Health research on coffee swings back and forth between good and bad news more frequently than almost any other topic. When you hear about one study claiming health benefits while another harps on a list of negatives, it’s easy to get jaded and stop paying attention. To bring some focus, here’s a summary of both good and bad findings from a selection of coffee studies, with some perspective about why these findings are worth the time.

The good news: Coffee seems to help prevent an early demise.

Let’s start with the big one: the latest round of research suggests that drinking a few cups of coffee a day is associated with a decreased chance of early death from several causes. Important to note, none of these studies prove that coffee extends life. These are observational studies that found correlations between drinking between two-to-four cups a day and lower mortality. The reasons why are debatable. It could be coffee’s high concentration of antioxidants providing cells protection from oxidative stress and inflammation, or it could be reasons that haven’t been uncovered yet. Whatever the reasons, enough of these studies have found similar enough results that they’re worth the attention.

The bad news: Coffee can cause insomnia.

Another health topic that gets a fair amount of press is sleep, and when it comes to sleeping well, caffeinated coffee isn’t our friend. At least not if you’re drinking it later in the day. The rule of thumb is to avoid anything with caffeine after about 2 pm, because it’s a deceptively enduring chemical. The half life of caffeine is about 6 hours, which means it takes 6 hours to eliminate about half of the chemical from your system. Hence, drinking coffee later in the day is strongly linked to insomnia, which is in turn linked to a list of health negatives. Keep the coffee for the morning unless you’re drinking decaf, but even then make sure your decaf is truly decaffeinated (because often it isn’t).

The good news: Coffee may preserve your liver.

A recent study found a correlation between drinking both coffee and tea and a healthier liver. Again, this was an observation across a span of data and not cause-and-effect proof, but it’s a decently strong correlation. The reason why isn’t well understood, but both coffee and tea contain a wealth of compounds with tissue-protecting effects, and the liver—the body’s central filtration system—may benefit from these compounds charging through our bloodstream.

The bad news: Coffee can trigger anxiety.

It’s a little unfair to blame coffee for this, since anything with enough caffeine could do it, but coffee is the way most of us get our daily jolt, and caffeine is propane gas for those suffering from anxiety. The effect is twofold: there’s the immediate trigger, and then there’s the longer-term, slower-burn trigger. The second effect is of particular concern because it hangs around for as long as caffeine remains in your system (which is more or less all the time if you’re a daily coffee drinker). Caffeine seems to decrease levels of GABA, the neurotransmitter that helps regulate anxiety, and it amplifies the effects of our two main stress hormones, cortisol and epinephrine. Bottom line: anyone with an anxiety condition should sip judiciously and infrequently.

The good news: Coffee may provide protection against diabetes.

Another finding in the “coffee protects…” category shows that daily consumption could decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It’s hard to identify exactly why, but the compounds in coffee seem to protect cells from the accumulation of toxic proteins that play a role in the onset of diabetes.

The bad news: Coffee may induce your craving for sweets.

A new study revealed that caffeine changes our taste perception, making sweet things seem less sweet. The twist is that this subtle change may result in craving more sweets. This finding explains why coffee goes so well with donoughts and pastries, and serves as a caution light when you’re sipping hot java with a plate of baked goods in front of you.

The good news: Coffee may prevent dementia.

A few studies suggest that three or more cups a day may ward off cognitive decline leading to dementia. The reason in this case could be caffeine itself, but more likely it’s caffeine working with coffee’s host of other compounds (like polyphenols), because comparable results weren’t found with the same amount of tea. A notable study in this category found that coffee may even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s; the reason may be similar to why coffee protects against diabetes, by preventing the accumulation of toxic proteins.

The bad news: Coffee can make GERD worse.

If you suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), it’s a good idea to avoid coffee or at least limit your intake. Coffee stimulates the secretion of gastric acid, which can bring on the heart burn even if you don’t have a bad case of GERD, and if you do, it’s going to be much worse.

The good news: Coffee may improve memory.

A number of studies have linked coffee with improved memory, mainly because caffeine is a mental acuity enhancer. And the really good news is that this effect may not only be short-term; some research suggests that it lasts much longer.

And some bonus good news: Coffee can make you happy.

Let’s end with one that’s both scientifically valid and anecdotally true – a major reason why we like to drink coffee is that it’s a potent psychoactive brain stimulant. Drinking it elevates mood and bolsters energy, at least for a little while, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s also delicious. In other words, drinking it makes us feel happy. Do we really need a better reason than that?

Source

Click HERE to download our Exclusive Report

Can private certification standards truly bring about more sustainable production practices?

This is the question at the center of Dr. Janina Grabs‘ forthcoming book, Selling Sustainability Short? The Private Governance of Labor and the Environment in the Coffee Sector.

The book developed from years of research as Grabs was pursuing a PhD at the University of Münster. A political scientist by training, a past visiting scholar at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and an instrumental figure in the launch of Costa Rica’s climate-smart NAMA Café initiative, Grabs’ interest in the coffee industry stems from a broader interest in sustainable agri-food systems.

Published by the Cambridge University Press, Selling Sustainability Short officially launched in hardcover and as an e-book in the U.K. and Europe earlier this month. A United States and Canada release is scheduled for Thursday, June 18, and an online official book launch is taking place via Zoom on Tuesday, June 9.

We recently asked Grabs more about the book, its origins and its findings.

[Note: Portions of some answers may have been shortened.]

DCN: What inspired your interest in this particular subject, and in the book itself? 

Janina Grabs: In my book, I study the effectiveness of private sustainability standards in the coffee sector, led by a simple question: Do they achieve their goals in leading to more sustainable production practices on the ground? From a political science perspective, this is an interesting research question because these standards are key examples of non-state rule-making, where private actors assume regulatory functions that states cannot or do not want to take on.

The coffee sector is a great case study to see whether this strategy works, since standards have existed long enough and have actually entered mainstream markets, unlike in many other commodity sectors. Understanding how to improve the sustainability of the coffee sector is also an important aim in itself, given the recurrent coffee price crises that regularly put millions of smallholder producers in peril — not to mention the threats of climate change.

Today, more than ever, we need to know how to better help farmers to make their farms resilient and integrated within their natural environment while also allowing them to derive a sustainable livelihood.

The old adage in the news business is that the answer to any headline that ends in a question mark is “no.” In this case, can we assume that private actors have indeed failed to provide the kinds of coffee-sector-wide sustainability solutions that they sometimes purport? Can you give us some more details about the book’s focus?

I’d like to counter with a similar adage in the social sciences, where we say that almost every question we ask can be answered with “it depends” — and that, incidentally, is what I find in this book as well.

I dedicate some space to teasing out what we even mean by a “sustainable coffee sector” and how that definition has changed over time. One early definition, agreed upon in 2001 by NGOs and major coffee buyers in the Conservation Principles for Coffee Production, puts great emphasis on maintaining shade cover and ecosystem function, while also ensuring sustainable livelihoods via equitable prices and long-term trading relationships. In this view, sustainable coffee producers would make trade-offs for environmental protection that would be compensated by the market through monetary support.

Later definitions tend to focus on “sustainable intensification,” whereby farmer livelihoods are supported via improved productivity, while the greatest harm from agrochemical overuse is avoided. Here, the question of equitable pricing moves into the background. Yet, this definition has a hard time supporting the most sustainable practices that create higher costs for farmers, such as agroforestry, agroecology, or paying living wages.

It turns out that the majority of the private sustainability standards that I study (all major ones: Fairtrade, organic, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ, 4C, Nespresso AAA, and Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices) have moved toward the “sustainable intensification” framing in their standards. I also see this in the data on the ground, where sustainable intensification practices are much more prevalent among certified producers than the more demanding practices. Thus, I conclude that private regulation has only partially met its objectives, and only when allowing for moving goalposts.

The book mentions “the erosion of price premiums” and the “adaptation to buyers’ preferences” as factors that have potentially degraded some sustainability standards. Can you explain those two concepts a bit more and how they play into institutional sustainability efforts?  

Of course. Certification via private sustainability standards was advertised to producers as a great way to differentiate their coffee and harness premium prices that conscientious consumers would want to pay them in order to support sustainable practices on the ground. Yet, as several standards entered into competition over attracting leading roasters to their scheme, price became one element on the chopping block.

With the exception of the Fairtrade minimum price, certification premiums are market-based, and negotiated between producers and buyers individually. Thus, premium pricing depends on demand and supply.

After 2008, we entered a perfect storm, with many producers aiming to gain this competitive advantage, buyers scaling back their sustainable sourcing commitments, and no supply management from standards. Hence, the niche market repeated the experience of the mainstream, with oversupply causing premium prices to drop. In the Honduran experience, premiums about halved over a 10-year time span, making sustainability efforts less attractive to producers. Even today, only a small share (between 30 and 50%) of certified coffee is also sold as such. This is what I describe in my SCA Re:Co Talk “Overcoming the Single Exit Fallacy.”

The “adaptation to buyers” preferences refers to strategies that standards pursued to enter the mainstream, and get big roasters on board. This includes a number of steps, including allowing buyers to only certify a small share of their overall volumes; making certified coffee more fungible by allowing buyers to switch flexibly between production origins and source the lowest cost certified coffee (thereby inciting producer competition); and integrating “sustainable intensification” language to meet buyers’ goals of having greater quantities of coffee available in the future (while oversupply has been a core reason for the most recent price crisis). All these steps allow private sustainability standards to scale up, but are likely to limit their impact on sustainable production and livelihoods.

Who is the reader for this book?  

Due to its readability and the facts that it introduces all relevant concepts and challenges before exploring them, the book bridges the academic-practitioner divide.

It therefore has two main target groups: first, it is aimed at academics in a number of disciplines (political science, environmental politics, sustainability governance, political economy, rural development, and business ethics, amongst others) that are searching for novel frameworks and in-depth empirical evidence to inform their theory building and understanding of the implementation of sustainability in global supply chains.

Second, Corporate Social Responsibility is a global industry with practitioners, companies, and governments struggling to figure out its efficacy. The book aims to inform practitioners in the field of sustainable development and supply chain governance, including major players in the coffee value chain, of key challenges in the sector aiming to be the “first sustainable agricultural product,” and to show objective evidence on advances and shortcomings in addressing them.

What’s next for you? Another book? Will you be focusing more on sustainability in coffee? 

I’d love to write another book in the long-term, though my immediate focus are both academic papers as well as practitioner-oriented outputs such as policy briefs and white papers. In my current position at ETH Zurich, I have actually moved on to studying another, possibly even more complex commodity and its sustainability: namely, palm oil. I am leading a research project focused on understanding the effectiveness and equity of corporate zero-deforestation commitments, where actors in the value chain try to prevent deforestation-linked palm oil from entering their supply chains. It’s a fascinating challenge.

However, part of my heart will always belong to coffee, and I am actively pursuing projects that continue to study relevant developments in this space, such as the growing role of traders as lead actors for on-the-ground sustainability activities, and the impact of climate change (adaptation) on power and value distribution in the global value chain. I doubt I’ll run out of interesting topics to study in a long while!

Related Reading

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

Nick Brown | March 16, 2020

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

If you are someone that likes to drink smoothies in the morning, then you will have some great opportunities for adding more coconut to your regular diet. The following smoothie recipes are going to use coconut to flavor them, while also adding to their health benefits at the same time.

Coffee Smoothie With Coconut

The first way you can use coconut in a smoothie is by making a morning coffee smoothie. These are great because you get your morning’s boost of caffeine, but it also gives you the opportunity to add some other ingredients that are nutritious. You will start with some strongly-brewed coffee, preferably frozen or chilled at least. Add that to a blender with a frozen banana or ice cubes, coconut water, ground flax seeds, and some granola. You can also add a little bit of cocoa powder or chocolate protein mix if you want a mocha coffee smoothie.

Coconut Turmeric Smoothie

This smoothie is ideal when you want to add more nutrients to your morning smoothie. Turmeric is an herb that provides a lot of excellent health benefits, including anti-aging benefits, helping with your digestion, and building a good immune system. You will combine some ground turmeric with coconut milk, coconut oil, banana, pineapple, and any other fruits that you would like with your smoothie. Blend it all up and enjoy your nutritious breakfast.

Fruity Coconut Smoothie

This type of smoothie really gives you a lot of flexibility, since you are choosing any fruit combination you want. You can go with a tropical mixture of watermelon, mango, and papaya, or a classic strawberry and banana concoction. You might prefer berries, so adding strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries would work great. Once you decide on your fruit, try to get them in frozen form so that you don’t have to add ice. Add the frozen fruit with some unsweetened coconut milk, flaked coconut, and your preferred flavor of protein powder to the blender.

Peanut Butter Cocoa Smoothie

This smoothie is going to use coconut milk instead of regular milk, along with chocolate protein powder, some natural peanut butter, and vanilla or plan Greek yogurt. Add some ice or frozen banana, then blend it all up. Top it off with some shredded coconut. For more coconut in the smoothie, you can also add a little bit of coconut oil to the mixture.

Try your own smoothie creations with fruit, coconut milk, coconut oil, or coconut shavings.

(Editor’s note: This article written by Lon LaFlamme originally appeared in the January/February 2017 issue of Roast magazine.)

If you’re an established retail or wholesale roaster, you may be wondering if now is the time to invest staff and money into the pursuit of another select market segment. A prime example is the historically price-driven hospitality business.

According to a 2015 report by the market research publisher Package Facts, the food service market for specialty coffee has increased 14.2 percent over the past four years, but that modest growth lags well behind consumer demand. Over the past several years, quality coffee has taken hold of mainstream America like no other beverage, with daily coffee consumption — particularly consumption of specialty coffee, as defined by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) — continually on the rise.

Studies published by the SCA in 2014 and 2015 found that specialty coffee ranks number one — with soft drinks a distant second — among young adults from 18 to 24 years old. Since the SCA began publishing its annual specialty coffee research report more than 20 years ago, coffee consumption surpassed soda and water for millennials for the first time in 2014.

In addition, the National Coffee Association’s 2016 Drinking Trends survey reports the following:

• Daily consumption of espresso-based drinks has nearly tripled since 2008.
• Between 2008 and 2016, past-day consumption of gourmet (specialty coffee) beverages increased from 13 to 36 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds.
• Espresso-based beverage consumption has increased from 9 to 22 percent for 18- to 24-year-olds, and from 8 to 29 percent for consumers from 25 to 39 years old, between 2008 and 2016.
• Specialty coffee consumption increased from 19 to 41 percent for 25- to 39-year-olds during that same time period.

“Both men and women, especially millennials, are looking for more flavorful coffee, giving rise to lighter roasts and exotic single-origin coffees,” states the 2015 SCA report.

So why are these well-documented increases in consumer demand across virtually all age and gender groups being acted upon so slowly by some segments of the hospitality industry? Is it worth your time and investment to pursue this additional revenue stream?

Clearly, a mere 14 percent increase in the market for specialty coffee over the past four years across all segments of the hospitality industry — which includes restaurants, universities, resorts, hotels, hospitals and other institutions — indicates a slow willingness to cut into the industry’s slim profit margin for cost of goods. But what roasters should consider are the potential opportunities emerging over the next four years or more.

As the hospitality industry overall is being impacted by consumer demand for high-quality coffee, explosive growth in upgrading to specialty coffee service is forecasted for all segments of the market. There are a number of ways for roasters of varying sizes to capitalize on this inevitable expansion.

The three most common ways a roaster can sell coffee profitably to the hospitality industry without a distributor include:

• The “full-service hospitality roaster” model, in which the roaster provides financial resources, staff, and brewing and espresso equipment, and has national service partners to seek business nationwide.
• The local “just-in-time” equipment investment with a service partner model.
• The coffee-only model.

Full-Service Hospitality vs. Wholesale Roasting

Traditional wholesale coffeehouse roasters benefit from relatively high coffee sales with limited expenses other than batch brewers and training support. With such a limited upfront investment, the relationship typically can become profitable within the first two months of service. In many cases, a handshake deal is sufficient to seal a non-contractual agreement between the roaster and retailer.

On the other hand, most large hospitality customers require multiple brewers, grinders and often espresso machines delivered upfront, along with 24/7 equipment service support. Hotel and resort clients also may require small-portion or single-cup products and specialized brewing equipment for in-room service, which entails separate and relatively complicated roasting, packaging and equipment processes for the roaster.

Based on the large upfront investment, the profit margins for hospitality roasting are significantly lower than for wholesale roasters serving retail coffee businesses. That investment won’t be worthwhile without a secured agreement in place. Contractual agreements typically run at least two years, with the cost of equipment and service included in the per-pound price.

Consider the following as a generalized example: The only equipment a traditional coffeehouse serving 150 pounds per week may require a roaster to supply could be a $1,500 brewer, serviced and maintained by the customer. A similar volume hospitality account might require $25,000 in equipment, paid for by the roaster before delivery, plus ongoing service costs. These costs need to be amortized over the term of the agreement for the roaster to recoup the investment. To calculate the additional cost per pound, the roaster must estimate the additional cost for the hospitality client over the contract term, then divide that amount by the estimated number of pounds to be sold to the client over that same contract period.

Roasters serving hospitality clients at this level also must consider the unexpected. What happens if a client suddenly closes or transfers ownership of the business and does not return the equipment and/or continue to honor the original contractual obligations? What if the client’s forecasted coffee needs decline and, therefore, do not meet the cost of equipment for the roaster?

It’s important to develop a detailed risk-management program for client financing, management of bad debt and recovery of equipment, and carefully consider the profit viability of any potential customer before entering into an agreement. Detailed contingencies — such as a minimum volume agreement — included in a binding, transferable contract can help protect the roaster. Always consult an attorney before entering into any long-term contractual agreements.

Peerless Coffee & Tea: The Full-Service Hospitality Roaster Model

Oakland, California-based Peerless Coffee & Tea has roasted exclusively for the hospitality industry since the company was founded in 1924. Like other hospitality industry roasters, most of the company’s large and many of its smaller customers require significant investments in equipment, service and on-site training.

The good news is, the hospitality industry is moving away from lowest price requests for proposals (RFPs) toward a preference for balancing price, quality and innovation. Longtime Peerless customer Pebble Beach Resorts, for example, proudly promotes its 100 percent certified-organic specialty coffees at the many restaurant, catering and in-room sites throughout the world-famous resort.

This VIP customer doesn’t come at a small expense to Peerless. The roaster invests tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and service every year in an effort to maintain the brand reputation Pebble Beach patrons expect. Peerless also invests heavily into in-room brewing equipment as part of its contractual agreement, and for each PGA Tour event, the Peerless service team commonly devotes more than a week of its time to equipment service and maintenance.

Peerless account trainers meet regularly with the Pebble Beach culinary management team to create an ever-evolving, compatible coffee menu. They work closely with Pebble Beach mixologists and baristas, and have partnered with them to create new signature drinks using organic cold-brew. Recently, Peerless began delivering nitro cold-brew on tap, which is used in cocktails and mocktails at outdoor dining sites, as well as on beverage carts serving golfers on the course via portable nitrogen brew taps.

All of these costs — from equipment and service to training and event support to product development and collaboration with the client’s food and beverage teams — must be reflected in the business proposal and itemized in the service agreement. Nothing should be left to chance at this level of business.

Peerless also serves as a full-service roaster for Pacific Hospitality Group (PHG) properties, including the group’s restaurants, catering and in-room brewing operations. PHG is a premium resort property group with luxury hotels and boutique resorts in California and Hawaii. Perhaps most notable are the luxuriously branded craft coffee buildouts within these resorts called “Blend” cafes.

Bringing a relevant coffee shop experience to these boutique properties was an opportunity for Peerless to develop a consulting partnership. The team was able to assist in design updates and implementation of Blend cafes across the property group, as well as a comprehensive specialty coffee training program.

City Dock Coffee: The Local ‘Just-in-Time’ Equipment Investment with a Service Partner Model

While City Dock Coffee of Annapolis, Maryland, is not a coffee roaster — its City Dock-branded coffee is roasted by Dillanos Coffee Roasters, based in Sumner, Washington — the company’s story illustrates a relatively low-risk, affordable strategy that can be used to great advantage by roaster/retailers seeking to enter the hospitality market. With three coffeehouses and a long-established local reputation for quality, City Dock entered hospitality sales in 2005 with little initial or ongoing investment. The first step was to attract a handful of iconic local establishments as customers.

City Dock’s owners approached the local yacht club, the highest-rated restaurant in Annapolis and the Annapolis Naval Base, selling its locally popular specialty coffee at a break-even price to establish references that would help expand its hospitality business in the future. Once these highly visible local endorsements were established, City Dock was able to increase its per-pound price to ensure a reasonable profit margin and return on its equipment investment.

To keep upfront costs low, City Dock began by carrying no brewing equipment inventory and subcontracting for equipment service. Only after securing each account did the company source the equipment required, procuring new and like-new brewing equipment at a discount on eBay and through other low-cost sources.

Fast-forward to today, and City Dock’s hospitality accounts make up a third of its gross sales. The company now employs one full-time brewing equipment service person and continues to seek appropriately-sized local business partners to maintain its modest equipment investment.

Rise Up Coffee: The Coffee Only Model

As noted previously, chasing the hospitality industry traditionally has required a huge upfront investment from roasters in providing brewing equipment and service. Without partnering with a distributor, most specialty coffee roasters couldn’t afford to enter the hospitality arena at all.

Today, however, a growing number of roasters have the brand recognition and the commitment to serving their customers and their communities to sell their coffee only to restaurants, hotels and local colleges. They do this without the financial burden of expensive equipment and service amortized over multi-year contracts. Instead, they work with forward-thinking hospitality businesses that agree to buy their own equipment and service.

Convincing the hospitality buyer that it’s in the client’s best interest to buy and own its own equipment is somewhat revolutionary, considering distributors and other roasters historically have had to provide equipment along with coffee. But for roasters who have established strong brand recognition, especially in smaller markets, this approach can be worth exploring.

A good example is Rise Up Coffee Roasters headquartered in Easton, Maryland. In 2005, with a $16,000 business loan, Rise Up owner Tim Cureton opened his first drive-thru coffee shop housed in a small trailer. That single trailer, located in a parking lot in a town with a population of 1,029, has evolved into five high-volume, profitable cafes; an active online business; and numerous profitable wholesale relationships, all “without spending any time in providing brewing equipment and service,” Cureton reports.

Cureton attributes his thriving wholesale division to his business’s bootstrap beginnings and an unquenchable quest for specialty coffee knowledge. Starting small, he had no choice but to require restaurants, hotels and the local college to buy and service their own brewing equipment. Cureton’s community spirit and genuine care for his customers — providing a great deal of free coffee and personal time to community causes — quickly endeared him and his modest coffee business to the immediate and surrounding communities.

With little money and big dreams, he paid his own way to visit one of the coffee origins he was serving from a local roaster. He began roasting his own coffee in 2011, and his passion for great coffee, his generous spirit and his can-do attitude became models for every staff member he added as his business grew.

“When every dollar matters, you need to actively listen and care about every customer’s life. Then, surpass their expectations by being as committed to perfect preparation as sourcing perfect coffees,” he says.

“Too many retail roasters don’t recognize that this is not a wallet-to-purchase business, but a heart-to-heart business,” he adds. “You can still have a third-wave understanding of coffee while making every customer a friend.”

Relying on low- and no-cost advertising, Rise Up Coffee has developed a devout following, largely through social media and word-of-mouth marketing.

“The ability to tell our story of being 100 percent organic and 100 percent fair trade further underscored how Rise Up not only cares about our customers and community, but also our carbon footprint and needs of the impoverished global coffee community,” Cureton says.

Because of this strong local brand recognition, restaurant owners and hotel and college food and beverage managers have sought out Rise Up Coffee without the company having to make overt sales pitches. In fact, the company has its own criteria for accepting customers, as detailed on its website: “Rise Up Coffee only partners with like-minded businesses. We’re a company built upon service to others and experiences. That said, our wholesale partners must share our values and passion for delivering nothing less than a ‘Wow’ level coffee experience!”

Hotel Coffee Service: A Changing Landscape

Another example of how hospitality roasting is evolving in favor of specialty coffee comes from Seattle’s Victrola Coffee Roasters. For years, the company has worked with wholesale customers that required brewing equipment and service contracts along with extensive and ongoing training. In the past two years, however, many of its largest wholesale accounts have been willing to buy only the coffee, the program concept and the ongoing training.

“All hotels we have worked with that were serious about stepping up to specialty coffee have been willing to invest in their own equipment and service,” says Joshua Boyt, Victrola’s director of sales and marketing. “They have also been willing to pay whatever is necessary to serve an exceptional and hotel-brand-enhancing coffee.”

In years past, coffee was little more than an afterthought in the hotel setting. Hotel guests would find an airpot of warmish brown caffeine parked next to the breakfast bar, or a bag of mystery grounds next to a cheap plastic brewer in their room. This has been the case even in many of the most expensive hotels in America.

Today, however, both boutique and large hotel chains are realizing this wake-up beverage is much more than an afterthought for their guests. Because of this, a growing number of hotel chains are making bold moves to switch from large, national brands or generic coffees to invest in craft coffee, and they’re paying for their own equipment and service.

One such brand is Red Lion Hotels Corporation (RLHC). Seeing quality coffee as a brand-enhancing opportunity, Red Lion reached out to a number of well-known specialty coffee roasters in the Pacific Northwest to dramatically improve its customer experience. Most of these roasters didn’t even return the company’s call. There was an assumption that the 1950s-born chain was trolling for great coffee at a cheap price, with a massive amount of brewing equipment and service included.

Victrola Coffee did return the call, eventually landing what is now one of its largest accounts, with no upfront equipment or service costs. What the other roasters didn’t realize was, the chain’s leadership had a strong vision to “own coffee” in the hotel hospitality segment, according to RLHC CEO Greg Mount.

“Coffee is one of the important pillars to an aggressive brand refresh,” Mount says. “This refresh to Victrola’s craft coffee is being paired with upgraded soap, linens and televisions.”

While Mount’s vision is to become current with the coffee offerings across all Red Lion brands, the company also was set to announce the launch of a new concept called Hotel RL that would push the boundaries of the Red Lion Hotel coffee experience. Sparing no expense, Hotel RL is focused on bringing people out of their rooms and into the spacious, contemporary and relaxing lobby to enjoy a “fully immersive shared experience with a third-wave coffee bar at its center,” Mount explains. “There are no coffee brewers in the RL guest rooms. Instead, each guest is awarded a complimentary Victrola coffee beverage at the lobby coffee bar with each night’s stay.”

When guests enter the hotel coffee bar, they are greeted as VIPs, with a menu that includes all the familiar coffeehouse espresso beverage options along with cold-brew from an Oji drip tower and pourovers of award-winning, seasonal single-origin offerings.

The first Hotel RL opened in Baltimore in August 2015, with others opening in select locations across the country. To bring Red Lion’s current properties up to specialty standards, every hotel in the corporation has adopted a commitment to freshness, with all coffees freshly roasted, ground on demand and brewed fresh.

Getting Started

As an established retail or wholesale roaster, now may be the perfect time to explore expanding your business into the hospitality arena. One of the most cost-effective ways to enter the hospitality market is to follow the “just-in-time” equipment investment with a service partner model used by City Dock. In this model, the company seeks out local VIP accounts, securing a few iconic businesses to establish a reputation in the hospitality field. As was the case for City Dock, these initial contracts can be approached with a break-even strategy, if necessary.

Before you seek out these prestigious, confidence-building accounts, consider sourcing a seasoned espresso machine and brewer repair person with a positive and engaging personality. While you will be competing with a local distributor, you can make your mark by providing more personal care and service. Once you have two or three high-visibility businesses to provide testimonials for your company, you’ll be able to expand your customer base — and raise your per-pound price, if necessary — to cover the costs of your service employee and additional brewing equipment.

Before you decide to enter the hospitality market, make sure your company is financially stable enough to invest in long-term profitability, whether that involves the high upfront costs of equipment and service contracts, or the potential for securing your initial client base at a break-even price point to establish your company in the market. Most hospitality clients also rely on their roasting partners for coffee-related knowledge and onsite training. This is where a business-building consulting role can be mutually profitable and will sustain a positive long-term relationship.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

Perhaps the most important thing to know about matcha tea is that it’s absolutely delicious.

There’s a lot more to the tasty green matcha tea beverage than its scrumptious, creamy flavor—and while most of it is good, not all of it is.

It has a slew of health benefits

We’ll start with the good news: Matcha is loaded with antioxidants. The Wall Street Journal reports that matcha has 137 times the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) than regular green tea does—and that’s huge. Why? EGCG boosts metabolism and may slow or cease the growth of cancer cells.

Matcha is also chock full of polyphenols, which may also prevent cancer and heart disease and help to regulate blood sugar. Since you’re consuming actual leaves, matcha powder also contains a bit of fiber, which can aid digestion. Additionally, because matcha is usually shade-grown, it contains more chlorophyll, which some sources claim can help “detoxify” your body and heal wounds faster.

It should taste a little grassy—and be a little pricy

Be careful when purchasing matcha powders, as many will be combined with powdered milk and a lot of sugar, meaning it’s basically hot chocolate, but green. Check the ingredients: If the first ingredient listed is sugar, your matcha powder’s health benefits will be a lot lower because, well, sugar. Quality, purer matcha will likely be more expensive than the less healthy stuff, plus it will have a grassy, almost spinach-like taste. If you really want your matcha green tea to be creamy and sweet, you can do that yourself with healthier results!

You can use it in food, too

Drinking matcha tea is the most common way to consume matcha, but it’s not the only way. Since matcha leaves are powdered and consumed, instead of being steeped in water, it’s commonly used in solid foods, too. You can incorporate matcha powder into everything from matcha muffins for breakfast, to broccoli-matcha soup for dinner, to matcha cakes for dessert. You can even use it in guacamole and stir fry recipes! Also delicious? Satiating your sweet tooth with some matcha green tea ice cream.

It can help you lose weight

The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition reports that green tea extract is loaded with catechins. These catechins contain thermogenic properties—meaning, they help your body torch calories. This study showed that consuming green tea can increase your rate of thermogenesis (calorie burning) from 8 to 10 percent. Drinking matcha green tea doesn’t just improve your resting metabolic rate: a separate study showed that drinking matcha green tea immediately before a workout resulted in 25 percent more fat-burning during exercise.

It may contain lead
And now for a brief bad news break: green tea, especially green tea grown in China, has been shown to contain lead, which it absorbs from the environment. Because you’re consuming tea leaves when you drink matcha green tea, instead of steeping the tea and tossing the leaves, matcha tea contains more lead. The New York Times reports that matcha green tea is estimated to contain nearly 30 times more lead than regular green tea. It sounds scary, but it’s not as horrifying as it seems: You don’t have to avoid matcha green tea completely! Just limit yourself to one cup per day, and avoid giving matcha to children.

It can alleviate stress

Now that you’re terrified of matcha green tea’s lead content, enjoy a cup of happy to calm yourself down. Matcha contains an amino compound called L-theanine, which studies have shown creates a calming, relaxing effect. However, L-theanine doesn’t just make you chill out. It also aids in the creation and release of gamma amino butyric acid (GABA). GABA stimulates the release of hormones dopamine and serotonin, which make you happy. In short, drinking matcha tea may make you a little more blissful on a bad day.

It’s energizing, and can make you a better worker

Matcha tea has three times more caffeine than regular green tea, amounting to roughly the equivalent of a strong cup of coffee.

However, it won’t give you the java jitters, because of the L-theanine content. It’s known to instead create a sense of “alert calm.” Plus, Matcha’s unique combination of L-theanine and caffeine won’t just put some pep in your step—it may actually make you perform better at work and school. Studies show that consuming matcha tea’s special mix of brain boosters improves the ability to multitask, increases speed of perception, reduces task-induced fatigue (so you won’t get exhausted from staring at your Excel spreadsheets all afternoon), improves your memory (no more forgetting your keys!) and can improve your concentration (so you don’t zone out during a staff meeting again).

It’s anti-aging

Some of the oldest people on the planet reside in Okinawa, Japan. Many of them credit their longevity with their consumption of matcha tea. Matcha’s antioxidant content (it has 60 times the antioxidants of spinach!) may help fight the aging process from the inside-out, leaving you with glowing, crease-free skin well into your twilight years…unless, of course, that lead count catches up to you.

Source

Liked what you just read? Like us on FacebookTwitterPinterest and we promise, we’ll be your lucky charm to a beautiful love life.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

Having a coffee machine around your home or your office can increase your productivity and keep you more focused on the work. All the machines listed in this video are very easy to use and it just takes a few button pushes to get delicious coffee out of them.

In the above video, we listed the top 5 best Espresso machines on the market in 2018. I made this list based on my personal opinion, and i tried to list them based on their price, quality, durability and more.

5. Hamilton Beach 40792
4. Delonghi EC680M
3. Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista
2. Gaggia Classic
1. Breville BES870XL

Source

Coffee: Healthy, or not? The ping-ponging coverage of this topic, week after week, is maddening. Yet with the backdrop of the California Prop 65 coffee kerfuffle, the Washington Post last weekend set off a week’s worth of web-reverberations by itself borrowing an article from Knowable Magazine originally published back in December that looked at an “umbrella” study in the Annual Review of Nutrition that weighed evidence from 127 different studies on the health effects of coffee. Conclusion: It’s healthy, except if you’re pregnant.

Coffee-shop denizens probably benefit from two main mechanisms. First, coffee beans contain phytochemicals (some of which are also found in fruits, vegetables, chocolate and tea) that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. All of the diseases linked to protective effects from coffee start with low-level inflammation in the body, and anti-inflammatory dietary chemicals circulating in the body could calm it down.

Second, caffeine and other phytochemicals have specific effects on enzymes that regulate liver function, insulin and glucose metabolism, and DNA repair. All could act favorably to fend off Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Other cheery perspectives came from Uganda this week by way of Business Daily in its interview with Vincent Buyi, the general manager of Bugisu Co-operative Union (BCUL), based in eastern Uganda. For while its eastern neighbor Kenya, despite achievements in coffee quality, has reportedly seen production and farmer income dwindle steeply from its heyday in the 1980s, Uganda’s output has generally surged to become second largest East African producer, after Ethiopia:

What is Uganda doing right that Kenya can emulate? Vincent Buyi, general manager of the co-operative, said success of the coffee industry has been as result of government support in good farming practices and availability of fertile land.

Of course the sector is by no means without its social and environmental challenges. Better and more reliable compensation could in theory result in investments that work to correct such issues, though, so to that end, Ugandan weekly newspaper The Observer reported this week that price risk management training and education is being carried out by the Agribusiness Development Center (ADC), with promising responses so far:

Anja de Fijter, the head of ADC said there is an increase in coffee exports. She said currently Uganda exports almost five million coffee bags. “There is no doubt people continue to embrace coffee growing; the sector has a bright future,” de Fijter said. According to some of the trainees, the two day training couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I now know about contracts, all the terms involved in exporting. I don’t think buyers will be able to manipulate me again,” Ronald Odia, a farmer from Zombo said. For Matovu Richard a farmer from Mbale, the training helped him to equip him with knowledge to make better decisions.

It’s worth noting that the Business Daily piece did also briefly mention that Uganda’s trajectory has been buoyed in part by the cultivation of high-yielding robusta. For its lower cost, and despite its generally lower quality, shifty players in the roasting industry have been known to commit “coffee fraud,” sneaking cheap robusta into a mix without stating as such, sometimes even in blends claiming to be 100-percent arabica. Apparently, they’ve figured once it’s blended, roasted, and ground, who’s gonna know? Science! that’s who. The extreme nerds at Science Trends have figured out a way to quantify the robusta in roasted blends:

In short, mid-infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), multivariate calibration (PLS) and variable selection were combined for developing a simple, rapid and non-destructive method for determining Robusta content in coffee blends. Specific models were developed for ground coffee samples obtained at three different roasting levels. Nevertheless, the most useful and robust model was obtained with samples including a lot of variability, such as different origins and roasting levels.

Hopefully that technique will also work with green tea, because you never know what form the next fad will take. Rocket News this week revealed that a Kyoto, Japan-based beverage maker is offering a simple solution for people that have a really hard time trying to choose between coffee and tea. It’s both!

Nagi Kyoto takes green tea leaves from Kyoto’s Uji, one of Japan’s most respected tea-growing communities, and grinds them together with internationally-sourced coffee beans roasted in Kyoto’s Nishijin district. When brewed, the mixture combines the qualities of coffee and tea for a uniquely satisfying blend.

Mmmm… together at last, and probably less bitter. Yet while Costa Rica has banned robusta cultivation and trade groups in Colombia and elsewhere also frown upon its cultivation, Vietnamese newspaper VN Express pointed out this week that more and more Latin American farmers are actually coming around to the cash crop:

“It has good productivity and a good price,” said Evelio Matamoros, a farmer in Nicaragua who first planted robusta in 2010. Robusta “has better yields and it doesn’t need shade. That matters.”

Given lower freight costs to the US, robusta from Central and South America could someday pose a competitive threat to Big Robusta Vietnam. Meanwhile, robusta-free Costa Rica is busier combatting a threat to all coffee industries, everywhere: climate change. Committed to achieving nationwide carbon neutrality by 2021, Costa Rica’s coffee production accounts for about nine percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. The Christian Science Monitor checked in with Costa Rican coffee farming coop Coopedota, which in 2011 reportedly became the world’s first certified carbon-neutral coffee coop:

Coopedota works with farmers to ensure their planting and growing processes are in line with reducing emissions, encouraging them to plant more trees and use the shade-cover to protect coffee plants. The cost of transporting the beans to and from the cooperative is offset with carbon credits.

“Our goal is to train the farmers. Many have generations of experience growing coffee and because of that they rely on techniques from 60 years ago,” Cordero says. But with the changing climate, which has reduced coffee yields nationwide by 39 percent since 2000, farmers are eager to learn new techniques.