Pods = Better Coffee

What is a coffee pod?

Coffee pods are pre-measured for single-cup brewing, which means no grinding, no measuring, no mess—one pod equals one perfect cup! Single-cup brewing was developed as a solution to varying coffee tastes in the office environment. Coffee pods evolved from single-cup brewing systems that have been used in Europe for the past 30 years.

Why coffee pods?

Simply put, coffee pods offer a higher quality single-cup. Remember the old saying, ‘You can’t please all the people, all of the time?’ With pods you can! And here’s why—you have the choice of a variety of specialty-grade coffees and teas from around the world. Coffee pods cater to individual tastes.

Unlike a ‘pot’ of coffee — with pods one size can fit all.

By purchasing a variety of coffee and tea pods, it’s as if you have a coffee house right in your own kitchen! Plus, there’s no scooping, no measuring, no filters, no mess. Pods are quick and easy. Imagine the perfect cup in seconds! Your friends and family will be amazed!

The environmental single-cup choice

Due to their construction, pods are inherently respectful to the environment. Pods are the earth-friendly alternative to other package intensive single-cup options that are often associated with mediocre flavor, thin body, and a plastic aftertaste. Spent pods are fully biodegradable and make great garden compost. While the overwrap that preserves the freshness of each pod is not compostable or recyclable, this represents a small fraction of the volume of waste generated by other single-cup systems. Pod cartons are made from 100% recycled material (50%+ post consumer).

Source: Coffee Marvel dot com

Coffee Drinkers Won’t Get Price Break as Colombia Supply Slumps

Colombia, the second-largest producer of mild arabica coffee bought by companies such as Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) and Nestle SA, said consumers will have to get used to higher prices because of rising demand and reduced supply.

Production next year will fail to meet demand, keeping the cost of arabica coffee in a range of $2 to $3 a pound for the next 12 months, according to Colombian National Coffee Growers Federation’s Chief Executive Officer Luis Munoz. Higher prices are also reflecting increased farming costs, he said.

Coffee has almost doubled in the past year as storms hurt plants in Colombia and consumption increases globally. Rising costs are prompting Starbucks to boost the price of bagged coffee sold at U.S. cafes by an average of 17 percent, according to spokesman Alan Hilowitz. The company will likely continue to be an “important” buyer of Colombian coffee, Munoz said.

“The final consumer is realizing that you have to pay a bit more for those little enjoyments,” Munoz said yesterday in an interview at the federation’s headquarters in Bogota. “Not just Starbucks, but the industry in general, wouldn’t have been able to do anything besides raising prices.”

Higher prices reflect how increases in farming costs, like more expensive fertilizer, are starting to be passed onto consumers, Munoz said. At the same time, coffee drinkers from Brazil to Asia are increasing consumption and are willing to pay more for high-quality coffee, Munoz said. J

Arabica coffee for July delivery rose 0.75 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $2.6560 a pound at 1:00 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Coffee reached $3.089 a pound on May 3, the highest since May 1997.

Storm Damage

In Colombia, storms last year that damaged flowering likely will cut the second-quarter crop by about 10 percent to about 2 million bags, according to Munoz. Worldwide, producing nations’stocks are at “precarious” levels and won’t make a sustained recovery, partly because of adverse weather, he said.

“It’s been raining here for two years,” Munoz said.

The Colombian harvest will improve in the second half of the year, he said. The federation, which represents the majority of Colombia’s more than 553,000 coffee growers, forecasts 2011 production will be 9.5 million bags, compared with 8.9 million bags last year. In April, output declined 19 percent to 523,000 bags, from 647,000 bags a year earlier.

Global coffee supplies will likely be “tight” through the rest of the year as stockpiles held by exporting nations such as Colombia stay near a 40-year low, Jose Sette, head of the International Coffee Organization, said in February.

Brazil is the largest producer of arabica beans.

Source: Bloomberg

Sara Lee in talks for Brazil coffee brand

Sara Lee could buy Brazil's Marata coffee brand

* Brazil is the world's No. 2 coffee consumer market

SAO PAULO May 18 (Reuters) - U.S. diversified food company Sara Lee (SLE.N), which controls 22 percent of Brazil's retail coffee market, is in talks to buy Marata, a local producer of coffee and beverages, a local newspaper said on Wednesday.

The Valor Economico financial paper reported sources linked to both companies said Sara Lee was also open to a possible merger. An acquisition or merger would strengthen Sara Lee's foothold in Brazil's fast growing northeastern consumer market.

Brazil is the world's second-largest coffee consumer market after the United States, and is the world's largest producer and exporter of the bean.

Marata has seven processing plants in the region and a potential deal would be valued at 1 billion reais ($617 million), Valor said. Aside from coffee, the company produces teas and powdered drinks.

"The conversations began with an offer to buy from Sara Lee. Marata knows to grow, it has to make a move like this, but the family wants to continue in the business, so that's why a merger was suggested," one of those involved in the process told Valor.

Sara Lee was not available for a comment early Wednesday. A representative for Marata declined to comment. ($1=1.620 reais) (Reporting by Reese Ewing, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Source: Reuters

J.M. Smucker Completes Acquisition of Rowland Coffee

J.M. Smucker Co., the third biggest U.S. coffee maker, said it completed the acquisition of Rowland Coffee Roasters Inc.’s coffee brands and business operations for $360 million.

The purchase of the Miami-based seller of Hispanic brands Cafe Bustelo and Cafe Pilon will help J.M. Smucker of Orrville, Ohio, expand its coffee business in the northeast of the U.S. and southern Florida, where Rowland Coffee’s distribution channels are concentrated, according to a statement today.

Rowland Coffee is the first company that J.M. Smucker acquired since it bought Folgers Coffee Co. from Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) in 2008, according to a filing with the Security and Exchange Commission. J.M. Smucker, led by Co-Chief Executive Officers Timothy Smucker and Richard Smucker, gained 30 percent in the past year, compared with 17 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The company fell 22 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $75.22 in New York Stock Exchange trading today.

“The addition of the Cafe Bustelo and Cafe Pilon coffee brands, each with a rich heritage, provides us with a unique opportunity to establish a strong presence in coffee with Hispanic consumers in the U.S.,” said Richard Smucker in the statement.

J.M. Smucker said the merger will add about 5 cents a share to fiscal 2012 earnings, excluding the one-time costs of the transaction, which may reach as much as $30 million, according to the statement. About $10 million of the one-time costs will be incurred in fiscal 2012 and the rest through 2014.

Manufacturing Consolidated

Manufacturing operations will be consolidated into J.M. Smucker’s coffee facilities in New Orleans in about three years, the company said.

Sales at privately held Rowland Coffee surpassed $110 million in 2010, the statement said.

J.M. Smucker started in 1897, when Jerome Smucker opened a mill and first pressed cider in Orrville, Ohio, according to the company’s website. He then began selling apple butter from the back of a horse-drawn wagon.

Smucker’s sells products such as ice cream toppings, jams and syrups under its name. The company owns more than 30 brands in the U.S. and Canada and exports its products globally, according to a SEC filing.

*Source: Bloomberg

The Health Pros and Cons of Coffee

Over 18,000 studies have looked at coffee use in the past few decades. Lately more and more are reporting real health benefits for coffee drinkers—but they must be balanced against the brew’s possible bitter effects, especially in higher, caffeinated doses. An ideal "dose" of java is hard to determine, since people’s perceptions of "a cup of coffee" vary as widely as coffee-mug sizes do. But the good news is that many of the benefits are associated with around two to four (8-ounce) cups a day—"and that’s what most Americans drink anyway," notes Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a coffee expert at the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

 Some intriguing findings: PERKS
Brain Gains. Moderate coffee drinking—between 1 and 5 cups daily—may help reduce risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as Parkinson’s disease, studies suggest. How? Coffee’s antioxidants may prevent some damage to brain cells and boost the effects of neurotransmitters involved in cognitive function, say experts. Preliminary studies have noted that as coffee (or tea) intake rises, incidence of glioma, a form of brain cancer, tends to drop. Some researchers speculate that compounds in the brews could activate a DNA-repairing protein in cells—possibly preventing the DNA damage that can lead to cells becoming cancerous.

Defeating Diabetes. Studies link frequent coffee consumption (4 cups per day or more) with a lowered risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Scientists suspect that antioxidant compounds in coffee—cholorogenic acid and quinides—may boost cells’ sensitivity to insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar. While most of the research didn’t assess whether the brews were caffeinated, decaf may be even better, since other studies have found that caffeine tends to blunt the insulin-sensitivity boost.

Hearty Benefits.  Some studies show that moderate coffee drinkers (1 to 3 cups/day) have lower rates of stroke than non-coffee-drinkers; coffee’s antioxidants may help quell inflammation’s damaging effects on arteries. Some researchers speculate that the compounds might boost activation of nitric oxide, a substance that widens blood vessels (lowering blood pressure). More java isn’t better: a 5-cup or more daily habit is associated with higher heart disease risks. Researchers believe excessive caffeine may sabotage the antioxidants’ effects.

Liver Lover. Though the research is limited at best, it appears that the more coffee people drink, the lower their incidence of cirrhosis and other liver diseases. One analysis of nine studies found that every 2-cup increase in daily coffee intake was associated with a 43 percent lower risk of liver cancer. Possible explanation: caffeine and antioxidant chlorogenic and caffeic acids in coffee might prevent liver inflammation and inhibit cancer cells.

PANS
Java Jones. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, it can cause irritability or anxiety in high doses (and what’s "high" varies from person to person). How? Chemically, caffeine looks a lot like adenosine, a "slow-down" brain chemical associated with sleep and relaxation of blood vessels. Caffeine binds to adenosine receptors on nerve cells, leaving no room for adenosine to get in—so nerve cell activity speeds up, blood vessels constrict—and you get a caffeine buzz (or irritable jitters).

Tolerance. Of course, if you caffeinate yourself daily, you’ll likely develop tolerance to its effects and the jitters will subside. But that also means that eventually you’ll need a regular caffeine fix just to reach your baseline level of alertness. And your body will adapt by producing more adenosine receptors, making you more sensitive to the effects of adenosine. So if you don’t have your daily cup, you’ll likely develop withdrawal symptoms like extreme fatigue and splitting headaches (caused by constricted blood vessels).

A Sleep-Stealer. If you’re having trouble sleeping it might help to cut down on caffeinated coffee, or to drink it only early in the day. Generally it takes about 6 hours for the caffeine to clear your system, although it varies from person to person. The sleep-robbing effects may worsen as we age, too, a recent study suggests.

Cholesterol Caution. Boiled or unfiltered coffee (such as that made with a French press, or Turkish-style coffee) contains higher levels of cafestol, a compound that can increase blood levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Choose filtered methods instead, such as a drip coffee maker.

Prudence for Pregnant and Nursing Women. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says it’s safe for pregnant women to get a moderate amount of caffeine (no more than 200 mg, equivalent to 2 cups of coffee per day), but warns that it’s still not clear if higher intakes could increase risk of miscarriage. Since caffeine can pass into breast milk, nursing moms should cut down if their babies are restless or irritable.

Above article courtesy of the good people at EatingWell.com