Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee

Breaking: Coffee Saves Lives--Maybe!

A two decades long, 128,000 subject study completed by epidemiologists at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid--that's Autonomous University of Madrid for you non-español speakers--found that coffee imbibing on a regular basis did not increase the death rate in either men or women and may actually present a benefit in reducing the risk for heart disease in both sexes. Wahoo! Yes, we like.

The study was recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and the abstract shows that, after adjusting for age, smoking, and other cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer risk factors, the more frequently people drank coffee the less was their relative risk for "all-cause mortality"--and, no, I'm not sure if they counted getting hit by bus as a part of their definition of all-cause mortality, but, hey, all means all, right?

But wait just a bean grinding minute. Before you go out and start slammin' the java juice more than you already do, there have been plenty of contradictory studies in the past and the scientists of this study conclude, "The possibility of a modest benefit of coffee consumption on all-cause and CVD mortality needs to be further investigated." Translation: Just keep right on doing what you're doing 'cause we don’t know yet. And science marches on.

Link (via Boing Boing and NewScientist)

Let's Learn About Beer

I just finished listening to the second hour of Talk of the Nation: Science Friday on Wisconsin Public Radio, which was aired live from the Milwaukee Public Museum. The discussion was fascinating, largely because it was all about beer and beer and more beer.

The audio of the show will be available on the NPR site around 6PM ET/5PM CT, so be sure to check it out and learn yourself somethin'.

Link

Your Wine is in Tune with Your Music

A scientific study conducted by Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland has found that the type of music you listen to effects how you experience the taste of your favorite vino.

Well, who didn't know that, eh? I mean, when I pop open a bottle of Cab I know that Yo-Yo Ma's rendition of Suite No. 1 in G Major by J.S. Bach is going to make it taste much more rounded and full than if I put in, say, Soft Cell's 1981 single Tainted Love. But at least now we have scientific proof.

Look for iTunes to start recommending a wine to go with your latest download. And remember, kids, don't mix Gewürztraminer with Judas Priest--it'll drive you mad.

Link (via Boing Boing)

A Java Bean in the Sun

On Saturday, the Examiner reported on a Pueblo, Colorado coffee company that roasts its beans with solar power. Brothers David and Mike Hartkop moved their Solar Roast Coffee Company--a business with very humble kiosk beginnings--from Oregon to downtown Pueblo in December 2006 and installed the Helios 4 Solar Coffee Roaster atop a rural mesa five miles away.

It's a pretty great story of going green and winning over skeptical locals by creating healthy community relations.

Link (via Coffee Talk)

Another Machine Infiltrates Human Controlled Java Stronghold

Yet another robot is forcing its way into sacred coffee ground, with the full assistance and compliance of humans. Roasting Plant Coffee Company of New York introduced the Javabot in April of 2007--in Manhattan, no less, the Atlantic Gateway to this fair land--and has opened the door to complete automation, from roasting to brewing.

Operating within a small retail store, Javabot uses clear pneumatic tubes, a kitschy delivery system designed, no doubt, to distract from the true intelligence of the machine and lull consumers into total obedience. Members of the flesh-based race are needed only to feed the bot, take payment and hand over the finished drinks--ooh, where do I sign up?

The company’s founder, Mike Caswell, is--surprise!--a former engineer for Starbucks. Oh, what seeds of coffee horror have ye not sown, Goliath?

One must wonder exactly who is in control of this operation, the humans or the robots. This snapshot from their web site, for instance, clearly testifies that even their promotional material seems to be computer generated as it appears they've recruited HAL 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey" to serve their photography needs.

Link (via Slashdot)

Your Brain Needs Tea

A study conducted by the department of psychological medicine at the National University of Singapore found that drinking tea helps stave off dementia, memory loss and overall cognitive decline--all good things, no? (To that question you should respond yes, unless you’re really looking forward to functioning in a geriatric haze.)

Tea naturally contains catechins, which help protect brain cells from protein buildup--sort of like that waxy, dull coating on your Aunt June’s cheap wood dining set that you used to scrap off with your fingernail at Thanksgiving--and too much protein on your brain cells, along with brain-cell degeneration, leads to impaired cognitive abilities.

Of course, no one thing can keep you lucid, so go ahead and puzzle your puzzler with a crossword or plunge your noodle deep into The Buddha-Karita of Asvaghosha the next time you’re sipping your steeped leaf. Can’t hurt, right?

Link (via Coffee Talk)

Science Marches On--Straight into the Kitchen

Do you know the physics of that croissant you're chompin' on? Or the biochem of your morning cranberry scone? No? Well neither do I, but some very brainy individuals, along with a myriad of creative culinary folk, are tryin' their damnedest to change that through a little thing called molecular gastronomy.

No longer is science solely devoted to humdrum advancements in food preservation, a pursuit that's brought us such notable classics as salted pork, spam and ludifisk--whoa, doggies!--for the techs are now moving into a restaurant kitchen near you.

Seriously, though, this is a fascinating article y'all should read. I know I learned me something, so chances are good that you will, too.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Thank God this isn't Cleveland

Opening a mom-and-pop coffeehouse is a perilous business to begin with.  Now, the recession has officially begun.  Here's how one independent (OK, not quite a mom-and-pop) has weathered the storm so far.  Ironically, they're called Phoenix Coffee, but they're in Cleveland.  Maybe people in Cleveland like to imagine they're in Phoenix, if only for a little while.

Your Weak Human Senses Have Been Replaced

Those crazy sci-fi kids over at the io9 blog have uncovered a future of pure, unadulterated horror: a world where humans will bow down to the coffee profiling dictates of the machine known simply as the Electronic Taster.

Indeed, friends, this is the end of coffee enjoyment as we know it--an end that could only have been designed by those nutty engineers at Nestle, who, mad with power, continue on in their quest to conquer the world through taste bud desensitization. Run for your lives!

Link

Black Tea: An Alternative to Coffee with Intriguing Benefits

A snappy little article by Marissa Mancini of the The Recorder, a student-produced publication of Central Connecticut State University, makes the case for black tea as a positive alternative to coffee. Not that any of us Javaheads would willingly give up our coffee fix, but there are times when we all feel like changing things up, aren't there? Absotootly.

According to the article--which, by the way, is pretty well researched for such a short piece--black tea has the caffeine you crave with the added benefit of being an effective de-stresser with high levels of antioxidants. Good stuff, eh?

Read the article here. (via Coffee Talk)

Seriously, it's a very tiny thing--you'll be done reading it before your water even has a chance to boil.