This is a preliminary result of a 21-year study conducted by Danish and Swedish researchers who monitored the health habits of about 1400 middle-aged men and women.  While there’s no definite evidence yet of a hard link, observations are showing a 65% reduction in the likelihood of developing of dementia or Alzheimer’s among the study group.

From the New York Times article:

Dr. Kivipelto and her colleagues suggest several possibilities for why coffee might reduce the risk of dementia later in life. First, earlier studies have linked coffee consumption with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, which in turn has been associated with a greater risk of dementia. In animal studies, caffeine has been shown to reduce the formation of amyloid plaques in the brain, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, coffee may have an antioxidant effect in the bloodstream, reducing vascular risk factors for dementia.Dr. Kivipelto noted that previous studies have shown that coffee drinking may also be linked to a reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease.

There’s no indication that coffee will have a protective effect for those already developing dementia, but in the meantime, it’s always good to have an excuse to make another pot.

(Note: when talking about tea as a source of antioxidants and flavonoids, we mean”real” tea, that is, tea consisting of camellia sinensis leaves.  “Herbal teas” and tisanes aren’t really tea and don’t provide any antioxidants.)

But did you know that coffee has roughly four times the antioxidants of tea?  A study by Switzerland’s Nestle Research Center found that green coffee beans contain about 1,000 antioxidants, and more are added over the roasting and brewing process.  The end result is that a serving of coffee has more free-radical fighting power than tea, wine, or cocoa.

Unfortunately for the lovers of finer coffees, Robusta coffees are a greater source of antioxidants than the higher-quality Arabica coffess–so believe it or not, that cup of diner coffee is doing some heavy lifting fighting that “he-man breakfast special” you just ate.  But Arabica coffees are no slouch in the flavonoid deparment, so the next time you want to make a healthy beverage choice, you may just want to make a trip to your local roastery.

“I order large coffees, but stop drinking when the coffee gets too cold. There’s always a couple of ounces left in the cup, so I can’t just toss it into my wastebasket. I dread the long haul to the bathroom to properly dispose of the coffee remains. Hence you will usually find a tower of paper cups on my desk.”

Read the full series on the New York Times blog.

“Venezuelans go to the polls on November 23 to elect state governors and city mayors in a test of support for leftist Chavez a year after he lost his first national vote since winning power in 1998.

Venezuela last year struggled with widespread shortages of staples such as milk and beef, which pollsters say contributed to Chavez’s defeat in a December referendum that would have let him stay in office as long as he kept winning elections.

The government largely eliminated shortages earlier this year. But in recent weeks, shoppers have been unable to find coffee in stores, though cafes still serve it and street vendors are selling it at about twice the regulated price.”

Coffee is the world’s secondmost heavily-traded commodity besides oil, and the lifeblood of many second- and third-world nations.  When the commercial coffee infrastructure falls apart in these places, it can have wide-reaching impacts not just at the day-to-day level but at business and government levels.

Read the full story here.

Founded by a manufacturer engineer and former Starbucks executive, I guess it’s not surprising that the focus is on mechanical efficiency and reproducibility rather than the more “touchy-feely” aspects of a coffeeshop. But the design is surprisingly elegant and it seems like it’d be easy to stand at the ordering station, watching your beans rush throughout the tubes in the store and into your cup, and imagine you’re in some culinary sci-fi movie.

It definitely seems like a Javabot would be a godsend to a proprietor of a small shop who works and runs everything himself. Many years ago I did this, running a quaint little shop as the sole employee–taking drink orders, filling coffee bags and bins, cleaning up after guests, doing the dishes, etc. While I like the personal touch of small shops, I can’t deny that a Javabot would really have come in handy in those days. I doubt the Javabot technology would be affordable to someone like that, but if it was, it could vastly improve what it means to truly “run your own shop”.

(Thanks to Mark for sending me the link.)

The UK paper The Guardian ran a story today about a “50 GBP cup of espresso” (about $80), served at the Peter Jones cafe in London’s Sloane Square shopping area. Why the expense? Because the espresso blend, dubbed “Cafe Raro”, is made up of two of the most expensive coffees in the world: Jamaican Blue Mountain, and the infamous Kopi Luwak, or “weasel poop” coffee.

It seems like every few years Luwak coffee makes waves in the news as it finds a new market of adventurous consumers fascinated by the novelty. The truth is that it is a good coffee that is difficult and expensive to produce, but it largely seems to sail on a reputation of lurid gimmickry. Normally I’d be tempted to accuse the Peter Jones store of the same, but the Cafe Raro offering comes under a white banner: the proceeds from selling shots of the coffee go to benefit the UK’s MacMillan Cancer Support.

So while I don’t think the store is out to cash in on a foodie craze, I will say this: I doubt it’s a good espresso. Jamaican Blue and Luwak both have extremely soft bodies that would yield a weak mouthfeel in a shot, and both have subtle notes that I can’t help but think would get in each others’ way. The roaster in me considers it a crime to dilute by blending any truly distinctive single-origin coffee, even if it’s with another expensive single-origin. Having never tasted it, it’s all academic, but that’s my educated guess.

I don’t know about using it on my hair, though. If any of you try it, you must let me know how it went.

Considering that Clover brewers sell at well over $8000 each, this is no small feat. The Clover made waves when it debuted a couple of years ago, claiming to have perfected the four variables of coffee-brewing: time, temperature, grind, and extraction ratio. It was the product of several years of research and development by Zander Nosler and was practically an overnight success–at the moment there are only 200-300 Clovers operating in retail stores around the world, but at that $8-10k a pop, that’s a serious chunk of change.

The Clover has many devoted fans, but I must admit that while I admire Coffee Equipment Company’s engineering savvy I never really bought into the device. Most of its programmable features are present in a Fetco Extractor at a quarter of the price, thought the Extractor doesn’t work on a per-cup basis. It’s meant to do per-cup servings consistently at high volumes, but if your volume’s that high, why not just brew a whole airpot? And if your volume’s low enough for a cup at a time, why not just use a French press and a temp-adjustable tabletop water boiler? I’ve had great coffee out of a Clover, but nothing better than what I’ve had, say, from a Bodum French press using a correctly-measured amount of grounds.

Now, though, the point may well be academic. Because Schultz is in effect literally taking the Clover off the market, since it will now only be used to brew Starbucks’ own coffee–which seems like just pointless theater, since the coffee is roasted so poorly that no $8,000 brewer is going to fix it. As Greg Sherwin over at TheShot coffee blog very aptly put it: “Who buys a $30,000 sound system to listen to AM talk radio?”

By “classic” I mean that applicants would travel to Lincoln and stay in the owners’ home, working at the shop 30 hours a week in exchange for training in one of a number of offered programs: Barista Training, Roaster Training, and Small Business Management. Programs last four weeks each, or you can stay for three months and take all three. Here’s a few details on the offered programs as listed on Cultiva’s website:

1. Barista Training (4 weeks)
Latte art, speed training, coffee agronomy and history, and insight on training for regional barista competitions. By the time your training is complete, you will know the basics and be able to demonstrate barista skills that are as seen in regional and national barista SCAA competitions. Jon Ferguson has served as both a NWRBC Sensory Judge and MRBC Technical Judge. Ferguson initially received barista training as an employee at Zoka Coffee Company in Seattle, Washington in 2005. He started Cultiva Coffee Roasting Company in the Fall of 2006, and has been roasting and pouring rosettas ever since!

2. Roasting (4-8 weeks)
We won’t just flip a switch and burn some coffee. I’ll go into depth about buying green coffees from importers, how to get your business certified organic and fair trade. We’ll track our flow of inventory, measure weight loss, discuss “degrees of roast” and how to define them for yourself, how to package, promote, and sell roasted coffees to cafés, bakeries, grocery stores, etc. We will learn how to roast with a few different stylistic approaches, maintain roast logs, and will gain experience on properly maintaining and cleaning a Diedrich IR-12 roaster.

3. Small business management (4 weeks)
I’ll be more transparent with my books than one may expect. I’ll show you our filing cabinet, how I keep them, the problems I’ve had in the past and present and how I fixed it. I’ll basically give you Cultiva’s paperwork ‘tour’ through our filings, talk about city codes, permits, building-out space, loan documents, etc.

It sounds like a fascinating opportunity, and I hope anyone who takes up Ferguson’s offer blogs about the experience. Particularly because the in-shop roasting machine is Espresso Vivace’s old Deidrich IR-12; I live around the corner from Vivace here in Seattle and can vouch for the fact that that machine turns out some of the best coffee possible, making it a great machine to learn on. I can’t refrain from mentioning, however, that my only reservation–besides the obvious disadvantages of spending up to three months away from home with no income, but that’s surmountable–is that Ferguson doesn’t seem to have a lot of experience as a roaster. If I understand his website correctly, then he’s been a barista for less than three years and a roaster for barely one. He clearly has at least some level of real expertise, having served as a judge in two of the official regional barista championships, and he’s got a hell of a machine, so even without the resume it should be worth it to consider the program if you’re new to the coffee industry and serious about learning as much as you can in a short amount of time.

So we moved roasting operations to a room in the back, into the conference room we used to rent out. Customers would still frequently wander back to the roasting room and ask what we were doing. Invariably they would ask if I was “grinding beans” in the roasting machine. I’m not sure why grinding is always the first conclusion people jump to–I don’t know of any food production industry that requires a 1350lb, burning cast-iron monstrosity to grind anything–but there you are.

The pros of roasting for an audience are pretty clear…you become an ambassador for your coffee knowledge, you help educate customers about the finer points of specialty coffee and the time and effort it takes to produce, and you build a reputation as a coffee pro. The disadvantages are a little less obvious, but they’re definitely worth considering. Frequently stopping to answer questions can take your attention away from the beans, and I’d be lying if I said that it never happened that I burned a batch because I was explaining to a customer all the ways a roaster prevents burning a batch. Also, the more busy the wholesale side of things gets, the more pressed for time you are on a daily basis. I did occasionally have to politely ask interested customers to come back another time as I was busily packaging hundreds of pounds of coffee for a wholesale shipment.

Now I’m in a somewhat ideal situation: my roasting room and cupping lab is in the basement of our retail space. On busy days where focus is important, I can kind of shut myself in and work uninterrupted. But we also have a street-facing garage door that we can open, so there’s plenty of opportunity to hold roasting demonstrations and cupping sessions. In short, I can be as public as I like, which is great. I like roasting for an audience, but I also tend to get “zoned into the beans” and once I get into that flow I like being able to run with it.