AboutCoffee(s).com

It seems researchers in the US have discovered another good reason to go to the local espresso bar: several cups of coffee a day could halt the progression of liver disease, recent studies are showing.

Sufferers of chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease who drank three or more cups of coffee per day slashed their risk of the disease progressing by 53 percent compared to patients who drank no coffee, the study led by Neal Freedman of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) showed.

For the study, 766 participants enrolled in the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-Term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) trial — all of whom had hepatitis C which had not responded to treatment with anti-viral drugs — were asked to report how many cups of coffee they drank every day.

The patients were seen every three months during the 3.8-year study and liver biopsies were taken at 1.5 and 3.5 five years to determine the progression of liver disease.

“We observed an inverse association between coffee intake and liver disease progression,” meaning patients who drank three or more cups of java were less likely to see their liver disease worsen than non-drinkers, wrote the authors of the study, which will be published in the November issue of Hepatology.

The researchers put forward several ways in which coffee intake might protect against liver disease, including by reducing the risk of type two diabetes, which has been associated with liver illness; or by reducing inflammation, which is thought to cause fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver.

Even caffeine, the chemical that gives a cup of coffee its kick, came under the spotlight, having been found in previous studies to inhibit liver cancer in rats.

But drinking black or green tea, which also contain caffeine, had little impact on the progression of liver disease, although there were few tea drinkers in the study.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) three to four million people contract hepatitis C each year.

Seventy percent of cases become chronic and can cause cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Biodegradable coffee cups sound like a great idea, no? So where are they? This latest green technology was developed by Clovernook Center for the Blind (which employs visually impaired people to manufacture various paper products) and International Paper for none other then the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Navy was looking for a solution to their coffee cup problems – they needed something that could be disposed of at sea, while still being capable of keeping the coffee hot without scalding the sailor’s hands. The Army quickly jumped in line for the production run, but they have another specific requirement – the coffee cups have to be brown so the cups would be invisible to spy satellites after they have been tossed away.

No idea as to when these green coffee cups will be hitting your local Starbucks, but as for now the technology that enables the coffee cups to decompose is a trade secret. Maybe even a matter of U.S. national security!

Via The Cincinnati Enquirer :: Clovernook :: International Paper

Here is a coffee mug that may not make it to you local Walmart or coffee shop. The “Mugnum” (as you may have guessed) is a clever mix of the word mug and magnum, and is fitting since the handle of the ceramic coffee mug is shaped like that of a .357 Magnum. This coffee mug comes complete with a sight for lining up your targets. Designed by Malaysian artist Mohd Fizea Zaukefli, here is the copy that the designer accompanied with his creation:

People wake up every morning, some will feel eager to experience the day. Some might feel down, feel worry on the things might come. Whenever someone feels bored, tense or sad, they need something to cheer them up.This is what this mug can offer, a bit of excitement in their morning lives. The feeling of secure, the feeling of confident, and the desire to go ahead. In the morning people have breakfast, to get ready for the day. Every good day come from a good breakfast. Sounds too good to be true but why not, when sipping a coffee in the morning, you might feel as good as having a gun in your hand.

Not sure about the “feeling as good as having a gun in your hand” bit, but the design of the coffee mug is certainly unique.

For those that want to remain classy while enjoying your morning cup of coffee, the glass coffee mugs from Bodum Assam fit the bill nicely. Like many of the Bodum Assam products, these glasses are doubled walled. While these glass coffee mugs may only hold just under 8 oz., heat is not transferred to the outside of the glass, as with single layer glass or ceramic coffee mugs maintaining  the temperature for a  longer period of time. They keep hot beverages hot long enough so that they can be savored at leisure, and the crystal clear glass gives one the opportunity to admire the cream as it rises to the top, and display cappuccino to maximum advantage.

Despite their somewhat delicate appearance, they are sturdy enough to be both microwave-safe and dishwasher-safe according to Bodum.

Functionally, they do work nicely as I can hold on to a very hot cup of tea without burning my hands. However, I believe the opening of the cup is too wide to really keep the contents cool or hot for a very long time. But since the cup is only 7oz’s, I usually finish the contents before they get to room temperature.

Courtesy of Hammacher Schlemer, this mug has a miniature battery-operated propeller at the bottom, that spins at 3,000 rpms at the touch of a button on the handle.

The whirlpool action it creates automatically stirs your beverage, eliminating the need to dispose of stirrers or find a place to leave coffee-dampened spoons. At a simple push of the button, the propeller stirs or re-stirs mugs of hot chocolate, coffee, or tea, preventing chocolate or sugar from settling out of solution.

This mug also makes mixing honey into a drink easy, and includes a lid to keep contents from spilling as well as to retain heat. The lid can be placed underneath the mugs base as an impromptu coaster. The 9 oz. mug is lightweight injection-molded plastic sheathed in a stainless steel exterior and requires two AAA batteries.

The coffee mug now has a new use, as a form of communication.  This ingenious coffee mug is glazed with a chalk board surface allowing for easy-wipe messaging with a standard piece of chalk.

Great for leaving love notes or reminders for yourself, you can see that this truly useful coffee mug is much better then “post-it”notes. [Try drinking coffee from a "post-it" note :0]

The “Agitor” is a new concept in coffee stirring. A button located on the bottom of a cup can be pressed, thus causing the contents to become “agitated”.

The system involves a small pocket of space, surrounded by a soft plastic membrane, at the bottom of the cup. The membrane has small holes, allowing the liquid to fill the space. By pressing on the space from the below the cup, it forces the liquid back out of the holes, thus “agitating” the contents.

It’s the idea of Creighton Schlebach, who wanted an easier way to keep his coffee stirred during moments when he didn’t have any free hands. He says you can use it for other stuff too, like instant soup, chocolate milk, and such.

“Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water.”

When coffee was first introduced into England in the late 1600s, it was largely drunk by men only, and in coffeehouses rather than at home. Doctors welcomed this as a substitute for drinking alcohol in taverns, but married women were not so happy with the new drink. In 1674 a group of London women put out “The Women’s Petition Against Coffee.” The petition is reproduced below:

Representing to Publick Consideration the Grand Inconveniencies accruing to their Sex from the Excessive Use of that drying, Enfeebling Liquor. Presented to the Right Honorable the Keepers of the Liberty of Venus. By a Well-willer
London, Printed 1674.

To the Right Honorable the Keepers of the Liberties of Venus; The Worshipful Court of Female Assistants, &c.

The Humble Petitions and Address of Several Thousands of Buxome Good-Women, Languishing in Extremity of Want.
Sheweth, That since ’tis Reckon’d amongst the Glories of our Native Country, To be a Paradise for Women: The fame in our Apprehensions can consist in nothing more than the brisk Activity of our men, who in former Ages were justly esteemed the Ablest Performers in Christendome; But to our unspeakable Grief, we find of late a very sensible Decay of that true Old English Vigor; our Gallants being every way so Frenchified, that they are become meer Cock-sparrows, fluttering things that come on Sa sa, with a world of Fury, but are not able to stand to it, and in the very first Charge fall down flat before us. Never did Men wear greater breeches, or carry less in them of any Mettle whatsoever. There was a glorious Dispensation (’twas surely in the Golden Age) when Lusty Ladds of Seven or eigh hundred years old, Got Sons and Daughters; ande we have read, how a Prince of Spain was forced to make a Law, that Men should not Repeat the Grand Kindness to their Wives, above NINE times a night; but Alas! Alas! Those forwards Days are gone, The dull Lubbers want a Spur now, rather than a Bridle: being so far from dowing any works of Supererregation that we find them not capable of performing those Devoirs which their Duty, and our Expectations Exact.

The Occasion of which Insufferable Disaster, after a furious Enquiry, and Discussion of the Point by the Learned of the Faculty, we can Attribute to nothing more than the Excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called COFFEE, which Riffling Nature of her Choicest Treasures, and Drying up the Radical Moisture, has so Eunucht our Husbands, and Cripple our more kind Gallants, that they are become as Impotent as Age, and as unfruitful as those Desarts whence that unhappy Berry is said to be brought.

For the continual flipping of this pitiful drink is enough to bewitch Men of two and twenty, and tie up the Codpiece-points without a Charm. It renders them that us it as Lean as Famine, as Rivvel’d as Envy, or an old meager Hagg over-ridden by an Incubus. They come from it with nothing moist but their snotty Noses, nothing stiffe but their Joints, nor standing but their Ears: They pretend ’twill keep them Waking, but we find by scurvy Experience, they sleep quietly enough after it. A Betrothed Queen might trust her self a bed with one of them, without the nice Caution of a sword between them: nor can call all the Art we use revive them from this Lethargy, so unfit they are for Action, that like young Train-band-men when called upon Duty, their Ammunition is wanting; peradventure they Present, but cannot give Fire, or at least do but flash in the Pan, instead of doing executions.

Nor let any Doating, Superstitious Catos shake their Goatish Beards, and task us of Immodesty for this Declaration, since ’tis a publick Grievance, and cries alound for Reformation. Weight and Measure, ’tis well known, should go throughout the world, and there is no torment like Famishment. Experience witnesses our Damage, and Necessity (which easily supersedes all the Laws of Decency) justifies our complaints: FOr can any Woman of Sense or Spirit endure with Patience, that when priviledg’d by Legal Ceremonies, she approaches the Nuptial Bed, expecting a Man that with Sprightly Embraces, should Answer the VIgour of her Flames, she on the contrary should only meat A Bedful of Bones, and hug a meager useless Corpse rendred as sapless as a Kixe, and dryer than a Pumice-Stone, by the perpetual Fumes of Tobacco, and bewitching effects of this most pernitious COFFEE, where by Nature is Enfeebled, the Off-spring of our Mighty Ancestors Dwindled into a Succession of Apes and Pigmies: and

—The Age of Man

Now Cramp’t into an Inch, that was a Span.

Nor is this (though more than enough!) All the ground of our Complaint: For besides, we have reason to apprehend and grow Jealous, That Men by frequenting these Stygian Tap-houses will usurp on our Prerogative of tattling, and soon learn to exceed us in Talkativeness: a Quality wherein our Sex has ever Claimed preheminence: For here like so many Frogs in a puddle, they sup muddy water, and murmur insignificant notes till half a dozen of them out-babble an equal number of us at a Gossipping, talking all at once in Confusion, and running f rom point to point as insensibly, and swiftly, as ever the Ingenous Pole-wheel could run divisions on the Base-viol; yet in all their prattle every one abounds in his own sense, as stiffly as a Quaker at the late Barbican Dispute, and submits to the Reasons of no othre mortal: so that there being neither Moderator nor Rules observ’d, you mas as soon fill a Quart pot with Syllogismes, as profit by their Discourses.

Certainly our Countrymens pallates are become as Fantastical as their Brains; how ellse is’t possible they should Apostatize from the good old primitve way of Ale-drinking, to run a whoring after such variety of distructive Foreign Liquors, to trifle away their time, scald their Chops, and spend their Money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking, nauseous Puddle-water: Yet (as all Witches have their CHarms) so this ugly Turskish Enchantress by certain Invisible VVyres attracts both Rich and Poor; so that those that have scarece Twopence to buy their Children Bread, must spend a penny each evening in this Insipid Stuff: Nor can we send one of our Husbands to Call a Midwife, or borrow a Glister-pipe, but he must stay an hour by the way drinking his two Dishes, & two Pipes.

At these Houses (as at the Springs in Afric) meet all sorts of Animals, whence follows the production of a thousand Monster Opinions and Absurdities; yet for being dangerous to Government, we dare to be their Compurgators, as well knowing them to be too tame and too talkative to make any desperate Politicians: For though they may now and then destroy a Fleet, or kill ten thousand of the French, more than all the Confederates can do, yet this is still in their politick Capacities, for by their personal valour they are scarce fit to be of the Life-guard to a Cherry-tree: and therefore, though they frequently have hot Contests about most Important Subjects; as what colour the Red Sea is of; whether the Great Turk be a Lutheran or a Calvinist; who Cain’s Father in Law was, &c., yet they never fight about them with any other save our Weapon, the Tongue.

Some of our Sots pretend tippling of this boiled Soot cures them of being Drunk; but we have reason rather to conclude it makes them so, because we find them not able to stand after it: ‘Tis at best but a kind of Earthing a Fox to hunt him more eagerly afterward: A rare method of good-husbandry, to enable a man to be drunk three times a day! Just such a Remedy for Drunkenness, as the Popes allowing of Stews, is a means to prevent Fornication: THe Coffee-house being in truth, only a Pimp to the Tavern, a relishing foop prearative to a fresh debauch: For when people have swill’d themselves with a morning draught of more Ale than a Brewer’s horse can carry, hither they come for a pennyworth of Settle-brain, where they are sure to meet enow lazy pragmatical Companions, that resort here to prattle of NEws, that they neither understand, nor are concerned in; and after an hours impertinent CHat, begin to consider a Bottle of Claret would do excellent well before Dinner; whereupon to the Bush they all march together, till every one of them is as Drunk as a Drum, and then back again to the Coffee-house to drink themselves suber; where three or four dishes a piece, and smoaking, makes their throats as dry as Mount Ætna enflam’d with Brimflame; for that they must away to the next Red Lattice to quenc them with a dozen or two of Ale, which at last growing nauseous, one of them begins to extol the blood of the Grape, what rare Langoon, and Racy Canary may be had at the Miter: Saist thou so? cries another, Let’s then go and replenish there, with our Earthen Vessels: So once more they troop to the Sack-shop till they are drunker than before; and then by a retrograde motion, stagger back to Soberize themselves with Coffee: thus like Tennis Balls between two Rackets, the Fopps our Husbands are bandied to and fro all day between the Coffee-house and Tavern, whilst we poor souls sit mopeing all alone till Twelve at night, and when at last they come to bed finoakt like a Westphalia Hogs-head we have no more comfort of them, than from a shotten Herring or a dried Bulrush; which forces us to take up this Lamentation and sing,

Tom Farthing, Tom Farthing, where has thou been, Tom Farthing?

Twelve a Clock e’re you come in, Two a clock ere you begin, And
then at last can do nothing: Would make a Woman weary, weary,
weary, would make a Woman weary, &c.

Wherefore the Premises considered, and to the end that our Just Rights may be restored, and all the Ancient Priviledges of our Sex preserved inviolable; That our Husbands may give us some other Testimonial of their being Men, besides their Beards and wearing of empty Pantaloons: That they no more run the hazard of being Cuckol’d by Dildo’s: But returning to the good old strengthening Liquors of our Forefathers; that Natures Exchequer may once again be replenisht, and a Race of Lusty Here’s begot, able by their Atchievements, to equal the Glories of our Ancesters.
We Humbly Pray, That you our Trusty Patrons would improve your Interest, that henceforth the Drinking COFFEE may on severe penalties be forbidden to all Persons under the Age of Threescore; and that instead thereof, Lusty nappy Beer, Cock-Ale, Cordial Canaries, Restoring Malago’s, and Back-recruiting Chochole be Recommended to General Use, throughout the Utopian Territories.

In hopes of which Glorious Reformation, your Petitioners shall readily Prostrate themselves, and ever Pray, &c.

FINIS.

Men tried to fight the accusation of impotence by saying coffee “rather assists us by drying up those crude flatulent humours, which otherwise would make us only flash in the pan, without doing that thundering execution which your expectations exact.” They also said home wasn’t the most fun place to be: “You may well permit us to talk abroud, for at home we have scarce time to utter a word for the insufferable din of your active tongues.” The protesting women didn’t accomplish much; it reached the point where newspapers and mail were delivered to coffeehouses rather than homes.

Source: wikisource.org

The Keurig B60 – The Ideal Single Cup Coffee Maker for Home Use

The Keurig B60 One-Cup Coffee Maker is considered one of the best in Keurig’s line up of single cup home-brewing systems. If you like waking up to the perfect cup of late in the morning, yet you are the only coffee drinker in the house, or if you’d like variety in your morning cup, the Keurig B60 will brew you a single cup whenever you want one. As in all Keurig brewers, the B60 fits into any kitchen countertop, yet compact enough to bring during travels. It allows you to brew three different coffee sizes – 5.25-, 7.25- and 9.25-ounce of your favorite coffee mix.

Keurig brewers feature the patented K-Cups, of which there are more than a hundred varieties from different brands. K-Cups are well-loved because they get rid of the hassle of brewing, and the messy cleanups and filters in traditional coffee makers. K-Cups contain a pre-measured and pre-mixed gourmet coffee that you can enjoy in less than a minute.

An average cup of coffee with the Keurig B60 would cost about $0.40 to $0.50, a lot less than if you were to get them in your favorite coffee shop. The K-Cups are relatively costly, but consider the amount of money you waste as you toss away the leftover coffee from your old coffee maker.

The Keurig B60 features an adjustable temperature feature where you can choose from a range of temperatures based on your preference – from the cooler 187F to the pre-set 192 degrees. It also offers a backlit LCD display to facilitate ease of use. It also has a 24-hour programmable setting feature where you can set your time for your morning and afternoon cup of coffee or tea.

The B60 has a 48-oz. reservoir that can make you at least 7 mugs of coffee. It is very easy to brew your gourmet coffee – just insert the K-cup, close the hatch, then press the button. You can do all these and enjoy your gourmet coffee in less than half a minute! The water reservoir is conveniently removable, just like its stainless steel drip tray for easy clean-up. The coffee maker also has aesthetic features – chrome lines that give a hint of elegance and finesse to grace your countertop.

Just like any regular coffee maker, the Keurig B60 is not perfect. The machine is relatively noisy, especially when it fills in water for the next coffee cup. This brewer is also made especially for standard coffee mugs; if you have a mug that is larger than average, it might not fit perfectly. Although it has minor imperfections, the B60 is close to the perfect coffee maker you’ll ever need.

If you have gotten used to the traditional coffee makers, there is no better time than now to adapt to the times and get yourself a Keurig. The Special Edition B60 is regarded by Keurig to be its most popular and best-selling brewer model. With the B60, you can enjoy different flavors of gourmet coffee for your every whim whenever you want.

This is bizarre – after you’ve found the guy, it seems so obvious, and you think, ‘why didn’t I see him immediately’?

Scientists apparently have concluded that if you find the guy in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than in most people. If you need between 3 seconds and 1 minute, the right half  of the brain is developed normally.

If you find the man in between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and supposedly you’ll need to eat more protein. If you have not found the guy in the coffee beans after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of exercise to make that part of the brain stronger (and probably take the protein).

And, yes, the man is really there!