A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Rebbe

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"Rebbe!" the man cried. "Nobody gives me respect! Everybody steps all over me and my opinions!"

--"And who told you to fill the entire space with yourself, so that wherever anyone steps, they step on you?"





A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Rebbe
-words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman
Chabad.org

Colombia Fedecafe To Up Coffee Output

Colombia Fedecafe To Up Coffee Output To 15 Million-16 Million Bags By '15
Dow Jones
November 23, 2007: 11:47 AM EST

BOGOTA -(Dow Jones)- Colombia's National Federation of Coffee Growers, or Fedecafe, plans to boost the country's output to between 15 million and 16 million 60-kilogram bags by 2015 by subsidizing farmers to replant existing, aging fields.

Fedecafe plans to help small coffee growers pull out existing coffee plants on some 300,000 hectares over five years and replant new, more productive ones, Gabriel Silva, Fedecafe's president, told reporters at a press conference.

Coffee fields' production tend to dwindle as the plants age. The ideal is to have plants younger than six years, Silva said. In Colombia, small farmers keep plants that are 20 or 22 years old or even older, he said.

The government will also subsidize the farmers.

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UTZ Certified Coffee The Best Sold Responsibly Produced Coffee In Finland

Kesko, Finland, Nov 22, 2007 - (Hugin via ABN Newswire) - KESKO CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE 22.11.2007 AT 09.30 1(2)

Kesko Food's decision to change its Costa Rica coffee into UTZ certified Pirkka Costa Rica made UTZ certified coffee the most consumed responsible coffee in Finland and the K-food stores the leading sellers of responsible coffees in Finland.

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Feeling heat, Starbucks turns to a cool medium

Once-remote threats force chain to air TV spots

November 21, 2007
BY LEWIS LAZARE Sun-Times Columnist

This probably won't be the happiest holiday season on record for Howard Schultz. The man who transformed a small Seattle coffee shop into a global coffee behemoth over the past couple of decades has a lot of unpleasantries to deal with at the moment.

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Coffee Pacifica announces name change

By Staff Writer

Coffee Pacifica, a distributor and a marketer of the green bean coffee, has changed its name to Growers Direct Coffee Company.

Paul Khakshouri, COO, stated: "Our new name adopted at the annual general meeting truly reflects our mission statement as we continue to grow and access new coffee markets.

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The new Mr. Coffee

November 20, 2007
BY CHERYL JACKSON Staff Reporter/cjackson@suntimes.com

McDonald's Corp. is preparing to offer a line of specialty coffees in its restaurants. By the end of 2009, the company will be selling mochas, lattes and cappuccinos throughout the U.S. as it tries to take a gulp of the $12 billion-a- year speciality coffee business. Here's a cup-to-cup comparison of the market leader and the wannabe:

U.S. LOCATIONS

Starbucks: About 10,700

McDonald's: About 13,000

PRICE

Starbucks: 12-ounce Mocha: $2.75-$3.45

McDonald's: About $2.49

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Kenya 07/08 coffee crop could be 30 pct lower

By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Coffee berry disease will cut Kenya's coffee harvest in the 2007/08 crop year by 20 to 30 percent, based on internal forecasts, the Coffee Board of Kenya said on Tuesday.
"Initially we had projected a slightly higher output, something to do with 53,000-54,000 metric tonnes. So far I am looking at something between a 20 percent, 25 percent, 30 percent drop, and that is quite substantial," Bernard Gichovi, a senior board member of the Coffee Board of Kenya, told Reuters in an interview.

"The weather changed so much towards the end of the (06/07) season ... and that brought a severe CBD (coffee berry disease) attack that drastically reduced the crop we expected to realise this year."

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The Science of Coffee

Speaker: Andrea Illy, Chairman, illycaffè S.p.A.
Sponsored by: Science & the City

What makes a great cup of coffee great? Is it the bean? The roast? The water? The "crema?"

Andrea Illy, Chairman of illycafè, S.p.A. and coauthor and publisher of Espresso Coffee: the Chemistry of Quality will explain all at the inaugural event in this year's Science of Food Series at the Academy with a lecture on "The Science of Coffee." In addition to discussing the scientific basis of our understanding of great coffee, come join us after the lecture for an espresso or cappuccino at the post-event reception.

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Starbucks stops buzzing

The ubiquity of Starbucks has become a joke almost as common as the coffee shops themselves. Not so long ago, satirical newspaper The Onion claimed Starbucks was opening a Starbucks in the toilet of a Starbucks.

But for the Seattle-based coffee company, the joke isn’t funny any more. Last week, the firm revealed that the amount of traffic flowing through its US stores fell during the fourth quarter — the first dip since the company began disclosing the figure three years ago.

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