Coffee 101 cliff-notes edition

What is 3rd Wave Coffee

Here is a video I made to help explain the history of coffee in the United States in the 20th Century

Is Coffee Good For You?

This month there was BIG news in the coffee world. A recent study by Harvard School of Public Health indicates, among men drinking at least 6 cups per day, the adjusted risk for overall prostate cancer was 18% lower vs that in nondrinkers.

However before we start jumping up and down there are a few things to notice.

1. The number of cups that people were drinking. Folks were drinking 6 cups of coffee a day. This is TWICE the average consumption of coffee that most Americans have.
2. This study shows health benefits are only for MEN. There another study that states that coffee can have an increase in the risk of breast cancer among WOMEN who drink more the 4 cups a day (although other studies have indicated that coffee consumption has no effect)
3. This study is not definitive. "It is premature to recommend that men increase coffee intake to reduce advanced prostate cancer risk based on this single study," Dr. Wilson and colleagues conclude. "In addition, the effects of coffee consumption on other aspects of health must be considered in making consumption recommendations," they add. "However, our findings are potentially important, given the lack of identified modifiable risk factors for advanced prostate cancer."

So is there any reason to drink coffee from a purely "better health" point of view?

Yes!

• Recent studies seem to indicate coffee drinkers are less likely to have type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and dementia. 
• There are also antioxidants in coffee which can make you healthier! In fact according to a study by Dr. Joe Vinsonm,"Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source. Nothing else comes close."
• The tannins in coffee may reduce the cariogenic potential of other foods. Pretty niffty huh?

Are there anythings that can harm your health as a result of coffee?

Yes!

• Coffee can damage the lining of the gastrointestinal organs, causing gastritis and ulcers.
• Coffee contains cholesterol (this can be reduced if you use paper rather then metal filters)
• Coffee also interferes with the absorption of supplemental iron so it should not be drunken often if you are anemic.

All in all coffee is a pretty healthy drink, but it does have risks too. Before you go out and start drinking 6 cups a day to prevent cancer you should make sure you've considered what that could do to your body!

Watch the USBC LIVE: RIGHT NOW!

Hey everyone, if you want to have some fun today the US Barista Competition is going on!

Watch the competition with some live commentary from me and others from around the country!

 It's a great time! ALSO we want to wish our roaster Jonathan Jarrow great success... He is competing as the Regional Champion from the Mid-West in the brewers cup!

Schedule for Today 

(times may be off by a half hour or so... this is Central Time)

Jacque   
  DesMarais    12:48   

Park   
  Brannen    1:07   

Joe   
  Marrocco    1:26   

Ryan   
  Willbur    1:45   

Sam   
  Purvis    2:04   
 

Sarah   
  Dooley    2:23   
  

Lorenzo   
  Perkins    2:42   

Jared   
  Truby    3:01   

  Ryan   
  Knapp    3:20   

 Ian  
  Levine    3:39  

Nikolas   
  Krankl    3:58   

Devin   
  Chapman    4:17   

Chandler   
  Rentz    4:36   

Pete   
  Licata    4:55 

Find Your Grind

Live From Rancho Ebenezer

A fence we are building for  Rancho Ebenezer

Grown at an elevation of 5,000 - 5,500 ft., our Honduran coffee is grown on the slopes of the San Matias mountains. The farm began with donated saplings to sustain Ranch Ebenezer, a home for orphans and disadvantaged children. In 2001, the home was built to give the children an escape from the city. Coffee represents a second chance at life and also a huge part of their country’s culture.

Tim, Liz, and I are here on a mission to help the farm get better quality coffee, and work alongside the outreach to the children here.We brought with us a great team of people from Chicago who wanted to learn and work with us while we are up here. It's been a lot of fun getting to know everyone.

Me: sorting through Green Coffee

I'm writing you today from the top of a mountain. Hiking up these mountains is a WORKOUT... the air is thin and I feel soooo out of shape, but it's good. The temperature is great it's not hot or cold. It's T-Shirt weather while the sun is up, and sweater weather at night. It's beautiful and so nice to be away from the sound of traffic. The farm has banana trees and orange tree but the main non coffee fruit that is grown is Blackberries. They make tea and jam here from the black berries.

At lunch Tim and I met with an employee of the Government who works to help farmers. We submitted some coffee from the farm into the Cup of Excellence competition (which is a really big coffee competition). I spent last night going through green coffee trying to find the best beans for the submission.

The scenery here is pretty nice. We are on a mountain and pretty secluded. We look out on misty mountain forest all around us. We are in the dry season but everything is still pretty green and wet. It's humid here. Because of the humidity here it takes a long time for the coffee beans to dry to a stable level (around 10% moisture content). We are working to create basically a little green house to dry the beans in. This will help the beans dry much faster and help the farm be more efficient. When I'm not working on the drying station I have been building a fence. The fence is a boundary marker, and a fire breaker.

Honduras Update

Today we have almost finished the coffee drying station. It's looking pretty great! We'll try to get photo's up of it once it's done...

A banana tree on the farm

We tried out our roast profile on the roaster here and it was a HIT. It's a lot of fun talking to the people who bring us such great coffee every year, and to learn from each other!

Tomorrow we are planning on bringing some of the green coffee from the farm into town to enter it into the Cup of Excellence. If the Ranch's coffee wins this award it will literally change the lives of the kids who live here.