Dessert and Good Coffee

There is, perhaps, no finer marriage in the world than a fantastic dessert and brewed coffee. It’s an interplay of flavors and textures. But not many people realize that (like wine and food) certain kinds of coffee work especially beautifully with certain kinds of dessert. It depends on the flavor personality of the coffee.

There are essentially three kinds of coffee flavors: nutty, fruity and floral. These depend on where the beans originated. An Ethiopian and a Costa Rican coffee are very different.  You can become more sensitive to the nuances of saltiness, bitterness, sourness (or acidity) and sweetness. For example, brewed coffee from roasted nuts tend to be sweet, while others tend to be bitter.

Temperature plays a large role: colder coffee tends to highlight the flavors, while hot coffee tends to have a more “blended” taste.  Iced coffees also tend to be diluted with water or mixed with syrups which can hide the taste of the coffee—so if you’re serious about understanding coffee, take your cup hot, brewed and plain!

To detect the flavor of the coffee, take a sip and let it sit on your tongue awhile before swallowing. Try to make out whether it is sweet, sour, bitter or salty. Then take a sip of water to wash the palate and taste your dessert. Again, pinpoint the different flavors and textures. Now take some coffee and some dessert and see how they play off against each other. What a wonderful way to end your  food adventure!

So remember that the next time you go to a restaurant! After all, most of us dine out in order to enjoy a full flavor experience; in fact, there are gastronomic delights like seven course meals that promise a full range of tastes and textures. Many of them even offer discount vouchers!

Enjoy the play of these flavors on your tongue—from the appetizer down to the dessert and the brewed coffee. In fact, the more you dine out the more you can educate your palate. This is a great way to learn more not just about brewed coffee but about flavors.  That’s a real bargain!

Many fine dining restaurants know this and offer a complete coffee menu. Others will have a house brew, meant to cleanse the palate and settle the stomach. In fact, they consider coffee such a big part of the dining experience that their discount vouchers will include complimentary brewed coffee.


http://www.brewed-coffee.com/coffee/dessert-and-good-coffee/#more-1295

Coffee Drinking and Kids

Coffee and kids don’t mix; at least that’s what they tell us. Common sense also tells us that this is true, especially with countless sources telling us of the bad effects of caffeine on your body.

Lately though, with the popularity of huge coffee chains like Starbucks, the sight of teenagers, even kids, drinking coffee is something that is becoming more common. Are parents wrong to let their kids drink coffee?

I believe that coffee drinking, as with most things, is not bad unless you take itto the extreme (Attention caffeine addicts!  ^_^). Coffee may contain caffeine, which has been proven to be addictive, but more and more studies are also showing that coffee may have more health benefits than we realize; in fact it may actually be beneficial to people suffering from Type II diabetes, hepatitis C, and skin cancer. The question now is whether the positive effects outweigh the negative ones.

With conflicting studies on the benefits and harm that coffee and caffeine bring, I think that it is impossible to draw a conclusion at this point. So instead of overly worrying about the issue, I would just let my kid drink coffee IN MODERATION and let him enjoy the treat, just like he gets his sweets everynow and then. I do not say that he should get a full cup of coffee every single morning, but he sure can take a sip from my cup whenever he wants to (except late in the afternoon and at night because that’s asking for trouble come bedtime). Of course it goes without saying that they should never drink enough for it to replace their regular nutritional drink (read: milk). And as for teenagers who need an energy boost now and then to help them stay awake during exam week, I’d rather see them sipping on a cup of coffee rather than downing bottle after bottle of energy drinks!

What do you think? Is letting your kid drink coffee a sign of bad parenting?

http://www.brewed-coffee.com/health/coffee-drinking-and-kids/

Does drinking coffee reduce the risk of skin cancer?

A recent study published in the journal Cancer Research claims that coffee drinkers may be at a reduced risk of developing basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancer. According to the research, individuals that drink at least three cups of coffee a day have a 20 percent decreased risk of developing this mild form of skin cancer which, while not necessarily deadly, can cause significant disfigurement of skin.

Jiali Han, author of the study and associate professor of dermatology and epidemiology at both Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and the Harvard School of Public Health, evaluated data on 113,000 men and women, all of who drank three or more cups of coffee a day. She discovered that rates of basal cell carcinoma were 20 percent less among this group compared to those who drank no coffee at all, and that the active substance in question appears to be caffeine.

"Caffeine may help the body kill off damaged skin cells," claimed Dr. Josh Zeichner, an assistant professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, in response to the study's findings. "If you get rid of these cells that are damaged, then they don't have the opportunity to grow and form cancers."

The findings seem to correlate with a 2011 study out of Rutgers University that identified a link between caffeine and skin cancer prevention. According to that research, caffeine appears to be an effective topical treatment for protecting skin against damage caused by excessive exposure to the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays.

"Although it is known that coffee drinking is associated with a decreased risk of non-melanoma skin cancer, there now needs to be studies to determine whether topical caffeine inhibits sunlight-induced skin cancer," said Allan Conney, Director of the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research about the Rutgers study.

Drinking coffee can exhaust your adrenal glands, lead to substance addiction
As promising as the new research on coffee drinking may initially appear for preventing skin cancer, it is important to remember that coffee consumption can be dangerous and damaging to health. There are many other ways to prevent skin cancer, including regular exposure to natural sunlight without burning and vitamin D supplementation, that do not cause other health problems.

Coffee consumption stimulates the production of adrenaline in the body, which can overspend the adrenal glands, leading to chronic fatigue, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), allergies, chronic infections, and other problems.

Drinking coffee is also highly addictive, as many who regularly consume it suffer withdrawal symptoms such as headaches when they try to stop. While it may give its drinkers a buzz that helps them through their busy days, coffee ends up exhausting the body's energy reserves, which can lead to irritability, confusion, severe mood swings, and other problems.

Instead of coffee, why not try naturally exposing your skin to between 15 and 30 minutes a day of unfiltered sunlight, or supplementing with between 2,000 and 10,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D3 every day? This simple, inexpensive, and proven health regimen will not only help protect you against skin cancer, but will also improve your health in many other areas while preventing a myriad of chronic illnesses.

http://www.naturalnews.com/036555_coffee_skin_cancer_prevention.html

Drinking Coffee can Help Reduce the Risk of Diabetes

Coffee lovers across the world have been disheartened by all the bad things that coffee is supposed to do. Caffeine, the major culprit in coffee, is said to cause addiction, dehydration, panic attacks and emotional fatigue. Pregnant and lactating mothers are often advised not to drink coffee at all. However all is not lost! Several studies have found that drinking coffee actually helps in fighting heart diseases, headaches, asthma and Parkinson`s disease. New studies have confirmed that coffee can also help reduce diabetes.

Fumihiko Horio and colleagues at the Department of Applied Molecular Bio-science, Nagoya University found that coffee may help in preventing diabetes. As a part of their study, they fed either water or coffee to two different groups of lab mice that were prone to diabetes. The group that was fed on coffee showed improved insulin sensitivity and they also did not develop high blood sugars. The research which was published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that coffee has beneficial effects in fatty liver and inflammatory adipocytokines, linked to a decreased risk of diabetes.

Previous studies have also indicated that drinking coffee lowers the risk of diabetes. In one study researchers looked at more than 28,000 post-menopausal women over a period of eleven years. Women who drank more than six cups a day were 22 percent less likely to develop diabetes compared to women who drank no coffee. The researchers found that the more coffee a person drank, the more beneficial effects it had in reducing diabetes. The study also found that women benefited more than men. The improved levels of insulin sensitivity were present regardless of whether decaf or regular coffee was consumed. This indicates that an ingredient other than caffeine may be responsible for the beneficial effects of coffee.

In another study published in the journal of American Diabetes Association, the relation between coffee consumption and risk of diabetes was studied in 88,259 women aged between 26 and 46 years. The objective was to assess the risk of diabetes on lower levels of consumption of coffee. The study found that the risk of diabetes decreased proportionately with the number of cups of coffee consumed. The risk decreased from 0.87 for women who drank one cup of coffee per day to 0.53 for four or more cups per day compared with nondrinkers. According to the journal, associations were similar between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee.

Coffee is found to be especially useful in preventing type II diabetes. Type II diabetes starts with the onset of insulin resistance, a condition when the cells in the body show resistance to insulin. Insulin is the hormone which is the carrier of glucose molecules to the cells. The pancreas compensates for this by producing larger quantities of insulin. As cells become more and more insulin resistant, even the higher levels of insulin produced by the pancreas may not be sufficient. This results in a concentration of glucose molecules in the cells and is called hyperglycemia. Prolonged cases of hyperglycemia lead to diabetes.

Diabetes, a lifestyle disease, is a leading cause of death in the United Sates and in the world. Fortunately, it has been found that diabetes can be prevented to an extent by certain lifestyle and diet changes. A combination of healthy diet and regular exercise can often postpone the offset of type II diabetes in most people.

http://www.naturalnews.com/029718_diabetes_coffee.html#ixzz2B4SuLx2J

Moderation of Caffeine in Women Proven to Boost Memory

Women over the age of 65 have a head start when it comes to mental faculties... if they drink 3 cups of coffee per day, that is. Caffeine consumption in moderation is now a proven boost to women's mental health.

When taken in moderation, it appears that caffeine can actually be a boost to women's health - and in particular, their capacity for memory. A report published in the August 2007 issue of the American Academy of Neurology's medical journal revealed the results of a study conducted by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), which focused on the impact of caffeine in both men's and women's health.

Three Cups a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
The study by INSERM included around 7,000 individuals over the age of 65, and checked a number of variables for each participant before the study began - things like medical histories and how much coffee or tea they tended to drink on a daily basis. Initially, participants took several tests to determine their level of mental skill, which centered around the use of memory. These tests were repeated two and then four years after the first test.

The women who had originally reported that they drank three or more cups of tea or coffee each day at the start of the study actually had less of a reduction in their test score than those women who consumed a maximum of one cup daily.

Memory Boost Only Impacts Women
Regardless of whether the women drank coffee or tea, it was the amount of caffeine which entered a person's system on a daily basis that made the significant difference – but in women alone.

As for the men, the test scores showed absolutely no benefits to males in terms of regular caffeine consumption, a factor which seems to indicate that women have a higher sensitivity to caffeine than men. The data indicates that caffeine is a psychostimulant which appears to reduce the amount of cognitive decline for females only.

The amount of memory impact also increased in parallel with age; for women around the age of 65, there was a 30% lower likelihood of memory loss, whereas women over the age of 80 were 70% less likely to have memory loss.

Everything in Moderation
The next step is to determine whether caffeine has any significant impact on more severe mental diseases, such as dementia. The study conducted by INSERM did not reveal any effects on degenerative mental diseases when combined with caffeine consumption, however the duration of the study may have simply been too short to effectively produce results in this area.

While doctors do not recommend that women dramatically increase their caffeine consumption as a preventative measure against mental decline, the study certainly indicates that caffeine taken in moderation by women is one way in which women can help boost their memories for significant and proven health benefits.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027900_caffeine_memory.html#ixzz2B4Tc03no

Different Types of Coffee Explained

For coffee aficionados, the various kinds of coffee available represent an enjoyable combination of choices. Maneuvering to an area coffee house will reveal excess of simply regular and decaf. Besides the vast assortment of coffee beans available, there are many unique ways to prepare and serve coffee. Allow me to share some of the most common.

Espresso
This is created by forcing domestic hot water through tightly packed, finely ground coffee. Water must be pushed through having a significant level of pressure so that you can go through the reasons. In the event you watch a barista get this, you will probably notice he/she wedging the grounds in very firmly to the filter basket, often pounding the basket, order to make certain good density and proper taste. Espresso is generally served in small cups of about two ounces, because it has a stronger taste and better caffeine content than regular coffee.

Cappuccino
A glass or two created by combining espresso, warm milk, and frothy milk. The espresso is along with warm milk and topped with milk foam. If you are in a coffee house and listen to a solid just like canned whip cream being expelled, somebody is making cappuccino. The spurting sound will be the milk being heated to its foamy consistency. Cappuccino is served in larger cups which range from about six to twelve ounces. Based on in places you get a cappuccino from, the barista might even make an artful design in the foam atop the coffee. Iced or frozen cappuccinos have also become a popular drink.

Latte
Very similar to cappuccino, a latte consists of espresso and warm milk. Depending on in places you go, there may be foamed milk atop the latte, but generally merely a very thin layer. The flavors of your latte is often nearly identical to that of cappuccino; it is within the smoother texture how the difference lies.

Turkish coffee
Not really a type of coffee bean but instead a style of preparation, Turkish coffee is produced by boiling extremely finely powdered coffee inside a pot. Unlike typical coffee brewing, no filter can be used. This produces a much stronger than normal taste, even stronger than espresso. Although coffee is very finely ground, there will probably nevertheless be dregs found in the bottom with the cup. It is often sugared to cancel out the noticeably bitter taste.

Blended coffees
Not coffees simply made by combining different beans, but coffees combined with teas, spices,chocolate, or even fruit extracts. These exotic brews open up coffee to a wide selection of flavors not ordinarily linked to the drink. Experienced baristas can cause concoctions with such names including pina colada coffee, peppermint spice mocha, or creme brulee roast.

Regular coffee will be commonplace drink and rightly so. However, the many types of coffee open to the coffee drinker makes sure that there's a brew for each and every taste.

Some interesting coffee facts

We listed some remarkable facts about coffee on this page.

 

Coffee Trivia

• When shopping for perfume, take some coffee with you in your bag and have a good sniff in between smelling each perfume to refresh your nose!
• Sprinkle spent coffee grounds around the base of your garden plants and it will stop snails and slugs from munching them!
• A mixture of coffee grounds and sugar, fed to a pot plant and watered regularly, will revive houseplants that have turned yellow in winter.
• Some of the worlds most powerful business, including Lloyds of London and the New York Stock Exchange, started life as a coffee houses.
• In December 2001 Brazil produced a scented postage stamp to promote its coffee - the smell should last between 3 and 5 years. 
• Vincent Van Gogh was a big frequenter of the café society and famously said “I have tried to show the café as a place where one can go mad.”
• Pope Clement VIII loved coffee and authorised its use.
• Revolutions have been planned in coffee houses, namely the French and the American Revolutions.
• At the end of the 16th century records show there were at least 500 cafes in Istanbul alone. The first European cafes were opened by immigrants from Asia around 1650.
• A coffee tree has a lifespan of about 50 to 70 years.
• The coffee cherries turn from yellow to orange and then bright red, 6 - 8 months after flowering.
• When it is in bloom, the coffee tree is covered with 30,000 white flowers which begin to develop into fruit after 24 - 36 hours.
• A coffee tree can flower eight times in any one year - depending on rainfall.
• There are 900 different flavours of arabica. Complex and very volatile, they deteriorate if exposed to air and light.
• The aromas in coffee develop at the 10th minute of roasting.
• Coffee increases in volume during roasting by 18.60%.

Coffee is...

• The second most widely used product in the world after oil.
• It was worth 6 million tonnes per year in the mid 90's.
• It is worth €30 billion per year to the producing countries.
• It is a living to more than 100 million people.
• It is consumed at the rate of 1400 million cups per day.
• The world's second most popular drink after water.