Ironic Starbucks Bashing

http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2004/02/23/starbucks/index.html

A very funny, although poorly researched article... Among the un-facts... "Steven C. Topik, a coffee historian at the University of California at Irvine: "Coffee prices are at an all-time low, but Starbucks prices are still extremely high. They're selling mostly ritual and snob appeal. And foam."

Actually coffee traded today at $1.39, far from being an all time low...

and " One competing brand, at least, has apparently decided to market itself as a sort of anti-Starbucks. That is to say, anti-pretension. Anti-gibberish. Anti-faux European. And most distinctly pro-American.
Chock full o'Nuts, a classic American brand that was born in 1926 as a series of Manhattan nut shops before expanding into coffee in the '30s"

I guess the writer forgot to notice that Chock Full, is owned by Sarah Lee, which in turn is owned by Italian Robusta Slingers Segafredo-Zanneti.

Oh Well.

Cafestol-Coffee's Paradox

From Wikipedia... the free encyclopedia...


"Cafestol is a molecule present in coffee.
A typical bean of Coffea arabica contains about 0.6% cafestol by weight. Cafestol is present in highest quantity in unfiltered coffee drinks such as French press coffee or Turkish coffee. In filtered coffee drinks such as drip brewed coffee, it is present in only negligible amounts.
Studies have shown that regular consumption of boiled coffee increases serum cholesterol by 8% in men and 10% in women. For those drinking filter coffee, the effect was only significant for women.

Cafestol has also shown anticarcinogenic properties in rats.

According to a 2005 study by the Baylor College of Medicine, cafestol may act as an agonist ligand for the nuclear receptor Farnesoid X receptor and Pregnane X receptor, blocking cholesterol homeostasis."

I'll soon be conducting experiments dealing with Cafestol...expect more (somewhat) soon!

I have an on-line music store!

Check out my tracks! Leave a 'lil luv if yer feelin' it!

Ninth Street Espresso @ Chelsea Market

There's a new 9th street in NYC... CLick the link to the right for more info!

Ethiopian Coffee 2007

Ethiopia's Branding Battle

is an article I wrote with Tim Castle. Part 2 is coming next month and will feature interviews with Getawchew Mengistie of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office and Coffee industry lawyer, Marshall Fuss.

Enter The Dragon

Some Articles I've worked on have recently become viewable at Tea and Coffee Asia's website

Zen and The Art of Coffee

Roaster Training

Disclaimer-The "Asian Wannabees" part was added by the editor...

Ethiopia!

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has signed on to the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office's licensing agreement for the

Harrar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe coffee names.

Expect more about this on this page soon!