By Papi Menon

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/of-coffeecomplications/384123/

A regular cup? Its not as easy as it sounds.

Ordering a cup of coffee in San Francisco is a weighty affair, a task to be approached with seriousness and sobriety. Well, seriousness, at any rate. First, one has to settle on a location, and that momentous decision in itself is enough to confound one unversed in the art of thinking without the calming hand of caffeine guiding his every thought. There is the radical hipster coffee shop, the upscale yuppie café, the bookstore espresso bar… the list goes on. I personally prefer the one that’s in a converted garage with bare concrete walls and exposed plumbing. It’s all very retro and hip, and the line of would be coffee drinkers always extends out into the street and down the block, as we wait like addicts for our fix.

Once you get to the coveted position at the front of the line, a dizzying array of choices confronts you. There is the Colombia Cauca Tierradentro, which apparently has “a terrific body, a softly layered mouthfeel, and a range of flavours that if one were to visually depict, might involve a statuette of Dorothy Hamill made of padron pepper infused caramel skating over a frozen lake of white pepper panna cotta”. In case you’re wondering, I did not make that up. There are times when you feel as a writer that you should just let a good thing stand. As for the coffee, I would have preferred a visual depiction of Paris Hilton wake-boarding on a lake of Bourbon, but one does not split hairs over such matters in polite company. If the Teirradentro does not meet your exacting needs, there are other choices — the Ethiopian Yirgacheffee, or the East Indian Sonagachee to name just a couple. Having an unpronounceable name is an essential attribute to any good coffee. Other desirable properties are being grown in inaccessible parts of the world where no white man has set foot before, being grown by indigenous family-owned cooperatives that practice rigorous inbreeding, and of course being sustainable, whatever that means. The observant reader would no doubt point to the inherent contradiction in shipping beans from faraway lands at great cost in money and resources, in the name of sustainability. To these killjoys, I say, fie on you. Drink another cup of the Ethiopian MeesaWannaKappee and stop your cribbing.

The preparation of these precious beans is an arcane science involving water types, pressure settings, temperature gradients, precision timing, and intense hyperbole. Most high-end espresso machines need to be operated with a firm hand and a detached supercilious expression, in which every aspiring barista is schooled. A yogic other worldly air of spirituality is helpful in brewing the right cup, and doing a few downward facing dogs before the process often helps. I once made the mistake of smiling at the pretty lady as she raised an inquiring eyebrow at me, and said, “I can’t pronounce the names of your coffees. Can you just make me a strong black cup of something? Just a regular cup of joe, like they used to do in those old diners. Can you do that?”

She just looked at me for a minute and replied, “You must be joking.”

Since I love NYC and espresso, I think it is great to have more espresso option in my favorite city

By Melissa Allison

Soutse: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/coffeecity/2010889709_the_guys_who_make_slayer.html

Some of the guys who make Slayer espresso machines in Georgetown — those super dialed-in, $14,000-and-up works of art that let you control everything but the weather outside — are in New York this week checking out their latest shipment at a new coffee shop in Tribeca called RBC NYC and talking to NBC news.

“Surrealistic!” wrote Eric Perkunder (pictured with Dan Urwiler and Devin Walker pulling espresso shots on the Slayer they designed and built.)

The only Slayer at a coffeehouse in our area is at the new Zoka Coffee in Kirkland. For a while Stumptown Coffee was giving the Slayer at whirl in its roasting room basement at 1115 12th Avenue, but it was gone when I dropped by on Friday.

If I hadn’t been writing about Taco Del Mar’s bankruptcy, I would have stayed for the 3 p.m. public tasting of Stumptown’s new line-up (pictured): Peru Capacy, Burundi Bwayi, Burundi Kinyovu, Kenya Gatomboya and Rwanda Muyongwe. Each sells for $12.75 for 12 ounces.

http://www.medicinenet.com
– Robert Preidt

FRIDAY, Jan. 8 (HealthDay News) — Caffeine in coffee reduces the severity of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus, a new study has found.

Liver fibrosis (scarring of the liver) is the second stage of liver disease during which liver function declines because of accumulated connective tissue.

The new U.S. National Institutes of Health study included 177 patients, mean age 51, whose daily consumption of caffeine from food and beverages was tracked for two years.

Patients who consumed more than 308 milligrams of caffeine from coffee per day had milder liver fibrosis than other patients. The daily amount of caffeine intake found to be beneficial is equivalent to 2.25 cups of regular coffee. For each 67-milligram increase in caffeine consumption (about one half cup of coffee), there was a 14% decrease in the odds of advanced fibrosis for patients with hepatitis C virus.

Other sources of caffeine — such as soft drinks, tea, caffeine-fortified drinks and caffeine pills — didn’t have the same helpful effect, according to the study published in the January issue of the journal Hepatology.

The researchers said further research is needed to determine whether the protective effects of coffee/caffeine increase at levels beyond normal daily intake.

Product Description
Cleancaf® Brand Cleaner and Descaler is an essential component to maintaining great tasting coffee at home. Cleancaf® is designed to remove flavor-tainting stale coffee oil residue from home machines. Its dual action formula also prevents the accumulation of scale deposits which are responsible for slow brew times and machine malfunctions. Portion packaged for easy use, Cleancaf® also contains a blue-dye which helps to ensure proper rinsing.

Directions:

1. Dissolve contents of Cleancaf® package in 1L of warm water. Pour into water reservoir. Put empty pot and filter basket in place. For espresso machines attach handle and place an empty container below.
2. Turn machine on and begin the brew cycle. For espresso machines, also allow several ounces of Cleancaf® solution to flow through steam pipe (into a container to avoid spray.) Discard entire solution once it has passed through your machine.
3. Rinse all components and repeat steps 1 and 2 twice with clean water only. Espresso machines remove handle. You may soak handle and filters in Cleancaf® solution then rinse all components with clean water
Urnex Cleancaf Coffee Maker & Espresso Machine Cleaner and Descaler

Source:http://cutslist.com/urnex-cleancaf-coffee-maker-espresso-machine-cleaner-and-descaler-3-pack-3/

Another great post from Coffee Addict -http://coffee-addict.com/2010/01/overview-of-espresso-and-espresso-machines.html

Enjoy!

What do we consider of when we listen to a word “espresso”? Perhaps,

”Express – train; quick black, iron equine of space station fuel!”

Or,

”Strong. Hyper-caffeinated. Bitter. What, me try it?” (is we a male or is we a mouse?)

Also, maybe,

”I similar to my coffee black, though not that black!”

Wrong. Espresso, when rightly made, is nothing of these things.

Espresso is a normal coffee splash invented by a French, though polished by a Italians. You can join forces with a word “espresso” with a English word “press”, for that is a elemental movement regarding to both a belligerent coffee – that is pulpy in to a compress front – as great as a appurtenance used to have it, that forces or “presses” prohibited H2O by a front of coffee. The outcome is a demitasse (very tiny cup) of all of a most appropriate characteristics of a coffee bean with nothing of a reduction fascinating ones.

A great “pulled” shot of espresso is not bitter. The season is full, complex, as great as stays on a tongue for 10-15 mins after celebration it. That season can be sincerely fairly compared with a smashing aroma benefaction when a sign is initial damaged on a enclosure of coffee. If your espresso is sour censure a barista, not a drink.

Afraid of a shakes? Don’t be. Surprisingly, since a strong inlet of a drink, a shot of espresso has usually about half a caffeine of a routinely brewed crater of joe. This is since a exhilarated H2O is forced by a coffee as good fast (ideally in around twenty seconds) to acquit all of a caffeine benefaction in a grind.

All of this wonderfulness requires a special sort of appurtenance to make. As already mentioned, an espresso machine’s demonstrate role is to press exhilarated H2O (about 200 degrees) by a front of pulpy coffee. How is this accomplished? There have been 3 simple designs: steam driven, piston driven, as great as siphon driven.

Mechanically, a simplest is a steam driven machine. It employs steam vigour to force H2O by a coffee. Since there have been no relocating parts, this pattern is routinely used for lower-priced home espresso makers. This element was additionally used in early blurb machines though was deserted by professionals when a improved pattern came along in 1945.

That pattern is a piston driven machine. In this design, a prolonged push is pulled by a barista (hence a word “pulling” a shot) to expostulate a piston, that in spin forces a exhilarated H2O out of a cylinder as great as by a coffee. A after excellence of this pattern was to inject a open in to a routine in between a push as great as piston. The push compresses a spring, that in spin drives a pistion. The role is to improved carry out a vigour of a H2O (ideally 9 ft-lbs) as it is forced by a coffee.

An even improved pattern was introduced in 1961, a siphon driven machine. This pattern uses an electric siphon to force a water. The great is some-more correctness (and no arm-strain!).

Good espresso additionally has a “head”, similar to a splash does. The conduct is done up of strong oils from a coffee. It is dim reddish-brown, as great as should have sufficient physique to await a weight of a teaspoon of sugarine for about 2 seconds prior to it sinks in to a drink.

The coffee itself is, of course, rsther than important. It should be of a middle roast; a dim fry has had as good most of a oils as great as sugars baked out of it. It additionally needs to be belligerent just right. A correct grub can be described as a coherence of talcum powder. The most appropriate gamble is to have your espresso professionally belligerent at a great shop. They have a right apparatus as great as expertise to have a undiluted grind.

Need H2O peculiarity even be discussed here? You do not splash tap, so do not decoction tap. Enough pronounced there.

Espresso is formidable in both inlet as great as process. It requires special apparatus as great as harsh technique to have properly, though is great value a effort. If you’ve never attempted it, dump by a creditable coffee residence as great as let them remonstrate you. Chances have been you’ll be hooked.