How home roasting has changed a cup of joe for the obsessed

Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer

When Eric Lundblad first started roasting his own coffee, his friends didn't want to hear a word about it.

"It was too insane. They'd say why would you roast coffee when you live in the Bay Area where there are all these great roasters?" says Lundblad, a software engineer who lives in Oakland.

Now, three years later, Lundblad has to buy many more pounds of green coffee beans than he needs because these same friends stop by so often for a home-roasted cup from his French press.

"I slowly won each one of them over with my coffee," he says. "I have friends who don't drink coffee except mine."

Lundblad is part of a tiny, slow-growing underground of coffee drinkers who treat their daily brew with the same respect many people give wine. Home roasting allows them to buy premium beans at bargain prices, choose from many varieties of coffee and vary the roasting level from light to dark.

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El Salvador Coffee News: Today's Cup of Excellence® Internet Auction Showcases Women Growers

International Buyers Pay Total of $291,000 for Country's Finest Green Beans

(CSRwire) TechnoServe/U.S. -- The arabica coffee grown by Lya de Castaneda, Alicia Cristina Alabi De Schuck, and Maria Antonieta Dominguez De Arnesen captured three of the top four price-paid-per-pound spots in today's 2004 Cup of Excellence® Internet Auction in El Salvador, its second annual countrywide coffee quality competition, held in San Salvador.

Ms. de Castandea's coffee was the day's top price/pound winner, earning $6.89/pound for 20 bags of green beans (at 69 kilograms each) for a total of $20,670 from bidder Taylor of Harrogate. Ms. De Schuck's coffee captured second place, earning $6.70/pound for 22 bags and a total of $22,110 from buyer Stumptown. And Ms. De Arnesen's coffee was 4th place, earning $4.80/pound for 15 bags and a total of $10,800 from buyer Times Club Inc.

The green beans grown by 35 Salvadoran coffee growers, all chosen on May 14 as winners of the 2004 Cup of Excellence®, were offered for sale today to 83 registered international buyers. During the 4-hour auction, buyers purchased all 880 bags of coffee offered, spending a total of $291,277. The average price paid was $2.44/pound, or almost three times more than the recent average New York market price of arabica beans.* (For a complete list of coffee growers, buyers, and prices paid, visit: http://www.cupofexcellence.org/haauctions.aspx)

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Jablum launches beverage, instant coffee

Observer Business Reporter
Friday, June 25, 2004

Coffee producer, Jablum Jamaica yesterday launched an instant coffee product and a cold coffee beverage in a major diversification of its world premium roasted and ground Blue Mountain coffee.

The coffee drink won't be available on the market until July.
Jablum which has annual sales of US$12 million (over J$720 million) expects the new non-premium products not only to drive overall sales, but help it accelerate the expansion and broadening of its markets outside of Japan which for years has been its mainstay.

"This is the first time that Blue Mountain coffee is being offered as a bottled ready-to-drink beverage," declared Norman Grant, the general manager of Jablum, at yesterday's launch of the new products at the Mavis Bank, St Andrew factory.

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Caffeine-free coffee tree discovered

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhuanet) -- A Brazilian team has discovered a naturally caffeine-free coffee plant growing wild in Ethiopia, leading the prospect of a cup of freshly-ground arabica that will not keep people awake.

The team says they discovered three arabica coffee plants that do not produce caffeine in their leaves or beans among a batch of 6,000 wild samples originally collected in the late 1980s, CRIENGLISH.com reported Thursday.

The wild plants could be cultivated to produce their own caffeine-free beans, or could be cross-bred with other varieties of arabica coffee to introduce the natural caffeine-free trait into commercial crops.

About 10 percent of coffee consumed in the world is processed to remove caffeine, a natural chemical linked with heart palpitations, raised blood pressure, and anxiety.

But the decaffeination process also removes organic compounds that can affect coffee's taste and aroma.

XINHUA online

Coffee as Health Food?

Let's see... coffee has more antioxidants than green tea, chocolate and wine, it can prevent the onset of adult-onset diabetes, reduce the risk of colon cancer and Parkinson's disease, and it boosts performance. It seems quite possible that coffee is truly good for you!

"Over the past few decades, not only have old myths about coffee gone the way of the Edsel, but significant positive health benefits have been uncovered through intense and exacting scientific inquiry. Existing evidence suggests that coffee may simply need to update its image to match the facts."

Kettle corn phenomenon spreads to coffee houses

For years, fair and festival goers have delighted in the sweet and salty, part-confection, part-snack delicacy known as kettle corn. What, exactly IS kettle corn? It’s pop corn lightly coated in sugary/salty syrup.

From fairs and festivals, the kettle corn phenomenon spread to coffee houses, sports events, farmers’ markets, even delicatessens. Consumers couldn’t get enough of it.

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Coffee Fest And The Great American Dessert ExpoDebut Together With Success In Las Vegas

Las Vegas, NV - Gourmet coffee and desserts really are a natural combination as evidenced this past weekend in Las Vegas. Combined, the shows floored 250 exhibit booths at the Sands Expo Center, sampling the latest in specialty coffee, tea, desserts and related products. Educationally, more than 55 classes covered the gamut of retailing desserts, coffee and everything in between.

Attendance was up 22% percent over 2003’s Las Vegas show and exhibitor participation was up 55% percent over last year.

“Joining with the Dessert Expo was a tremendous risk for us, however preliminarily we are glad we did,“ said David Heilbrunn, Coffee Fest Show Manager. “It seems as though our attendees and exhibitors were pleased with the combined experience in Las Vegas.”

Awards were given for the best new products on display and Porter Products took home the first place prize with their innovative “Double Shot.” Second place went to Caffe D’Amore, for their “Dulce De Leche”, and PetPuccino (a first time exhibitor at Coffee Fest) received the third place prize for their new “PupPuccino Dog Treats.”

The second annual Las Vegas Millrock Latte Art Competition was a success and featured many of the top baristi from throughout the southwest. Twenty-two barista competed in preliminaries on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday the stage was set for the Millrock Free Pour Latte Art Championships with ten finalists.

Daniel Wayne from Lux Coffee Bar Phoenix, AZ was crowned champion and awarded the $1,000 to prize. While others came close, Daniel displayed a clear advantage over all other competitors in both the preliminary rounds and then again in the finals. Second place went to second time competitor, Jared Mockli representing the Seattle Barista Academy, Seattle, WA. Third place was taken by James Kellum - Coffee Klatch Roasting, San Dimas, CA. James showed the most creativity by successfully pouring an elephant’s head in the final round but chose a rosetta as his judging submission. While we will never know if the elephant would have taken top honors, it was great to see the creativity begin to emerge in the competition.

Coffee Fest Las Vegas 2005 is scheduled for June 3 – 5, 2005 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Batian Peak Coffee from Kenya

(Robert's Note: I recently brewed a sample of Batian Peak's Kenya AA and it was very good. My wife said it was better than the Kenya AA I roasted two weeks ago, but what does she know?)

Welcome to Batian Peak. With our beginnings deeply rooted in family-owned coffee and tea farms in Kenya, we love to share our passion for authentic high quality coffee and tea with customers.

Our fine selection of premium coffee and tea includes signature coffee and tea direct from our farms in Kenya. Browse the roasted and green coffee section for your favorite coffee.

For tea lovers, we guarantee that you will be delighted with Kenya Tea. Customers rant and rave about the rich and full flavor of this tea.

We grew up on a coffee farm in Kenya, a country known for breathtaking scenery and wildlife, and of course great coffee!

As coffee farmers, we developed a wealth of knowledge and expertise planting coffee seeds, pruning coffee trees, picking berries, processing and roasting green beans. From our experiences we developed a strong passion for coffee which is the sole reason we started this company.

Ever wonder why you pay so much for a low quality "bitter tasting" cup of coffee? The answer is simple - because you buy coffee from corporations that are focused on the bottom line."It is extremely difficult for customers to get quality specific origin coffee because most coffees are blended to improve the bottom line.

Our business philosophy is simple - we offer our customers quality coffee at the best prices. In addition, when we founded our company, we wanted to create more than a coffee shop - a place where we would share our culture and life stories with our customers.

Batian Peak Coffee

Coffee Crisis a Forgotten Issue on Global Agenda

Mario Osava

SAO PAULO, (IPS) - In Haiti a woman must work three days harvesting coffee in order to earn the three dollars Europeans spend on an espresso, says Luc Saintville, a technician with the humanitarian watchdog Oxfam International who is assisting coffee growers in his Caribbean country.

Saintville and other activists, including coffee growers from Brazil, Haiti and Honduras staged a protest -- complete with the standard 100-pound bags (46 kilos) of coffee beans and donkeys carrying more sacks -- at one of the entrances to Anhembi Park, where the eleventh sessions of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI) are taking place this week.

They demanded a solution to ''the worse coffee crisis ever -- an issue that has been forgotten in the international agenda,'' Spaniard Gonzalo Fajul, spokesman for Oxfam which is promoting the ''trade with justice'' movement, explained to IPS.

''It is an unprecedented scandal'' what is happening with coffee, because of the 75 billion dollars generated by sales of the final coffee products, the coffee growers see just five or six billion dollars, said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero as he met with the protesters and expressed solidarity with their cause.

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Gourmet Coffee Popularity Soars...

Gourmet Coffee Popularity Soars, New Franchise Opportunities Created for Home Business Entrepreneurs

Over the past five years, the number of gourmet coffee drinkers has risen from 7 million to 27 million, an astounding gain. Espresso Italia, with its unique distributorship franchise program, has positioned itself to allow more small business people to take advantage of a coffee craze that shows no signs of abating.

Boynton Beach, FL (PRWEB) June 21, 2004 -- According to recent market studies, more than 77% of American adults - roughly 161 million consumers - are daily coffee drinkers. Despite the near ubiquity of coffee as a staple in Americans' daily routines, only one in eight Americans has ever enjoyed a cappuccino or latte. These statistics hint at the vast untapped market for more "sophisticated" gourmet coffee drinks, while the 27 million self-identified gourmet coffee consumers indicates that a sizable market is already well established. In the space of just over three years, the Espresso Italia corporation, headquartered in Boynton Beach, Florida, has begun to play an increasingly important role in the burgeoning gourmet coffee industry.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America estimates that gourmet coffee represents $4.2 billion out of the $14 billion dollar coffee industry, and it's predicted that the gourmet sector will double in size over the next 5 years! Espresso Italia, which had annual revenues approaching $10 million in 2003, has been expanding and introducing new products to meet the rising demand for specialty coffee beverages. The company has grown dramatically, and now boasts over 1,000 distributors in 43 states, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

As gourmet coffee continues to break into the mainstream consumer audience, and the interest in working from home in a downsized corporate job market also grows, the timing of Espresso Italia's core concepts - inexpensive coffee distributorships for small business entrepreneurs, and free espresso machines for end users - starts to look more and more auspicious.

As President Shadd Vickery points out: "Our very attractive program allows our distributors to participate in the dynamic coffee industry. This immediate growth potential, coupled with the fact that the business is home-based, with locations supplied by us, adds to the appeal." Look for Espresso Italia to continue contributing to the trend of more accessible and sophisticated gourmet coffee arriving in your neighborhood in the months and years to come!

Dixie(R) Disposable Decanter Taps Brewing Coffee Consumption Trend

Foodservice and Retail Operators Can Perk Profits With Bulk Beverage Packaging

ATLANTA, GA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 06/21/2004 -- Dixie Foodservice today introduced its new disposable decanter -- a 96-ounce disposable beverage container for foodservice and retail use, designed to answer the call for a convenient and easy way to sell and transport large amounts of coffee.

According to The National Coffee Association, there are 107 million daily coffee drinkers, consuming on average more than three cups per day(1). The Disposable Decanter from Dixie gives foodservice operators the packaging resource they need to tap this growing trend by allowing them to sell more coffee in bulk, while eliminating the cumbersome task of carrying multiple cups in takeout trays.

Dixie recognizes the business opportunity to offer fresh, brewed coffee in a bulk beverage dispensing system, and designed the Disposable Decanter to accommodate an operator's needs:

-- Design ensures easy filling
-- Holds eight 12 oz. servings
-- Convenient handle for easy pouring
-- Packaging keeps coffee hot for hours
-- Assembles quickly and easily

In addition, the new Dixie Disposable Decanter incorporates the warm, classic 'Beans' design first featured on the Dixie PerfecTouch?line of insulated cups. Together, the Dixie Disposable Decanter and PerfecTouch cups utilize this upscale design to create a custom, consistent look for small to mid-sized operations.

"Coffee sales aren't just one cup at a time anymore -- finding ways to sell more coffee can translate to an increase in revenue and overall customer satisfaction," said Cheryl Prater, Business Manager, Paper Plates and Cups, Dixie Foodservice. "Whether you're a restaurant, coffee shop, catering, convenience store or deli operator, the Disposable Decanter from Dixie can help leverage the growing coffee trend to increase sales, profits and overall customer satisfaction."

Exclusively from Dixie, the Dixie Disposable Decanter provides the ideal way for foodservice operators and caterers to easily offer their customers fresh brewed coffee in a 96-ounce package. For more information, please contact your local distributor or call 1-800-257-9744.

ABOUT DIXIE FOODSERVICE

Dixie, a business unit of Georgia-Pacific Corporation (NYSE: GP), is a leading supplier and product innovator of foodservice disposables in North America. For more information about Dixie's full line of foodservice disposables and To-Go packaging products, contact your Dixie Foodservice sales representative, call 1-800-257-9744 or visit us at www.dixiefoodservice.com.

(1) 2000 National Coffee Drinking Trends, "Consumption patterns from 1960 to present." 2000, The National Coffee Association of USA.

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For further information:

Will Davis
Brand Resources Group for Dixie Foodservice
678-996-2018
will.davis@brandresourcesgroup.com