coffeetablezone.com
Hi everyone…. from today i will be posting less frequently.. maybe not daily as of now.. cos i have to split my attention between this blog and another that i have set up. It will be much better than this one… It’s www.coffeetablezone.com. It is still under construction. Please visit it while you have the time. Thanks
Surface Computing
If you think that the macbook air is the coolest thing around, wait till you read this article on popularmechanics. watch the video first.
Basically, what has this got to do with coffee? It does! Becos that is going to replace your coffee table in the future. Best of all, it is interactive. Imagine wireless interactivity with your cellphone, digital camera? You take a photo and it shows up right under your coffee table! How cool is that?Actually, i think the future of electronic devices, will have no visible buttons? Manipulating functions will be easier and of course, right now, I am thinking, how many remote controls do you have at home? one for your tv, one for your dvd player, home stereo… and the list goes on… maybe sony will make the coolest tv remote control?
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Kopi Luwak - The Rarest beverage of the World?
“It’s the rarest beverage in the world. It has a little of everything pleasurable in all coffees: earthy, musty tone, the heaviest bodied I’ve ever tasted. It’s almost syrupy, and the aroma is very unique.”, according to M.P. Mountanos President Mark Mountanos.
That was taken from this article. Erm, today’s post may upset your stomach. So if you just eaten your dinner. Please do not
read on. But if you do not care, please read on for the reason why!Today the focus will be on Kopi Luwak(or Civet Coffee) . Kopi means coffee in malay and luwak stands for the civet. Basically, this type of coffee comes from Indonesia, mainly Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi. Alright, the digusting part! This type of coffee are special because they are made from those beans that went in and out of the Asian Palm Civet. If you want to look at the excretion. Please click here.
This coffee is the most expensive coffee in the world. It is simply because it is limited in supply, less than 500 pounds are harvested each year, making its price exorbitantly high. I wonder when will I get the chance to taste this coffee? The price is up to $600 USD per pound. That is like 2 kg plus?
Here is another thing, Japan not the US buys most of this coffee. The reason why this coffee taste so special is because the enzymes in the animal’s stomach add flavor to the coffee by breaking down the proteins that gives coffee the bitter taste. Of course, before they brew it they washed it.
Regarding the taste, it taste nothing like normal coffee. Sean Paanjanen describes it as ” The resulting coffee is said to be like no other. It has a rich, heavy flavour with hints of caramel or chocolate.”
So have you drank Kopi Luwak before? Given the chance will you even try it? Or, try not to think about where the beans came from though.
Technorati Tags: kopi luwak, Sean pannjanen
Arabica Coffee
I have talked about Robusta before. So today, I will talk about the finest coffee, arabica coffee. Basically, this coffee species is native Ethiopia. It is often touted as the better ones compared to species like Robusta. Typically, arabica grows more slowly than Robusta but they command a higher price premium. They also require more well-defined growing conditions. A variety of factors affect the flavor of Arabica. They include weather conditions, soil type, soil richness and processing method too.
The picture on the right shows the Coffee Arabica flower. These flowers have fragrance that resembles those of jasmine flowers. The best grade Arabica come from Java because of the great growing conditions. Those not so good quality beans come from Brazil due to less than ideal weather conditions.
The most important fact is that arabica contains very little caffeine naturally. Usually they are combined with other coffee variants to form a blend. I found an interesting article called “Next hot commodity? Arabica coffee beans” on Seattlepi.com. It is found that for the year of 2006, prices of arabica coffee climbed more than 20 percent. I went to check the coffee prices on International Coffee Organization and checked. Arabica prices were even higher than in 2006. This is the result of mild tasting coffee being neglected and better tasting species being in focus.
Oh by the way, Starbucks uses Arabica!
If you are interested in more information, you can head down to these websites.
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Starbucks and Coffee Prices
I found an interesting article today on Slate.com. Even though its dated 2004, I find it even more relevant in our world today. Especially when petrol is now average $90 and inflation is at its highest in years.
It is an article by Daniel Gross, titled “Starbucks Vs Its Addicts”. In the article, it mentions that starbucks is going to raise its coffee prices in 2004 by some 11 cents. It makes think of coffee bean and starbucks in singapore. I mean, when I was in JC(junior college), ice blended from coffee bean was just $4.80? Now, I can find the number 4 in front of the decimal point in their ice blended menu.
Oh one more thing, I wonder if Howard Schultz knows about this? that the average starbucks house blend coffee again like some 220 mg of caffeine compared to 141 from 7 eleven. The average drink of course consist of 320 mg of caffeine. For the sake of a comparison, a normal instant coffee consist of only 70 mg of caffeine. You can find out more about caffeine content here.
I guess for the price we pay for a starbucks coffee, we can easily get up to a few litres of coke right? Of course, minus the carbon dioxide and sugar. You can get up to the same amount of caffeine. Right?!
I have another article to share with you. Nothing to do with coffee. Its by Charles Lau from Singapore. His site is interesting, you might want to check it out. Basically what I like about the article is that it mentions something like if you see a blogger talking about what can you talk about in a blog, that means he/she run out of ideas?
Will I ever run out of ideas? A few of my friends have already asked me about this before. Well, I seriously do not think so. There are a few billion websites out there and people drink coffee everyday right? Engineering will make us better coffee makers right? So the bottom line is, if business continue to innovate, that means I will have something to write about. It better be.
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