Filed under: Teas , British Isles , Stores & Shopping , New Products , Europe I'm much more a coffee drinker than a tea drinker, but when I do make tea, I just fill a pot with water and start boiling away. regardless of how much tea I'm really planning to make. If I brew one cup, I pour the hot water in my cup, then pour the rest of the water down the drain. What a waste!

Filed under: Coffee , Organic , New Products After the mishaps with the Wolfgang Puck self-heating lattes , I am a little leery of any packaged coffee that makes itself. At least JavaVoo uses the microwave instead of a potentially explosive internal heating device.

Filed under: Teas , Coffee , Breakfast Coffee or tea? These handle-less mugs are deisgned by Karin Eriksson or Sweden. The ceramic transfers are all unique (each on eis handmade), and are descriptions of either a tea or coffee varietal. Having no handles means you can wrap your hands around the mug and keep them warm.

Filed under: Coffee , Far East , Trends , Newspapers It looks like coffee drinking is officially a fad - in China . What makes it a fad? It's a fad because people who don't like it are continuing to order it - since it's hip to be seen drinking it. The manager of a popular cafe, Ms. Linda Liu "observed that most of her customers do not seem to like coffee, but they keep buying it." According to her, "some regulars order coffee all the time, but never finish it." According to a government survey, 10,000 trained baristas are needed to meet the growing demand for the brew. The problem is not a shortage of people, but a shortage of skills. Many potential employees have never made a cup of coffee, and a few have never had one.

Filed under: Coffee , On the Blogs , New Products Just what it sounds like, Java Juice is a .5 ounce packet of "liquid coffee concentrate," meant to be mixed with water when you can't brew a proper cup. Each packet makes one 10 to 12 ounce cup of joe. Java Juice's site also suggests making a "red eye" by adding a packet of Java Juice to your gas station, sex-in-a-canoe, cup of coffee. Surprisingly, they don't advocate slurping the stuff straight out of the package. It's unsweetened, so that might be kind of intense. Still, I'm sure there are college students somewhere pounding this stuff without a coffee mug in sight. Another suggestion from the manufacturer is to use it as a baking supplement when a recipe calls for a few tablespoons of coffee. Assuming the stuff tastes decent, and you don't normally have fresh coffee on hand, it might not be a bad cooking back-up. [Via Cool Hunting ] Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

The Bay Area is beginning to see more cafes and shops in which coffeemakers are forgoing machines and brewing individual cups of coffee for each customer. Forget about the Barista writing your name on a paper cup -- this kind of brewing, single cup filter drip , is really personal.   The technique is simple. Roasted beans are ground to just slightly coarser than an espresso grind. The coffee is placed in a filter on top of a cup, the hot water is poured slowly over the grounds. It takes a bit longer, and it certainly requires more effort on the part of the brewer, but apparently, the freshness is worth it.

Filed under: Coffee shops As you probably know by now, Akeelah and the Bee is in movie theatres nationwide, and it's doing pretty well. In case you didn't know, this film has been brought to you by Starbucks . Why would you know this? Well, from the annoying "spelling flash card" campaign currently cross-promoted at Starbucks nationwide, of course. Each Starbucks location has a series of hard-to-spell words -- "pteryodactyl," say, or "serendipity" -- taped up around the store. Is it just me, or is this totally annoying? Media conglomeration is a fight I'm not going to win, but do I really have to see the word "clique" on a green three-by-five when all I want is a cappucino? Even worse, do I have to look forward to other movies financed and promoted by other chains? I can only imagine where this will go ... Cinnabon presents Douglas and the Eleveated Blood Sugar Levels Coke presents Grace and the Cavity Applebee's presents Robbie and the Temper Tantrum He Threw Because Mom and Dad Wouldn't Let Him Go To Applebee's Read     Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: Coffee , Science , How To , America , North America A recent study suggests that  drinking coffee prevents breast cancer breast cancer in a specific group of women: those who have the BRCA1 mutation. The genetic mutation puts women at a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Filed under: Coffee , Food Quest , Coffee shops I have no problems at all with Starbucks coffee and am often glad to see their sign on the horizon, particularly when I travel. Like it or not, Starbucks is a big part of the reason that it is easy to find a decent cup of coffee just about anywhere. Even if you are served a bad brew - for whatever reason - not only will the Starbucks baristas will replace the offending beverage, but it will still beat the burnt, week-old, brown sludge or faintly flavored hot water that was somehow able to pass for coffee in many places only a few short years ago. This is not to say that there are not places that make better coffee, just that Starbucks helped to raise the bar overall. I have met many people who claim to dislike them "on principle", despite the fact that the majority of them cannot actually verbalize what their "principle" actually is. Some certainly can converse about their desire to see even more social responsibility or ways to further improve employee benefits, but the ubiquity of Starbucks is generally the favored topic of argument. Overhearing these irate rants can be an amusing experience when they occur inside a Starbucks from the mouths of people awaiting their Frappuccino or their extra hot, extra wet, no foam Venti "cappuccino", which they are unaware is actually a latte. Perhaps they are just annoyed with less-than-instantaneous service, though people who expect a decent coffee or espresso beverage should be willing to wait at least a moment or two for it to be prepared.

Filed under: Coffee , Science , Australia , Did you know? The next time I want to convince a friend that vanilla cake is actually far superior to chocolate cake, I'm going to give them a cup of coffee first. New studies done by Australian researchers show that having a cup of coffee before hearing an argument makes you more likely to agree with it, provided that the argument is convincing.