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The Coffee Thread

Catching up here after another few hours offline.

Too late for coffee, decaff will have to do.
 
david wheatley ‏@nemoloris 4h4 hours ago
A 'Song for Coffee-Drinkers' by James Clarence Mangan on #NationalCoffeeDay. 1/2

Ctit45eWgAEyaK8.jpg
 
:eek:

A North East university is due in court today after two students were hospitalised following a caffeine research experiment gone wrong.
Northumbria University will be sentenced for the health and safety breach which put the students in intensive care when they overdosed on caffeine.

They accidentally took too much of the stimulant prior to exercising as part of a sports science study that was designed to measure how caffeine affected performance.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted the university and it admitted failing to ensure their safety at a hearing last month, and will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court .

It was believed both students – on an Applied Sport and Exercise Science course – needed several days of hospital treatment following the incident in 2015.

Chronicle
 
Coffee could become scarcer and more expensive.

Biggest producer of coffee could see bean-growing land shrink nearly 90% by 2050
By Erik StokstadSep. 11, 2017 , 3:00 PM

The news isn’t getting any better for the future of coffee. Several studies have already predicted that climate change could halve the amount of farmland worldwide suitable for growing coffee by 2050, mainly because of increasing temperatures. Now, an ecological model of Latin America, the biggest producer, suggests even greater declines: Habitat for coffee could shrink by 88%, with particularly large losses in the lowlands of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Venezuela. The researchers also examined how future climate will impact the domesticated honey bee and 38 other bee species that pollinate coffee plants and boost yields. Although conditions will improve for pollinators on up to 22% of the future growing area for coffee—generally higher elevation areas, such as in Mexico—as much as 51% of the coffee-growing area will have fewer bee species, and that will likely dent yields, the researchers report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. What can growers do? The study suggests they may need to cater to their bee populations by minimizing use of pesticides and keeping a diversity of native plants to provide other food for bees.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017...um=facebook-text&utm_campaign=bigcoffee-15179
 
I wasn't sure whether to post this in Oh The Irony, Nominative Determinism, or elsewhere ... :reyes:

Highly Caffeinated 'Death Wish' Coffee Recalled Over Botulism Hazard
A company that claims to make one of the strongest coffees in the world is recalling some of its products because they could pose a risk of serious illness.

On Tuesday (Sept. 19), Death Wish Coffee Co., which brands itself as the "world's strongest coffee," said it was recalling all of its 11-oz Nitro Cold Brew cans because the products could pose a risk of botulism, a serious and sometimes deadly illness caused by the botulin toxin. The company said it had determined that its current manufacturing process for the cans could lead to the growth of the bacteria that produce the botulin toxin, which can occur in low-oxygen and low-acid foods. ...

So far, no illnesses have been reported in connection with the recalled products.

Death Wish coffee contains more than 700 mg of caffeine per 12 fluid ounces, according to the company. That's nearly twice the recommended daily limit of caffeine, which is 400 mg. Its cold brew product contains less caffeine, about 380 mg per can. For comparison, a 12-ounce cup of dark roast coffee at Starbucks has about 200 mg of caffeine.

FULL STORY: http://www.livescience.com/60473-death-wish-coffee-recall-botulism.html
 
Scientists who work with cockroaches often develop allergies towards cockroaches. At the same time, they also develop allergies to pre-ground coffee.

I'll let you do the logic.
 
Coffee beans are cockroach cocoons?
Is it that Cockroach exoskeletons present a similar particulate micro-debris to that of semi-carbonised coffee-beans? They are morphologically-analogous, and I'd imagine that if inhaled or present as a topical abradant they could both produce very-similar biological allergic reactions.

In equal weight/volume tests, Cockroach offshed exoshell might be most-affective of the two in terms of being an allergen, but I predict that it would tend to produce the lesser-effective beverage extract. A doctoral thesis may deserve to be written on this topic.
 
Is it that Cockroach exoskeletons present a similar particulate micro-debris to that of semi-carbonised coffee-beans? They are morphologically-analogous, and I'd imagine that if inhaled or present as a topical abradant they could both produce very-similar biological allergic reactions.

In equal weight/volume tests, Cockroach offshed exoshell might be most-affective of the two in terms of being an allergen, but I predict that it would tend to produce the lesser-effective beverage extract. A doctoral thesis may deserve to be written on this topic.

It's that companies that purchase pre-ground coffee typically do so from second and third-world nations and it is absolutely standard for non-coffe elements to be ground along with the coffee beans--that powder commonly includes the many species of cockroach.

Interestingly, those aforementioned unfortunates who develop cockroach allergies frequently have reactions to marine crustaceans, with whom the cockroach shares a genetic lineage. There is debate about how closely they are linked.

See here:
https://www.geek.com/news/lobsters-really-are-cockroaches-of-the-sea-1614260/?amp=1
 
It's that companies that purchase pre-ground coffee typically do so from second and third-world nations and it is absolutely standard for non-coffe elements to be ground along with the coffee beans--that powder commonly includes the many species of cockroach.
See now I'd just assumed it was ground roach in the coffee. But then there's rat crap in grain, judging by the way it's stored around here after harvesting.
 
Some fun "coffee by numbers" facts on the BBC website today.

I didn't know Vietnam was such a large producer. Or that coffee is much more expensive here than anywhere else. Or that the Americans, despite seeking obsessed by it, don't really drink that much.

How do you like your coffee in the morning? From an Italian espresso to the Vietnamese ca phe trung, made with egg yolks and condensed milk, a lot depends on where you wake up.

More people are drinking more coffee than ever before, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. So which nation produces the most beans needed for our caffeine fix? Who drinks the most coffee, and where do people buy it?
 
More good news!

A new study appearing in PLOS Biology, led by Judith Haendeler and Joachim Altschmied in Duesseldorf, Germany, shows that a physiologically-relevant dose of caffeine—in this case, what is achieved with four cups of coffee—protects cardiovascular cells from damage.

It has long been known that caffeine is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. These researchers wanted to know why. According to their research, a mitochondrial protein, p27, protects heart muscles from cell death and helps repair these muscles after a heart attack. After the discovery, Haendeler said,

These results should lead to better strategies for protecting heart muscle from damage, including consideration of coffee consumption or caffeine as an additional dietary factor in the elderly population. Furthermore, enhancing mitochondrial p27 could serve as a potential therapeutic strategy not only in cardiovascular diseases but also in improving healthspan.

Altschmied notes that this research—along with an extensive list of over 100 studies showing the beneficial aspects of coffee consumption in helping decrease the risk of breast, colorectal, colon, endometrial, and prostate cancers, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and mortality—overturns the assumption that the elderly should avoid caffeine.

https://bigthink.com/21st-century-s...ail&utm_term=0_45b26faecc-0440efa87e-44221785
 
And in high-end hoity-toity coffee news ...
California cafe touts its $75 coffee as the world’s priciest

A California cafe is brewing up what it calls the world’s most expensive coffee — at $75 a cup.

Klatch Coffee is serving the exclusive brew, the Elida Natural Geisha 803, at its branches in Southern California and San Francisco.

The 803 in the coffee’s name refers to the record-breaking $803 per pound the organic beans sold for at a recent auction after winning the Best of Panama coffee competition, said Bo Thiara, co-owner of the Klatch branch in San Francisco. He calls the annual competition the coffee world’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Only 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of the beans were available for purchase, and most went to Japan, China and Taiwan, Thiara said. Klatch secured 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) and is the only chain in North America to have it.

The coffee’s high quality and limited supply set off a bidding war that determined its astronomical price, topping last year’s winning beans that sold for $601 per pound, Thiara said.

Klatch describes the coffee as a rare variety of Arabica from Panama that has a floral, tea-like flavor with hints of jasmine and berries. The 10 pounds of beans will produce about 80 cups of coffee, Thiara said. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.apnews.com/adcd5281577c4a408f52e2bfccc1ac86
 
Interestingly, those aforementioned unfortunates who develop cockroach allergies frequently have reactions to marine crustaceans, with whom the cockroach shares a genetic lineage. There is debate about how closely they are linked.

Attempts at squeezing a lobster into my coffee bean grinder have been unsatisfactory thus far.
 
Coffee and chocolate, I like the Swiss.

The Swiss are nothing if not well-prepared. Theirs is a country with a nuclear bunker for every household, a country that tests its air raid sirens every year, and a country that, although one of the wealthiest in the world, stockpiles thousands of tonnes of goods in case of an emergency - including coffee.

But when the Swiss government proposed ending the stockpiling of coffee earlier this year, the plan was met with fierce resistance.

The drink, low in calories and with little nutritional value, did not belong, the government said, on the "essential to life" list.

But this led to a public outcry. The Swiss are among the world's biggest drinkers of coffee, and many, it seems, do regard it as "essential". Faced with such a public response, the government said it would reconsider.

The 15,000-tonne supply of coffee, which is enough to last the Swiss population of 8.5 million for three months, is part of an essential list of goods that includes sugar, flour, cooking oil and rice, as well as fuel, fresh water, and medicines.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50402048#
 
Just get Roger Federer to pay for the coffee. He can probably afford the tea as well.
 
A London coffee shop is charging $64 for its premium brew -- here's what it tastes like

This particular lot of Ethiopian coffee beans won first place in the Cup of Excellence, a prestigious annual competition for high-quality coffees.
It was bought back in June and roasted last month by Difference Coffee, the roaster that supplies Queens of Mayfair and one of only eight firms worldwide that was invited to bid on the beans.

The coffee was graded 91.08/95 by the competition's international panel of judges and coffee experts following rigorous tasting and testing, according to Queens.

The beans retail for up to £2,000 per kilogram (around $2,600) and are truly fair trade as the Cup of Excellence program is designed to reward farmers for excellence, which means they receive most of the auction price -- 155 times the normal commodity price.


If you need full details:
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/expensive-coffee-london-gbr-scli-intl/index.html
 
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