mug shot

mug art photography
made possible through flickr
photography by Di

photography by melvinipro

Ask Pablo: The Coffee Mug Debacle

By Pablo Paster for TriplePundit

11 September 2006

This week's question comes to us from TriplePundit creator, Nick Aster: "What's better for my daily coffee in the context of as many different environmental and social impacts you can think of? - an aluminum mug, a ceramic mug, or a new paper cup every day?" To make things a bit more interesting I am going to take some artistic license and change the question to encompass a Stainless Steel Mug, a Ceramic Mug, and a Styrofoam Cup. Since we are such a caffeine fueled society I have chosen to compare each of these at a 16 oz. size.

Stainless Steel (SS) is a ferrous alloy (a combination of two or more elements that includes iron). It contains at least 10% Chromium, which gives it anti-corrosive properties (English: it won't rust). Each gram of SS is responsible for the use,displacement, or consumption of 14.4g of abiotic material (mineral substances including ore and fossil fuels), 205g of water, and is responsible for the release of 2.8g of greenhouse gasses (GHGs).

Ceramic is an " inorganic non-metallic materials whose formation is due to the action of heat" (hooray Wikipedia!). Basically it is a clay that requires kiln firing to remove moisture... Since it is made by heating up some dirt it's impact is relatively minimal. To create one gram of ceramic we inconvenience 2.11g of abiotic material (mostly the clay and some natural gas), 5.3g of water, and we create a mere 0.065g of GHGs.

Our final material for this analysis is polystyrene ("many styrenes", linked in a long chain), also known by the brand name Styrofoam. Polystyrene (PS) is a thermoplastic (meaning that it can be melted repeatedly, as opposed to a thermoset plastic like epoxy which can not be melted), making it recyclable. Unfortunately it is not recycled in many states, including California. The reason for this can be found in simple economics. Since expanded polystyrene (foam, as opposed to the PS that is found in many clear drinking cups, especially on many airlines) takes up a lot of space, relative to its low weight, it can not be economically transported over long distances to the nearest recycling plant that is capable of processing it. Pre-processing it locally before shipment requires expensive equipment which is not justified by the low value of the recycled material (since it's just so cheap to make it from scratch). So, to our dismay, most of it ends up in landfills (to be extracted by future generations, right?). To create 1 gram of PS requires the use of 2.51g of abiotic material (mostly the oil from which it is made), 164g of water, and is responsible for the release of 2.8g of GHGs.

Since the PS cup is considered disposable and the other two are intended for daily reuse we are comparing apples to oranges, right? Well, not if we compare them per "service unit." In this case our service unit is " the service of holding the caffeinated morning beverage of our choice while we drag ourselves to work." We have analyzed the materials, now we need to determine the material intensity per unit.

In my research I found the weights of each of the following 16 oz. beverage containers:

Polystyrene - 6g

Ceramic - 322g

Stainless Steel - 378g

Now, by multiplying the material intensity values that we found earlier by each container's weight, we can find their total material intensity. For each 16 oz. container we use the following amount of abiotic material:

Polystyrene - 14.8g

Ceramic - 679.4g

Stainless Steel - 5454.5g

Based on this result alone, you would have to use your mug at least 46 times (daily for a month and a half) and you would have to use your SS mug at least 369 times (daily for a year) to justify its higher material intensity. The results for water are a little more difficult to grasp since water is a renewable resource that continues through its natural cycles after we use it (PS - 966g, Ceramic - 1,706g, SS - 77,528g). For the highly-processed SS, we need 164 times as much water as the mug holds ( 77.5 liters)!

The results in the GHG category are also quite striking. Keep in mind that, based on UN figures on the cost of climate change and the annual global CO2 emissions, each ton of GHGs is responsible for $8 in damages. (PS - 16.5, Ceramic - 20.9, SS - 1068g) Again, the Stainless Steel has the greatest material intensity with over 1kg of GHGs, or roughly $0.01 in climate change-related damages.

This essentially concludes my analysis. In summary, a ceramic mug has the lowest material intensity of the three as long as you use it at least 46 times. Since most ceramic mugs enjoy long and happy lives in our kitchens this is quite feasible. But please remember that purchasing tacky or holiday-themed mugs that will recieve limited use actually have a higher environmental impact than styrofoam cups do! So, if you don't already have a reusable beverage container go out and get yourself something timeless and use it often.

Got you thinking? Please stay tuned to “Beanblog” for regular challenges in response to this and other sustainability issues that impact the coffee community and those who drink it.

To respond directly to Pablo post your response to

http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/ask-pablo-the-coffee-mug-debac-002246.php

US: Wrigley tests out coffee gum popularity

Wm Wrigley has executed a limited launch for a coffee-flavoured chewing gum in the US called Doublemint Kona Crème.

The gum, on sale at 7-Eleven stores in the country, is retailing at GBP0.99 per 17-stick pack, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

The company's Wrigley's Coffee Gum has reportedly been a success since it was launched in China last year.

Wrigley is testing the water before a possible wider launch for Doublemint Kona Crème, but was unavailable for comment when contacted by just-food.

originally broadcasted 7 May 2006 source: just-foods.com

Coffee shampoo can stop men from balding ..(what?)

This gem was initially published in England by Ananova.com in 2004. We hope you can forgive me for recycling this two year old article..it was tooo good..

Hamburg- Treating hair with caffeine products can stop men from going bald, according to a (not so) new German study.

Professor Peter Elsner, part of the team at Jenna University, said that the stimulant has the most effect on men whose hair roots were very sensitive to testosterone, one of the causes of hair loss.

But the research does not mean that coffee drinkers will be spared a baldhead in later life, only those who smear it directly on their heads.

Adolf Klenk of Kurt Wolff cosmetic research said: “One would have to drink between 60 and 80 cups of coffee a day for the necessary amount of caffeine to reach the roots.

He said that men who are frightened that they may lose their hair should start treating their scalps with caffeine while they are young.

tasting art

photographer unknown

Seattle coffee culture starts with roaster

09/08/2006

By ALLISON LINN / Associated Press

The battle for the best cup of coffee in Seattle is waged long before liquid hits cup, in cavernous rooms where coffee beans are piled high and noisy equipment churns out each company's unique coffee roast.

Many of Seattle's local roasters insist their small scale, decades-old roasting machines and intense attention to detail allows them to make a better cup of coffee than industry giant and hometown competitor Starbucks Corp.

Seattle's Caffe Vita roasts about 3,000 pounds of coffee a day, mostly in 80-pound batches, using circa 1939 equipment. In a cavernous, loud room behind one of the company's shops, the roasters say they judge whether a batch is done by listening, watching and smelling the coffee as it swirls around a big vat.

"It's full senses," says Andrew Daday, Caffe Vita's lead roaster.

Several times a week, Zoka Coffee owner Jeff Babcock heads down to the roasting plant located below his corporate offices to slurp spoonfuls of fresh coffee with the small group of roasters, who "cup" — or taste — the coffee twice a day to ensure quality .

"It's fine art," he says of the roasting and tasting process.

By contrast, Starbucks' 350,000-square foot roasting, packaging and warehouse plant in suburban Kent churns out up to 1.5 million pounds of coffee per week, using high-tech computer controls to monitor roasting equipment that can handle 400- to 600-pound batches of beans. The coffee there is subjected to periodic quality checks as well.

All three companies insist that they are roasting in small enough batches to guarantee quality.

"We're still a specialty coffee producer," says Gregg Clark, director of Starbucks' plant operations.

'Ethical' coffee workers paid below legal minimum

By Hal Weitzman in Lima

Published: 8/9/2006 Last Updated: 8/9/2006 21:05 London Time

"Ethical" coffee is being produced in Peru, the world's top exporter of Fairtrade coffee, by labourers paid less than the legal minimum wage. Industry insiders have also told the FT of non-certified coffee being marked and exported as Fairtrade, and of certified coffee being illegally planted in protected rainforest.

This casts doubt on the certification process used by Fairtrade and similar marks that require producers to pay the minimum wage.

It also raises questions about the assurances certifiers give consumers about how premium-priced fair trade coffee is produced.

As the board member of one Peruvian Fairtrade-certified coffee producer told the FT: "No certifier can guarantee they will purchase 100 per cent of a co-operative's production, so how can they guarantee that every bag will be produced according to their standards?"

Though certified coffee makes up less than 2 per cent of the global coffee trade it has become increasingly mainstream as large retailers such as Starbucks and McDonald's adopt it.

The FT visited five Peruvian smallholdings, all of which have Fairtrade certification.

Each farm hires 12-20 casual coffee pickers during the harvest season. All house and feed their workers, which allows them to deduct 30 per cent from their wages.

After that reduction from the legal daily minimum wage for casual agricultural workers of 16 soles ($5), farm owners are still obliged to pay at least 11.20 soles a day. In four of the five farms visited by the FT, pickers received 10 soles a day, while the other farm paid workers 12 soles a day.

Luuk Zonneveld, managing director of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, the Bonn-based body that sets fair trade standards, told the FT that the certification system "is not fool- and leak-proof" but said the problem should be put in context.

"Poor farmers often struggle to pay their workers fairly," he said. "Why are casual labourers there at all? There are wider issues here. We need to ask why this goes on and what we can do to help."

A number of industry insiders told the FT they had also witnessed fraud within the certification system which resulted in coffee from uncertified sources being exported as Fairtrade.

The FT has also been told of Fairtrade coffee being planted in protected national forest land in the northern Peruvian jungle. Using global satellite mapping, a Canadian NGO found that about one-fifth of all coffee production in one Fairtrade-certified association was illegally planted in protected virgin rainforest.

FT.com

The Financial Times Ltd.

attitude is good!

some have it...
some just fake it

truth be known she hates
her folger's freeze-dried crap

Fair trade promotes coffee with a conscience changing the world, cup by cup

By Brooke Bryant

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Some people look for robust flavor and an earthy aroma in their coffee. Some look for candy-store flavors and a mountain of whipped cream.

And some people, like Moraga native Kate McMahon, look for a little social responsibility.

"My main goal is helping people become aware that just changing what cup of coffee they drink in the morning can make a difference," McMahon said, sipping a cup of fair-trade coffee earlier this month at Moraga's Caffe Terzetto.

McMahon returned home this summer after graduating from Occidental College with a bachelor's degree in psychology and decided that her hometown was ripe for a little social change. So, while she looked for employment, she also launched a fair-trade coffee campaign aimed at convincing businesses and residents alike to start sipping and serving java that is purchased from coffee farmers at a fair price.

That price is at least $1.26 per pound -- a big increase over the 30-50 cents per pound that farmers usually make, said McMahon, 22. The fair trade certification also means that a farmer employs environmentally sustainable practices and doesn't use forced and child labor, while buyers deal directly with the farmers, cutting out the middlemen (called "coyotes" in Latin America) who typically absorb much of the profits on the free market, she said.

McMahon, who was introduced to the fair trade concept in a college class and turned to the Internet to learn more, started by approaching local cafes.

Within a few weeks, she had convinced Terzetto's owner to switch her entire stock of coffee products to fair trade, without raising prices.

Other businesses and groups have been slower to get on board, but McMahon still has big plans for the town. She wants to work with professors at St. Mary's College to incorporate fair trade into their classes, and eventually switch the college to fair-trade coffee, and she plans to lobby the Moraga Town Council to either encourage fair-trade coffee use in town, or at least serve it at their own meetings.

Moraga isn't a progressive haven like Berkeley, but McMahon said she figured the fair trade movement was perfect for the town.

"I thought the coffee campaign would be really good, because I felt like if I had come here with a different campaign like 'Save the animals' and 'Don't buy fur,' it wouldn't be as effective as, 'All you need to do is change your cup of coffee,'" she said.

Fair trade coffee accounts for about 2 percent of the coffee sold in this country, which puts conscientious coffee drinkers like McMahon solidly in the minority. But she's also part of what fair trade advocates call the fastest growing sector in the coffee business, with U.S. sales increasing from $48 million in 2000 to $369 million in 2004.

These days, coffee drinkers can get fair-trade coffee at national coffee chains such as Starbucks and grocery stores such as Safeway. Even McDonald's jumped on the fair trade bandwagon this fall, offering fair-trade coffee in some of its New England restaurants.

Advocates say that fair trade retailers are able to keep prices down by cutting out the middlemen, and note that in recent years fair-trade coffees have won awards for taste.

Most importantly to many, the movement has generated an extra $67 million in income for coffee farmers since 1998, according to statistics from Oakland-based TransFair USA, which certifies fair trade products.

Critics say that fair trade interferes with the free market, offering artificially inflated prices that hinder the market forces that usually control supply.

Fair trade certification groups like TransFair even sometimes come under fire from the activist community, TransFair spokeswoman Nicole Chettero said. Some grumble about "green washing" -- when a company switches a small percentage of its stock to fair-trade to take advantage of the good PR.

But even a small percentage of sales from a coffee giant like Starbucks translates into a lot of extra dollars for coffee farmers, Chettero said. Fair trade certified coffee was just 1.6 percent of Starbucks' coffee purchases in 2004, but that amounted to 4.8 million pounds of coffee, which was more than double the amount it purchased in 2003, according to a Starbucks report.

"We see things from the position of the farmer," Chettero said. "We want to increase as much fair trade revenue as possible, so we see the dissemination of fair trade products in mainstream as helping."

For McMahon, the decision to drink fair trade was easy.

She says that the time she spent in a Buddhist monastery over the summer helped make her more aware of her connection to the rest of the world, including all the work that goes into her morning cup of coffee. She is used to finding practical applications for her principles, steering clear of stores like Wal-Mart, buying sweat-shop-free clothes, and recently moving into an eco-friendly house in Walnut Creek.

"I try to keep myself to a standard of valuing other people and trying to live by those values [with] what I buy and all that stuff," she said. "I felt like I was being hypocritical going and drinking coffee that was made by child slaves."

Coffee, wine and chocolates are good for your heart

7 September 2006

DailyRecord.co.uk

By Natalie Walker

Coffee, red wine and chocolate are the key to preventing heart disease, it was claimed yesterday.

Glasgow University professor Alan Crozier told a conference the so-called "bad foods" actually protected the heart and arteries.

And he told delegates: "Have a cup of coffee, drink two or three glasses of red wine a day, take a cup of green tea, eat 100 grams of dark chocolate and be happy."

He was addressing the World Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona.

The professor said all the foods he mentioned were rich in antioxidant properties.

They protect the heart and arteries from oxidative damage, similar to the rust that develops on metal after a period of time.

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Dark chocolate can boost levels of antioxidants in the blood by 20 per cent while drinking red wine can also help fend off heart disease.

Professor Crozier said that New World wines with ample sunshine, including Chile, Argentina, Australia and South Africa, were the best when it comes to producing the antioxidants.

Table grapes, which were often picked early, had fewer antioxidants even when they were of the same variety as wine grapes, which had been left to ripen thoroughly.

But the Glasgow professor of plant biochemistry and human nutrition warned that because of the adverse effects of excessive alcohol, it should be no more than 2-3 glasses of red wine per day.

He said milk chocolate did not have the same healthy properties as dark.

A recent study revealed that you need twice as much milk chocolate as dark chocolates to obtain the same amount of antioxidants.

Professor Crozier said: "Eating seemingly 'bad' foods may seem like a good idea, and in fact can be not too bad a thing - if chosen carefully and eaten in moderation.

"Foods with high levels of antioxidants can cut the risk of heart disease and some types of cancer."

Some fruits and vegetables also have high antioxidants.

Adding cherry tomatoes to a salad rather than normal sized tomatoes can also boost health as they contain 10 times the level of antioxidants.

And using lollo rosso lettuce will provide much higher amounts of antioxidants than iceberg lettuce.

Professor Crozier also said that frozen berries such as blackberries, redcurrants and raspberries were a rich source of antioxidants.

STUDENTS should be given fish oil to boost their brainpower, it was claimed yesterday.

After trials in England, scientists believe omega-3 fatty acids in the oil can improve mental ability.

Fish oil has already been heralded as good for arthritis and heart disease.

The perfect cup of coffee - at home

By Matt Degen

You love coffee. There's just no other way of saying it. Your feelings toward the liquid indulgence go beyond mere appreciation for it as a morning or afternoon pick-me-up: This borders on obsession.

You get your daily fix - or two or three - at one of the myriad coffeehouses that dot the land. But whenever you brew, it just doesn't taste the same as what you get at a coffeehouse. In fact, it's quite inferior.

So how do you make the perfect cup of coffee at home?

We posed the question to a man who knows: Martin Diedrich. A scion of a coffee-growing clan, the Orange County, Calif., entrepreneur launched the coffeehouse chain bearing his family name in the early '80s. He most recently started Kean, an upscale Newport Beach, Calif., coffeehouse where he personally roasts each day's beans.

One caveat: Unless you spend thousands of dollars on professional grinders, brewers and water filters, you won't get the kind of quality that comes from a place like Kean. But these five steps will get you started in taking your brew from merely passable to very pleasing.

1. Start with high-quality beans. "You can't make silk purses from sows' ears," Diedrich says.

You might pay more for the quality, but it will be worth it in the cup.

2. Buy fresh-roasted coffee. "Many people naively believe grinding is when freshness starts," Diedrich says. "That's like saying the freshness of bread begins when you slice it. Freshness starts with roasting."

Diedrich says that within just two weeks, the flavor can degrade significantly. "In stores, the freshest coffee is three or four months old (since roasting). More generally, it's six to seven months."

Diedrich, of course, recommends his own coffee, which he roasts on the premises of Kean in family-made machines.

3. Use the right ratio of coffee to water. This makes a big difference in taste and intensity. Diedrich recommends 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 ounces of water.

4. Use high-quality water. "Coffee is 98.5 percent to 99 percent water," Diedrich explains. "Even Britas and other such filtration systems won't get rid of all the minerals that can take away from taste." He recommends store-bought, filtered water.

5. Use the right grind. If you're grinding your own beans, this is crucial. "A $10 grinder is not a grinder; it's a shredder. They're horribly inconsistent," Diedrich says. "You'll get everything from ultra-fine to ultra-coarse with them."

In order to get a good grind for home brewing you'll need to spend a couple hundred dollars on a burr grinder, Diedrich says. "It literally shaves the bean, vs. crushing or fracturing it; you'll get an even extraction."

---

WHAT ABOUT THOSE PODS?

The past few years have given rise to a new kind of coffee maker, one that makes single servings using prepackaged pods of coffee. The idea is no measuring, no cleanup, no mess.

While a coffee aficionado such as Martin Diedrich likely won't be employing one in his home, he's not fully against them, either.

"For all their disadvantages - the coffee isn't of superior quality and by and large it's never fresh - it is properly ground and has the correct ratio of coffee to water," Diedrich says.

gutta love it!

coffee-based moisturizers?
http://www.bodycoffee.com
what will they think of next ?

contributed by dgans

hey there, coffee lovers

By Fred Wickham of
http://www.bullseyerooster.com/blog/ fame
31 August 2006
(I highly reccommend this blog)

Coffee’s my hobby. I just want to share a few rare taste treats with you. You may have heard about this first one –

Civet Coffee. The civet is a small asian weasel that eats coffee from the bush. After the beans have passed through the civet’s digestive system, beans are sorted from the scat and roasted. It has its adherents. A two ounce package sells for $43.60 — that’s $268.80 a pound.

The following blends are rarer still –

Sunset Plaza Grind. Quality beans and proper roasting are hardly the point. Coffee beans are scattered on the sidewalk of Sunset Plaza between the Armani store and Le Dome restaurant. The likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Nicole Kidman, and Tom & Katie grind these beans underfoot. They are of course wearing Manolos, Loeffler Randal, Vivier, Beruti, and A. Testoni brand shoes. The grind is swept up with a titanium-handled broom made from the chest and back hair of Tom Selleck. The creators of SPG recommended brewing with a 23-karat Swiss Gold coffee filter. Price? If you have to ask…

Annapurna. At 26,538 feet, water boils at 125 degrees farenheit. The blend is actually mixed from the rather poor quality beans grown in the portable hothouses of Nepal’s many mountaineering base camps. It’s the low-heat brewing that gives Annapurna the signature underdone flavor its adherents rave about. Price? Whatever it costs to get your ass to the top of that mountain

Coffee 'key to reconciling Rwandans'

Wednesday 30 August 2006

Coffee is being used in Rwanda to relaunch the economy as well as heal old wounds following the genocide.

The Rwandan government is encouraging the creation of coffee plantations where people from both sides of the ethnic divide work together.

This daily contact is seen as a means of speeding up reconciliation by fostering relationships and building communities.

Hutu militias killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the 1994 genocide.

Aimee Umuhoza and Beatrice Karigirwa are two of 100 women working at a coffee plantation in the capital Kigali, picking and cleaning beans.

Understanding

Aimee, who lost both her parents in the conflict, said she needs to work to support her younger brother and sister.

While the pay is low, she says the coffee plantation is playing an important role in uniting people.

"I have been here for two years," she told the World Service's Outlook programme.

"I can't hate. Even those who killed my parents later died so why should I create more enmity by sowing hatred. Here, we are friends because we have the same problems.

"Even the women whose husbands have been in prison as genocide suspects or children like me whose father are genocide suspects - we understand each other, we don't have any quarrels."

Fellow worker Beatrice Karigirwa's husband and most of her relatives were killed in the genocide. She has one surviving brother who is in the army.

"My job has given me hope for a better future and enables me to live peacefully with other women," she said.

"After the war, I didn't want to live with anyone because of what was done to me. But as time went on and as I lived with people here, I gradually healed."

She said hearing the stories of fellow workers, some of whom have no family left, has helped the healing process.

"I know my problems are not the worst," she said.

"Coffee has played a big role in the progress of this country. We live in harmony with Rwandans from different areas.

"If we all stayed at home we would all be thinking in the same way as before but coming to work in the coffee industry has taught us a lot."

High-grade coffee

Rwanda has decided to concentrate on speciality coffees - which became popular in the US and Europe in the 1990s - and to sell them through fair trade deals.

In 1990, Rwanda exported 45,000 tonnes of coffee a year, but that plummeted following the conflict.

With competition growing from newcomers such as Vietnam, the government has decided to focus on high-grade coffee with the aim of returning to 1990 production levels by 2010.

Fatuma Ngangiza, of Rwanda's Unity and Reconciliation Commission set up in the wake of the genocide, underlined coffee's importance to the country.

"You don't reconcile in a vacuum," she said. "There must be a practical programme, there must be something that brings people together.

"As they work together, cleaning the coffee, they talk together so they start talking business but later they start talking family affairs.

"It fosters relationships and reconciliation."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5299286.stm

Published: 2006/08/30 15:54:34 GMT

© BBC MMVI