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An international espresso war. A $487 million investment in coffee plants. A free Italian scooter. There's a lot going on in the world of coffee news! Read all about it here:
An International Espresso War
An Italian master barista from illy ruffled the feathers of the American coffee community with a scathing critique of America's emerging third wave coffee / espresso scene on Salon.com. Some American baristas and coffee drinkers refuted his claims (pointing out, amongst other things, the master barista's low rank at the World Barista Championships and illy's custom of using no fewer than nine varieties of bean per blend), while others agreed with him, citing specific cafes and the American habit of adding milk, sugar and other ingredients to coffee to cover up otherwise the "undrinkable swill" we call espresso. Read more on the international espresso war.
Nestle Invests $487 Million to Increase Coffee Quality & Quantity
The world's largest coffee company (which you may know by the names Nescafé and Nespresso) is investing millions in replanting coffee in areas where plants are showing diminished returns. The investment has the potential to improve the lives of farmers (who are not locked into contracts by the replanting) and the profit margins of Nestle (which would soon face rapidly rising commodity coffee prices if not for the investment). Read more about Nestle's coffee replanting investment.
Starbucks Plans to Launch a Line of Single Origin Coffee
In a move echoing the overall trend of third-wave coffee (in which coffee shops like Intelligentsia and Stumptown focus on single-origin coffees roasted to match the flavors of the beans rather than to specific roast levels), Starbucks has decided to offer a line of single-origin coffees. Will Starbucks also lay off of its usual habit of over-roasting coffee when it comes to this line? We shall see... Read more on Starbucks' new line of single-origin coffees.
Peet's Coffee & Tea Introduces Alta de Dota Single Origin Special Roast
OK, so it's not an entire line... and it's only available for a limited time... from limited locations... but Alta de Dota Single Origin Special Roast does sound like a pretty tasty Costa Rican single origin coffee. Read more on Alta de Dota Single Origin Special Roast.
Win a Scooter From Forza Coffee
Talk about vroom, vroom! Forza Coffee is giving one lucky Washington state resident an Italian scooter. Enter by September 15th for a chance to win.
Former Bus Shelter to Open as Coffee Kiosk in Portland, Oregon
Cool, right? However, as a resident of Portland, Oregon, I really must say that this is par for the course as far as street food and coffee go here. (I don't mean to brag. It's just that Portland really does have a great street food scene and a great coffee scene!) Read more about Portland's new coffee kiosk.
Cold-Brewed Coffee Makes a Stir in Beantown
Cold-brewed coffee may not be new in cities like San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, but it is currently making a big splash in Boston. Read more on cold-brewed coffee in Boston.
Starbucks Announces New Flavored Instant Coffees
Starbucks will soon expand its VIA instant coffee line to include flavored instant coffees. The new VIA varieties will be available in Vanilla, Mocha, Caramel and Cinnamon Spice. I'll be reviewing them on About soon, but for now you can read the press release on flavored VIA varieties here.
Green Mountain Coffee is Fortune Magazine's Second-Fastest Growing Company
Green Mountain Coffee (whose K-cups I've reviewed here and here) was named the second-fastest growing company by Fortune Magazine. Read Fortune's list of fastest-growing companies.
Kuma Coffee Fosters Direct Trade With Transparency
Adding to the movement away from Fair Trade certification and toward transparent operations surrounding direct trade, Seattle's Kuma Coffee has issued a transparency statement about how much it paid (per pound) for each of the coffees it carries. Read more about Kuma Coffee and direct trade vs. Fair Trade coffee.
Kroger to Distribute Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea
Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea products will soon be offered at King Soopers and City Market supermarkets in Colorado. Read more about Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea's distribution deal.
Image (c) Lindsey Goodwin
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Coffee News originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 at 10:14:07.
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With all the recent news about bottled tea's lack of antioxidants, it might be tempting to throw in the towel on a nascent tea habit. However, there are lots of other easy and delicious ways you can enjoy teas besides low-antioxidant bottled teas, including drinking antioxidant-rich fresh-brewed tea and eating foods made with powdered tea (which is extra-high in antioxidants).
I find newer tea drinkers and sweet tea drinkers tend to love making and drinking tea smoothies, which can be prepared quickly and easily with powdered teas or brewed-and-frozen tea "ice" cubes. With that in mind, I created a new list of the top tea smoothie recipes on About.com. The list includes a range of fruit and tea flavor profiles, such as Elin Headrick's Fruity Green Tea Smoothie Recipe, a Tropical Date-Black Tea Smoothie and a Peach Rooibos Smoothie (pictured here).
Do you have a favorite tea smoothie recipe? Share it with other About.com readers in the comments below!
Photo (c) Lindsey Goodwin
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Top Tea Smoothie Recipes originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 12:03:50.
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Many bottled teas have been touted as healthy, convenient alternatives to fresh-brewed teas. However, it appears that quite a few bottled teas have very few antioxidants and may not be much better for you than sugar water. Here's some of the recent news coverage of the dearth of antioxidants in bottled teas:
Bottled Tea Lacking in Antioxidants originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 10:51:44.
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Lately, I've been on a granita kick.
In case you aren't familiar with granitas, they are icy foods that are usually (but not always) sweet. They use all kinds of ingredients for flavor and texture, including pureed fruit, fruit juice, coffee and milk / cream. In Italy (where granitas originated), coffee granitas are very popular as an afternoon snack or dessert during warm weather.
After playing around with a few coffee granita recipes, I got to thinking that if coffee granitas and fruity granitas are so delicious, and tea is also delicious with fruit, then it might also be delicious to combine tea with fruit and make it into a granita.
First, I tried making apple cider and black tea into an apple tea granita. Simple, tasty... so far, so good. Then, I tried pureeing strawberries and mixing them with white tea for a strawberry white tea granita (pictured above). The result was fresh and wonderfully summery. It was so summery, in fact, that it got me thinking about taking tea granitas in the opposite direction.
I decided to make a spicy, creamy granita, more akin to traditional coffee granitas than to the tea granitas I had made so far. In the interest og keeping it simple, I used some of Rishi's Masala Chai Tea Concentrate that I had left over from taste testing for the review. The result was this easy masala chai granita recipe, which I liked so much that I decided to make a chcolate chai coffee granita, too.
As you can probably tell by now, I had a lot of fun creating these recipes! You can check out the whole collection of coffee and tea granitas (including recipes from other guides on the site) in this list of top ten coffee and tea granitas. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Photo (c) Marko Goodwin
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Top Ten Coffee & Tea Granitas originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 16:03:50.
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Seattle's Best Coffee is offering a chance to become their ambassador and win a trip to Seattle for "the ultimate coffee immersion," including prizes, coffee news and more. For a chance to win, create a video about why coffee is the bright spot in your day, then submit it by September 3rd. The contest details are on the Seattle's Best Coffee Facebook page. Good luck!
Photo (c) Stumptown Coffee
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Win a Trip to the Nation's Coffee Capitol originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 15:00:07.
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Read more...Wondering what's new in the world of tea? Check out the latest in tea news, including two tea shop openings, some tea-friendly beverage trends and the Trump brand's apparent obsession with tea. My commentary, while not actually tea news, is at least moderately amusing... so read on!
Bird Pick Tea & Herb Opens in Santa Monica Place
Bird Pick Tea & Herb is a charming Los Angeles-area tea shop with beautiful displays of teas and herbs in large glass jars. (OK, so it's not exactly the best tea storage method, but it loos gorgeous!) They currently have locations in Pasadena and Culver City, and their third location will be one of the many high-end shops opening in Santa Monica Place on August 27th.
Bird Pick isn't the first company to seek out mall locations. Teavana is known for positioning themselves in shopping malls, and a number of other companies have sold tea out of mall kiosks and storefronts. Within the tea community, reactions to mall-based tea brands range from supportive ("It will encourage more people to drink tea") to appalled ("How dare they sell tea like it's a bedazzled t-shirt!").
In Pursuit of Tea Opens in New York City
As I've previously mentioned on the Coffee / Tea blog, In Pursuit of Tea opened a new pop-up shop in SoHo, New York City. Read more on the In Pursuit of Tea shop on About.com.
Energy Drink Sales Stall
Despite continued growth, energy drink sales are cooling. Some tea leaders have forecasted this trend for several years, citing the recession and an increased desire for comforting or calming beverages as drivers away from energy drinks and toward tea.
Beverage Trends Report Talks Tea
A recent beverage trend report found that 86 percent of consumers purchased a non-alcoholic drink outside the home within the last month. (Am I the only one instantly who did mental math on my average monthly non-alcoholic drink purchases?) They also noted that tea is growing in prevalence as an option on many restaurants' menus. Win! Now if only more restaurants knew how to brew tea...
JapanTown Festival Featured Tea
On August 22nd in New York City, the second annual JapanTown Healthy Food & Green Festival featured the healthy foods of Japan, including samples of ITO EN's Teas' Teas line of naturally flavored teas. ITO EN closed the doors of its flagship store in New York City on April 9, 2010, but it appears that the brand will continue to make a mark in New York tea culture.
Salada Tea Names Consumer Spokesperson
Salada Tea recently completed a nationwide search for a consumer spokesperson. They named San Diego-based clinical nutritionist Tara Coleman as the ambassador of their message to "Unbottle Your Tea" in favor of fresh-brewed tea. She will blog, tweet, attend health and environmentally focused events, participate in a variety of Salada promotions and be awarded $10,000 for her efforts. Sounds like a pretty sweet position! You can learn more about Tara and see her contest-winning video entry on Salada Tea's site.
The Trump Organization and Talbott Teas Partner to Introduce a Collection of Gourmet Tea
Trump and Talbott partnered to create Trump-branded teas, and then the tea Twittersphere revolted. (Seriously, though... Westchester: The Tea? That's up there with the SoHo cupcakes from German McDonalds.)
Meanwhile...
Snapple Expands Availability of The Celebrity Apprentice Tea
The headline pretty much explains it all, but in case you interested in learning more... It seems the Trump brand is all about tea these days!
Naturally Flavored Green Tea Catechins Available
There's a new way to have tea catechins and a flavorful drink without actually drinking tea. That's right, I'm talking about naturally flavored green tea extracts. My opinion? Either the "functional (franken)foods" trend is seriously ready to peak or a lot of people really, really want to get EGCG without actually drinking tea. I hope it's the former.
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Tea News: Store Openings, Beverage Trends & More originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 14:38:23.
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There's an iPhone app for practically everything these days, and coffee and tea are no exception. In fact, there were enough coffee apps and tea apps for me to create a coffee apps listing (which includes apps from Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts) and a tea apps listing (which includes apps from Adagio's TeaMap and In Pursuit of Tea).
Do you have a favorite iPhone coffee app or tea app? Share it with other About.com readers in the comments below!
Photo of Tea Timer iPhone App (c) Gormaya
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iPhone Coffee Apps & Tea Apps originally appeared on About.com Coffee / Tea on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 10:43:28.
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