Archive for January, 2007
Cerulean Warbler Conservation Coffee, a shade grown coffee from central Columbia, is now being offered for sale through a partnership between Thanksgiving Coffee Co and the American Bird Conservatory. It’s perhaps the latest in a growing trend of environmentally friendly premium coffee. The plantations growing this coffee are designed to preserve a suitable habitat for the Cerulean Warbler and other songbirds (as well as other little critters!). The price is $10.50 per 12 oz, and is available here. (via Surfbirds; read the rest of this entry for the entire press release)
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January 25th, 2007
What gives a coffee its flavor? Scientists from Brazil and France have figured it out, they’ve identified the key genes responsible for sucrose accumulation in coffee (sucrose is believed to release flavor and aroma during roasting). This discovery has the potential to lead to new strains of coffee beans with previously unheard of levels of flavor. Read the whole article at the Nutra Ingredients USA website.
January 18th, 2007
Most coffee lovers will scowl when they hear ‘robusta’, for those beans are generally regarded as the cheapest, least interesting. They’re also the most common, and widely used for ‘commodity’ coffees. Actually, true Italian espresso uses a blend of beans that should contain a small amount of robusta. Well anyway, in 1932 Popular Science reported that in Brazil, coffee beans were being pressed into briquettes and used as fuel for locomotives. As a matter of fact, you can buy such coffee logs today even (see this previous article). (via Make)
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January 17th, 2007
Chalk art. It adds a casual, but often classy, look to coffee shops everywhere. I’ve noticed that even Starbucks seems to be adopting this trend, in the form of small chalkboards announcing the name of the barista, along with, of course, some artistic flair with the name. I didn’t realize some people actually earn a living doing chalk art, though! Anyway, there’s a whole article on this over at seattlepi.com if you’re interested.
January 14th, 2007
Starbucks. To many, the name brings a smile; to others, a grimace. It often seems like they’re everywhere, sometimes literally only a couple blocks apart. The global spread of Starbucks has its advantages for travelers who just want a known quantity, they don’t want to experiment, but on the flip-side, the smaller independent coffee shops can become harder to find. Or, many people dislike Starbucks merely because it’s become such a large, monotonous corporation. Well, the webside Delocator.net attempts to help people find ‘non-corporate’ coffee shops in your area (along with book stores and movie theaters). If you haven’t explored your local coffee shops, I encourage you to do so, for you’ll undoubtedly find a variety of character and tastes, in the stores and in their product. So, give Delocator a try, and go exploring!
January 11th, 2007
“From 5 a.m. to noon in the harvest season that runs through February, coffee pickers walk backward down the steep slopes of the 320-acre Hacienda Ana plantation in the shadow of Cerro Punta, the commonwealth’s highest peak, toting heavy buckets of fruit. After noon, it’s too darn hot.” Hmm, doesn’t sound fun, but this is a typical day for coffee pickers in Puerto Rico. It takes a lot of people to hand pick the estimated 21.5 million pounds of beans harvested each year on this tiny island, which is part of the reason why prison inmates are used in some areas. You can read more about Puerto Rico’s coffee industry in an article over at The Washington Post.
January 11th, 2007
So, why roast your own coffee, you ask? The reasons are plentiful. You get the freshest coffee possible (which makes a HUGE difference, believe me), complete control over the roasting process and exactly how long the beans are roasted (allowing you to fine tune the roast for your personal tastes), and the added bonus of actually saving money! Yes, unroasted (green) beans cost around five dollars a pound, and once roasted, are comparable to the best beans you’ll find anywhere else. Well, assuming you did a good job of roasting them, that is. There ARE times when mistakes happen, and the result is a mess of shiny pitch black beans that are undrinkable. Mistakes are rare though; usually an error results in a coffee that just isn’t quite as good as you’d like.
Anyway, back to the point, there’s yet another home coffee roasting writeup over at Squidoo that’s worth checking out.
(Via LifeHacker.)
January 9th, 2007
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