William Lloyd’s Coffee House in London specialized in being the first in getting marine news, such as arrivals and shipwrecks. Merchants and traders profited from the transatlantic slave trade before abolition, not only in the buying and selling of slaves, but also in the whole marine business of ship insurance and mortgages to sea captains.[…]
Look tasty? Dan Lacher/Flickr, CC BY Do you like your coffee to have artistic flair? Recent research shows we’re likely to pay more for a coffee with latte art than a mere ‘flat’ white. By Dr. George Van Doorn / 11.25.2014 Lecturer in Psychology Federation University Australia It will come as no surprise that coffee culture is thriving in many western countries. Yet, although the amount of coffee we[…]
Just five more minutes … can a coffee before a nap really help you pay back your sleep debt? from www.shutterstock.com Can drinking a cup of coffee before taking a short nap really give you the energy you need to see you through the day? By Dr. Chin Moi Chow / 04.02.2017 Associate Professor of Sleep and Wellbeing University of Sydney Caffeine and napping have something[…]
The smell of freshly brewed coffee is hard to beat. Michael Yan/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND By Don Brushett / 10.20.2014 Research Associate Southern Cross University Most of what we taste we actually smell. The only sensations that we pick up in our mouth are sweet, sour, bitter, umami and salty. Without its smell, coffee would have only a sour or[…]
We know different coloured plates can affect how food ‘tastes’ … and now we know that the same applies to coffee. Esti Alvarez/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA It appears that cup colour plays a big part in the way coffee drinkers perceive the taste of their morning cuppa. By Dr. George Van Doorn / 11.25.2014 Lecturer in Psychology Federation University[…]
An exact science. counterculturecopy/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND Forget your cappuccinos – it’s all about chemex and cold drip now. By Dr. Jennifer Ferreira / 07.27.2015 Senior Research Assistant Coventry University While most people these days can tell their cappuccinos from their americanos, they may not be quite as familiar with the differences between aeropress, chemex, V-60 and cold-drip[…]
What can you do to ensure a more perfect brew? Chris Hendon, CC BY-ND The science behind why what your barista sometimes achieves at the cafe tastes better than what you can come up with at home. By Dr. Christopher H. Hendon / 09.27.2017 Assistant Professor of Computational Materials and Chemistry University of Oregon Coffee is unique among artisanal beverages in[…]
Many reasons that weren’t explored may account for the findings that women who drank coffee decreased their risk of dementia. Tim Wright/Unsplash, CC BY A study was reported to show caffeine protects older women from dementia. But looking closer at the research, we can’t truly claim coffee was the reason some of the women had a lower risk of dementia. By Dr.[…]
Nobuhiro Asada/Shutterstock.com A new analysis shows that coffee is associated with a host of positive health effects. By Dr. Robin Poole / 11.22.2017 Specialist Registrar in Public Health University of Southampton Drinking moderate amounts of coffee – about three or four cups a day – is more likely to benefit our health than harm it, our latest research shows. This is important to know[…]
Coffee’s usefulness doesn’t have to end here. Yanadhorn/Shutterstock.com Plenty of cafes these days will let you take home some used coffee grounds, to put on your garden. It’s a versatile material with loads of potential uses – as long as you treat it properly first. By Dr. Tien Huynh / 01.31.2018 Senior Lecturer in the School of Sciences RMIT University Did you[…]
Beans have travelled a long way to make your cup of coffee. Jack Fussell/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND By Don Brushett / 11.02.2014 Research Associate Southern Cross University The vast majority of the brewed coffee we drink in Australia comes from the arabica species (Coffea arabica), despite 30% of world coffee production being the “robusta” variety (Coffea canephora). Coffee is[…]
By Sylvian Thibodeau / 09.25.2017 For the past few decades now, some of the best espresso and coffee brewed on the planet has taken place not in the world’s top cafes or in barista competitions, but in people’s homes. I say this not with hubris or as a champion for consumer coffee, but as a plain[…]
By Dal Anderson / 08.18.2010 Single Origin History A person could argue that Single Origin coffee has always existed or at least existed in the minds of coffee buyers going back centuries. Perhaps many in the past felt that Single Origin meant the country of origin and instead of selling coffee as “coffee” a company[…]
By Mark Prince / 08.17.2017 Coffee Specialist, Lecturer, and Educator I know the title is confusing, so let’s end that right way: this article is going to take a brief look at applying smoke to an iced coffee beverage. For years now, many of the world’s top bartenders have been playing around with a device[…]
Researchers have published details of the largest collection of artefacts from an early English coffeehouse ever discovered. Described as an 18th century equivalent of Starbucks, the finds nonetheless suggest that it may have been less like a café, and more like an inn. 12.18.2017 Customers today may settle for a flat white and a cinnamon[…]
Photo by stevepb, Pixabay, Creative Commons By Megan Ray Nichols / 12.14.2017 Mention the word keg, and there’s only one drink that comes to most people’s minds — beer. The keg is beer’s natural habitat, and craft beer aficionados will attest that kegs are the most consistent source of fresh beer on draft, which has[…]
Making Irish coffee / Photo by Frettie, Wikimedia Commons The cavemen were drunk and revolutionaries were caffeinated. By Chelsea Follett / 03.01.2017 CATO Institute No two drugs have defined human civilization the way alcohol and caffeine have. Nature created both to kill creatures much smaller than us — plants evolved caffeine to poison insect predators, and yeasts[…]
What can you do to ensure a more perfect brew? Chris Hendon, Creative Commons By Dr. Christopher H. Herndon / 09.27.2017 Assistant Professor of Computational Materials and Chemistry University of Oregon Coffee is unique among artisanal beverages in that the brewer plays a significant role in its quality at the point of consumption. In contrast, drinkers buy[…]
By Emmy Blotnick / 12.15.2015 1. MECCA Coffee was banned in Mecca in 1511, as it was believed to stimulate radical thinking and hanging out — the governor thought it might unite his opposition. Java also got a bad rap for its use as a stimulant — some Sufi sects would pass around a bowl[…]
Prawit Chankasem/Facebook 05.22.2017 If you’re looking for a new and interesting way to enjoy your daily cup of java, try dumping a lump of hot coal into it. The trick worked for a small coffee stall owner in Indonesia who has become famous for his sizzling charcoal coffee. The Indonesian city of Yogyakarta is perhaps the[…]
By Tori Avery / 04.08.2013 Second only to oil, coffee is the most valuable legally traded commodity in the world. We love it, we rely on it, and we drink it in massive quantities. It is estimated that 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day worldwide. New Yorkers are said to drink 7[…]
Lee Kang Bin 05.11.2017 Photos by Lee Kang Bin / Instagram The latte art scene in Korea is growing at an astonishing rate, and young Lee Kang Bin is one of the talented baristas spearheading the movement. The masterful designs he is able to freehand on cups of latte have earned him tens of thousands of[…]
Baristas at L.A.’s Civil Coffee use a flick of the wrist to make coffee with an Impressionist touch By Allison Ramirez / 01.27.2016 Writer The Getty Iris “I would live on bread and coffee and nothing else,” Vincent van Gogh once wrote to his brother Theo. He would have felt right at home at Civil[…]
Creating a buzz. / Photo by davidabrahamovitch/Flickr By Dr. Adam J. Smith / 06.29.2015 Honorary Research Fellow University of Sheffield In any trendy coffee shop on the urban high street, you’re likely to see intimate groups of well-dressed (or fashionably scruffy) sophisticates. Perched on narrow wooden benches, they’ll be locked in conversation or poring over[…]
This video features a quick how-to guide with instructions on how to easily make Moka Pot coffee at home. Moka pot coffee is known for its dark, complex flavor, which works great as a substitute for espresso when making lattes and other coffee drinks at home. With as common as moka pots are in Europe,[…]
Photo by Thomas Ricker, Creative Commons By Dr. Rhodri Jenkins / 10.29.2015 Postdoctoral Researcher in Biofuels University of Bath Many of us depend on coffee to fuel our early morning meetings, mid-afternoon slumps or all-night study sessions. These days, the words “coffee” and “fuel” are half-jokingly synonymous. More than 9m tonnes of the bean are[…]
04.05.2017 The International Food Information Council recommends a daily caffeine intake of 300 mg, while the FDA recommends 400 mg, but just one 12-ounce cup of Black Insomnia brew contains 702 mg of caffeine, which will definitely keep you up at night and may even cause some health problems. Black Insomnia Coffee was founded in 2016[…]
Interior of a London Coffee-house; maid in white lace frontage behind canopied bar and manservant taking clay pipes from a chest, at centre, another servant pouring coffee, to right, group of men seated on benches with newspapers and cups, in background, fire with cauldron, various paintings and notices on wall, c.1690-1700 / British Museum, London[…]
Cupping takes place at many steps along the journey from crop to cup, in both the producing and consuming countries. To standardise the findings from these cupping sessions the following terms are used to describe the characteristics of the coffee. However you do not have to be a professional coffee taster to try and identify[…]
By Corey Doctorow / 12.07.2016 Diguo’s Luxury Royal Family Balance Syphon Coffee Maker is an amazingly elaborate coffee siphon, a brewing method dating to the 1830s which is said to produce “a delicate, tea-like cup of coffee,” albeit with the caveat that it is “quite persnickety.” I have owned some very expensive and beautiful coffee[…]