All You Need To Know About Coffee

COFFEA LIBERICA

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Although not as popular as Arabica and Robusta, other varietals of coffee also exist. These include Kape Barako or Kape Baraco, (English: Barako coffee), a Liberica, varietal grown in the Philippines, particularly in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite. (Wikipedia web site)

KAPE ALAMID

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Actually Kape Alamid and Kopi Luwak is the same thing. Kape Alamid is Mindanao Civet Coffee that comes only from the finest ripe, organically grown, coffee cherries of Mindanao’s forests. The civet here is called alamid.

During the coffee season (November – March), farmers collect civet droppings and extract the beans by carefully washing and cleaning them before drying. After drying, the farmers bring the clean beans to MinLand Foundation. MinLand subjects the beans to quality control measures and testing like size sorting, moisture content evaluation and random physical checks for consistency and authenticity. MinLand then washes and dries the beans further.

When the beans are dry enough, the outer covering of the bean is physically removed. Beans are roasted and packed thereafter. The coffee finally undergoes disinfection through Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation to destroy pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, mold, and mildew.

Kape Alamid is strong and naturally sweet when roasted. It gives off a sweet chocolatey aroma that rouses the senses. Noted as the "rarest coffee in the world" the commodity sold by Japan Airlines as a gourmet product on its business class section for 600 dollars for 100 grams and is exported under the Coffee Alamid trademark to China, Taiwan, Australia and the United States. (taken from MinLand Foundation and Squidoo web pages)

KOPI LUWAK

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Kopi Luwak is considered one of the finest coffees available. The majority of commercial Indonesian Kopi Luwak (civet coffee) is from Java and Sumatra or Sulawesi, and made from Robusta beans.

Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee, and luwak is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet. Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, and in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid). Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called weasel coffee, which are coffee berries which have been defecated by local weasels. In actuality the "weasel" is just the local version of the Asian Palm Civet, which is related to the cat but belonging to the viverridae family, the same as the mongoose, it has a weasel-like face, cat-like body and long tail with fur which may be either gray or brown with various darker markings.

The Asian Palm civet of Indonesia is a musky grey-toned colour with darker stripes.

Beneath the tail of both sexes is a gland from which a fatty secretion is emitted to mark its territory. This substance is collected to be used as a perfume fixative, main supplies coming
from the Indian civet (v. zibetha).

The omnivorous, tree-climbing civet cat prowls the coffee plantations at night picking and consuming the finest and best ripe coffee cherries. These pass through the civet and are
collected in the droppings. Beans emerge without their fleshy coating, but entire and appear undigested. They are extracted by washing and carefully cleansed before being processed.

It had long been considered as a legend that the civet (Luwak) consumed the best coffee beans which then passed through their gut undigested, even entire with their cherry-like coating, the beans being washed and processed in the normal fashion to make this highly selected top grade coffee. Some thought that the actual situation was that the best beans were selected according to the type civets would eat, and these processed without having actually been eaten by the civet cats.

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States. It is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited: only 1,000 pounds (450 kg) at most make it into the world market each year (Pg 23, The Gospel According to Starbucks; Sweet). One small cafe, the Heritage Tea Rooms, in the hills outside Townsville in Queensland, Australia has Kopi Luwak coffee on the menu at A$50.00 (=US$46.00) per cup, and approximately 4 people a week are up for it, which has gained nationwide Australian press. (taken from Wikipedia web site and other sources)

COFFEA ROBUSTA

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Coffea canephora (robusta) is a species of coffee which has its origins in western Africa. It is grown mostly in Africa and Brazil, where it is often called Conillon. It is also grown in Southeast Asia where French colonists introduced the crop to Vietnam in the late 19th century and has now surpassed Brazil to become the world's largest exporter. It is easier to care for than Coffea arabica and hence is cheaper to produce.

Coffea canephora was not classified as a species of Coffea until about a hundred years after Coffea arabica in the 18th century, but grew indigenously in Western and Central Africa. The plant has a shallow root system and grows as a robust tree or shrub to about 10 metres. It flowers irregularly taking about 10 - 11 months for cherries to ripen, producing oval shaped beans. The Robusta plant has a greater crop yield than that of Arabica and is less susceptible to pest and disease, but is said to a have a taste more bitter than Arabica

Since arabica beans are considered superior, robusta is usually limited to lower grade coffee blends as a filler. It is however included in instant coffee, and in espresso blends to promote the formation of crema. Robusta has about twice the amount of caffeine compared to arabica. Approximately one third of the coffee produced in the world is robusta.

Whilst not separate varieties of bean, unusual and very expensive robustas are the Indonesian Kopi Luwak and the Philippine Kape Alamid.

COFFEA ARABICA

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Coffea arabica is a species of coffee indigenous to Ethiopia and Yemen. It is also known as the coffee shrub of Arabia, mountain coffee, or arabica coffee. Coffea arabica is believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated, being grown in southwest Arabia for well over 1,000 years. It is considered to produce better coffee than the other major commercially grown coffee species, Coffea canephora (robusta). Arabica contains less caffeine than any other commercially cultivated species of coffee. Wild plants grow to between 7-12 m tall, and have an open branching system; the leaves are opposite, simple elliptic-ovate to oblong, 6-12 cm long and 4-8 cm broad, glossy dark green. The flowers are white, 10-15 mm in diameter and grow in axillary clusters. The fruit is a berry 10-15 mm in diameter, maturing bright red to purple and typically contain two seeds (the coffee 'bean').

Coffea arabica takes about seven years to mature fully and does best with 1-1.5 meters (about 40-59 inches) of rain, evenly distributed throughout the year. It is usually cultivated between 1,300 and 1,500 m altitude, but there are plantations as low as sea level and as high as 2,800 m. The plant can tolerate low temperatures, but not frost, and it does best when the temperature hovers around 20 °C (68 °F). Commercial cultivars mostly only grow to about 5 m, and are frequently trimmed as low as 2 m to facilitate harvesting. Unlike Coffea canephora (robusta), Coffea arabica prefers to be grown in light shade.

The trees are difficult to cultivate and each tree can produce anywhere from 0.5-5 kg of dried beans, depending on the tree's individual character and the climate that season. In perfect conditions, like those of Java, trees are planted at all times of the year and are harvested year round. In less ideal conditions, like those in parts of Brazil, the trees have a season and are harvested only in winter. The berries themselves are edible. They are very sweet, with a texture somewhat like a grape. The real prize of this cash crop are the beans inside. Each berry holds two locules containing the beans. The coffee beans are actually two seeds within the fruit, there is sometimes a third seed or one seed, a peaberry in the fruits at tips of the branches. These seeds are covered in two membranes, the outer one is called the 'parchment' and the inner one is called the 'silver skin'.

COFFEE VARIETALS

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There are some varietals of coffee depending on the local environment where the coffee plants are grown, their method of process, and the genetic subspecies or varietals. Two well known varietals are Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora (Robusta), but there is also another varietals such as Coffea Liberica which is grown in the Philippines, particularly in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite.

COFFEA ARABICA

COFFEA ROBUSTA
KOPI LUWAK
KAPE ALAMID
COFFEA LIBERICA

THE RISK

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Beside those benefits, coffee drinkers may also have risks such as:

· Cosmetic

Coffee causes staining of the teeth, just like tea.

· Cholesterol

Coffee brewed using a French press method contains oils (cafestol and kahweol) otherwise trapped by more commonly used paper filters. In two short-term studies, these oils are thought to have raised LDL cholesterol levels by 10 percent. The risk is not present in paper filtered coffee.

Coffee made by the Scandinavian method of boiling or by the cafetiere method may cause mild elevation of plasma cholesterol concentration in some people but instant and filter coffee have no such effects. Although coffee elevates plasma homocysteine levels this effect is not large enough to have a significant effect on the risk of heart disease.

· Blood Pressure

A recent study by Harvard Med that set out to prove that the caffeine in coffee would put people at risk for high blood pressure ended up rejecting the hypothesis. 155,000 nurses were followed for 12 years and the results showed that large amounts of coffee did not induce a "risky rise in blood pressure”. As a note, this study did not include men.

In some sensitive individuals, ingestion of coffee after a period of abstinence may cause a temporary rise in blood pressure but there is no persistent hypertensive effect in the long term.

· Effects on Pregnancy

A February 2003 Danish study of 18,478 women linked heavy coffee consumption during pregnancy to significantly increased risk of stillbirths (but no significantly increased risk of infant death in the first year). "The results seem to indicate a threshold effect around four to seven cups per day," the study reported. Those who drank eight or more cups a day (64 U.S. fl oz or 1.89 L) were at 220% increased risk compared with nondrinkers. This study has not yet been repeated, but has caused some doctors to caution against excessive coffee consumption during pregnancy.

Decaffeinated coffee is occasionally regarded as a potential health risk to pregnant women, due to the high incidence of chemical solvents used to extract the caffeine. These concerns have almost no basis, however, as the solvents in question evaporate at 80–90 °C, and coffee beans are decaffeinated before roasting, which occurs at approximately 200 °C. As such, these chemicals, namely trichloroethane and methylene chloride, are present in trace amounts at most, and neither pose a significant threat to unborn children.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency issued guidelines for caffeine intake during pregnancy with an upper limit of 300mg/day. This figure is in line with that stated in 1999 by the EU Scientific Committee on Food who said that 'While intakes up to 300mg/day appear to be safe, the question of possible effects on pregnancy and the offspring at regular intakes above 300mg/day remains open.

There’s no need to worry about stay consuming coffee, one thing you need to concern is the amount of your intakes very day.

THE HISTORY OF COFFEE

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The history of coffee has been recorded as far back as the tenth century. The coffee tree probably originated in the province of Kaffa, in the area known today as Ethiopia. There is no real evidence to show exactly when, or how, it was first discovered that a rich and stimulating brew could be made from the bean (or seed) within the fruit of the coffee bush, but it is thought that before coffee was ever appreciated as a beverage, native people may have chewed the ripe cherries and beans as food. There is evidence to suggest that coffee trees were cultivated in monastery gardens 1,000 years ago, and commercial cultivation followed, although the first reports of this, from the Yemen, were not recorded until the fifteenth century.

There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the drink itself. One account involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Shaikh ash-Shadhili. When traveling in Ethiopia, the legend goes, he observed goats of unusual vitality, and, upon trying the berries that the goats had been eating, experienced the same vitality. A similar myth attributes the discovery of coffee to an Ethiopian goatherder named Kaldi and the Legend of Dancing Goats.

One possible origin of both the beverage and the name is the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated (its name there is bunn or bunna). The earliest mention of coffee may be a reference to Bunchum in the works of the 10th century CE Persian physician Razi, but more definite information on the preparation of a beverage from the roasted coffee berries dates from several centuries later.

Coffee beans were first exported from Ethiopia to Yemen. Yemeni traders brought coffee back to their homeland and began to cultivate the bean. The first coffee house was Kiva Han, which opened in Istanbul in 1471.

Coffee was at first not well received. In 1511, it was forbidden for its stimulating effect by conservative, orthodox imams at a theological court in Mecca. However, the popularity of the drink led these bans to be overturned in 1524 by an order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I. In Cairo, Egypt, a similar ban was instituted in 1532, and the coffeehouses and warehouses containing coffee beans were sacked. Similarly, coffee was banned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church some time before the 17th century, along with smoking tobacco and chewing the mild stimulant khat, as it was seen as a Muslim and pagan practice.However, in the second half of the 19th century, Ethiopian attitudes softened towards coffee drinking, and its consumption spread rapidly between 1880 and 1886; according to Richard Pankhurst, "this was largely due to [Emperor] Menilek, who himself drank it, and to Abuna Matewos who did much to dispel the belief of the clergy that it was a Muslim drink.”

Trade in coffee, a much-prized commodity, was jealously guarded by the Arabs who would not allow foreigners to visit their coffee plantations, nor fertile coffee beans to be taken out of the country. However, seed-beans or plant cuttings were eventually taken out of Arabia and cultivated in the Dutch colonies in India and Java. The Dutch became the main suppliers of coffee to Europe, with Amsterdam its trading centre.

Venetian traders first brought coffee to Europe in 1615, and 30 years later a coffee house or 'café' was opened in Venice. The growth of popular coffee houses, which became favourite meeting places for both social and business purposes, spread from the mid-17th century to other European countries including Austria, France, Germany, Holland and England. Lloyd's of London, the largest insurance market in the world, began life as a coffee house in 1688. From Europe coffee was taken to Virginia, USA, and the last three hundred years have seen coffee make its way around the world, establishing itself in the economies and lifestyles of the main trading nations. (taken from CoSIC and Wikipedia web site)

THE BENEFITS

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ANTIOXIDANT

Coffee beans are one of the richest dietary sources of chlorogenic acid and for many consumers this will be their major dietary source. It has been reported that a 200 ml cup of Arabica coffee contains between 70 and 200 mg chlorogenic acid whereas a cup of Robusta coffee contains between 70 and 350 mg. It has been estimated that coffee drinkers might ingest as much as 1 g per day cinnamate esters (mostly chlorogenic acid) and 500 mg per day cinnamates (mostly caffeic acid). Coffee could supply as much as 70% of the total making it far and away the most important dietary source of this group of antioxidants. The roasting of coffee beans dramatically increases their total antioxidant activity. A roasting time of 10 minutes (medium-dark roast) was found to produce coffee with optimal oxygen scavenging and chain breaking activities in vitro.

ALLERTNESS

There are a large number of studies showing that caffeine increases alertness. Effects of caffeine on alertness are often more easy to demonstrate in subjects in a state of low alertness. Thus caffeine can counteract the effects on alertness of benzodiazepine administration, the early morning, night-time working, a cold or sleep loss.

ANTIDIABETIC

One study reported that coffee consumption improved glucose tolerance whereas two other studies reported that coffee consumption resulted in a deterioration in glucose tolerance. In addition, a single dose of 200 mg caffeine has been shown to impair glucose tolerance in 30 healthy subjects. The available results on effects of coffee or caffeine intake on glucose tolerance are also contradictory.

STIMULANT

Coffee contains caffeine, which acts as a stimulant. For this reason, it is often consumed in the morning and during working hours. Students preparing for examinations with late-night "cram sessions" frequently use coffee to keep themselves awake. Many office workers take a "coffee break" when their energy is diminished.

Recent research has uncovered additional stimulating effects of coffee which are not related to its caffeine content. Coffee contains an as yet unknown chemical agent which stimulates the production of cortisone and adrenaline, two stimulating hormones.

COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE

Many people drink coffee for its ability to increase short term recall and increase IQ. In tests of simple reaction time, choice reaction time, incidental verbal memory, and visuo spatial reasoning, participants who regularly drank coffee were found to perform better on all tests, with a positive relationship between test scores and the amount of coffee regularly drunk. Elderly participants were found to have the largest effect associated with regular coffee drinking. Another study found that women over the age of 80 performed significantly better on cognitive tests if they had regularly drunk coffee over their lifetimes

REDUCE ALZHEIMER’S DESEASE RISK

Several studies comparing moderate coffee drinkers (about 2 cups a day) with light coffee drinkers (less than one cup a day) found that those who drank more coffee were significantly less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease later in life.

REDUCE ASTHMA DESEASE RISK

A study of 72,284 Italians showed that there was an inverse association between intake of coffee and prevalence of asthma. Risk of asthma fell by 28% when three or more cups of coffee were drunk every day. The Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) studied 20,322 Americans and found that risk of current asthma fell significantly by 29% and risk of wheeze fell insignificantly by 13% when regular coffee drinkers were compared with non-coffee drinkers.

HEADACHE MEDICATION

Coffee contains caffeine, which increases the effectiveness of pain killers, especially migraine and headache medications. For this reason, many over-the-counter headache drugs include caffeine in their formula.

REDUCE GALLSTONE DESEASE RISK

Drinking caffeinated coffee has been correlated with a lower incidence of gallstones and gallbladder disease in both men and women in two studies performed by the Harvard School of Public Health. A lessened risk was not seen in those who drank decaffeinated coffee.

REDUCE PARKINSON’S DESEASE RISK

A large prospective study consisting of 29,335 Finnish subjects found a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease among habitual coffee drinkers. A further study consisting of 6710 men and women, also conducted in Finland, reported similar findings and concluded that 'The results support the hypothesis that coffee consumption reduces the risk of Parkinson's disease, but that the protective effect of coffee may vary by exposure to other factors'.

PROTECT AGAINST LIVER CIRRHOSIS

Two studies, each on the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program cohort in California, originally demonstrated that coffee drinking might protect against liver cirrhosis. In the first study, 59 cases of liver cirrhosis were diagnosed and it was shown that subjects who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had 80% less chance of developing liver cirrhosis than non-coffee drinkers. In the second study, it was reported that coffee drinkers had 23% less chance of dying from liver cirrhosis than non-coffee drinkers. A third cohort study of 51,306 Norwegian adults which diagnosed 53 case of liver cirrhosis showed inverse associations between total and alcoholic liver cirrhosis mortality and coffee consumption.

PREVENTION OF DENTAL CARIES

The tannins in coffee may reduce the cariogenic potential of foods. In vitro experiments have shown that these polyphenolic compounds may interfere with glucosyltransferase activity of mutans streptococci, which may reduce plaque formation. In rat experiments, tea polyphenols reduced caries.

Caffeine is not recognised as a drug of abuse and there is no evidence for caffeine dependence. Some particularly sensitive people may suffer mild symptoms of withdrawal after sudden abstention from coffee drinking. A 150 ml cup of instant coffee contains about 60mg caffeine and filter coffee contains about 85 mg. For those who like coffee but are sensitive to caffeine, the decaffeinated beverage contains only 3 mg per cup. ( taken from Wikipedia and CoSIC web site )

But, everything has positive and negative side and so has coffee. Beside its benefits, there are also risks. And that, will be discuss next.

COFFEE FACTS

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Coffee is enjoyed as a drink by millions of people world-wide and has been for at least a thousand years. Drinking coffee mostly being connected with bad habit, since coffee could make some people “addicted”. But as a coffee fan, I’d like to inform you some facts that coffee can perform benefits to our body related to health conditions.

Coffee contains caffeine, which is a mild stimulant, and in many people coffee drinking enhances alertness, concentration and mental and physical performance. Although it contains a wide variety of substances, it is generally accepted that caffeine is responsible for many of coffee’s physiological effects. Because caffeine influences the central nervous system in a number of ways and because a small number of people may be particularly sensitive to these effects, some people have attributed all sorts of health problems to coffee.