McDonald’s to sell organic coffee at NE stores (The Clarion-Ledger)
MONTPELIER, Vt. McDonald’s Corp. will begin selling organic coffee at its New England restaurants next month, an deal that could propel growth for a Vermont-based roaster and help the fast-food chain compete for customers who avoid them in favor of a better cup of joe.

Wisdom Over Coffee
Helaine Iris
2004

Learn to pause … or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you. Doug King

I was having coffee with three coach colleagues at Starbucks the other day. It s a ritual I look forward to. We get together twice a month to share our wins and our challenges, support each other and have a good time deepening our connection.

We go around the table, each taking a turn to share our news or receive coaching on whatever our challenge may be that week. It s a valuable, two-hour investment that always proves to be fascinating and energizing.

This time, as we were completing the round of sharing, I was struck by an awareness that suspended my ability to stay focused on the conversation. I let myself follow my own meandering train of thought for a while and then decided to share my question with the group.

My query was this: Why are we so often fearful and continue to get in our own way when we are striving to live a bigger life?

Even coaches, individuals who are trained, practiced and experienced at negotiating fear, doubt and disempowered thinking get stopped and stuck. Although this wasn t a new thought for me, my curiosity was building about some bigger phenomenon at play.

I kept coming back to the thought that regardless how educated, self aware, or evolved someone is, they still exhibit behavior that prevents them from stepping fully and effortlessly into the biggest life they want. Why is this? I finally wondered out loud to my interested and wise friends.

I began to think about the primitive part of our brain - the reptilian brain, which is programmed for survival. As human beings, we all share a need for security, and this part of our brain generates that need.

Further, as my coach Kimberly Fulcher states, If your need for security is not satisfied, whether the threat you perceive is real or imagined, you will live each day of your life focused solely on how to protect yourself. In this state, there will be no room for the risk taking and courageous action that is required to pursue your dreams.

Fortunately, there s a more evolved part of our brain that s responsible for creating the advanced society we live in today. When we see our life through this part of our brain, we feel few restrictions. We can do almost anything. The world is a limitless playground waiting for us to step in and play our part.

I began to realize how these two critical aspects of the human hardware are in stark opposition. Part of our brain wants us to grow, take risks and get out of our comfort zones; while another wants us to stay home and be safe. It s no wonder most of us run into roadblocks when we are trying to grow.

To add one more idea to my theory, most of us are members of the first generation that s been encouraged to grow beyond our parents edict of do what you re supposed to do, not what you want to do. In other words, very few of us have any role models for living a complete life of passion and fulfillment.

After spinning this theory with my colleagues, it became obvious that, as a species, we re doing pretty well, despite our physical and cultural limitations. We are continually growing, evolving and modeling a new way of living for future generations.

On an individual level, it s easy to get lost and stuck in what s scary and moving too slowly. But when was the last time you paused for a moment, shifted your perspective and reminded yourself about your accomplishments? How far have YOU come in your life? I invite you to take a minute right now and think about it.

Yes, keep taking risks and moving forward toward living a complete life, but respect your very human need for security. You can do this by routinely acknowledging what s working well and by reviewing your past accomplishments.

As you practice this you will begin to experience less time in the stuck, fearful places and more time in the moving forward and living your dreams places. What s stopping you? Go ahead and dream

It s YOUR life imagine the possibilities!

About the Author

Helaine Iris is a Life Coach who loves her life. She works with individuals, and self-employed professionals. For a solution focused, free initial consultation visit her website http://www.pathofpurpose.com or call her 603-357-8546 or email her helaine@pathofpurpose.com

Coffee tastes great by itself, but for an extra special taste sensation, try gourmet flavored coffee. There are many flavoring substances which can be added to coffee to give your daily cup of Java an out of the ordinary flavor experience.

Some flavors are natural enhancers that go together with coffee like bees and honey. Rum and chocolate have been added to coffee for almost as long as coffee has been produced. Some of the newest gourmet flavored coffee includes vanilla, macadamia, and even peanut butter!

Not all these flavors are everyone’s cup of tea , but the taste sensations of gourmet flavored coffee give you a new outlook on Java juice. Try out some of these special flavors — you may find a favorite that you always come back to.

Just look at some of these types of gourmet flavored coffee — apricot cream, Black Forest cake, Caf Napoleon, chocolate raspberry, Jamaican rum, Southern pecan and vanilla hazelnut. The names by themselves makes your mouth water.

Coffee is flavored by adding flavoring substances after it is roasted. The flavoring substances are highly concentrated and only a small amount is used in gourmet flavored coffee. Be careful when buying flavored coffee — be sure to buy from a reputable company. Some companies use the flavoring process to hide the taste of inferior quality coffee.

The flavoring used in gourmet flavored coffee loses its strength when exposed to air. Always keep the coffee beans in a tightly sealed container for maximum flavor. For the best cup of coffee, grind the beans right before brewing.

You can make your own special blends by combining various gourmet flavored coffee. Adding a touch of flavored coffee to your regular coffee beans adds a special taste that is uniquely yours. The sky is the limit! You can have a new flavor of coffee every day!

About the Author

Hans is author of
the Coffee
Specials and Gourmet Basket section at Steaks-Guide.com

Shade-Grown COFFEE FOR THE BIRDS Gives Consumers a Green Alternative (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
COFFEE FOR THE BIRDS today announced the launch of its online coffee initiative , which specializes in environmentally friendly shade-grown coffees, roasted-to- order in small batches for home delivery.

Pumpkin Time!
Halloween is coming up, and that means candy and costumes! Well, it also means pumpkins to most people. You can put some Halloween pumpkins in your cup with pumpkin spice coffee creamer, pumpkin coffee cake or any of these other…

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Caffeine has become America’s most popular drug by far. 90% of Americans consume caffeine in one form or another every single day. Most of it comes from drinking coffee.

But if you’re a coffee lover who prefers to avoid caffeine, you can still enjoy a cup of coffee that delivers rich flavor with decaffeinated coffee.

It’s how the caffeine is extracted from coffee beans that is a mystery for most of us.

These are some of the methods currently used for decaffeinating.

Direct Contact Method

In the direct contact method the beans come directly in contact with decaffeinating agents, such as methylene chloride, after being softened by water or steam. Caffeine is removed by directly soaking the materials in the methylene chloride.

Indirect Contact Method

With the indirect contact method a water and coffee solution is used to draw off the caffeine. The solution containing the caffeine is then treated with a decaffeinating agent, such as ethyl acetate, and mixed back into the beans for reabsorption of the flavorings.

Sometimes this method is referred to as naturally decaffeinated because ethyl acetate is a chemical found naturally in many fruits.

Water Processing

This process is similar to the indirect method, except no chemicals are used. The coffee beans are soaked in hot water then the solution is passed through a carbon filter to remove the caffeine.

Swiss Water Process

In the Swiss Water Process method, the caffeine is still extracted with carbon filters but the beans soak in hot water that is saturated with coffee flavor. The result is caffeine removal without removing the coffee flavors.

It’s referred to as Swiss Water Process because a Swiss company originally developed and patented the procedure.

Carbon Dioxide Processing

With this method the beans are soaked with water-softened materials in highly compressed carbon dioxide. The small caffeine molecules are extracted from the beans allowing the larger flavor molecules to remain untouched. This method retains the best overall flavor of all of the methods used.

Not all of the caffeine is completely removed with any of these current methods. To qualify as decaffeinated coffee in the United States, coffee must have at least 97 percent of its caffeine removed.

Coffee beans are decaffeinated before they are roasted because that’s when it has the least effect on the beans flavor.

The reason decaffeinated coffee costs more is because of the additional labor, equipment and material needed to remove the caffeine.

So what do they do with all of that caffeine? The extracted caffeine is manufactured and used mostly in medicines and soft drinks.

As an example, the caffeine content in soft drinks mainly comes from the caffeine extracted from these decaffeination processes. The kola nut accounts for less than 5 percent of the caffeine in cola drinks.

For the past 30 years scientists have done extensive research on coffee and the effects of caffeine. New research has even shown that caffeine has many positive effects.

Some of these effects include more energy, the ability to concentrate better and has even been used as an appetite suppressant.

But not all scientists agree with these findings and coffee and the effects of caffeine will continue to be thoroughly researched.

There will always be a market for decaffeinated coffee because some people just love their coffee without the caffeine buzz.

The rest of the 100 million regular coffee drinkers either love their coffee for the wonderful flavor or enjoy the effects of a caffeine boost. For most of us, I’m sure it’s a little of both.

About the Author

Gary Gresham is the webmaster for http://www.perfectcoffees.com where you can purchase quality coffee, tea, cups & mugs, coffee gifts and delicious desserts online. He offers a free monthly coffee newsletter with articles like these at
http://www.perfectcoffees.com/newsletter.html

Would-be carjacker no match for driver with cup of hot coffee (Chicago Sun-Times)
BLUFFTON, S.C. — A would-be carjacker got a different kind of jolt from his intended victim’s morning cup of coffee, authorities said. The man tapped the car window Wednesday with a gun and motioned the driver to get out, Chief Deputy Roy Hughes said.

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Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971 by three businessmen in Seattle, Washington who had a love for coffee and tea. It was important to them that the city of Seattle to have access their coffee.

The Starbucks Coffee Company grew slowly but by 1981 had 4 retail stores and a roasting plant that sold whole bean coffee in Seattle only.

By 1983 the marketing manager had a vision of re-creating the magic and romance behind the Italian coffee bar and wanted to test out the concept of selling espresso by the cup. When Starbucks Coffee opened its 6th store in downtown Seattle, the idea had become a hit. Within 2 months the new store was serving over 700 customers a day and it was selling 3 times more than the whole bean locations.

In 1987, the owners of Starbucks Coffee Company decided to sell their coffee business along with the name to a group of local investors for $3.7 million.

The new investors were told that they would open 125 Starbucks coffee stores in the next five years. Starting from a base of 17 stores in 1987, the company expanded rapidly to Vancouver, Portland and Chicago.

By 1991 Starbucks had expanded into the mail-order catalogue business, licensed airport stores and expanded further into the state of California.

In 1992 the company went public and after the initial public offering, Starbucks continued to grow at a phenomenal pace that no one had ever seen in the coffee world before. By 1997 the number of Starbucks Coffee stores grew tenfold, with locations in the US, Japan and Singapore.

Starbucks initiated several successful product and brand extensions including offering coffee on United Airlines flights. They also began selling premium teas through its Tazo Tea Company and offering people the option to purchase starbucks coffee online to enjoy at home.

They began distributing whole bean and ground coffee to supermarkets through an agreement with Kraft Foods. They also produced premium coffee ice cream with Dreyers. Starbucks even sold CDs in its retail stores.

Starbucks began turning its name into a household word not through advertising but through word of mouth. In fiscal 2004, Starbucks opened a record 1,344 stores worldwide. The once small regional roaster, Starbucks Coffee Company, now has more than 9,000 locations in 34 countries serving over 20 million customers a week.

Copyright © 2005 - PerfectCoffees.com - All Rights Reserved.

Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971 by three businessmen in Seattle, Washington who had a love for coffee and tea. It was important to them that the city of Seattle to have access their coffee.

The Starbucks Coffee Company grew slowly but by 1981 had 4 retail stores and a roasting plant that sold whole bean coffee in Seattle only.

By 1983 the marketing manager had a vision of re-creating the magic and romance behind the Italian coffee bar and wanted to test out the concept of selling espresso by the cup. When Starbucks Coffee opened its 6th store in downtown Seattle, the idea had become a hit. Within 2 months the new store was serving over 700 customers a day and it was selling 3 times more than the whole bean locations.

In 1987, the owners of Starbucks Coffee Company decided to sell their coffee business along with the name to a group of local investors for $3.7 million.

The new investors were told that they would open 125 Starbucks coffee stores in the next five years. Starting from a base of 17 stores in 1987, the company expanded rapidly to Vancouver, Portland and Chicago.

By 1991 Starbucks had expanded into the mail-order catalogue business, licensed airport stores and expanded further into the state of California.

In 1992 the company went public and after the initial public offering, Starbucks continued to grow at a phenomenal pace that no one had ever seen in the coffee world before. By 1997 the number of Starbucks Coffee stores grew tenfold, with locations in the US, Japan and Singapore.

Starbucks initiated several successful product and brand extensions including offering coffee on United Airlines flights. They also began selling premium teas through its Tazo Tea Company and offering people the option to purchase starbucks coffee online to enjoy at home.

They began distributing whole bean and ground coffee to supermarkets through an agreement with Kraft Foods. They also produced premium coffee ice cream with Dreyers. Starbucks even sold CDs in its retail stores.

Starbucks began turning its name into a household word not through advertising but through word of mouth. In fiscal 2004, Starbucks opened a record 1,344 stores worldwide. The once small regional roaster, Starbucks Coffee Company, now has more than 9,000 locations in 34 countries serving over 20 million customers a week.

Copyright 2005 Perfect Coffees.com. All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

This article is supplied by http://www.perfectcoffees.com where you can purchase starbucks coffee online, tea, cups, mugs, coffee makers, delicious desserts and sugar free desserts online. For a free monthly coffee newsletter with articles like these go to: http://www.perfectcoffees.com/newsletter.html

The Milk Frothing Guide

Everything you could possibly want to know about milk and milk frothing is presented to you by Aaron DeLazzer, CoffeeGeek, and Aabree Coffee.
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