Thursday

VIETNAMESE COFFEE POPSICLES

It's summer, what could be better than a coffee popsicle?  














Vietnamese Coffee Popsicles Ingredients:
  • 2 cups very strong French roast coffee, hot
  • 1 – 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk, divided
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  1. Place 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk in a bowl or measuring pitcher. Pour the hot coffee over the top and stir until blended. Allow the coffee to cool for a few minutes.
  2. Carefully pour the Vietnamese coffee into 12 popsicle molds, 2/3 – 3/4 full. Place in the freezer and freeze until slushy, about 1- 2 hours.
  3. Mix the heavy cream with 3 Tb. sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Pull the Popsicle out of the freezer.
  4. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of cream over the top of each pop and add a popsicle stick to the middle.
  5. Return to the freezer and freeze until hard.
  6. To remove from the molds: Fill the sink with warm water and dip the bottoms of the molds in the warm water for 30+ seconds. Pull the sticks straight up, don’t turn or twist them. 
  7. Eat immediately, or place in freezer bags and return to the freezer.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s) active time, 4+ hour(s) in the freezer
Number of servings (yield): 12

Recipe from A Spicy Perspective.

Tuesday

WHO'S ROASTING YOUR COFFEE?

infographic by Daniel Jaffee and Phil Howard


The graphic above shows the world’s 10 largest coffee roasters and the levels of their fair-trade certified coffee purchases, as of 2008 (the last year for which these data are available). Only four of the top 10 firms purchased any fair-trade certified coffee at all: Nestlé, Tchibo, Starbucks, and J.M. Smucker (Smucker purchased fair trade Millstone coffee, part of the Folger’s line, from Procter & Gamble in 2008). Nestlé, which received fair trade certification in 2005 from the Fairtrade Foundation in the U.K. for its “Partner’s Blend” line (a controversial decision within the movement), had the lowest percentage of fair trade purchases, at only 0.0025 percent. Number-two Kraft and number-three Sara Lee sold no fair trade-certified coffee as of 2008. - Phil Howard

Monday

Well Adjusted with Your Tea?













In most societies, you can still find well-adjusted, contented and calm people completely at peace with themselves and their universe.  Those are the tea drinkers.


~ Eric Bronson, Why Journalists and Geniuses Love Coffee and Hate Themselves an essay in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Philosophy.