Coffee Pop » General

Winter warmer

Administrator — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:03:07 +0000

Hot drinks are a lifesaver at this time of year. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, unless you are stuck in the snow in a broken-down car, but I could not imagine leaving the house on a cold winter’s morning without at least one piping hot cup of tea nestled in my tummy! I always make sure I treat myself to a few hot chocolates once the nights start drawing in too; made with milk, heated on the stove, of course, not sachets and hot water…

The best hot chocolates always come from coffee shops and cafés, where whipped cream and marshmallows come as standard. I usually do not have much time to pop out from the office to get one made, but over Christmas and New Year there is so little going on in the office that no-one even notices that my usual coffee break takes a little longer than usual. In fact, there are so few calls to be made and reports to be filed that last year my boss did not even mind that I spent most of Christmas Eve searching online for a plasterer Surrey who was willing to start work on January 2nd.

Aside from the yumminess of hot chocolate, there are lots of speciality teas and coffees available at this time of year. My local tea shop sells a great variety of “Christmas” teas, all flavoured with cinnamon and spices which give you a lovely cosy feeling as you drink. To be honest, tea and coffee aren’t the first drinks that spring to mind when it comes to Christmas Day – I’m usually more interested in the wine and amaretto that’s available on the 25th – but if you’re not a great drinker, then a spicy festive tea could be the way to go.

Similar Posts:
Vegetarian Food Studio: Cardiff : Although you can always…
Visit The Country More : The country gets a bad rap. Many…
Cheap Meal Solution : Making dinner every night is a formidable…
Ideas For You : When your used laptop finally gives up and…

Project Based Learning: Brewing Coffee Around the World

Administrator — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:33:04 +0000

Hot drinks are an important part of every culture. If you travel to Morocco, you will drink mint tea. In Turkey, you will be served small sweet and very dark cups of coffee. In India, chai rules. The rituals for preparing and presenting coffee are different across the world. In Britain, coffee rituals far too often centre around a jar, a spoon, and an electric kettle. I moved to the UK because of the plethora of great english teacher jobs in secondary schools, but I missed the diversity of coffee rituals that I was used to as an international traveller. My solution : introduce a coffee brewing module for my classes.

Begin the project by watching the video above or one that is similar. It shows the traditional method of brewing coffee in Sumatra. From this video, you can have students do writing exercises: creating a script in English for what they think the people in the video are saying or a script for a voice over explaining what is going on. These are two very different educational objectives, so you can determine what fits in best with your own students.

The above video is an instructional video on how to brew a traditional Vietnamese coffee. It is another great point of departure for a learning project. Students can write and produce similar instructional videos. They can research and reproduce a traditional Vietnamese cafe, or a play that takes place in a cafe in Vietnam. If your school is adaptable, you can create cross curricular projects with science, history, and geography. The possibilities are limitless. Sumatra and Vietnam are good examples, because the brewing methods are so distinct and different from those used in Europe and the United States, but Turkish, Greek, and Middle Eastern coffee brewing is also interesting and offers another range of educational opportunities.

Similar Posts:
Unique Food – Atlanta Filipino Restaurant : One of the nice…
Visit The Country More : The country gets a bad rap. Many…
Cheap Meal Solution : Making dinner every night is a formidable…
Ideas For You : When your used laptop finally gives up and…

Travel Planning

Administrator — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:03:04 +0000

Plan a coffee holiday. Plan 6 coffee holidays. The coffee growing regions of the world are both diverse and exotic, and if you are a lover of coffee, there is nothing better than organizing a one to two week exploration of a region. The brilliance of the idea is that by choosing coffee as the focus of your holiday, you will naturally be able to integrate relaxation, education and adventure.

When I say plan six, my suggestion is that you get a hold of the best hr software you can find and use it to keep track of all of the details of your trip. To plan a coffee adventure, you will need to do research into local growers, local customs for brewing and drinking coffee, as well as the other necessities that go with every trip like eating and sleeping. Keeping track of the information with software will set the ground work for helping others take similar holidays. This is vitally important. The best coffees around the world are grown in bio diverse plantations in the shade. These shade grown varieties and their accompanying wild life habitat is under threat from new varieties of coffee plants that don’t need the shade.

By planning and disseminating the concept of coffee holidays, you can help small growers earn a more sustainable income. By tracking your journey with software, you can spread information about cost, contacts and accommodation. Sumatra is a great place to start. The region not only produces some of the world’s best coffees, it also has a culture of small producers and faces ecological challenges. While Sumatra Gayo, Mandheling and Lintong, are prized arabica varieties, there is a serious problem with the deforestation of tropical rain forests to produce low grade robusta coffee. Conscious coffee drinkers visiting the region is one solution to the issue of sustainability.

Alertness, awakeness and energy

Administrator — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:33:04 +0000

What’s the best way to lead an active life, in terms of what you put into your body? There are more schools of thought in this discussion than I could list here in a month of Sundays, but I think there are a couple of excellent front runners. One of them of course, and I think it is my favourite, is to drink a sensible amount of really good coffee. Most people who lead an on-the-go lifestyle need a bit of a caffeine fix during the day, and the benefits of drinking caffeine are well known: it is a mild stimulant, meaning that drinking a normal amount – say 2 or 3 cups a day – will be likely to increase your intellectual concentration and focus on a task. It can’t make you more intelligent, but it can help you do whatever it is that you do best! A recent survey came up with the figure that over 80% of the world’s population are regular caffeine drinkers. Although I can’t say how reliable this figure is – or indeed how on earth they calculated it! – it doesn’t strike me as a surprising one. And so many people can’t be wrong, can they?

A second option to drinking the great drink of coffee is one aimed at those with a more physically active lifestyle: drinking protein shakes. These are energy drinks which are high in protein (did you guess??) which are designed to replenish the nutrients lost by active people during physical recreation.

Of course we haven’t even started on health foods like goji berries and wild seeds, but two main contenders for keeping up your energy levels in the 21st century are drinking coffee, and drinking protein shakes.

Similar Posts:
Unique Food – Atlanta Filipino Restaurant : One of the nice…
Thinking Of London? You Should Read This : Oh, it’s a…
Film Four at Summerset House : After six years i have finally…
London At Christmas : In my opinion London is at it’s…

Coffee Parties

Administrator — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:03:14 +0000

Irish coffee. That is about all I have to say. Irish coffee has solved my social problems and reintroduced a love of fun into my life. It is a difficult time and I work too hard, and working too hard makes you tired. When you are tired, you no longer want to go out to bars and clubs add the cost of a baby sitter for a night out and your social life becomes limited. The hot thing right now with my circle of friends is to have dinner parties and sleep overs.

It is all very simple, kids like to enjoy the company of other kids, adults like to enjoy the company of adults, and nobody likes to have to drive drunk. Where Irish coffee comes in is the need for a drink that is strong, sweet and gives you a bit of a caffeine kick. I personally like to use the espresso machine with a nice dark and oily Italian bean, but you can just as easily go for a French press with a dark Sumatran bean. The rule of thumb is that the coffee should be strongly flavoured. For six ounces of coffee you need a teaspoon of sugar and an ounce and a half of whiskey (more or less!) then top off with cream of some sort either heavy or whipped.

I recently hosted one of these get togethers and decided to go for a Mexican theme. We had tacos, burritos, and nachos for dinner along with some ice cold Mexican beer with lime wedges. The piece de resistance, however, was my brilliant version of after dinner boozy coffee.I used fireball cinnamon whiskey , two shots of good Italian espresso, sweetened it with piloncillo which is an unrefined sugar that comes in little cones. It has a brilliant distinct flavour that make these drinks unforgettable. I topped the drinks with home made whipped cream. It is important to use a lot of the cream as the espresso is quite strong and you need it to lighten it up. It is a sweet rich drink that goes down a bit too easily, you can a kick from the sugar and the caffeine and you are fuelled for a night of lively conversation, dancing, and general merriment, without loosing your head. Just on the responsible note, you should have a designated driver, even if you aren’t driving, to make sure that everybody stays safe and happy well after the midnight feast.

Choosing the Right Blend

Administrator — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:33:05 +0000

A major supermarket just opened down the road from where I live. The local residents have mixed reviews. It is apparently the largest supermarket in Europe. It has been seriously disappointing. Instead of a huge range of interesting products, there are two aisles of crisps. The one good thing, though is the choice of coffee. They carry a blend called ’Good African’. Good African is smart, because they roast and package the beans in Africa and keep the added value at the site of production. The problem with a lot of fair trade products is that the farmer may be getting the premium price for the bean, but the real money comes from the packaged and finished product. This profit goes to the multi national corporation that is really just benefiting from the feel good marketing feature of a fair trade product.I know I can be a sucker fro marketing, but I love opening the lovely green and black package, pouring it into my French press, pouring in boiling water from a stove top kettle, and tipping the delicious brew into my favourite mug. I am trying to apply these principles to all of my purchases. Recently, I was trying to find a red diesel supplier. I was committed to finding one that was not a huge multi national corporation.I was delighted to find a smaller, local supplier that employed people from my community. It is an important lesson to learn; wherever you shop you can still make good choices.

Where Does Coffee Come From?

Administrator — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:26:29 +0000

Millions of people drink coffee every day. No matter what you do for a living, you are likely to start your day with a cup of fresh coffee, even truck drivers in Inverness drink some coffee while waiting for the Red Diesel Inverness to be fueled into their trucks. But do you know how and where did coffee originate?

There are several legends about how coffee originated in the Middle Eastern countries. One of the many legends says that some monks saw that their sheep ate coffee cherries and became very lively. So they began to do the same to keep themselves up through their all night prayer. Coffee first was consumed in the 6th century but became used as a beverage in the year 1300 CE.

It was soon realized that when coffee beans were roasted their flavor came out, so people began crushing the roasted beans, putting them in boiled water and drinking them with the grounds. Spices were mostly added to the coffee then in Egypt around early 1600’s sugar was added to reduce the bitterness. Later in the 17th century milk was used to bring more taste to coffee.

Until the 1600’s most coffee came from the Middle East, then the Dutch began to cultivate it in the East Indies and in the early 18th century it began to be produced in the Americas.

Coffee continued to spread throughout the West Indies and in 1729 coffee was grown in Brazil. Since the mid 19th century Brazil had taken the lead in growing coffee. In the 19th and 20th centuries other South American and Latin American countries began to develop coffee plantations.

Coffee production does not use machines extensively however there are about twenty different things that happen between the coffee bean growing and it becoming a drink that is consumed. It has traveled throughout the entire world which isn’t too bad for a little bean.

Similar Posts:
Thinking Of London? You Should Read This : Oh, it’s a…
Film Four at Summerset House : After six years i have finally…
London At Christmas : In my opinion London is at it’s…
Review: The Blind Beggar Pub : Blind Beggar pub is a wonderful…

Coffee and ADHD

Administrator — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:28:53 +0000

I’ve recently found out that I have this horrible condition – adult ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. For those of you who have no idea what ADHD is, I will explain briefly. The main symptoms are: inability to concentrate and hyperactivity, which lead to anxiety and poor performance at work. You get easily distracted, you are constantly thinking about random stuff like why the oil companies keep polluting the oceans or why your breaths smells so bad and even the tiniest noise breaks your concentration. You are also always hyperactive and it is extremely difficult to stay still for more than 10 minutes. However I kind of self-diagnosed my ADHD. How did I find out in the first place- funny story. Ever since I can remember coffee has made me sleepy. I was curious why this is happening because I know that it is supposed to work the other way around, so… I just googled “coffee makes me sleepy” and I found out that this is typical for kids and adults with ADHD. So I kept on looking for more and more information until I was a 100% sure that I have it. Anyways, here are the effects coffee has on me. First of all it makes me all happy and careless, then it eases my mind and my thoughts are no longer chaotic but rather calm. My hands suddenly stop shaking and I feel that I am in control of my energy. I can concentrate much better for longer and the best thing is that I can finish what I have started on time. One more reason to love coffee I guess.

The joys of renting

Administrator — Sun, 01 May 2011 14:01:14 +0000

Or not, to be more precise. Sometimes I love renting. You find that there is something broken or damaged in the flat and you just call up the landlord, click your fingers and demand that he deals with it forthwith. Well, usually you ask him nicely, if there’s possibly any chance, if it’s not too much trouble, that you could, maybe, have your hot water fixed by the weekend? After all, you don’t want to annoy the landlord and get kicked out!
But often you get kicked out despite being a great tenant. The landlord wants to sell, the landlord has a niece who has had her eye on the place for when she goes to university, the landlord reckons he can get more money for the place if he re-advertises. These are all actual excuses I have been given as to why I have to vacate what has been my home for one or two years and go looking for somewhere else to live.
This is why you find me writing this blog in a brief break from the frantic cleaning that is currently going on in my flat. We have just been told that our property is being inspected by the landlord next week, and as we are hoping to sweet talk him into letting us stay another year, we’ve been pulling out all the stops to make sure the place looks as sparkling and fabulous as possible. I even went out and hired one of those Polti 950 steam cleaners so we could try and get the suspicious curry/chinese/alien matter stain off the corner of the living room rug. I just hope all this hard work is worth it. I hate packing up my stuff even more than I hate cleaning up for landlords!

Lost in the Library

Administrator — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:03:55 +0000

I spent the other day in the local library. It was the first time I’ve stepped in a library for years. I think people have forgotten how useful and distracting they can be. I went in there during a lunch break, but what I didn’t realise is that my local library is absolutely massive. I ended up having a hugely long lunch break has I meandered through the labyrinth of books.

Eventually I saw the exit, but my desire to escape was stopped by a series of slow walking old people getting in the way. I’m still trying the figure out the etiquate of leap frogging old people. I managed to get back to work quite late, but it turned out ok. I only went to the library to get some ideas for recipes, but ended up getting distracted by the cool collection of novels.

I also had no idea that the now do DVD rental at the library. I figure I’ll head in there another time, but I’ll leave bread crumbs to mark my way out to the exit. I returned back home in the evening to find recipe ideas. I ended up looking up online recipes. I guess there is a much bigger range of stuff online. I can also keep the browser open on my phone as I’m cooking which is great.

I was trying trying to figure out whether there is an ideal time to visit the library to avoid the massive amount of old people. I guess I’ll have to try it again sometime.