Coffee Guide

If you are a real coffee drinker and I mean the kind that is willing to pay a lot of money for good coffee do I have something to tell you. You may be over charged for your coffee. For instance, if you were to buy a bag of Starbucks Gourmet Blend from a local Supermarket for $7.99 per 12 oz bag you might not be getting your money?s worth. If you were to pay over $5.00 per 12 oz bag of any coffee at the Supermarket you are paying way too much. Let me explain just why that is.

Most of the Gourmet Coffee at the supermarkets is usually a Gourmet Blend. Blended with what you might ask? Exactly! You have no idea what the blend is. Is it fresh Arabian beans blended with stale French Roast? Could it be Galapagos Island Coffee blended with old dried out Mexican Coffee beans? You can never really tell, but I promise you that if you think for one minute a company won?t try to recoup their loses then you have another thing coming. A Blend Coffee is the perfect way to sell damaged coffee or half stale coffee & half fresh coffee combined with out the customer?s knowledge. I am by no means accusing anyone of doing such a thing, but I know it happens.

I have seen coffee blends sell for as much as $14.95 a 12oz bag. The part that makes me laugh is that you never know how much of the coffee is high-grade and how much is low-grade coffee. Yet people believe it is just as good as the unblended coffee. That is to far from the truth. Let?s take the Kona Blended coffee for instance. Lets say it is a 50% Kona and 50% mixed coffee beans. If you were to taste pure Kona Coffee next to this Blend the pure Kona would standout as the better of the two in smell and taste. How much is Gourmet Blended coffee really worth? There is a market for just about everything these days and blends are no exceptions. Seeing you are probably pay for 50% good coffee and 50% crap then I wouldn?t pay more then 50% of the price for the unblended coffee.

What about coffee that is not blended? It really depends on where you buy it. Supermarkets don?t know what really fresh coffee is, but a private roasting company will. Gourmet Coffee ranges in price from $7.95 a lbs to $48.95 a lbs. Why so much? Because the hard to find and rare coffees like Kona, Jamaican Blue Mountain, and Galapagos Island coffee are in high demand. The higher the demand is for rare coffee the higher the price is as well. I always recommend shopping around, but it can be difficult to find rare coffee. As a coffee roaster I have a hard time locating good Kona coffee beans, and due to the hurricanes the Jamaican crop has been scarce too. The cost associated with Kona and Jamaican coffee is expected to go up even more this year. Just like the inflated price of gasoline we may all have to pay a high price for great coffee.

Don is the owner of several free information websites and the sole proprietor of Java Jakes Gourmet Coffee Co. Visit http://www.megainfosource.com
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The American custom of taking break during the working hours. Thus coffee breaks began in the early 20th century. At the end of the 19th century, the American workplace was a dreadful place for a break.

But as the century turned, social reform was gaining steam. Companies and factories installed in-house lunchrooms, and coffee breaks became part of the reform.

In 1952, the term ?coffee break? was coined by a Pan-American Coffee Bureau ad campaign that read, Give yourself a Coffee-Break — and Get What Coffee Gives to You.

Many people take a coffee break while at work, believing that this will ease their stress. Research has been conflicting on the effects of caffeine; some studies suggest that it can worsen anxiety and trigger stress, while others show it boosts confidence and alertness.

Recently, however, a study done by psychologists Lindsay St Claire and Peter Rogers of Bristol University in the United Kingdom suggests that taking coffee breaks while working may actually deter employees’ ability to do their jobs and undermine teamwork instead of boosting it.

So this raises the question: do the classic American coffee breaks hurt more than help?

The study found that caffeine is particularly unhelpful to men and can disrupt their emotions and hamper their ability to perform certain tasks.

This latest report, released by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, also suggests that caffeine makes people less co-operative when working in teams.

Our research findings suggest that the commonplace tea or coffee break might backfire in business situations, particularly where men are concerned, says St Claire. Far from reducing stress, it might actually make things worse.

The researchers began their work after they heard a story during a stress workshop. A man described how he and a group of co-workers went on a business trip to the United States.

In the United Kingdom, coffee isn?t readily available in the workplace. However, in the United States, coffee was freely available and the team drank indulgently. Soon, they noticed that their stress levels had risen.

They felt that the extra caffeine had disrupted their team cohesiveness and affected their ability to work together.

The team from Bristol University tested caffeine’s effects on 32 coffee drinkers. The subjects were that they would be given one of three drinks; a caffeinated coffee that would enhance their performance, a caffeinated coffee that would make them feel stressed, or decaffeinated coffee.

This, however, wasn?t completely true. Half of the drinks contained 200 mg of caffeine and the other half contained none. The subjects were then asked to perform two stressful tasks.

The results of the tasks? Men did significantly worse than women in coping with the caffeine from the coffee. Those that had been told that their coffee contained the performance-enhancing caffeine had higher heart rates and showed more stress, especially during a public speaking task.

The caffeine, however, did not affect the men when it came to mathematical tasks. When the subjects performed a desert survival task in teams, taking coffee breaks did reduce stress, especially in men, but drinking coffee seemed to reduce teamwork.

So when it comes to coffee breaks, it may be advisable to lay off a bit if you?re about to speak to an important client or head into a team meeting where you know there will be much bickering about the latest project plans.

And while coffee and caffeine have been shown to be extremely beneficial in other areas of your physical health, maybe they should be reserved for before and after work or on the weekends.

? Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy has more articles on coffee such as Colombian Coffee, Are Coffee Enemas the Real Thing?, and Arabica Coffee.

Who doesn’t love solving a good mystery? Is the Loch Ness monster real? Who built Stonehenge? Does Big Foot really exist? What is the world’s best coffee? While you may need to be an expert to solve the first three, no advanced degree or special knowledge is required to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of the 21st century: What is the world’s best coffee?

All you need to solve this caffeinated mystery is equip yourself with the right information. And, thanks to the Internet, finding the information for your coffee trekking adventure is as easy as the click of a button. If you’re ready, grab your favorite coffee mug and join me as we head out to discover how you can find the world’s best coffee.

Learn How To Speak The Language

Before you embark on your journey to find the world’s best coffee, you’ll want to brush up on your coffee lingo. If you head out into the great unknown of Coffeeland and don’t have a good grasp on the language, all of your searching will be for nothing. Learn the language and you’ll understand what to look for in your coffee. A few important terms include:

• Acidity

  The acidity of a coffee determines how sharp it’ll taste. More acidity tends toward a bold coffee. Less acidity tends toward a milder cup.

• Body

  Like a wine, when talking about a coffee’s body, you’ll be referring to its texture. You’re likely to find terms such as heavy, light, and syrupy to describe a coffee’s body.

• Flavor

  Much like a wine’s bouquet, flavor refers to your overall sensory experience of the coffee. Terms you might hear a coffee connoisseur use include floral, nutty, smoky, spicy, and winy.

X Marks The Spot

Whether you’re finding buried treasure or the location of the world’s greatest coffees, you’ll need to discover where the x marks the spot. Coffee is grown in various regions around the world, including such differing locales as South America, Africa, and Indonesia.

To unravel the mystery of the world’s greatest coffee, you’ll need to learn the about the distinctive characteristics based on where and how it is grown. For example, coffee from Colombia is typically rich while coffees from Kenya often have a mildly sweet-tart flavor and coffees from Sumatra coffee are full-bodied and contain low acidity. Learning which regions produce the best coffees suited to your tastes is an important first step on solving the mystery. How do you learn which regions produce the best coffees for you? It’s really quite simple: start sampling coffees!

Follow Your Nose

If you truly want to find the best coffee, simply follow your nose. Good coffees and beans not only look good, but they smell wonderful, too. Fresh beans that have been well-roasted will fill your senses with an unmatchable aroma. Starting with premium beans such as Arabica, you’ll want to smell for the type of roast that fills your fancy. Popular roasts such as French, Italian, or American will give you a variety of coffees from mellow to bold. When you’ve sampled coffees that use premium beans and a variety of roasting techniques, you’ll begin to start zeroing in on the world’s best coffee and discovering what type of roast is your personal favorite, too.

What To Look For

As with any great mystery, it’s important to know what you’re looking for. If you were tracking Big Foot, you’d look for footprints. But, what do you look for when you’re trying to find the world’s greatest coffee? That’s a great question. Here are some key things to look for when choosing the ultimate cup.

• Ask experts

  Find a gourmet coffee shop where the baristas really know their coffee. Ask about roasting styles, types of beans, flavors of coffee. Be sure to taste test any coffees before buying!

• Go fresh

  The quality of coffee deteriorates rapidly after being roasted. In addition, the flavor weakens considerably as time passes after grinding. Look for freshly roasted coffee. Don’t be afraid to ask your coffee shop experts when, how, and where the beans have been roasted. If they don’t know, it’s not a good sign that the beans are fresh-so shop elsewhere. If you’re shopping in your market, check to see if the coffee has a roasted on date printed on the bag. Whatever you do, you’re always looking for the freshest you can find. Fresh is best!

• Make It Au Natural

  Look for all-natural ingredients in your coffees. Finding organically-grown, sustainable coffee crops are a great place to start. In addition, when choosing flavored coffees, be sure the flavoring is natural and not a chemical. Not only do the natural flavors taste better (like nuts, cinnamon, and chocolate), they’re sure to make you feel better about your choice, too.

Know Thyself

The most important thing to know when searching for the world’s greatest coffee is yourself. That’s right; the answer to the mystery of the world’s greatest coffee doesn’t come from some connoisseur or from some ancient book of coffee lore. No, the solution to the timeless mystery of great coffee comes simply down to what you prefer. If you arm yourself and your taste buds with the right information and know the correct questions to ask, and sample, sample, sample, you’ll soon find your favorite cup of coffee.

Your choice might not be your neighbor’s favorite, but who cares? You’re the one doing the drinking, so knowing yourself is the only thing that matters!

Jon Butt is the publisher of The Coffee Guide, an innovative website dedicated to all things coffee. From beans to gourmet, espresso machines to coffee makers , espresso cups to just great tasting coffee, The Coffee Guide advises you on the best coffee products and top-rated suppliers

Starbucks : The Mastery Behind the Marketing

Starbucks is a modern coffee mecca-empire that seems to be on the lips of every corporate yuppie in America. And this is not by coincidence, it’s by careful marketing design. Why has Starbucks been such a great example of corporate branding success?

Starbucks Coffee and Cafes opened in 1987 with about 11 locations in the Seattle Washington area. Little did we all know back then that by the year 2004, Starbucks would practically be as American as apple pie, and as talked about as another slice of Americana, McDonalds restaurants. Under the management of current CEO Orin Smith, Starbucks does not show any signs of slowing in growth.

How genius is the marketing behind Starbucks? Take for example, that many of us now now what a Frapuccino is, and couple that with the fact that this coffee giant has also successfully marketed it’s arguably addictive products in bottled form in every grocery store across America and you’ve got an unstoppable advertising and branding campaign.

Not only can you find bottled, pre-made Starbucks delights in stores, but you can also now brew their famous, turbo-charged coffee at home, thanks to the offering of Starbucks ground coffee and coffe beans in the coffee section of most grocers.

And I’m no different from anyone else. I’ve got my favorite Starbuck’s addiction too, and it’s called a Double Tall White Chocolate Mocha. The fact that almost anyone can tell you what size a Tall, Grande and Venti. What do these translate into? Small, medium and large of course.

But how much fun is it to utter these sizes when ordering? You almost feel like you’re part of a coffee-savvy society – this is all by design too. Drinking fancy coffees has now become akin to drinking wine. It’s a form of conisseurship now, a secret society of sorts, thanks to Starbucks.

It’s almost gotten to the point where carrying around a Starbucks coffee has become a status symbol. We all see the tabloids showing celebrities carrying their Starbucks Lattes and Soy Mochas. Starbucks has it all figured out, right down to the name they picked for their workers, Baristas, and the very name of the company, which I’ve read orginates from the popular American classic novel Moby Dick.

Not only that, Starbucks bucked the system, so to speak, when they didn’t pay attention to the accepted price ceilings that were established when they started to get popular. They went over that price, making it seem as though they were offering a gourmet specialty product to attract a sort of it crowd, and spreading to those of us in the middle class by association.

It’s absolute marketing and branding genius.

Visit Spoozer : Cars, Music, Technology, Internet and Humor for great leisure reading and the latest scoop on cars, music, technology, webmastering and even beer. Danna Schneider is the founder of Credit Cards and Mortgage Advice.