Coffee need not be a guilty pleasure, study shows

If you don't enjoy coffee, or if it bothers you, don't drink it. But if you consider coffee to be one of life's pleasures, perhaps you will be interested in some of the latest findings about coffee's health effects, as reported in Harvard's Women's Health Watch. We're talking here about regular coffee, with its full content of caffeine, not decaffeinated coffee.

We now have 20 years of reassuring research to calm the fears caused by some flawed studies of the past, but many folks still consider their coffee to be a guilty pleasure. Certainly coffee isn't totally innocuous, but in moderation, that means a few cups a day, coffee is now judged to be a safe drink.

Caffeine is a mildly addictive stimulant. Getting too much may give you the jitters, keep you awake at night and make you irritable. If you're a regular coffee drinker and you miss your morning dose, you may get a terrible headache as a withdrawal symptom, but for most people, coffee in moderation is harmless. There are, however, some potential side effects we ought to look at.

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Colombia's Juan Valdez Taking on Starbucks in NY

By Matthew Verrinder

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Colombian coffee icon Juan Valdez will lead his country's growers' federation into Manhattan on Tuesday to open its first New York coffee shop, and market watchers are wondering whether the challenge to Starbucks Corp. will amount to a hill of beans.

The National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers plans to open its first Juan Valdez coffee shop at Lexington Avenue and 57th St. on Tuesday in a modest challenge to Starbuck's dominance of the gourmet coffee shop market.

Industry experts said that while Starbucks has suffocated many smaller rivals in the New York market with its 179 shops, the Juan Valdez brandname known to millions through television advertising of Colombian coffee sold in supermarkets does give the new venture a fighting chance.

"The demand continues to be strong for coffee consumption away from home," said Matthew DiFrisco, a restaurant analyst for Harris Nesbitt. "In this increasing market share, Juan Valdez is a good name to have."

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Starbucks to raise its prices beginning Oct. 6

Reuters News Service

SEATTLE - Starbucks will raise its beverage prices by 11 cents a cup on average starting Oct. 6, the world's largest coffee-shop chain said Tuesday.
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The price hike would be the first by the Seattle-based company since August of 2000.

Starbucks said the higher cost of milk and green coffee beans for its espresso-based coffee drinks played a role in its decision.

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INeedCoffee to review Senseo compatible pods for December 2004 issue

INeedCoffee to review Senseo compatible pods for December 2004 issue.

If your company produces coffee pods that work in the Senseo coffee machine and you wish for them to be included in the review, read Senseo Pod Review.