Nestle India, HUL raise coffee prices by 10-12%

Consumers in India already paying more for many essential commodities now need to pay more for their favourite cup of coffee. FMCG companies Nestle India and Hindustan Unilever have raised prices of their coffee brands Nescafe and Bru respectively by 10-12% over the last couple of months, according to retailers and a research report by JP Morgan.

The price hikes by FMCG companies come in the wake of a sustained rise in cost of raw materials over last several quarters. Prices of raw coffee have surged globally amid supply hiccups.

For instance, price of the most consumed Arabica variety of coffee rose 50% in a year, according to a Bloomberg report. However, coffee prices may be at their peak right now and the rally could end due to record output in Central America, the report says.

Global production of Arabica will outpace demand in 2011-12, analysts say. Netherlands based bank ABN Amro last month forecast a global Arabica surplus of 6.90 lakh 60 kg bags in season beginning October.
FMCG companies in India have been facing pressures from a spike in raw materials across the board. Nestle India’s input costs, for instance, rose over 12% in April-June, while Hindustan Unilever’s raw material costs were up 26%.

Hindustan Unilever and others like Godrej Consumer Products , Bajaj Corp and Dabur have raised prices of some of their products, especially in personal care products and soaps & detergents by 3-10% over June-August. Colgate Palmolive India too has raised prices of some of its toothpastes by 3-6%.
Most FMCG stocks have outperformed the broader markets this year as investors have sought cover under defensive sectors amid an overall volatile market.

The CNX FMCG index is up 1.7% in the last three months, even as the broader Nifty has fallen 7.3%.
Nestle shares ended at Rs 4,454.10, up 1%, while HUL closed up 0.2% at Rs 320.50 on Wednesday.

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Farmers raise coffee quality in bid to boost their incomes

Small-scale coffee farmers are expected to earn premium prices in world markets with the support of a Netherlands NGO. Solidaridad has offered to work with farmers to implement quality requirements for the produce under the Utz and Fair Trade certification schemes.

“Solidaridad gets funds from donors to help smallholder farmers in implementing certification codes,” said Mr Karugu Macharia, the organisation’s regional director. Farmers have in the past blamed certification, which is an expensive affair, for locking them out of the lucrative speciality coffee markets.
Certification through Utz, for instance, costs Sh1.6 million while through Rainforest it costs Sh580,000 and Four Seas Sh400,000.

Safety standards: The amounts are usually denominated in hard currencies such as the dollar and the euro, which were exchanging at Sh94 and Sh135 against the shilling, respectively, last week.

Other costs include paying for regular audits conducted by independent firms, which check implementation of certification standards. Auditors are sometimes flown from abroad at the cost of the farmers whose produce is being certified.

Implementation itself can also be very expensive since it may require a complete overhaul of production process, such as fertiliser and chemical application, health and safety standards, record keeping, and fair labour practices. Solidaridad helps farmers mainly through training, consultancy and budget support.

Certified coffee: The support programme has already helped seven coffee co-operative societies to implement certification while eight more are on the waiting list.

The quality standards ensure that farmers meet a set code of environmental, social and economic parameters in coffee production, including documentation, to facilitate tracking of the certified coffee.

After meeting these standards, their coffee is labelled as certified through several of the available certification schemes such as Utz, Fair Trade, Four Seas and Rainforest Alliance.

Buyers in key coffee markets are willing to offer premium price for the certified coffee that would boost farmers’ earnings. To help bring down the costs of certification, farmers have been advised to carry out their own regular internal audits which will help reduce the time it takes for external auditors to inspect them.

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Owning a coffee shop

Owning a coffee shop is a of many small business opportunities available. More and more and more people though, are discovering that it's a niche which may be profitable even if the economy is on a downturn. The respected on-line magazine Slate recently reported that 90% of coffee house start ups were making money, a record that other market sectors are only able to take a look at with envy.

This isn't to express owning a coffee shop is definitely an automatic licence to print money! However, with a few thought and some planning a new launch has every chance of becoming a big part of your community and they may be opened by individuals who have no idea anything about the different kinds of beans in Colombia.

There's something that's more prone to define the success or else of a coffee shop than other things. Think these magic words - "Location, Location, Location". The great news is that you simply convey more of a concept of the right place for your coffee house than you understand. Whenever you visit your town or city centre, stop and take a browse around. Where do people often stop and take a look at the surroundings, or where will they gather? Once they are heading into work, how does the traffic flow? You can observe these are all potential business locations have a chance of success.

Of course, there are lots of other activities to think about for those who have considered owning a coffee shop but there's no reason to become afraid or intimidated by the big chains. They've helped create this growing niche. With a good location and a little imagination, owning a coffee shop is a truly exciting business proposition.

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Coffee suncream could slow skin cancer

Applying caffeine to the skin in sunny weather may protect against a type of skin cancer, US researchers hope. Experiments on mice, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that caffeine prevents UV damage.

Tumours took longer to develop and there were fewer of them, the study reports. But other experts warned there could be an adverse affect on other cancers by using caffeine in this way. The researchers did not apply caffeine to the mice, instead they genetically modified the animals.

Caffeine is known to interfere with a protein involved in detecting DNA damage called ATR. Scientists modified the mice so they did not produce any ATR in the skin.

Mice were then exposed to UV light three times a week for 40 weeks. Those without ATR developed their first tumour three weeks later than normal mice. After 19 weeks there were 69% fewer tumours in mice without ATR, although by the end of the study all of the animals had developed one of the most common forms of skin cancer - squamous cell carcinoma.

Prevention possibility: The study said: “At any given point in time the average number of tumours in [modified] mice was significantly lower. “Caffeine application could be useful in preventing UV-induced skin cancers,” the researchers add.

Applying caffeine on a beach to a person’s skin, however, is not the same thing as genetically modifying mouse skin in a laboratory. Further studies would be needed to show any possible protective effect in humans.

Prof Dot Bennett, professor of cell biology, St George’s, University of London, said: “The authors suggest adding caffeine or related molecules to sunscreens.

“First one might want to check there is no adverse effect of caffeine on the incidence of other cancers, especially melanoma, pigmented skin cancer, which kills over four times as many people as squamous cell carcinoma. “But caffeine lotion might promote tanning a little, since this family of molecules stimulates pigment cells to make more pigment.”

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Caribou Coffee prices stock offering at $14.25

Cafe operator Caribou Coffee Co. Inc. announced Thursday that it has priced at $14.25 a share the public offering of 5.15 million shares of common stock held by its major shareholder. The company has about 20.7 million shares outstanding. It won't receive any proceeds from the sale.

The offering is expected to close on Aug. 23, the company said in a news release. The shareholder, Caribou Holding Co. Ltd., is an affiliate of Bahrainian investment firm Arcapita Bank BSC. Caribou Holding Co. also is giving the underwriters of the offering an option to buy up to 772,245 additional shares to cover any excess demand.

Caribou Coffee, based in Brooklyn Center, Minn., is the No. 2 coffeehouse chain in the U.S. after Starbucks Corp. The company reported earlier this month that its second-quarter net income jumped 83 percent as revenue from its coffee stores, commercial sales and franchises rose.

Jefferies & Co. was lead manager for the offering, while Robert W. Baird & Co. and William Blair & Co. were managers, and Craig-Hallum Capital Group was co-manager. Caribou Coffee shares fell $1.37, more than 9 percent, to $13.38 by mid-afternoon amid a market plunge sparked by worries about the weakening economy.

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Dunkin‘ Donuts to serve single-serve cups

Dunkin‘ Donuts will start selling its coffee in single-serve Keurig cups Wednesday, beating rival Starbucks Corp. to the market in a fast-growing portion of the coffee business. The K-Cups can be used in Keurig brewing systems, which have gained popularity in offices and homes. The company that makes them, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., first announced its partnership with Dunkin‘ Donuts in February. Since then, it has also announced agreements with Starbucks Corp. and ConAgra Foods Inc.’s Swiss Miss hot chocolate brand. Starbucks plans to start offering K-Cups in the fall.

The Dunkin‘ Donuts K-Cups will be available only at Dunkin‘ Donuts shops. Utility regulators unanimously rejected a plan Tuesday that would have trimmed the profits of the Southern Co. if it breaks its budget while building what may become the first brand-new nuclear plant in a generation.

The elected members of the state Public Service Commission voted 5-0 to approve a compromise negotiated between its staff and Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power that shelved a proposal meant to pressure the utility into controlling construction costs while building two Westinghouse Electric Co. AP1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. The cost of building the existing reactors at the site jumped from $660 million to nearly $9 billion by the time they started producing power in the late 1980s.

Under state law, Georgia Power’s 2.4 million customers will ultimately reimburse the state-regulated monopoly for the flagship plant as they pay their monthly electricity bills. President Obama’s administration had awarded the project $8 billion in federal loan guarantees as it seeks to increase the country’s use of nuclear power.

US Airways Group Inc. says it will offer direct refunds of ticket taxes that travelers paid before the taxes lapsed on July 23. The taxes can add up to $60 or more on a $300 round-trip ticket. They stopped when the Federal Aviation Administration partially shut down. Travelers who bought tickets before the shutdown but flew during it are due a refund.

Some airlines have been telling travelers to ask the IRS for a refund. The Internal Revenue Service has asked airlines to refund the money directly. Delta said on Monday that it would offer direct refunds, and US Airways joined them on Tuesday.

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Mr. Coffee Versus Bunn-o-Matic - The Coffee Maker Battle Heats Up

For coffee lovers, there are few things more appealing than being met in the early a.m. hours by a perfectly brewed pot of coffee. That first cup sets the mood for your entire day, doesn't it? If it's brewed up right, you'll feel that extra zing in your step from morning till night. However, if that first cup is too strong or too weak, too hot or not hot enough, you quickly find yourself spiraling into a first-class coffee crisis.

So, how do you avoid a coffee catastrophe? It's simple, buy the best coffee maker on the market made especially for your coffee-drinking needs! Sounds simple enough, right? But, who makes the best coffee maker today? In other words, who is the All-Time Champion of Coffee Makers?

Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome you to our title bout of the day where two mighty coffee making titans - Mr. Coffee and Bunn-o-Matic - will meet in the kitchen to crown the undisputed coffee making champion of the world.

Introducing The Coffee maker Contenders In the green corner, we have Mr. Coffee - long-recognized as the undisputed champion of home coffee makers. Affordable with many models to choose from, Mr. Coffee currently has over a dozen models on the market retailing from between $24.99 to $89.99. With makers serving up between one and twelve cups, he'll be hard to beat. In fact, Mr. Coffee is in great shape with an amazing array of features and settings, including single serve, speed brew, switch, programmable, and thermal models.

In the red corner, we have the Bunn-o-Matic - king of the commercial coffee making market. Found in restaurants and chosen by baristas around the world, Bunn-o-Matic is known for his professional-grade machines. With a limited variety (e.g., currently seven models, with one single serve and 6-10 cup models), judges will need to pay close attention to the details to see what kind of punch the Bunn-o-Matic packs. One thing is for sure: with a starting price of $89.95, Bunn-o-Matic definitely tips the scales as a higher-priced option for home consumers.

For those of you who are new to the clash of the coffee makers, here's what the judges will be looking for during the brew-off:

Cup size
How many cups can your coffee maker cook up (say that five times fast)? Most brands today have single-serve and multiple cup models, with 10-12 cups being the upper limit for most home coffee makers
Timer
If having your coffee pre-made for you when you wake up is important, then a timer is going to be key! Timers allow you to set the time when your coffee maker will start doing its thing and brewing you up your beloved coffee
Space
If you have unlimited counter space, then this criterion might not matter much to you. But, for those of you for whom counter space is at a premium, deciding upon a model that fits your space as well as your décor might be an important consideration
But, to truly separate the two competitors, our judges will also be looking closely at the following four areas:

Ease of Use
This is self-explanatory - at 6 a.m., you want a machine that is easy to use
Durability
As you know, coffee makers aren't the most pampered of home appliances. They can get pretty banged up with daily use. Choosing a hardy model is essential
Ease of Cleaning
Starting with a well-maintained and cleaned pot is one of the best ways to assure yourself of a great cup of coffee day after day
Style

Yes, in the end, many of us like our coffee makers to look cool. Sure, while it's true that they are simply functional machines, we want these machines to represent our love for coffee
The fight is on between the top coffee makers in the world. So, who wins the home coffee maker battle? Bunn-o-Matic definitely has significantly higher priced models and less of a home-based selection, but is known for superior performance and durability. Mr. Coffee has a wider range of home models to choose from and most of their machines are significantly less expensive than even the lowest priced Bunn-o-Matic. In the end, it's a personal choice for you to decide. Remember, a great cup of coffee ends up being more than your coffee maker. Quality water, beans, and the proper grind for your machine all make a big difference in whether your coffee maker and first cup of coffee are winners.

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Iced Coffee Gets Its Day in the Sun?

IN 2010, Americans ordered 500 million iced coffee drinks in restaurants and cafes, up from 400 million in 2006, according to data from the market research firm NPD Group.But marketers have done little to cater to those who want to make iced coffee at home, even though 73 percent of coffee consumed in the United States is prepared at home, according to data from the National Coffee Association, a trade group.

Now efforts to promote iced coffee consumption at home are beginning to percolate. For Keurig, the single-cup coffee brewing system owned by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a national advertising campaign is under way for its Brew Over Ice coffees.

“Summer. (Now available at home)” states a print ad for the Keurig iced coffees, which are sold under the Green Mountain Coffee brand. The coffees are available in two varieties, Nantucket Blend and French Vanilla, which retail for $16.50 for a box of 22 single servings.

The ads, by BrandBuzz, New York, part of the Young & Rubicam Brands division of the WPP Group, began appearing in May issues of magazines including Better Homes & Gardens, Real Simple and Woman’s Day and will appear in issues through August.

“We’re focused on the Keurig user base and satisfying all the various consumption needs they have,” said Ross Fenderson, a brand manager at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters who focuses on Keurig.

New offerings try to resolve subpar results some consumers may be getting at home, either from making iced coffee out of cold and stale leftover coffee or from pouring fresh hot coffee over ice and finding the beverage too watery.

The Keurig iced varieties contain more coffee in their single portions, called K-Cups, than in regular varieties, and users are directed to select a smaller, six- or eight-ounce portion setting on the Keurig machine. (The setting can be set as high as 12 ounces.) The smaller setting allows the coffee to be concentrated enough to remain robust when brewed directly into a full glass of ice.

Keurig is also holding a sweepstakes for a cruise in a state where consumers do not drink as much iced coffee as those in the Northeast: Alaska. And in what the brand is calling a “surprise and delight tactic” on Facebook, it also will give away 100 brewers and K-Cups to some of the more than 122,000 followers of the brand.

On July 12, Starbucks will introduce Iced Coffee Blend, whole-bean coffee available in its stores for $13 for a pound. The blend, which is the same that Starbucks has used for years to brew iced coffee in its stores, has never been sold as a whole bean blend.

The ice-blue package directs consumers to use as much coffee as they would for a full pot of coffee, but only half of the water, and to brew the coffee directly over ice or in a coffeemaker to be then poured into a pitcher of ice.

Last summer, as part of its Via line of instant coffee, Starbucks introduced an iced version, with instructions calling for the slender packets to be poured into a 16-ounce bottle of water. A six-serving container costs $6.

Seattle’s Best Coffee, a subsidiary of Starbucks, also has a whole-bean blend for ice coffee, Summer Brew, for $13 a pound, which is beginning to appear in its shops. Instructions call for using a Toddy, a brand of cold-water coffeemakers that take 12 hours to brew, yielding a coffee concentrate that is reconstituted with one part concentrate to three parts water, milk or cream.

Seattle’s Best sells Toddy makers in its stores and will promote the new coffee in them, but it does not have immediate plans to advertise it, according to the brand.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters, meanwhile, recently began bottling cold-brewed coffee in squat 10.5-ounce amber bottles, which it calls Stubbies. The bottles are sold for $3.50 in the company’s coffee shops both in Portland, Ore., where the company is based, and in New York.

Matt Lounsbury, director of operations for Stumptown, said the company decided to bottle iced coffee because sales by the cup in stores had “been on the upswing for the better part of five years.”

Like the Stubbies, iced coffee served in Stumptown cafes is made from a cold-brewed concentrate because brewing over ice can make the coffee bitter, said Mr. Lounsbury, who added that the cold-brew method yielded a “strong yet sweet, almost tealike cup of coffee.”

Green Mountain Coffee spent $23 million advertising in 2010 and its subsidiary Keurig spent $14.1 million, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP. Green Mountain Coffee owned about 35 percent of the shares in Keurig before it bought the company outright in 2006.

Single-cup coffee systems like Keurig, which was developed in 1998, and newer ones including the Nescafé Dolce Gusto, Senseo and Flavia, are now in 7 percent of households and have been growing at an average annual rate of 1 percentage point since 2005, according to the National Coffee Association.

In 2010, total revenue for Keurig brewers and accessories was $330.8 million, a gain of 67 percent over 2009, while revenue from the portion packs reached $834.4 million, 103 percent more than in 2009.

Selling coffeemakers “at cost, or sometimes at a loss,” is part of the company’s growth strategy to get the brewers in homes and offices and lock into a revenue stream for the coffee pods, according to its 2010 annual report.

In the last year, in addition to the iced coffee and iced tea lines, Keurig also introduced hot apple cider, which joined other noncoffee beverages like cocoa and a drink called Revv, which in addition to coffee contains ginseng and guarana, ingredients used in energy drinks.

“The goal at the end of the day is for Keurig to be renowned not just as a coffee system, but as a beverage system,” said Mr. Fenderson, the brand manager. Asked, facetiously, if that meant Keurig would at some point offer baby formula pods, Mr. Fenderson said that the subject had actually already been broached.

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Coffee Beans and Coffee Concerns - Enlightening All Coffee Buffs

The seeds produced by the coffee plant are the coffee beans. Though these are referred to as beans they are not really beans in the true botanical sense of the word. The coffee plant bears red or purple fruits which are also called cherries or berries of coffee and the stone that lies inside is the ‘bean’ which is the source of coffee. Two stones lying with their flat sides together usually constitute the coffee bean. It is from this bean that coffee is produced that can be used to produce a variety of coffee beverages like espresso, latte and cappuccino using the right coffee makers- espresso machines etc. It may be mentioned that a small percentage of any crop of coffee cherries contain a single bean in the cherries instead of the usual two. Such berries are called pea berries.

Coffee beans facts Some 0.8% to 2.5% caffeine is contained in the endosperm of the coffee seed or bean. This caffeine content gives them the characteristic flavor for which the plant is cultivated. Several species of the coffee plant are there and the seeds of each species produce coffees having slightly different tastes. Variation can be observed in the flavors of different genetic subspecies also and the coffee varietals- where the coffee plants are being cultivated.

Coffee beans are a major item of export of many countries. Coffee Arabica is the species that makes up the major portion (70-75%) of the world trade. The other important coffee species of coffee cultivated is the Coffee canephora. This is grown where the Coffee Arabica does not thrive.

Processing of coffee beans The coffee beans are processed before they are readied for use in preparing espresso, latte, cappuccino and other special coffee drinks using coffee makers- espresso machines and the like. The processing begins with the beans being removed from the coffee cherries. The fruit is then discarded or made use of as a fertilizer. The bean or seed of coffee is then ground and used in the preparation of beverages of various kinds using a coffee maker or espresso machine.

Coffee beans and espresso beans A difference between ordinary coffee beans and the espresso beans is there. The espresso beans tend to be a concoction of beans. These are almost always a relatively dark roast like a Vienna or light French roast. This is seemingly a trade secret. So, even though the formula of the blend can be discovered the exact amounts or proportions in which the constituents are to be blended cannot be easily found out.

Flavoring of coffee beans There is also the process of flavoring the coffee beans in an attempt to work upon their natural flavor to meet some purpose. Natural oils are usually used to achieve this. Half an ounce of oil is usually to be added to a pound of beans for the flavoring to be done.

The primary concern of all coffee lovers being the flavor of the drinks, special attention needs to be given to ensure that the best flavor is obtained from the coffee beans. This is of crucial importance in case of preparation of espresso, cappuccino, latte and all other special coffee beverages. The superior coffee makers and espresso machines can also deliver the best results i.e. brew the perfect drinks only if the best flavored ground coffee beans are used. Many of the world class coffee makers [http://www.finest-coffee-makers.com/index.html] and espresso machines of the day has been reported to be failing to deliver desirable brews owing to the use of coffee beans that were not up to the mark.

The real flavor of the coffee beans starts developing with the growth of the plant and is influenced by the climate of the place where it is grown. Of course, the particular species of the coffee plant also matters in the developing of the flavor. The processing of the bean i.e. the processes that the coffee beans are made to undergo through after they are extracted from the coffee fruits also affects their taste and flavor.

Roasting helping bring out best flavors Roasting of the beans is an important process that helps bring out the real vibrant flavor of the beans. The carbohydrate and fat content of the coffee beans get transformed to aromatic oils by the heat of the process. This gives rise to the great coffee flavor which is cherished by the people from all corners of the world.

Different types of roasting of the coffee beans also have different effects on the coffee produced i.e. varying of the composition. So, while light roast produces light flavored coffee the medium roast leads to preparation of a sweeter and fuller-bodied coffee. Again, dark roast that requires a long roasting time produces a spicy and sweet deep tasting coffee. The characteristic flavors of coffee that are a result of particular roasting are produced in the brews prepared by the coffee makers [http://www.finest-coffee-makers.com/index.html] and espresso machines of the day too.

Selecting best coffee beans and ensuring their freshness It is the best coffee beans that are to be selected. This is determined from the region where they are procured from. The coffee planted in a particular region and influenced by its climate produces a distinctive flavor in its cherries and beans (seeds). The Arabica coffee is considered as the very best. Gourmet coffee drinks are made using this coffee. Other varieties like the Robusta beans have been known to have more caffeine content and lesser flavor. These are also prepared cheaper.

Keeping the coffee beans fresh is also very important. These are to be kept sealed in an air tight container. To take care of freshness in the coffee beverages that you make using your coffee maker or espresso machine you need to purchase whole beans of coffee from specialty shops. These beans are to be used within a week of purchase. Only then can you get to enjoy perfectly flavored coffee drink. It is always preferable to gave a good coffee grinder at home and prepare freshly ground coffee for your brewing purpose. Pre ground coffee often lacks much of the flavor and aroma that are the hallmark of premium coffee. On the other hand freshly ground coffee provides more nutritional benefit and ensures the best flavor.

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Why Does Coffee Make You Gain Weight

There are lots of folk who spend their lunch hour in coffee shops who have come to ask the question, does coffee make you gain weight". This is because they put on weight and believe the urban myth that the coffee is to blame.

Well, as someone once said, "It all depends on what you mean" when you talk about coffee. In fact, a medium-sized sugarless black coffee checks in at just 18 calories so obviously that's not the culprit which causes weight gain. However many of the more exotic coffees complete with a dollop of cream can contain as many as 500 - 600 calories. As well, order a flapjack or a muffin and you'll soon be pushing 950-1000 calories which is a recipe for how to put on weight in spades.

So it's not the coffee, it's what goes into the coffee and, often, what you have with the coffee and the size of the coffee mug. A fancy king-sized coffee with a sandwich laced with mayo and a flapjack adds up to some serious calories; in fact, it might be as high as 1500 calories. Depending on various other factors the recommended daily calorie intake for women is around 2000 and men about 2500 which leaves not much to play with after a snack of 1500 calories; but it's not the coffee!

Most reputable coffee shops and certainly the big chains show the calorie content on most, if not all, of their products. Nevertheless, trawl the web and have a look at the calories shown in your favorite coffee shop snack. Many of the tasty and attractive sandwiches have a generous helping of mayonnaise and you will be positively amazed at just how many calories you can total at a lunch break. To say nothing of the coffee shop staples such as flapjacks, muffins and smoothies.

If you like sandwiches (and most of us do)you really should dip out on the mayonnaise and avoid the butter if you want to keep the calorific content with reasonable bounds. There are healthy options and most of coffee shop chains do a good job at providing these which means it is possible to have an adequate lunch of a coffee and sandwich without busting the calorie bank.

Most folk realize that a cooked breakfast every day is not a healthy option. However, it may not be generally understood that some muffins come close to, if not exceeding, the calorie content of a reasonable cooked breakfast. In extreme cases a muffin can add as much as 650 calories to your daily intake.

Another sleeping giant, so far as calorie content is concerned, is that favorite accompaniment to a cup of coffee; the flapjack. There goes a calorie wolf decked out in sheep's clothing especially for calorie content. An average flapjack may contain as many as 375 calories, enough to make a sizeable dent in your recommended daily calorie content. So now you know; it is certainly not the coffee that's adding on the pounds. In fact, you can be quite sure that you now have the answer to "does coffee make you gain weight"?

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Cost Of Coffee Beans Going Up; Local Coffee Shops Might Increase Prices

According to a latest report by Loveland Reporter of Herald, the local coffee shops are now thinking to increase the price at each cup of coffee that they sell. Although they do not want their customers, who are caffeine-driven, to pay even a penny more for the daily sustenance, but the coffee shops owners are finding it difficult to manage selling coffee to their customers at the same old rate.

The reason of rising prices of coffee is due to the bad weather in the regions where coffee beans are grown. The demand of coffee for the coffee shops in developing countries has increased and this has made the coffee prices through the roof. The reports of commodity exchanges show that the prices of unroasted, green coffee beans have increased near to 90 percent. Roasters are currently paying more for the coffee beans and in turn, this increased price is passed to coffee shops that buy the roasted beans from them.

Not only the coffee shops; the increased price is affecting every one involved in the business of coffee, even the farmers who grow coffee beans. Coffee shops have now increased up to 15 percent on each coffee item. Schatz, who is in to Loveland Coffee Co. says that they use several things are used in coffee shops, such as creamers, milk, paper items, plates, cups and baked goods; the prices at all these items have gone up by 8 to 9 percent. Even there is 17% hike, by Starbucks, in bagged beans of coffee.

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Uganda’s Coffee Bean Exports May Rise 13% in June, Government Board Says

Coffee exports from Uganda, Africa’s second-largest producer of the crop, may this month climb 13 percent from last year to 265,000 60-kilogram (132-pound) bags, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.

The forecast is 4.6 percent higher than the 253,270 bags exported last month, the authority official, who declined to be named because he isn’t authorized to speak to the press, wrote in an e-mail today.
A secondary harvesting in the central and eastern regions, as well as the main crop in the western and southwestern regions has picked up momentum earlier than usual, according to the agency.

Shipments in the 12 months through September may decline to 2.6 million 60-kilogram bags, from a Sept. 20 forecast of 3.1 million bags, the authority said on April 13. The revised forecast is 2.6 percent lower than 2.67 million bags exported last season, according to the authority. Exports from the start of the season on Oct. 1 through May declined to 1.75 million bags, from 1.78 million bags a year earlier, according to a tally of the agency figures by Bloomberg News.
Draught

East Africa’s third-largest economy had a draught from December to April, which the government blamed on climate change. More than 95 percent of Uganda’s crop is grown by small- scale farmers whose crop is predominantly rain-fed, according to the authority.

Uganda earned $243.6 million from the sales of the beans last season, down from $291.3 million a year earlier. Robusta beans, used in instant coffee, account for about 85 percent of the country’s annual coffee output. The country consumes less than 3 percent of its annual output, according to the Eastern African Fine Coffee Association. The East African nation plans to increase production to 4.5 million bags a season by 2015 through an ongoing replanting program, according to the agency.

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Green coffee: What's driving the increase?

The recent increase in green coffee has its roots in many factors. The situation is not likely to improve anytime soon as chains such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are increasing the price of their retail coffee lines – in some instances by as much as 17 and 38 percent.

This is all happening while consumers are demanding higher quality coffee – and more of it – than ever before. For fast casual operators, who have made concerted efforts to improve their in-store coffee experiences, the increases couldn’t come at a worse time. Here’s a look at a few of the issues surrounding the price of beans

Over the past year, the cost of raw (green) coffee has gone from about $1.30 per pound, where it was in June 2010, to approximately $3.10. One driver of the increase has been the futures market, which has seen an uptick in investments because of an increased interest in commodities. While there were commodities investments five years ago, the volume of that interest was on a much lower scale, said Randy Layton with Boyd’s Coffee Co.

“As investors looked for ways to diversify their portfolio, they got more interested in commodities. They’re looking for better returns and diversification, and are bringing money into smaller markets,” Layton said.

The cost also is being impacted by what he calls “trader’s disposition” – when people buy and sell coffee based on their general feeling of the marketplace. It’s a buyer’s psychological approach to the market, he said. The approach, and the impact of the futures market on prices, had Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz criticizing “hedge funds, index funds and other ways to manipulate the market.”

Late last year, Schultz said he believed the increases were a direct result of “extreme speculation” rather than normal market forces. However, Starbucks itself has locked in coffee prices for the year, which also involved the purchase of coffee futures. The company also will raise the price of its bagged coffee – effective July 12 – by 17 percent in retail locations.

Supply & demand: Another aspect of the market impacting cost is supply and demand. Worldwide, a boost to the coffee market has created an imbalance as higher-end Arabica coffee is becoming less available than beans offering a lower-taste profile.

Consumers have much more sophisticated palates when it comes to their coffee preferences than in years’ past, as validated by the popularity of Starbucks and the complete overhaul of McDonald’s coffee line.

“The openings of McDonald’s McCafe, Dunkin Donuts and other quality restaurant chains have done a good job of improving quality over the past few years, and that’s putting more demand on better coffees,” Layton said. “Those guys have done a good job of improving their products. McDonald’s went up quite a bit in quality for only a very small cost increase. Starbucks is a good marketing company and they’ve built stores well and managed the business well. There’s really not a great way to get more out of their coffee profit-wise other than what they’re doing.”

The majority of coffee exported to the United States comes from about 22 countries. Layton said so far, the Boyd’s team has traveled to Costa Rica, Sumatra and East Africa, and they are heading to Brazil in two weeks.

Many of the farmers Layton has talked with said they have not capitalized on the price increases, mainly because their products went to market prior to the cost increases. However, that could change.

“This year, farmers expect to sell at the high price. So, every farmer thinks they have a pot of gold underneath their coffee tree and they’re just waiting for the right moment,” Layton said. “But they can’t sit on their coffee for too long.”While roasters also have yet to pass on their price increases, Layton believes more price hikes are around the corner.

“At some point roasters are going to say we can’t absorb this anymore,” he said. “Many folks in the industry have had to change how they do business because they can hardly afford to be in the coffee business anymore. Large or small, their credit lines are being stretched and affecting how they do business. From the farmer’s perspective, they don’t have credit to begin with, so this has really hurt them. It’s changed where coffee has come from.”

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Drinking coffee helps avoid Prostate Cancer, Study

Men should drink coffee regularly to avoid developing prostate cancer, according to a major study published Wednesday. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health said men who drink coffee on a daily basis are around 20 to 60 percent less likely to develop any form of the disease—with a higher intake linked to a lower risk. The men least likely to develop lethal prostate cancer were those drinking six or more cups of coffee a day, but even those drinking no more than three cups a day lowered the risk by 30 percent, the 12-year study found.

Caffeine did not appear to be a factor in the research, as the 45,000 participants who reported their coffee consumption drank both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. The researchers said it was the antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds contained in coffee that affect the body's insulin levels and sex hormone levels, both of which have been linked to prostate cancer. Writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the scientists said that more research would be needed to isolate which components of coffee might be responsible.

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Why 1st in Coffee Only Carries The Best Espresso Machines

The espresso machine is a unique coffee-making machine. It specializes in producing only the perfect cup of rich, creamy and frothy Italian espresso coffee drinks. The technique used to brew espresso coffee is very specific.

An espresso machine uses a brewing method that forces hot water through ground coffee under high pressure, the water is then forced through the fine ground coffee. The pressure can be generated by a pressure pump or by steam. Pressure mounted pump espresso machines are the best because they provide the most consistent pressure at the optimal brewing temperature. The water is passed under high pressure through the freshly ground coffee which should be just below boiling point. This provides the maximum flavor and aroma for your coffee. Additionally, the high pressure applied in the process sucks out bitter oils and actually releases much less caffeine than other brewing processes do. Only a really good quality espresso machine can do all this.

To help you make the choice of which espresso machine is best for you 1st in Coffee offers only the finest professional quality espresso machines, coffee makers and coffee supplies. 1st in Coffee is really “picky” about th espresso machines they sell, so if you’re really “picky” about your espresso quality and want to find the best value on the market, contact us. At 1st in Coffee we feature the very best espresso machines, super automatics, coffee grinders, frothers and coffee makers, including Jura Capresso, Saeco, Rancilio, La Pavoni, Electra, Pasquini, Isomac, DeLongi, Francis Francis, Nespresso, Ascaso, Salvatore, Vibiemme and Cuisinart brands.

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The Coffee Mug Set

While tea is most definitely best sipped from fine china tea cups and saucers, coffee on the other hand always seems to taste better when it is served in a coffee mug, although die-hard coffee connoisseurs will be quick to point out that different types of coffee should be served in different sized coffee mugs or cups! Seeing that coffee is consumed by over 50% of the US population, approximately 60% of Australians, and millions of others around the world drink at least one mug of coffee a day, the coffee mug has become an important item in any home. In fact, mug sets are almost as essential an item to own as a china tea set, especially when serving coffee to visitors, (unless it is a formal occasion in which case a coffe cup should be used or perhaps a coffee glass.)

So What Is It That Makes a Coffee Mug Special?

The coffee mug, often the first thing clutched at when arising in the morning, is a revered item in many homes. Ranging in size anywhere from 12 ounces to 20 ounces, coffee mugs come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. There are also many different types of coffee mugs, though the most popular types are the regular porcelain coffee mug, glass coffee mugs, plastic mugs and stainless steel coffee mugs. A typical coffee mug has a large enough handle on the side to curl your fingers around, unlike a dainty teacup which must be held delicately by the handle between the thumb and two fingers. Coffee cups generally do not sit on saucers but are rather firmly set down on the table, coffee table, sideboard, computer table (this one should be a ‘no-no’) or on any relatively flat surface. I have even seen people precariously balancing their morning coffee on their bed!

For everyday use, the porcelain type is usually the cup of choice. They are great for hot coffee as the porcelain, which is usually considerably thicker than a porcelain teacup, holds heat well and keeps your coffee nice and warm while you drink it. These types of mugs are often decorative. Some are brightly colored, many have patterns or designs on the sides and it is not uncommon to find a ‘mug with a message’ sitting on someone’s desk. In fact, I am often intrigued by what I find written on coffee mugs. You can find mugs of all colors, if you are looking specifically for a black coffee mug or black and white coffee mugs you should not have too much trouble locating it. Unfortunately porcelain will break if dropped. It will also chip fairly easily, thus you do need to take care not to damage your ceramic coffee mug.

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Studies say Coffee Lowers Risk of Prostate Cancer

A lower incidence of prostate cancer in men who drink coffee is the focus of a newly released study conducted at Harvard university. The 22-year study looked at groups of men who drink either regular or decaffeinated coffee, and from 1986 to 2008, the men were asked to report their coffee consumption. The researchers discovered that the men who drank the highest amounts of coffee on a regular basis had the lowest percentage incidence of prostate cancer, and were 60% less likely to die from the disease. According to the study, those who benefited from the decreased risk were those who drank at least six cups of coffee per day. Those who drank up to three cups per day were 30% less likely to die from prostate cancer than those who did not drink coffee at all or drank it on an irregular basis.

The researchers, however, have noted that it is not advisable for men to go out and start drinking massive amounts of coffee based on one study, and that further research will be necessary in order to come to a more validated conclusion about the complex series of factors responsible for causing prostate cancer. One thing the results of the study did not explain was why coffee might contribute to lower prostate cancer numbers. Researchers have speculated that it may have something to do with antioxidants, or with coffee’s insulin-regulating compounds.

Although this most recent study is likely to cause quite a stir amongst the male population, this is not the first time Harvard researchers have linked coffee to health benefits. In previous studies conducted at Harvard, coffee was also shown to reduce the risk of liver cancer and Parkinson’s disease, and coffee drinkers were also shown to be less likely to develop type II diabetes.

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Pay Fairtrade Forward Day gets underway

The concept of “paying it forward” involves doing a good deed for a complete stranger. But do good deeds extend to buying those strangers coffee? Well, that’s exactly what one local charity is trying to get Kiwis to do on Wednesday May 18, all in the name of Fairtrade. It’s a daily ritual for many, but buying a coffee for someone you don’t know and have never met is almost unheard of. “Pay Fairtrade Forward Day” was started by a charity that is encouraging New Zealanders to help end global poverty, it’s centred around one simple act of kindness.

“All you do is go into the café closest to you that sells fair-trade, buy the first coffee of the day – but not for yourself, for the person behind you,” says foundation founder Divya Dhar. “Walk out the door and the next person that comes in gets a free coffee. It’s up to them to pay it forward.”It is hoped the domino effect of customers paying it forward will also generate talk about the Fairtrade movement, which looks to guarantee farmers from poor and disadvantaged nations aren’t underpaid for their produce. “In doing that act of generosity you’re really helping a huge community somewhere else that you don’t even know about,” says Ms Dhar.

A visiting coffee farmer from one of those communities in Ethiopia, Tadesse Meskela, says profits from Fairtrade go directly towards improving living conditions. The price of coffee on the global markets is continuing to rise, and Ms Meskela says Fairtrade is a way of making sure growers don’t miss out on the benefits. The P3 Foundation says more than 1500 coffees were paid forward last year. It hopes to increase that, with cafes in Brazil, South Africa and Italy also taking part.

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Coffee may not raise blood pressure: Study

Good news for those who need a bit more coffee to get through their daily grind as the scientists have claimed that it may not increase your blood pressure. It's been suggested that coffee could cause high blood pressure, or hypertension, which has been linked to heart disease, strokes and shorter life expectancy.

But a new extensive study by a team from the Louisiana State University School of Public Health in New Orleans has now overturned this concern. It concluded that people who have several cups a day fare no worse than those who drink coffee less frequently.

For the study, the researchers pooled data from six old studies, covering 170,000 people, which asked participants how much coffee they drank each day and then followed them for up to 33 years.

According to their analysis, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, about one in five developed high blood pressure with the chance of diagnosis no different for people who said they drank more than five cups of a coffee a day compared with those who drank very little. But a member of the research team, Liwei Chen, said the relationship between coffee-drinking and blood pressure is complicated by the possibility that it does not work the same way for everyone.

"People with a different genetic background may react to coffee differently," she said. "For some people maybe it's safe to drink a lot of coffee, but not for other people." Blood pressure expert Lawrence Krakoff of Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York, said: "I don't think of coffee as a risk factor for high blood pressure."

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Free Starbucks Coffee for Earth Day

Friday will be a bit colder than temperatures we saw earlier this week. There may be areas of frost before 8 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. Friday will be partly sunny with a high near 49 degrees and an overnight low of 42. There is a chance of rain after 5 p.m.

We’ll see rain on Saturday with a chance of thunderstorms after 2 p.m. The high will be near 60 degrees and the overnight low will be 53. Sunday will be cloudy with a chance of rain. A high near 69 degrees is possible and the overnight low will be around 50.

Friday is Earth Day and Starbucks is offering you a great deal to celebrate. Bring a reusable mug to participating location and get free tea or hot or iced coffee. If you forget the mug, request one of the store’s “for-here” cups and you’ll be able to get your free coffee.

On Saturday, Patriots boys track competes in the Old Bridge relays at 8:30 a.m. At 9 a.m. Patriots girls track and Colonials boys track participate in the Monmouth County Relays at Middletown High School South. Patriots baseball plays Toms River South at home at 10 a.m., while boys lacrosse takes on Jackson at home at that time.

The Freehold Borough Recreation Commission will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt for children ages two to 12 years of age on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the St. Rose of Lima playground on Lincoln Pl. Admission is free.

Wemrock Orchards will host its annual Family Egg Hunt on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. There are over 2,000 eggs waiting for you and the young ones to find them. The cost to participate in the hunt is $2.

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Coffee cup scuffle

A coffee break almost turned into a break-up for a Palmerston North couple after their beverages became weapons during an argument. On November 14 last year, Palmerston North mother Jamie Rowena Henry, 31, sat down for a brew, but bad blood brewing between her and her partner soon saw the coffee being used in a two-way assault.

Her partner Grant James Newman, 29, a railway worker, knocked her cup into her mouth, causing the coffee to splash and spill all over her. Henry escalated the situation by throwing two cups at Newman, both of which he deflected without serious injury.

As the argument became more heated, police were called. Yesterday, at Palmerston North District Court, the pair stood side by side in the dock, each facing a charge of assault with a weapon. Judge Gerard Lynch convicted them both and gave them a suspended sentence, meaning they could be punished should they offend again in the next nine months.

Newman's lawyer Tony Thackery said the whole incident was just a fleeting episode between the pair and that they had since made amends. Both were now undergoing counselling, which Henry, who represented herself, said was going well.

Mr Thackery asked for a discharge without conviction but the judge ruled that out because police had been called to the couple's address on 11 previous occasions.

They have two children, aged 13 and six, and Henry is their primary caregiver. Alcohol was not a factor in the argument, Mr Thackery said. While it was not good to see the couple standing together in the dock charged with assault, the judge praised them for trying to sort out issues in their relationship and make "significant changes" to their lives.

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Tap for coffee and see what you get

Keeping track of coffee consumption isn't necessarily at the forefront of the minds of coffee drinkers. After all, anyone who has ever delved into the dark elixir has at one time or another--or every day as the case may be--subjected themselves to drinking an overabundance of coffee. Aside from being easy to do, it's fun; jittering through the day can produce some interesting consequences. However exciting that may be, sometimes we just want to see what we are getting ourselves into before we get into it.

Every coffee drinker knows just how much coffee is in the pot, but sometimes it helps to see the magic in action. The Viante CAF-05T Brew-N-View Coffee Maker harkens back to an earlier time when percolating coffeemakers allowed users to witness the progression from water to coffee. It features an illuminated viewing window, allowing a peek into the inner process of coffee-making and supplying an intriguing perspective for the daily activity.

Coffee drinking has of course become much more sophisticated in modern times, and has been integrated into every aspect of our lives; coffee is always nearby. Along those same lines, the coffeemaker incorporates an uncommon feature designed for quick and easy access to the brew: a dispensing tap. Along with a 24-hour timer and an automatic 2-hour safety shutoff, the up-to-date appliance makes it easy to see--literally--how coffee fits into the daily routine.

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Vietnamese coffee’s prestige enhanced in the world

VICOFA held a meeting in HCM City on April 9 to review business activities in the 2008-2010 tenure and devise orientations for the next tenure. According to the association, Vietnam exports around 1 million tonnes of coffee on average, with a export turnover of roughly US$2 billion, making up over 8 percent of the agricultural sector’s exports.

In the 2008-2010 tenure, VICOFA played an active role in linking production and consumption and contributed to the coffee sector’s sustainable development policies. From now to 2013, the coffee sector will face many challenges such as climate change, and price fluctuations which have affected the country’s coffee business.

VICOFA will focus on maintaining a coffee cultivation area of 500,000 hectares with an output of more than 1.1 million tonnes per year, holding a 15 percent share of the world’s coffee export market and promoting cooperation with major coffee growing nations in the world.

Priority Investment for 500,000 ha of coffee: Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cacao Association (VICOFA) Luong Van Tu informed that the price of coffee is high at present, in London market : Robusta coffee US$2,600 / ton. Experts anticipate that the high price still remains high until the end of the drop…

However in the long terms, coffee producing has to face many difficulties : the area for growing old coffee trees is now 137,000 ha and has to be replaced within 10 years’time…This needs large capital and has to be done step by step..

The Chairman warned that if the re-cultivating job is not done well, the quantity of coffee production is severely reduced in the coming period. Thus, it is necessary to plan and stabilize the area for coffee tree cultivating around 500,000 ha, keeping the production from 1 to 1.2 million tons / per crop and setting a balance production between Robusta and Aribica ( grown in the high land area with the price 3 times more expensive than Robusta coffee), Tu said.

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Coffee studies should warm your heart

Looking for a reason to not give up your coffee habit? Here's one possibility: heart health. Numerous studies in recent years have reported that drinking coffee may be good for the cardiovascular system and might even help prevent strokes. Just last month, Swedish researchers announced results of a large study showing that coffee seemed to reduce the risk of stroke in women by up to 25%.

Not long ago, researchers thought quite the opposite about coffee and the heart, says Dr. Thomas Hemmen, director of the UC San Diego Stroke Center: "Coffee is fun and it tastes good, so people assumed for many years that it would be bad for you.

Studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s offered little in the way of confirmation or refutation. Several suggested an increased risk of heart attack among coffee drinkers. Others showed a lowered risk of heart attack and stroke. Still others found no connection at all.

Many of these early studies were criticized for being too small or too brief. In response, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health decided to look at coffee consumption, heart disease and stroke risk among more than 45,000 healthy men enrolled in the school's ongoing Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Their analysis, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1990, found that coffee drinking had no effect on the men's risk of heart attack or stroke.

But in the last few years, a spate of studies has revisited the question, and many of them have found — unexpectedly — that coffee drinking is linked to a decreased stroke risk.

A 2008 study of more than 26,000 male smokers in Finland found that the men who drank eight or more cups of coffee a day had a 23% lower risk of stroke than the men who drank little or no coffee. And a few other reports suggest the effect applies to healthy nonsmokers too. Researchers at UCLA and USC examined data on coffee consumption and stroke prevalence among more than 9,000 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. At a 2009 conference, they reported that the likelihood of stroke was highest among people who didn't drink coffee and lowest among those who drank the most coffee: 5% of people who drank one or two cups a day suffered strokes, whereas 2.9% of people who drank six or more cups suffered strokes. The study will be published in a few months.

Results from an even larger study of coffee drinking and stroke risk were published in the journal Circulation in 2009: Among the 83,000 women enrolled in Harvard's ongoing Nurses' Health Study, those who drank two to four cups of coffee a day had a 19% to 20% lower risk of stroke than women who drank less than one cup a month.

And this year, a study of more than 81,000 men and women in Japan showed that drinking one or two cups of coffee a day reduced the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by up to 23%. The findings were published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Such studies reveal that coffee isn't harmful, as once thought, and might even be beneficial, says Dr. Larry Goldstein, professor of medicine and director of the Duke University Stroke Center. But while they show an association between coffee drinking and lower stroke risk, they still don't prove that coffee is the cause, he says.

"People who drink coffee are different in many ways from those who don't drink coffee," says Dr. Nerses Sanossian, one of the authors of the UCLA-USC study and a professor of neurology at USC.

Any one of those differences, or more than one of them, could be behind the apparently lower stroke risk. Some of the studies that show a link between coffee drinking and reduced stroke risk have also shown that coffee drinkers are more likely to smoke, have lower education levels and have diets higher in potassium. And although it's unlikely that smoking, for instance, is behind their reduced stroke risk, it's possible that something else is. "It may be due to some other factors we haven't even taken into consideration," Sanossian says.

Even though coffee is considered safe, even in large amounts, you shouldn't rush to take up the habit, says Mark Urman, a cardiologist at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. "If you're not a coffee drinker, don't start drinking to prevent a stroke or otherwise," he says. Coffee can cause heart palpitations in some people, and withdrawal symptoms in those who try to skip their daily cups for a day or two. And many people, he adds, like to load their coffees with cream and sugar, which could very well counteract any advantage coffee has for the blood vessels and heart.

Definitive proof that coffee is good for the blood vessels is unlikely to emerge anytime soon, Hemmen says. Such studies would need to randomly select people to drink either a lot of coffee or a little coffee, and then researchers would have to closely monitor their coffee intake and health for decades.

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Like caffeine? There's a gene for that -- two of them, actually

Attention coffee drinkers: If you think your craving for a cuppa joe stems from sleepiness, habit or simply a desire to make Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz an even richer man, you are sorely mistaken. A team of researchers from Harvard, the National Cancer Institute and other esteemed institutions of biological science reports that our need for caffeine is in our DNA. As if there were any part of our lives that weren’t subject to genetics in some form or fashion.

But back to the so-called caffeine genes. There are two of them, according to a report published Tuesday in PLoS Genetics.The first is CYP1A2, which had already been known to have something to do with caffeine metabolism, and the second is AHR, which plays a role in regulating CYP1A2.

Everyone has both of these genes, of course, but we don’t all have the exact same kinds. Those in the study who had the most caffeine-seeking version of CYP1A2 drank an average of 38 milligrams more of the stuff each day than those with the most caffeine-indifferent version. People with the most caffeine-dependent version of the AHR gene consumed an average of 44 mg. more per day than their counterparts with the least caffeine-seeking version.

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Fast food breakfast? Think twice about having that coffee‎

If your morning commute usually includes a greasy breakfast sandwich and a stiff cup of joe, here's another reason to trade it all in for a fruit cup. A new study from the University of Guelph found that chugging a coffee after a fatty meal of fast food can spike blood sugar in a healthy person to a level similar to those at risk of diabetes. Eating a greasy meal, we already knew, caused spikes in blood sugar. But the dangerous cocktail of caffeine and grease doubles the impact.

Researchers at the University of Guelph say that eating saturated fat makes it harder for the body to clear sugar from the blood - drinking coffee, even a couple of hours later, only makes that job harder. "This shows that the effect of a high-fat meal can last for hours," said Marie-Soleil Beaudoin, a PhD student who conducted the study with University of Guelph professors Lindsay Robinson and Terry Graham.

In the study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, participants were given a special fat beverage, and then asked to eat a meal with a sugar drink six hours later. Typically, the body should produce insulin to remove sugar from the blood. (People with diabetes do not produce enough insulin.)

But with the high-fat beverage in their system, the blood sugar levels in participants were 32 per cent higher than those who had not consumed any fat. And in the second part of the experiment, when participants were also asked to drink two cups of coffee five hours after the fatty drink and then down a sugar beverage, blood sugar levels were 65 per cent higher than the control group.

"Having sugar remain in our blood for long periods is unhealthy because it can take a toll on our organs," said Ms. Beaudoin, in a release from the university. The study, she said, stresses the need for people at risk of diabetes or with the disease to avoid both high-fat foods and limit their caffeine.

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Coming Soon To Your Mug: Temperature-Regulating Coffee Widgets

A couple of engineer buddies have designed the latest must-have accessory for the coffee drinker. Joulies are metallic beans you drop into your hot cup of coffee to make it exactly 140 degrees. They haven't even been manufactured yet, but already the project has accumulated some $35,000 in Kickstarter cash. I guess a lot of people are tired of blistered tongues.

Each Joulie is a small metal shell filled with a phase-change material that melts at 140º Fahrenheit. (Some people might prefer 155º -- perhaps there will be a version for us.) So the Joulies absorb heat from the coffee till they reach 140º, and then start emitting heat. The effect (if you put in enough Joulies for your volume of beverage) is to maintain the coffee at the desired temperature for long enough to savor it. Using an insulated cup is recommended also.

We've seen this idea before, in the form of Fraunhofer's Perfect Coffee Mug, but this time it seems poised to actually come out of the lab and into your cup.

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Coffee lowers stroke risk in women

Consuming more than a cup of coffee a day is linked to a 22 per cent to 25 per cent lower risk of stroke, says a new study. Low or no coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of stroke, according to the study of 34,670 women (ages 49 to 83) followed for an average 10.4 years. It’s too soon to change coffee-drinking habits, but the study should ease the concerns of some women, researchers noted. Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world.

“Therefore, even small health effects of substances in coffee may have large public health consequences,” said Susanna Larsson, lead author of the study and a researcher in the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The study has been reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Dropping The Drip: How To Get Started With Better Coffee Making

Like computers, coffee is complex, easy to sink money into, and attracts a vast swath of opinions. And like computers, there is a wise middle path you can walk to get top-notch coffee at home without spending MacBook-like money on brewing gear.Image via Mat Honan.

What will you get out of this treatise on slightly snob-ish coffee? A better understanding of why the standard means of buying, storing and making coffee leaves much to be desired, followed by a rundown of some of the better, and less expensive, coffee-making methods — what I call hand-crafted coffee — and how it’s sometimes faster, and usually more fun, than making a pot of the classic drip stuff or just sticking with instant.

There are two things you should know up front. First: I’m not a coffee expert. In fact, as of a month ago, my coffee came primarily from baristas, a Keurig single-serve machine (photographic evidence here, a standard drip machine, or, on leisurely weekends, a French press that I knew two-thirds of the instructions for. To rectify this, I spent a month experimenting with at-home coffee methods, foisting blind taste tests on friends and co-workers, and researching what I call the Taste-to-Fuss Ratio. I also betrayed everything I once held dear about caffeine dependency.

Second: Your taste in coffee is different to mine. You might be looking for a smooth, gentle cup to accompany your drive to work, while I’m hoping my next cup tastes like pure Arabic gold. You get the freshest, single-source beans you can find from a local source, while I’m okay with the occasional cup of Eight O’ Clock.

What You Get by Leaving Automatic Drip Behind

Standard drip coffee makers have their uses. Automatic timers can be mighty helpful, especially the night before you fly out. If you’re making coffee for ten people after dinner, it’s easy to just load up, hit a button, and meet standard expectations. In my blind tests, too, some drinkers, given the right beans, ranked certain cups of drip above the hand-crafted competition.

But there are means of making coffee at home that can take less time than a drip maker. And you’re making a few sacrifices for set-and-forget:

• You usually use twice as much coffee: Water drains through ground coffee in an automatic machine at a relatively rapid pace, getting less direct exposure to the stuff than with most other means. That’s why most bags of good coffee suggest using two tablespoons per six-ounce serving. It’s a tablespoon here and there, but it adds up quickly if you actually drink the stuff.

• You can’t adjust two of three key elements: The key variables in coffee making are water temperature, the amount of coffee used in relation to the water, and the amount of time the coffee is brewed with the water. With a drip coffee maker, you can only control one of those three elements, and not that precisely.

• Lingering, hard-to-clean tastes: It’s relatively easy to clean out a glass carafe or metal container after you make coffee with it—you kind of have to, actually. Unless you’re meticulous about cleaning your drip maker after each use, its tubes and crevices accumulate residues, and the carafe itself usually smells faintly of whatever was last inside it.
The Tools of the Better Coffee Trade

To get better coffee, you need to to expose hot water to more high-quality coffee. That means doing a few things differently than you’re told by mass coffee merchants. Buy freshly roasted coffee:
Hopefully, somewhere near you, there’s a coffee merchant that roasts beans on-site and stamps their coffee with the date they roasted it. If you can’t find that merchant, find one in the area that sells to a nearby store. If that’s out of the realm, and you’re really game for committing to better coffee, consider buying your own green beans and roasting them yourself. It’s probably not as hard as you might think, and you’ll actually have some real coffee nerd bragging points. Image via B*2.

I didn’t quite get the impact of fresh-roasted coffee until a recent trip to Los Angeles, during which I visited Intelligentsia in Silver Lake. The cappuccino was strong — not heavy, not bitter, but just muscular in its flavour. The single-origin beans on the shelf were so fragrant, I grabbed them more than once during stops in LA traffic for quick aromatic stress relief. It got ridiculous — I could convince myself that Intelligentsia was “on the way” if it only added 6km to a straight-shot trip. Ask Whitson.

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Six new zones to raise coffee output to 100,000 tonnes

The Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) has identified six new areas that are potential for coffee production, making a total of 13 regions undertaking coffee cultivation countrywide. In an interview this week, TCB Director General eng. Adolph Kumburu, said the board will sensitise farmers to plant Tanzania Coffee Research Institute’s (Tacri) newly researched varieties in the areas.

The aim is to increase coffee production to 100,000 tonnes by the year 2020, according to the board DG. He said TCB Ffeld officers have been stationed in all coffee producing zones where offices had been established in 2009. Shedding more lights on the new strategy, Kumburu said it is a collaborative effort by industry stakeholders and has been developed as a result of new developments in the coffee industry.

They include amendment of the Crop Board Act and implementation of the new Crop Board reforms, he said. According to him, the strategy sets out a mission on how to increase coffee production from the present 50,000 metric tonnes to at least 80,000 tonnes by 2016 and reach 100,000 tonnes four years thereafter.

It is envisaged that the increase in production volumes will go hand in hand with the increase in quality from the present 35 per cent premium coffee to at least 70 per cent of total production. The move by the Board and stakeholders has comes at the right time when the price of coffee in world market has been soaring.

World coffee price in December last year reached the highest level since October 1994, according to the International Coffee Organization (ICO). The trend led to a sharp rise in the monthly average of the ICO composite indicator price from 173.90 US cent in November, to 184.26 US cents per pound in December.

According to ICO report, world coffee exports reached 7.6 million bags in November last year in contrast to 6.7 million bags over the same period in the previous year. The report says exports in the first two months of 2010 / 2011 (October and November) increased by 9.3 per cent to 15.6 million bags, compared to 14.2 million bags in the same period during the previous year.

During the past twelve months which ended in November last year, exports of Arabica coffee totalled 63.2 million bags compared to 61.1 million bags the previous year. On the other hand, Robusta exports amounted to 31.8 million bags compared to 36.2 million bags over the the period under review.

Tanzania is Africa’s largest coffee producer after Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast. Approximately seventy percent of coffee produced in Tanzania is Arabica, with most of it grown in the high altitude regions of Mount Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Mbeya.

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Walnut Crumble Coffee Cake

WALNUT CRUMBLE COFFEE CAKE

This is the classic - serve warm.

2/3 cup (150 ml) butter, softened

3/4 cup (175 ml) packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. (5 ml) vanilla

2 cups (500 ml) all-purpose flour

1 tsp. (5 ml) baking powder

1/2 tsp. (2 ml) baking soda

1/4 tsp. (1 ml) salt

1 cup (250 ml) sour cream

Crumble Topping:

1/2 cup (125 ml) packed brown sugar

1/2 cup (125 ml) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (50 ml) butter, softened

1 cup (250 ml) chopped walnut halves

2 tsp. (10 ml) vanilla

Grease 9-inch (2.5 L) square metal cake pan; set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla.

In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture, alternating with sour cream, making 3 additions of dry and 2 of sour cream. Batter will be stiff. Spread in prepared pan.

Crumble Topping: In bowl, combine sugar and flour. With fork, work in butter until crumbly. Toss with walnuts and vanilla. Sprinkle over batter, pressing lightly. Bake in centre of 325F (160C) oven until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean, about 1 hour.

Let cool on rack. (Make-ahead: Cover and store for 1 day at room temperature.)

Makes 12 squares.

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AVI rise in earnings ‘aided by good fortune’ and coffee

STRONG consumer demand for fashion brand Spitz and a little assistance from the competition in the coffee and creamer categories boosted AVI’s revenue in the six months to December, the company said yesterday.

AVI, which owns brands such as Five Roses, Bakers, Ellis Brown, Frisco and Willards, said coffee volumes were 14,3% higher, while creamer volumes were up 22,9% partly due to competitor supply problems. CEO Simon Crutchley said the company had been "aided by good fortune".

AVI attributed the higher revenue in the footwear and apparel category to the strong rand and an improved sales mix. "Footwear sales volumes increased 26% with the core Carvela, Lacoste, Kurt Geiger and Tosoni brands all performing well," the company said.

In the personal care category, Indigo’s revenue grew 12,3% to R470,3m the company said. SA Stock Brokers’ Ron Klipin said the top end of the market had been more resilient than the lower end. "Spitz being the aspirational brand has got the business model right, where it is all about brands, brands, brands.

"Consumer spending has not shot the lights out but the company has delivered a solid set of results. Both prices and volumes have been good," he said. The company said tea volumes were slightly lower than last year due to vigorous competition, but this was offset by higher prices realised. "Biscuit prices were increased in August which resulted in lower sales volumes in the first half," it said.

I&J’s revenue was hit hard by the stronger rand, but volumes were in line with the first half of last year, with an improved sales mix and slightly better export prices in foreign currencies, the company said. "The hake quota for the 2011 calendar year is up 10% which will give I&J extra volume opportunity in the second half of the financial year."

Mr Crutchley said the company had not seen a fundamental shift in consumer spending over the past two months. I&J’s results in the second half will remain depressed should weak prices for seafood products and the strong rand continue to prevail.

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Starbucks CEO eyes acquisition for consumer products: report

Looking for growth beyond its namesake cafes, the world's biggest coffee chain has made clear its intentions to strike deals in the fast-growing single-cup brewing segment. "We are building and investing in resources and people to build a significant consumer products business that over time will rival the size and scale of our retail company," Schultz told the Journal.

Schultz also told the daily that the company will not implement across-the-board price increases at this stage in spite of the volatility in coffee prices He said the company had locked in coffee prices for 2011 to offset high prices. Speaking about international expansion plans to the Journal, Schultz said there was "a large runway for growth and opportunity.

"We have an opportunity now to build thousands of stores in China. We're in a very good position to begin to look at India as the next market for Starbucks and we hope to get the first stores there open within 12 months," he told the paper.

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Brewing a fair deal from our coffee habit

Drinking fair trade coffee really does make a difference to the small producers who make up a major portion of the massive global coffee market, writes TOM HENNIGAN in Jinotega, Nicaragua

GIVEN THE amount consumed worldwide each day, there is a good chance you have a cup of coffee within reach as you read this article. After all, it is the world’s second most-consumed beverage – behind tea – and its caffeine hit is mankind’s legal stimulant of choice. If oil runs our machines, coffee increasingly runs us.

But while oil prices are a subject for the nightly news, the wild fluctuations in the coffee markets rarely grab our attention. However, ignorance about the economies of this bean is a rich-world privilege. In the developing world, the price of coffee is vital. There, only crude oil is a more important export commodity. But whereas oil is controlled by multinational and state oil companies, 70 per cent of global coffee production comes from small farmers, the highest share of any global commodity, making it a crop of crucial social importance.

Juan José Centeno Blandon, a 54-year-old smallholder in the verdant hill country around Nicaragua’s coffee capital of Jinotega, knows only too well the impact of coffee’s wild price swings. Asked what the record lows of a decade ago meant for his family and he is blunt: “Before, food was a problem.”

That collapse in prices was caused by a glut of coffee following Vietnam’s aggressive entry into the market. As a result, Nicaraguan coffee farmers let their beans – their only cash crop – rot in the field. It cost more to harvest than they could make at market. Families began to drift away from the land towards city slums where there were few jobs waiting for them.

But the crisis encouraged many who stayed to band together and find safety in the country’s burgeoning co-operative movement. Six years ago Blandon accepted the invitation of several compañeros and joined a co-op, one of 18 that make up a local co-op union.

Called Soppexcca, the union has won fair trade certification for the coffee grown by its 650 producers. Fair trade works on the principle that there is a growing number of consumers in rich countries who do in fact care about the price of coffee, or at least the price small coffee farmers earn for their crop.

According to fair trade rules these consumers and the companies that supply them are willing to pay a social premium on top of market prices for certified fair trade products, as well as guaranteeing a minimum price to help insulate producers from market shocks. This extra money is then reinvested in the farmers’ communities.

Soppexcca has taken the social premium it gets for its members’ coffee and invested it in numerous social projects including the building of two new rural schools, scholarship programmes for farmers’ children, and providing basic healthcare in some of Latin America’s poorest communities where the state’s presence is often feeble.

“The co-op members now have a sense of belonging and developing their own plans and seeing a future for themselves compared to 10 years ago when it was a complete crisis,” says Al Cunningham of Christian Aid Ireland, the charity owned by Ireland’s main protestant churches and one of the founders of the fair trade movement. Over the past decade, the charity has partnered with Soppexcca on many of its social projects.

Such benefits mean Soppexcca’s general manager Fátima Ismael Espinoza gives short shrift to critics of fair trade who claim its benefits are opaque and oversold. “Here a coffee drinker from Ireland can see and feel the impact of their investment when they drink a cup of fair trade coffee,” she says. “They can see it in our children, our women, our families.”

As one of Soppexcca’s biggest customers is Bewley’s, much of this social premium does indeed come from Irish coffee drinkers. Soppexcca’s beans are sold in Ireland under Bewley’s Explore Nicaragua fair trade brand. Just this week Bewley’s signed a deal with convenience retailer Mace to sell Soppexcca coffee in Mace’s 120 locations around the country.

But as he tastes Soppexcca’s latest harvest ahead of confirming his order for the year, Bewley’s master roaster and chief buyer Paul O’Toole is quick to point out, “This is not about charity. I wouldn’t be here if the coffee was not right.”

Seeking out the quality fair trade coffee his customers want has allowed O’Toole to bypass the industry’s middlemen and build relations directly with coffee growers, important considering that much of the world’s crop comes from regions prone to natural disaster or civil unrest. “In my business I want to be close to my producers and fair trade has given me that introduction,” he says.

Soppexcca is also keen to cut out middlemen. With help from Christian Aid Ireland among other donors, it now owns its own processing mills.

This means it no longer has to sell freshly harvested beans to third parties to process into the more valuable green beans that European roasters buy.

With local banks quoting loans with interest rates of more than 100 per cent for small producer co-ops, Soppexcca still needed foreign aid in order to make this climb up the value chain. Now Espinoza is hopeful that, in years to come they will see the union turn itself into a self-standing business, able to generate its own investment capital.

“But,” she quickly adds, “Without ever losing our social or environmental rationale.”

A taste of Nicaragua

When Bewley’s master roaster Paul O’Toole started buying coffee 30 years ago the only product available from Central America was a contract for a basket of disparate beans sold in New York as Central American Standard 1.

“I didn’t know whether it was coming from Nicaragua, El Salvador or Honduras,” says O’Toole. “I wouldn’t have known then that Honduran coffee has a more tropical taste and Nicaraguan a sweeter one or that Guatemalan has a smoother quality. Up until recently all that was lobbed into a big commercial standard that they could trade in New York where they didn’t know what they were talking about.”

But, as with wine, Irish coffee drinkers have become increasingly sophisticated in recent decades and European roasters such as O’Toole are now seeking out distinctive local producers across the tropics who can offer new varieties to more demanding palates back home. Broad and bland regional categories are no longer in flavour.

For small coffee farmers such as those in the Soppexcca co-op, this raises the hope that their ever more knowledgeable customers will one day arrive as tourists to visit the regions which produce the world’s top coffee, much as wine lovers descend on famous wineries. For coffee drinkers, it raises the prospect of waking up in Nicaragua’s lush mountains and drinking your favourite cup on the small farm that produced it.

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Gourmet Coffee Beans

A coffee bean is basically a seed from the coffee plant, whose primary component is a protein-rich and water-soluble tissue that contains anywhere from 0.8% to 2.5% caffeine. The stimulation from the psychoactive properties of caffeine is a major factor in the cultivation of the coffee plant, although some beans are decaffeinated prior to the roasting process. The classification of gourmet coffee beans takes caffeine content into account, along with the smell and taste of the liquid coffee produced from such beans.

Gourmet coffee beans are considered premium based on many attributes such as their size, density, colour, texture, and richness. Despite the brownish colour, coffee is sometimes referred to as green coffee.

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Are restaurants, coffee shops coming to your park-and-ride?

Lawmakers want to allow state-funded park-and-ride lots to contract with private vendors to provide services for commuters. A bill proposed Wednesday by Democratic Sen. Steve Hobbs of Lake Stevens would allow the Washington State Department of Transportation, or any local transit agency using state money for a park-and-ride, to contract with private vendors, such as restaurants or coffee shops, to lease part of the lot.

Hobbs said he is thinking "out of the box" by proposing this bill as a way to earn revenue for transit agencies and encourage public-private partnership.

Any revenue gained from the lease agreements with private vendors would go first to the local agency to help operate and maintain the lot. Money collected beyond that would be funneled into the state's multimodal transportation and motor-vehicle funds.

The bill's sponsors are still working out how to split the revenue, but preliminary ideas suggest money from lots operated by WSDOT would go to the motor-vehicle fund, while money from lots owned by local transit agencies would go to the multimodal fund.

"Some community transit agencies have cut service and some are also in the process of cutting service, due to the shortfall in the sales-tax collection," said community transit lobbyist Davor Gjorasic. "(This bill) is a creative way to add services to park-and-ride lots, so we support that."

WSDOT also supports the bill and feels the presence of vendors on lots will increase security for lot users.

Currently, there are approximately 336 park-and-ride lots in Washington, with 117 of them directly operated by WSDOT. The majority receive some form of state money, making them eligible for the new arrangement if the bill is passed.

The incentive for local transit agencies to contract with private vendors is that it frees up agency money that is currently spent on maintenance and operation for higher priorities, said Mark Eldridge, regional mobility program manager for WSDOT. Agencies will instead be able to direct the revenue from leases with vendors toward those costs.

That and increased security from having more pairs of eyes on site at the lots are the two main benefits from this bill, he said.

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Dunkin’ Donuts picks Keurig for single-cup brewing system

Dunkin’ Donuts will partner with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. to offer packets of its coffee for the Keurig single-cup brewing system. The news, released yesterday, comes a week after rival Starbucks Corp. said it would use a Keurig competitor.

Dunkin’, a Canton-based coffee-and-baked-goods chain, entered the single-serve home coffee business last year, with packets that can be used in single-serve machines made by Mr. Coffee, Cuisinart, Black & Decker, and others.

This summer, Dunkin’ will roll out its single-serve K-Cup portion packs from Keurig, a unit of Waterbury, Vt.-based Green Mountain that is the dominant player in the single-serve market. The packets will be available only at participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants, and not in grocery stores.

“Our goal is to give our customers more ways to enjoy Dunkin’ Donuts coffee,’’ said Dunkin’s president, Nigel Travis. Dunkin’s move comes after one of its biggest competitors chose another company for its single-serve offering, despite speculation it would partner with Green Mountain. On Feb. 15, Green Mountain shares fell 6 percent when Starbucks said it would team up with Courtesy Products, whose CV1 brewer is in about 500,000 US hotel rooms.

Still, speculation continues that if Starbucks wants to break into the home brewing market, it could reach a deal with Green Mountain once the Seattle coffee chain ends its exclusive arrangement with Kraft Food Inc. on March 1.

“The reality is that Keurig single-serve home brewers are becoming a major force in home coffee consumption,’’ said Scott Van Winkle, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, an institutional investment bank. “If you’re not available in K-Cups, you’re going to lose market share.’’

Green Mountain Coffee’s chief executive, Lawrence J. Blanford, estimates that Keurigs are in 6 percent to 8 percent of the US homes that own coffee machines. Blanford declined to discuss Starbucks yesterday, but said the agreement with Dunkin’ is part of a strategy to align “with the strongest coffee brands.’’In a note to investors, a Janney Capital Markets food analyst, Mitchell Pinheiro, said that the Dunkin’ deal is a big score for Green Mountain.

“The Dunkin’ Donuts K-Cup agreement is a nice win for Keurig as it brings one of the strongest US coffee brands into its portfolio,’’ the analyst wrote. Janney owns Green Mountain shares. Pinheiro also indicated he does not expect the Dunkin’ deal to pressure Starbucks into joining Keurig. “The Dunkin’ coffee flavor profile is vastly different than Starbucks,’’ he said.

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The trend: Filter coffee

Ever since the first British coffeehouses opened in the 17th century, coffee society has been subject to changing fashions. The espresso bar boom in the 1950s, led by Soho’s Moka Bar and its newfangled Gaggia espresso machine, gave way to the rise of the cappuccino and the slew of coffee chains in the 1990s. And then came the recent craze for flat whites, exemplified by Australian-owned coffee bars in London such as Kaffeine on Great Titchfield Street, and adopted everywhere from Pret A Manger to Costa Coffee.

But now an unlikely fad is making its presence felt, with the cognoscenti extolling the humble cup of filter coffee. Jeremy Torz, co-founder of artisan coffee roasting company Union Hand-Roasted, has no doubt about its virtues. “Filter coffee offers a longer, purer expression of the coffee. It can be delicate, aromatic and smooth, as well as intense,” he says. “People always say they love strong coffee, but actually drink very milky coffee. What a black filter coffee offers is a chance to really appreciate the subtle flavours.”

Invented in Germany in 1908 by Melitta Bentz, who came up with the idea using a piece of her son’s blotting paper to strain coffee, filter coffee took off as a quick, simple way to prepare a dose of caffeine. Embraced by the catering industry as a cheap alternative to the espresso, its reputation has suffered because of the notoriously weak filter coffee made commercially and the bitter stuff left to stew for hours on hot plates.

Nowadays, however, well-made filter coffee has its champions. Respected coffee shops and cafés, including Monmouth Coffee Company and Taylor St Baristas, offer single-origin filter coffee in addition to espressos and cappuccinos, while Starbucks will soon be offering “slow drip” coffee. “We serve filter coffee at all our stores,” explains AJ Kinnell, coffee buyer for Monmouth Coffee Company. “We have done ever since we first opened, so that people could taste the coffee and select which beans they wanted to buy.”

Like Torz, Kinnell attributes filter coffee’s superiority to its clearly defined flavours. “The advantage is that it’s the least disruptive brewing method: what you have is a lot of clarity in the cup. When you make an espresso the process intensifies the flavour of the coffee; it’s like turning up an amp. You can taste the nuances of the flavours so clearly with filter coffee.”

So, how do you make it correctly? At the new Taylor St Baristas café in Mayfair, simply decorated with white walls and a dark wooden bar, I met Torz and Andrew Tolley, who, with his brother and sister, co-founded Taylor St Baristas. “You need a certain amount of diligence to make a good cup of filter coffee,” Tolley says, as the pair explain their methods. First, use the right coffee-to-water ratio (7g-9g to 100ml). Second, the coffee must be freshly roasted (two to 21 days old) and freshly ground (“If it was ground an hour ago, you might as well not bother,” says Tolley). Last, the water should be freshly drawn and filtered to remove any chlorine taint.

While espresso addicts have their gleaming machines, filter coffee fans, too, have their gear. Torz had assembled a range of kit to test, from the Clever Dripper – a lidded filter coffee maker complete with an ingenious shut-off valve – to the Technivorm automatic filter coffee maker. But we started with the basic ceramic filter cone, using a batch of Union’s Rwandan Cup of Excellence Kopakama. (“This has vibrancy, sweetness and a silky mouthfeel,” says Torz.)

First Tolley rinses the filter paper with hot water “to wash out the starch”, then adds coffee, very finely ground to slow down the water’s passage. A little hot water (92-96°C) is poured on to the coffee grounds for what is known as the “pre-wet” – “the idea is to saturate the grounds so that they give out flavour evenly”. He then pours hot water in a fine, constant stream over the grounds for two minutes. The coffee drips through, with the cup whisked away before the last overly bitter drops fall in. No milk is added – both Tolley and Torz drink their filter coffee black, to taste the full complement of flavours.

Next we try the Aeropress, a large, clear plastic syringe that “gives a stronger, more concentrated brew than the drip filter”. The liquid coffee is pressed through the filter resulting in a “stronger, more concentrated brew than the drip filter”. All the filter coffees we sample have depth of flavour without bitterness and a noticeable brightness. “This is what we’re looking for when we make coffee,” says Tolley. “People think acidity is negative but it’s what we want,” agrees Torz. “It’s not bitterness; it’s a brightness or citrus note that good coffee has.”

We finish with a gloriously Heath Robinson piece of kit – the Syphon, which comprises two glass flasks and a burner. A leaping flame heats up water in the lower flask, with the steam pressure forcing it up into the top flask where the coffee is mixed in. After one minute, the flame is removed and, as it cools, the coffee drips down through a filter into the flask below.

The spectacle is so entertaining that there are grins all around. “This is the one to impress your friends at a dinner party,” comments Torz. Those who thought filter coffee was boring need to think again.

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