There is always room for coffee

A Professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the Professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The Professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The Professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the space between the grains of sand.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else -the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. "Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The Professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

http://intpforum.com/showthread.php?t=2844
http://www.wow4u.com/theprofessor/

Carrots, Eggs, And Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft and mushy. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hardened egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee.

The daughter smiled as she tasted its deep flavour and inhaled its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What's the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water - but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin, outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong? But with pain and adversity, do I wilt and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a fluid spirit but, after death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water - the very circumstance that brings the adversity, the pain, the hardship – into something quite wonderful. When the water gets hot, it releases it's fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better, and change the situation around you for the better.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level? How do you handle adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

(Somehow, wake up and smell the coffee takes on a whole new meaning)

-Author Unknown

http://www.heavensinspirations.com/carrots-eggs-coffee.html

Most Remembered Coffee Scenes in Movies

If we are to look back at some of the movies we’ve watched, we will most probably remember several memorable scenes that involved coffee. It may not have been the main point in the scene but we cannot imagine such without the coffee.  So here goes a list of memorable coffee scenes from movies.

1. The Bucket List

 The coffee-loving billionaire played by Jack Nicholson gets the shock of his life when his adventure companion played by  Morgan Freeman reveals the not-so-desirable nature of producing the rare Sumatran coffee beans of which he is very fond of.  According to Freeman’s character, cat’s dung plays a role in flavoring the beans.  Nicholson’s character ends up accepting such revelation good naturedly, in the best way a dying man would.

2.  Green Hornet

The art of coffee-making gets featured in the scene showing a cup of coffee with a distinctive leaf pattern.  It is supposed to be some form of latte art called the Rosetta.  Though not specifically explained in the scene, it presented another side to Kato’s character especially since crime fighting and artful coffee-making does not exactly mix.

3. Amelie

Scenes involving coffee in this charming French movie cannot be avoided since the main character plays the role of a shy waitress in a small cafe.  She has resolved to find ways to make other people happy after one successfulattempt.  In one scene, she purposely spills coffee on a customer in one her matchmaking attempts which ended with positive results.



4. The Usual Suspects

Dropping coffee three times in a movie does not happen very often.  When Chazz Palminteri’s character finally figured out the truth, he had to emphasize it with the shattering of cups of coffee.  It must be the coffee that awakened him to the truth.







5. Pulp Fiction

The movie that started a new generation of crime movies features a humorous scene when the characters of John Travolta and Samuel Jackson took the time of discussing the quality of coffee in spite of the more pressing concern about a dead body.


http://www.brewed-coffee.com/entertainment/most-remembered-coffee-scenes-in-movies/#more-1430

What Goes Best with Coffee?

Many people who drink coffee often prefer to have it with cookies or pastries and even fruits. It’s been a long tradition.

But did you know that there are specific food that go best with certain coffee flavors? Coffee and cake is a classic pair, for example. You need to find out more here so that the next time you go out with friends and family, you would know what to order together with your coffee regardless whether it’s the hot or cold type you want.

Chocolate cake is best paired with roast coffees, medium or dark. The chocolate mousse cake goes well with most Arabica coffees. Carrot cake, on the other hand, matches well with Columbian coffee. Then there’s coffee cake that can be eaten along with light- or medium-roast Hawaiian and Nicaraguan coffees.

Brownies can be paired with coffee from Indonesia or Guatemala.

Biscotti is perfect for coffee if you’d like to go Italian. The full flavored type can be paired with espresso. Biscotti comes in a variety of flavors including almond, cherry and chocolate.

Cinnamon buns go well with Guatemalan and Colombian coffees. The unique taste of cinnamon is always a nice mix with coffee, don’t you think?

Doughnuts, whether the plain or sweetened type, are also often paired with coffee. They’re best eaten with sweet Costa Rican coffee.

Muffins never go out style when served with any coffee. Some people, however, prefer them with Costa Rican and Mexican coffee.

Breads are a perfect match as well. The short bread is ideally paired with Costa Rican or Brazilian coffee, the banana nut bread with Costa Rican, Kenyan and Kona coffee and the pumpkin bread with Colombian or Costa Rican coffee.

http://www.brewed-coffee.com/coffee/what-goes-best-with-coffee/#more-1421

Coffee Break Will Make the Boss Happy

Several studies have varying opinions on coffee side-effects. On one side, they say coffee is helpful; on the other, they say it’s dangerous. Well only one thing is for sure—having coffee break will make your boss happy.

Better Memory Retention
David Foster’s research along with colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology has discovered that taking a break helps the brain to retain information better.

They experimented on rats to repeatedly run on a track. Their brain has memorized a pleasurable pattern on the track. What’s surprising is that when they repeated the experiment after the rats’ break, their memory retention is 20 times faster.

So, having a coffee break will help you perform better at a mentally-demanding work. Actually, taking any break from work, like enjoying other office refreshments or self-grooming, is also beneficial for memory retention.
 
Activate Mind and Body
Better have a coffee break than just any other break. Coffee has caffeine that activates mind and body, keeping you perform better at work. It’s the reason behind sleeping difficulty when coffee was taken within two hours before bed time.

In fact, a study from France found out that taking at least three cups of coffee everyday by women 80 years old and over can reduce their risk of having memory decline to about 70 percent.

But don’t overdo your coffee break. Drinking more than four cups of coffee everyday will lead to caffeine addiction with symptoms like depression, fatigue, irritability, brain dilate, and jumpiness. Your boss will never be happy with a caffeine-addicted employee, for sure.

http://www.brewed-coffee.com/coffee/coffee-break-will-make-the-boss-happy/

Coffeeshop Customers Mark Their Spot

Photo from www.socketapp.com

Most adults love coffee. They can’t live without sipping this drink every day either in the morning or in the afternoon.

Thankfully with the mushrooming of coffee shopsin most urban centers around the world, people who travel to different places can still enjoy their favorite drink, hot or cold and even get to taste some new concoctions.

The coffee shops of today, however, have gone beyond just being a place to drink coffee and have some snacks. For some people, it’s become their comfort zone or even their home away from home. Customers now meet up with friends here to discuss projects or business apart from updating each other of their lives while some go here to study or go online via their laptops to check their mails and social media accounts. The others stop by to catch up with their work.

A study has also found that coffee shop customers often display a territorial behavior by marking their spot. Authors Mary C. Gilly, a marketing professor at UC Irvine and Merlyn Griffiths of the University of North Carolina looked into the habits of people at coffee shops through their research “Dibs! Customer Territorial Behaviors published in the Journal of Service Research.

After spending 103 hours observing and taking photos of customers and interviewing them, they concluded that coffee shop habitués normally mark their spot using their belongings for an indefinite period. They can do this even after consuming their drink and food.

According to the researchers, many of those guilty of showing this territorial behavior are the teleworkers who don’t have an office space and don’t often to work at home all the time. Although it’s not necessarily that they want to be with people, they just want to be around people while doing their work and not be home alone. Students are also part of this territorial group.

A common behavior of this group of people is they believe they can claim theirspace for as long as they want at coffee shops as long as they order drinks and food there. Oftentimes, these territorial customers are seen alone occupying a booth or a table that can accommodate two or more people. And when the shop gets filled, they will even defend their spot and reason out that the extra seat is reserved for a friend although it may not always be true.

For this behavior, the female authors stressed that coffee shops owners should have a clear cut policy notably in using space while still making their shop customer-friendly.

http://www.brewed-coffee.com/coffee/coffeeshop-customers-mark-their-spot/

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