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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