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I am currently on a rant on my Twitter account.  I am 'factually' taking aim at the K-Cup.  What say you?  Please visit and comment.  Utmost thanks! 

Moderate Coffee/Tea Drinking Lowers Heart Disease Risk

Drinking coffee or tea in moderation reduces the risk of developing heart disease, and both high and moderate tea drinking reduces the risk of dying from the condition, according to a large-scale study from Dutch researchers.

The study, led by physicians and researchers at the University Medical Center Utrecht, examined data on coffee and tea consumption from 37,514 residents of The Netherlands who were followed for 13 years.

It found that people who had two to four cups a day of coffee had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those drinking less than two or more than four cups a day. Moderate coffee intake also slightly -- but not significantly -- reduced the risk of death from heart disease and all causes.

Tea's performance was stronger on both counts. Drinking three to six cups of tea a day was associated with a 45 percent reduced risk of death from heart disease, compared to drinking less than one cup a day, and drinking more than six cups of tea a day was associated with a 36 percent lower risk of getting heart disease in the first place.

The apparent protective effects may be linked to antioxidants and other plant chemicals in the beverages, but how they work is unclear, according to researchers.

No effect of coffee or tea consumption on the risk of stroke was seen in the study.

Study authors found, however, that coffee and tea drinkers in The Netherlands had very different health behaviors, with more coffee drinkers smoking and having less healthy diets.

Read the rest of the article here.

Could a Coffee Maker Be Worth $11,000?

The following excerpts are taken from a column written by James Joyner which appeared in Outside the Beltway.

The machine in question, the Clover, isn’t aimed at consumers but rather coffee shops. And it sounds pretty spiffy:

It brews coffee like a French press, but it’s more dramatic to watch and much more precise. Unlike lesser methods of making coffee, which are no more reliable than their users and can’t be counted on to produce the same cup twice, the Clover is equipped with a “PID algorithm” for regulating temperature and “programmable workflow modes” to help micromanage the brewing process. Latourell enumerates six variables that contribute to the taste of brewed coffee—choice of bean, grind, “dose” of coffee, brewing time, temperature, and amount of water. The first three, for better or worse, are in the hands of the barista (“Call me when you get a better grinder!” Latourell half-teases the Grumpy staff)—but the Clover can precisely regulate the last three.

The result, apparently, is some pretty good coffee. More importantly, it’s a different idea of coffee.

Starbucks uses these in select stores as do many smaller coffee houses around the country.

You can read the low down on this high tech brewer here.

A K-cup challenge

Here's a challenge. A challenge to all you glorious and exuberant K-cuppers out there, stand up for your cups of mediocre, at best, and that's a very big stretch, insipid watery brew.

And for God's sake stop referring to them as PODS! They are not PODS! Pods contain anywheres from 9 to 10.5 grams of COFFEE. K-Cups produce a substance, all be it dark that tastes like it was filtered through a homeless man's underpants.

They are little plastic non-recyclable housings for ultra fine grind grounds that were once coffee before being subjected to obliteration and then being placed into k-cups.

K-Cuppers are happy to state it only takes 45 seconds or less to get a cup of  coffee -again, I can't bring myself to say the word coffee and k-cup  in the same sentence. Anyway...45 seconds...they hoop and hollar at this as being genious, when it is not.

Time for an educative moment... Dontchatink...something gravely has to suffer if water is pushed through a miniscule little shitty plastic cup no bigger than that little milk capsule that is brought to you in a restaurant where you peel the foil back?

In comparison, Pods produce coffee in 3+ minutes. If you get the right brewer it will have a spary head which evenly distributes your filtered water in, around, and through the pod producing a true cup of coffee.

It is unbelievable the enormous amount of people in this country who consume k-cups. Someone please tell me why?