Coffee

The truth is that coffee hits a lot of spots! For centuries, people all around the world have loved coffee, and its popularity is far from waning nowadays. In fact, coffee connoisseurs have more varieties of delicious choices than ever before, as coffee houses, shops, kiosks and specialty carts spring up all over the place.

No matter how you like your coffee, whether it be black, frothy cappuccino, latte, espresso, hot or on ice, the selections available to tempt your taste buds is enormous. The average annual coffee consumption of the American adult is 67 gallons, over 600 cups. In fact, specialty coffee sales are increasing by 20% per year and account for almost 8% of the 18 billion dollar U.S. coffee market. Statistics show that among coffee drinkers, the average consumption in the US is around 2.3 cups of coffee per day. Also, studies find that over one-half of the population, equivalent to approximately 150 million Americans, now drink specialty coffees on a daily basis.

There are currently around 35,000 coffee shops around the United States, with an average $30 billion a year in sales. Based on market research, there will be approximately 42,000 or more independently owned coffee shops in the US by the year 2011. An enterprising business person should look at the gourmet coffee business as a golden opportunity.

Based on research by the National Coffee Association and The Specialty Coffee Association of America, the average price for an espresso based drink is $2.85, while the average price for brewed coffee is $1.38. The average espresso drive-thru business sells approximately 200-300 cups of espresso and coffee based drinks per day. The studies show that men drink as much coffee as women; each consuming an average of 1.6 cups per day. Women tend to be more concerned about price than their male counterparts.

The United States imports over $5 billion worth of coffee every year. Juan Valdez and his little donkey must be keeping very busy! Americans drink 460 million cups of coffee every day, which makes the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the entire world.

A scientific report from the University of California found that the steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amounts of antioxidants as three oranges. The antioxidants are heterocyclic compounds which prevents cancer and heart disease. Guess what! Coffee is good for you!

More than half of all Americans, 18 or older, drink coffee every day. This equates to approximately 150 million daily java drinkers. 30 million American adults drink specialty coffee beverages daily; such as mocha, latte, espresso, cafe mocha, cappuccino, frozen/iced coffee beverages, and so on.

Coffee sales are continually rising year after year. And so are the pricing modules! Coffee is the second largest commodity traded, next to oil. If you are looking for a business to get into, coffee is probably the best business for you to consider. Can you think of any other product that has such universal appeal, is easy to get into, and is relatively simple to operate?

Michael Stadneck grew up in Palermo Italy, where he enjoyed the finest gourmet coffee for the first 35 years of his life. As luck would have it, his first job in America was with Nescafe Coffee Company. After five years of hard work he was promoted to take over the specialty coffee franchise department.

Author: Michael Stadneck
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

Pour-over, automatic and satellite brewers are designed to produce traditional “American-style” coffee. These brewers drip heated water over gronded coffee in a filter. Pour-over models require manual filling of water reservoirs, while automatic urns and satellite brewers connect to a water line. One type of urn holds heated water in a separate chamber until the brew button is pushed, while another uses a heat exchanger. Some coffeemakers have heated plates below glass or metal decanters, while others dispense brewed coffee into insulated thermal or air-pots to keep the beverage warm. Freestanding, insulated urns hold up to 5 gallons of coffee and free up coffeemakers to make additional product while allowing service elsewhere.

Some coffee urns have heating systems that measure the temperature of the coffee and increase heat as needed. Manual brewers, such as French presses, are intended for tableside use. There are different designs and capacities of coffee urns available. Ranging from metallic coffee urns to highly polished coffee urns, all are available in the market. You can expect the coffee urn to have the following features:

Automatic temperature control which keeps the coffee hot for hours. Quick brewing – one cup per minute. Twist-to-secure cover. Two-way drip less faucet for easy serving. Interior water level markings for easy filling. Cool-tip filter basket for easy removal of grounds and stem.

Heat-resistant base and trim. Serving light indicates end of brewing cycle. Detachable cord. Durable aluminum construction. These (medium capacity) coffee urns can hold up to 30 to 45 cups of coffee and the price ranges from $35 to $50 (the price depends on the finishing too). There are larger for-office coffee urns also available. These have a capacity of holding around 55 to 60 cups of coffee and ranges from $90 to $150; the price depends on the type of material used like aluminium or stainless steel.

There are commercial coffee urns as well as electric coffee urns which have a capacity ranging from 5 gallons to 10 gallons. In electric coffee urns, there would be a thermometer on the front panel; it would have adjustable by-pass system, which gives the operator the ability to adjust the strength of the coffee. It would also automatically replenish the urn with fresh water as soon as it starts running low. It may also have automatic coffee agitation – where in you just push the brew button and walk away.

The electric coffee urns may also have cycle stop switch which gives the operator the ability to stop the brew cycle midstream. These electric urns come in attractive casing- all stainless steel construction. The price for such urns may range from $2000 to $4500 depending on the capacity of the coffee urn. Such urns are recommended for big offices wherein the employees have easy access to coffee and coffee consumption is quite high.

I personally do not like any of the urns and coffee making ways, where the coffee is not brewed fresh. I partically don’t like the urns that brew the coffee and then control the temperature for sometimes many hours at a time. I would go for the impress your guests, friends, staff and/or colleagues and get in a more professional barista with the correct equipment.

Do You LOVE good coffee? Heather is a qualified barista and shares many of her great coffee making tips. Register for Your FREE copy of the Health and Happiness Mag, that includes tips on coffee making like the professionals at http://www.womensinfoproducts.com/food/coffee

Author: Heather Richards
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Tissot virtual reality

A 2008 glance at Kona coffee retail prices shows options from $7 to 45 per pound. Contrary to the headline this actually sounds like a rather wide range where every market segment should be able to get their respective luxury-gourmet-coffee experience.

Yet if one subtracts all the products coat-tailing on the Kona name (e.g. ‘Kona Blend, ‘Kona Style’, ‘Kona Roast’) the range is getting much narrower. Nothing below $ 19.99 per pound, which appears somewhat genuine is to be found. If any other specifics like ‘Organic’ or ‘Extra Fancy’ are being added the prices are going quickly towards the $30 mark and above. Yet in supermarkets one can get for five bucks a wide variety of ordinary coffees and sale signs galore in the respective aisles. So who is getting rich here? And where is the discount stuff?

Let’s take a closer look of what Kona coffee actually is. The fabled Kona coffee belt stretches for 20 miles with only 2 miles width through the districts of North and South Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, USA. Ideal coffee growing conditions produce a very unique, highly aromatic, mellow, yet limited annual crop of the fabled ‘kona typica’ beans. Mostly small family farms line the two roads winding along the fertile slopes of the active volcanoes Hualalai and Mauna Kea. The verdant green scenery with the blue hues of the Pacific below is occasionally interrupted by the signs of coffee processors trying to entice the local farmers to sell them their freshly picked coffee cherries: ‘$1.60 CASH!’ or ‘WEEKLY: $1.55′ or ‘BUYING CHERRY-Always Highest Prices!’. (1 lb roasted coffee needs a 7.4 lbs of coffee cherry). Also, once the harvest comes to an end, ‘BUYING PARCHMENT’ banners will flap in the gentle ocean breeze. What’s called ‘parchment’ is the now pulped and dried coffee, still in a thin membrane covering the green bean, which will fetch a price in the range of $7.50 – $8.50 per pound.

And that’s the key to understanding the 100% Kona coffee’s economics: Every local Kona coffee farmer has the chance to sell their crop! No additional work as pulping, drying, storing, milling, sorting, roasting, packaging, labeling, marketing goes into it. Many choose to do so, as labor costs in Hawaii are at a premium and housing for low wage workers is nearly impossible to find on the island. The actual Kona Coffee Belt land is too steep and rocky to navigate with machinery and hard human labor is needed to plant, grow and harvest.

Most farm parcels are only of 3 – 5 acres average size and are capable of producing 20 – 40,000 pound of coffee cherry. Once picking costs are subtracted (50 cent per pound) the annual monies earned can be considered only an additional income. So farmers have their unpaid families and friends pitching in during picking season and then the numbers look somewhat better. Yet so far no one got rich farming Kona coffee – it still is a labor of passion similar to an old fashioned vintners’ backbreaking daily chores. And passion it is when a few of these traditional family farmers in the age of the internet are able to bring their product direct to the customers: No middlemen, no processors, no pooling of various farms, no store chains or roasters between the consumer and them. Even that for the farmers to process, package, ship, advertise, et al raises will their profits only marginal, it guarantees them independence. It’s added value for both parties, as customers know exactly where the beans come from and the farmer is able to care and quality-control the coffee from seed to cup.

The main factors driving the price of genuine Kona coffee are therefore: Kona as a limited growing region for a superb tasting product requiring intense hand labor, coupled with a steadfast national and international consumer demand that guarantees virtually no surpluses or discounted volumes of Kona coffee to be moved.

But with many folks never having experienced what a real handcrafted Kona coffee tastes like, the profit margin between the ‘commodity’ coffees and the rare 100% Kona coffee is too tempting for many roasters. The growing market of single origin, single estate coffees – as a Kona coffee should be labeled – is flooded with impostor coffee brands. So please do your research and don’t always believe what’s written on the bag when buying Kona coffee. Especially when the deal sounds too good to be true or it tastes like generic coffee, it is most likely that those beans haven’t seen Hawaii at all.

See many pictures and read more of how a small farm produces delicious, affordable 100% Kona coffee: http://www.bluehorsekona.com/ (low end pricing)

Life seen through the eyes of a little Hawaiian girl growing up on a genuine small coffee farm in Kona: http://www.athenaofhawaii.com/ (moderate pricing; celebrity clientele; presented in handcrafted wooden gift boxes and unique tapa cloth pouches)

Author: Joaquin Delanuit
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera News

Ok so you want to obtain a capresso coffee maker, Hawaiian Coffee product or some other kind of coffee associated product or accessory, lets just suppose you have chosen the coffee merchant from which to buy from and your finger is just about to hit the buy icon, did you contemplate asking this coffee store for a lower price? The answer is probably no.

Years ago before folk were able to acquire products such as stainless steel coffee machines and other great coffee items with the help of the web you would check out your closest food and drink merchant, find a suitable a product that was being sold at a discount and pay your money. I personally am one of a small number of people who chooses an item such as a Healthy Coffee product or some other food and drink item with the full intention of bargaining with the business owner in order to get a modest price discount.

Asking for cost discount when sourcing a coffee or related item may sound all very nice when a consumer is actually visiting a coffee warehouse but surely this would not be a reality when picking up things from online food and drink dealers and such like? well this is far from the truth as you are about to learn about the secret of haggling for a cut price coffee on the web. So for example say you have checked out a selection of coffee sites and know the rough cost of the item or the food and drink merchandise you need to acquire [ again lets suppose you need a electric coffee maker ], now you should make a note of all the smaller coffee internet dealers, what you are wanting to find is a coffee or food and drink supplier that quite clearly is not one of the big websites or merchant chains. Once you have your list of the smaller coffee websites you are set to do virtual battle in order to get a discount coffee purchase.

The important detail to be aware of is that nearly all the smaller coffee portals will be more likely to bargain with you because they are more likely to be desperate to get a sale and your future custom. Now say you need a Colombian Medellin Excelso pack or mocha coffee pack, to be quite honest it makes little difference which coffee or items you are looking for, choose about six of the coffee vendors you have found and email them the details of the lowest priced product that you are interested in, ask all the stores, would they possibly be able to offer you some sort of rate cut in order to better the other sites, say to these folk that you would rather prefer to do business with a smaller more family oriented coffee company than a massive uncaring chain of stores.

If you are more than happy to put in a little extra time when buying a coffee then hopefully the chances are your hard work will be well worthwhile and the deal you are given will be well worth both your patience and effort.

Also the smaller coffee companies deserve a little assistance don’t you think?

Valerie Shapero the coffee writer contributes for the high profile coffee website Fuzzy Coffee. An outstanding source for facts about beverages and drinks. Visit: http://fuzzycoffee.com

Author: Valerie Shapero
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Duty on LCD/Plasma TV

The home coffee maker is the most popular appliance purchased for the kitchen in North India, topping over 14 million units a year. Yet with so many different models, features and price ranges it can be extremely difficult to figure out which machine does what it’s supposed to. Simply, to make a great cup of coffee. What are the requirements of an excellent coffee brewer? To make it easy we narrow it down to 5 key components.

Heats Water To The Ideal 200 Degree Fahrenheit Recommended By Experts
You need water at a consistently high enough temperature to get proper extraction from the coffee beans. A consistent temperature is crucial, unfortunately most drip makers can’t deliver that. 200 degrees is the magic temperature for brewing coffee but most drip pots only get up to around 165, a few top out at around 180, not nearly hot enough for a proper extraction.

Very few coffee makers available reach that optimal temperature so shop carefully and make sure the maximum temperature is listed. Try to find one approved by the Specialty Coffee Association of India, the world’s largest coffee trade association that sets rigid quality standards for the coffee industry.

Includes A Thermal Carafe
What you hold your coffee in is vitally important. Using a bottom heated burner diminishes the quality and flavor of coffee as it literally burns the coffee over time. You may have experienced the burnt bitterness yourself if you have ever drank coffee that has sit on a burner for a long time. By keeping freshly brewed coffee in a thermal carafe instead of a burner your coffee will remain hot for hours without destroying it’s taste. It will be as fresh as when you first brewed it.

Easy To Clean and Maintain
Coffee makers can get dirty with prolonged use. To get the perfect drink you need to keep the parts clean. Of course the health benefits of keeping food equipment sanitary is obvious. Make sure the coffee maker is easy to disassemble, take apart and clean. The entire filter assembly should be quick to remove for easy cleaning.

Get Only The Features You Need
Do not be fooled by coffee brewers that throw in all sorts of gimmicks at a low price. The essential job of a drip coffee maker is to get water to the right temperature quickly and spread it over the coffee grounds. Weak steam nozzles, uneven, low grade grinders, glow in the dark alarm clocks. All these “extras” means you are paying for low quality gadgets rather than buying a machine for the main purpose of making coffee.

Durability That Can Last For Years
Home coffee makers range in price from around $50 to several hundred. It may surprise you to learn that the cheaper coffee makers may cost you more in the long run if you are a daily coffee drinker. Their cheap plastic parts and thin aluminum heating elements often cannot withstand the rigor of years of daily use and may need to be replaced every few years. Try to get a machine with better build quality, preferably one with more metal than plastic, especially if you plan to use your coffee maker at least once a day.

Shopping for the perfect coffee maker that consistently makes great coffee can be daunting. Hopefully, this article has made it easier for you. Keep in mind the five key areas, the most important being heating water to a proper 200 degrees. A thermal carafe is necessary for keeping coffee fresh and drinkable hours after brewing. Ease of use and maintenance, avoiding extra gimmicks and durability are the other key components of the best drip coffee brewers.

For tips on how to brew the perfect cup of coffee and using the ASUKA A600, the coffee maker which meets all the five requirements above visit http://www.acekreamers.com

ACEKreamers.com specializes in premium coffee machines and accessories. We are obsessed with making the perfect cup of java.

Syed muktha was born in 1984 India, Madurai, and now resides in Chennai. He had completed a Engineer’s Degree B.Tech. (IT). His hobby is playing chess and writing articles, and his main aim to write a novel for that he is working on. Recently ACE Kreamer’s offering his services to Cream Whipper and Commercial Blenders for more information to visit http://www.acekreamers.com/

Author: Syed Muktha Hussain
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canada duty