An anecdote about the Kaldi myth

First the Myth

One of the most common myths about how coffee was found involves a goat herder called Kaldi, whose goats either did not come home, or he noticed they where frisky, and on investigation noted that they had eaten the fruit of the coffee plan.

The myth has many flaws, one of them is that the coffee fruit is very low in caffeine, and the seed (or green bean) is hard to chew, not that goats would struggle to eat anything.


Some of the below is found in Kenneth Davids' Coffee book.

The test

In two independent tests done with goats of the region, the goats showed no interest at all in the coffee fruit on the tree.

In the orchard

Test one the goats were herded in to a a coffee orchard, and videoed, no matter how little grass was under the trees they still rather ate that than the coffee fruit, even when they were offered a branch of the tree from their herder

Hungrier Goats

In the Yemen, a group of hungry goats where offered three things, one after another:

1. fresh coffee branches
2. dry grass>
3. Qat tree leaves (a local stimulant)

The preference was 3,2,1

A side note

Goats in Ethiopia are feed the leaves of the coffee plant, when the people there feed them that. This is interesting since there is also debate on whether or not the goat herder was Ethiopian or Arabic.

OMG, what is that in your coffee?

What is found in what others call "coffee"

I have always known that there are some people in the coffee industry that are so close to highway robbers that I am embarrassed to be a be of the same humanoid type. I have heard of people roasting their coffee beans then spraying them with water, I had never considered what is in ground (yuk) coffee, and even worse the instant coffee (puke).
List of adulterants found in coffee
Here is a list of items used and still used in coffee that is being sold at many retail outlets:

• almonds
• arrowhead
• asparagus seeds and stalks
• baked horse liver
• barberries
• barley
• beechmast
• beetroot
• box seeds
• bracken
• bran
• bread crusts
• brewery waste
• brick dust
• burnt rags
• burrs
• carob beans
• carrot
• chickpeas
• chicory
• chrysanthemum seeds
• cloves
• coal ashes
• cocoa shells
• comfrey roots
• cranberries
• currants
• hahlia tubers
• dandelion roots
• date seeds
• dirt
• dog biscuits
• elderberries
• figs
• gherkins
• gooseberries
• haws
• hips
• holly berries
• horse chestnuts
• Jerusalem artichockes
• juniper berries
• kola nuts
• lentils
• linseed
• lupine
• malt
• mesquite
• monkey nuts
• mulberries
• parsnips
• pea hulls
• pumpkin seeds
• quaker-grass roots
• rice
• rye
• rowan berries
• sand
• sassafras
• sawdust
• sloes
• sunflower seeds
• swedes
• turnips
• vetch
• wheat
• whey
• wood chips

Sources, Ineedcoffe and Uncommon Grounds

Even more reason to look at making sure you drink you coffee in bean form, fresh from the roaster.

Some more videos I found on coffee

Health and Coffee more...

Here are a a few more videos I found about Health and coffee.

My take on it has always been if you need coffee to wake up, or to get through the day, than just like any other substance you are abusing it. If you can be off coffee for 48hrs and there are no side effects, than you have no adverse affect, just like once again any other substance.

Better still find and drink the best quality coffee and make sure it is roasted fresh so that none of the oils are exposed. The better the quality of coffee the lower the caffeine. The shade grown varietals are the best.

Health Benefits From Coffee: Medicine Matters

Some regurgitated stuff presented in a different way.

Coffee: New Health Benefits

News channel stuff, but actually some good advice "Perks of coffee", haha. If you like the coffee drink it, and enjoy it.

How Caffeine works

I good explanation about the affects on the brain.

By the way drinking specialty grade shade grown coffee 3 cups a day is about 140 mg caffeine.

Sign of confirmation that Specialty Coffee is the Best

So Lavazza buys stake in Green Mountain Coffee - Yahoo! Finance, is this the first Italian confirmation, that specialty grade coffee is the better choice?

Although Green Mountain Coffee, do nasty things like K-cups and the like, their business is based on fresh roasted specialty grade coffee. And when Italy's number one is buying into that kind of model, to me this is affirmation that the specialty coffee world has once again confirmed that it is the crema of the crop.
Specialty grade coffee has steadily increased the quality of coffee over the last 30 years, and that has been linked with better prices to the farmer, few middle men, and a better cup of coffee.
There are all these rumours about coffee shortage, perhaps it is driven by better quality coffee trees, which means that quality over quantity wins. The shade grown specialty grade coffees represent the best in the world, and it is good to see a financial transaction that seals this confirmation, especially on for $250 million.

Coffee Machines and Makers – Choose by Cost

There are almost 3,000 patented ways to make coffee, and there are new ones each month. So here is a summary of what to look at depending on budget and need.

What is NOT Coffee!

Before we start let me first start that if you want to drink coffee you should know what some may call coffee but to me is not.

• Any thing that comes in a bottle or tin, that requires you measuring by teaspoon and adding water is not coffee! It is not even coffee essence, which the concept of powder is based on it is as far removed from coffee as grapes are removed from raisins
  
• Instantly dispose of it, if there is any thing any where that says instant, that is not coffee that is a convenience drink
  
• The best place for it is the bin, if it has some fancy marketing name that is based on some city or areas name then it is not coffee
  
• Waste of money scream at me, if it is pre-ground, then it is not coffee, it is something that smells similar but cannot compare like a weed cannot be compared to a rose.
  
• If the words vacuum appear anywhere on the packaging then toss it
  
• A pod is something we will one day take to work, and is not a place to keep coffee
  
• If the beans have a glistening look, then the compost is the best place for them
  

So what is coffee?

• Must be in bean form
  
• Should have a roasting date on it
  
• Should tell you where it is from, and not just a country name either. A Brazilian is not a type of coffee
  

Assumptions

The person who wants a good coffee maker, loves coffee so has found a good source of buying fresh roasted coffee bean. So all the coffee brewing solutions below will assume that, and will either include a grinder or recommend a minimum.

So the basic assumption is that you have found your beans and they are of a high enough standard.

The Recommended Coffee Machine List

For those not from SA, the rand (R) to US $ rate is about R7 to $1. You will see that there is a big jump in the prices between the budget and domestic automatic machine, the reason is that the machines between those two are really fashion statements, they make no better coffee, and not more convenience than the coffee makers in the price range up to R1,350.00.

I have had some good coffees out of the decent domestic machines that hover around R11,000 with a good grinder, but for that price I think the Juras are a more logical choice, since they consistently make a great cup of coffee. What other make is missing here probably WMF and Schearer, but neither of these offer a great support base in South Africa.

At the 35k mark you need real skill to consistently beat the Z7, and if you made 10 cups you would fine in a blind taste the average Joe would probably prefer the Z7.

Need	Solution	Price Range	Coffee Quality (10 is best)
Bare necessity Coffee Maker	Plunger with blade grinder	R120 – R300 (with grinder)	5
Budget Coffee Maker for 1 or 2	Aeropress with burr grinder	R375 – R895 (with grinder)	7-8 (depending on the brew technique)
Espresso Maker for 1 or 2	Mocha pot with burr grinder	R450 – R950 (with grinder)	7
Budget Coffee Maker for up to 10	Mocha pot with burr grinder	R300 – R1,350 (with grinder)	6 - 7 (with a high quality gold filter)
Fashion Coffee Maker	I do not recommend these, but the normally are in the guise of a domestic espresso machine, may even have double barrelled names	R1,350 – R18,000 (with grinder)	5-8 (depending on skill level)
Domestic Automatic Coffee Machine	Jura Ena 3, if you like cappuccino the add different frothing attachment or even stand alone milk frother	R7,900 – R8,800 (with milk frother)	8
Small office Super Automatic Coffee Machine	Jura Impressa F50, if you like cappuccino the add different frothing attachment or even stand alone milk frother	R10,602 – R11,500 (with milk frother)	8.5
Medium office Super Automatic	Jura Impressa XF50, if you like cappuccino the add different frothing attachment or even stand alone milk frother	R10,602 – R11,500 (with milk frother)	8.5
Executive Office or Home Automatic	Jura Impressa Z7, the best coffee a super automatic can produce at the moment.	R24,500 – R26,200 (chrome finish)	9
The I am mad about coffee maker	A single group machine like the La Pavoni, must have a 54 cm head and A Ditting doserless grinder	R35,000 (est)	9.5 (with a well trained person do the magic)
The I am king of the world machine	A clover machine (have to source them second hand, and they are as scarce as hens teeth) and a Ditting doserless grinder.	SQ	9.75 - 10

This table has been status quo for about 2 years now, so we wait with baited breath.

Footnote

We have found that each brewing system changes the taste on the coffee significantly, so you may need to change your coffee if you change your preferred brewing method.

Coffee is barely in the top 50th most traded commodity

Myth

There is a common myth that is spread around that coffee is the second most traded commodity. Well guest what it is not. This myth apparently started in the 70's. I first read it in Uncommon Grounds, but I have since read an article Coffee second only to oil? Is coffee really the second largest commodity? also written by Mark Pendergrast who wrote the book

Fact

You can read the article but the basic are this, after looking a many sources, here is a quick summary of what he found in the UN Comtrade, in dollars:

• OIL and derivative represents $1.09 trillion
• petroleum oils (non-crude) amount to $495 billion
• Natural gas is $200 billion
• ...
• Eventually food stuffs are listed:
  
  • Wheat (including spelt) and meslin, unmilled accounts for $32.9 billion
  • Cotton fabrics, woven yield $25.5 billion
  • Meat accounts for $43 billion
  • milk for another $31.6 billion
  • leather $23 billion
  • Sugars, molasses and honey $25 billion
  • Finally, there is "coffee and coffee substitutes" $22 billion

Intresting foot note
He does list an interesting question at the end, how many people are employed by the coffee industry, he estimates 75 million, of which 15 million alone are involved in Ethiopia, which represents 20% of the total number.

Coffee Health Benefits

Mounting evidence ignored by Health practitioners

How many studies have to be done on coffee before the tipping point is reached and people actually believe that there are health benefits to drinking coffee.

Two items I found this week, with out looking

Link 1

Drinking coffee and prevention of Diabetes. But will bleech flour ever make it to the health practitioners hit list?
CBS: Drink up to prevent Diabetes

Link 2

This was on How it works, and now it is on You Tube,

Link 3

This is translated (thanks to Goggle) from the Confidential news letter:

Researchers at the coffee world are meeting in Bali, Indonesia to attend the greatest event (sic) in world coffee science. The twenty-third World Conference on Coffee Science, sponsored by ASIC (Association for Science and Information Café) addresses the main themes of the area as coffee and health effects of consumption of coffee on human physiology, the chemistry of coffee processing, genetics, quality, certification, cultural and sustainability.

The opening event was on Sunday, October 01 and was attended by the Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia. On Monday, were presented important work on coffee and health. The highlight was work that showed that moderate coffee consumption is beneficial in preventing cardiovascular disease, especially in women. Other good news comes from the beneficial association of coffee consumption in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease and combating the symptoms of disease, such as memory loss. Brazilian researchers presented papers on the antibacterial effect of coffee.

On Tuesday, two days, came the work on the chemistry of coffee. The complexity of the various chemical components that make up a cup of coffee was highlighted. Swiss researchers also compared the different aromas and flavors of coffee with an orchestra. A well-tuned orchestra is a pleasure for the consumer. Over 800 substances have been found in chemical analysis and many of them are related mainly to the aroma of coffee.

Researchers from Paraná presented a study examining the presence of lipids beneficial to human health in several varieties of coffee. Already researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) presented an interesting paper that uses infrared spectroscopy to separate roasted and ground coffee beans originating from defective (PVA) rice not bad.


Brazil is represented at the event by researchers from ITB UFLA, UFMG, IAPAR, UFRJ and other institutions.

Read original here: http://www.coffeeclubnetwork.com/redes/form/post?pub_id=2140

Figures point to Coffee shortage

The LONDON based International Coffee Organization (ICO), has released Aug 2010's export figures. The result is that they have totalled world coffee exports to 7.92 million bags in August 2010. Although this is up in contrast to the 7.63 million bags in August 2009, exports in the 11 months of last coffee year 2009/10 (Oct/09 to Aug/10) have decreased by 4.4% to 86.34 million bags compared to 90.35 million bags in the same period in the last coffee year.

In the twelve months ending August 2010, Arabica exports amounted to 60.44 million bags compared to 63.13 million bags last year, a decrease of 4.26%. Of comparison interest only to me is that Robusta (yuk) exports totalled 32.98 million bags compared to 35.31 million bags last year, a decrease of 6.6%, on a smaller number, so perhaps there is a silver lining ;).

So that means that all varieties Arabica represent 66.89% of the world's production, so technically the Arabica production is increasing, this point to the fact that the coffee drinking public is becoming more discerning, since this is up from the 60% in 2008.

Does this mean the mass producers should be concerned? Perhaps they should since they are the last to concentrate on quality coffee product, rather fall back on the convenience factor. Also since the major brands all rely on Robusta to control their price, the drop in export in that crop may mean good news for those driven by quality rather than brand.

It does show that the earlier scare this year may be on track, and may cause green bean hording. The one question I still have is does the specialty coffee industry report accurately into the ICO?

Uses for old coffee grounds

Here is a great link to allow you to do something with your coffee grinds, after you have enjoyed a cup:

21 uses for old coffee grounds

I few more:

- add to compost heap, it helps with keeping snails out

- you can leave some floating in water in a little cup it traps cockroaches

Got anymore? add a comment.

Looking for coffee to turn into ground? Try Quality Coffee