The Top 5 Coffee Hit parade!

In the past month have some coffees have increased in popularity far faster than normal.
These are our risers with a rocket!
 
1.      Brazil Fazenda Lagoa Rainforest Alliance
That the Lagoa plantation is popular is not surprising: this reasonably-priced coffee is a secret increasingly discovered by coffee lovers. A full-flavored, medium heavy coffee,  with a smooth aftertaste. This coffee also has a light nutty flavor, that makes it even more delicious, and that is clearly appreciated by many.
 
2.      Java Blawan Estate
Another interesting climber is the Java Blawan Estate (Utz Certified). A complete coffee from the most eastern tip of the Indonesian island of Java: drunk pure it is a little spicy, not too fruity and not super sweet, but just nicely balanced. Delights that many coffee lovers are now discovering!
 
3.      Sumatra Lingtong
From the  Indonesian island of Sumatra, the Lintong coffee is deep, earthy and sweet..
 
4.      Sumatra Mandheling Fairtrade
Also from the same Indonesian island of Sumatra, and  from the same region, but so different in character. Where the Lintong coffee is deep, earthy and sweet, the Mandheling is a little fruitier, with a hint of plum. Deep and earthy, but less sweet.
 
5.      Accessible blend
’t Geheim van Dordt (The secret of Dordrecht) is the last of our 5 notable climbers. A coffee blend that is medium-heavy, but easily accessible: it works reasonably in all systems and  is good with or without milk. The coffee is therefore a great-tasting, full cappuccino. A perfect tourists gift, but still an enjoyable secret blend coffee.
 
The Indonesian coffees fit well with the Dutch taste. Deep, heavy and sweet, exactly those characteristics which most Dutch indicate that they want in their coffee.  And the best characteristics for through the cold winter months.

Boiled Coffee May Help Protect Elderly Women Against Breast Cancer

June 17th 2010
Drinking large amounts of boiled coffee may help protect elderly women against breast cancer, researchers reported last night.
Boiled coffee is drunk in Scandinavia and a Swedish study has examined its effects on nearly 64,000 people.
The research found that coffee drinkers, of any kind, over the age of 55 enjoyed a reduced risk of developing breast cancer of about 40 per cent. The numbers of cases were especially low among drinkers of traditional boiled coffee.
But today researcher Lena Nilsson, of Umeå University, warned the link with boiled coffee was weak - because of the small numbers involved.
Out of 1,369 women of all ages who drank four or more cups of boiled coffee a day, just 14 developed breast cancer - about half the risk faced by women who did not drink the coffee.
Ms Nilsson said the findings showed "potential relevance" of taking into account how coffee is brewed in studying its link with cancer.
She said in her opinion the "core result" of the study was the overall link between coffee drinking and reduced risk of breast cancer.
The study warned of a possible increase in risk among young women drinkers of filtered coffee.
And there were also signs of an increase in rates of cancer among some men.
The researchers say boiled coffee contains 80 times the levels of fatty acids from coffee than is found in filtered coffee. Laboratory studies have suggested these fatty acids might fight cancer.
Source: StaffNurse.com
http://www.staffnurse.com/nursing-news-articles/boiled-coffee-may-help-protect-elderly-women-against-breast-cancer-4080.html

Coffee companies fined

German cartel authority fines coffee companies - 6/9/2010 5:34:26 AM

German regulators say they are fining several coffee companies a total of euro30 million for illegal price fixing.

The Bonn-based Federal Cartel Office said Wednesday that it has fined eight German coffee companies or their local subsidiaries Tchibo, J.J. Darboven, Melitta, Kraft Foods, Seeberger, Westhoff, Lavazza and Segafredo Zanetti.

The regulatory agency says the coffee companies met between 1997 and 2008 and coordinated wholesale price increases or cuts.
The German regulator earlier fined Tchibo, Melitta and another coffee company in December in another price fixing case.

Specialty Coffee

A simple set of rules that would define Specialty coffee.

1. Freshness. It is generally accepted that roasted coffee stales.  Specialty coffee should therefore have short shelf live. I would suggest 3 month maximum. Beyond that date it is still good coffee, just not special.  Such a rule would immediately exclude most of the big mainstream roasters who work with a 1 or 2 year best before date.
2. Packaging. Shops and Webshops supplying coffee to the public, should always offer coffee in 250g packaging. The logic behind this is simple, 250g equals 30 espressos. 30 coffees per week is 4 per day.  This is a normal healthy consumption. It doesn't exclude selling kilo packs to those who drink more or have larger families. But single people with average consumption should be able to buy a weeks worth of fresh coffee beans without hassle.
   
3. Information. Beyond the freshness factor, specialty coffee should also offer the customer more information about the product that they are drinking.  This requires that importers pass on information to their customers , the roasters, who in turn pass on this information to the shops and cafes, and they in turn pass on the information to the consumer.
   

How many Espressos can you drink in a day?

Well, what a day, busy but not too much and the record number of espressos in one day is 13.

In the course of a 12 hour work day that makes just over one per hour. But although I love espresso, and especially our Coffee etc. espresso, I really don't think that I could have drunk much more.

And the caffeine was finally kicking in too. At the end of the day I was bouncing around.

How much coffee should you buy?

Coffee is a fresh product. A week after roasting, it is loosing its flavours. A month after roasting it has lost all of its best qualities!

For most people 5 cups a day would be enough. That works out to 250g per week. So next time you see that large 1 kilo pack of coffee beans on the supermarket shelf, ask yourself, is it really such a bargain. The use by date is often 2 years from the date of roasting, and even with the best packaging in the world, once opened, you have less than a week.

Pop round to your local small coffee shop/house and ask for 250g of this weeks coffee, you will taste the difference!

Coffee myths # 1

Most fresh coffee beans nowadays are sold in "valved" bags. It is claimed that this provides you with fresher better quality coffee.

This is simply not true.
The valves only help the big coffee roasters who cannot supply really fresh coffee. With a valve the bags will not expand like a balloon, because all the aroma is lost from the bag.

If you want real fresh coffee, buy weekly, only as much as you use in a week. And make sure that the bag is a little "puffed up". That shows that it was fresh packed after roasting.