Kona Cowboy Coffee: July 2013

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

THE DECAFFEINATION PROCESS

“Do you make decaf?” is a FAQ we hear the most. The Kona Cowboy Coffee Company does not decaffeinate any of our gourmet coffees. And we’ll tell you why in a moment. First, know that whatever the decaffeination process, the resulting coffee beans still retain caffeine. The standard is 97% of caffeine removed. In Europe it is 99.9% free by mass.

The original process, invented by Ludwig Roselius in 1903, steams the coffee beans with acids or bases and then uses benzene to remove the caffeine. Thankfully, due to health concerns related to benzene, this process is no longer used. Whew! The following methods are used:

SWISS WATER PROCESS calls for soaking green coffee beans in water to remove caffeine. Oils and solids that give coffee its favor are also removed so they first saturate the water with components they’re going to remove. Doesn’t that sound natural?

DIRECT METHOD steams the coffee beans with Dichloromethane Ethyl Acetate for about ten hours then steams them again for another ten hours to remove the solvent. So, with that method, you can have your java with cream, sugar and dichloromethane ethyl acetate! Yummy!

I
NDIRECT METHOD soaks the coffee beans in hot water for a few hours and then that good old Dichloromethane Ethyl Acetate that we all love is used to pull out the caffeine. It is recycled over and over again, too.

CO2 PROCESS immerses the pre-steamed coffee beans in liquid carbon dioxide in a pressure chamber. The caffeine and CO2 are removed by charcoal filters. They decaffeinate tea the same way.

TRIGLYCERIDE PROCESS soaks green coffee beans in a mix of hot water and coffee (yes, coffee immersed in coffee) to float the caffeine to the top and then soaks the beans in coffee oils they get from old spent coffee grounds. Doesn't that sound appetizing? The beans are then dried and the caffeine is removed from the oils to sell to caffeinated beverage makers such as Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper.

Let’s get back to that FAQ: “Do you make decaf?” I’m a Tennessee Whiskey drinker. It’s a product that goes back to colonial days. I even like it in my coffee. No, I love it in my coffee. One of the taste factors in whiskey is alcohol. One of the taste factors in gourmet coffee is caffeine. I maintain that you can’t remove the caffeine without removing an important part of the coffee flavor. So, to answer that FAQ, we don’t make decaf. If your doctor told you to cut back on caffeine, drink one cup instead of two but drink good coffee. If your doctor told you to cut out caffeine altogether, I suppose you’re stuck with Pepsi Free.

The Kona Cowboy Coffee Company is proud to provide the finest, caffeine-laden coffee available. You’ll get a great cup of Joe with PANIOLA 100% Kona Cowboy Coffee, grown on Hawaiian volcanoes and roasted in the Rocky Mountains … the one with no bitter aftertaste and no acidity. CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico is the Southwest’s favorite with pinion nuts and a perfect way to improve your coffee experience during the day. And our MOKA-JAVA is a medium dark roasted blend of Indonesian and Ethiopian coffees that just might be high octane! We also make COWBOY ACTION COFFEE, the Official Coffee of the Single Action Shooting Society! If you are a Chai drinker, you’ll love the Coconut Spiced Chai we bring in from Honolulu. The Kona Cowboy Coffee Company has updated our website with new prices, new products and more! Go to www.KonaCowboyCoffee.com and look at the coffees. Go to the “Chocolates” page and find our new Cowboy Coffee Choco-Drops, a coffee caramel smothered in milk chocolate and dusted in cocoa powder! We have new Mescalero Morning Cowboy Coffee Candles on our “Bath Products” page, too.

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. Join up, become a member, comment and have fun! 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 http://twitter.com/#!/jackshuster. And on the web at www.KonaCowboyCoffee.com to order your gourmet coffee and coffee products.

You know you’re a coffee fiend when you can jump-start your car without cables! 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, July 23, 2013

NEWLY UPDATED WEBSITE

The Kona Cowboy Coffee Company has updated our website with new prices, new products and more! Go to www.KonaCowboyCoffee.com. Check out our MOKA-JAVA blend of the finest Ethiopian and Indonesian coffees. Try the new Coconut Spiced CHAI we bring in from Honolulu. Go to the “Chocolates” page and find our new Cowboy Coffee Choco-Drops, a coffee caramel smothered in milk chocolate and dusted in cocoa powder! We have new Mescalero Morning Cowboy Coffee Candles on our “Bath Products” page, too.

You will notice that the price has gone up on PANIOLA 100% Kona Cowboy Coffee. That’s because of the coffee berry borer, a pest plaguing coffee farms in the Big Island's Kona district. The pest has affected up to 80 percent of coffee farms, leaving some coffee fields in such bad shape that they've been abandoned, creating havens for the beetle.

The insect is smaller than a sesame seed and bores its way into coffee cherries, digs homes and lays eggs. The beans from those cherries aren't usable for making coffee. The pest has reduced the coffee crop and in some cases made farms impossible to harvest for commercial purposes.

Officials plan to distribute the most effective repellent and train farmers to use treatments. They also intend to research new types of pest control that could be more effective at killing the borer and study the insect's genome to find out how it might be similar or different to other pests.

The beetle, known as Hypothenemus hampei, is native to Africa. It was formally identified in Hawaii in 2010 after farmers reported spotting it for a couple years.

No one knows how it arrived in Hawaii, but it's seen in many other coffee-growing regions throughout the world.

So, in a world of supply and demand, less Kona coffee means higher prices and, while prices have been steadily rising over the five years we’ve been in business, we have absorbed the price hikes for our customers. We just can’t afford to continue that and stay in business. Thus, Kona is now more expensive…everywhere!

We’re certainly not a large company but we continue to pride ourselves on providing the best coffee available to our customers. You’ll get a great cup of joe with PANIOLA 100% Kona Cowboy Coffee, grown on Hawaiian volcanoes and roasted in the Rocky Mountains … the one with no bitter aftertaste and no acidity. CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico is the Southwest’s favorite with pinion nuts and a perfect way to improve your coffee experience during the day. And our MOKA-JAVA is a medium dark roasted blend of Indonesian and Ethiopian coffees that just might be high octane! We also make COWBOY ACTION COFFEE, the Official Coffee of the Single Action Shooting Society!

You know you’re a coffee fiend when you can type sixty words per minute ... with your feet! 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, July 16, 2013

WEATHER IN YOUR COFFEE CUP

Did you know that your morning cup of coffee can help you predict rain? It’s a trick used by backpackers that can come in handy for anyone planning to be out of doors: pour a cup of coffee and carefully watch the bubbles.

Backpacker Magazine writes, If the bubbles amass in the center, you’re in a high-pressure system, which is making the coffee’s surface convex (higher in the middle). Since bubbles are mostly air, they migrate to the highest point. Bubbles in the middle of your coffee cup mean it’s going to be a beautiful day.

If the bubbles form a ring around the sides of the mug, you’re in a low-pressure system, making the surface concave. Bubbles on the sides of your coffee mug means that rain is likely.

Note: It has to be strong, brewed coffee to have enough oil to work, and the mug must have straight sides.

To make new bubbles, simply give your coffee a good stir.

Wow! Now you can forecast the weather in Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s four brands of gourmet coffees. But if it looks cloudy, take an umberella. You’ll get a great cup of joe with PANIOLA 100% Kona Cowboy Coffee, grown on Hawaiian volcanoes and roasted in the Rocky Mountains … the one with no bitter aftertaste and no acidity. CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico is the Southwest’s favorite with pinion nuts and a perfect way to improve your coffee experience during the day. And our MOKA-JAVA is a medium dark roasted blend of Indonesian and Ethiopian coffees that just might be high octane! We also make COWBOY ACTION COFFEE, the Official Coffee of the Single Action Shooting Society!

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, July 9, 2013

DIP YOUR TOES IN COFFEE

A City University of New York professor discovered that carbonized coffee can be used to inhibit the smell of raw sewage, among other practical filtration purposes.

Now an upscale professional apparel company that made waves last year by earning nearly $430,000 on Kickstarter to develop its body-temperature-active dress shirt, seems to be applying that research. They are developing another product called Atlas, a sock that it describes as “like a Brita filter for your feet.” As of this writing, supporters had pledged more than $120,000, greatly eclipsing the $30,000 goal.

So what is coffee’s role in the new sock? Here’s more:

“The moisture-wicking, heat-management, and comfort capabilities of ATLAS are all made possible through its unique combination of fibers, a blend made up of cotton, recycled polyester and carbonized coffee. Odor control is difficult in socks. As such, we turned to nature to find an effective way to create a fresher sock, leading us to coffee. Atlas uses carbonized coffee which has been reclaimed from coffee roasters and shops, and is processed through a pharmaceutical process to remove the coffee oils (so it won’t smell like coffee!) and is then infused into our recycled polyester yarns. Odor molecules which are largely made of carbon are strongly attracted to the carbonized coffee. Atlas has a unique structure (kind of like a sponge with lots of surface area), which allows the particles to absorb a lot of odor. It’s the same concept used in your Brita filter to absorb impurities – giving you clean, fresh water. The odor is released the when you launder your socks – returning to its full capacity.”

The Atlas socks will be produced since the Kickstarter goal was met, and socks will be available in two styles and multiple print patterns. Better than just wading in your coffee.

We do not recommend twiddling your toes in Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s four brands of gourmet coffees. But you can if you’re not going to drink it! You’ll get a great cup of joe with PANIOLA 100% Kona Cowboy Coffee, grown on Hawaiian volcanoes and roasted in the Rocky Mountains … the one with no bitter aftertaste and no acidity. CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico is the Southwest’s favorite with pinion nuts and a perfect way to improve your coffee experience during the day. And our MOKA-JAVA is a medium dark roasted blend of Indonesian and Ethiopian coffees that just might be high octane! We also make COWBOY ACTION COFFEE, the Official Coffee of the Single Action Shooting Society!

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!