February 9th, 2010 by coffee-master
After oil, coffee is the most highly traded substance in the world. The worldwide demand for coffee stretches from coffee houses in New York, to cafe’s in Italy, to street stalls in Vietnam.
Undoubtedly, this coffee consumption takes a heavy toll on the environment. Most of us do not consider the deforestation caused by commercial coffee farming, the huge amount of water consumption, and the mountains of paper products (filters, cups, etc.) we create as a by-product of our coffee habit.
If you want to drink coffee (relatively) guilt free, below are some ways to make your coffee habit less harmful to the environment:
Drink Local Coffee – Buy coffee which has traveled the shortest distance to reach you to help lower the impact of shipping on the environment.
Buy A Cool Mug – Purchase a really cool mug that you will want to again and again; eliminating the need for plastic or styrofoam cups.
Do Without A Coffee Stirrer – Rather than mixing cream and sugar into your coffee, try adding it in the…
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January 29th, 2010 by coffee-master
If you’re looking to buy a new coffee maker, you obviously want to get the best one that you can. However, “best” is relative and it depends on what you need. Cheapest, fastest or best features all being ways of evaluating which is the best coffee maker. Therefore, it’s necessary to know the pros and cons of the differing types of coffee makers, and weigh your needs against them, in order to know which is the best for you.
The most popular type of coffee maker is called a drip coffee maker, and you can find them literally all over the places – homes, offices, hotels, restaurants etc. They work by using a pool of hot water to pass over coffee grounds in a paper coffee filter. The fact that they are so widely used is testament to the fact that they make a good cup of coffee. However, there is a downside to them – coffee that’s left in them for more than 30 minutes has a habit of developing a slightly bitter taste, as it starts to…
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December 21st, 2009 by editor
When I think of a cup of coffee (which is often), two pictures come to mind. The first is me pouring my first cup of coffee out of my automatic coffee maker first thing in the morning, and the other is a picture of the waitress at my favorite coffee shop handing me a cup of coffee over the counter. There isn’t anything fancy about the coffee in either situation. It is coffee….good, hot coffee.
However, I have discovered that coffee doesn’t have to always be just plain coffee. Plain coffee is terrific, but you can make coffee as fancy as you want to make it.
For example, hot coffee in cold weather is great, but hot coffee in hot weather isn’t. Iced coffee in hot weather is better…much better. The trick to making good iced coffee is to brew the coffee well in advance. Let it…
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November 29th, 2009 by editor
Most people know that a cup of coffee will wake them up and make them more alert first thing in the morning. It’s a little shocking, but there really are non-coffee drinkers alive and well in this world. I even know a couple of them personally.
These non-coffee drinkers are most certainly in the minority, however, and even they have a way of getting a morning shot of caffeine. They will either drink a cup of tea, a soft drink, or a glass of chocolate milk — all of which contain caffeine, the active ingredient in coffee.
The caffeine in coffee is a stimulant. It is a natural stimulant without many, if any, side effects. Drinking a lot of coffee can make a person nervous, but even a lot of coffee will not raise blood pressure or increase the heart rate for more than a few minutes. The stimulating effect of coffee lasts a long time, though. A single cup of coffee will relieve boredom, make people perform tedious tasks better, and keep them more alert and…
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November 19th, 2009 by editor
Every morning sunrise in America means that coffee is being brewed in almost every kitchen across this great country. Coffee is the traditional morning drink for the greatest majority of American citizens. The coffee that is brewed each morning is just coffee. There isn’t anything exotic about it.
The coffee is usually made from coffee that has been purchased at the local supermarket. It is most often made in automatic drip coffee makers, but there are still a few of us who use percolators. We don’t want anybody to do anything exotic to that first cup of morning coffee, but as the day progresses, we get more adventuresome and we like to try “stuff” that will make coffee more interesting.
Syrups are available in some really exotic flavors that can be added to a plain cup of coffee to give some added body,…
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September 17th, 2009 by editor
Tea was the drink of choice for most queens of old, while mead was the choice of kings. It wasn’t until early in the 15th century that coffee was even a choice in most of the civilized countries of the world. But once coffee became a choice, it quickly became first choice.
The next time you are sipping a cup of coffee, you can remember that you are in very good company. Almost every American president has been a coffee drinker. The list of coffee lovers includes both the famous and the infamous.
Coffee is the most served beverage in America today. It is served at breakfast and dinner tables in homes all across this great country as well as in roadside cafes, the fanciest of restaurants, and in the chambers of judges and the offices of presidents. Those who do not drink coffee are a decided minority.
Today, the kings and queens of commerce are almost all coffee drinkers. Coffee has been hailed as a healthy drink, and it has suffered…
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September 15th, 2009 by editor
Coffee is a beverage in every country in the world. Granted, the coffees of different countries vary in taste (and strength), but every country has coffee of some kind. The history of coffee is long and storied, and coffee is called by many names in many lands. The Arab traders of yesteryear called it Gahwah. The Spice Islands’ name for it was Java. Ancient Portuguese explorers called it café. That word is often used to mean a gathering place in many countries now. It stands to reason — coffee is most often a shared experience between friends.
Scientists believe that coffee was born in Ethiopia and was a food rather than a beverage in the beginning. Coffee was actually used as a replacement for wine. The drinking of wine was (and is) forbidden by Islamic law. Coffee was first used in religious ceremonies in place of wine and the plants were considered so valuable that removing even one was punishable by death. (I’ve been dying for a cup of coffee before, but that seems a little…
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