Trendy teas try to give soda, coffee a run for their money

By TAKAKO OSAKA
The Associated Press

With a couple of Starbucks and at least one other big-name coffee shop within easy walking distance, not long ago Tomohiro Tsuchiya would have been better off opening his little cafe somewhere else.

A woman takes tea at Chanomi Club in Tokyo's Tsukiji district. The teahouse specializes in trendy green teas and various Chinese brews.

But he's got a trendy product to offer -- tea.

Thanks to a major media advertising blitz by big tea companies, Tsuchiya is attracting a broad range of customers to his little teahouse and reaping a share of the huge swell in Japanese tea consumption.

"We are seeing a steady increase in customers each year," he said.

Japan has long been the bastion of coffee-drinking in Asia, but shops are popping up all over to specialize in tea, from the trendy green variety to various Chinese brews. Bottled and canned tea is also now taking up considerable shelf space in supermarkets, and pushing its carbonated competition out of the country's ubiquitous vending machines.

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Is It High Noon for Eight O'Clock Coffee?

Saturday, January 25, 2003

NEW YORK — The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (GAP) may be looking to sell Eight O'Clock Coffee, a household name which has been around since 1919, industry sources say.

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Coca-Cola explores entering hot coffee dispensing business

Scott Leith - Staff
Saturday, January 25, 2003

Coca-Cola is brewing up a way to get into the coffee business.

Coca-Cola's fountain unit has been working on a project to test selling hot coffee in restaurants, according to the trade publication Beverage Digest.

Dubbed "Operation Buzz" internally, the project would give Coke a tryout in a large business where it is not a player.

The project remains under consideration and is not a sure thing. But a test run is considered likely for this spring for Coke's fountain unit, which has long been the largest U.S. player in selling cold fountain drinks.

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Latte Art Competition at Coffee Fest Las Vegas

For the first time in the Southwestern United States, Coffee Fest is proud to present the Dillanos Latte Art Competition presented by Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, at Coffee Fest Las Vegas, February 28 – March 2nd at the Riviera Hotel & Casino. Baristi from across the globe are invited to show off their best free-pour art.

Taking a refreshing spin from the traditional barista contest, the Dillanos Latte Art contest, presented by Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, will showcase the barista’s know-how and focuses more on artistry and creativity rather than the mechanics of espresso extraction. The theory, being that one must have a handle on all of the scientific and artistic factors of proper espresso extraction to even begin to produce Latte Art.

Shapes like rosettas, hearts or apples are created by the way the steamed milk is poured into the espresso. It takes special technique, an artist’s eye and lots of practice to create the frothy form.

With preliminary rounds from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm on Friday and Saturday, contestants will each have five minutes to produce their best free-pour art. Five semifinalists will advance to Sunday’s final round from Friday and Saturday’s preliminaries. On Sunday, the top ten competitors will face off and the Southwestern Free Pour Latte Art Champion will be crowned, courtesy of Coffee Fest, Dillanos Coffee Roasters and Tea and Coffee Trade Journal. The winner will walk away with a cool $1,000 cash, with 2nd prize $500 and 3rd place $250.

Are you or one of your Barista pouring impressive Free Pour Latte Art? Are you interested in competing for $1,000 and being crowned the Southwestern Free-Pour Latte Art Champion?

A few spaces remain in Las Vegas competition – if you would like to compete please call 425 283-5058 ext 13.

Use a coffee filter - It's not just for making coffee anymore

BY UNCOMMON USES FOR COMMON HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS

FC&A PUBLISHING

Paper towels leave fibers, newspapers sometimes streak, and they're a size that you have to cut and reshape.

Coffee filters are an inexpensive way to complete many household tasks.

Sparkling clear windows: You want your windows to sparkle, but when you dry them with a cloth or paper towel, you always seem to leave lint on the glass. Try drying them with a paper coffee filter instead, and you may eliminate the lint.

The first coffee filter was invented by a German housewife, Melitta Benz. Tired of brewing coffee directly in the water, she took some blotting paper from her son's schoolbook, put it in a brass pot that she had poked holes in and poured the boiling water over the coffee, through the filter and into the pot. It was the first drip coffeemaker and the Benz family began manufacturing Melitta coffeemakers.

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Mocha madness taking over

Resslin' Around, by Casey Ressler

Whatever happened to a good cup of black coffee? Did you know coffee isn't even black anymore, according to some local "foo-foo" coffee drinkers?

When asked if I'd do a recent bagel run for the office, I obliged. But then the orders started pouring in from those who have lost sight of what coffee really is. One person wanted a white chocolate almond roca mocha, while another ordered a sugar-free coconut latte. I'm not sure if those are coffee drinks or if they are tropical drinks served in pineapples -- you know, the kind where you can drink seven or eight of them on the beach, and then you stand up and forget where you put your legs.

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Lots of coffee may help prevent diabetes, researchers find

Monday January 20, 2003 (1035 PST)

ISLAMABAD: Coffee may actually cut your risk of developing diabetes -- as long as you keep drinking it all day, according to a surprising study.

Researchers at the Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands report in the journal Lancet that people who drink more than seven cups of coffee a day are 50 per cent less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than the moderates who quaff two cups or less.

But the researchers acknowledge that important questions remain: Can seven cups of coffee a day truly be good for you? You may, for example, reduce your risk of diabetes, but would you ever get a good night's sleep?

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Caffeine tracks contamination

Coffee dregs label household pollution in lakes and oceans.
20 January 2003
HELEN PEARSON

Each person discards the equivalent of a tenth of a cup of coffee per day

Tell-tale traces of caffeine can expose the level of household waste gushing into lakes and oceans, researchers have shown.

Caffeine is an ideal chemical indicator to distinguish domestic water flushed down sinks and toilets from agricultural effluent, say Ignaz Buerge and his colleagues of the Swiss Federal Research Station in Wädenswil.

Copious amounts of caffeine end up down the drain in coffee-cup dregs and urine. Although sewage treatment removes up to 99.9% of it, caffeine is so abundant and chemically stable that it remains detectable.

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CAFFE D'AUTORE ESPRESSO UNIVERSITY

NEWS
For Immediate Release
Contact: David Heilbrunn
425-283-5058 x13

COFFEE FEST TRADE SHOWS LAUNCHING
“CAFFE D’ AUTORE ESPRESSO UNIVERSITY”
Espresso Extraction Hands-On Training Workshops
At Coffee Fest Las Vegas

Coffee Fest, in conjunction with La Spaziale Espresso Machines and Grinders, is extremely excited to announce the addition of six “Hands on Espresso Extraction” workshops beginning at Coffee Fest Las Vegas, February 28-March 2, 2003. The classes will continue at Coffee Fest Atlantic City, June 6-8, 2003, and Seattle, October 24-26, 2003.

La Spaziale “Caffe D’Autore Espresso University” Hands-On Espresso Extraction Workshops are designed to combine an element of art, culture and the individual stamp of the barista’s personality. The workshops have been created, and are being offered, to help espresso professionals across the country improve their knowledge, ability, and ultimately the quality of the cup served to their customers. The La Spaziale “Caffe D’Autore Espresso University” workshops have been designed expressly to ensure the specialty in your specialty coffee and to guarantee that your customer’s coffee experience is truly special each and every visit.

Workshops will be presented at 12:30pm and 3:00pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Coffee Fest Trade Shows. An additional fee of $49 per person will be charged to attend the workshops and attendees must pre-register, as space is limited to 25 in each session.

ATTENDEES WILL LEARN:
· What is an Espresso
· The parameters of an Espresso
· What factors make the perfect Espresso
· How to achieve consistency in the cup
· Maintenance of the Machine and Grinder
· Presentation of the final product.

The La Spaziale “Caffe d’ Autore Espresso University” Hands-On Espresso Extraction workshops at Coffee Fest will be presented by Josep Fiexa from Napoli, Italy. As Training Center Director, Josep has trained more than 3,000 baristas from a variety of coffee shops, retail stores and coffee houses and has also had the opportunity to train many major chains, such as Dunkin' Donuts, Bocatta, Caffe di Roma, Plantaciones de Origen, Jamaica Coffee Shop, as well as many others. His work experience at La Spaziale is focused on, but not limited to: major espresso markets in Spain, U.K., Brazil, Germany, Italy, U.S.A, Switzerland, and Greece. Josep works with the University of Coffee of Napoli, and trains more than 500 baristas every year.

www.coffeefest.com

Women coffee drinkers less prone to colon cancer: study

A cup of coffee a day can reduce the chances of a woman developing colon cancer by more than half, a team of Japanese researchers has concluded.

Mainichi Shimbun

Researchers believe coffee consumption of more than a cup a day for women is good for their colon.

The health effects of coffee have been extensively studied for years because of caffeine's alleged positive and negative effects on various aspects of personal well-being.

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