A long coffee break

I've been taking a long coffee break. Continuation of Seriously Buzzed is pending, as the fall semester is over and other duties call. If you have coffee news or experiences you'd like to add, please contact me about becoming a contributor. Thanks for your patience!

Used coffee grounds help the environment

Today is Earth Day. Celebrated since 1970, Earth Day was created to encourage environmental awareness and create new goals to protect our planet.

If you haven't all ready seen the comic strips in your newspaper or online today, take a look. Comic strip cartoonists are in on the effort, publishing a comic in celebration of Earth Day.

They are many ways to take part in Earth Day efforts, today and every day. One way is to reuse your old coffee grounds.

What's so good about spent coffee grounds? They are especially good as a "green" material for composting. When composted with other "green" and "brown" materials, spent coffee grounds help keep organic waste out of landfills and act as a great natural fertilizer. They provide a good source of nitrogen, magnesium, zinc and amino acids. They attract more earthworms to loosen and balance the pH of soil and help retain water. According to testimonials, adding used coffee grounds to compost makes it rich with nutrients, producing lush and healthy plants.

There are many other uses for spent coffee grounds, including a bunch of fun uses from hair and skin care to clothing dye.

If you brew yours at home or the office, don't throw away those used coffee grounds! If you get your daily fix from a Starbucks or a local coffee shop, ask them for some old coffee grounds. Not all shops offer used grounds to their customers, but Starbucks' "Grounds for Your Garden," an initiative to reuse coffee grounds, offers free bags of the stuff to customers for composting.

So make your own fertilizer from spent coffee grounds, instead of using a product like Miracle Gro, a chemical fertilizer that harms soil. Be sure to add some lime to lower the coffee grounds' acidity level. If you'd rather buy some than make your own, Grow Joe is a natural fertilizer made with used coffee grounds.

Dunkin' Donuts offers Tax Day treat

You may have rushed to get your taxes filed and to the post office today. Now begins the 6- to 8-week wait to get your refund.

Dunkin' Donuts, however, wants to give us a little gratification right now.

Dunkin' Donuts are offering a free doughnut with the purchase of any size Dunkin' Donuts hot coffee at participating locations across the nation. Whether you filed taxes or not, the offer only stands today - April 15, Tax Day.

Dunkin' Donuts serves almost 1 billion cups of coffee every year. That's almost 2.7 million cups a day!

Starbucks lets customers pour their own coffee

The Clover single-cup coffee
brewer uses a vacuum-press
filter process to produce
results in 40 seconds.

In one of many efforts Starbucks is testing to create a better customer experience, Starbucks is letting customers pour their own drip coffee in some stores. Customers pay before or after serving themselves from the brewer placed near the condiment station. This decision was made in part to curb the decline in sales.

I have mixed feelings about this effort. On one hand, I'd be a content barista to have less questions to ask each time a customer orders coffee. Questions like "Would you like mild, bold, flavored or decaf roast?" and "Would you like room for milk or cream?" would be omitted if customers could just serve themselves. No more handing customers their coffee only to be asked to fill it up a little more or pour out some.

On the other hand, it would be a hassle to keep refilling and changing out the brewer(s) with ground beans when located on the opposite side of the store. And self-serve stations tend to get messy with spills no matter how often they are wiped down.

As a customer, I'd be happy to fill my cup with just the right amount of coffee to go with cream. While no one likes waiting in line, how about possibly waiting in 2 lines? Provided you get your cup 'o' joe at the busiest business hours, you would have to wait in one line to pay for coffee. OK. Then, you would have to wait in another line to pour your own cup, and from a coffee pot everyone has put their hands on (shutters at the thought).

Unless Starbucks are using what Cinda Chavich calls the "$11,000 hot java love machine": the Clover, a commercial-grade, single-cup coffee brewer. Starbucks tested the machine out for the first time in February, selling a fresh-pressed, 12-oz. coffee for $2.50. For my own personalized cup of coffee at the press of a button, it would be worth the wait and expense.

Coffee may lower risk of Alzheimer's

That's right: Just one daily cup of coffee may cut the risk of Alzheimer's disease, the most common kind of dementia, new research suggests.

Caffeine blocks the bad effects of high cholesterol found linked to dementia.

The University of North Dakota scientists' published report in the Journal of Neuroinflammation is based on research conducted on rabbits fed a high cholesterol food diet.

The rabbits given caffeine had a better blood brain barrier than those that did not ingest caffeine. This study confirms earlier research that caffeine intake protects against memory loss from aging and Alzheimer's disease.

And this is just one more good reason to love drinking coffee.

Wal-Mart to make coffee line

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, will start selling six different coffees under the Sam's Choice brand in the US in April.

Wal-Mart will offer its customers the coffee experience in a 10- to 12-oz. bag for $5.88. By comparison, Starbucks 12-oz. bags of coffee costs between $7-$10 and Folgers Gourmet Selections 11-oz. bags of coffee cost between $8-$10.

The Sam's Choice brand of coffees will include an organic decaf coffee, fair trade certified and Rainforest Alliance certified coffees. Wal-Mart realizes that consumers are growing more and more environmentally and socially-conscious these days, so offering these coffees helps the consumers give back by purchasing sustainable products.

Touch sensitivity may affect taste

If given the choice between sipping your coffee out of a ceramic mug or a paper/plastic cup, then which would you choose?

If you chose the paper/plastic cup for any other reason than portability and fitting in your car's cup holder, then please enlighten me.

If you chose a ceramic mug, then it's likely you prefer to have a hold on something heavy and sturdy, right?

There may another reason to choose a thick-walled cup over a thin one, marketing professors Aradhna Krishna and Maureen Morrin have found: taste.

In a study to be published in April's issue of Journal of Consumer Research, 1,000 college students were blind-folded and given water to drink from sturdy and flimsy cups. Many of them gave harsher evaluations of the taste of the water from flimsy cups. These harsh evaluators were students with a low sensitivity to touch. Students who a high sensitivity to touch weren't as likely to have taste be influenced by the kind of cup they sipped out of.

People with a high sensitivity to touch tend to be better evaluators of noting when touch is important or not, like when you're sipping coffee. Touch-sensitive people are those of us who get so much satisfaction out of feeling silk, leather or similarly textured items, can't stand itchy wool sweaters and cut out labels/tags from clothing.

Schultz's six steps toward Starbucks' success

Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz spoke to shareholders at the annual meeting in Seattle yesterday (shortly after my last blog post) and came up with six resolutions to fix Starbucks' image:

1. The Masterna. A newer, smaller model espresso machine than the one currently in use, the Verisimo, which is too tall to allow customers to interact with the barista and watch their drink being made, breaking the intimate experience.


2. Freshly-ground beans, freshly brewed coffee. Beans will be ground fresh in-stores, something Starbucks has not done in at least a decade. Coffee will be brewed in smaller batches to ensure truly fresh coffee.
   
3. mystarbucksidea.com. A social-networking site where consumers can submit ideas, comment and vote on others' ideas, and watch ideas get put into action.
   
   No, consumers won't reap rewards for adopted, profit-earning ideas.


4. The Starbucks Rewards Program. That's right, a customer loyalty card. Finally, Starbucks will offer freebies starting next month for card holders who buy specialty coffee drinks, including free refills on brewed coffee.
   
   Well, free for the initial period, anyway.


5. French-press-ness. Coffee - one cup at a time; now that's premium service! Starbucks will put their newly-acquired French-press machines in select locations over the course of the year.


6. Getting greener. Starbucks is offering to further aid Conservation International, a non-profit organization concerned with responsible land use. That's as much as Schultz will say about this goal for now.

What advice would you offer to Starbucks to improve their products and service? Tell them. Create an account at mystarbucksidea.com and submit your suggestions for improvement. I'd be interested to see what other ideas you coffee connoisseurs come up with.

Starbucks to make more changes

Let's face it: coffee drinkers and investors are getting tired of Starbucks. CEO Howard Schultz is determined, though, to keep Starbucks fresh by giving the company a face lift. Schultz will announce more changes for Starbucks' stores to carry out at the company annual meeting Wednesday.

One of the all-ready decided changes is getting rid of the breakfast sandwiches. The heated sandwiches hide the coffee aroma.

Another change is how to make the coffee. Stores will grind beans on site and brew coffee in smaller batches. To save time and money, Starbucks pre-grinds and packages coffee, a compromise in quality they have reconsidered. So you'll have to wait even longer for a cup of coffee. Great...

If Starbucks sales haven't been bad enough, McDonald's coffee beat them in a Consumer Report's taste test. Ouch.

Consumer experts suggest helpful changes for Starbucks, like creating a customer loyalty program and opening fewer locations, but Schultz is reluctant to adopt every change suggested.

Rwandan coffee industry media briefing

How has Rwandan coffee become so high-quality? What are the specific benefits of Rwandan coffee for farmers and their families? What value does Rwandan coffee hold to US coffee importers? What does the future hold for the Rwandan coffee industry?

A panel of coffee experts will discuss these questions and the economic and social benefits of the Rwandan specialty coffee industry at a media briefing on Monday, Mar. 24 at 10 a.m. Hosted by The National Press Club, Rwandan coffee from Counter Culture Coffee will be served.

One panelist will be the commercial attache from the Embassy of Rwanda, The Honorable Kaliza Karuretwa. Karuretwa's expertise on the Rwandan coffee industry has been crucial in the development of the Rwandan Path to Peace project. She is also a powerful agent for the Rwandan women.

A second panelist will be Director of Coffee and Co-Owner of Counter Culture Coffee, Peter Guiliano. He is a world-renowned expert on coffee history, quality and trade. Guiliano has played a leading role in bringing Rwandan coffee to US markets.

A third panelist will be Karol Boudreaux, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and head of the Enterprise Africa! project. He has recently produced a report entitled "State Power, Entrepreneurship, and Coffee: The Rwandan Experience."

7-Eleven introduces the Slurpuccino

Coffee is a favorite drink to many Americans. 7-Eleven's Slurpee® is one of America's top-selling drinks as well, delivered in many satisfying flavors, both carbonated and uncarbonated. 7-Eleven, Inc. put the two together and recently introduced the Slurpuccino, a coffee-flavored Slurpee.

The Slurpuccino is not milk-based, but is caffeinated, fat-free and 61 calories of delicious per 8-ounce serving. Most frozen cappuccinos on the market do not have as few calories as this. Prices are like any other Slurpee drink, which range from 99 cents for a 12-ounce to $1.69 for a 40-ounce drink. Category manager for Slurpee and Big Gulp® fountain drinks Jay Wilkins said the Slurpuccino focuses on the coffee-driven trend, both in younger and older adults. The coffee- and caramel-flavored frozen drink target audience is young adults, male and female, ages 18-34. A hazelnut-cappuccino flavor of the new drink is expected to be offered this fall.

Americans' coffee drinking trends in 2008

Daily gourmet coffee drinkers
make up 17 percent of the US
adult population.

According to the 2008 National Coffee Drinking Trends market research study, Americans are drinking less coffee this year. Overall daily coffee consumption of adults eases from 57 percent of adults last year to 55 percent.

But more Americans are drinking gourmet coffee than ever before - 17 percent of adults drink espresso-based beverages, like lattes and mochas, daily. Last year, it was 14 percent.

Conducted by The National Coffee Association of USA, an Internet and telephone poll collected responses of over 6,000 American adults in January and February 2008 to compile the NCDT survey.

Preliminary data was released at the NCA's annual convention in Florida on Saturday. Here is a table created by yours truly of the preliminary data given:

Americans' Daily Coffee Consumption by Age Group, 2006-2008

	% Daily Coffee Consumption
Age Group	2006	2007	2008
18-24	31%	37%	26%
25-39	47%	44%	47%
40-59		61%
60+		74%	71%

The full data report will be published in May.

Caribou Coffee review

Caribou Coffee is the second largest company owned specialty coffeehouse business in the U.S., with nearly 500 locations in 18 states. Several people have told me they are crazy about Caribou Coffee. I had never experienced Caribou Coffee until Tuesday.

Driving home from an unfamiliar around 7 p.m. with Google Maps directions in hand, I missed a turn. Straight ahead was a shopping center with a Caribou Coffee shop on the corner. All of a sudden, I did not want to make a u-turn. I hadn't had coffee in nearly two weeks (doctor's orders). I'd heard nothing but praise. I decided to make an unscheduled stop.

Caribou Coffee has a warm, inviting atmosphere. It reminds me of a ski lodge or log cabin with wooden furniture and accents with a Panera Bread feel to it.

Service was friendly but slow. I ordered a small Northern Lite vanilla latte, made with two shots of espresso, steamed skim milk and sugar-free vanilla syrup. It took four minutes to make my drink. Four minutes is a long time, considering two baristas were working and there were no other customers.

My first sip was a mouthful of milk foam and bitter espresso, thanks to not stirring it. I walked over to the stir stick and sugar packet station, removed the lid, stirred it and took another sip. Much better.

Caribou Coffee drinks are more potent than Starbucks'. Caribou's size small (12 ounces) boasts two one-and-a-half ounce espresso shots with 180 milligrams of caffeine. Starbucks' size tall (12 ounces) is made with one espresso shot with 75 milligrams of caffeine.

Made with more than twice as much espresso as a Starbucks drink, you'd count on your Caribou Coffee drink to taste really strong; however, it doesn't. The espresso has a smooth flavor. It is neither over-roasted nor bitter, common complaints about Starbucks' coffee. The espresso is not overpowering, so it blends well with other ingredients.

The Northern Lite vanilla latte needs a little something extra (maybe the sugar-free syrup isn't sweet enough for me), but for 80 calories, I can't complain.

If you appreciate well-calibrated espresso with a smooth flavor profile that's deliciously subtle, then Caribou Coffee is worth a taste.

Olsen twins writing coffee-table book

The Olsen twins at The Chanel Fashion show
at La Grand Palais in Paris yesterday.

The 21-year old twin actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are adding another line to their extensive repertoire: authors.

The ladies are writing a coffee-table book about fashion titled "Influence," due to be published in Fall 2008 by Penguin Young Readers Group, Razorbill. "Influence" will include exclusive photos of the fashionistas by esteemed photographer Rankin, interviews and more from their personal collection.

"Influence" will feature shoe extraordinaire Christian Louboutin, actress Lauren Hutton, magazine journalist Bob Colacello and more of "the most interesting, challenging, creative people we know," Ashley Olsen said, sharing what influences and inspires Mary-Kate and her to pursue their fashion passion.

There's no doubt these two are an inspiration themselves. On Forbes "Top 20 Richest Women in Entertainment" in 2007, the multi-million dollar retail group owners are the youngest. The Olsen twins started Dualstar Entertainment Group in 1993 at age six!

Mary-Kate Olsen with
two Starbucks Venti lattes.

How could this dynamic duo be so wildly successful, accomplishing so much by 21 years old? Besides ambition, talent and hard work, the girls have been coffee drinkers since ten years old. Both sisters are true "Starbucks junkies."

The twins love coffee so much, their only request at a photo shoot besides food was being near a Starbucks to satisfy their Venti latte cravings. Who knows where they might be today without java to keep them going? (I'm just kidding; however, it's possible coffee had a lot to do with it!)

More recently, Gawker and E! Online teased celebrities, including the Olsen twins, ability to handle Starbucks' three-hour closing to retrain employees last Tuesday. The Starbucks cup, after all, is Mary-Kate Olsen's "most identifiable accessory," consuming two to four coffee drinks a day. Her espresso machine is her most-prized possession, she told W Magazine in their January 2006 issue.

Currently, Ashley Olsen is working on promoting her luxury line The Row for the fall season while Mary-Kate Olsen continues her acting career.

Inanimate Objects

In my quest for devout coffee consciousness, I have found a number of great comic strips, including Inanimate Objects. Made by Todd Zapoli from INeedCoffee.com, the two main characters are coffee mugs.

New machine to replace human taste testers?

The Nestlé Research Center in Switzerland has created a machine that serves as a "taste tester," measuring the aromatic qualities of espresso and coffee. It analyzes and assesses chemical information of the espresso into qualities like acidity and woody-ness (see image). The researchers have conducted several studies on replacing human sensory profiling and believe they have finally done it.

I don't know how I feel about this machine. I think assessing coffee quality is a matter of personal preference. I realize I am bias, but I don't think machines should replace every human experience.

What do you think?

Does coffee cause anxiety? Not for everyone...

I've read conflicting opinions on whether coffee causes anxiety. Nevertheless, from personal and professional experience, I have decided on an opinion shared by others:

If you're a highly anxious, high-strung person, having a stressful day in hopes that coffee will make you feel better or not used to the amount of coffee you plan on drinking, then DON'T DRINK COFFEE.

Some say coffee causes you to become anxious, so avoid it all together. I believed this growing up, because I remember one time my mom was given regular coffee - she strictly stuck to decaf - and her heart raced so fast I thought she might have a panic attack. It is only partly true; avoid coffee all together if you fall under the aforementioned individuals. My mom and I are both naturally anxious people, so it makes some sense why she reacted the way she did to regular coffee.

During her college years and for the past few years, however, my mom is much more relaxed and calm, thoroughly capable of enjoying a Tall (16 oz. or "Grande," according to Starbucks) Americano made with regular espresso and Monin sugar-free almond syrup without any adverse effects. She now gets the positive effects from caffeine that most Americans receive daily: higher attentiveness, heightened mood and more.

My advice to reap the benefits from coffee consumption is to learn your limit. My daily limit is no more than 1-12 oz. brewed coffee or specialty espresso drink. Any more than that and I feel jittery and sick to my stomach.

Oh Coffee, How I Love Thee

Your alluring aroma and smooth profile entice me. I savor your warmth. You are an earthy and peppery-spiced Columbian Supremo, a sweet and tangy Costa Rican, a dark and full-bodied French Roast and so much more. Your different flavor combinations always keep me guessing. You arouse me on many mornings and beckon me to take you - cream, sugar and every last drop of you.

Coffee, I realize that everyone loves you - more than half of Americans - but today, nobody appreciates you like I do. Today, every couple is so caught up in their passion for one another that they may take you for granted; but not me. I dedicate my love to you today, Coffee.

I will take my heart back tomorrow, though. I'm sorry, but I have to put it back where it belongs - on my sleeve.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sweet 'N' Low not so sweet and low?

According to Purdue University researchers, the calorie-free sweetener saccharin -- found in the pink packets you put in your coffee like Sweet 'N' Low rather than sugar -- may make it harder to lose weight.

In their lab study, some rats were fed with saccharin-sweetened yogurt and others with natural sugar-sweetened yogurt. The ones who had saccharin consumed more calories later, causing weight and body fat gain.

The researchers think the results would be the same for aspartame sweeteners, like Equal.

The food industry is not happy about this study, pointing to other reasons for obesity in America.

I'll be interested to see the results of the same study done on humans. Until then, I'll stick to using Splenda in my coffee.

Coffee causes dehydration, right? No, actually...

One 12 oz. bold coffee, two Dasani water bottles, three hours and two bathroom visits later, my mouth is dry.

But it's a myth: coffee doesn't cause dehydration.

I always heard coffee made you thirsty, but it's not true.

Caffeine acts like a mild diuretic - in other words, it causes you to pee more frequently - but no more than water does. You might lose a little more fluid than usual at one time during the day, but it evens out by the end of the day.

So moderate coffee consumption - 3-4 cups daily - does not have an effect on hydration. In fact, it actually counts toward our daily fluid intake.

Cool.

Hot Chocolate Heaven

Last night, my friend and I stepped outside after having just seen Persepolis and it felt like 30 degrees! Brrrrrr!

Parked on the other side of the shopping center lot, both of us tried not chattering our teeth when we talked on our way to the car. Having shivered like crazy in the car ride before the heat kicked on, I noticed it was 10:45 p.m. - 15 minutes before Saxbys closed.

I said we're going and five minutes later, we're there. Time wasn't so much the issue as was the urgency to feel warm again. Because I work there, the two guys closing were cool with us staying longer while they did their closing duties.

Ah, there's something so serene about the coffee shop environment that you can't find elsewhere. I felt warm and comfortable instantly when I entered the shop, before I had something hot to drink.

We found comfort on the large leather couches in the back corner, talking over Saxbys delicious hot chocolate made with Monin dark chocolate and white chocolate gourmet sauces (which I think are the best syrups for specialty coffee drinks).

Mmmm, it's good to be me.

Me, my blog and my purpose

Welcome to Seriously Buzzed!

My name is Jana. I'm a college undergraduate in my senior year and pursuing a bachelors degree in communication with a journalism concentration. I'm taking an online journalism course this semester. In this class, we are required to create a blog.

Me? A blogger? It's odd I had never considered it before, because I love to share what's on my mind...cool.

Hmm, what could I blog about? What am I passionate about? I love to talk about everything from relationship advice and baking to computers and technology, but I'm not a bookworm, sports fan, TV junkie, or fashionista - but I am a barista.

My miniature poodle, Bailey, likes coffee too.

I have proudly produced and served specialty coffee and espresso drinks since May 2005. I work at Coffease, a locally-owned specialty coffee drive-through business, and Saxbys Coffee. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I know a lot about coffee.

Seriously Buzzed is a blog about coffee - from the American cultural obsession to making specialty coffee and everything in between. I'll cover coffee facts, coffee shops, origins, health risks and benefits, misconceptions and more.

I want to extend a special thank you to Grace Kendall. She came up with the name "Seriously Buzzed" as soon as I mentioned I would create a coffee blog.