that it should not be much of a surprise since we know that caffeine is an upper. Come to think of it, after a long day of walking around at the mall, I feel so much better after sitting down at a coffee shop and relaxing over a cup of coffee. Oh, you can add a doughnut or two in there!
Photo courtesy of cheetah100
Coffee Prices Set To Increase
The price of everything else is increasing, why not coffee? Brazil is one of the largest suppliers of good coffee to the rest of the world and it seems that they are all set to increase their prices as well. Before we all get upset about this, though, it would be good to realize that they are not doing this on a whim.
A report by Reuters states:
The rising cost of fertilizer and farm labor is squeezing profits from coffee in leading global grower Brazil but tight supplies should strengthen growers’ hands when haggling at the farm gate.
Fertilizer prices have as much as doubled in less than a year for some producers, depending on their region’s soil quality, and labor costs have been climbing amid a sustained commodity-driven economic boom.Farmers say the final blow has been the constant appreciation of the local currency, eroding income for growers as it strengthens against the U.S. dollar in which arabica is traded on the futures market.
As consumers, we don’t normally take news of price increases on a positive note. Still, there are certain things that we cannot control. As much as we do not want some things to happen, we really cannot do anything about them. As for this impending price increase for coffee, maybe I will stock up on whole beans for now. Or alternatively, look for other sources of coffee beans that do not come from Brazil.
Photo courtesy of Refracted Moments
Tale Of The Gourmet Coffee Beans
I love to read a good story anytime. It is not everyday that you find a good one about coffee, though. A reader of ours brought a web site to our attention, where a nice tale about gourmet coffee beans is being featured.
Happy Bean Coffee is a web site which sells the best gourmet coffee beans from all over the world. Just like any other online store, Happy Bean Coffee delivers its products to a wide variety of locations. More than showcasing various gourmet coffee beans, though, they also provide other information on coffee.
Back to the tale of gourmet coffee beans. Here is the first paragraph of the tale:
In the dreamy hours of the morning, the coffee bean begins anew to draw energy from dark, rich, volcanic soil and sunlight filtered through the remains of the previous night. The coffee bean stirs within and, to the first sounds of birds and the morning rituals of nearby inhabitants, the rain forest awakens around it.
Doesn’t that just stir up your senses? If you want to read more, I encourage you to head on over to the Happy Bean Coffee web site. I am sure that after reading the story, you would feel a craving to buy some new beans that you have never tried before. It never hurts to expand your horizons, does it?
Starbucks Under The Weather
A couple of posts ago, I talked about how people in the United States are spending less and less money on coffee. At that point, I was only focused on the consumers. These past few days, however, I have been reading a lot of news how the coffee chain giant, Starbucks, is feeling a bit under the weather. Could it be that they are actually feeling the effects of consumers spending less on coffee?
The Detroit Free Press reported last week:
Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday it will close 600 company-operated stores in the next year, up dramatically from its previous plan for 100 closures, a sign the coffee shop operator is still feeling the pain from the faltering U.S. economy.
Starbucks said in a statement that 70% of the stores to be closed were opened after the start of 2006. The locations set to close include ones that “were not profitable and not projected to provide acceptable returns in the foreseeable future,” it said.
About 12,000 workers will be affected by the closings, which are expected to take place over the next year, according to Valerie O’Neill, a spokeswoman for the company. O’Neill said most of the employees will be moved to nearby stores, but she did not know exactly how many jobs will be lost.
As you can imagine, this bit of news has stirred up a lot of controversy. Starbucks is perhaps the most popular – if not the most loved – coffee chain in the whole of the United States. It employs thousands and thousands of employees and with these impending closures, countless people will be affected.
What are your thoughts on the current situation Starbucks is facing?
Full Throttle Coffee
I would have thought several forays into higher caffeine drinks for cola companies would have taught them to stick with the classic formulas – the tried and tested ones. Apparently, I do not know anything because the soft drink giant Coca-Cola is coming up with a coffee beverage.
Thomson Financial News reports:
Coca-Cola Co. said Friday it plans to launch its coffee and energy beverage, Full Throttle Coffee, in the United States in August.
The drink is made with Colombian Arabica coffee and Full Throttle’s energy and vitamin blend, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said. It will be rolled out in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast regions of the United States.
Full Throttle Coffee is part of the Full Throttle energy drink family, which includes Full Throttle Original, Full Throttle Unleaded, Full Throttle Blue Demon and Full Throttle Fury, the company said.
At least they’re using good quality coffee beans, aren’t they? I just don’t know if I would spend hard earned money on a product like this one. I mean, as much as I like coffee, I can’t think of a reason to buy Full Throttle Coffee as an energy drink. I’ll buy regular Coke when I feel like drinking a refreshing soft drink. I’ll buy myself a cup of coffee – either hot or frappe – when I feel like drinking some coffee.
Am I alone in thinking this way or are you guys just as befuddled?
People Spending Less On Coffee
Tell me something that I do not already know! For the past month or so, I have noticed that people at my office did not go to Starbucks as often as they used to do – myself included. It used to be that we would go almost everyday, especially if we had a particularly long meeting. We definitely needed grandes during those times. Today, though, it is either we brew our own pot at the office – we’re lucky to have a drip coffee machine, we just take turns buying the beans – or we buy cheaper coffee at a local store.
It seems that the rest of the United States is doing the same thing. Based on Kelly Blue Book’s monthly survey:
The June 2008 study results reveal that 28 percent of new-car shoppers have stopped going to Starbucks or other coffee houses entirely, and 21 percent indicate they are going less often due to skyrocketing gas prices.
Though the study focused on new-car shoppers, I would not be surprised to hear the same trend happening with other groups of people. Imagine spending $2 on Starbucks a day. Do a little math – this adds up to $40 a month (5-day week) and $480 a year! What if you used that money for gas instead? You’d be able to buy 120 gallons of gas at $4 per gallon.
Not a surprising result then, huh? It’s perfectly normal when hard economic times hit, the non-essentials are first to go…
How often do you still go to Starbucks or any other coffee shop for that matter?
Cheese On Your Coffee, Anyone?
Uh, I don’t know about that. I mean, my second favorite drink in the whole wide world is coffee (first is water – yeah I am boring) and I can’t get enough of various types of cheese (check my last grocery bill and you’ll see LOTS of different cheese in there). I have not really thought of mixing the two together, have you?
This girl in Canada, Laura Perry, thinks otherwise and judges of the Eastern Regional Barista Championship in Montreal agree with her! The story featured in Ottawa Citizen narrates her victory:
Mascarpone cheese is not the first ingredient the average coffee drinker would put into an espresso. But Kanata’s Laura Perry is no ordinary coffee aficionado, using the unusual concoction to win the Eastern Regional Barista Championship this week in Montreal.
The 22-year-old’s victory will make her the only Ottawa resident to compete in October at the Canadian National Barista Championships, the Grey Cup of competitive coffee-making in Canada.
The drink, named Mascarpone Macchiato, is a shot of espresso marked with a bit of steam milk. It is blended with a variety of ingredients, including whipped mascarpone cheese, sugar cane and cinnamon bark.
For those who wince at cheese and coffee, Perry says she uses mascarpone for its light cream qualities. “It doesn’t really taste like cheese.”
For someone who likes cheese, I am pretty ignorant about a lot of types and I have not heard of mascarpone before. I found this at Wikipedia:
Mascarpone is a triple-cream cheese (though more accurately a lightly-whipped cream) made from crème fraîche, denatured with tartaric acid. Mascarpone is milky-white in color and is easily spread. When fresh, it smells like milk and cream. It is used in various dishes of the Lombardy region of Italy, where it is a specialty. It is a main ingredient of tiramisu.
I feel a bit stupid as I love tiramisu but now I understand how mascarpone can go well with coffee. I wonder if we’ll ever get to taste the likes of this coffee?
Coffee Maker Poses Security Risks
I never even knew that there is a coffee maker that can be connected to the Internet! Apparently, there is such a product and it poses certain security risks. I read this on CNET:
An Australian man has discovered security vulnerabilities in his Internet-connected coffee maker that could allow a remote attacker to not only take over his Windows XP-based PC but also make his coffee too weak.
Craig Wright, a risk advisory services manager at professional services firm BDO, found several security holes, including a buffer overflow in the Internet Connection software that links his Jura F90 coffee maker to his PC.
I don’t know about you but this is just too funny. I mean, I love coffee but why the heck would I get a coffee maker that I can connect to the Internet, especially one that goes for a hefty USD 2,000? For one, my apartment is small enough that I only need to take 5 steps to go from my bedroom to where my coffee maker is at. More so, I don’t think I have that much money lying around just to spend on something that may not be really necessary.
People say that Internet-connected devices seem to be what’s in store for the future. I love toys and gadgets, there is no doubt about that, but at this point, I cannot understand why I would want to get them. Except for the reputation points, I guess.
Load Up On Joe And Live Longer
Oh yeah? Well, if you base your beliefs on the results of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Madrid, drinking a lot of coffee can increase your lifespan. The study involved men and women who consumed large amounts of coffee and they found out that the risk of death of these people were considerably lower than those who didn’t drink coffee.
Coffee drinkers in the study had slightly lower death rates than non-coffee drinkers over time, whether their drink of choice had caffeine or not.
The findings do not prove that coffee is protective, but they strongly suggest that drinking coffee in large amounts is not harmful if you are healthy, researcher Esther Lopez-Garcia, Ph.D., of the University of Madrid, tells WebMD.
Among women, drinking two to three cups of coffee a day was associated with an 18 percent reduction in death from all causes, while drinking four to five cups was associated with a 26 percent reduction in risk.
The risk reduction in men was smaller and could have been due to chance.
“We can’t say from this one study that coffee extends your life, but it does appear that it doesn’t increase the risk for death for people who are healthy,” she says.
Oops – apparently I was a bit overexcited. There is indeed a reduction in death BUT there might be other factors in play. Again, I stick by my original belief – try to stay healthy and drink as much coffee as you think you need. If you feel ill effects because of too much coffee, then reduce intake. It’s as simple as that.
Photo courtesy of javaturtle
