Wake up and smell the coffee scrub

By Shellee Geduld

A fresh cup of coffee in the morning is not only going to wake you up, it could also help you lose weight, or at least, fat.

Jeremy Copping, marketing manager for the Caturra Coffee Company, a local coffee distributor that imports coffee beans from Hamburg, Germany, said coffee had many benefits that consumers were not aware of.

"For years coffee was spoken about badly but there is a new culture coming through and people are realising that, in moderation, coffee is good for you.

"Not only can you drink it but you can make a body scrub using the granules left behind," he said.

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Local bar owner takes on coffee giant over beer name

By Stephanie Guadian
ABC13 Eyewitness News

(3/10/04 - GALVESTON, TX) — What's in a name? Apparently a lot to corporate coffee king, Starbucks. The reigning coffee maker is taking on a small bar owner in Galveston - not over coffee, but over his beer.

Inside Galveston's Old Quarter Acoustic Café, owner Rex Bell remembers how he came up with the name for his new beer.

"One night we were in here and somebody said, 'Give me a Lonestar. No, make it a Shiner Bock.' So I said, 'Well, I'll give you a Star Bock,'" Rex recalled.

A short time later, Rex found a brewer and applied to the US Patent and Trademark office for exclusive rights to the name Star Bock. It wasn't long before the name and the beer caught on.

Bar patron Louise Nichols said, "I like Star Bock. It's smooth, it's… You know, I don't want to sound like a commercial. I just like it."

But not everyone is as enthusiastic about the new brew. One day Rex got a letter from the Starbucks corporation demanding he stop selling Star Bock beer. The company even threatened litigation, claiming the two products sound too similar.

"I told the lady, the attorney for Starbucks, I explained the whole story about Lonestar and how it came up," explained Rex. "And she said, 'Mister, we're going to beat you. You can't beat us.' I was just amazed at her arrogance."

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More coffee drinkers roast beans at home

By Sarene Wallace, CONTRIBUTOR
Alameda Times-Star

IF you're passionate about fresh coffee -- really fresh coffee -- consider joining the growing band of coffee hobbyists who have cast aside pre-roasted whole beans for their raw brethren.


These food and wine enthusiasts are fueling a home-roasting renaissance as they turn up the heat on grassy-tasting green beans and transform them into bronzed baubles. The reward: a cup of joe as smooth as 12-year-old Scotch and as complex as a teenager.


If this doesn't sound like your coffee, take heart. It's difficult to purchase truly fresh roasted beans from a store because the beans' aroma and flavor peak between 12 to 72 hours after roasting.

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Africans urged to drink more of their coffee

By Helen Nyambura

NAIROBI, March 9 (Reuters) - You must enjoy coffee and love while they are hot, the Ethiopians say.

They should know. As early converts to coffee, they drink about half the amount produced annually by Ethiopia.

The story is quite different in neighbouring producer countries where less than one percent of their coffee is consumed locally, industry figures show.

Ethiopia prides itself as the birthplace of coffee with many of its beans plucked from bushes growing in the wild.

"We encourage local consumption of coffee, because it is the driving force behind the industry," said Kassahun Hurtu, marketing manager of the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority.

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Study backs coffee as protective against diabetes

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO, (Reuters) - A study done in Finland, the heaviest coffee drinking country, provides more evidence that the world's most widely consumed beverage may ward off adult onset diabetes, researchers said on Tuesday.

Women there who drank three to four cups of coffee daily had a 29 percent reduced risk for the disease. Among men, the same amount lowered the risk by 27 percent.

The apparent protective effect, the mechanism of which remains a mystery, increased with consumption. Women who downed 10 or more cups a day had nearly an 80 percent lowered risk, while men who drank the same cut their risk by 55 percent.

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Taiwan coffee chains find market on mainland China

Richard Dobson and Judy Lin

Reuters

TAIPEI

In a country steeped in millennia-old traditions of drinking tea, the younger generation in fast-developing coastal provinces of China is switching to coffee as part of their drive to embrace Western tastes.
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As the legions of converts sip their trendy brews, coffee retailers from Taiwan are building up a major presence in the Chinese market.

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Quote

Coffee is a beverage that puts one to sleep when not drank. ~Alphonse Allais

Coffee is 'health drink' says Italian

By Mark Duff
BBC News, Milan

It is a daily routine for millions of Italians - the morning cup of espresso brewed on the kitchen hob or downed swiftly in a cafe on the way to work.

But for years their favourite way of kick-starting the day has had a bad press - most recently when it was reported that doctors had told British Prime Minister Tony Blair to drink less coffee.

Now it seems the tide is turning.

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Forget the caffeine, coffee's full of perks

By HOLLY EDWARDS
Staff Writer
The Tennessean

Some coffee drinkers believe caffeine is responsible for their addiction to the aromatic drink and credit the active ingredient with everything from enhancing their creativity to improving their social lives.

But researchers at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Coffee Studies say there is more to coffee than caffeine, and they are trying to figure out how some of its other compounds can be good for you.

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Quote

"There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe them."
George Orwell