Coffee farmers get market boost

The ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives has allowed coffee growers to sell their crop at international auctions. The deputy minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives, Dr Mathayo David, told the National Assembly in Dodoma yesterday that the government had put in place plans aimed at securing handsome prices for local coffee at international markets and with individual buyers.

The minister was answering a question asked by Savelina Mwijage (Special Seats—CCM) who had wanted to know what the government was doing to prevent coffee growers from selling their cash crop at throw-away prices.

Dr Mathayo told the August House that the government also planned to promote the country’s coffee at international fairs through the Tanzania Coffee Marketing Board. He said a kilogram of Robusta coffee sold at $1.49 (Sh2,235) during the 2008/09 period, while raw coffee fetched Sh800 per kilogram during the time under review.

He added that during the 2009/10 period coffee sold at $1.25 a kilogram, citing the absence of strong co-operatives, that could protect farmers from selling their crops at cheap prices, as one of the reasons for the poor state of affairs.

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How to pour the perfect cup of coffee

There is a best way – mathematically– to pour your second cup of coffee, says a study called Recursive Binary Sequences of Differences that will appeal to anyone who is truly pernickety about their beverages.But no one realised it until the year 2001, when Robert M Richman published his simple recipe in the journal Complex Systems. During the subsequent passage of nine years and billions of cups of coffee, the secret has been available to all.

"The problem is that the coffee that initially comes through the filter is much stronger than that which comes out last, so the coffee at the bottom of the pot is stronger than that at the top," says Richman. "Swirling the pot does not homogenise the coffee, but using the proper pouring pattern does."

Here's all you have to do. Prepare coffee – two cups' worth – in a carafe. Now get two mugs, call them A and B. Then: "If one has the patience to make four pours of equal volume, the possible pouring sequences are AABB, ABBA, and ABAB."

Choose ABBA.

That's it. You now have two nearly-identical-tasting cups of coffee.

Richmond tells what to do if you're pernickety: "If one wishes to further reduce the difference and has more patience, one can make eight pours of equal volume, four in each cup. The number of possible sequences is now 35." The optimal sequence, he calculates, is ABBABAAB.

And if you are more finicky than that, Richmond neglects you not. "With even more patience, one may make 16 pours, eight into each cup. There are now 6,435 possible pouring sequences." ABBABAABBAABABBA is the way to go.

This same blending problem crops up elsewhere in modern life: in distributing pigments evenly when mixing paint, and even in choosing sides for a basketball game. "Consider the fairest way for "captain A" and "captain B" to choose sides," Richman instructs. The traditional method – alternating the choices – leads to unequally strong teams. Instead, use the coffee recipe, which is "likely to result in the most equitable distribution of talent". Insist that captain A has the first, fourth, sixth, and seventh choices, while captain B has the second, third, fifth, and eighth choices."

The mathematics in this study looks at coffee production as a collection of "Walsh functions". These are trains of on/off pulses that add together in enlightening ways.

The monograph ends modestly, or perhaps realistically, with a wistful thought: "As is typically the case with fundamental contributions, scientifically significant applications of this work may not appear for some time."

Richman recently retired as a chemistry professor at Mount St Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He now has more time to devote to this mixing business, with pleasure.

"It took me over 10 years to develop the mathematics to solve this problem, which is well outside of my primary area of expertise. I'm trying to find a classical number theorist who is willing to collaborate on the sequel: I think I can definitively establish the best way to pour three cups of coffee".

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Studies show coffee has health benefits

Health-conscious coffee drinkers just got a little pick-me-up. Last week, livescience.com highlighted a number of recent studies demonstrating the various health benefits regular coffee drinkers enjoy. Among the advantages were:

A 39 percent decreased risk of head and neck cancer (according to Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention), diminished risk of coronary heart disease (Harvard Medical School), and the prevention of memory loss (University of Lisbon). Then again, contradictory reports concluding negative consequences to drinking coffee come out about as frequently as a new Starbucks opens.

Espresso enthusiasts from around the Inland area discussed how the findings affected their love of latte. "I pretty much drink coffee every day with a little bit of guilt. ... this puts me at ease," said Riverside resident Brittany Pierce, lounging on a couch at Riverside's Back to the Grind. "I have a couple of friends down on coffee, so now I can tell them this."

Of course, multiple studies praising the value of eating salads could emerge tomorrow, but those benefits wouldn't quite apply to those who smother their lettuce in ranch, croutons and bacon bits. Earlene Smith, a barista at Riverside's Coffee Depot, recognizes this scenario could apply to coffee as well.

"A nonfat latte might be good for you, one that doesn't have any fat or sugar," said Smith, adding that she'd consider replacing the cookies and cake slices sold at the shop with vegetables, but that "those might not sell as well.

"Most people pour a ton of sugar into it."

Back to the Grind owner Darren Conkerite is as close to a coffee connoisseur as they come. Fourteen years ago he opened his café knowing how the average Joe could profit from a cup of joe. His thoughts concerning reports of coffee's beneficial nature? Duh.

"The news is funny. The news finds things out at different times, but it's something that I definitely knew back in the day when I opened," Conkerite said. "This generation of kids are more health conscious. Anyone about 16 to 23 will have a different outlook on the healthy benefits."

Or they might just like it. Ontario resident Jenny Galvan, visiting Riverside with her sister, said she was sipping her frappuccino for one basic reason. "Because it's good," she said. As for her views toward the validity of the studies? "I'll believe anything if it's incredible."

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Coffee kick just an illusion

Many swear by their daily cup of java to kick-start their brains in the morning or increase alertness in the afternoons. But they may actually be kidding themselves if they think that coffee helps. Caffeine addiction is such a downer that regular coffee drinkers may get no real pick-me-up from their morning cup, according to a study by British scientists, which appeared recently in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal.

Bristol University researchers found that drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing and the stimulating effects of caffeine, meaning that it only brings them back to baseline levels of alertness, not above them.

"Although frequent consumers feel alerted by caffeine, especially by their morning tea, coffee, or other caffeine- containing drink, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal," wrote the scientists, led by Peter Rogers of Bristol's department of experimental psychology.

The team asked 379 adults - half of them non- or low-caffeine consumers and the other half medium- or high- caffeine consumers - to give up caffeine for 16 hours, and then gave them either caffeine or a dummy pill known as a placebo.

Participants rated their levels of anxiety, alertness and headache. The medium-to-high caffeine consumers who got the placebo reported a decrease in alertness and increased headache, neither of which were reported by those who received caffeine. But measurements showed that their post-caffeine levels of alertness were actually no higher than the non- or low-caffeine consumers who received a placebo - suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to "normal."

The researchers also found that people who have a genetic predisposition to anxiety do not tend to avoid coffee. In fact, people in the study with a gene variant associated with anxiety tended to consume slightly larger amounts of coffee than those without it. This suggests that a mild increase in anxiety "may be a part of the pleasant buzz caused by caffeine," said Rogers.

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Coffee Cuts Parkinson’s Risk

Coffee’s already been proven to reduce the risk of various cancers, heart disease and Alzheimer’s, and now new research has found Parkinson’s disease is yet another condition regular consumption can protect against. A review of all the available data conducted by scientists from the University of Porto, Portugal, found that dinking two to three cups a day can reduce the risk of acquiring the debilitating neurological disease by up to a quarter.

That figure fell to 15% when the researchers looked only at women. There was also a direct link between the amount of coffee consumed and the extent of protection conferred, with only those drinking several cups a day gaining the full 25% reduction in risk. Although the protective properties of coffee had been suggested before the evidence proved conflicting.

This latest research collated information from 26 different published studies in drawing its conclusions. According to the researchers, the study “confirms an inverse association between caffeine intake and the risk of PD, which can hardly by explained by bias or uncontrolled confounding.”

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Coffee prices dip on robust Brazilian crop hopes

Traders lost some of their appetite for coffee futures Friday as warm winter weather provided help for what could be a robust Brazilian harvest. Coffee prices fell about 2 percent on light volumes as investors looked ahead to the three-day holiday weekend in the U.S. "They're still looking at pretty big crops and decent production," Lind-Waldock strategist Tom Mikulski said.

Coffee for September delivery fell 3.95 cents to settle at $1.643 a pound. The price has risen about 19 percent since June 1 after cold weather initially threatened Brazil's harvest. Spencer Patton, founder and chief investment officer for hedge fund Steel Vine Investments LLC, attributed some of Friday's drop to traders who were taking profits after the sharp runup in prices.

Metals prices were mixed. In September contracts, copper rose 3.9 cents to settle at $2.9160 a pound; silver fell 7.1 cents to settle at $17.719 an ounce and palladium fell $2.15 to $426.90 an ounce. July platinum fell $4.10 to $1,499.20 an ounce. Gold for August delivery gained $1 to settle at $1,207.70 an ounce. Oil prices continued to slide after the government issued a weak June jobs forecast that added to concerns about whether the recovery has stalled.

Benchmark crude oil for August delivery lost 81 cents to settle at $72.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price has fallen 8.5 percent in the past week.Among other August contracts, heating oil fell 2.3 cents to settle at $1.9155 a gallon, gasoline lost 1.99 cents to $1.9777 a gallon and natural gas fell 16.7 cents to $4.687 per 1,000 cubic feet. In September contracts, corn fell 0.75 cent at $3.7250 a bushel while wheat added 3.25 cents to settle at $5.03 a bushel. August soybeans added 7.5 cents to $9.4450 a bushel.

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Can A Cup (Or Two) Of Coffee Help You Run Faster?

OK, I admit it. I’m a full-fledged caffeine fiend — have been for almost four years now after never having so much as sipped on coffee or tea at any time during my first 24 years of existence. A cup of black coffee in the morning and another one mid-afternoon, along with the occasional mug of tea after dinner, has become the standard these days.

Oddly enough, and as ashamed as I am to admit it, consuming hot caffeinated beverages has become something I do with unbridled interruption on daily basis. Part of my race-day routine, in fact, involves downing a steaming cuppa joe exactly two hours before the starter’s gun goes off. It’s as important a part of the preparation process to me as making sure my racing flats are tied tightly.

Why is this? Aside from the obvious effects of feeling awake and alert almost instantaneously, my body really feels more primed for a peak performance on the starting line than if I had missed my morning cup. Maybe it’s mental, maybe not, but a new British study seems to support my suspicions and says caffeine consumption may provide performance benefits for endurance athletes such as long-distance runners.

How beneficial? “A small increase in performance via caffeine could mean the difference between a gold medal in the Olympics and an also-ran,” Dr. Rob James, lead researcher at Coventry University in England, was quoted as saying in a recent article posted on FoxNews.com.

James, who was expected to announce the complete results of the study at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Prague this week, says high doses of caffeine boosted muscle power output and endurance and improved performance by almost six percent – yes, six percent!

Quite honestly, six percent seems to be on the high side of the improvement spectrum, especially for elite, or sub-elite level athletes. For a 31-minute 10K runner, that yields an improvement of 1 minute, 51.6 seconds over 6.2 miles of racing. Heck, even a three-percent improvement would take almost a minute off that fast of a finishing time. At a pace of 5-minutes per mile or faster, assuming an automatic six-percent performance improvement is nothing short of absurd.

Personally, I’ve never even come close to this amount of improvement since I started my two-to-three-times-a-day caffeine kick, but I do believe the undeniable stimulation that caffeine provides my central nervous system keeps my senses sharp when it’s time to race, which in turn helps me to perform better than if I were standing there feeling lethargic on the starting line. I suspect that for other habitual coffee-drinking endurance athletes, the same belief holds true.

So, then, should caffeine be considered a performance-enhancing drug? Well, yes and no – it depends on who you ask and how you look at the situation. The World Anti-Doping Agency doesn’t think so, and hasn’t thought so since taking it off the banned substance list in 2004. Interestingly enough, however, the NCAA feels differently, saying “if the concentration [of caffeine] in urine exceeds 15 micrograms/milliliter” an athlete will be suspended from competition.

For a 135-lb athlete, this equates to roughly 48 ounces of coffee, or four medium-sized cups, within a few hours of competition. In a nutshell, an athlete would have to ingest caffeine pills, inject themselves with a caffeine concentrate or have the most efficient bladder on the planet to be able to consume this amount of caffeine under normal circumstances – assuming, of course, it takes this much caffeine to give the athlete an unfair advantage.

What can be concluded from this most recent study? In short, you can do worse than downing a cup of coffee before your next big race. In fact, if you have a hard time waking up and staying focused on the starting line, it might just be the wake-up call you need.

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Coffee company calculates carbon cost

From the bean picking and roasting to the electricity for grinding them and boiling the water, an independent roaster based.

On Salt Spring Island has calculated the emissions created during the entire life of its coffee beans as it strives to track its environmental footprint become carbon neutral.

Salt Spring Coffee Co., a fair trade, organic roaster that borrows its name from the quaint hippie hideaway off Vancouver Island, asked a Vancouver-based carbon offsetting company Offsetters to look at every aspect of the coffee-making process.

Offsetters found a 400-gram bag of Salt Spring's french roast coffee from Nicaragua produces 1,807-grams of carbon dioxide. To reach that total, Offsetters examined a bean's entire life cycle:

Farming the beans in Nicaragua.
* Transporting them to Canada.
* Roasting and packaging them on Salt Spring Island.
* Distributing and selling the coffee.
* Brewing the coffee on a consumer's kitchen counter.
* More often than not, tossing the used grounds in the garbage.

The final tally might not sound like much, but it adds up over time.

The Coffee Association of Canada conducted a survey in 2003 that suggested the average coffee drinker here consumes 2.6 cups a day.
Footprint same as flying Ottawa to Montreal

That means a year of drinking Salt Spring's Nicaraguan coffee — each bag can brew about 50 cups — would produce about 34,000 grams of carbon dioxide, which is about the same as driving a mid-sized car for 170 kilometres. That's also the size of carbon offsets that Offsetters sells for a single traveller on a commercial flight between Ottawa and Montreal.

And two-thirds of that total is produced by consumers brewing the coffee at home and then throwing out the used grounds, said Mickey McLeod, CEO of Salt Spring Coffee.

"I was quite surprised with how much the consumer has an impact on one of these bags of coffee — it was quite amazing," McLeod said during an announcement at a Salt Spring Coffee café in Vancouver.

"The real upside to this is it opens up awareness to the consumer about how they can actually help reduce their personal impact."

Salt Spring Coffee has been buying carbon offsets to make its operations carbon neutral since 2007, but that hasn't included the farming of the beans or the footprint of consumers.

On Tuesday, the company announced bags of its Nicaraguan French roast will also include offsets for the farming, picking and pre-processing in Nicaragua — which account for just two per cent of the total.

The company said that makes it the first carbon neutral coffee in Canada until the beans are sold to consumers.

For the remaining 64 per cent of the emissions, the company is urging its customers to reduce their footprint by making simple changes, such as ensuring they only use the amount of water they need and composting the used grounds instead of throwing them away.

"When it leaves the retail outlet, they [Salt Spring Coffee] no longer have control, but they do have influence," said Donovan Woollard of Offsetters.

"The purpose of the announcement today is to influence those people who are buying the product and encourage them to use it responsibly."

To balance emissions, Offsetters sells carbon offsets and then uses the money to fund clean energy projects. The idea is that those projects will eventually reduce emissions elsewhere by the same amount.

Offsetters was also the official provider of carbon offsets for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

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