COFFEE NEWS

Even as timely pre-blossom showers hold promise of a better coffee crop for the next season starting November, growers are reportedly shifting to cultivation of robustas from arabicas.

“There seems to be no relief from the white stem borer, which has affected the arabica plants during the last few years. Growers are fed up of this and are, therefore, replanting the affected arabicas with robustas,” said a planter from Kodagu.

Plucking the plant from the soil and destroying it is seen as the best solution to overcome the stem borer menace.

However, despite best efforts, the problem is continuing, affecting arabica production. Usually, it takes four years for the first harvest from a coffee plant.

Growers will have to replant the crop that is plucked and it is here that they are going in for robustas.

“Though some of the estates may seem to grow arabicas, in many, robustas are grown inside,” said the planter.

Downslide

Arabica production touched a record 1.21 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2001-02. Since then, it has been on a downslide. The last time it topped one lakh tonnes was in 2004-05, when the production hit 1.03 lt. During 2006-07, it almost touched 1 lt but since then it has been on a downhill ride.

For the current year, the Coffee Board, in its revised estimated, had projected arabica production at 90,050 tonnes but actual production is reported to be lower.

“Growers are switching over to robustas on a smaller scale, not on a large scale,” said Mr Ramesh Rajah, President of Coffee Exporters Association.

Mr Bose Mandanna, a planter in Kodagu, said growers were switching over to robustas and effects of it could be seen soon. From making up 73 per cent of the total area under coffee in 1950-51, arabicas now make up 47 per cent with robustas comprising the rest.

However, areas under robustas and arabicas have been increasing consistently every year.

Output

In terms of production, since 1990-91, robustas’ output has been consistently higher than that for arabicas.

Meanwhile, arabica production this year is feared to be the lowest since 1998-99.

“We hardly got 50 per cent of our usual production in our estates,” said Mr Mandanna.

Other growers reported much lower output and some exporters are reporting lower arrivals of arabicas. Mr Rajah said the actual production of arabicas, though lower, was yet to be ascertained.

“Arrivals may be lower because growers could be holding on to their produce,” he said.

Better crop

The Coffee Board has pegged this year’s production at 2.76 lt (1.875 lt robustas) against 2.62 lt last year. However, there are hopes of a better crop next season. “We have had good pre-blossom showers and could be getting a very good crop,” said Mr Mandanna.

“The timely showers are a good news,” said Mr Rajah.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/03/31/stories/2009033151121800.htm

US-based Starbucks (www.starbucks.com), the world’s largest coffee house chain, will open a store in the Black Seacity of Burgas on March 26, its third in Bulgaria.

The new 130-square-meter coffee shop is to open in Burgas Plaza Mall, company executives announced, without specifying the cost of the investment.

“We are very proud that almost four months after we entered the Bulgarian market, Starbucks will open its first unit on the Black Sea coast,” Giannis Kalfakakos, CEO of Marinopoulos Coffee Company, Starbuck’s joint venture partner, stated.

The chain, which entered the domestic market via Greece-based Marinopoulos Coffee Company in December 2008, has opened two units in the capital city of Sofia.

Starbucks and Marinopoulos also operate in Romania.

Source: http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=59240791

ICE   Change   RangeMay 1.1655   -95 pts   1.1625-1.1790Jly 1.1855   +95 pts   1.1820-1.1990

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/dj-ice-coffee-review-lower/story.aspx?guid={81CEBE93-7639-48EE-BB20-2D8C5883490A}&dist=msr_4

It turns out that it’s possible to develop film in a mixture of instant coffee, washing soda and vitamin C. This is, to me, amazing. Here’s the recipe.

12 oz. water

5 teaspoons instant coffee crystals

3 1/2 teaspoons washing soda

1/2 teaspoon vitamin C powder

Dubbed cafenol (its a geeky photochem joke), the developer is used just like a regular developing solution, only you can make it by raiding the kitchen cupboard (apart from the instant coffee, of course. We know you all have French presses and espresso machines). You will still need a real fixer solution to deactivate the light sensitive materials, and you’ll need to take the same care in loading the film into a developing tank as you would if using regular ol’ Perceptol, but the results are surprisingly good.

Cafenol will turn any film into a black and white negative, similar in effect to cross processing (developing a slide film in color print film chemicals, for example), and you’ll still want to keep the extractor fan running. Despite the ingredients, this mixture is foul smelling.

Source: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/03/develop-film-in.html

The greenback rose as much as 1.1 percent against a weighted basket of six major currencies. Before today, coffee dropped 4.3 percent this year, while the dollar gained 8.9 percent.

Weve got a stronger dollar, said Jimmy Tintle, a futures analyst at Transworld Futures in Tampa, Florida. Thats why coffee is working its way down.

Arabica coffee futures for May delivery fell 1.3 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $1.059 a pound at 11:24 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Last week, the price dropped 4.2 percent, the most in three months.

Coffee may fall to 95 cents should prices close below $1.05, Tintle said.

Cocoa futures for May delivery declined $12, or 0.5 percent, to $2,260 a metric ton. Before today, the price dropped 15 percent this year.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2009/03/09/20090309biz-coffee0309.html

Coffee-Tech Engineering is a firm that specializes in the manufacture of professional coffee roasters. The company designs and manufactures a wide variety of manual and automatic shop roasters as well as commercial coffee roasters. Their unique and comprehensive approach derives from the fact that it encompasses a wide array of coffee expertise, bringing together tradition, love for coffee alongside advanced technology. Coffee-Tech Engineering’s staff members are experienced experts in roasting, blending and brewing methodologies.

Coffee-Tech Engineering is the industry’s leading manufacturer of artisan shop roasters, thanks to an intensive research and development process and the use of high end technologies and design.  Their coffee roasters present the best ratio of dimension, weight and energy consumption vs. roasting output and quality. Their leading products excel in their small footprint and space required for each operation. Moreover, they have succeeded in importing and embedding the same professional features that exist in large scale commercial coffee roasters, into the compact machines. By using high quality European made components and maintaining simplicity in design, they are able to offer products worldwide, assuring long lasting quality of roasting and simple in-store repairs when needed.

Brioso’s state-of-the-art equipment showroom & training center is located in the upscale Aventura, FL (Miami) area -between the Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale’s International Airport. Their warehouses are located in Miami, as well

Coffee-Tech Engineering and Brioso are committed to follow very strict manufacturing standards, to bring innovative thinking, and outstanding customer support to its clients worldwide. As it would be expected from coffee fanatics, they put the coffee in center of things.

# # #

Brioso is Coffee-tech Engineering’s US Trading Partner for the sales, marketing, distribution, training, service and support.

Source: http://www.prlog.org/10190906-leading-coffee-roasting-equipment-manufacturer-names-brioso-us-trading-partner.html

We are a specialty coffee company specializing in selling coffee for fundraisers. Our salespeople sell coffee to churches, schools, athletic teams, bands and other groups looking to raise funds. We can send you a free success kit that will explain, on dvd video, how to easily sell coffee for fundraisers. This is a real opportunity and not a scam. You will earn commission on every bag sold. Here is an example:

Your local highschool has 2000 students and needs to raise funds for a new gym, if only 1000 students participate in the fundraiser, each one selling an average of 7 bags. With a commission of .40 a bag, you earn $2,800.

This is our website www.surefirecoffee.com contact: roastmaster@jumpinjuiceandjava.com for more information.

Perfect Cup Coffee is now selling their coffee online.  A 12oz bag of specialty grade coffee goes for $6.  Discounts for bulk orders.  You’d be hard pressed to find a better deal anywhere.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Perfect-Cup-Coffee

The word coffee supposedly derives from an ancient Arabic expression meaning “wine of the bean,” and if that’s true, then the makers of the Clover coffee machine may be on to something.

The high-tech Clover, the brainchild of mechanical engineers and designers working out of a trolley barn in Ballard, performs the seemingly underwhelming feat of producing plain old drip coffee.

Not high-octane espressos.

Not lactose-indulgent lattes.

Coffee at it purest and most refined, for people who need nothing between their taste buds and the ancient essence of grounds steeped in hot water.

The formula is so enticingly simple that it even caught the attention of Starbucks, famously the purveyor of frothy coffee-drink confections. The company bought out the Clover’s makers last year and began launching the machines at its cafes in Seattle and other cities this past fall, in hopes of capitalizing on the desire among many of its customers for a more pared-down experience.

Just don’t expect a pared-down cuppa joe.

Truth is, coffee has never been second fiddle to wine. It has four times as many potential flavor characteristics as wine grapes, says David Latourell, one of the Clover’s designers. The Clover lets coffee’s wonders speak for themselves.

Coffee from the Clover, made with limited-edition, small-batch beans from around the tropics, delivers on its slightly higher price with a taste that invites you to savor the drink as the most devoted wine connoisseurs worship their vino.

By carefully matching each bean vintage to individually set temperature and weight specifications, and using vacuum technology to filter grounds through liquid like a French press, the Clover coaxes out flavors of astonishing clarity.

The Burundi Kayanza teases the nose with lush notes of blackberry, the way it’s supposed to.

The citrusy crispness of the Tanzania roast springs to life on the tongue.

The Clover isn’t a reinvention of coffee so much as an homage to the idea that less is everything, that there’s beauty in bare simplicity.

Coffee has been around for centuries. Perhaps it has finally met its maker.

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2008793190_pacificportrait01.html

Source: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/090303-145741