Facts & Fallacies About Coffee

It's a fact...that drinking coffee can cut road accidents.

It's a Fallacy... that moderate coffee drinking raises blood cholesterol.

It's a Fact... coffee's antioxidants may help fight cancer and heart disease.

It's a Fallacy... that caffeine is 'addictive'

It's a Fact... that coffee drinking may help prevent kidney stones.

It's a Fallacy... that pregnant and nursing mothers should avoid coffee.

It's a Fact... that caffeine, the mild stimulant in coffee, improves alertness.

It's a Fallacy... that herbal 'teas' are healthier than regular tea or coffee.

And it's a Fact... that drinking coffee can be part of a healthy lifestyle.

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Ethical certification – Sustainability with a rich aroma

John Russell, Deputy Editor

As coffee drinkers face a proliferation of “ethical labels” – Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, Utz Kapeh – it is time to ask what they all mean
McDonald’s and the Eden Project, the environmental visitor attraction in Cornwall, UK, might appear to have nothing in common. But there is one thing they do share: their taste in coffee.

Environmental conservation is a rarely noted concern of McDonald’s clientele. But now visitors to the chain’s 1,200 UK outlets can wash down their Big Macs with a cup of coffee that claims to protect the rainforest.

Since January, all McDonald’s coffee has been sourced from farms meeting the social and environmental standards of the Rainforest Alliance, an environmental non-governmental organisation that certifies coffee producers. The chain buys its beans from Kraft-owned coffee roaster Kenco, which has sold Rainforest Alliance-branded coffee since 2003.

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Fair Trade Coffee - Another US Marketing Ploy

Hungry Potato

Dear Coffee Drinker,

"Fair Trade" is a certification that is given primarily to a company that can prove, together with a specific coffee farm, that fair prices are being given to the independent farm. These are certifications that are primarily being marketed in the USA by a firm in California. For example, StarBucks may promote a certain type of coffee that is being sold as Fair Trade coffee. Not all their coffee can be sold as such because this only applies to a very few farms that hold these certifications together with the buyer. This needs to be proven to the agencies in the United States that govern this certification. Even though StarBucks sells one type of coffee that is certified Fair Trade this does not mean that all their coffee is certified. This would be an impossible task. The biggest problem is most US companies only pay the farmer or roaster Fair Trade and then they have to trust that the roaster is passing this extra money to the laborers. So the farmer gets a fair price but the laborers, many times children work for pennies a day.AND FAIR TRADE - However does not ensure that children are not used to pick coffee or that the children are given a fair price. Neither does it ensure that the migrate farm laborers are paid fair prices. Fair Trade has been great in elevating people's awareness of the coffee industry and has ensured that the coffee farmer and or roaster is getting a fair price and to a lesser extend some farmers but it has not always helped the people actually picking the coffee and completing the other coffee labor.

...So if you want to make a statement and buy a coffee really making a difference - buy a Costa Rica coffee.

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Testing the Hearthware i-Roast 2TM, page 3

I am having fun with this new roaster. I said in my last post that I didn't think many home roasters would bother with the programming, and "that most users will pick a time and temp that produces a good batch and roast away with that one profile." Well, I get smarter as I get older, and the ability to change a roasting profile does make a better roasted coffee.

Different coffees need to be roasted differently to maximize their potential. And I'm not just referring to their degree of roast, such as "full city" or "Vienna." The ability to change the temp at various time periods does affect the taste of the cup. Every coffee is different and the difference is due to the exact place it is grown.

I have lots of roasting to do before I have determined the proper roasting profiles for all the coffee I drink. I intend to try many different profiles for each coffee to see what works best in the cup. It's tough work but somebody's gotta do it.

I tried venting the roaster in my kitchen with the dryer tube placed at the range hood exhaust fan. It didn't work, since the exhaust wasn't strong enough to get rid of the smoke, so I tried it again the proper way, by putting the hose out a window. I used duct tape to secure the flexible dryer vent hose to the roaster's collar connector. I saw that there was still a small gap between the collar and the roaster so I re-wrapped it and allowed about 1/8" of the duct tape to extend past the bottom edge of the collar. That was enough to almost completely seal the connection. I roasted a batch of Sumatra, wiith a profile of 3 minutes at 350, 3 minutes at 400, and 5 minutes at 450. It reached a very nice Vienna Roast about 30 seconds before completion so I hit the "Cool" button and finished.

It worked beautifully! There was plenty of smoke going out the hose but absolutely none in the house. When I roast to a Vienna in my garage you can barely see the walls because of the smoke. Now I can roast on a cold winter night and get consistent results. What a deal.

If you have some suggested roast profiles please share with our readers in the "Comments" section, located just above the beginning of this post. Be sure to give the coffee's origin.

Test, page 1
Test, page 2

Roasters Hold Barista Training Workshops

By ANNE KIM Sunday, March 11, 2007

SEATTLE - Melody Katz sprayed steamy, hot water over shot glasses and set them into an espresso machine, where they caught streams of creamy brown espresso. She swirled a glass, smelled the espresso and took a sip. "It's a little burnt," said the 25-year-old bakery manager, who traveled from California for a weekend barista training workshop at Seattle's Zoka Coffee Roaster & Tea Company.

Zoka is one of several specialty coffee roasters in Seattle that hold regular training sessions for their wholesale customers _ including espresso bars, restaurants, and bakeries _ on how to make a high-end espresso drinks.

And participation in these workshops has grown, roasters say. During the training sessions, which range from onsite training to weekend-long workshop events, customers learn everything from how to make rosettes, or leaf designs on the tops of drinks, to how to clean machines.

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Lavazza buys Barista and Fresh & Honest

Italy's largest coffee company, Lavazza Group, has signed an agreement with the Sterling Infotech Group to acquire 100% stake in Barista Coffee Company Ltd. (BCCL) and Fresh and Honest Café Ltd. (FHCL).The transaction is expected to be completed over the next 4 weeks

Barista's strong brand equity, presence and significant market share along with Fresh & Honest's leadership status in freshly brewed coffee vending market make this acquisition an ideal launch pad for Lavazza. Lavazza has been planning to enter the Indian market and this acquisition gives them an immediate access to the Indian consumer through Barista's and Fresh and Honest's strong countrywide network.

Lavazza, with annual revenues of over USD 1.2 Billion is a company operating in over 80 countries and has strong presence in both out of home (café chains and coffee vending) and retail businesses. This deal will bring strong synergies between the business of Lavazza, Barista and Fresh & Honest.


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Starbucks vs. Ethiopia

American behemoth still lukewarm to Ethiopia's efforts to secure fairer coffee bean prices.

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

It's a long way — both figuratively and literally — from Seattle, home of upscale coffee-shop giant Starbucks, to Ethiopia, hard-scrabble birthplace of the coffee bean. Ethiopia is one of the oldest, poorest nations in the world, and more than 80 percent of the population are engaged in agriculture, mainly subsistence farming. But that didn't stop the mighty Starbucks from reaching out and slapping the upstart African nation when it tried to secure fairer prices for its coffee beans.

Two years ago, Ethiopia filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register some of its finest coffees, named by their regions, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Harar. The trademark might enable the country to capture a fairer share of the global market value associated with those names and pass on more money to small, struggling producers who receive a tiny percentage of the retail price. Last season, reported Fortune magazine, an Ethiopian farmer netted less than a dollar from a pound of coffee. That same pound of coffee, marketed in the U.S. as Starbucks' roasted Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo, sold for $26.

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