Coffee does not make you more alert: Study

The belief that a cup of coffee stimulates the brain and makes drinkers feel more awake is a myth as scientists have found that the so-called "caffeine high" is just a reaction to the body craving the drug. A study of 379 people showed regular coffee drinkers needed a hit of caffeine to gain the same level of alertness as non-coffee drinkers, The Telegraph reported.

"Our study shows that we don't gain an advantage from consuming caffeine. Although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal," said Prof. Peter Rogers of the University of Bristol's Department of Experimental Psychology, which led the research.

Researchers deprived each person of coffee for 16 hours before giving the participants either caffeine or a placebo. Each of them then underwent a series of tasks to measure their attentiveness, memory and vigilance.

There was "little difference" in the results between the coffee users and those who were given placebo, found the study, published online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. "On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible," Rogers added.

Read Full Entry

Evolution of the Coffee Recipe

Once upon a time, long after coffee was discovered, people used to have it mixed with hot water - plain and simple. There was no coffee recipe concept in existence. Out of the blue - and there are no records about the date - people discovered that while rotating and savoring coffee in their mouth, their taste buds could taste bitterness, acidic content, sweetness and saltiness depending upon how the taste buds sent out the taste signals. People felt that if these tastes were mixed with some other food or beverage, then the coffee taste might be enhanced. They started experimenting with coffee by adding milk, chocolate, and other flavors. This was the birth of the coffee recipe.

Evolution Of The Coffee Recipe

The earliest and best-known coffee recipe to mankind is coffee with milk. Maybe people got bored of drinking coffee with hot water or drinking plain milk, but one fine day they decided to mix coffee with milk and the recipe was a super-hit. The coffee recipe inventors literally tasted blood. Coffee marketers joined hands with them and there was no resting now. After milk came chocolate, after chocolate came flavorings, then syrups and then food and then liqueurs too. The coffee recipe brigade just kept marching on!

The Coffee Recipe In The 21st Century

As things stand now, a coffee recipe is used not just in making basic or designer coffees. A great coffee recipe can be a dessert or a sweet - For example, a basic coffee-based candy can be roasted coffee beans covered with chocolate. Coffee is added even to meats because it brings out the meat flavors with a subtle touch - but not a strong touch - of coffee flavor. So a coffee recipe can relate to basic and designer coffees, desserts as well as meat-foods.

Naming A Coffee Recipe

A coffee recipe concoction is usually called by a fancy name. The basic Café Latte is nothing but coffee with steamed milk (Latte is Italian for milk), a Cappuccino is one-third each of espresso, milk and foam! The Turkish Kahwa is nothing but black coffee brewed along with a few spices (cloves, cardamom, and sometimes even ginger), but people want to have a go at it because of its exotic name. Fancy coffees in cafes are often served with a dash of flavorings or syrups such as caramel, almond, hazelnut, vanilla, etc.

Read Full Entry

Jeddah coffee shops raided

Truant schoolgirls in meetings with unrelated males, large screens set up to show “scandalous films”, stages for music performances with light and lazer displays: Offenses too grave to be ignored by the authorities and too glaring to be continued on the sly for long.

It did not take much time for the Jeddah authorities to realize that a number of coffee shops were, in fact, places for dating and other offenses. Officials from the Police, Passports Department, Civil Defense, the Labor Office, the Mayor’s Office and the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice raided suspect sites over recent days.

In one instance a 14-year-old girl was found in the company of two males in their twenties after reportedly sneaking out of her house without the knowledge of her family. In another, two sisters were found with six young men.

In a secluded corner of one coffee house a young man was found in the company of a woman with a computer screen before them displaying a pornographic website. The man confessed to officials that he hacked sites with the woman’s help and pirated material.

Coffee houses that had set up stages for music performances with light and laser displays, held parties or had large screens showing banned television channels were ordered closed and their owners summoned and investigated by the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution.

Some of the coffee shops had employed security staff to warn of the arrival of authorities.

Other infractions included the employment of staff residing in the Kingdom illegally, and offering shisha without a license from the municipality.

Spokesman for Jeddah Police Misfir Al-Ju’aid, said that each case of khulwa – being in the secluded company of an unrelated member of the opposite sex – was handled according to its specifics.

“We take into consideration family relations and social regulations, or the girl is handed over to police and returned to her guardians,” Al-Ju’aid said. “Where regulations are found to have been breached warnings are given, but any legal violation results in on-the-spot action.

Read Full Entry

Top 11 Health Benefits of Coffee

They say that hot dogs are bad because they contain nitrates. They say you should limit your egg yolks because they're high in cholesterol.

Stay away from too much soy - it causes impotence, milk chocolate causes pimples and coffee's just plain bad for your system.

Why is it that "they" always seem to find something wrong with the foods that I like? The foods that we've been eating for hundred of years and now suddenly we find out are bad for us? Why the need to ruin a good thing?

Well lucky for us, "they" have decided that coffee is in fact healthy, and that despite the negative effects attributed to it in the past, coffee is good for you! Yes, it may have some flaws, but so do most good things in life. I prefer to focus on the good and overlook the bad (like my mom taught me to!)

So looking for an excuse to drink that extra cup? Well keep reading, below are 11 great ones! 1. Antioxidant Rich - coffee, due to its high caffeine content, is a great source of antioxidants. Antioxidants are cancer preventative and help fight the negative affects of aging.

2. Magnesium Rich - unfortunately studies have proven that many American's are magnesium deficient, a mineral necessary to many of the enzymes in your body in order to catalyze reactions.

3. Anti Bacterial and Anti Adhesive Qualities - believe it or not, Italian researchers discovered this interesting little fact as they were conducting experiments regarding their favorite national drink that was getting a bad rep by health researchers ("them"). Practically speaking, this means that coffee is proven to prevent cavities (provided you don't dump an ocean of sugar into your drink).

4. Promotes Digestion - because coffee is a diuretic, it generally speaking, sends people straight to the bathroom. When I was doing my research for IBS articles, although some doctors claimed coffee may irritate the stomach, other doctors recommended it as one of the natural tricks to "help move things along" and prescribed drinking a cup or two a day.

5. Improves Athletic Endurance and Performance - Believe it or not, coffee has recently been labeled a "controlled" substance for athletes participating in the Olympic Games due to the unfair performance advantages large amounts of the drink provides. Coffee has proven to increase athletic endurance as well as general coordination and performing abilities in serious athletes. 6. Decreases Depression - studies conducted on school age children in Brazil demonstrated that children who drank a cup of coffee before going to school had a much lower instance of depression later in life than those who didn't drink coffee.

7. Decreases Your Chances of Developing Parkinson's Disease - 6 separate studies conducted by researchers have proven that people who drink large amounts of coffee on a regular basis are 80% less likely to develop Parkinson's disease then those that don't.

8. Decreases Your Risk of Developing Colon Cancer - studies have shown that people who drink 2 cups of coffee on a regular basis have a 25% reduced risk of developing colon cancer. 9. Offsets the Damaging Effects of Smoking - coffee has proven to offset some of the negative side effects of heavy smokers, such as heart disease and liver damage.

10. Treats Asthma and Headaches - asthma and headache medicines contain large doses of caffeine in them due to the substance's ability to treat their symptoms. The caffeine found in coffee, although present in smaller amounts, has proven to have the same positive affects on alleviating headaches and treating asthma.

11. Reduces Your Risk of Liver Disease - studies have shown that people who drink 2 cups of coffee on a daily basis have an 80% reduced risk rate of developing liver cirrhosis So what else is left to be said folks - Drink Up!

Read Full Entry

Phoenix Among Top 10 in Coffee Shop Spending

PHOENIX - How often do you treat yourself to that mocha, latte or whipped blended drink? A recent study shows that residents of the Phoenix metro area rank high among cities that spend money on "designer" coffee.

Another Arizona city, Tucson, happens to beat out Phoenix. Now that the economy appears to be rebounding, Americans have increased their coffee shop spending by 21 percent since last year. Phoenix is one of the top 10 cities that spend the most on designer coffee, and that $5-a-drink habit can add up fast. In 2009, Phoenix residents spent an average of $352 in designer coffee. So far in 2010, they are spending an average of $33 a month. That's up from last year.

Top 10 coffee-consuming cities (2009):

1. Seattle - $674
2. Las Vegas - $391
3. Portland - $388
4. San Antonio - $377
5. San Jose - $366
6. Tucson - $362
7. San Francisco - $358
8. Denver - $354
9. Phoenix - $352
10. Dallas - $314

Read Full Entry

Most Popular K Cups Coffee Brands

There are many different varieties of K cup coffee brands on the market. If you're the proud owner of a Keurig coffee maker you surely have begun your search around to see which you prefer. While most of the Keurig K cups are quite tasty, not all of them are created equally. There are certainly some brands that have gained respect as being the best. Additionally, other brands are especially well suited to specifically desires or coffee tastes. Here's an overview of the best K cup coffee brands available.

Timothy's World Coffee: Timothy's has a very diverse collection of roasts and flavors, nearly all of which are extremely highly rated by consumers. They have excellent blends covering the scope from light to bold, and have some unique flavored varieties as well, such as cinnamon pastry.

Green Mountain Coffee: Nobody has a wider collection of different roasts and flavors of Keurig K cups than Green Mountain. They have literally dozens of options to choose from. They have various blends which are tied to different charitable efforts, and they have a great selection of both flavored and classic flavor roasts.

Gloria Jean's Coffee: Gloria Jean's might be the best brand to choose when you are seeking excellence in flavored varieties. They only have three different roasts of classic coffee - all of which are still great - but then have another 10 or so flavors. In addition, Gloria Jean's is also the best brand for Keurig K cups with tea. They have half a dozen tea flavors which get the highest ratings among any other tea variety available for a Keurig coffee maker.

Newman's Own: While companies like Green Mountain and Timothy's produce dozens of different varieties, blends, flavors and roasts, Newman's Own Organics sticks with only two variations. They have what they call their special blend, and they have a decaf version of it as well. Both are excellent and there are no frills attached.

Diedrich Coffee Roasters: Another company that focuses less on quantity and instead hones in on just a few varieties is the folks over at Diedrich Coffee Roasters. They make a handful of different blends and roasts that cover the spectrum for any coffee lover.

There are many other brands of Keurig K cups on the market today, but these are the best and most enjoyed K cups coffee makers out there today. It will be hard to go wrong with any of these brands, so find the flavors or styles that work best for you and enjoy!

Read Full Entry

Choosing Your Next Coffee Maker

A coffee maker is an electric appliance that produces brewed coffee automatically, consisting of a hotplate, coffee pot, filter basket, and water reservoir. When it comes to coffee makers there are many, many to choose from. But if you are a coffee lover, you are probably very discriminating in your preferences so it's worth your time to do your analysis.

But first, determine what you want in a coffee maker. Are you satisfied with going to the nearest box store and picking one up for about twenty dollars? That's fine, they make a decent cup of coffee. Or maybe you're looking for something with a bit added style. Something that will fit into your kitchen decor nicely. Or something of best quality that will outlast the 20 buck special.

What options are essential to you? Should it have a clock built in that will allow your coffee to be ready and waiting when you hit the kitchen? Programmable coffee makers are a type of coffee maker that is becoming additional more popular not only in the workplace, but in homes as well.

Another type of coffee maker that is gaining popularity is the single cup type. Whether you just need one cup of Joe to start the day or you are trying to limit your caffeine intake by fixing just one cup at a time, the single cup coffee makers are an excellent solution. They are also accomplished for the stay at home types who may just want a single cup mid-day and don't want to make a whole pot. They also are available in a programmable version.

There are many ways to brew your coffee using the ever-reliable coffee maker. Decaf and coffee types that contain caffeine can be equally as appealing to the taste buds. For an analysis of more coffee subjects, visit http://www.fmcoffee.com.

As you begin your analysis of coffee makers, the first thing that you need to think about is what kind of coffee drinks you want to make. Do you prefer regular coffee, espresso, latte, or cappuccino? Espresso makers create a powerful and strong coffee that can really wake you up in the morning. But maybe that's not you cup of tea. Just know that there are unique and different types of cappuccino, espresso and coffee makers on the market.

If you are a gourmet coffee drinker, you may want to opt for a Cafetiere. A Cafetiere is a French coffee maker that is also known as a French press. Since no filters are used, this coffee pot makes rich, strong coffee. But beware: if you are not going to serve the coffee immediately, avoid using a Cafetiere. If left to sit, your coffee will continue to brew and you will be left with a coffee that is very bitter.

So weather it's a single cup style, a traditional coffee maker, an espresso, capuccino, or latte type, enjoy your down time with a terrific coffee. And here's a bonus: once you have a new coffee maker, you will be able to save time and money by spending less time waiting in lines at the coffee shop.

Read Full Entry