Coffee Soars on Trucker Strike

Colombia Disruption Adds to Already-Short Supplies

By TOM SELLEN
Wall Street Journal

Arabica coffee futures rallied 4.2% on speculative fund buying and concern that a nationwide truckers' strike in Colombia may disrupt already-short supplies.

The nearby May coffee contract traded on ICE Futures U.S. in New York climbed 4.7 cents to settle at $1.1695 a pound.

The most-active July coffee contract rose 3.4 cents to close at $1.1775.

While a strong technical chart set-up and speculative buying that pushed prices up into preprogrammed buy orders played a large part in the rally, the Colombian strike news bolstered market bulls amid fear that supplies out of the world's largest producer of mild, washed arabica beans may be disrupted.

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Kaapi Royale Coffee Announces 2009 Challenge Results

ATLANTA, GA (April 22, 2009) – Rob Forsyth of Forsyth Coffee (Australia), Allen Leibowitz of Zingerman's Coffee Company (USA) and Geoff Watts of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea (USA) are the winners of the 2009 Kaapi Royale Challenge.

All three gentlemen were able to correctly identify the species of 3 coffee samples as either Robusta or Arabica in a blind cupping held on Friday, April 17th concurrent with the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) annual exposition in Atlanta.

Winners will receive invitations to join Kaapi Royale in India for a 4-day guided farm tour of Karnataka's Chikmagalur coffee growing region during the 2010 harvest season this December. Accommodations, meals and ground transportation between Bangalore and Chikmagalur will be provided.

"We were excited by the enthusiasm shown by all of our participants," said Nishant Gurjer, Managing Partner of Kaapi Royale Coffee. "We were additionally very interested by the overall results of our blind cupping, which showed that only 1 in 6 experienced cuppers could correctly distinguish our high quality Indian Robusta from a comparably high quality Arabica coffee. We believe that industry this will go far to help dispel the myth that all Robustas are inferior to other species."

The next Kaapi Royale Challenge will be held in May 2010 at the 22nd annual SCAA conference in Anaheim, California.

About Kaapi Royale Coffee

Kaapi Royale Coffee of Magundi in the Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, India, exports fine Indian Arabica and Robusta coffees worldwide and is the exclusive representative of Sethuraman Estate coffees. Sethuraman Estate is the three-time winner of the Coffee Board of India's Flavour of India competition and received the highest-ever rating for a Robusta coffee of 94 points from coffee reviewer Ken Davids. For more information, visit the Kaapi Royale Coffee website at http://indiancoffee.wordpress.com.

Gwilym Davies crowned 2009 World Barista Champion in Atlanta

ATLANTA (April 20, 2009) – Gwilym Davies of the United Kingdom has won the 2009 World Barista Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.

National barista champions from 51 countries converged in Atlanta to compete for the ranking of world’s top coffee maker in front of a live and online audience of thousands of viewers from around the world.

As the winner of the 2009 competition, Mr. Davies receives a highly sought after Victoria Arduino Athena espresso machine and Mahlkonig K30 grinder in addition to the prestigious title of World Barista Champion.

In three days of preliminary round competition at the Georgia World Congress Center, each competitor served 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos and 4 original signature drinks to exacting standards in 15-minute performances.

The top 6 competitors from round one advanced to Sunday’s finals (Sammy Piccolo of Canada, Attila Molnar of Hungary, Colin Harmon of Ireland, Gwilym Davies of the United Kingdom, Lee Jong Hoon of the Republic of Korea and Michael Phillips of the United States of America), where Davies won the top spot.

The 11th annual World Barista Championship will be held in London in conjunction with the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe’s Wonderful Coffee exposition in June 2010.

About World Barista Championship UK Ltd.

World Barista Championship UK Ltd is a nonprofit organization jointly owned by the Specialty Coffee Association of America and Speciality Coffee Association of Europe. The first WBC competition took place in Monte Carlo in October 2000 and has since held annual competitions Miami, Oslo, Boston, Trieste, Seattle, Berne, Tokyo, Copenhagen and Atlanta. The organization’s next event will be held in London in conjunction with the SCAE Wonderful Coffee exposition in June, 2010. For more information, please visit http://www.worldbaristachampionship.com.

World Barista Championship Atlanta 2009

And the finalists are…
posted by sarahallen on 2009.04.18

You’ve been waiting for this for three long, barista-talent filled days, and it’s finally come: the announcement of the six finalists in the World Barista Championship, being held here in Atlanta, Georgia. Finals take place tomorrow, Sunday, April 19, at noon EST.

1. HUNGARY—ATTILA MOLNAR
2. UNITED KINGDOM—GWILYM DAVIES
3. CANADA—SAMMY PICCOLO
4. UNITED STATES—MICHAEL PHILLIPS
5. IRELAND—COLIN HARMON
6. REPUBLIC OF KOREA—LEE JONG HOON

For a live video feed, click: VIDEO FEED

Caffeine Appears To Be Beneficial In Males–But Not Females–With Lou Gehrig’s Disease

Animal model highlights the effect of diet and gender in understanding ALS

NEW ORLEANS—Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease that damages key neurons in the brain and spinal cord. The disease causes progressive paralysis of voluntary muscles and often death within five years of symptoms. Although ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) was discovered over a century ago, neither the cause nor a cure have been found, but several mechanisms seem to play a role in its development, including oxidative stress.

Coffee, Caffeine and ALS

Researchers agree that ALS is a multifactorial disease that involves a complex interplay between a genetic predisposition and environmental factors. One environmental factor is diet. With oxidative stress (which damages the cells) a common concern in ALS pathology, it is worth examining what role antioxidants (which confer benefits to the cells) might play.

Antioxidants (the vitamins and nutrients that protect the cells from damage) are found in commonly consumed beverages and foods. Coffee in particular has received attention as a potent dietary antioxidant. It is worth noting that coffee has significantly more antioxidant capacity than cocoa and green, black or herbal teas. However, coffee contains several components, the largest of which are caffeine and chlorogenic acid, a dietary polyphenol that is beneficial to the immune system.

Previous studies have shown positive effects with coffee, caffeine, or chlorogenic acid supplementation in improving oxidative stress and its associated cell death mechanisms.

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