All's not always 'fair' in coffee labeling

By Monica Eng
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Published April 19, 2007

So you walk into your local cafe, ready to order your usual cup of house blend, when you notice a fair-trade coffee is also offered. Do you stick with the house blend or support the principles of fair/direct trade?

It might be easier to decide if we all actually understood what those menu terms -- as well as "Whole Trade" and "C.A.F.E." (Coffee and Farmer Equity) -- mean.

More...

Coffee protects against radiation, type 2 diabetes, cancers

HUMANS HAVE been consuming coffee for over 2,000 years. Its ingredient caffeine raised questions about its health effects. Early studies involving bacteria and cultured mammalian cells suggested that caffeine could be harmful. Further, the cells exposed to ultraviolet light and then treated with caffeine, showed an increase in damage. By 1960s, coffee came to be regarded as slightly harmful.

Accidental discovery

The case of coffee as a harmful dietary agent would have been closed, but for an accidental discovery in 1971 in my laboratory at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

The experiments then designed were to find out how caffeine enhances radiation-induced biological damage. The choice of barley seeds due to lack of facilities then to work with mammalian cells turned out to be a blessing. It is known that biological damage induced by X-ray and gamma rays is increased by oxygen.

In fact, the reduced levels of oxygen in rapidly growing tumours is responsible for the resistance of cancer cells in radiotherapy.

In barley seeds methods were developed to separate the radiation-induced, oxygen-dependent (oxic) pathway from the oxygen- independent (anoxic) pathway of damage.

Caffeine was expected to enhance both the oxic and anoxic components of radiation damage.

However, caffeine remarkably reduced (protected) the seeds against the oxic pathway of radiation damage, although it potentiated the anoxic component of damage.


More...

Certified Organic Coffee in Danger

Counter Culture Coffee

A recent ruling by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) tightens the regulations for groups of farmers seeking organic certification, thereby putting many of Counter Culture's coffee-farming partners in danger of losing their certified organic status.

The NOP mandates that every farm be inspected by a certifier in order to qualify for organic certification, but for years it has made an exception for grower groups like coffee co-operatives in order to make certification economically viable. Large numbers of farmers receive certified organic status based on a percentage (often 20%) of farms that are chosen at random and inspected by a third-party certifier. The grower group’s own internal control system is responsible for the inspection of each farm in the group, thereby ensuring the compliance of the remaining eighty percent.

Until now, that is. According to the NOP, the grower-group exception no longer applies.

More...

Connecticut may sue makers of "Cocaine" drink

BOSTON, April 18 (Reuters) - Connecticut authorities on Wednesday threatened to sue makers of a canned energy drink called Cocaine, saying it "dangerously glamorizes drug use."

The Las Vegas-based manufacturer, Redux Beverages, will face legal action if it does not immediately stop selling the high-caffeine drink, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.

It contains no cocaine but markets itself as "the legal alternative" to the real thing.

Its ingredients include legal stimulants like caffeine, guarana -- a South American seed that is a natural source of caffeine -- and taurine, an amino acid.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also notified the company that the drink is illegally marketed as a street drug alternative and a dietary supplement.

More...

Falling coffee prices no cause for alarm, says ICO

By staff reporter
foodproductiondaily-usa.com

4/17/2007 - Coffee prices fell again last month and are expected to continue dropping in April, the International Coffee Organisation has said.

Prices fell by four per cent in March to around 100 cents (US) per lb, and had dipped below the 100 barrier by 10 April, the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) said.

It sought to reassure the industry, however, that a tighter supply and demand situation than in the past meant prices were unlikely to fall dramatically - as they did between 2001 and 2003.

There was more good news for growers and producer countries as the ICO announced a 20 per cent rise in coffee exports by volume in the first five months of the 2006/2007 year, compared to the same period last year.

More...

The bean scene

More small coffee vendors learning how to be baristas

By Anne Kim
Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE -- Melody Katz sprayed steamy, hot water over shot glasses and set them into an espresso machine, where they caught streams of creamy 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 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 workshops, customers learn everything from how to make rosettes, or leaf designs on top of drinks, to how to clean machines.

...Nationally, the number of coffee houses has nearly doubled in the past six years. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, there are almost 24,000 coffee houses in the United States, up from 13,800 in 2001.

More...

Latte art: barista as artiste

I'll have a low-fat, extra-hot, sugarfree hazelnut latte, topped with, let's see ... a Cubist revival etching. CARYN ROUSSEAU waits in line for latte art.

With a few flicks of Aaron Duckworth's latte-pouring wrist, he can turn your regular low-fat hazelnut drink into a work of art.

Duckworth is a practitioner of latte art, or the process of creating intricate designs on the top of lattes while pouring the steamed milk into the espresso. At his shop, Espresso dell'Anatra, Duckworth trains his baristas in the art -- creating fern leaves and hearts.

See complete article, including video

Sayings I'd put on your Starbucks coffee cup

By MARK PATINKIN

I was having a cup of Starbucks coffee the other day when it informed me that nobody in a family is ever happier than its least happy member. That was the quotation on the side of the cup.

Coffee is seen as a way to take break from the day, but the quote left me steeped in angst.

Apparently, Starbucks thinks that's a good thing. It has been putting quotes on cups now for a year or so.

...The quotes are mostly serious.

...As a newspaper columnist, I've found that one of the greatest honors is not winning an award, but being put on a refrigerator for a few days. If I could get onto a coffee cup, I'd feel just as good.

So if Starbucks is looking, I've spent the day coming up with some quotes of my own for their consideration:

-"When people say it's not about the money, it's about the money."

-"By definition, a 'holy war' isn't."

More...

Upstart company sells 'Coffee with a Cause'

By: TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer

FALLBROOK (CA) -- An upstart coffee company is trying to add meaning to that morning cup of joe by blending business with a charitable endeavor that funnels money to worthy causes, its co-owners said last week.

Chad Mills and Scott Holmen, both residents of Fallbrook, allow their customers to choose a nonprofit organization that will receive a portion of what they pay for a bag of roasted beans.

Fallbrook-based Crown Coffee is about to enter its second year of selling coffee beans, mostly via the Internet, an enterprise that Mills, 31, and Holmen, 33, say they founded to earn a living and to benefit charitable organizations.

So far, the company has donated $12,000 to local charities, Holmen said last week.

It's an example of how a new wave of socially conscious businesses are making their way into daily life, Mills added.

More...

An Interview with Paul Rice of TransFair USA

Fair Trade Certified: An Interview with Paul Rice of TransFair USA

WorldChanging Team
by Worldchanging SF local blogger, Britt Bravo:

Why should consumers buy Fair Trade Certified products? What difference does a cup of Fair Trade coffee make? What is Starbucks relationship with Fair Trade? Paul Rice, the founding president and CEO of the Oakland based nonprofit, TransFair USA, answers these questions and others in an interview for the Big Vision Podcast.

More...

Caffeine levels double when quitting smoking

whyquit.com

coffee cup labeled WhyQuit, an Internet quitting forum, with cigarettesAmazingly, nicotine somehow doubles the rate by which the body depletes caffeine. In a 1997 study published in Addictive Behaviors, smokers trying to quit were randomly assigned to either caffeine-use or caffeine-abstinence conditions. "Results showed a significant linear increase in caffeine sputum levels across 3 weeks post cessation for those who quit smoking and continued using caffeine. Three weeks after cessation, concentrations reached 203% of baseline for the caffeine user."

Imagine ending all nicotine use, continuing to drink the exact same amount of caffeine and at 21 days having twice as much caffeine circulating in your bloodstream.

More...