Gourmet Coffee Beans

More than half of Americans drink coffee daily, according to research at Syracuse University. For many, coffee’s jolt is the best part of waking up.

“I couldn’t live without it, I drink it every day,” said a Hartford construction worker who said he drinks at least six cups of coffee before he arrives at work.

Dr. Laura M. Juliano, an assistant professor at American University’s Department of Psychology, has studied coffee and its effect on people.

“It feels good. It’s a stimulant drug, so it makes people feel happy, more talkative, more sociable, more awake and alert,” she said. “It has a rewarding effect on the brain chemicals. It’s no different really from all drugs taken for recreational purpose, such as tobacco or alcohol.”

Coffee or cola?

While typical soft drinks can provide a similar effect, the amount of caffeine they deliver generally is significantly lower. Research has shown that the beneficial effects observed in coffee are not replicated in other drinks.”The caffeine in coffee tends to have a bigger bang for the buck,” Juliano said.Sue Gebo, a registered dietitian in Hartford, Conn., pointed out that coffee tends to serve as the better drink over soft drinks because the typical soda contains more than 100 calories, compared to a cup of black coffee, which has almost no calories.”It’s the stuff people add to coffee — the cream, the extra cream, the sugar — that can add 60 or more calories in a large coffee,” Gebo said. “Then, the flavored syrups add significantly more calories.”Gebo also explained that coffee can camouflage normal hunger signals, but that wears off through the day.”People are more likely to get out-of-control hungry when the caffeine wears off. When people are trying to lose weight, they might get into trouble,” Gebo said.As with anything we consume, however, side effects can accompany the benefits of caffeine in coffee. Read full article.

More than half of Americans drink coffee daily, according to research at Syracuse University. For many, coffee’s jolt is the best part of waking up.

“I couldn’t live without it, I drink it every day,” said a Hartford construction worker who said he drinks at least six cups of coffee before he arrives at work.

Dr. Laura M. Juliano, an assistant professor at American University’s Department of Psychology, has studied coffee and its affect on people.

“It feels good. It’s a stimulant drug, so it makes people feel happy, more talkative, more sociable, more awake and alert,” she said. “It has a rewarding effect on the brain chemicals. It’s no different really from all drugs taken for recreational purpose, such as tobacco or alcohol.”

Coffee or cola?

While typical soft drinks can provide a similar effect, the amount of caffeine they deliver generally is significantly lower. Research has shown that the beneficial effects observed in coffee are not replicated in other drinks.”The caffeine in coffee tends to have a bigger bang for the buck,” Juliano said.Sue Gebo, a registered dietitian in Hartford, Conn., pointed out that coffee tends to serve as the better drink over soft drinks because the typical soda contains more than 100 calories, compared to a cup of black coffee, which has almost no calories.”It’s the stuff people add to coffee — the cream, the extra cream, the sugar — that can add 60 or more calories in a large coffee,” Gebo said. “Then, the flavored syrups add significantly more calories.”Gebo also explained that coffee can camouflage normal hunger signals, but that wears off through the day.”People are more likely to get out-of-control hungry when the caffeine wears off. When people are trying to lose weight, they might get into trouble,” Gebo said.As with anything we consume, however, side effects can accompany the benefits of caffeine in coffee. Read full article.

Costa Rica green coffee exports were up 18.5 % year on year to 45’599 bags in October the Costa Rican Coffee Institute reported this week. Harvesting of the new crop does not begin in earnest until the middle of November, although picking has begun in the south of the country. Most of the October exports were from rollover stocks ,remaining from the previous crop year. Costa Rica exported 1.407 million bags of coffee in the 2005/06 coffee year, 12.2 % down on the 2004/05 season.

Burger King Corp. is in discussions with manufacturers to license its BK Joe coffee brand into grocery brand extensions that include bottled coffee, beans, ground coffee, coffee soda, and confections, the Broad Street Licensing Group said. “BK Joe is the hard-working coffee for people who work hard,” said Bill Cross, partner at Broad Street Licensing and director of food-to-food programs, in a statement.

The product comes in decaf, regular, and “turbo.” Cross indicated that discussions were already underway with coffee marketers, and will include new retail products such as coffee sodas meant to compete against energy drinks, and coffee-flavored frozen novelties aimed at a slightly older demographic than traditional ice cream treats. “BK Joe gives consumers another means to Have It Your Way ,” said Russ Klein, president, global marketing, strategy, and innovation, Burger King Corp. and president of Burger King Brands, Inc. “Broad Street Licensing Group s long experience with food brands gives them a thorough understanding of the markets we want to extend BK Joe into.”

A bumper crop and record high prices pushed Hawaii coffee sales to an all-time high of $37.3 million during the 2005-06 season. That s up 88% from the prior season and also tops a prior record of $28.2 million in farm-level sales set during the 1997-98 season, according to a report released by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Growers benefited from above normal rains in late 2004 through 2005 in key areas such as Kainaliu, which is located in the middle of the North and South Kona districts. That helped lead to a 46% increase in production to 8.2 million pounds of Kona Coffee. Farm prices reached a record high average of $4.55 a pound. That was up 28% from an average price of $3.55 a pound in the prior season.

For growers, record prices coupled with a bumper crop is the best of both worlds, said Jim Wayman, president of both the Hawaii Coffee Co. and the Hawaii Coffee Association. Coffee is Hawaii’s seventh-largest crop in terms of farm sales. Coffee has been grown in Hawai’i for nearly two centuries, with the Kona variety commanding the highest prices due to the quality of the soil and the ample rainfall. Big Island growers generated $31 million in sales, or 83% of state coffee sales. The combined farm value of Maui, Honolulu and Kaua’I counties was $6.3 million. This season Big Island millers expect production to dip about 5% from last season. This could be partially offset by a smaller increase from the combined counties of Maui, Honolulu and Kaua’i, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Colombia’s coffee ambassador to the world, Carlos Sanchez, is finally quitting after four decades of playing the role of Juan Valdez. And the national federation of Colombian coffee producers is searching for a man to inherit his poncho — as well as his trusty mule, Conchita.

Sanchez has promoted Colombian coffee since 1969 with a leather bag, bushy mustache and straw hat typical of rural Colombia. He inherited the role from Jose Duval, a Cuban, who became the first Juan Valdez in 1959. Sanchez, 71, said his advancing years made it hard to keep up a strenuous schedule traveling the globe promoting coffee.

The new Juan Valdez has a lot of selling to do: Colombia’s coffee industry has taken a beating during the global glut of the past decade. In 2005, coffee exports were about $1.4 billion, or $100 million less than those of a decade earlier.

In searching for a replacement, the federation sent teams across the streets, farms and — of course — cafes in the country’s western coffee region. With the help of U.S. consultants, it narrowed the field from 400 contenders to 10. The new Juan Valdez, the third incarnation, will be announced by June 30.

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.

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.