Coffee

Have you ever wondered, as you’re sitting in your favorite coffee shop or perhaps at your own kitchen table, sipping your morning cup of gourmet coffee, where that wonderful drink originated at? If you live in the United States, you can thank a man by the name of Alfred Peet. In 1955, Alfred Peet moved to California from Amsterdam, Holland. To his despair, he couldn’t find a decent cup of coffee anywhere. As the son of an Amsterdam coffee trader, he knew good coffee when he drank it.

In 1966, Peet opened a small coffee store in Berkley, California, and began to sell his dark roasted beans. At the time there was one other North American store selling quality coffee, but they were in Vancouver, Canada. From that time until now, Peet’s has served the gourmet coffee needs in Southern California.

While gourmet coffee didn’t come to the States until 1966, coffee has been around since the 9th century, when Ethiopian shepherds notice that their goats would “dance” and had more energy after eating wild coffee beans. Since Islam prohibits the use of alcohol, coffee provided an alternative to wine. From there it spread to Egypt and Yemen. It wasn’t until it reached Arabia that coffee beans were roasted and brewed to make a drink.

At first, this drink was not well received by the Islamic people. In 1511, it was forbidden by the court at Mecca. The drink was so popular, though, that this was overturned in 1524 by the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim. It was also banned for a time in Egypt and Ethiopia, before being accepted as an acceptable Muslim drink. This was largely due to the rulers at the time liking the taste of the beverage, therefore decreeing it acceptable.

By the 15th century, coffee was common throughout the Middle East, Persia, Turkey and North Africa. The word “coffee” came from “caffé” in Italy in the 16th century. Before that it was called, in Arabic, “qahwa”. In Venice traders started buying coffee from Africa and the Middle East, and in 1645 the first European coffee house opened.

The Dutch defied the Saudi Arabians prohibition on exportation of coffee by smuggling seedlings from Aden into Europe in 1616. They were also the first country to import coffee on a large scale. They took plants to Java and Ceylon, where they started exporting to the Netherlands in 1711.

Coffee arrived in the United States during the colonial period. When it was first imported, it was not widely drunk in the United States. It wasn’t until the revolutionary war and the shortage of tea, that Americans began drinking it on a regular basis. After the War of 1812, America’s taste for coffee grew and it became a common drink.

As the consumption of coffee grew, so did the companies cultivating, roasting and grinding. The larger companies used (and still do) a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans for a commercial blend, while gourmet coffee is roasted from the Arabica bean alone. Arabica beans are considered the tastiest of the three types of bean and also the most expensive.

Today, coffee is the life-blood of the third world countries that produce it. Over a hundred million people depend on the growth, production and exportation of this flavorful bean.

The next time you pour yourself a wonderful cup of your favorite gourmet blend, consider the origins and history of the coffee bean and how it came to be in your favorite store. The rich history of gourmet coffee is almost as rich and full-bodied as the drink itself which will surely give you even more of that warm and cozy feeling that only a nice cup of coffee can give!

Katya Coen provides information on gourmet coffee for Coffee Online – the site for coffee lovers.

Author: Katya Coen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Panasonic Lumix G2

California coffee houses have been famous for years. The eclectic blend of coffee, celebrities and high energy people creates a social atmosphere like nowhere else. Throughout the country and the world, coffee houses pop up and attempt to emulate the cool, casual vibe at California coffee bars.

With so many cafés, coffee enthusiasts sip quite a few cups of brew before finding the best coffee in Los Angeles. While a superior cup of Joe is always a priority, many California coffee lovers are also looking for a place to hang out. Artists bring along their laptops, easels and digital cameras to capture creativity along the way. It’s not unusual to see several people busily working on a laptop at Los Angeles coffee houses.

Socialization is part of the coffee experience in The City of Angels. The close, comfortable atmosphere is a perfect way to catch coffee and conversation. In days gone by, coffee gatherings took place in someone’s kitchen or in the office. While those venues are still popular, many Californians prefer the unpredictable excitement of sipping java at a coffee house.

When you sit down in a Los Angeles coffee house, you are privy to one hundred conversations. Coffee lovers come in looking to kick back with their favorite drink while they meet new, interesting people. Unlike an alcoholic bar, at coffee bars people don’t get intoxicated. From celebrities to local workers, everyone mingles together. You might even wind up sitting next to one of your favorite stars and strike up a conversation!

Some of the best coffee Los Angeles serves is at coffee bars and eateries. In fact, many local cafés deliver wholesale coffee to the local restaurants, delis and offices. When people can’t take time to visit their preferred coffee house, they can still enjoy a cup of gourmet java on the go. It’s not the same as spending time at a choice café but at least you can get a flavorful cup of coffee. You can even purchase gourmet coffee beans to brew at home for your family and friends, creating a café right in your own kitchen.

California coffee houses offer the best organic coffee because of the large number of locals involved in environmental efforts. Home of hybrid and other environmentally concerned efforts, many Californians consciously make green decisions about all their behaviors. Organic coffee is grown and processed in an environmentally-friendly way. Its pure, unadulterated flavor is preferred by quite a few coffee enthusiasts around the world. In fact, over forty countries grow organic coffee. The Organic Trade Association showed a 24 percent increase in coffee sales in 2006, which proves a growing number of people are actively drinking healthy, delicious organic coffee.

For the Best coffee Los Angeles has to offer visit the Intelligentsia Caf in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Order organic coffee beans online at IntelligentsiaCoffee.com or have coffee in Los Angeles for that flavorful social experience.

Author: Alice Lane
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Smiling shark

Dear Coffee Drinker,

“Fair Trade” is a certification that is given primarily to a company that can prove, together with a specific coffee farm, that fair prices are being given to the independent farm. These are certifications that are primarily being marketed in the USA by a firm in California. For example, StarBucks may promote a certain type of coffee that is being sold as Fair Trade coffee. Not all their coffee can be sold as such because this only applies to a very few farms that hold these certifications together with the buyer. This needs to be proven to the agencies in the United States that govern this certification. Even though StarBucks sells one type of coffee that is certified Fair Trade this does not mean that all their coffee is certified. This would be an impossible task. The biggest problem is most US companies only pay the farmer or roaster Fair Trade and then they have to trust that the roaster is passing this extra money to the laborers. So the farmer gets a fair price but the laborers, many times children work for pennies a day.AND FAIR TRADE – However does not ensure that children are not used to pick coffee or that the children are given a fair price. Neither does it ensure that the migrate farm laborers are paid fair prices. Fair Trade has been great in elevating people’s awareness of the coffee industry and has ensured that the coffee farmer and or roaster is getting a fair price and to a lesser extend some farmers but it has not always helped the people actually picking the coffee and completing the other coffee labor. Worse it has allowed the bigger farmers to make more money buying up the smaller farmers and making more money while the labor pool suffers. The going rate for labor has not increased in five years while Fair Trade Coffee prices have doubled. So whats fair about the owner making more while the laborers still suffer.

Worse Fair Trade has become so popular that it elevated many “bad or poor” coffees into popoluar brands – not because they taste good but because they have become Fair Trade – as that has any correlation to taste. Sadlty Fair Trade only means the large land owner gets more money.

Costa Rica on the other hand has a different system than most coffee producing countries. The coffee you purchased is from one of the best regions of coffee in the world, known as Tarrazu Costa Rica. There is a cooperative in Tarrazu known as CoopeTarrazu. StarBucks is a large buyer of CoopeTarrazu’s coffee. CoopeTarrazu owns 25% of our company. CoopeTarrazu in turn is owned by approximately 1500 small to medium sized independent farms. The function of CoopeTarrazu is to get the best price for the coffees that these 1500 plus farms turn into this processing plant as a group. The profits are then divided and paid to each farmer based on his percentage interest or the amount of product supplied to CoopeTarrazu by him. The entire process is governed by the Government of Costa Rica. The overseeing body is known as ICAFE. It regulates all coffee that is processed and exported from Costa Rica. ICAFE’s watchful eye makes sure that the independent farms are receiving fair market prices for the coffee they turn into CoopeTarrazu. Not only does Costa Rica have some of the best coffee in the world it also is some of the most expensive coffee in the world. The reason for this is directly linked to ICAFE’s involvement in the coffee industry within Costa Rica. It makes sure that the farmers are receiving fair prices for their coffee. Our plant is registered with ICAFE for this reason. This proves that we are part of the system that makes sure our coffee is truly Fair Trade coffee even though we are not certified by the USA body known as Fair Trade. We are also owned by 3 other cooperatives in Costa Rica – CoopeVictoria, CoopePalmares, and CoopeSabalito. In other words we work with more than 8000 small farmers. Each cooperative has a significant % share in our roasting plant and these are the sources from which we draw upon for our raw product, our green bean.

There are some other functions of ICAFE, which works very closely with the Minister of Health, the Minister of Children, and the Minister of Labor. For example, ICAFE also makes sure that the Indians that come in from the jungles of Panama and Nicaragua to pick coffee during the harvest season are paid fair wages, given health insurance, and proper housing accommodations during the harvest season. They also work closely to make sure there is no exploitation of children and adult workers. Costa Rica is very much into protecting the less fortunate and overseeing their rights. This is another reason why we are proud members of ICAFE.

So if you want to make a statement and buy a coffee really making a difference – buy a Costa Rica coffee.

Sincerely,

George Boake Moore
CEO
Mission Grounds
http://www.missiongrounds.com

Author: Boake Moore
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canada duty

With the large multi-national coffee companies focused purely on coffee as a commodity rather then a drink to be savoured, it allowed a new sector to emerge in the coffee industry: Speciality Coffee. Speciality coffee was nothing new, rather the opposite; it stripped coffee making back down to the grass roots: pure arabica beans, roasted long enough for the coffee to fully develop all its characteristics and flavours.

During the ‘Dark Age’ of coffee there was still excellent coffee available, if you knew where to look for it. A number of small cafes and shops continued to trade, sourcing and roasting high quality arabica beans. These outlets were typically run and frequented by immigrants (usually Arabs, Turks, Greeks and Italians), far from the mainstream.

All this began to change in the 1960s, with the post World War II ‘Baby Boomers’ coming into adulthood. Many of this generation were keen not to follow in their parents footsteps, preferring to act in a more bohemian way. For them, these cafes and shops were an ideal place to meet, read poetry, take drugs and experience alternative culture.

One such coffee shop in Berkeley (California) is widely credited as being the main inspiration on the emergence of the speciality coffee sector. Peet’s Coffee & Tea store, opened in 1966 by Alfred Peet (dubbed the ‘grandfather of speciality coffee’), enthused a number of its customers, who later became key players in the speciality sector. Peet, an immigrant from Alkmaar (Holland), had developed a distinctive style of roasting coffee from working in his family’s coffee and tea business. After emigrating to California, aged thirty-five, he opened his shop employing his artisan coffee roasting techniques to build a loyal customer base. Peet’s coffee was so loved that he even had his own set of groupies: the ‘Peetniks’.

Two of Peet’s most important customers (historically) were a couple of Seattle coffee lovers named Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker. In 1971, after tasting Peet’s fine brews, they were inspired to open their own coffee shop back in Seattle called Starbucks. Starbucks opened as a bean-only-store, steadily building a loyal customer base during the 70s and early 80s through its fine arabicas and darker roasts.

In 1984, the director of retail operations and marketing, Howard Schultz, tried to persuade Baldwin and Bowker to open the first Starbucks coffeehouse. Schultz had just returned from a trip to Milan, where he had noticed the existence of coffeehouses on almost every block. These were not just places to enjoy great espresso coffee, but also served as meeting places. Schultz was keen to recreate this kind of coffeehouse in America, but Baldwin and Bowker rejected Schultz’s plans as they were unwilling to get into the restaurant business.

Undeterred, Schultz left Starbucks in 1985 to open his own coffeehouse, ‘Il Giornale’. Still using Starbucks coffee beans to make espresso drinks, Il Giornale proved extremely popular with the Seattle public. So popular in fact() that, in 1987, Schultz was able to buy Starbucks from Bowker and Schultz. Changing Il Giornale’s name to Starbucks, Schultz began to rapidly expand, opening over 1,000 stores in a decade.

The story of the first British speciality coffeehouse also involves Alfred Peet. In 1995, Scott and Ally Svenson wanted to open a coffeehouse in Covent Garden, London. Their background was in marketing and design and, even though they were originally from Seattle, they did not know much about coffee. This is why they approached Steven Macatonia and Jeremy Torz of Union Coffee Roasters. Steven and Jeremy had fallen in love with coffee while working at Peet’s in California. On their return home they decided to open their own roasting outlet and were soon supplying places such as the River Café, the Caprice, and the Ivy.

The Covent Garden coffeehouse, named the Seattle Coffee Company, was another big success and inevitably expansion soon followed. The rapid growth of the company caused increasing demand on Union Coffee Roasters, so the two companies decided to merge together. In 1998, after opening over 60 outlets throughout the UK, Starbucks came knocking at their door. They saw the acquisition of the Seattle Coffee Company as an ideal way to enter the UK market. Soon the Seattle Coffee Company was no more, with all its stores re-branded as Starbucks.

The popularity of coffeehouses has been phenomenal. Almost every high street in Britain has a least one coffeehouse now. Words such as espresso, cappuccino and café latte are commonplace. In fact the price of a café latte is now one of the products that the British government use to measure inflation. Market analysers believe that the success of the coffeehouse is not solely due to the coffee they serve, but the atmosphere in which it is served. Coffeehouses in Britain in the 1990s were a break from convention. In the consumerist landscape of the high-street, coffeehouses represented a place to relax. Customers were encouraged to take their time over their coffee; sit on big comfy sofas; offered the daily newspapers to read; allowed to idle the afternoon away watching the world go by. In other words, coffeehouses had returned to playing their original role in society, as they had done when they first arrived in Britain back in 17th Century.

The growth of these coffeehouses has helped to heighten the public’s awareness of the speciality coffee sector. Increasingly, individuals are looking to have a slice of the coffeehouse in their own home, investing in espresso makers and other coffee accessories. Coffee is now widely available from a multitude of origins, roasted to differing degrees and ground to your requirement. In short, the ‘Dark Age’ of coffee is well and truly over.

James Grierson is the owner of Galla Coffee: http://www.gallacoffee.co.uk – Uk online retailer of designer coffee accessories. Through the Coffee Knowledge section of his website he aims to help people understand more about coffee and give them tips on how to make great tasting coffee in their home.

Check out http://www.gallacoffee.co.uk/acatalog/Coffee_Knowledge.html for more articles or if you have a question send it to: coffeeknowledge@gallacoffee.co.uk

Author: James Grierson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Pressure cooker

The debate has raged for many years, and it will probably continue for years… is coffee good or bad for your health? While the jury may be out, here are some findings that indicate coffee is not all bad.

Coffee, as we all know, is high in caffeine, and caffeine is suspected of increasing blood pressure and heart rate. The medical fraternity have long suspected that coffee drinking might therefore contribute to higher rates of heart disease. However a recent study by researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health found no significant increase in the risk of heart disease or stroke among men who drank up to four cups of coffee a day – a finding supported by the Kaiser Permanente health care organization in California.

The same outcome was found in women where data collected from more than 85,000 women over a 10-year period produced no evidence for any positive association between coffee consumption and risk of heart disease for women consuming six or more cups of coffee a day. That’s a lot of coffee!

This is not to say that there aren’t physical effects to coffee drinking. Caffeine does excite brain cells, and this in turn improves concentration and reaction time and reduces fatigue. In fact, caffeine can increase the speed of rapid information processing by 10%. A study in 1993 clearly demonstrated that caffeinated coffee had a beneficial effect on alertness and improved performance in a variety of tasks. Caffeine also has a beneficial effect on asthma by reducing the severity of attacks. Two studies found that three or more cups of coffee a day reduced the prevalence of asthma and this is further supported by improved ventilatory function in exercise-induced broncho-constriction – although this required over five cups of coffee a day!

Interestingly, it has been found that increased activity, alertness and efficiency are associated with a decline in levels of depression and anxiety. Two independent studies noted a significant inverse association between coffee drinking and the risk of suicide. Further research into the possibility that coffee drinking may decrease depression is certainly needed.

Although, caffeine is often singled out as the chemical in coffee that has the most impact on our health, coffee has a complex chemical composition. One beneficial characteristic of coffee is that it contains compounds with antioxidant properties. Polyphenolic compounds known as flavonoids are common in plants and are known to have disease suppression benefits. What is most interesting is that the roasting process increases antioxidant activity in the beans. Although the beneficial role of food antioxidants is a relatively new research area, this is likely to become more important in years to come.

Yet too much caffeine can lead to irritability and restlessness along with an increase in urination. Talking of this, kidney stones are extremely painful and in a study of some 45,000 men with no history of kidney stones it was found that increased consumption of regular and decaffeinated coffee, tea, beer and wine were linked with a decreased risk of stone formation. The same effect was found in a study involving 81,000 women where caffeinated coffee and wine were found to be significantly more effective than water in helping women avoid kidney stones.

Coffee also has several metabolic effects that could reduce the risk of gallstone formation. According to a study conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), drinking coffee is associated with a 40 percent lower risk of gallstone disease in men. Men who drank four or more cups of regular coffee per day had a 45 percent lower risk profile.

The link between coffee and cancer is probably more weighted in favour of coffee. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, with some 131,000 Americans being diagnosed with cancers of the rectum and colon on an annual basis. Now there is some convincing evidence for a protective effect of coffee against the development of colon cancers. A recent review of over 15 studies on coffee consumption and colorectal cancer from 1960 to 1990 found the risk of colorectal cancer to be 24% lower among those who drink four or more cups of coffee per day, than among those who rarely or never drink coffee. Researchers in Sweden also found that “…coffee consumption appears to be protective against colon cancer, and tea against rectal tumors”. The most likely explanation for lower risk of colorectal cancer among heavy coffee consumers is the enhanced colonic activity induced by coffee, and the inhibition effect on the cancer-causing effects of various micro-organisms by anti-mutagenic components in coffee and caffeine.

Coffee is also commonly used to “lift” hangovers and to get going “the morning after”. However it might be more useful to drink it before having the party…as in the past decade, research in the United States, Japan and Italy has shown that the consumption of coffee has a strong protective effect against cirrhosis of the liver. Drinking 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day was associated with an 80% reduction in risk for cirrhosis of the liver, compared with those who don’t drink coffee at all.

On the subject of losing brain cells, Parkinson ‘s disease, a progressive nervous disease occurring generally after age 50, destroys brain cells that produce dopamine and is characterized by muscular tremor, slowing of movement, weakness and facial paralysis. Research into the relationship between caffeine consumption from a variety of sources and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, has shown that moderate consumption of caffeine reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease in men and women.

In fact, men who drank four to five cups per day of caffeinated coffee cut the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease nearly in half compared to men in the study who consumed little or no caffeine daily. Women who consumed between one and three cups of caffeinated coffee per day also cut their risk nearly in half of developing Parkinson’s disease when compared to women who drank less than a cup of coffee per day – but this apparent benefit was lost at higher levels of intake.

Finally, while some people believe that coffee can induce acid reflux, recent research has found that coffee consumption has no effect whatever at inducing heartburn in healthy people. Even for those individuals with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, coffee consumption was found to have only a minimal effect.

Is coffee all that bad? Probably not…in moderation. Indeed, many studies identifying beneficial effects also noted the loss of these effects at high consumption rates. So, enjoy your three to four cups of coffee a day…on average you’ll be just fine!

Steve Giddings is Managing Director of Frontier Beverage Corporation (Pty) Ltd. This article and other coffee related information can be found at http://www.frontiercoffee.co.za

Author: Steve Giddings
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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