Friday, July 23, 2004

Dumb justice

by David Golin

I drove over the weekend to have coffee and cake with a friend who lives just off of Emek Refaim, a trendy Jerusalem street that runs parallel to Bethlehem Road through the city's crowded southern neighborhoods. Since it was the Sabbath, the usually bustling thoroughfare and its recently renovated sidewalks were bathed in a velvet quiet, with most of its popular restaurants and coffee cafes closed for the weekly day of rest.

The lack of shoppers and cafe patrons turned the street into a temporary driver's paradise. Although I didn't have to fight the usual crush of cars, I still slowed down a bit as I drove past the Hillel coffee house. I couldn't help but pause for a second to recall the terrorist explosion that wrecked the establishment less than one year ago. I heard the Sept. 9 blast while sitting in my apartment, as I did the much louder explosion this past Feb. 22 that ripped apart a city bus just one block from my home near the entrance to the Emek Refaim neighborhood.

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Thursday, July 22, 2004

DazBog puts brand on coffee shops

By Jennifer Alsever
Denver Post Staff Writer

DazBog Coffee Co., a Denver coffee roaster, will put its brand name on as many as 40 Colorado independent coffee shops within the next two years to help it build a loyal customer following.

The company is selling - for $10,000 to $20,000 - licenses to use the DazBog name. DazBog, with 30 employees, supplies coffee to 1,000 grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants.

"Coffee is a tough business when you have a retail store," said Leonid Yuffa, who started DazBog in 1996 with his brother, Tony. "It will help our brand and help the independents grow their business."

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Sam's Club to offer Community Coffee

By CHAD CALDER
Advocate business writer

Community Coffee has tapped into the retailing might of Sam’s Club, selling two-pound bags of coffee in all Sam’s locations in Louisiana. The new line includes flavored blends such as Hazelnut and French Vanilla, as well as non-flavored varieties such as Colombia, Colombia Decaf and Breakfast Blend. They are available in both whole bean and ground form. The move gives Community its first crack at the high-volume, low-cost retail market led by Wal-Mart-owned Sam’s Club.

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Tuesday, July 20, 2004

A coffee can make you forgetful

BBC News

A cup of coffee each morning may wake you up, but a new study suggests caffeine might hinder your short-term recall of certain words.

Caffeine made it harder for people to find a word that they already knew - the "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon.

Valerie Lesk, of the International School for Advanced Studies in Italy, believes caffeine improves alertness by shutting down other brain pathways.

This makes it harder to recall words, she says in Behavioural Psychology.

Caffeine is known to excite the brain and increase alertness.

But Miss Lesk and her colleague Stephen Womble, from Trinity College, Dublin, found it can hamper or boost short-term memory, depending on what you are trying to remember.

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Coffee chillers hit the spot for tasting panel

GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
By Ron Krueger

Outside, the temperature was 85 degrees with humidity to match. Inside, The Journal's taste-testers were cool and collected as they sampled seven coffee chillers.

They smiled all the way through the tasting but absolutely glowed over several of the frozen treats.

The names promised icy satisfaction - Carmellita, Hazelnut Coolatta, Mocha Madness, Cappuccino MooLatte, Kahlua Mudslide Freeze.

Those names also imply that coffee is somewhere in the background. In the foreground are likely to be corn syrup, milk, ice cream, chocolate and assorted flavorings.

Cold coffee drinks are one of the fastest-growing beverage categories in North America, according to retail food trend-tracking groups. Coffee chains are the driving force, but convenience stores, gas stations and doughnut shops also are along for the ride.

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Coffee makers jolt the market with eco-friendly java

The Asahi Shimbun

Having served up gourmet beans, flavored coffee and fancy espresso, coffee companies are now looking to hook the public on "environmentally conscious'' cups of joe.

Certified by international nongovernmental organizations, the so-called earth-friendly and "socially responsible'' beans are grown according to rigorous environmental and social standards.

Though they cost 10 to 20 percent more than conventional beans, coffee producers stress the traceability factor.

Knowing exactly where their beans come from and how they were grown will, the companies hope, give consumers a guilt-free jolt.

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Sunday, July 18, 2004

The Coffee Kids Story

Coffee & Compassion

As you sip your morning coffee or enjoy that afternoon espresso, do you ever think about where coffee comes from? Around the world, literally millions of people dedicate their lives to growing coffee. Unfortunately, the blessings of coffee don't always filter down to the people who grow it. Coffee farmers earn as little as a penny-a-pound for their harvest, and even during the years when crops do well and prices are high, the children of coffee growers go without much that we take for granted.


The Coffee Kids Story

My name is Bill Fishbein and I own a coffee shop in Providence, Rhode Island. Twelve years ago, I traveled to Guatemala and came face to face with the reality of coffee and poverty. When I returned home, I founded Coffee Kids as a way for coffee drinkers and coffee related businesses to give something back to the families who grow coffee. If you enjoy coffee and care about kids, then you should join Coffee Kids. I invite you to browse our web site, to learn what we do, and to become a Coffee Kids member today.

Coffee Kids.org


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