Your Moldy Coffee Maker
This unappetizing title has to do with cleaning your moldy coffee maker and removing the bacteria as well! Bacteria and mold are everywhere in the environment and when they land on moist surfaces they make themselves at home and start to reproduce. One of the unnoticed places in your home where this will happen is your coffee maker. Several publications have written about this issue. We will start with Huffington Post saying that your Keurig machine might be covered with bacteria and mold.
Your Keurig coffee machine may be a bacteria breeding ground, according to a recent test performed by CBS stations in Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Chicago. The news outlets swabbed the various parts of 29 Keurig coffee makers, sending samples to a lab to be analyzed. One swab from a machine in Pittsburgh contained 4.6 million colonies of bacteria and mold, and E.coli showed up on a machine in Dallas.
More than half of the machines came back with bacteria counts in the millions, CBS Pittsburgh reports.
It’s not just Keurig and other single-serve machines that could be growing swarms of germs — traditional coffee makers will also house bacteria, yeast and mold if not sanitized correctly, because the hot water used in the machine isn’t enough to decontaminate the pot.
Periodically scrub out your coffee pot and a couple of times a year boil vinegar in it to descale the mineral buildup. Clean and set out to dry interior parts and you will help reduce the rate of bacteria and mold buildup.
Bacteria in Your Coffee Maker
The Dallas TV station mentioned previously mentions specific bacteria in various coffee makers.
Dallas mom, Stephanie Brink was stunned to hear that her machine had pseudomonas aeruginosa- a bacteria that grows in standing water and pipes.
Heather Dunston, a mother of three was in for an even bigger surprise. The I-Team found enterobacter on her machine. That’s a coliform – a bacteria from your colon.
And, our very own I-Team Senior Investigative Reporter Ginger Allen was in for a big surprise as well. Dunston was not the only one with a coliform on her coffee machine. Klebsiella, another coliform, was found on Allen’s machine.
These germs are all potentially bad actors and can show up along with the mold in your molding coffee maker. The precautions for bacteria are the same as for mold, routine cleaning and drying. The specific steps listed by the Dallas station are these.
- Clean your machine regularly – run vinegar through it often.
- Use filtered water rather than tap.
- Change the water after each use.
- Leave the lid off to allow the machine to air out.
- Wipe it down like you do your other appliances.
Jefferson said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It appears to be the same price we need to pay to avoid a bacteria infested and moldy coffee maker.
Complicated versus Simple
The more moist nooks and crannies your coffee maker has, the more mold and bacteria you will likely have to deal with. Quartz published an article referring to your coffee maker as a bacterial breeding ground and published a photo of a machine that has a lot of nooks and crannies to clean. An alternative is to boil your coffee as when making Turkish coffee or coffee for the family back on the farm. Or you can use a French press. The glass container and all of the parts can be cleaned, rinsed and dried without having any hidden areas for bacteria and mold to grow.
Why Coffee Protects Against Type II Diabetes
Researchers have known for years that drinking coffee reduces the risk of type II diabetes as we noted in our article, More Organic Coffee Can Lead to Less Diabetes. Now researchers have identified a specific bioactive substance in coffee that stimulates insulin secretion and sugar uptake by muscle cells. The report is in the Journal of Natural Products.
Cafestol, a Bioactive Substance in Coffee, Stimulates Insulin Secretion and Increases Glucose Uptake in Muscle Cells: Studies in Vitro
Diet and exercise intervention can delay or prevent development of type-2-diabetes (T2D), and high habitual coffee consumption is associated with reduced risk of developing T2D. This study aimed to test whether selected bioactive substances in coffee acutely and/or chronically increase insulin secretion from β-cells and improve insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle cells. Insulin secretion from INS-1E rat insulinoma cells was measured after acute (1-h) and long-term (72-h) incubation with bioactive substances from coffee.
Coffee, Coffea arabica Benth. (Rubiaceae) and Coffea canephora Benth. (Rubiaceae), contains a diversity of bioactive components that varies with coffee species and the roasting and brewing methods.(8-10) The large number of substances includes methylxanthines (especially caffeine), diterpenes (like cafestol and kahweol), the lignan secoisolaricresenol, phenolic acids (e.g., caffeic-, ferulic-, chlorogenic- and quinic acid), trigonelline, minerals, and degradation products.
The specific substance in coffee that stimulates insulin secretion and subsequent uptake of sugar by muscle cells is cafestol. A related compound, caffeic acid has similar effects.
How Much Cafestol Is in Your Coffee?
Since cafestol can be instrumental in fighting type II diabetes how much of the stuff is in your coffee? According to the researchers roasted Arabica coffee beans contain 0.5% caffeic acid while a cup of coffee contains 35 to 175 mg of caffeic acid. Boiled coffee, Turkish coffee and French press coffee contain 6 to 12 mg of cafestol while filtered coffee contains only 0.2 to 0.6 mg of cafestol. It turns out that the paper filter traps and retains the majority of the cafestol when brewing coffee. In addition lighter roasts have more cafestol then darker roasts according to Science Direct.
The extraction yield of cafestol from roast and ground (R&G) coffee beans was evaluated using brews prepared by four brewing mechanisms (boiled, Turkish, French Press and Mocha Pot). The cafestol content of the R&G coffee and the resulting brews was measured and extraction yield calculated. The R&G coffee had an average cafestol content of 603 mg/100 g R&G coffee with a slight reduction at higher roast intensities. In the brews, preparation method had an impact on cafestol concentration with French, Turkish and boiled preparation methods producing the highest cafestol concentrations. The extraction yield of cafestol was shown to be dependent on the brew mechanism and roasting time, with the lightest roast coffee prepared by French press or boiled preparations having the highest cafestol extraction yield (6.5% and 5.84%) and dark roast Mocha and Turkish preparations had the lowest extraction yields of 2.42% and 2.88% respectively.
So, if you want to avoid getting type II diabetes drink coffee and if you really want to avoid type II diabetes consider the French press method or even the old farm kitchen method of boiling the grounds on the stove and letting them settle before serving.
Forty Years of Observations on the Effects of Coffee
We live in a world with an increasingly short news cycle. All too often the news contains half-baked opinions that are presented as fact. In regard to coffee consumption it is nice to see that someone has taken the long view (forty years). Business Insider just published an interview with Harvard University researcher, Dr. Frank Hu. The good doctor who has personally studied coffee for twenty years just published, along with associates, an article showing that people who drink coffee have a lower mortality than folks who do not drink coffee. And he provides some insights in the interview.
Dr. Frank Hu just finished a 40-year study on the effects of coffee on the human body. People who drink more coffee it turns out, live longer.
Specifically, Hu’s study found that coffee-drinkers have lower risks of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as suicide.
The research began in 1976, and involved nearly 210,000 people. With all the follow-ups over the years, the study includes 4.7 million person-years of data. The scale meant it took several generations of scientists to complete the study. Hu, a researcher and professor at Harvard Medical School, himself joined in 1996. The enormous amount of data was useful, because coffee is an extraordinarily complicated drink.
“Coffee is certainly a very complex beverage,” Hu told INSIDER. Besides caffeine, it contains hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bioactive compounds. So it’s very difficult, perhaps impossible, to tease out the effects of individual compounds or chemicals.”
This is an ongoing observational study about which we wrote recently in our article, Drink Coffee, Live Longer. The basis of this ongoing work is yearly interviews with tens of thousands of people and the information obtained has to do with a broad range of health issues and habits besides just coffee.
Long Term Health Studies
The studies from which Dr. Hu and colleagues got their data include the Nurses’ Health Study which began in 1976, Nurses’ Health Study II started in 1989 and Health Professionals Follow Study started in 1986. The sum total of 4,690,072 person-years of data has been obtained. (This the sum of people in the study times the years each has participated for all entrants.) The Nurses’ Health Professional Follow-up tracks incidence of disease, various habits over a lifetime and date and cause of death.
The Nurses’ Health Studies are among the largest and longest running investigations of factors that influence women’s health. Started in 1976 and expanded in 1989, the information provided by the 238,000 dedicated nurse-participants has led to many new insights on health and disease. While the prevention of cancer is still a primary focus, the study has also produced landmark data on cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many other conditions. Most importantly, these studies have shown that diet, physical activity and other lifestyle factors can powerfully promote better health.
The fact of the matter is that much of medical data is anecdotal, based in a handful of cases treated by a handful of physicians. Prior to this study there was little or no hard data regarding life habits such as exercise, smoking, drinking coffee, work hours, etc. for sufficiently large populations to provide useful information. With forty years of data most recently summed up by Dr. Hu and others we can see strong associations between life habits such as exercise, smoking and drinking coffee. Where does coffee fit in all of this?
Drink Coffee and Live Longer
As the researcher, Dr. Hu, is quoted as saying, coffee is a very complicated drink. But the data shows that over the years drinking coffee reduces the risk, year by year, of dying from heart disease, degenerative neurologic diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and suicide. The sad fact of the matter is that if you smoke you increase all of these risks. Researchers believe that coffee consumption perhaps helps smokers but the negative effect of smoking outweighs the positive effect of coffee. The take home point of all of this is that exercise in good for you, smoking is bad and you will live longer if you routinely drink coffee.
Why Shade Grown Coffee?
Years ago we published an article about shade grown organic coffee. As more and more coffee varieties are developed for full sun there are risks. Why shade grown coffee?
Shade grown organic coffee has historically been grown in a mixed species forest that includes fruit and hardwood trees as well as other bushes and plants. Researchers have found up to forty different species of trees on traditional, organic coffee plantations. This mixture of trees helps maintain soil quality and provides habitat for numerous smaller plants as well as animals and birds. A mature plantation producing shade grown organic coffee is a mature ecosystem that is virtually self-sustaining. It does not require insecticides as birds and other animals living in the coffee forest consume the pests. It does not require large amount of synthetic fertilizers as the natural products of plant decomposition slowly leach into the soil to fertilize new plants and do not poison downstream water or the water table.
Small traditional farms produce shade grown organic coffee by planting coffee plants in existing forest. Likewise small growers will selectively clear forest in order to retain the canopy while providing room for coffee.
Shade grown coffee protects the environment. Shade grown coffee is bird friendly. Organic shade grown coffee is good for small coffee farmers.
Sustainable Coffee Growing
Coffee grows naturally under a forest canopy. Growing coffee in this setting avoid the use of excessive amount of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. This is sustainable coffee growing in the true sense, what is more recently referred to as regenerative agriculture.
Alternet writes about how we should stop using the term sustainable and instead use regenerative or degenerative. They suggest a regeneration revolution.
Their argument is that at best sustainable practices maintain the status quo and at worst the term is used as an outright lie. Their proposal is that people should be able to choose food that is produced using organic regenerative practices based on sound ecological principles that rejuvenate the soil, grasslands and forests; replenish water; promote food sovereignty; and restore public health and prosperity – all while cooling the planet by drawing down billions of tons of excess carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil where it belongs.
This is why shade grown coffee.
Coffee for the Birds
The other reason why shade grown coffee is good thing is that preserving forest preserves habitat for birds as we note in our article, Coffee for the Birds.
The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has a Bird Friendly Coffee page on their web site. They have developed the only 100% organic and shade-grown coffee certification available: Bird Friendly.
The point is that USDA certified and other certifications do not guarantee that the forest habitat was preserved while the Bird Friend Coffee certification does. An alternative certification is with the Rainforest Alliance.
The Rainforest Alliance works with coffee farmers to improve their livelihoods and the health and well-being of their communities. Coffee farms or groups of smallholder farmers that earn the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal are audited annually against a rigorous standard with detailed environmental, social and economic criteria. These criteria are designed to protect biodiversity, deliver financial benefits to farmers, and foster a culture of respect for workers and local communities. Rainforest Alliance certification also promotes decent living and working conditions for workers, gender equity and access to education for children in farm communities.
That’s why shade grown coffee is a good thing.
Drink Coffee, Live Longer
Another scientific study has come out with the ultimate health benefit of drinking coffee, drink coffee and live longer. The journal Circulation published an article, Association of Coffee Consumption with total and Cause-Specific Mortality in Three Large Prospective Cohorts. This long and complicated title simply means that a lot of people were studied for cause of death. For decades the Harvard School of Public Health has enrolled and followed up on graduates in the health professions.
- Nurses’ Health Study: 74,890 (women)
- Nurses’ Health Study II: 93,054 (women)
- Health Professionals Follow-up Study: 40557 (men)
Over the years people enrolled in this study reported how much coffee they drank and when someone died the cause of death was recorded in the study. Over 4,690,072 person years (# of people x # of years) 19,524 women and 12,432 men died. The results of the study showed that people who drank between one and five cups of coffee a day had a lower risk of dying that those who did not drink any coffee.
- One cup a day: 6% lower risk of death
- Up to three cups a day: 8% lower risk of death
- Three to five cups a day: 15% lower risk of death
- More than 5 cups a day: 12% lower risk of death
It made little difference if people drank regular or decaf and the study controlled for age, drinking alcohol and other health and diet factors. The bottom line is that if you are a coffee drinker you have a lower risk of death from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neurologic diseases and suicide. The study did not show a lower risk of dying from cancer.
If you find it difficult to understand what they say in Circulation there is a more readable version of these finding in The New York Times, Coffee Tied to Lower Risk of Dying.
But Not for Smokers
The bad news for smokers is that people in the study who smoked did not live longer if they drank coffee. The researchers believe that the many health related effects of smoking simply overwhelmed any beneficial effects of drinking coffee.
Is it the Antioxidants?
The researchers do not speculate on why coffee drinkers live longer, providing that they don’t smoke. However, there are two factors that have been identified as beneficial in coffee. One is the caffeine and the other is the antioxidants. The fact that both decaf and regular coffee helped reduce the incidence of death makes this author think that it is the antioxidants in both regular and healthy organic coffee that make the difference.
Scientifically an antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the cell damage and cell death in human cells caused by oxidative breakdown of other molecule in the cell. Oxidation is a factor in sickness and aging. Antioxidants help prevent the damage caused by excessive oxidation and to a degree inhibit the aging process. When an oxidative reaction brought on by disease gets going it produces free radicals that start chain reactions which in turn cause cell and tissue damage. The human body has or uses antioxidants to control this situation. Natural means of controlling oxidation include vitamins C and E as well as glutathione. It is low levels of antioxidants that can lead to a condition referred to as oxidative stress and resultant damage to cells in the body.
More research will be necessary to see just what that allows you to drink coffee and live longer but that appears to be the bottom line from the recent study.
Coffee Varieties: Java
Coffee varieties are the subspecies of coffee that occur by natural selection and by selective breeding. Disease resistance, yield and flavor vary from variety to variety. Variety or breed selection is critical to the planter as he or she must pick the optimal variety for altitude, sun or shade, soil conditions and climate. Regarding coffee varieties here are a couple of terms:
Variety: A variety is a smaller group than a subspecies and a larger group than a form. A variety has most of the characteristics of the species but differs in specific ways.
Cultivar: This is a cultivated variety and is developed using agricultural breeding techniques. The coffee in your cup is most likely a cultivar. Two common cultivars are Bourbon and Typica.
An old coffee variety and one that is used as slang for coffee is java. Java coffee comes from the island of Java in Indonesia. As we noted in our article, Why Is Coffee Called Java,
[I]t was the Dutch traders who first colonized Australia, the East Indies and even New York (New Amsterdam). The Dutch are responsible for finding the coffee plants in East Africa and planting them on their island colonies including the Indonesian island of Java in the 1500’s.
Until a coffee leaf rust plague wiped out most of the plants on Java in the 1880s it was a global supplier of coffee, thus the name Java.
Today the majority of coffee grown on Java is Robusta as it is resistant to coffee leaf rust. However, there are still Arabica coffee plantations on Java that produce the Java variety.
Java Coffee
Kopi Jawa, an Indonesian expression, refers to Java coffee and to the style of Java coffee, strong black and sweet. Java Arabica coffee is grown primarily on the Ijen Plateau in the East of Java. The plateau is around 4,200 feet high (1,400 meters) and ideal for coffee production. Several estates date back to the Dutch era: Blawan, Jampit, Pancoer, Kayumas and Tugosari.
Aged and Monsooned Coffee
A unique treatment to some Java coffee is that it is aged for as long as three years. Although the coffee beans are initially dried they are exposed to warm, moist air during the rainy season. As they age the beans turn from green to light brown and gain strength but lose acidity. Aged Java coffees are referred to as Old Java, Old Brown or Old Government.
Mocha Java Blend
A unique coffee blend dates back two or three centuries, Mocha-Java. Back in the era of Dutch traders it would found that mixing Java Arabica coffee with Mocha Coffee from Yemen resulted in a pleasingly complex brew. This is still available today and should not be confused with the mocha that you can purchase in a coffee house.
Cup of Java versus a Cup of Joe
So, if you like a cup of Java and would like the real thing from the island of Java that is entirely possible. Just specify that you want the Java coffee variety from Indonesia and not any old cup of Joe!
Roast Your Own Coffee
If you are a true coffee aficionado you may choose to roast your own coffee. What does this entail? Can you get good at it? What do you have to buy? We looked on the internet for a list of coffee roasters and found a few suggestions and brands. Here is some info if you want to start to roast your own green coffee beans.
Roasting Devices
You can roast your own coffee in something as simple as a popcorn popper or with a programmed coffee roaster in the $1,000 range. We will start with the popcorn popper approach.
West Bend 82416 Air Crazy Hot Air Popcorn Popper
This is a popcorn popper for 4 quarts of popcorn. It uses hot air and no oil. This device lists on the West Bend site for $29.99. If you are going to use this approach you will need to experiment with small quantities. People who have tried this approach say that it is all too easy to go from a light roast to a charred dark roast in 30 seconds of excessive roasting. But the price is right! Just remember that this is a popcorn popper.
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- No oil required! Pops up to 4 quarts of healthy and delicious popcorn.
- Popcorn pops using hot air in 3 minutes for a super speedy snack.
- Includes ½ cup measuring cup that doubles as a convenient butter melter.
- Popper base is only 5.5 inches in diameter; this slim appliance can fit in any spot on your countertop, rec room, or studio.
- Quick, clean, and easy. Popcorn on demand!
- 1040 watts
Whirly Pop
This is another popcorn popper. The stovetop whirley pop is $24.99 online at the Whirley Pop website. Just remember that this device is made to pop popcorn and experiment a lot. Again, the price is right.
Did you know that hand-cranked stove top popcorn poppers are the best way to make movie theater style popcorn at home? It’s true! The Whirley Pop Popcorn Maker is a favorite for families and popcorn lovers alike who adore the taste of hot, fresh popcorn straight from the cinema – without having to leave the kitchen!
Nesco and Fresh Roast
These are real coffee roasters in the $100 to $200 price range, Nesco Home Coffee Roaster and Fresh Roast SR 500. With these devices you can more accurately aim for a light, medium or dark roast with the assurance that you will come close to what you want.
The Fresh Roast SR500 has the same capacity ( 4 scoops , 120 gm) and features of the SR300 – plus three temperature settings that can be adjusted any time during the roasting process. High temp. = 490 degrees Medium temp. = 455 degrees Low temp. = 390 degrees A Fan Speed Control has been added that allows the finest tuning of the roast.
Behmor, Gene Café or HotTop
The Behmor 1600, Gene Café Drum Roaster and HotTop KN8828-Basic fall in the $300 to $800 range with added bells and whistles for each increase in price. Each of these companies offers a range of products devoted coffee roasting.
TopHot KN8828-Programmable
This Top Hot product goes for around $1,000. Like all of the other high end roasters it is more likely to give you exactly the degree of roast that you want once to get the hand of it. And like all of the high end roasters it is more time consuming and tedious to clean.
The point of this quick review is that if you want to roast your own healthy organic coffee there are a range of options, each with its advantages and drawbacks.
What Does Sustainable Mean?
Organic coffee is not only good for you but it is good for the environment because organic coffee growers use sustainable farming practices. The United States Department of Agriculture tells us that USDA certified coffee must meet standards upon inspection.
Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.”
The term often used to describe the constellation of practices in organic farming is sustainability. But what does sustainable mean really? To a large degree this term has been hijacked by big and non-organic food companies to attract buyers. Here are some thoughts on sustainability.
Regenerative versus Degenerative
Alternet writes about how we should stop using the term sustainable and instead use regenerative or degenerative. They suggest a regeneration revolution.
With the “sustainability” label co-opted by Big Food, it’s time to re-frame agriculture into two categories: regenerative and degenerative.
Last week, PoliticoPro reported that the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture wants “farmers and agricultural interests to come up with a single definition of sustainability in order to avoid confusing the public with various meanings of the term in food and production methods.”
We agree with Secretary Tom Vilsack that the word “sustainability” is meaningless to consumers and the public. It’s overused, misused and it has been shamelessly co-opted by corporations for the purpose of greenwashing.
Their argument is that at best sustainable practices maintain the status quo and at worst the term is used as an outright lie. Their proposal is that people should be able to choose food that is produced using organic regenerative practices based on sound ecological principles that rejuvenate the soil, grasslands and forests; replenish water; promote food sovereignty; and restore public health and prosperity – all while cooling the planet by drawing down billions of tons of excess carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil where it belongs.
The point being that it is possible to repair the earth and not just maintain the status quo. The problem is if people are willing to pay the cost by purchasing more expensive food.
Individual Shopping Decisions
Whole Foods Market is a supermarket chain where you can reliably find lots of great organic food. Whole Foods is also commonly referred to as whole paycheck! We recently wrote about the most popular coffee brands.
The ranking of the top 5 sellers with sales in billions is this:
- Keurig, $2.57 billion
- Folgers, $1.56 billion
- Starbucks, $950 million
- Maxwell House, $820 million
- Dunkin’ Donuts, $420 million
Major factors for many people when they buy coffee are convenience and price.
The fact of the matter is that Folgers, Maxwell House and Dunkin’ Donuts are not selling high end shade grown, fair trade organic coffee. They are providing a reasonable product for a reasonable price. This does not mean that we should not be able to get truth in labeling however. What does sustainable mean? The word has been coopted by big business and has lost much of its meaning. It is a good idea to look for better ways to describe coffee and all foods that are grown using practices that replenish and improve the environment. Then the consumer can make an informed decision.
Why Is Coffee Called Java?
Have you ever wondered why some people refer to coffee as java? For that matter how the expression a cup of Joe come about? The reason for why coffee is called java is clear and the reason we ask for a cup of Joe is questionable. Let’s go back in time to the era called The Age of Exploration which lasted from the 15th to 17th century (1400 to 1600) and before.
Cup of Java
Trade with the East
Silk Road
Trade between the Far East and Europe took place over the Silk Road, an ancient network of roads extending from China and India through Asia and the Middle East. The European connection was the Western capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople. When Islamic armies gained strength in the late 1300’s they cut off the supply of silks, spices and other goods that flowed through Constantinople into the Mediterranean Basin. Half a century before the fall of Constantinople ship owners and traders from Italy took their skills and boats and set up shop in Portugal and Spain. From there they explored and set up trade routes along the coast of Africa eventually rounding the continent and sailing to India in 1497-99.
Vasco de Gama Voyage to India
The Spanish and Portuguese colonized South and Central America and the British and French soon followed. However, it was the Dutch traders who first colonized Australia, the East Indies and even New York (New Amsterdam). The Dutch are responsible for finding the coffee plants in East Africa and planting them on their island colonies including the Indonesian island of Java in the 1500’s.
Island of Java
Until a coffee leaf rust plague wiped out most of the plants on Java in the 1880s it was a global supplier of coffee, thus the name Java. Calling coffee Joe is a different story.
Why Do We Call It Joe?
The most credible origin for calling coffee Joe is that it started as a combination of Java and the drink that you find in a coffee house, Mocha. Dating back to the 1930’s some people used the expression jamoke for a mixture of coffee and chocolate. As is the nature of slang expressions they get shortened over time and Joe came into being. There are several theories but unlike the very clear origin of calling coffee Java the cup of Joe story is lost in time.
Can You Get Coffee from Java Today?
The old colonial plantations producing Arabica coffee on Java are shadows of their former selves producing only fraction of Indonesian coffee output. The main coffee coming from this part of the world is Robusta which is leaf rust resistant and the source of coffee for virtually all non-coffee caffeinated drinks.
How about a Cup of Mocha?
Mocha is a coffee, milk and chocolate drink. Start with espresso and add steamed milk followed by chocolate syrup. This drink should not be confused with Ethiopian mocha beans which are coffee but with a chocolate flavor. And no matter what the origin of Java and cup of Joe, enjoy your coffee, preferably the healthy organic variety.
Coffee for the Birds
Everyone likes their coffee and coffee is good for your health as well. But many of us are concerned about the environment, global warming and the loss of species. Birds are especially vulnerable to deforestation and here is where coffee comes into the picture. When large farming operations cut down trees to plant sun-tolerant coffee they remove habitat for birds. A thoughtful article from the Taos News looks at coffee for birds.
For sure, the bright scarlet package with a picture of a colorful macaw soaring upward and smack into the words COSTA RICA catches my eye. So I grab the bag of coffee from the supermarket shelf. But before I plunk it into my shopping cart, something tells me to check out the label. I read “whole bean” and “dark roast level.” I turn the bag over and find the part that might have the info I’m looking for. I find a sustainability statement. Sounds good, but I want to make sure that the coffee I’m about to buy comes from coffee fields friendly – or at least not hostile – to the birds I’ve been enjoying all summer long here in Northern New Mexico.
The author goes on to point out that many birds that spend their summers in the USA spend their winters in Mexico, Central America and even South America. They live in mountain forests in these regions, the same places that coffee is grown. As sun-tolerant varieties of coffee have been developed, coffee farmers have cut down upland tropical forests and planted coffee. They may have planted the occasional plantain to help prevent wholesale soil erosion but have removed the habitat for local and migratory birds. The question is, if you want to limit your coffee purchases to growers who maintain bird-friendly habitats how do you proceed? The author mentions Rainforest Alliance, USDA Certified, shade grown, Fair Trade and sustainable and asks “what does it all mean?” In the end it turns out that the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has the strictest certification followed by Rainforest Alliance for coffee farming that is kindest to the birds.
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has a Bird Friendly Coffee page on their web site.
The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has developed the only 100% organic and shade-grown coffee certification available: Bird Friendly.
That’s right-no other bag guarantees that every bean is produced organically and under high-quality shade. Our seal of approval ensures tropical “agroforests” are preserved and migratory birds find a healthy haven when they travel from your backyard to those faraway farms producing the beans you so enjoy every morning.
The point is that USDA certified and other certifications do not guarantee that the forest habitat was preserved while the Bird Friend Coffee certification does.
Rainforest Alliance
This is the second reliable certification if you want coffee for the birds. Rainforest Alliance coffee certification requires that coffee farmers follow strict standards.
The Rainforest Alliance works with coffee farmers to improve their livelihoods and the health and well-being of their communities. Coffee farms or groups of smallholder farmers that earn the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal are audited annually against a rigorous standard with detailed environmental, social and economic criteria. These criteria are designed to protect biodiversity, deliver financial benefits to farmers, and foster a culture of respect for workers and local communities. Rainforest Alliance certification also promotes decent living and working conditions for workers, gender equity and access to education for children in farm communities.
If you specifically want great coffee for the birds, look for Bird Friendly Coffee or the Rainforest Alliance seal.