New Breakfast Cereal -- Cafe au Lait

Hubbards Foods of New Zealand has just introduced a cold breakfast cereal, Cafe au Lait.

"An innovative new cereal to combine your morning coffee with breakfast. Light aromatic coffee flavoured wheat flakes combined with crisp rice flakes and yoghurt-coated cornflakes."

Now THAT'S a great idea! How can we get this new product in the United States?

Hubbards Website

Danny O'Keefe, Songbird Foundation

As usual, the day starts with that first cup of sustainably grown coffee, in this case a home-roasted espresso comprised of a blend of organic, shade-grown, and Fair Trade coffees from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Indonesia. They were roasted in hot-air popcorn poppers in the back room of the house. It's great coffee and as fresh as you can get it: Lots of crema on the espresso and a soft chocolate taste with very little back-of-the-mouth bitterness. Yum.

Then to the aid and bane of modern living: the computer and email. Much is happening in the world of sustainably grown coffee. We're getting into this year's coffee harvest, which is increasingly problematic with world coffee prices at all-time lows. Because of the glut of coffee on the world market, prices are not likely to improve in the near future. The toll this is taking on coffee farmers can't be overstated.

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Songbird Foundation

Update: Perfect Coffee

According to Claire Bowles of the New Scientist, the art of roasting coffee may be on the way out. For centuries, experts have used their judgement to decide when beans are ready to become a punchy espresso or a smooth latte. Now a computer algorithm could put them out of a job.

Master roasters use the look, smell and taste of the beans as they cook, as well as listening for "crackings" as gases inside the beans react and explode. "Roasting coffee is a difficult process with many variables," says Alfredo Hernández from the Joint Research Unit for Food Process Engineering in Massy, near Paris.

"Only the master roaster can say how long to roast and at what air temperature for a specific kind of bean," Hernández explains. But now he has developed a computer model that he claims can simplify the process.

Consumers want plump, rich-coloured beans. So Hernández and his team used cameras linked to a computer to take snapshots of roasting beans every 20 seconds. A neural network then analysed each picture and learned to predict which roasting times and temperatures produced the best-looking beans. Hernández hopes the results can be converted into simple colour and size charts that less skilled operators can use.

But some coffee experts are worried. "What if the coffee doesn't taste any good?" says Attilio Sciannimanica, a roaster from Cosmorex Coffee in Canberra. Each batch of beans is different, he says, so roasting conditions that were right last week could incinerate the beans the next.

New Northeast Home for Annual Coffee Fest

Coffee Fest Atlantic City, which had been produced three times, "never quite reached the attendance potential representative of the region being served," according to show manager David Heilbrunn. "While the facility was more than acceptable, the geographical location, with difficult ingress and egress, seemed to limit growth and attendance. "Moving to the new Washington, DC Convention Center will provide easier access for attendees throughout the eastern United States and should in turn result in tremendous attendance."

In addition the northeastern annual show has been moved from its traditional June calendar slot to March, which also should result in fewer conflicts for attendees and exhibitors resulting in greater interest and participation. "In time, Coffee Fest Washington, DC could even eclipse the attendance of Coffee Fest Seattle," Heilbrunn said.

"These changes have not occurred without a tremendous amount of research and consideration, and are envisioned as extremely positive, designed to attract more attendees to each of the shows," Heilbrunn said.

The Coffee Fest trade show in Washington, D.C. represents the only trade show dedicated to serving the eastern US coffee, tea and related industry business annually. "This show belongs to the coffee and tea business owners up and down the east coast," continued Heilbrunn. "It is our desire that they will embrace and appreciate Coffee Fest Washington, D.C. for what it is: the only show dedicated to their businesses on an annual basis."

coffeefest.com

Espresso You Can't Mess Up

By AMANDA HESSER

Home-brewed espresso used to represent gourmet coffee-making in its highest form. The perfect cup was as much about the ritual of grinding the beans and tamping the coffee just so as it was about the drink itself.

But espresso companies have come up with a system designed to scrap that artistry once and for all, in favor of ease, consistency and convenience. The message? Controlled repetition, not loving care, is what makes a good espresso.

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Brew-by-cup coffee makers fail taste test

By Joe Yonan, Globe Staff, 12/11/2003

The concept of brew-by-cup coffee makers first took hold in offices, where it makes perfect sense: Why brew a whole pot of coffee for a dozen people with a dozen tastes?

It wasn't long before manufacturers realized that many modern homes are not so different. Mom may like her medium roast coffee perfumed with hazelnut, Dad might be more of a dark-roast-with-no-flavoring kind of guy, and their teenager might be rebelling by drinking -- perish the thought -- decaf.

Three companies started selling one-cup-at-a-time coffee makers this fall, and while each one has its pluses and minuses, they all work basically the same way: through the use of specially designed, disposable containers that are filled with just enough preground coffee for one cup. Turn the machine on long enough to heat its tank of water, pop in one of the containers, and press a button. Like an espresso machine, the machine shoots water through the container, which has a paper filter built in, and within a minute or two, you've got a hot cuppa joe.

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