Coffee's bitter taste comes from dark roasts, researchers find

Bloomberg News
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.22.2007

Coffee lovers who want to avoid a bitter cup of morning brew should stay away from darker roasts, according to scientists who claim to have isolated the chemical compounds responsible for harsh-tasting java.

Caffeine, often blamed for coffee's perceived bitterness, is less at fault than other compounds in the cup, according to the study, presented Tuesday at an American Chemical Society meeting in Boston. The culprits include chlorogenic acid lactones and phenylindanes, compounds only found in roasted beans, not in green or raw coffee beans.

"Roasting is the key factor driving bitter taste in coffee beans," said the lead study author, Thomas Hofmann, a professor of food chemistry and molecular sensory science at Technical University of Munich, in a statement. "The stronger you roast the coffee, the more harsh it tends to get."

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Quote

"I am not a cab driver. I am a coffeeepot!"

Cab Driver, Arsenic and Old Lace

Coffee holds a promise of saving aging brains from the onslaught of dementia

By Bernadine Healy M.D.
U.S. News & World Report

All you have to do is visit a nursing home to see that Father Time is not as good to women as it might seem: Women may live longer than men, but they are more likely to face Alzheimer's disease. If the recent report in the journal Neurology from the French medical research institute INSERM bears out, Mother Nature may have stepped in by offering up the gift of coffee to protect her daughters' ability to think, remember, and communicate into old age. If its protective effect endures further study, coffee holds a promise of saving aging brains from the onslaught of dementia.

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When Starbucks Dumps Scalding Hot Coffee On You, It's A PR Problem

When a Starbucks barista accidentally dumped scalding hot coffee all over Matt's father, he got to see Starbuck's crack PR response in action.

From SFWeekly:

Early last month my father, a retired Methodist pastor in Red Bluff, three hours north of San Francisco, ordered a cup of coffee for himself at Starbucks. Before Dad picked up the coffee, the barista bumped it off the counter. It spilled on the front of Dad's pants, burning his crotch, then running down his legs and settling into his shoes.

Instead of running to get some ice, the barista grabbed a questionnaire.

"I don't remember all the questions, because I was thinking, 'What am I going to do with this burn?'" Dad recalls. "There was a man in the shop who was a male nurse. He came from where he was sitting and said, 'I've been watching this, and I'm a nurse, and I must say to you, you must not fill out this form. You must take yourself to the bathroom and make sure you get some water on your foot.'"

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Coffee continues to rebound

Softs - Coffee continues to rebound amid global market recovery
08.20.07, 10:41 AM ET

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Coffee continued to rebound from last week's losses, buoyed by recovering global markets following the Federal Reserve's decision to cut the discount rate on Friday.

Commodity prices had been lower across the complex last week, with coffee posting losses for four consecutive days, as investor confidence was roiled by fears of a global credit crunch in the wake of the US subprime crisis.

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Ethiopia: Country to Supply Natural Low Caffeine Coffee

The Reporter (Addis Ababa)

Posted to the web 18 August 2007

Ethiopia plans to start commercial production of a coffee variety with naturally low caffeine that was found growing in the wild, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said.

Decaffeinated coffee accounts for ten percent of total coffee sales in the world, a multibillion-dollar industry. Natural decaf brews could dominate over the current chemically caffeine-reduced options in today's health-conscious market.

"Coffee research centers are in the process of planting seedlings of natural coffee with low caffeine varieties, to enable Ethiopia to supply the world market within the shortest possible time," said Abera Deressa, State Minister of state for Agriculture and Rural Development.

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Starbucks' first cafe in Russia

Starbucks' first cafe in Russia finally will open next month.

Starbucks Corp., the world's largest coffee-shop chain, will open its first cafe in Russia next month after a decade of delays that included losing trademark rights.

The first shop will open in September in the Mega Mall north of Moscow, Starbucks spokeswoman Kate Bovey said Thursday by phone from Seattle.

Starbucks joins retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Carrefour SA in seeking to enter Russia, where consumer spending rose 24 percent last year, the most in Europe. Russians are expected to spend $12.5 billion eating out in 2009, after annual increases of more than 7 percent, according to OAO Rosinter Restaurants Holding, which operates T.G.I. Friday's and Benihana eateries.

Source: Bloomberg News