Thomas Jefferson, Third President…First Barista

President Thomas Jefferson was a thinker, a writer, an architect, an astronomer, and… a coffee snob.  He favored beans imported from the East and West Indies, and detested the “green” beans that were popular in America at the time.  Jefferson was also a roaster and stocked his Monticello cellar with unroasted beans.  And like any true coffeesnobologist, he roasted small quantities of beans and served coffee made with freshly ground beans.  As a coffee connoisseur, coffee was served in an elegant silver coffee urn of his own design.

www.monticello.org/site/and/coffee-urn.

Looking to the future, he predicted, and rightly so, that “The coffee bean, is [to] become the favorite beverage of the civilized world.”

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Dear President Jefferson, you knew your beans!  The average American worker spends around $1,000 annually on coffee.  It is estimated that Americans consume about 45 pounds of coffee each year.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/american-coffee-habits-spend-coffee/story?id=16923079.

Coffee Celebrations all Year-Long

For coffee lovers, enjoying a cuppa at a charming coffeehouse is always a day of celebration.  We never need an excuse to drink coffee.  Nevertheless, we at Coffeesnobology offer you a yearlong list of coffee observances all over the world.

Coming soon…November 24:  National Espresso Day

December 26…Coffee Percolator Day.  Thank James H. Nason and check out Coffeesnobology archives, December 25, 2010.

Begin the New Year by celebrating National Irish Irish_Coffee Week.  Check Coffeesnobology archives in January 25, 2011 for a recipe.

And January 25 is National Irish Coffee Day (that’s just how good Irish Coffee is)

February 17…National Café Au Lait Day.  Pronounced Kafe o le, means coffee with milk in French.

April 7…National Coffee Cake Day (try a coffee cake recipe, Coffeesnobology Achieves, June 2, 2011)

May 16 is National Coffee Day

May 24 is National Coffee Day in Brazil.  Brazil is a coffee giant.

Week of July 22…a whole week is set aside to celebrate coffee.

July 26…National Coffee Milkshake Day

August, all month long is National Coffee Month

September 6 is National Coffee Ice-Cream DaySeptember 12 is National Coffee Day is Costa Rica

September 19 is National Coffee Day in Ireland

September 29 is yet another day set aside for National Coffee Day

October 1 is the Japanese National Coffee Day.  Surprising, Japan is one of the largest coffee consumer in the world.

Love Your Coffee: Love Logevity

Good news for coffee drinkers.  Coffee drinkers are more likely to live longer. National Institute of Health and AARP studied 400,000 people over a period of years to determine the question: does coffee help or hinder?  Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute reports “There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking.”

To Coffee lovers everywhere, it’s not the caffeine that may be the cup of youth, but it most likely is the helpful antioxidants.

Pour a second cup while you read on.  The study is based on observing people’s habits and their resulting health.  Drinking coffee (regular or decaf doesn’t matter) and living longer seems to be related.

NYDailyNews.com            Thanks, Joe! Coffee drinkers live longer, May 16, 2012

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1112010?query=featured_home&

The New England Journal of Medicine

Loving Coffee and Poetry

The Truth is a chewy

treat, like

toffee, only

less sweet,

and slightly

nutty, like

birch bark,

with a salty

aftertaste as

steely as a

flint spark,

best doused

with straight

whiskey or

dark coffee.

Todd Boss

Yellowrocket

Read and hear more at toddbosspoet.com

Coffee Fact Friday: Third-Wave Coffee Surging

Around the nation, sophisticated coffee drinkers are willing to switch from something pretty good to utterly sublime.  Discerning Coffee lovers consider coffee as artisanal foodstuff and are willing to pay.  No compromises.

Coffee as a global agricultural commodity was the first wave.  Coffee consumption is big business.  American coffee drinkers lead the world in coffee consumption by drinking 400 million cups every day.   We love our coffee.

In the late 1970s the groundswell of Starbucks Coffee shops swept in the second wave.  The thirst for rich coffee evolved into a new generation of independent coffee shop owners dedicated to serving exquisite elixirs.

Cream of the crop third-wave coffee shops owners are committed to establishing stronger relations between growers, traders and roasters of single-origin coffee beans.  Competition-level baristas pull shots to order demonstrating meticulous techniques.

At first just a ripple, but today independent third-wave cafes are an undulating force.  In Minneapolis and Saint Paul, we coffee snobs can savor third-wave coffee at Kopplin’s, Angry Cat Fish, Blue Ox, Quixotic, Spyhouse, Urban Bean Peace Coffee and Bull Run.

The caffeinated buzz heard among coffee enthusiasts “I’ am coffee snob, hear me brew.”

www.tcbmag.com/trends

Imbibemagazine.com/coffee-s-Third-Wave

Kopplin’scoffee.com

Coffee Conversations

“It’s about tradition.  If you’re going to do any serious talking in a gentleman’s home, he offers you some coffee first.”

Tony Hillerman’s characters solve mysteries over coffee in The Wailing Wind.

Coffee Buzz: Be Merry, Healthy and Wise in 2012

Daily, 150 million Americans drink about three cups of coffee.  Join the crowd, join the celebration and make one New Year’s resolution and reap the benefits all day, all year long.

Be Merry

Drinking a delicious cup of freshly brewed wonderful coffee improves coffee drinkers mental health.  Just inhaling the rich aroma has a positive effect of boosting your mood.

Be Healthy

Savoring two or three cups of coffee each day may lower the risk of developing Type 2Diabetis.  A cup of Joe counters the disease’s onset by lowering the blood sugar and promoting delivery of insulin to the blood stream.  Coffee is loaded with antioxidants that seem to improve the body’s sensitivity to insulin.  But—and here’s coffeesnobology’s caveat:  moderation is key.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/coffee-and-health/AN01354

Be Wise

Brew a cup of jolt to jumpstart your brainpower.  Cognitive performance and short term memory is improved while sipping, and that’s a Java truism every college student pulling an all-nighter lives by.

As one coffee enthusiast remarked “If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee; it is the intelligent beverage.”  www.cocoajava.com

Huffington Post offers more grounds to join the caffeinated party.  Drink up!  Be merry, healthy and wise in 2012.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/31/coffee-health-benefits_n_1064577.html

Kona Brewski

Cowabunga, dude – coffee in beer. Genius.

check it out at www.konabrewingco.com

PS: I use it in my dry-rubbed, marinated pork chili. Yum, culinary surfers!

Coffee Fact Friday: Shop Small is Huge

A drumstick roll, please for Shop Small on Small Business Saturday.   Ka-ching.  Small businesses like your favorite local coffee house where everyone knows your drink order–fuel the economy and energizes your community.

Shop Small.  One purchase.  Ka-ching.  And the Shop Small movement is percolating.

The G-R-I-N-D Coffee house and Roaster is this coffeesnobologist’s destination for Brazil Bourbon Machado, a sweet, nutty medium body bean.

November 26, 2011:  Shop Small—Small Business Saturday.

Thanksgiving Coffee

In the coffee calendar year 13 B.S. (Before Starbucks), Paul Katzeff became an Artisan Roaster with a mission to “supply California’s north coast with the best coffee possible,” and pay the mortgage.  And what followed when this Greenwich Village coffeehouse Beatnik ditched urban curbs for Northern California is something we can all be thankful for.

Paul’s coffee craftsmanship yielded many followers and a bank account, but it took a trip to Nicaragua in 1985 to inspire the soul of his family’s(give thanks here to his wife, Joan, also company president) Thanksgiving Coffee Company. He witnessed first hand the poverty of the farmers who were the foundation of his business. From then on he adopted Carlos Castaneda’s philosophy of, “take a path that has a heart.” The mission of Thanksgiving Coffee Company transcended from “In Search of the Perfect Cup” to “Not Just a Cup, But a Just Cup.”

Thanksgiving Coffee Company is now not just in the quality coffee business, but in the business of “elevating the quality of life of our suppliers.” Their conscience didn’t stop there. Thanksgiving’s fair trade practices go beyond the borders of coffee plantations and countries. They also partner with a number of non-profits, including Wild Birds Unlimited and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.  These and their End the Embargo (on Cuba) and Defenders (Save our Wolves) Coffees raise funds and awareness through the sale of special blends. 

www.thanksgivingcoffee.com (home site to shop coffee – all Kosher Certified, learn more about the company’s history and practices, sign up for newsletter, check out Blog)

www.companiesandme.com (“companies we like” site)