Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Have you made your morning trip to your neighborhood coffee shop yet?


Aloha kakahiaka!  (Good morning in Hawai’ian)  Here in Ruidoso, New Mexico we just say “howdy.”  Happy Tuesday morning and greetings to all you coffee fiends.   That’s fiends not friends.  I know how you really feel about coffee!  The purpose of this blog is to unite coffee lovers, especially lovers of Kona coffee, and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  At the end of sixteenth century, Istanbul alone had around 500 cafés. Turkish bridegrooms were once required to make a promise during their wedding ceremonies to always provide their new wives with coffee. If they failed to do so, it was grounds for divorce.
Have you made your morning trip to your neighborhood coffee shop yet?   You may want to consider what those trips are doing to your wallet.  According to The Consumerist, a recent survey uncovered that the average American worker spends $1,092 on coffee every year.  If that doesn’t surprise you, take a look at  where your $20 a week habit ranks in comparison to fuel and lunch budgets.
If you think spending more than $1,000 a year on coffee is a high price to pay, you might be surprised to find that it actually comes in just behind your average annual fuel consumption. The average American worker spends $1,476 on their commute.
The real shocker comes from the cost of eating out.  You might want to start packing your lunch once you realize that eating out costs an average of $37 a week. That’s $1,850 of hard-earned cash going straight to your stomach each year.
The lesson to be learned is perhaps that you should make good coffee at home.  You could pack your lunch and you might even learn to love the office coffee.  Just changing those habits could put close to $3,000 back in your pocket this year.
Do you want FREE coffee?  The first reader of these blogs who comes to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at upcoming events will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pine nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at @jackshuster. 

You know you’re a coffee fiend when you're so jittery that people use your hands to blend their margaritas!  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Confused by all those fancy foreign sounding names of coffee drinks in your neighborhood coffee shop?


Aloha kakahiaka!  (Good morning in Hawai’ian)  Here in Ruidoso, New Mexico we just say “howdy.”  Happy Tuesday morning and greetings to all you coffee fiends.   That’s fiends not friends.  I know how you really feel about coffee!  The purpose of this blog is to unite coffee lovers, especially lovers of Kona coffee, and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  Both the American Revolution and the French Revolution were born in coffeehouses. The American Revolution grew from roots planted in the Green Dragon Public House in the Lloyd’s District of London. In July 1789, Camille Desmoulins, a French journalist and politician, jumped onto a table at the Palais Royal Café and motivated the mob to rebel against the French aristocracy. Two days later, the Bastille fell, marking the upswing of the French Revolution. It makes sense that king of England in 1675, Charles II, forbade his subjects to congregate at any place where coffee was sold.
Confused by all those fancy foreign sounding names of coffee drinks in your neighborhood coffee shop?  Maybe this will help:
Espresso is a beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee; hence the name espresso. It is typically made by using a special espresso machine. Espresso is a relatively thick and concentrated coffee drink and very often used as the base for other drinks. Usually brewed into and served in a small ceramic cup — demitasse (30 mL – single shot of espresso; 60 mL – double shot).
Caffè latte is typically prepared in a 240 mL glass or cup with a standard shot of espresso and filled with steamed milk with about 1 cm layer of wet milk foam on the top. Wet foam, or microfoam, is steamed milk (result of frothing and mixing) with thick, shiny and runny texture and lots of very small, uniform bubbles; often used in latte art.
Cappuccino is made of espresso poured into the bottom third of the cup, followed by a similar amount of hot milk, and the top third is about 2 cm layer of thick dry milk foam; usually served in 150–180 mL cups. Dry foam, or macrofoam, has visibly large bubbles; it comes from more extensive frothing than wet foam, and, instead of being a runny uniformed mix of foam and milk, dry foam is lighter and at the end of frothing there is a layer of liquid milk underneath.
Latte macchiato is prepared by extensive milk frothing with significant amount of light dry foam, pouring it into a glass, and adding a bit of espresso. It features a lot of foam, rather than simply hot milk, and is a layered drink, with espresso poured on the top of liquid milk through the dry foam. Unlike caffè latte, where the emphasis is on coffee, in latte macchiato the emphasis is on the milk.
Caffè macchiato, or espresso macchiato, is espresso stained with a small amount of milk added on top. The milk may be microfoamed. “Macchiato” means “spotted” or “stained” in Italian.
Caffè mocha is one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk with a portion of chocolate added, typically in the form of sweet cocoa powder or chocolate syrup, with a layer of milk froth on top, or, sometimes with with whipped cream instead. It may be topped with a dusting of cinnamon or cocoa powder.
Caffè americano is created by adding 30–470 mL of hot water to a single or double shot of espresso.
Long black is an espresso shot added over hot water. It is a relatively popular drink in Australia and New Zealand. Unlike caffè americano, in long black espresso is added last and therefore the crema (espresso coffee foam) is preserved. Long black is served in smaller cups that americano, which makes it more flavored.
Flat white is prepared by pouring microfoam over a single or double shot of espresso. It is very similar to caffè latte, and the belief is that the only difference between the two drinks is the vessel in which they are served: flat white is served in a ceramic cup, while caffè latte traditionally comes in a glass.
Cortado (“cortar” means “cut” in Spanish) is an espresso “cut” with the same or a half amount of warm milk to reduce the acidity; usually served in a special glass and metal glass holder.
Caffè breve is an American variation of a caffè latte where a steamed half-and-half (a 50:50 mixture of milk and cream) is added to espresso, served in large cups about 350 mL.
Espresso con panna, which means “espresso with cream” in Italian, is made of a single or double shot of espresso topped with whipped cream.
Did that help?
Do you want FREE coffee?  The first reader of these blogs who comes to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at upcoming events will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pine nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at @jackshuster. 

You know you’re a coffee fiend when your T-shirt says, "Decaffeinated coffee is the devil's blend."  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What the heck is a “Kona Blend”?


Aloha kakahiaka!  (Good morning in Hawai’ian)  Here in Ruidoso, New Mexico we just say “howdy.”  Happy Tuesday morning and greetings to all you coffee fiends.   That’s fiends not friends.  I know how you really feel about coffee!  The purpose of this blog is to unite coffee lovers, especially lovers of Kona coffee, and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  Here’s how caffeine works: You get drowsy when adenosine (a nitrogen base attached to a five-carbon sugar) binds to adenosine receptors in your brain. When caffeine gets in your system, it competes with adenosine to bind to the receptors, frequently binding before the adenosine. The pituitary gland recognizes the extra adenosine in bloodstream and senses an imbalance. In response, it produces adrenaline (the hormone for the fight-or-flight response) and bumps up the amount of dopamine (the “happiness chemical”), giving you a “caffeine-high.”
Kona coffee growers want Hawaii's labeling law modified to provide more details on packages of coffee blends that contain Kona-grown beans.  The Kona Coffee Farmers Association wants the state Legislature to consider a bill it has drafted that would also identify where the remainder of the blend is grown.  If the association is successful an example of a package label would read, "90 percent Panamanian coffee, 10 percent Kona coffee."
It is about truth-in-labeling and protecting the integrity of a world-famous Hawaii product. Hawaii is the only place in the United States where coffee is grown. Coffee aficionados pay a premium for coffee grown in farms in the Kona district, known for its rich volcanic soil and tropical climate.  Not giving consumers all the information about where coffee is grown dilutes the perception of Kona's quality.
When the 10 percent blend law was introduced in 1991, there was a provision mandating disclosing the origin of all coffee in the blend but pressure from Honolulu coffee blenders resulted in making it voluntary, which none of the major blenders have opted to do.
Modifying the law to restore mandatory disclosure would just be one small step for the farmers. Several years ago there was a failed effort to increase the minimum percentage of Hawaii-grown coffee in blends to at least 75 percent. The farmers would prefer only blends that are mostly Kona bear that name. The name Kona should not be used on any product that's not mostly Kona.  When people talk about wines, you can't buy a Napa wine when it's only 10 percent Napa.
Hawaii's coffee blend labeling law is an offshoot of regulations put in place after a scandal in the 1990s when inexpensive coffee beans grown in Latin America were being passed off and sold as pure Kona coffee. It only applies to blends sold in Hawaii.
You can be sure that PANIOLA 100% Kona Cowboy Coffee is, as it says, 100% Kona!
Do you want FREE coffee?  The first reader of these blogs who comes to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at upcoming events will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pine nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at @jackshuster. 

You know you’re a coffee fiend when the nurse needs a scientific calculator to take your pulse.  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Some great ideas for used coffee grounds!

Aloha kakahiaka!  (Good morning in Hawai’ian)  Here in Ruidoso, New Mexico we just say “howdy.”  Happy Tuesday morning and greetings to all you coffee fiends.   That’s fiends not friends.  I know how you really feel about coffee!  The purpose of this blog is to unite coffee lovers, especially lovers of Kona coffee, and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  George Washington invented “instant coffee.” Read the next sentence before doubting me.  A Belgian man living in Guatemala by the name of George Washington invented it in 1906.
There’s nothing like a cup of freshly brewed coffee to start the day right, but once you’ve finished your drink, there’s also nothing like having to deal with the used coffee grounds to remind you of the rest of the day’s chores. If you are like most coffee fiends, you’ve probably felt at least slightly unhappy when doing the simple chore, and not only because you have to do it, but because of the wastefulness of it all.
The good news is that if you don’t like waste and want your cup of coffee to do more good than just perk you up, you can actually reuse those coffee grounds instead of throwing them away. Some great ideas for used coffee grounds include:
Ant repellent – Air dry the used coffee grounds and sprinkle them in areas where ants frequent. You’ll immediately notice that ants will avoid the areas where the coffee grounds are sprinkled. If you have an ant mound on your yard though, prepare to sacrifice an entire pot of coffee because the used coffee grounds won’t be enough to do the trick.
Hand deodorizer – Some smells are nearly impossible to get rid of with just soap and water. If you get smelly hands from handling food items like fish and garlic, wash the smell away by rubbing your hands with used coffee grounds instead of soap before rinsing with water.  Or, better yet, buy a bar or two of our Regina, Queen of the West Cowboy Coffee Soap!
Organic fertilizer – Mix used coffee grounds with the compost you make from your kitchen waste. The coffee grounds will instantly boost your compost’s nutrient level, since it is rich in nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, and copper.
Do you want FREE coffee?  The first reader of these blogs who comes to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at upcoming events will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pine nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at @jackshuster. 

You know you’re a coffee fiend when you chew on other people's fingernails!  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Could coffee protect from Parkinson’s disease?

Aloha kakahiaka!  (Good morning in Hawai’ian)  Here in Ruidoso, New Mexico we just say “howdy.”  Happy Tuesday morning and greetings to all you coffee fiends.   That’s fiends not friends.  I know how you really feel about coffee!  The purpose of this blog is to unite coffee lovers, especially lovers of Kona coffee, and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  Coffee is the second most-sold commodity on Earth.

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the brain that causes shaking (tremors) and hampers movement and coordination. It most often develops after the age of 50, although sometimes it can occur in younger adults. To date, there is no known cure for Parkinson’s disease.  Since 1968, scientists have known that coffee drinking is related to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.  More recently, a meta-analysis (which evaluated 13 published studies) suggested that coffee drinkers had 30% less chance of developing Parkinson’s disease in later life.  Some studies suggest that this could be due to certain substances in coffee that help protect the nerve cells in the body from damage.
Do you want FREE coffee?  The first reader of these blogs who comes to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at upcoming events will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pine nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at @jackshuster. 

You know you’re a coffee fiend when your eyes stay open when you sneeze!  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!