GUIDE TO COFFEE DRINKS

London-based graphic designer David Staffell

CLEVER DRIPPER?

[Photo: Liz Clayton]

Serious Eats features a Japanese device called the Clever Dripper that makes coffee through a hybrid of the principles of immersion brewing—or steeping like a French Press—with the principles of extraction via pouring water over the grounds into a conical brewer.

AFOGATTO YOU

COLLECTING MORE EVIDENCE: COFFEE IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN

Like all of us, I gravitate toward news and information that support beliefs I already hold:

A new study, which was published online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, shows that caffeinated coffee may be good for our brains and may, in fact, help keep Alzheimer’s at bay. Caffeine has been sited in previous studies as having potentially positive effects on the brain. and specifically Alzheimer’s.

The study looked at mice whose DNA had been tweaked to contain a human Alzheimer’s gene. Just like humans with familial Alzheimer’s, these mice become increasingly forgetful as they age.  The equivalent of four to five cups of caffeinated coffee every few days led to much improved memories in these Alzheimer’s mice.

COFFEE EXPLAINED

FROM fooducate.com

COFFEE: GREATEST ADDICTION?

Too much coffee makes you hear voices, really?

Reported by MSNBC and filed by me under the category of--
"We're really using some pretty thin science to prove we hate coffee," a recent Australian study claims to show a link between heavy coffee consumption, stress -- and auditory hallucinations.

The volunteers listened to white noise played through a computer's headphones for three minutes. Every time they heard even a snippet of Bing Crosby's White Christmas, they were told to press a hand tally counter. (They weren't aware of the real point of the study -- they were told it was about auditory perception.)
The song was never played.

Let's just stop there for a minute.  

Is it truly a valid science experiment for hallunications if the subject is TOLD what they will hear?  It wasn't an 'auditory perception,' it was a study group thinking they better push the button at some point because they were told they were going to hear ole Bing crooning--whether they actually heard it or not.   

But the participants who said they were very stressed, and very caffeinated -- those who regularly drank five or more cups per day, at 200 milligrams of caffeine each -- were more likely to imagine they'd heard it.

Whoa!  If I drank five or more cups of anything, I'd be stressed and thinking: I gotta hurry up and press this buzzer so I can get out of this experiment and go pee!!!!

"We believe that high stress, in addition to taking high levels of caffeine, makes people yet more stressed and thus makes them more likely to 'overreact' to the environment -- i.e., to hear things that just aren’t there," explains Simon Crowe, the lead author of the study and a neuroscientist at Australia's La Trobe University, located in Bundoora, Victoria. The report was published in the April issue of the Journal Personality and Individual Differences.

It's worth noting here that there are some limitations to the study: The levels of stress and caffeine consumption were both self-reported by the 92 volunteers who participated in the experiment. And what if, somehow, the caffeine-stressball combo made participants more eager to try to please the researchers -- yes, of course we heard the song! It's lovely, isn't it?! 

sigh. . .

COFFEE TIME

Best Coffee in the Miami Airport?

Forget Starbucks. Find a place that serves cafe con leche. Beg for a paper cup instead of Styrofoam. Enjoy!

I found mine at the Lorena Garcia Cocina immediately next to the Mojito Bar, (I know--it was a tough choice) at gate D-53 in the American Airlines Concourse.

OH YES! COFFEE ON A STICK!

http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2011/04/breakfast-for-dessert-boiled-custard.html

COFFEE FUELS SUCCESSFUL WOMEN

"Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee."*

There are good coffee days and there are not good coffee days.  It has nothing to do with the taste of the brew, although a weak blend can try anyone's patience. 

Good coffee days lend themselves to only one cup for the day.  It's a satisfying place to be.  I don't leave my coffee mug on the roof of the car as I exit the driveway. Things get done all the way to 'finish.'  Co-workers don't intrude on your space and the microwave doesn't steam lunch into a gooey mess.  The good coffee days are when you read an article that supports one's own prejudices about the benefits of drinking coffee—things like coffee provides antioxidants, may help fight against dementia, Parkinson's disease and type 2 Diabetes.  Women in a recent Swedish study who drank at least a cup of coffee every day had a 25 percent lower risk of stroke, compared to those who drank less coffee or none at all.  One appreciates these articles, as they offset another recent article that said coffee consumption results in heightened anxiety, caffeine addiction, or (gulp!) dry skin. 

Good organic, fair trade coffee purchased out of a bin at the local natural foods store makes me feel virtuous and right in supporting the workers of the world.  Coffee made at home in my beloved coffeemaker is the best.  This cup of coffee has just the right amount of organic, brown sugar and organic soy milk.  It's just the right temperature, as I pour it into my favorite insulated mug—the one that says “A day without coffee is like a day without coffee.”  Ah, a good coffee day.  The sun is shining, my laundry is folded and that ex-best friend from high school's Facebook picture makes her look ten years older than she really is.

The bad coffee days result in that afternoon second cup of brew.  Things are piled high on the desk and everything gets recorded on sticky notes instead of lining up neatly on the To Do pad.  The phone sits silent until the exact moment when I decide to place a call on my cell phone.  Bad coffee days are cloudy times when co-workers never seem to be able to put the new roll of paper towels on the roller in the kitchen.  Perhaps, I should type out instructions?  The bad coffee days include the ones where I wake up, stumble out to the kitchen, open the cupboard only to find that my suddenly new coffee drinker in the house, age 17, has neglected to tell me that he used the last of the ground beans during a late night study session over Skype.  On these days, I could almost be convinced that coffee consumption might result in high cholesterol or a stroke, if I had the time to worry about it. I'm certain that coffee's co-dependent partners are pastries and cookies.  My body can't ingest one without the other.  It doesn't help that a co-worker's two-day-old birthday cake is in the break room.  The one she brought to share, but later confessed she couldn't resist the temptation if she was left home alone with it.  Right now, the cake is plotting with the coffee pot against my waistline. However, let's be clear.  Chocolate in any form, even on bad coffee days, does not count as sugar consumption among any women I know. 

Here's a picture of my desk.  Was this a bad coffee day or a good one?  If I hadn't spilled my coffee all over my desk, I wouldn't have a photo opportunity to include in this blog post.  I wouldn't have been able to rationalize buying a replacement latte from our local barista, nor would I have gotten out the spray furniture polish and cleaned my entire desk.  It's actually perspective.  It's really not about the coffee. 

 

*coffee quote from Stephanie Piro, a cartoonist for Six Chix, who draws and writes “Fair Game.”  Her latest book is "My Cat Loves Me Naked.”

NO, YOU'RE NOT ALL THAT. . .

THE BANE: PHYSCIAL CLUTTER

Scientists find physical clutter negatively affects your ability to focus, process information | Unclutterer

 

FOAMING AT THE MOUTH

Salon is hosting a coffee art contest with prizes from Bodum.

Photo by Scooter Vagabond

TODAY ANY TIME YOU WANT IT

National Coffee Break is Jan 20, 2011

It's time for a coffee break!

THEY SHOULD HAVE SERVED

They Should Have Served That Cup of Coffee:  Seven Radical Remember the '60's, edited by Dick Cluster, published by South End Press.

COFFEE CHALLENGE

from the Evil Genius Store

IMPACT OF FAIR TRADE COFFEE

from Christine Rode, California College of the Arts

GRIND IT YOURSELF KINDA GIRL

from: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

MISPLACED

from the Evil Genius Store

MORE EVILS OF COFFEE

THE EVILS OF COFFEE

Well, that explains it.  From "The Evils of Coffee"

tin sign from www.popartuk.com

"Since the 1920s, coffee drinking has almost completely destroyed all decency and morality in the United States and Europe. During that time, violent crime, burglary, divorce and the inappropriate use of large vegetables by bored American women, have all increased to almost epidemic dimensions—if not to bubonic plague proportions.

"One's elders are laughed at, women smoke cigarettes quite openly, gentlemen go about bare-headed and girls as young as five and twenty expose their naked ankles to the gaze of passersby. The very fabric of society is warped beyond redemption and stretched to breaking point. Coincidence? I think not!

"Coffee, once an unusual and rare drink is now drunk openly on every street corner in every city from New York to San Francisco—and possibly even further west. Entire chains of coffee shops now brazenly sell their despicable wares on British High Streets and American Main Streets where even young children can see them.

"Thus from the very earliest age, our children begin to think of coffee drinking as stylish, or even fashionable. They are brainwashed into believing that coffee drinking is a perfectly acceptable alternative lifestyle, only to discover too late that it is a fast-track passport to ill-health, unbridled sexual promiscuity, greasy skin and debilitating headaches as my exhaustive research clearly proves."

COFFEE, PROCRASTINATION AND THE BIKE

I was on a deadline and still had managed to procrastinate away the largest part of the day.  The bike had to go to the shop.  I was leaving the next day. The bike and a new, as yet not-purchased heavy duty bike lock, had to be delivered 300+ miles south to my son waiting expectantly in his dorm room. 

What resulted was what each of us procrastinators hopes will happen every time, but almost never does.  I went by a small bike shop that recently opened in my neighborhood.  It was late in the afternoon, I noticed the sign said closing was in two hours.  Two bike guys took the dusty bike into their control.  "No problem, it'll be done tomorrow afternoon at the latest." 

"Actually, I'm leaving before noon tomorrow.  Could you work on it this afternoon?"

"No problem."

My heart soared.  Time to linger at a table outside the local coffee shop on a beautiful October day. I had tucked my laptop in my bag and now I had been gifted an hour and a half of free time. 

When I came back, it was fifteen minutes before closing and the bike was not done.  The bike shop owner said it would only be a few more minutes.  He offered me coffee--noting that he only brewed organic french press and free wi-fi.  I sat down on the couch in front of the picture window.  The gangly half puppy half adult dog joined me on the other faded cushion.   

When the bike was finished and loaded into my car, the owner pointed to his "car," a bicycle built for two.  He invited me to come by and hang out any time.  "We make coffee every morning and usually have fresh muffins."

This is indeed the reward that validates our procrastination.  

FAIR TRADE

I deposit my paycheck at my bank and in return they let me make
coffee from a new Keurig machine with a selection of blends that includes Newman's organic.  Is that fair trade?

Caffè breve

brevity was not his native language