Brotherhood of the Bean

Tempted by decaffeinated coffee? Thinking of making the switch because of high blood pressure or other health concerns? Unable to get past the thought of drinking coffee that has been made from beans that might have has sat in methylene chloride or ethyl acetate for ten plus hours?

If the answered yes to any of these questions, the time to make the switch may have finally come.

The Brazilian coffee company Daterra has announced recently that they have created a naturally decaffeinated coffee. It took over twelve and a half years of natural breeding (no genetic modification, done the old fashion way) but they have succeeded in producing a 100% Arabica coffee that has only 1% caffeine!

The Opus 1 Exotic coffee is Rainforest Alliance certified, ISO 14001, and Utz Kapeh certified and poses no threats to the environment like other GMO products.

The time and money invested to succeed in this project must have been staggering.  With the bevy of decaffeinating processes available today seeing a project like this succeed it truly amazing.  And not surprising given this information about Daterra from their press release:

“Daterra started 20 years ago as a project of premium and sustainable agricultural products. Today, 100% of the agricultural business of Daterra is coffee. Its vision is to preserve the planet and protect its people. These are the seeds for a better world and great coffee. Daterra’s values revolve around massive investment in research, quality improvement, solid partnerships and responsible governance, environmental protection, and social development. Daterra grows its own seedlings and uses organic composting in 100% of the plantation. Daterra coffees participated as finalists in two Cup of Excellence competitions and were the coffee of choice of the 2005 and 2006 World Barista Champions. “

This is certainly a coffee company to keep an eye on in years to come.

Picture this… you have a nice little coffee shop, you have built up a nice and loyal customer base, life is pretty good.  One morning you hear that a new tenant will be move in next door.

You find yourself hoping they will be cool and begin to think about ways to generate more traffic for each other, whatever their business might be.  And then you learn who is coming — Starbucks.

Time stops for what seems like eternity as you contemplate the horror and impending doom.  But then you break the spell and decide you aren’t going to roll over and die, you decide to fight.

In what can only be described as a classic David versus Goliath fight, one Salt Lake City coffee house found itself in this exact situation.

For two months now the Cafe Villa Bella coffee house has been waging a veritable coffee war against Starbucks and using the leviathan’s reputation and consumer draw to the smaller shops advantage.

As independent shops, Bella Villa and other local merchants are free to add whatever they want to their menus, or stores.  Starbucks is for the most part constrained by it’s corporate image and corporate approved products.

By incorporating unique aspects in their shops such as live music, local art, full meals, and any number of other unique measures that Starbucks cannot, they have been doing what so many independent coffee shops have failed to do — Use Starbucks against Starbucks.

Its an idea just crazy enough that it might work.  Best of luck Bella Villa, we will be thinking about you!

Posted: 10:07 AM- OGDEN - A small coffee shop in Ogden has been serving up specialty brews for about seven months.
And for the last two, Cafe Ville Bella has had new neighbors — coffee behemoth Starbucks.
The owners of Ville Bella says it’s good and bad. Starbucks draws more people to the area, but the small shop is also in direct competition with the popular coffee chain.
Ville Bella and other independent shops have been trying to set their businesses apart by offering things like meals to local arts and music.

Usually I would associate “killer coffee” with some damn good brew made with a choice selection of beans. However in Williamsport, PA one woman’s plans for her ex-husband included cocaine spike coffee.

According to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, a bitter, no.. make that very bitter woman over her divorced came up with a plan to kill her husband. Her plan was to have his coffee spiked with cocaine to hopefully induce a heart attack. The poor fellow did have a bad ticker after all.

However, in what surely could make this woman a contender for a Darwin Award, she decided the best way to accomplish this murder would be to ask her ex-husband’s girlfriend to do the deed.

Needless to say, the police were notified. The drugs were allegedly give to the current girlfriend, several days later she called the ex-wife to tell her that she put the cocaine in his coffee and he was dead. The conversation — and the false information — was recorded.

Patricia Reiman was charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder, plus other offenses. The good news for Patricia is that I heard the coffee in the Williamsport County jail is killer.

The associated press recently reported that illy coffee, the Trieste, Italy, coffee producer will be joining forces with Coca-Cola to bring premium ready-to-drink coffee products to consumers around the world.

Ready-to-drink coffee products are a ten billion dollar a year industry that is growing at a rate of around ten percent annually.    The alliance of illy and Coca-Cola will harness illy’s coffee experience and couple it with Coca-Cola’s marketing and distribution engine.

Some may recall Coca-Cola Blak, Coke’s initial foray into the read-to-drink coffee market.  An interesting product that had its merits but was not embraced by the public as I believe Coca-Cola had initially hoped it would.

The new illy/Coca-Cola coffee drink will be based on the illy freddo.  Listen to what illy has to say about the illy freddo:

“illy freddo is the way to enjoy espresso even in summertime. The same blend is used and the coffee is always prepared on the spot: so the typical illy espresso aromas of honey, caramel and toasted bread are savored in an iced version…”

Based on my experience to date with illy espresso coffee, this is a coffee drink to keep an eye out for when it makes its appearance here in the U.S. and abroad.  For those who have not had a chance to try illy coffee you might want to take a look at our review of illy Medium Roast Expresso Coffee.

Coffee brewing temperatures vary widely between brands running a gauntlet of temperatures. At 195 degrees, coffee can give third degree burns which is no laughing matter.

Everyone has different temperatures they like to drink their coffee at, my late Grandfather for instance insisted that it be almost boiling as crazy as that may sound.

Irregardless of person choice, there has been but one way to know when your coffee is ready to drink — taking a sip. That was until the Smart Lid.

Smart Lid Systems is a Sydney based product development company whose focus is the commercial application of smart packaging systems.

Their Smart Coffee lid starts out a uniform brown color ad quickly changes to bright red when put on a cup of coffee.

If the lid is not put on the coffee correctly, the uniform brown ring at its base will turn red. After just a few cups of coffee a person will be able to gauge what color matches the temperature that he or she likes to drink their coffee.

I think this is a great product that I hope coffee houses and chains will adopt. Providing an easy to understand safety measure like this is more than worth any additional cost over conventional lids. And I am sure would be a welcomed whole-heartedly by their Legal departments.

I love celebrity gossip and the invented drama over the simplest of things. Sometimes it makes me laugh at the fickle/excentric/idiotic/funny behavior of the celebrity; and sometimes it makes my laugh at the idiocy of the paparazzi.

Its no surprise that I take an interest when I run across something on the RSS feeds that deals both a celebrity and coffee. It would seem that the UK paparazzi is up in arms over a perceived diva transgression made by none other than Victoria Beckham.

While visiting her father-in-law Ted Beckham at a hospital where he was recovering from a heart attack, Victoria caused quite the stir when she asked if a cup of coffee she was offered was made with tap water or bottled water.

When informed that the coffee was indeed made with tap water, she politely refused the offer with a “No, thank you.” Does this make her a diva or just someone who is concerned about water quality?

Or maybe she feels like many that coffee taste better when its made with filtered water and a gold filter. I know I do. A lot of people do. Coffee does taste better in general with filtered water. Does fuels this perception? Is it due to the purity of the water or the relative lack of discernible taste smell that bottled water generally has over tap water?

Maybe Victoria like all the other people who spend billions of dollars each year on bottled water thinks its better than tap water? If that’s the case I personally know a lot of divas.

But, it made me start to wonder about tap water versus bottled water. Is it safer? Is it better? I’ve always meant to do some reading on this topic but never really got around to it, but thanks to Victoria Beckham, I did. What I found was not what I expected.

According to the National Research Defense Council’s report — “Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?” the first thing that surprised me was the difference in control and testing requirements used for tap versus bottled water.

Key Differences Between EPA Tap Water and FDA Bottled Water Rules

Bottled Water

Carbonated or Seltzer Water

Big City Tap Water (using Surface water) (b)

Small Town Tap Water (using a well) (d)

Just looking at this data its clear that tap water goes through much more stringent testing and oversight than any bottled water. What then fuels public perception of bottled water being better? Certainly marketing plays a big role. I mean who wouldn’t want to drink water that comes from a mountain spring in Switzerland over water from Lake Michigan?

The principle problem seems to stem from the fact that most tap water smells different or has a slightly different taste than bottled water. Add in the hype that has been beaten into our heads about bottled water being “pure” and its no wonder we look at these abnormal tastes and smells as an indication of a deficiency in water quality.

Looking over this post its funny how a UK gossip rag’s ranting over Victoria Beckham’s coffee snobbery sparked my exploration of bottled water versus tap water safety, this is sure to be a great discussion over coffee with friends. But what water will I use?

There is a transformer in New York City’s Columbus Circe. Its more than meets the eye. It looks like an unassuming shipping container — All that adorns it is an a sign that says “Illy”. But watch closely and you just might get to see it transform into an espresso bar.

From November 28th to December 29th this unique espresso bar will be available for your viewing and tasting enjoyment. Serving the Illy take on the pod coffee system, a free espresso will be yours for the taking if you stop by to see Illy’s take on Adam Kalkin’s “Quik House”.

Who is Adam Kalkin? A noted architect whose contemporary designs turn conventional shipping containers into usable living space.  Normally the “Quik House” has three bedrooms and two and a half baths with a 2,000 square foot floor plan.  The shell just takes a single day to put together, from start to finish the entire building can be completed in two to three months.

I have to hand it to Illy for coming up with unique and functional marketing idea.  This really comes as no surprise to me given Illy’s unique vision of what a coffee house should resemble.  Just take a look at the Illy website and its clear that they offer an uniquely European view of coffee and espresso.

While I have never had the opportunity to try their pod coffee, I have tried their traditional coffee offerings and have enjoyed them immensely.  Its times like this that I wish I had a travel budget so I could fly out and see this concept coffee bar.  If you are a Brotherhood of the Bean reader in New York City, I hope you will go to Columbus Circle in November and post your review.

Props to Gizmodo for getting the scoop on this, great site worth a read!

Starbucks has announced a voluntary recall of 250,000 plastic drinking cups designed for children. Starbucks joins the ever growing list of U.S. companies had to recall products from China due to faulty material and safety issues..

To date Starbucks has received seven reports of the cups breaking, including two where the children started to choke. Luckily none of these incidents have been fatal.

There are four ten once cup designs that are being recalled, they are:

• Red Ladybug
• Green Turtle
• Pink Bunny
• Yellow Chick

Back in August, 2006 Starbucks recalled 73,000 coffee makers made in China, yet despite this incident a Starbucks spokesman is quoted on MSNBC as describing the incident as:

“… an isolated incident and said the company had no plans to change its current product sourcing practices.”

When I read this statement I was not filled with a warm fuzzy feeling that Starbucks is taking this situation seriously enough.  For your trouble Starbucks will give you a free cup of coffee when you return one of the cups in question.  Gee, don’t I feel cared for.

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission the mug faces on these cups can break off exposing sharp edged, or have broken apart causing a choking hazard.

While only coffee related due to its association with Starbucks I wanted to make sure you knew about this recall.  I myself think we may have bought one of the ladybug cups and if I have bought it, there is a chance that you have bought it.  Better safe than sorry! Please share this info with your coffee drinking friends.