Happy Holidays, now grab some coffee

Happy Holidays from liQuid heaVen coffee. We would like to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday Season and an even better 2010.

_____________________________________

You’ve heard: “Grab a cup of coffee to relieve a headache.”

Better make it two cups. Studies show that 200 milligrams of caffeine—about the amount in 16 ounces of brewed coffee—does provide relief from headaches, including migraines. Exactly how caffeine relieves headaches isn’t clear. But scientists do know that caffeine boosts the activity of brain cells, causing surrounding blood vessels to constrict. One theory is that this constriction helps to relieve the pressure that causes the pain, says Robert Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of neurology and director of the Headache Clinic at the University of Vermont Medical School.


However, relying on caffeine long-term can backfire. When regular coffee drinkers miss their daily caffeine fix, this is often associated with a rebound increase in blood flow to the brain. Increased blood flow means increased pressure and, as a result, “withdrawal headaches” can occur. Shapiro counsels headache sufferers to limit caffeine intake and use it only to relieve headaches.

Why aren't more people brewing coffee at home?

Having your own home espresso or soft pod coffee machine is no longer a luxury anymore, it has become a MUST!

With today’s high prices of coffee house drinks (plus the added expense of gas, wear and tear on your vehicle, coupled with your time consumed while standing in line) it’s actually a cost effective savings, a no brainer if you will.

Envision getting up in the morning, pushing the on button on your Senseo, Simple Human or for that matter, any single cup brewer and within minutes you have a delicious hot brewed cup of coffee to enjoy while searching the internet or preparing for your daily routine.

Cost? Pennies on the dollar as compared to a coffee house brewed cup.

If this is the case, ( and it is ) then why do so many people NOT do this?

Is it the profuse amount of discretionary money that the coffee drinking public has to its credit? Is it force of habit? Is it status? Or, are they not aware of what they are missing by investing in a single cup pod brewer of their own?

Somebody please tell me because I just don't get it.

Then again, two years ago when I got my cell phone I terminated my home phone and saved a bundle each and every month; now this seems to be the trend. Maybe I am ahead of my time?

15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee

This is a great, fun little illustration about coffee. Read it here.

Coffee house sales on the rise

This statistic does amount to a hill of beans!

U.S. sales at coffee houses are predicted to increase 125% by 2010.

This is certainly good news for the coffee houses, but am I missing something?

Why don't Americans invest in a POD brewer and get that coffee house experience inside their homes?

We wake up to a cup of liQuid heaVen each and every morning and save a ton of money inclusive of time, gas, wear and tear on the vechicle not to mention the savings on our coffee versus the coffee houses. It's a no brainer!

Dunn Bros Coffee The Kenya Project

Dunn Bros Coffee has partnered with the World Bank and Deloitte Consulting to improve coffee farming in Kenya.

In 2008, Dunn Bros Coffee CEO Chris Eilers and coffee buyer Scott Kee visited the Gakurari Factory in the Gatanga region of Kenya and found a coffee washing station in disrepair. The outmoded machinery ran on an expensive and inefficient diesel motor resulting in poorly washed coffee that debased the quality and the price which farmers could gross for their crop.

In partnership with the World Bank and Deloitte Consulting, a new Aquapulper went into effect on October 27th, 2009. This Aquapulper runs on cleaner electric power and affords more efficient processing and cleaner coffee beans; all while using less than 2 percent of the water used by the old machine.

Dunn Bros Coffee customers appreciate the company’s dedication to this project, and Dunn Bros Coffee has committed to invest in these projects in the future. A portion of the profits from Gatanga region coffee purchased at Dunn Bros Coffee shops helped pay for the new Aquapulper and will support future sustainability projects.
 
Read more at Dunn Bros

Pods vs. K-Cups no contest

One trait I will admit to (and this has been confirmed by almost ALL who know me) is that I am a very practical person.

I have watched the explosion of 'the K-cup revolution' and I ask why?

Why are consumers wishing to pay more for the k-cup and its brewers?

The k-cup cup of coffee is at best, as good as, but not superior to a pod cup of coffee. I do not see the k-cup as superior to any form of coffee.

I am not going to harp on "waste attributed to the k-cup", it is humongous! It is packaging within packaging, such a waste.

I have looked at the K-cup brewers. Expensive, flimsy plastic and poorly constructed. Yet, they are popular, go figure. They are no where comparable to Senseo or what I feel is one of the best single cup POD brewers currently out there - SimpleHuman.

We here at liQuid heaVen will always be devoted to our PODS.

Pods will be with us for a long time and will always be the delivery vehicle of choice.

A few coffees a day keeps liver disease at bay

WASHINGTON — Researchers in the United States have found another good reason to go to the local espresso bar: several cups of coffee a day could halt the progression of liver disease, a study showed Wednesday.

Sufferers of chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease who drank three or more cups of coffee per day slashed their risk of the disease progressing by 53 percent compared to patients who drank no coffee, the study led by Neal Freedman of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) showed.

For the study, 766 participants enrolled in the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-Term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) trial -- all of whom had hepatitis C which had not responded to treatment with anti-viral drugs -- were asked to report how many cups of coffee they drank every day.

The patients were seen every three months during the 3.8-year study and liver biopsies were taken at 1.5 and 3.5 five years to determine the progression of liver disease.

"We observed an inverse association between coffee intake and liver disease progression," meaning patients who drank three or more cups of java were less likely to see their liver disease worsen than non-drinkers, wrote the authors of the study, which will be published in the November issue of Hepatology.

The researchers put forward several ways in which coffee intake might protect against liver disease, including by reducing the risk of type two diabetes, which has been associated with liver illness; or by reducing inflammation, which is thought to cause fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver.

Even caffeine, the chemical that gives a cup of coffee its oomph, came under the spotlight, having been found in previous studies to inhibit liver cancer in rats.
But drinking black or green tea, which also contain caffeine, had little impact on the progression of liver disease, although there were few tea drinkers in the study.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) three to four million people contract hepatitis C each year.

Seventy percent of cases become chronic and can cause cirrhosis or liver cancer.