Great Article By Sherrill Of The Gourmet Coffee Snob

Gourmet Coffees Cost Only Pennies Per Cup for Premium Coffee When Brewed at Home From Fresh Roasted 100% Grade A Arabica Beans


Gourmet Coffee drinkers have become accustomed to paying $2 or more per cup for fresh brewed coffees at Premium coffee houses ­ and many sources are predicting those prices may increase to as much as $4 per cup soon due to expected increases in green coffee prices.

Smart gourmet coffee consumers have long known that premium coffee brewed at home costs just 12 cents or less per cup, depending on preferences for coffee strength.

Many coffee producers recommend starting with 1 tablespoon of fresh ground gourmet coffee beans per standard 6 ounce cup of water. Starbucks recommends double that amount for stronger coffees at 2 tablespoons per 6 ounce cup.

A pound of gourmet coffee (that is 16 Ounces or 1 Lb.) divided by 1 1/2 Ounces comes to roughly 10 pots of 10 cups (6 Ounce cups) equaling 100 cups for the cost of one pound of gourmet coffee beans.

At the average of 1.5 tablespoons per 6 ounce cup and average size of 12 ounce coffee mug, you can expect 50 cups of home brewed coffee per pound of gourmet beans!

Prices of premium gourmet beans range between $12 and $18 per pound, making a cup of home-brewed gourmet coffee, made fresh to your liking, cost only between .12 cents and .25 cents per cup!

Even the rarest and most expensive coffee sold, the exotic Kopi Luwak, at $175 per pound, is still less than $1.75 per cup when brewed at home!

Gourmet coffee consumers rarely consider the cost of their daily coffee in terms of how much it would cost to brew at home with prices of a pound of gourmet coffee beans versus a three cup a day coffee drinking habit at premium coffee house prices.

~~Sherrill~~

the gourmet coffee snob sez

Always Drink Better Coffee

SpotaJava Coffee

Coffee Facts

The word coffee comes from Kaffa, a region in Ethiopia where coffee beans may have been discovered.

About half of the people in the United States over the age of 18 (that's 107 million) drink coffee every day. On average, each coffee drinker consumes three and a half cups each day.

As early as the ninth century, people in the Ethiopian highlands were making a stout drink from ground coffee beans boiled in water.

Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries in South America, Central America, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

In 1971, a group of Seattle-based entrepreneurs opened a coffee shop called Starbucks. Today there are more than 6,000 Starbucks outlets in the United States. The chain also operates stores in 36 other countries.

Nearly 25 million farmers worldwide depend on coffee crops for their economic livelihood.

Coffee contains caffeine, the stimulant that gives you that "lift." Caffeine is the most popular drug in the world, and 90 percent of people in the United States consume it in some form every day.

Despite what you may believe, dark-roast coffee has less caffeine than coffee that's been lightly roasted.

Scandinavia boasts the highest per-capita coffee consumption in the world. On average, people in Finland drink more than four cups of coffee a day.

After oil, coffee is the world's second-most-valuable commodity exported by developing countries. The global coffee industry earns an estimated $60 billion annually.

Source: TLC

How Loyal are Coffee Drinkers? Not Very, Says Customers DNA Benchmark Study

More Than Half of All Starbuck’s Customers Visit Competitive Chains

While there are many millions of coffee drinkers who rely completely on Starbuck’s to satisfy their coffee urges, more than half of Starbuck’s customer visits come from customers who regularly visit Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s for a hot beverage and/or breakfast over the course of a month.

This is among the findings of QSRdna, a massive benchmark survey of the annual shopping habits over 15,000 quick serve restaurant (QSR) customers conducted by CustomersDNA, a marketing and research consulting firm.

The QSRdna report found that while 41 percent of Starbuck’s customer visits come from customers who can be considered “loyals” who did not visit any other coffee/breakfast chain during the average month, 53 percent, identified as “roamers,” also stopped by either Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s during an average month.

Shopping patterns for Dunkin’ Donuts’ customers were similar (42 percent loyals and 53 percent roamers). McDonald’s had the most loyal customers, with 62 percent of the visits by those that did not visit either Starbuck’s or Dunkin’ Donuts during the average month.

“The significance of these patterns became clear when we found that the roamers purchased a hot beverage and/or breakfast nearly twice as often as loyals,” said Dave Jenkins, CustomersDNA's co-founder. “During the average month, loyal customers of each of the three chains visited their favorite store 6.7 times, while the roamers averaged 13 visits per month. Capturing more of these sometime-customers to is key to winning the coffee/breakfast battle.”

The study examined consumer visit patterns, frequency and customer loyalty and menu preferences across five purchase occasions (breakfast, lunch/dinner, hot beverage only, cold beverage only and frozen treat only) over the course of a 12 month period. The report provides chain operators with a diagnostic tool for identifying, evaluating and attracting high-value customers as well as detailing their spending levels, the items they purchase and which other chains they patronize.

Source: Business Wire

Innovative, Gutsy, Will It Draw A Coffee Crowd? Modern Coffee's Coffee Container!

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/files/2011/04/Progress-Sketch-Layout.pdf

Say what you will about food trucks, but it is a fact that there should be more coffee trucks in the Bay Area. Here’s something along those lines, kinda.
In Oakland, Modern Coffee is teaming up with its neighbors Arcsine Architecture to create the Coffee Container, a “mobile brew bar” built into a 20-foot shipping container.
It’s anticipated to take a parking space on 13th Street, directly in between Modern Coffee and Arcsine, right smack on street. Unlike trucks, the Coffee Container will be big enough to have room for customers; they anticipate the box — or boxes like it — will be able to make appearances around town, around markets, etc.
If all goes to plan, they’re hoping to unveil it on Park(ing) Day 2011, which takes place in September. Until then, feast your eyes on the very cool early sketches of the Coffee Container, including the sidewalk window, bicycle pick-up window, floorplan, and more.

Modern Coffee: 411 13th Street, near Franklin, Oakland; (510) 835-8000 or @moderncoffee
.

Most French People Don't Have Any Idea That Coffee Can Be Like Wine.

Most French people don't have any idea that coffee can be like wine.
Take an espresso, for instance.
Unlike the Italian original, "un petit cafe" is typically made with cheaper, lower-grade Robusta beans that are not always fresh or perfectly roasted, and with little if any attention given to the coffee machine behind the counter.
The result is often a thinner, less flavourful brew which, coffee aficionados say, leaves something to be desired. "Most of it tastes like cat piss," said barista and art student Britney Bachmann, from Canada.

Civet coffee anyone?

Grounds For Change By David Clements - Langley Times

Research has shown how the energy from coffee grounds could be recycled, adopting techniques utilized at a number of laboratories to show that it’s not hard to convert coffee grounds to biofuel. A University of Nevada study estimated that the 16 billion pounds of coffee grounds produced each year could be converted into 340 million U.S. gallons of biodiesel.

Starbucks~Keurig

Starbucks has instant coffee Via out there. Soon their brand will be in KCups. Hey! Why go to Starbucks anymore?  This offering WILL NOT BE THE SAME. 
For if you think that little plasticy K-Cup Starbuckeroo is going to taste like the brew at their coffee house~you will be saddly mistaken.
I know why they did it, I just don't think it was the right thing to do,  my opinion.

Two Teas Are Being Tested By Our Public Taste Testers.

liQuid heaVen now has two 'most excellent' teas in taste test comparisons. We sent out jasMine bouQuet and diVine pLum to our tasters.

McDonald's sells more coffee than Starbucks

McDonald's sold 84 million cups for the last 12 months making it the biggest coffee seller in UK. What about Starbucks? Starbucks is a fifth!

Now, McDonald's is really something, it just started selling freshly ground coffee in 2007 and in less than 3 years, it not only challenges the incumbent coffee sellers, but over-taking them.

Again, you may wonder how long Starbucks has been in England.

Try 10 years! So this McDonald's growth is 'super over-powering when you think about it!

If you look at it from a marketing perspective, this is what the two Ps can assist in your marketing plan -pricing and places.

McDonald's has a huge distribution, so when it harness on its network, its exposure is amazing. Then, I believe McDonald's got the right price.

Sure, it might just be a few cents lesser than Starbucks, but if the taste is right and you get to save some money -why not?

Source: oncoffeemakers.com

Crave Caffeine? It May Be in Your Genes

DNA May Influence How Much Caffeine People Consume, Researchers Say

DNA may play a large role in determining how much caffeine people consume in beverages such as coffee, tea, and soda and food such as chocolate, new research indicates.

Scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health, the National Cancer Institute, and other institutions say they have discovered two genetic variations that influence the metabolism of caffeine and are associated with how much caffeine people consume. People with particular variations of two specific genes are more likely to consume caffeine, and to drink more of it when they do, study leader Marilyn C. Cornelis, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health, tells WebMD.

Genes and Coffee

The genes are identified as CYP1A2, long known to play some role in caffeine metabolism, and another called AHR, which affects regulation of CYP1A2.

All people have both genes, but the study, involving more than 47,000 middle-aged Americans of European descent, finds that people with the highest-consumption variant for either gene consumed about 40 milligrams more caffeine than people with the lowest-consumption gene varieties. Forty milligrams is the equivalent of 1/3 cup of caffeinated coffee or one can of soda.

Cornelis says her own father may carry the variations that correspond to higher caffeine consumption because he drinks “at least 10 cups” daily.

“He’s not trying to achieve pleasurable effects,” she tells WebMD. “Rather, he’s trying to maintain levels as a means to avoid the withdrawal symptoms. Without a cup he’d wake up in the middle of the night with a headache.”

That suggests he “could possibly have the genetic profile of a fast caffeine metabolizer,” she says in an email.

The researchers say it’s likely that genetics plays a major role in other behaviors, such as alcohol consumption and smoking.

Coffee Consumption

The researchers say in a news release that their conclusions are based on an analysis of five studies conducted between 1984 and 2001. Average caffeine consumption via coffee, tea, caffeinated sodas, or chocolate was recorded.

About 80% of the caffeine intake among participants involved in the analysis was from coffee, similar to the adult caffeine consumption in the U.S. “We propose that those with the genotype corresponding to ‘higher caffeine consumption’ are metabolizing caffeine at a different rate vs. those with the ‘lower caffeine consumption’ genotype, and so require a different level of intake to maintain or achieve physiological caffeine levels that produce pleasurable effects,” Cornelis tells WebMD.

So what does this mean?

“Clearly these genetic variants are affecting how our body processes caffeine,” she tells WebMD.

Caffeine is implicated in a number of medical and physiological conditions. Caffeine affects mood, sleep patterns, energy levels, and mental and physical performance.

“Caffeinated products, particularly coffee, have long been implicated in various health conditions.”

She says that “studying the effects of caffeine, say, on the cardiovascular system, would be challenging if the group of subjects we’re studying process caffeine differently.”

More ‘Caffeine Genes’ May Be Identified

This genetic knowledge could be used “to advance caffeine research and potentially identify subgroups, defined by genotype, of the population most susceptible to the effects of caffeine,” Cornelis tells WebMD. “More research on the precise function of these variants is needed, however, and there are likely more ‘caffeine genes’ to be identified.”

She tells WebMD that her team’s findings “demonstrate that our search approach -- scanning the entire human genome -- works.”

Also, it shows for the first time that genetics may be responsible for inherited differences in how people drink coffee.

Source: WebMD

Mass 'scareware' attack hits 1.5M websites

A massive attack that's trying to scare computer users into visiting a bogus antivirus site has infected more than 1.5 million websites and continues to spread, according to an Internet security firm.

Several pages on Apple's iTunes store have been infected.

The so-called LizaMoon "SQL injection attack" began Tuesday and is being tracked by Websense. Such attacks redirect users by exploiting programming errors and poorly written code and scripts.

eWeek says the attack is "out of control ... with no end in sight." Nearly half the compromised sites are in the United States. Other affected countries include United Kingdom, Kuwait, India, Australia, Turkey, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Taiwan and Chile.

VentureBeat writes that the attack "shows that malware is a bigger menace than ever and that many web sites aren't protected."

Websense has a Q&A about the attack.

Source: USA Today