Fixx Coffee

We came across this article in Marie Claire which details a few interesting findings from a survey on coffee consumption in Britain.

Did you know:

• The British spend an average of £450 a year on coffee.
• They consume 511 million cups of coffee each week.
• Their high street coffee bill is as much as the yearly electricity bill or annual gym membership.
• Coffee drinking is more popular in men drinking 8 cups daily whereas women drink 6 cups.

So how does your consumption measure up to with these stats?

So you may have thought coffee was only for drinking, well the latest news is that you can wear it too. A company in Taiwan has created a multi dollar business from using old coffee grounds to make clothing.

The fabric is made using coffee grounds and with a unique characteristic of being a quick drying material, sportswear companies such as Adidas, Nike and Northface have placed orders for this new type of clothing.  There is also plans to extend the range to shoes, blankets and soaps in the future.

You can hear more about it here….

It’s 1st of March today and it has come around so fast.  So much has happened in since the beginning of the year in the coffee world and with a new spring month a new chapter begins -always exciting.  Out of curiousity we just had a look at March 1 in history to see how things compare today.  Makes for interesting reading.

March 1st in History
1780: Pennsylvania becomes the first American state to abolish slavery
1932: The baby son of Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped
1954: First American hydrogen bomb test on the island of Bikini
1966: First ever (crash) landing on Venus took place by the soviet probe Venus 3
1978: Coffin of Charles Chaplin stolen, only months after being buried

March 1st birthdays
1810: Frederic Chopin, Polish composer
1902: Langston Hughes, American poet
1904: Glenn Miller, American bandleader
1910: David Niven, Scottish actor
1927: Harry Belafonte, American singer
1954: Ron Howard, American director

Waste Coffee has many uses but this one is particuarily interesting… Clothing made of Coffee Grounds.

Austrian outdoor supplier Northland has made clothing that contain coffee grounds as a means of neutralising body odours as well as keeping the body cooler.  During the manufacturing process the fibres are spun with recycled coffee particles.

You can read more here….

How much would you pay for a cup of coffee? 

While there is much debate about how much a cup of coffee should cost, there are two speciality coffees that stand alone in the pricing arena.

The most expensive coffee in the world, Indonesia’s Kopi Luwak costs wholesale approx $420 per pound.  It is made by collecting undigested coffee beans from the exotic palm civet , a small mongoose like mammal.    

The Monkey Parchment Coffee which is made from beans that have been chewed up and spat out by Rhesus monkeys in the jungles of India is regarded as the 2nd most expensive coffee in the world and costs approximately $320 per pound.

You can learn more about it here or watch the videos below.  

Have you tried either of these unique coffees?  What constitutes a good coffee for you?  We would love to hear your feedback…. 

Kopi Luwak Video

.Monkey Parchment Coffee

Did you know….

• The world downs over 1.4 billion cups of coffee every day.
• Coffee drinking Americans consume an average of over three cups a day. That adds up to about 150 billion cups per year.
• Europe consumes more coffee than any other part of the world.  World coffee consumption is 10.1lb/4.6kg per year per head as opposed to 12.3lb/5.6kg for the European Union.

It was fascinating to learn that Issey Miyake’s latest menswear collection for Fall-Winter 2010-2011 was inspired by coffee.

The collection took inspiration from Japan’s coffee shops with their gingham tablecloths and chic baristas.  You can read more here:

 Did you know…..

• In Dieppe, France it is customary to toast weddings and baptisms with coffee rather than wine.
• In Turkey, it is legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily coffee fix.
• In Greece and Turkey, the oldest person is almost always served their coffee first.
• The French philosopher Voltaire reportedly drank 50 cups of coffee a day.

Did you know…………

Over 7 million tons of green beans are produced world wide each year, most of which are handpicked.

It takes 5000 coffee beans to produce one kilogram of coffee. 

It takes 42 coffee beans to make an espresso.

Coffee grows in more than 50 countries and is the second most valuable export after oil.

The coffee industry is the world’s largest employer. Over 100 million people look to coffee for their livelihood.

Although coffee has been in existence for thousands of years it’s only in the past half century that scientists have been able to identify and understand exactly what is contained in this mystical bean.  An excellent article from the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal provides some inciteful information on the chemical composition of coffee and explains the many myths surrounding caffeine.

With over 1000 compounds in coffee, compared to a few hundred in chocolate or wine thanks to advancements in technology, we have a better understanding on the chemistry. 

For many coffee drinking is simply a delivery of caffeine.  But mother nature distributed caffeine throughout many other forms of plant life.  Tea for example contains almost 3 times the concentration of caffeine than Arabica.

As humans we seek caffeine for both its stimulatory and psychological effects.  For all other life forms, caffeine is a potent toxin capable of sterilisation and antifungal properties. 

The caffeine content of the “Robusta” species is almost double that of the more delicate Arabica.

One common misconception in coffee is that darker roasted coffee contains a higher level of caffeine than lighter roasted coffee.  The belief stems from the fact that as coffee is roasted darker, it also increases its bitterness and astringency – which many associate with caffeine, since it is bitter also.

Source: Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, Feb 2009, Coffee Chemistry, Page 28