2010 Kona Coffee Cultural Festival
Who wants to go to Hawaii? If you’ve been yearning for an awesome time at the beach, scrumptious food, and excellent coffee, there is no better time to visit Hawaii than in November. From the 5th of November to the 14th, the annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival is going to be held in the Big Island. This is no ordinary food and cultural festival as it has received numerous awards and has been in existence for no less than 40 years!
This year’s festival is already being built up – although there isn’t much need for that as those who know about it are already waiting in anticipation. Some of the most exciting events include:
• International Lantern Parade, November 5 at 6:30 pm. Alii Drive, Kailua Pier to Hale Halawai
• Holualoa Village Coffee & Art Stroll, November 6, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Have a taste of more than three dozen estate label Kona coffees!
• KTA Super Stores Kona Coffee Recipe Contest/Big Island Showcase, November 7, 12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa Convention Center. This cooking contest should be fun to watch AND you get to sample the concoctions! Of course, 100% pure Kona coffee will be used in the recipes. How cool is that?
• Gevalia Kona Coffee Cupping Competition – Preliminary Round, November 10, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Keauhou Beach Resort. This competition will determine the best Kona coffee there is. You wouldn’t want to miss that!
For more information on the events and schedules, visit the official web site of the 2010 Kona Coffee Cultural Festival.
Magic Power Coffee: Stay Away!
We’ve heard of all sorts of coffee drinks that claim various benefits. I am talking about slimming coffees and the like, but until a few minutes ago, I had never heard of Magic Power Coffee! Some of you might know about it, but for the sake of those like me, allow me to briefly describe this product.
Magic Power Coffee is being marketed all over the United States as an instant coffee drink. The uniqueness of this product lies in the claim that it functions as an aphrodisiac. Yup, it is supposed to stimulate sexual arousal in both men and women!
So what’s wrong with that? It could very well be a better alternative to Viagra, right?
The FDA, however, disagrees, and has released a statement to the effect that it can be harmful. The government agency is quite worried about the fact that the coffee drink is labeled as an “all natural dietary supplement.” You know how it is these days – people market products as “all natural” and as a “dietary supplement,” and these products are supposed to be 100% safe.
I guess there is no such thing, though. A spokesperson from the FDA says that the label is misleading, and that in fact, Magic Power Coffee can cause serious damage. Men who are using certain prescription drugs, for example, can experience a sudden plummet in blood pressure due to the interaction of the active ingredients.
If you still wish to try the potency of this magic drink, I suggest you check with your doctor first. Better yet, just stick to the good old brew!
…And Free Internet For All
Coffee shops have sprouted up all over like mushrooms after the rain, and when we talk about coffee shops, the first thing that comes to mind is Starbucks. While some see them as a corporate “evil,” there is no denying that Starbucks is arguably the most popular coffee shop chain in the world.
They’ve had their own share of struggles, and in an effort to widen their customer base yet again, Starbucks is now offering more than the usual fare: free Internet.
Over the years, coffee shops have become synonymous with laptops and all sorts of mobile devices – and that means Internet access as well. However, the Internet access in Starbucks stores as it currently is is quite limited. You need to have a Starbucks loyalty card, and having one does not automatically mean you can surf all you want – it just gives you 2 free hours of Internet.
The new scheme, which is going to be implemented on the first of July, is going to open up wireless Internet access in almost 7,000 Starbucks stores all over the United States. The service is going to be offered to in collaboration with AT&T Inc. Do take note, however, that the stores that will be offering this are only the company-operated ones. Franchised stores will not be part of the scheme. (Boo!)
Here’s the question: will this change entice you to camp out at Starbucks if you don’t normally do it? Will free Internet affect your choice of coffee?
Free Coffee At Barnes & Noble
Books and coffee – what better combination is there? (Ohh yeah, I left the cigarettes out of the picture, sorry!)
If you’re the type who enjoys sipping on a nice hot coffee drink while drinking in words from your nifty e-book reader, then I suggest you head on over to the nearest Barnes & Noble branch. They have an ongoing promo where they will give a tall cup of coffee for FREE to any customer who shows a server an open e-book.
Which readers are qualified? Thank goodness, Barnes & Noble isn’t being nitpicky about this – they’re not limiting e-readers to their own Nook. You can use any of these e-e-readers and still qualify for that free cup of coffee:
• iPad
• iPhone
• iPod touché
• BlackBerries
• HTC HD2 devices
• portable Mac or Windows computers
Isn’t that nice of them? Oh, there IS a catch. The software that you must use to read e-books is the BN e-reader software, of course. 
So what’s the point of offering free coffee to those who read e-books in the store?
It all points back to the use of the BN e-reader software. They have been on a campaign to push the use of this piece of software, along with the Nook. One cool thing about the software (aside from the free coffee that you get if you use it) is that you can read selected titles in the store for free for an hour everyday!
Coffee + free books = heaven!
Coffee Spending On The Rise
How much do you spend on coffee? I am not talking about buying coffee at the supermarket and brewing it at home – indeed, I am talking about “fancy coffee” or as my friend calls it, “designer coffee.”
If you’re like me, you probably do not realize just how much you spend on this kind of coffee on a monthly basis. According to people who have nothing better to do do this kind of thing for a living, Americans are spending more money on designer coffee these days. Indeed, some say that this is a good sign that the recession is actually over.
The numbers are quite interesting: the purchases of fancy coffee went up by 21 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, as compared to the same amount of time in the previous year. The exact amounts vary depending on the location, of course, but in Seattle (where people practically run on coffee) the average person spends $674 per year on the brew!
That is pretty considerable. Think about what you can buy with that kind of money. An iPad. An iPhone. Heck, you can buy a laptop computer!
Still, I suppose I totally get those people who spend that much on coffee – I am probably one of them and just don’t realize it! I mean, yeah, all those gadgets sound nice, but when you need your java fix during the day, you don’t get to think of anything else.
So, sit down and crunch some numbers. How much do you spend on coffee?
GE Coffee Makers Recalled
Listen up, people! For sure, you have at least one coffee maker in your home. If one of them is made by General Electric, you might want to check the serial number and see if it is one of those that are included in the massive recall taking place.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission just announced that a certain model of General Electric’s coffee makers has to be recalled – all 900,000 of them. Now why am I surprised that there are that many units of a single kind of coffee maker?
Anyhow, this particular model is the 12 cup digital coffee maker manufactured by well known brand GE. The reason for the recall is that they are – surprise! – a fire risk. The coffee maker units were sold in various Walmart branches for a couple of years – from 2008 to January of this year.
According to reported incidents, there have been 83 cases wherein the coffee makers have overheated. Some of the units melted or burned and several people have been physically injured.
Here’s more information to check if your unit is at risk:
• Black model number: 169164
• White model number: 169165
You can find these numbers – plus the GE logo – printed at the bottom (the base) of the coffee maker. If you are using either model, you can call Walmart immediately and get a full refund.
One thing that’s bugging me: out of 900,000 units, 83 have malfunctioned. This is statistically significant enough to warrant a full recall? Interesting.
Grocery Stores To Get Starbucks Flavored Coffee
Pretty soon, we will be able to go to the grocery store and ask for Starbucks flavored ground coffee. I am not saying that everyone wants Starbucks for their home brewed coffee, but for those who cannot get enough of their coffee, this move is going to be a dealmaker.
According to Starbucks Corp., they are planning to release three kinds of flavored coffee to be sold at your local grocery store. This is a big step as other brands have a strong hold in this market. Think Folgers. Think Maxwell House. These are the brands that most everyone buys when they go grocery shopping.
The three flavors are vanilla, caramel, and cinnamon. The line is called Starbucks Natural Fusions, and we can expect them to be available in the market next month.
This move is part of the ongoing campaign of Starbucks to make their products more commercially viable for the average consumer. I have to admit that it makes a lot of sense. Instead of going to a Starbucks store and pay several dollars for one cup of coffee, people can buy the ground coffee and brew it at home – with more or less the same Starbucks taste. For those who brew coffee several times a day, having this product available will be a boon, especially in these hard economic times.
Of course, there will be critics and they will be heard – much like the critics of Via, the instant coffee line that Starbucks developed. If you remember, that line was surprisingly widely accepted by consumers!
While I was one of those naysayers when it came to Via, I am a bit more optimistic about Natural Fusions. What do you think?
Seattle’s Best Gets New Logo
Seattle is known to be a coffee city, and yet we cannot deny that their carrier coffee shop, Seattle’s Best Coffee, does not have the brand recognition that it ought to around the world. For example, did you even know that Starbucks bought the company in the early part of this decade? While Starbucks – the name, the coffee, and the logo – is quite recognizable to most anyone, Seattle’s Best seems to have a long way to go.
The company is not going to sit back and let status quo prevail, though. Yesterday, Seattle’s Best Coffee launched a massive campaign that aims to make the brand as well known – or even better known – than Starbucks. It all started with a stunt, which MarketWatch describes as:
To celebrate the unveiling, red-capped “invaders” scaled Starbucks’ headquarters and stealthily replaced the famous “siren” atop the clock tower with the new Seattle’s Best Coffee logo. The intent? To put Seattle’s Best on the map as the universal symbol for great coffee.
It is an interesting stunt, I have to say. The siren superseded (albeit temporarily) by a modern looking red and white logo – never thought I’d see the day! Take a closer look at the logo.
Isn’t it just…blah? I don’t get it. I may have my complaints about Starbucks, but the logo is perfect. It is not boring. It’s a good conversation piece. It has recall. It is pretty to look at. But, this red and white thing? What are they thinking? Or maybe I don’t know anything about branding at all.
What do you have to say about the logo?
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?
