Welcome To SUNDAY Coffee+: Coffee News That Made The Headlines
Each week, Craft Beverage Jobs compiles the top headlines for Craft Coffee News & Information. On Sunday morning we post those headlines in SUNDAY Coffee+ for your reading pleasure. Whether its industry growth, new business, job openings, profiles or human interest, you just never know what will tickle our fancy from week to week. We want to make SUNDAY Coffee+ a part of your Sunday morning coffee experience. Want Sunday Coffee+ delivered via email each weekend? Sign Up Here.
Your Addiction To Coffee Could Be Genetic
Addicted to Coffee? It Could be Genetic, Says Harvard, by Karen Lo – The Daily Meal
Researchers have identified six gene variants that look to be responsible for the way you drink coffee.
Whether you gulp your way through multiple cups of coffee a day just to remain human, or you can barely finish a mug before you’re vibrating off the walls, it turns out that there are six genetic variants responsible for your relationship with coffee.
In a genome-wide meta-analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health of a sample of more than 120,000 regular coffee drinkers (of European and African American descent), researchers identified two variants that were mapped to genes involved in metabolizing caffeine.
Drinking Coffee Linked To Healthy Liver
Decaf or Regular: Coffee is Good for Your Liver, by Laura Geggel, livescience
Drinking decaffeinated coffee is just as helpful as drinking regular coffee is for maintaining a healthy liver, a new study finds.
Regardless of whether they drank decaf or regular, people in the study who drank large quantities of coffee on a daily basis had lower levels of abnormal liver enzymes, the researchers found. This suggests that a chemical in coffee other than caffeine may help the liver, the researchers said.
The researchers looked at about 27,800 people age 20 or older who reported how much coffee they had consumed over the past 24 hours. The team also looked at their blood samples for several markers of liver health, including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyl transaminase (GGT). Elevated levels of liver enzymes may be a sign of liver damage or inflammation.
The results showed that people who said they drank three or more cups of coffee a day had lower levels of all four of these enzymes, compared with people who did not drink any coffee. Surprisingly, it didn’t matter whether a person drank regular or decaf coffee: the effect on liver enzyme levels was almost identical.
Sacramento Specialty Coffee Week , October 13-19
7 events to check out during the 7 days of Specialty Coffee Week, by Stephanie Towne – Sactown Magazine
Capital city roasters and coffeehouses are brewing up seven days of buzzy events for Sacramento Specialty Coffee Week. The inaugural event—which runs Oct. 13 through 19 and is spearheaded by local roasters like Temple Coffee and Chocolate Fish—celebrates our burgeoning artisanal coffee scene through (mostly free) tastings, lectures, classes and more. Here’s a sampling of can’t-miss caffeinated offerings, one for every day of the week-long affair. (And to read more about Sacramento’s booming coffee culture, pick up Sactown’s Oct/Nov Coffee Issue on newsstands now.)
Colombian Super Coffee: $130 A Pound
Colombian super coffee sells for $130 a pound, by Matthew Sterne – Colombia Reports
Colombia’s most expensive coffee recently sold for $130 a pound, making it the third most expensive coffee in the world.
A Colombian company, Cafe Mesa de los Santos, received a bid of $134.28 per pound at an auction, a price unprecedented in the national coffee industry. The gourmet coffee instantly became one of the most expensive coffees in the world, after Moca of Guatemala ($500), and the Geisha of Panama ($350). An Australian roaster expert purchased the Cafe Mesa de los Santos in the form of micro batches.
Micro batch specialty coffee is a selection of the most outstanding produce due to growing conditions, handling and processing. It is purchased by premium roasters destined for consumers “who can pay up to $ 200 per pound of the finished product,” explained the spokesperson for the brand to Colombia’s El Nuevo Siglo newspaper.
Behind this unprecedented achievement is a centuries-old coffee-growing tradition.
Understanding The Increasingly Complex Coffee Consumer
Understanding the Increasingly Complex Coffee Consumer, by Melissa Vonder Haar, CSPnet.com
“I’m wired,” Todd Mackey, quality control coordinator and trainer for Coffee Solutions Inc., told retailers attending the “Destination Coffee: Baristas Wanted” educational session at the 2014 NACS Show in Las Vegas. “And not just because of the coffee!”
Mackey was energized to give attendees an idea of what’s going on in an increasingly diverse global coffee market.
One truth: coffee is complex – Todd Mackey
“It’s no longer just about the country the beans come from; we’re seeing separations down to very specific areas, much like what goes on with wine.”
Some other trends Mackey highlighted included:
- Craft Preparation: “Handmade specialty blends are big right now. The beans in your morning cup of coffee typically pass through 40 hands.”
- Traceability: “Consumers want to know where their food and beverages are coming from.”
- Coffee Occasions: “Independent specialty retailers are doing interesting things with coffee tastings, going so far as to do pairings with food, wine or spirits.”
- Espresso Beverages: “Specialty-based espresso beverages represent 51% of all coffee beverages consumed” (more people are drinking espresso than coffee).
- Cold Brew: “Not just in single-serve bottles and cans, but complex, beer-like draft systems are starting to pop up too.”
Preferring Manual Drip Brews
Pour-over coffee: Manual drip-brews gain popularity, by Anna G. Larson – The Jamestown Sun
The manual drip-brewing method enhances the flavor of coffee beans by marrying freshly ground, high-quality beans with a steady stream of hot
water over a filter cone.
The java’s made using a variety of simple vessels but when done correctly, the roughly five-minute process results in a bright, flavorful cup of joe that doesn’t need doctoring.
Pour-over coffee’s popularity right now can be attributed to people wanting to enjoy craft coffee as much as a craft beer or fine wine.
“It’s a much more, dare I say, romantic process,” says Johnson, a founder of Fargo-based coffee roasting company Young Blood Coffee Roasters. “I look at it as a time to think, slow down and take five minutes out of my day that I’m not dashing around the house or the office.”
feature photo credit: Chris Blakeley via photopin cc