We've all heard of the beneficial effects of coffee before, but just in case, here are ten reasons not to give up on that daily dose of coffee. 1. It is a source of antioxidants - even though fruit and vegetables remain the most important sources, the human body can apparently extract more when drinking a cup of coffee. 2. The smell reduces stress - unfortunately this only works for stress related to sleep deprivation, not for stress in general. 3. It reduces the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and might even help reduce the risk of ever developing this disease. 4. It reduces the risk of liver cirrhosis. 5. It is thought to act as a mild antidepressant - two to four cups a day lower the risk of committing suicide with 50%. 6. It reduces the risk of skin cancer for women, but only when they consume three or more cups a day. 7. The caffeine in coffee improves sports performance. 8. It reduces the risk of getting diabetes type II by 50%, though you'd have to drink four or more cups a day. 9. It can't stop you from getting Alzheimer's, but apparently it can reduce the speed at which it develops. 10.It improves your intelligence - your reaction time, vigilance and logical reasoning skills all improve when you drink a cup of coffee.
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The week before the National Day Holiday my team and I took part in a training offered by the Pu'er department of China's Red Cross. It was an interesting day in which we learned a lot, and afterwards we found ourselves lucky we had a week-long break to recover from all our 'injuries'. Last week William H. Ukers' quest took us to Asia, where we explored ancient and current coffee traditions in Arabia. Today we continue our research in the Asian continent, moving onto Turkey. Ukers cites a few references which gave comprehensive and detailed descriptions of traditional Turkish coffee houses. Even if only half of it was true, they must have been quite a sight and well worth the experience of wandering into one of these back in the days. As in Arabia, they were (and are) the places where men would gather for sipping coffee, talking and smoking, in days long gone enlightened with the additional entertainment by (live) music or traditional storytellers. Making and drinking the coffee were an art in itself, with the beans being roasted and ground at the spot. At first their tradition was very similar to that of the Arabians, but through time the Turkish developed their own method, by adding sugar to the boiling water, partly as a concession to the sweet tooth of European customers. After all, it is through their contacts with Turkey that Europeans became aware of coffee, being the plant, the seeds, the beverage as well as the coffee houses. Not only did the Europeans borrow the beverage, they also took the concept of the coffee houses and the word root from the Turkish (who in turn got it from the Arabs), back to their home countries. This at least is one explanation of how the words café and coffee started their conquest of the world. A full transcript of the book All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers has been made available as part of the Gutenberg project. This series is based upon Chapter 35, World's Coffee Manners and Customs.
This week we continue with our journey in the footsteps of William H. Ukers, moving from Africa on to Asia. We start off in Arabia, which Ukers states as having given the gift of coffee to the world. According to the writer, the Arabs hospitality evolves around coffee so much that "their very houses are built around the cup of humanly brotherhood", with the central room in a house being the kahwah or coffee room. It is the room where men get together and guests are received by said men. Coffee is roasted and ground at the spot and served black, in some instances flavoured with cardamom seeds, at all hours of the day. He continues saying that Arabs might drink water before having their coffee, but never after, as one "would not [want to] spoil the taste of coffee in your mouth by washing it away with water", which are words to my heart. He makes note of Cafée Sultan or kisher, the original beverage made from dried and toasted coffee hulls, which is still drank to this day in a few countries, like Arabia, Turkey and especially Yemen. Sometimes it is made just by using the husks of the coffee beans, other customs include letting it simmer for a long time with the addition of spices like ginger, cardamom and/or nutmeg. As far as I could gather, coffee still plays a central role in everyday life in Saudi Arabia, with the centuries-old intricate ceremonies of preparing and serving it still being honoured. The men, though, may be found more often in dedicated coffee houses these days. And just so you know, if you ever happen to visit Arabia, it is very rude to refuse a cup of coffee when presented to you, and if you do have a cup, be polite and have an odd number. A full transcript of the book All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers has been made available as part of the Gutenberg project. This series is based upon Chapter 35, World's Coffee Manners and Customs.
Knowing coffee has been around for a couple of hundred years already, it will come as no surprise that there are numerous traditions regarding roasting, brewing and serving it around the world. Browsing the world wide web for some information regarding these different customs, I stumbled across a book that was written nearly a century ago: All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers. With this book as a starting point, we'll kick off a short series with an overview of some of these habits, and we will start in the continent which holds the cradle of coffee: Africa. We have already touched upon a few of the African traditions, more specifically the century-old rituals in Ethiopia and the less widespread use I got to know while living in Tanzania, both customs already encountered by W. H. Ukers almost 100 years ago. He continues describing Moorish cafés in Cairo, Tunis and Algiers, where mazagran was served, a sweetened cold coffee syrup to which cold water or ice was added. It is unsure whether this coffee preparation has survived the test of time as the only direct reference to mazagran I found was a Portuguese cold coffee beverage, which also had lemon juice mixed into it. There are of course numerous iced coffee drinks available all around the world, but none of them were referred to as mazagran. W. H. Ukers travelled widely to do research for his book, and some of the sights he encountered still exist today, though in a slightly changed version, like the coffee houses which he describes elaborately. Though people may no longer sit on mats when drinking their coffee, these cafés still serve as meeting places where people linger over their cup(s) of coffee while discussing the more and less important matters of life. A full transcript of the book All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers has been made available as part of the Gutenberg project. This series is based upon Chapter 35, World's Coffee Manners and Customs.
Earlier this year I received a visit from Mrs. Emma Bladyka from the Specialty Coffee Association of America. She wrote this article of her trip, which, of course, was a pleasure to read for us all at the office.
It is turning into an annual event: during our home leave we never seem to find the time or the opportunity to keep this blog updated, hence the recent blog silence. Right before I started my home leave, I had quite a few business trips, one of which took me all the way to South America. Rather tired of travelling all the time, we took it easy back home and played tourist on some city visits. Cities well known to ourselves, but new for our little girls, who thoroughly enjoyed the boat and horse carriage trips. On of those day trips took us to Bruges, a beautiful city where old and new go hand in hand. Two weeks ago I went on a field visit to a few places I had never been before. It took us a long ride over some bad roads, loads of dust, and a long walk, but we were rewarded by a visit to a beautiful, remote area. And some coffee farmers who were both surprised that we came all the way out there, as well as delighted by our visit. Though that trip took us to a dry region which hasn't had much rain yet, lots of other places have seen quite a bit more rain than previous years. As a result the flowering that started a couple of months ago has resulted in trees full of developing cherries, and the crop for the coming season looks really promising at the moment. At our buying station we still have one month ahead of receiving coffee of this year's crop. After that it is time for a well-deserved break for the whole team.
With all this talk of coffee, one would almost forget that Pu'er is also renowned for his tea. Saturday saw the start of the 13th China Pu'er Tea Festival, a biennial event since 2005. Tea industry experts from over 30 countries and regions are present at this meeting. With a forum and seminar on tea industry development, tea safety, tea trade and new tea varieties to name a few of them, it promises to be an event-packed meeting. If you want to join in, you will have to hurry though, as today is the third and last day.
Coffee smells good, there is no doubt about that. But now it turns out that you can actually use coffee to help smell other things better too. It'll probably sound familiar to the ladies among you: when you go out shopping for a new perfume and you have tried out a few fragrances, you can hardly tell one from the other. It all has to do with nasal fatigue, the receptors in our nose getting less and less sensitive to certain smells, hence making it more and more difficult to distinguish one from the other. Neuroscientist Noam Sobel from the UC Berkely has now proven that smelling coffee in between will cleanse your nasal palate so you can take in all the sweet odours to their fullest again. So next time you want to buy perfume, take your cup of coffee along! And for those out to shop for coffee beans, this trick works the other way around too: after a few sniffs of coffee beans you can clean your nasal palate by sniffing your very own skin.
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AuthorI wouldn't be surprised to find out I was born with a passion for coffee. For the life of me, I can't remember not loving coffee. And by that, I don't just mean drinking it, but everything involved from its cultivation over the processing to the final product that is my loyal companion throughout the day. Archives
February 2014
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