Archive for the ‘Gourmet Coffee’ Category
Drink coffee to reduce wrinkles
A cup of instant coffee has shown promising results in smoothing out facial wrinkles and overcoming the need for various lotions.
The high content of collagen – the compound commonly found in many anti-wrinkle creams and also administered as “filler” by cosmetic surgeons to remove fine lines and wrinkles – can instantly smooth out wrinkles.
“Collagen is just one popular ingredient used to lend a more skin/beauty-friendly image to a product, and is increasingly found not just in beauty products but also in food and drink products – including coffee,” the Daily Express quoted David Jago, director of trends and innovation at market analysts Mintel.
Nescafe has recently launched a range of coffee sachets containing collagen. Aimed at women, the coffee contains coffee, skimmed milk and 200g of collagen. The product is as yet only available to buy in Singapore.
Health officials still doubt the effectiveness of such products, stressing that collagen simply breaks down by the gut before being excreted.
Tea and Coffee break(through) – as naturally dyed clothing reaches Uk
Tea and coffee lovers can soon wear their passion on their sleeve as a new range of clothing launches in the Uk – naturally dyed with their favourite drink.
Cotton Roots – experts in fairtrade and organic corporate clothing – has been brewing the latest technology from India which using natural dyes to “fix” colours, a process which has been impossible commercially before.
Designed to be eco-friendly, ethical, affordable and fun – it allows natural ingredients including coffee, tea, and also pomegranate, henna and onions to be used as dyes for a huge range of clothing and merchandise, which can be branded with company logos and slogans.
And by using products made in Fairtrade approved factories Cotton Roots can guarantee long-life garment quality, while minimising their environmental impact.
Cotton Roots founder Susan Waters says her inspiration came over a cup of tea at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Susan had stared at a fabulous clothing collection – hundreds of years old, yet still vibrant, rich and colourful. All the clothes had been dyed using traditional techniques, ancient in origin. She had seen how people throughout history had used plants, minerals, salts and sunlight to dye their clothes. Without the need for harsh chemicals they had achieved colours which were soft yet richer than modern dyes.
But it was the cup of tea that brewed the idea.
What if she could produce real “Tea” shirts – T shirts actually dyed with tea?
And what about real “tea” bags, and real “tea” towels. …A new piece of sustainable manufacturing from our past brought to life for everyone?
Prices start at around £6.00 per t-shirt. Other naturally dyed products include aprons, bags, polo shirts, sweatshirts, formal shirts and chef wear.
(Source: press release)
Time to grab that cup of gourmet coffee cause it’s getting cold. Normally we do not see our first snow until the first week of Nov, but here it is the second week of Oct and we had our first snowfall.
Not to worry, it’s Minnesota, if you don’t like the weather then have a cup of coffee and it will change for ya LOL. We are a tough lot up here and this little bit of snow (2 inches in some spots) do not keep us from cranking out our gourmet coffee, flavored coffee. We are looking at coming out with some new flavored coffees here in a few days after a bit more testing both in house and some tastings we have upcoming.
People often wonder where do we hold these tastings? Well we can’t tell people ahead of time cause we want real world tests so we pick a shop that we offer sell our coffee too and set up a free tasting. We want to find out what just regular people think about the flavors we are offering, and it also brings a bit of interest to the coffee shop when we do a tasting.
So for those of you that are here on the internet looking for great gourmet coffee, and flavored coffees you can be assured that our flavored coffees have been tested and tested and tested again before we make them available.
Try to stay warm and if you need a cup of coffee, well brew one up
Sparky
For as long as they can remember, the farmers who grow coffee between the steep volcanic peaks here started the annual harvest in late September — until this year An erratic rainy season forced the farmers of the Santa Anita La Union Cooperative in this small town in Guatemala’s highlands to start picking coffee in the final days of August.
“Instead of raining constantly and slowly, it is raining very hard for short periods of time. And the temperatures are hotter, so that means the fruit, the coffee, is ripening very fast,” said Mynor Huerta, who provides technical assistance to the cooperative, as rain clouds gurgled overhead. While this year’s early harvest may prove to be a climatic anomaly, researchers say that it could be a forecast for coffee in the region.
The same conditions that have made Central America home to some of the world’s finest coffees also make it susceptible to the effects of climate change. Its moderate temperatures are already rising, its predictable rainy season is becoming irregular, and pests and fungi could invade altitudes where they previously couldn’t live. Although seemingly minor, small increases in temperature and slight changes in rainfall are predicted to have major consequences in coffee growing areas. While the conditions might make high-quality coffees more abundant and cheaper for a few years, the price will eventually rise as availability sinks in the long term, researchers said.
As a result of climate change, Central America farmers might have to move their crops to higher elevations, where less land is less available.
“Farmers are going to have to try to squeeze onto that land,” said Rafael A. Diaz, a Costa Rican economist who is part of a four-country research project aimed at documenting the effects of climate change on small coffee farmers.
The changes could be devastating for farmers, who will eventually be forced to replace their coffee trees with another crop to survive. Coffee, the world’s second-largest traded commodity behind petroleum, supports around 25 million growers and 100 million people around the globe once family members are added.
At the Santa Anita Cooperative, farmers said they have already felt a change. Climatic evidence is supporting them. The weather center nearest their farms has recorded a .5 degree Celsius increase in temperatures and a 14 percent increase in average rainfall from the 1990s to the 2000s, according to data from the country’s weather ministry.
A recent study by the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research said just a 1 degree Celsius rise in Brazil’s Sao Paulo growing region, for instance, would cause a drop in coffee production worth more than $113 million.
Central America is one of the regions likely to get both hotter and drier in coming decades. In the short term, that could actually help the few farmers growing high-quality coffees at high altitudes.
“As a scientist it pains me to say it, but the conditions for coffee growing in many of the highland areas, where the best coffee is grown, could be better for coffee in the coming years,” said Edwin Castellanos, a scientist for Guatemala’s Universidad Del Valle, who is part of a team conducting the regional study.
Governments in the region have long urged coffee growers to move to higher elevations, where finer coffee can be grown.
“The coffee grown at those altitudes could have higher yields and it’s likely that the producers will be able to take advantage in the short term by growing those high quality coffees more abundantly,” he said.
However, less land is available at those altitudes. According to Anacafe, the Guatemalan coffee-growing association, only 2.5 percent of Guatemalan land is suitable for growing coffee, producing some 495 million pounds of beans. About 150 million pounds of that coffee was grown at elevations of lower than 4,500 feet above sea level, lands that are likely to be hit by climate change.
The farmers at Santa Anita, which sits about 4,000 feet above sea level, consider the changing temperatures a serious threat to their way of life.
“If we have to pick all the coffee in October and November, we won’t have enough help because our children will still be in school,” said Mariola Cifuentes, a coffee grower in the cooperative. “And if we can’t pick the coffee, it will fall [off the plant]. And we can’t afford that.” Cifuentes said the increase in temperatures has led to the spread of pests and of a fungus known as koleroga. As a result, the farmers — who raise Fair
Trade- and organic-certified coffee — have had to spray fungicides and pesticides more frequently.
“Dealing with these changes by spraying more fungicides or pesticides, because they are organic, is already costing these farmers more,” Huerta said.Scientists said the problem could be worse in the long-term. Farmers could combat some of the changes in humidity and temperature by using shade trees. In some cases, the trees could be trimmed to release trapped humidity. In others, more shade trees could be planted to cut down on the sun and heat that reaches the beans, Castellanos said.
But adapting their farms to the changing climate will only last so long. “It’s a problem of increased extremes,” Castellanos said. “Farmers in these regions will see hotter temperatures, longer periods of drought, more heavy downfalls, which can damage crops, and more storms.”
Yes we do do private label coffee. We are able with our state of the art equipment create your label and put it on our coffee. We already do it for a number of people and companies.
One of my personally proudest example is Mr. Bun E Carlos the drummer for the rock band Cheap Trick. I spent my high school years in Beloit WI not that far from the home of the then rising band Cheap Trick. Made of of the great singer Robin Zander, future designer of the 12 string bass Tom Peterson, semi insane guitarist Rick Nielsen, and the remarkable drummer Bun E Carlos, they were on the rise to the top and I had seen them many times. Sometimes sneaking into an adults only show with a fake ID. Little did I know then that later in life I would become friends with the band.
Many years later, around 1990 I got to know a rock concert promoter. One day I get a call from him saying you know I am doing a show tonite in Iowa, if you wanna come down you can see Cheap Trick. Well it didn’t take me long before I was down there and rocking to a band I had not seen live in years. After the show I got to meet the band and me and Bun E hit it off. Our love of music, and fishing the mighty muskie grew into a still standing friendship.
Flash forward 8 years and I am hanging out with the band at First Ave in Minneapolis Minnesota. As usual I brought several bags of coffee from my retail coffeeshop for the band as a thank you gift for the back stage passes and free tickets to the show. Bun E and I are talking as I hand him a couple bags of coffee. Robin happens to walk by and said something to the effect of “Excellent now we got some good coffee to drink, say how come your not selling a Bun E Carlos Blend?“. What an idea, dahhhh… I look at Bun E he looks at me and I say you wanna have your own brand of Gourmet Coffee? Sure he says and the rest is history.
Bun E Carlos Blend was born on that nite and to this day I do not think there is another Rock Star or band that has their own brand of Coffee. The blend has gone through several revisions and refinements and is now in Version 2.0 to keep up with the TECH TALK.. LOL… It has also been shipped all over the world. From Japan to Italy, Bulgaria, France, England, Spain, Canada, almost every state in the US. We have shipped Bun E’s coffee all over the place.
So if you have ever thought of having your own Brand of Coffee we can certainly help you develop your own line of coffee. Drop me an email or give me a call and we will talk about it.
Sparky
This is part one of a multi part article. Enjoy I am sure it will be all over blogs everywhere fast.
The classification of coffee
To any one starting their own career in the coffee sector or any one already boasting some background in it, though wishing to widen their own technical knowledge, please remember henceforth that the classification of green coffee and cuptasting altogether represent one of the key points from both a technical and a commercial point of view.
If you get to know the classifications of the different coffee types, you can:
- precisely define the terminology in use in purchase deeds in compliance with the standards in force on the international coffee market;
- check the consistency of quotations and prices, considering that they are settled upon the basis of a classification;
- check if the coffee you have purchased really corresponds to the quality description given in the purchase deed. The same applies to any purchase made under the subject to sample approval clause;
- use classification to check if the quality of the coffee you have purchased and/or been supplied with meets the requirements as given in the parameters ruling coffee imports in our country or in any other country if coffee is later re-exported.
Purchase contracts often report quite brief descriptions of coffees due to practical reasons, so the buyer is discretionally entitled to require a sample of the lot to ascertain its quality before it is shipped.
Moreover, as we all know, the European Coffee Contract entitles us to draw some samples of the lot upon its arrival at destination and to claim for quality difference, within a defined period of time, either by amicable negotiation or arbitration.
Afew other reasons to widen your knowledge of coffee classification and
cuptasting are set out here below:
- Formulate and modify blends. If you can cuptaste coffee you can evaluate new coffees, identify which blends they can be used in, or what other coffees they may replace, with a corresponding advantage in terms of quality or price compared to their common use..
- Plan the roasting programmes which better suite any type or lot of coffee, in
accordance with its organoleptic characteristics and depending on the blend into which it is to be introduced. Using the modern roasting technologies, depending on the use and taste in the cup you wish a particular coffee to have, your tasting skills will allow you to identify the most suitable roasting programme. – Optimise coffee price/quality ratio. If you get to know the different coffee
Qualities in depth, you can achieve two production objectives: good quality blends at a lower price, or higher quality blends at the same price. A further advantage is to be gained: coffees can be interchanged, thus maintaining the quality of the final product through the use of alternative coffees in blends.
Coffee has its own value on the market as a raw commodity; however it gain some added value depending on the use which you make of it: the coffee market price plus the added value which is conferred upon the final product by the taster/classifier thanks to his/her know-how play a key role in both technical and economic terms within the coffee industry and trade.
Considering the importance of classification and tasting skills, we shall first spend a few words on the methodology and the parameters used to evaluate green coffee, which must comply with a number of standard universally acknowledged and accepted methods.
THE MAIN COMMERCIAL CLASSIFICATIONS
Classification is fundamental in the coffee trade since it would not be possible to identify the characteristics and value of the product to be traded on the market without it. The alternative would require work on some representative samples of each consignment, however this would entail a waste of time and lengthy negotiations which is in clear contrast with the current need for operations to be completed in real time.
Hence the need to define the coffee commercial types whose description can lay the basis for negotiations. Various classifications already exist in the trade, each of which considers some peculiar elements characterising the product to meet specific practical needs. The characteristics which are normally taken into account in order to
Origin Classification by Type or Grade
Botanical species Complementary descriptions:
Year of crop Colour
Processing method Roasting
Form of the bean Aroma (Flavour)
Size of the bean Taste in cup
produce a correct and complete evaluation of the product are as follows:
Here follows a brief analysis of the different classifications:
CLASSIFICATION BY ORIGIN
This identifies the country of origin, a production area, and sometimes takes its name from the shipping port as in the case of the Santos type. As it is well known, the International Coffee Agreement provides for coffee types to be grouped together into three broad categories:
MILDS
ROBUSTA
UNWASHED ARABICA (Brazilian)
MILDS: this category includes all fine Arabica coffees which are grown in Central and South America; thus unwashed Brazilian coffees do not fall into it. Good quality washed Arabica coffees grown in Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and the Congo are also considered as part of the Milds category.
These coffees are produced exclusively by wet processing and are normally identified with the name of the producing country (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia etc.).
Sometimes they are sub-divided following their production area, e.g. Medellin and
Armenia in Colombia, or Coatepec and Huatusco in Mexico. In some cases the producer or a particular plantation are mentioned.
Furthermore, washed coffees, particularly those from Central America, are also classified in accordance with the altitude of the production area.
ROBUSTA: Robusta coffees are mainly grown in Africa and Asia; they are generally labelled with the country of origin and occasionally the production area or the shipping port. In addition to these indications, the description also gives the grade (corresponding to the type in Indonesia), while for all african countries indicates the screen. It must also specify the processing method, washed or unwashed.
BRAZILIAN: these account for about 30 to 40% of the world production and include all the qualities which are grown in the states of Brazil (S. Paolo, Parana, Sul de Minas etc.).
Commercially though, they fall into three main categories: the Santos, the Parana and the Rio/Minas coffees, plus one more category including Robusta coffees only, which is called Conilon. However, more precise descriptions are often used in Brazil referring to the production area such as Cerrado, Triangulo, Mineiro, Sul de Minas, Mogiana etc.
BOTANICAL SPECIES
The commercial description often gives the botanical species of origin, by now limited to ARABICA and ROBUSTA, since the Liberica and the Excelsa species have virtually disappeared. Arabusta coffees, a new botanical species, have not reached such volumes yet as to be considered a separate species.
THE YEAR OF CROP
Normally, this is given as straddling two years such as 2006/2007, since the ICO official coffee year begins on 1st October every year and ends on 30th September the following year; crops in Brazil (which is the largest producer worldwide), however, statistically start on 1st July and ends on 30th June of the following year. The year of crop is fairly important, especially in the period running between two crops. It plays a role since old and new coffees have different commercial values. Other indications relating to harvests are as follows:
CURRENT CROP Current harvest
PAST CROP Past harvest
NEW CROP New harvest
OLD CROP Old harvest
THE METHOD OF PREPARATION
The processing method used is often referred to. Thus the definition washed applies to coffees which are prepared by wet processing, and unwashed to those prepared using dry processes. Other types of processing are also in use, such as peeled, hand-picked, machine cleaned, plus the recently introduced Brazilian cherry pulped system which is called descascado em cereja.
THE SHAPE OF THE BEAN
Flat bean – sometimes long bean especially in the Tipica variety.
Bourbon – flat-beaned Arabica, slightly rounded at its ends.
Peaberry – small, roundish bean, present both in Arabica and Robusta coffees.
Once this coffee was called perla (pearl) in Italy, where it is now commonly known as caracolito, while it is called Moka in Brazil.
Maragogype – flat giant bean with central irregular cut.
Robusta – a bean showing convex front face and rounded ends. The Indian variety has beans with pointed ends. Indonesian and Vietnamese Robusta coffees often have an irregular central cut which is more open than other Robustas.
To be continued
Well another summer is slipping by faster than I care to see happen, but with that comes a new round of special flavors that we have created. This month we are releasing 4 new flavored coffees to add to our never ending list of flavors.
The four all fall into that Fall season flavors but are certainly good anytime of the year.
Toasted Marshmellow Flavored Coffee – WOW.. ever put a marshmellow in your cup of coffee? If you haven’t you should it is awesome. But you can never find a toasted one. Somehow we have come up with the flavor of a finely toasted marshmellow and mixed it into the cup of coffee. No more waiting for the marshmellow to melt, its in there.
Caramelized Pralines Flavored Coffee – Caramel with Pralines make for a perfect cup of coffee while sitting on the deck watching the sunset.
Farmhouse Apple Flavored Coffee – Apples fresh from the tree placed in your cup of coffee. A marvalous taste treat.
Caramel Toddy Flavored Coffee – Another caramel flavored coffee, is there anything that caramel doesn’t taste good with? If so we have not found it yet… look out for new caramel flavored coffees.
We keep comeing up with more and more flavored coffees. It simply astounds me. They go out for sample tastings where people with a taste for coffee hang out, and each month we come up with a few new flavors to add to the growing list of coffees we offer.
As always our flavored coffees are made with the same gourmet coffee we offer for sale elsewhere on our site, we do not use second rate beans in any of our coffees. So you get the Greatness of Hand selected gourmet beans and flavors that are made from all natural ingredients. Can it be any better?
Have a Great Cup of Coffee
Sparky
Cappuccinos & Espressos In order to make sure that you are able to taste both the milk and the coffee together in the cup, as opposed to that odd “broth with a froth” that unfortunately too many coffee shops tend to pass off as an Italian cappuccino, the barista must check the milk temperature by keeping a hand on the jug throughout the steaming process and be so experienced as to make sure that the jug itself does not get over 72 centigrade degrees. Indeed, if the temperature is any higher that this, the overheated milk instantly loses its proteins and taste.
Besides this, the milk must be frothed up until it becomes creamy as opposed to thin and airy: the core ability of the barista lies in allowing no air bubbles to form inside it, so that the milk does not go flat within seconds as it typically does if the cappuccino is not prepared properly. The coffee can be layered with chocolate, hazelnut, custard, or zabaglione-themed creams, or else with a liqueur base of either Limoncino, Amaretto or Marsala. All of them are the result of sheer hand skill, tradition and flair.
Mariano Semino, who has won the much prized Italian championship in cappuccino- making, is working for the Ca’puccino branch at Harrods. He is an expert in creating any taste nuance of cappuccino and espresso you can wish for and is set to bring his expertise to the Westfield branch. Apart from making a big point of cleaning the steamer properly each time, so that milk can never curdle on it and spoil your cappuccino, he jealously guards his secret recipes for the creams he prepares on site to spike his special espressos.
You can find espresso coffees ready in our gourmet coffee roasts section.
Hope you find a new joy in how to make a proper espresso
Sparky
For those that have been here in the past you will notice a new look to the site. Instead of our menu along the side we have it as buttons along the top. Hope this makes it easier to navigate the site and looks better than the old format. You will still find a few pages that are in older formats from the history of the site, so if you look around enough you will find bits and pieces of the site as it changed over time.
There are more changes in store as we move forward with some other design elements to make it easier to find what your looking for.
We have also opened up a new testimonial system on the site. This way you can leave your comments there about our gourmet coffee, flavored coffee, or the site.
Well I hope the old time customers are not shocked by the changes in the site, we still have the same great gourmet coffee, flavored coffee, green beans, coffee blends and all the great coffee you have come to enjoy and rely on we just put on some new makeup LOL
Sparky
A new study is out that says it is not the gourmet coffee that causes coffee breath but rather it is the milk and cream people use in their drinks. Cup of coffee a day keeps bad breath at bay
Apparently the cream and milk products produce and environment that the bacteria loves and that causes your bad breath, The study also says that coffee actually helps to reduce those nasty things that give you bad breath.
So now you know you drink your gourmet coffee, or flavored coffee, and your breath is better than if you didn’t. But if you add milk or cream look out coffee breath.
Hope everyone is enjoying the great summer we have had so far. While it could have been better up here in Minnesota, not much rain and not as warm as it normally is, but it has still been a great time to enjoy the great coffee.
Have a good one and now you have another reason to drink that cup a coffee each and every day.
Sparky
We just added three more flavored coffees to our growing inventory of coffee flavors. We have probably one of the widest selection of coffee flavors available and it’s growning every month. Right now we offer over 60 different flavors and are adding new flavors every time we come up with something that is good, and what we added this month are beyond good, they are GREAT.
First is our previously announced Chocolate Orange flavored coffee. This one was so good we had to rush it out to you ahead of the other three.
Reggae Splash flavored coffee - this is like a tropical treat of flavors that is best described as coconut and fresh, sliced oranges with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Bubbling Butterscotch Sundae flavored coffee – Creamy, rich and just plain yummy. This tastes exactly like the hot butterscotch you put on top of your sundae. This is a must have for all you ice cream lovers. This will also make a perfect Iced Coffee.
Peaches-n-Cream flavored coffee – Plump, juicy, ripened georgia peaches topped with luscious, creamy whipped cream is the only way to describe this coffee. Another Perfect coffee that could be served over ice and make a perfect smoothy kind of drink.
So to everyone I hope you have a GREAT summer, and enjoy your coffee that you get from us. Remember we have a money back satisfaction guarantee on our coffee, if you don’t like it you can send it back.
Sparky