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
Coffee Aroma A Wake Up Call?
How many times have you woken up to the smell of good coffee? How did that make you feel? According to some Japanese researchers, the mere aroma of coffee may be enough to give you the jolt that you need to wake up. Fancy that – you don’t even have to drink coffee, just smell it and you’re awake!
They conducted the research on 30 rats, which they kept awake for 24 hours. After that, the exposed half of the rats to coffee – well at least the smell of roasting coffee. The result was that those rats which were exposed to the smell of roasting coffee were able to return to a non-sleep deprived state and were less stressed as well. Of course, this is not to say that the exact effects can be observed in humans. Still, we all know how similarly rats and humans react to many things.
In any case, how is this going to be useful to us? Hmm I can think of a couple of ways…if my partner wants to sleep in and I want to wake him up without having to argue, I’ll roast some coffee beans right under his nose. That should wake him up, shouldn’t it? Oh, and the Japanese researchers were saying that maybe, the smell of roasting coffee can be piped into factories to keep the workers up all night. Maybe the same thing can be used for office workers who seem to love taking naps at work? NOOOOO…
Photo courtesy of Tim
Rachael Ray, Kaffiyeh, And Coffee
Oh my, just when I thought that people were becoming more open minded and rationale! I have never been a fan of Rachael Ray, let me say that outright. This latest uproar over her makes me kind of feel for her though. For those who may not know, she is a spokeswoman for Dunkin’ Donuts. So there she was, doing her job, being her uber perky self as usual, right? She made this Internet commercial about how good Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is (by the way, I do like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee).
Suddenly, out of the blue, she is being accused of symbolically supporting terrorism! Come on now, this irritatingly cheerful person you see on TV several times a day a supporter of violence? As much as her personality and shows grate on my nerves, I just cannot see her trying to promote terrorism by trying to get away with wearing a kaffiyeh look-a-like in a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial.
Perhaps Michelle Malkin, the blogger who put up these suggestions, is mistaken? Or maybe she has got something personal against Rachael Ray? Seriously, the drama of it all! Why can’t a person wear what she wants to when plugging good coffee without being misunderstood? More than this, who says that the kaffiyeh is only used by terrorists?
Anyhow, Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled the plug on this commercial. In the interests of peace, I suppose it was the right thing to do. Now let me go get some of that iced coffee to cool off.
Starbucks’ Pike Roast
I have not had the chance to try Starbucks’ attempt at a mellower flavored coffee but a reader of ours, Anna Brew, has brought it to our attention. It seems that Pike Roast is a new blend that is the result of customer reactions to Starbucks’ traditional blends. According to Consumer Reports, the typical Starbucks coffee is burnt and bitter. Now, with the Pike Roast, this is what Consumer Reports has to say:
The result is a mellower flavor that our three expert tasters and other CR staffers, who sampled the blend at a dozen U.S. stores on the East and West coasts, described as generally mild, “with very subtle floral notes, a hint of cocoa-like aromatic, and a medium roast impression.” Generally, they found Pike Place Roast to be “a smooth cup of coffee with some bitterness, but not particularly complex.” Because the flavor is so mild, our experts said, adding dairy or sweeteners might overwhelm the coffee. To experience the full flavor of the brew, you might want to drink it black, our testers suggest.
What can I say? First of all, I never really did agree with their report that Starbucks coffee is burnt and bitter. I have always thought well of Starbucks’ coffee. If I were part of the company, I would be thinking – first it was too bitter now it is too mild! Well this is what I think – as long you know you are making good coffee and you are satisfying majority of your customers, then don’t fix what isn’t broken!
Anna is right – too much drama! Let’s just enjoy coffee now, shall we?
Demand For Coffee On The Rise
You think? If you can judge the demand for coffee by the way I drink the brew, then this statement is definitely true. Seriously, though, it seems that the price of coffee is not about to go down anytime soon despite the forecasted increase in supply. This is due to the growing demand of coffee worldwide.
International Coffee Organization (ICO) Executive Director Nester Osorio in his latest coffee market report, said imports reached a record level in 2007.
Demand is thus the main factor influencing the market, at present. During the first six months of the coffee year 2007-08, exports from Brazil and Vietnam were considerably lower.
The average of the ICO composite indicator price for April fell to 126.55 cents per pound, compared with136.17 cents in March.
Despite this decrease, price levels are still firm and price volatility has become less intense. Average prices in the first four months of 2008 are higher than those recorded during previous months.
Exports during of March (8.7 million bags) were higher than those recorded in February (7.7 million bags). However, exports during the first six months of coffee year 2007-08 fell by 4.9 per cent compared to the same period in coffee year 2006-07.
New estimates of Brazilian production for 2008-09 have been just released. This establishes the size of the crop at 45.5 million bags, comprising 34.7 million bags of Arabicas and 10.8 million bags of Robustas.
That’s a whole lot of coffee!
Ethiopia: Highlight of the 20th Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference
The 20th Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference just ended today. This 4 day event marks not only a milestone in terms of the “age” of the group, but this conference is the first to highlight the birthplace of coffee – Ethiopia. I only read an article about this earlier today and I find it a nice coincidence that I had just bought a bag of Ethiopian coffee from Starbucks hours before.
Anyhow, here are some things that key people in Ethiopia had to say about the conference.
“Ethiopia is immensely proud to be at the forefront of this year’s SCAA Conference. Ethiopians have cultural and social traditions of coffee drinking going back many, many centuries, and, as such, we have much that is unique to share. The invitation to Ethiopia to be the first ever African portrait country featured is an honor. We take this as a symbol of both the Specialty Coffee industry’s high regard for our place in the expanding and dynamic specialty coffee market, as well as a tribute to our unique heritage and historic role in the coffee business,” said H.E. Yakob Yalla, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development to the assembled experts and enthusiasts.
“Few developing countries have realised that intellectual property plays a crucial role in income generation in the modern, global economy. Ethiopia is truly proud to be among the first to see IP management as a tool for development and poverty alleviation. It is a tribute to the coffee industry and our pioneer licensees that they agree with us and are prepared to cooperate with Ethiopia on its mission to capture a greater share of the retail price for Ethiopian coffee farmers and coffee workers,” commented Getachew Mengistie, Director General of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office.
This has gotten me more interested in Ethiopia as a coffee-producing country – expect to see more posts soon.
