Thanks to my sister, I got a link to no less than CNN – yes the news channel and website – to an article (5 Foods that should have a place in your diet) which naturally has a guest appearance by “Coffee”. Its a short and sweet article highlighting the fact that although your average cup of coffee contains 100s of different chemical stuff, the good stuff outweighs the bad (if any). OK ! I know that I am a bit bias, after all I do have a website called “from coffee with love” but I’m just trying to highlight the “love” in the bean. Back to the article – a lot of recent research from both UK and USA show that drinking small amounts of coffee during the day, increases alertness including those that need hand-to-eye coordination (engineers and dress makers take note). There’s more – another study done in the USA and across some other countries in the World showed that those drinking about 4 to 6 cups a day of coffee had a 28% lower risk of getting diabetes. Just a thought – I’ve noticed that over the past several months, making freshly ground espresso with my expensive coffee machine has lowered my appetite for sugar in coffee as I prefer to avoid any sugar to get the real intense taste from the coffee. Also, some coffees, especially those from Central America, tend to be sweetish if prepared properly and sugar just doesn’t help. Does this lower my risk of diabetes ? I don’t know, but ask your doctor. In any case, just thought that I’d share some info on the good stuff in coffee.
Oh ! Sidamo
Sidamo – Coffee from the southern region of Ethiopia, and according to some the very spot where coffee was discovered. Sidamo coffee beans look a bit unusual, with a whiteish line going through the middle of the bean even after being roasted. I got my latest bag of freshly roasted organic Sidamo coffee beans from my favourite coffee shop, Origin Coffee Roasting in Cape Town, almost 10,000 miles away, during my last trip down to South Africa.
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The way it was roasted and eventually prepared by me for my daily morning dose of Cappuccino reminded my lips and taste buds of caramel/chocolately overtones. That’s my impression and “true to the bone” (slang: for gut feel) feeling, however, I am aware that some experts and websites classify Sidamo as a coffee with a floral essence – who am I to argue ? However, lots of things come into play here just to make our lives more complicated – the type of milk, the water, the type of roast (Origin Coffee don’t dark roast their Sidamo beans until the oils begin to settle on the bean), plus when milk is frothed it becomes sweet and caramelly like. Enough ramblings and justification for my tongue. Anyway, it’s all over now as I just finished the 250g bag in under 2 weeks of course, but don’t know where and when I’ll get another lovely bag of organic Sidamo beans – Oh ! Sidamo, Oh ! Sidamo……… As you can guess, Sidamo comes highly recommended by moi. Look out for it in gourmet coffee shops. As with the majority of African Coffees (yes ! Ethiopia is in Africa for those who skipped geography lessons), which tend to be bold and “strong”, you will get a good taste using a French Press or Cafetiere. Enjoy !
Coming Soon – More on the Blog
Apologises to those who read this, but I’ve been a bit lazy of late – my last post was many weeks ago. Perhaps I can use the excuse of tons of work, but nowadays, everyone has lots of work. Anyway enough rambling. COMING SOON ! (i) a short piece on drinking coffee in Dubai (ii) Cape Town Coffee Scene, November 2007 and (iii) thoughts and tips.
From Coffee With Love 