Gourmet Coffee Beans

More good news on the positive effects of coffee on our health.

Oslo – Drinking coffee in moderation, up to five cups a day, can reduce the chances of contracting cardiovascular diseases, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, a study by Norwegian researchers showed. The researchers based their findings on data from 27,000 women in the United States. Those who drank between one and three cups of coffee daily reduced the risk of contracting cardio-vascular diseases and “inflammatories” by between 20 to 25 per cent.

The study, published on Norwegian website www.forskning.no, used “inflammatories” to include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and conditions of the lungs, liver and kidneys.

“The findings suggest antioxidants could be a factor in reducing the risks of contracting a number of ailments,” said researcher Lene Frost Andersen. The study also showed coffee accounts for 60 percent of antioxidants in the classical Norwegian diet. Antioxidants are substances such as vitamins and beta carotene, which attack free radicals, the molecules the body produces naturally that are at the root of many diseases.

However, the positive effects of coffee are negated with excessive consumption of more than five cups a day. “It seems there is something harmful in coffee, if consumed in large quantities,” a co-author of the report, Rune Blomhoff said, without specifying what this property was.

Latte’s popularity is now greater than cappuccino in the UK.

London – The latte has overtaken the cappuccino as Britain’s favourite coffee – with 227,000 cups downed every hour.
Britons now consume 935 million lattes every year, enough to fill 561 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The firm Costa Coffee has seen its latte sales rise 10 per cent this year and say hit TV shows have increased the popularity of the latte.
Mike Lawless, head of UK Marketing for Costa, said: “Customer research showed lattes have become the most popular drink for the first time in our 35-year history.”

Here in South Florida we have had the original Latte now for several decades, it’s called Cafe con Leche. This is the identical drink but with more sugar and made with Cuban coffee.

Latte’s popularity is now greater than cappuccino in the UK.

London – The latte has overtaken the cappuccino as Britain’s favourite coffee – with 227,000 cups downed every hour. Britons now consume 935 million lattes every year, enough to fill 561 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The firm Costa Coffee has seen its latte sales rise 10 per cent this year and say hit TV shows have increased the popularity of the latte. Mike Lawless, head of UK Marketing for Costa, said: “Customer research showed lattes have become the most popular drink for the first time in our 35-year history.”

Here in South Florida we have had the original Latte now for several decades, it’s called Cafe con Leche. This is the identical drink but with more sugar and made with Cuban coffee.

Italians first brought coffee to Europe. The first shipment came from Turkey to Venice in 1615. Coffee houses had opened in the major European cities of Paris, Marseilles, Oxford, London, Venice and Exeter by the mid-seventeenth century.

The Coffee shops of Europe became platforms for intellectual discussions and had a nickname, “penny universities” which was the price to enter. Women were not allowed in English coffee houses and were exclusively for women.

The coffee house that was frequented became associated with a man’s politics. At the height of the coffee house popularity in London, they were denounced as places for treasonous activities. So much so that King Charles II attempted to ban them but it was reversed due to popular demand.

Legend has it that 90% of the world’s coffee can be traced to a simple act of theft. The Dutch were the first to bring coffee to the new world and cultivate it commercially. The mayor of Amsterdam in 1714 sent Louis XIV of France a coffee tree. About nine years later a young naval officer, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu stole a seedling from this tree and brought it to his home in the Caribbean. De Clieu took special care of the seeding despite the harsh voyage. He planted it in Martinique and 50 years later there were more than 19 million coffee trees on the island.

It is believed that that all of the trees in the West Indies came from this single seeding. Missionaries, traders and colonists took seedlings to other islands and throughout Latin America. Coffee became one of the New World’s most profitable crops by the end of the eighteenth century. This one seeding is responsible for the existence of coffee farming in the New World.

I have to report this cool looking volcano eruption in Indonesia. The cone looks very much like the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica which was the inspiration for our trademark and picture on our packaging.

Washington – A team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from the Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) in Washington state has spent three weeks in Indonesia, working with the government there to evaluate the threat of volcanic eruptions.

Their work included studying Mount Merapi in central Java, a 9,800-foot peak considered the most dangerous of Indonesia’s 129 active volcanoes because of the large nearby population, a frequency of severe eruptions, and increased activity in past weeks.

Mount Merapi´s threat is magnified because it is near Yogyakarta, home to more than 1 million people, and located less than 20 miles from the volcano’s summit, according to a May 17 USGS press release.

More than 100,000 people also live within hazardous zones on the flanks of the volcano. During the past 12 years, Mount Merapi erupted six times.

Mount Merapi began showing signs of new unrest in summer 2005, with an increase in seismic activity that prompted the Merapi Volcano Observatory to conduct volcano hazard education programs in villages on the volcano’s flanks.

I have to report this cool looking volcano eruption in Indonesia. The cone looks very much like the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica which was the inspiration for our trademark and picture on our packaging.

Washington – A team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from the Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) in Washington state has spent three weeks in Indonesia, working with the government there to evaluate the threat of volcanic eruptions.

Their work included studying Mount Merapi in central Java, a 9,800-foot peak considered the most dangerous of Indonesia’s 129 active volcanoes because of the large nearby population, a frequency of severe eruptions, and increased activity in past weeks.

Mount Merapi´s threat is magnified because it is near Yogyakarta, home to more than 1 million people, and located less than 20 miles from the volcano’s summit, according to a May 17 USGS press release.

More than 100,000 people also live within hazardous zones on the flanks of the volcano. During the past 12 years, Mount Merapi erupted six times.

Mount Merapi began showing signs of new unrest in summer 2005, with an increase in seismic activity that prompted the Merapi Volcano Observatory to conduct volcano hazard education programs in villages on the volcano’s flanks.

A “coffee industry problem” is that a true cup of coffee is 6 oz. but the majority of coffee makers use 4 oz. The correct measurement is 1 tablespoon for each 6 oz. then adjust to taste. To get there you need to measure your water with a measuring cup and measure your cup with a measuring spoon. After you do this a few time you can figure out exactly how much water and
your grinder settings for a great cup of coffee.

I have a Capresso coffee maker that I bought last month and just went through this process to fine tune how I like my coffee. For the 10 cup water level I use the the 4 1/2 cup grind setting with the grind set two notches below the mid-point.

To determine the exact number of cups does take some measuring to pinpoint it. It is a learning process. I first put the cup setting to grind the projected amount in my burr coffee grinder then I measure the coffee grounds from the container to find the best setting. This also varies depending on the type of ground fine or coarse. A little less for  fine a grind because the grounds are more compact and and more for coarse.

In my Cusinart Burr Coffee Grinder, if I want to grind a different type of coffee, such as decaf for a single pot, I usually pull out my blade grinder since emptying out hopper and the blades is a major project.

To keep my beans fresh I usually only fill the bean hopper about half-way. The top does keep it sealed so I would not worry too much.

Hawaii is the only state where coffee is grown in the USA. There are 6,500 acres of coffee on Hawaii’s five major islands that produce 7 million coffee beans. The largest producer is Kauai and the most famous is Kona.

The trees arrived in 1825 after the Governor of Oahu, Chief Boki, acquired them in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.