Coffee Table

Fold Your T-Shirt in Quick Way

2006-11-27T20:00:00.000-08:00


A women Folding the T-shirt Quickly and Easy way

Good Friends

2006-10-15T05:53:00.000-07:00

Friends are a gift of God. If we have good friends, we should assume that God has showered us with His unlimited grace. What does a good friend mean? What are the differences between ordinary friends and good friends? What is friendship?

Let us begin our enquiry by asking about what is friendship? Can it be defined? What is the relationship of friendship? What qualities does this relationship have? When two persons share common interests, care for each other, enjoy being together and help each other, they are called as friends. Is this a correct definition? It broadly covers the areas of friendship.For being a good friend, we should share more of these qualities. Is that right? Say, you share some interests with your friend, and there are few things that interest you, but are of no interest to your friend. Does this make your friendship ordinary? Sit back and count your good friends. Now count the interests that you share and those that you don't. Is there any mathematical formula? Can one be a good friend, even if one shares very few interests? Provided of course, that our qualities that I mentioned above are in plenty?

What about caring for each other? Many a times, we find that friends are careless in their relationship, but when it comes to crunch situations, they come forward with all their might and show tremendous care. Does this imply, that even if a friend is not much caring on a day-to-day basis, he/she can still be a good friend, if there is a strong affinity that brings them together?
Let us talk of enjoying each other's company. Does this mean that good friends avoid others? Are they always found together? What if they don't meet each other for a month? This relationship is indefinable. Isn't it? Because being a good friend of someone may mean that we care for each other deeply, but need not show it always. We are ready to help whenever the need arises. That even if we are not together all the time, we love being together. We defend each other whenever any external threat arises. The last test is the final test of good friendship. Friends may remain away for a long period and continue with their life, but when the need arises, they are together. They share a bond that ties them together. They have shared so much with each other that the past always carries itself in the future.

Friendship means that we like each other. We have shared some great moments together. We value and respect each other. Unless there is a bond of hearts and emotions, no outward sign can make a friendship good.

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Make Money thorugh Blog

2006-10-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

It starts off as a venting point. A cyber-water-cooler, where you and other net geeks can endlessly air your views, get nasty, and stay anonymous. But it has also grown into a viable profession for a lucky few. For most, money is made through online ads placed on their blog, but others also make money providing a fee-based service to their readers, selling products directly on their site or from blogs that pay writers to contribute.

Blogs are free online spaces that usually function as personal journals for news and opinion. Bloggers spout on anything from politics to sex, dishing out all their dirty laundry, feeding the voyeuristic masses. Whereas peeping into someone’s window is considered bad manners, reading about the intimate details of someone’s life online isn’t. Baring all isn’t the protocol for every blogger though, as blogs function as information portholes as well, serving up a unique information that mainstream outlets may not provide.

These are some money earning feautures that helps bloggers. So Get a jump on blogging bucks

Google AdSense

AdSense places ads on a website that matches the content of the website—the ads will feature products and services that relate to the material on the web page.
How it works: You apply to have your site approved for the ads. Upon approval, cut and paste a block of HTML code onto your website. Ads will show up on the website automatically.
How you make money: This program is based on two different money generators: costper-click or CPC, and cost-per-thousand-impressions or CPM. With CPCs, money is generated every time someone clicks on an ad on your website. With CPMs, money is generated for every 1,000 visitors that come to your website and just see the ad.

Text Link Ads

Text Link Ads lets a blogger choose what kind of ads they'd like on their website.
How it works: You apply to have your site approved for the ads. Upon approval, cut and paste a block of HTML code onto your website. You approve the ad content and colour/size scheme. Ads will then automatically show up on the website. How you get money? This program is based off the sale of ads that are advertised on your website. You receive 50% of the sale price of each text link ad sold off your website. Other people buy these ads because they improve the search engine rankings of their sites.

About Coffee and Coffee Grinder

2006-10-03T04:59:00.000-07:00

A Coffee grinder is a vital slice of Coffee processing equipment. Grinding the Coffee beans is a significant measure in Coffee making. The ideal drudgery will enable you to love the better cup of stimulating Coffee. The ‘gilded regulation’ to Coffee making is that grinding of Coffee beans should be done just before brewing.

When you store for your favourite coffee beans take certain that you store for the correct sort of coffee grinder overly. You can select from a broad kind of coffee grinders accessible in the marketplace in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You’ve got to choose the correct sort to have yourself an ideal cup of invigorating coffee.

In American homes the coffee grinder has become a standard kitchen appliance! Most coffee grinders made for home use are simple and easy to operate grinding the coffee beans in a jiffy. To grind the coffee beans into extrafine, medium or coarse, you can use these electronic gadgets that are fast and give you the perfect coffee grind.

The coffee grinder runs on an electric motor. It is fitted with either one of the following two types of grinding tools - blades or burr plates. Coffee grinding machines fitted with burr plates are more expensive than blade grinders. However, for a better grind you must always opt for burr type coffee grinders.

Sound Sleep Improves Memory

2006-09-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

A good night’s sleep helps improve memory, reveals a recent study in the US. The researchers led by Matthew Walker of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre studied 12 healthy, college-going subjects and taught them a sequence of skilled finger movements similar to playing a piano scale, according to science portal EurekAlert. After a 12-hour period of wakefulness or sleep respectively, the subjects were tested on their ability to recall these finger movements while a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measured the activity of their brain, it said. The MRI results showed that while some areas of the brain were distinctly more active after a period of sleep, other areas were noticeably less active. But together, the changes brought about by sleep resulted in improvements in the subjects’ motor skill performance, So all studies pointing that sound sleep can improve all level perfomance in people's life.

Sound Sleep can solve all your mentally and healthy problems.

Sound Sleep Helps to prevent Diseases

2006-09-30T01:18:00.000-07:00

A good night’s sleep and strong bonds with other people appear to help older women maintain low levels of a destructive protein linked to ailments such as osteoporosis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and some types of cancer. As part of the normal aging process, the amount of the protein Interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the bloodstream automatically increases. Researchers found that low level of the damaging protein sank in women who managed to sleep soundly and maintain positive contact with other people and their environments in general. The study of 135 women between the ages of 61 and 90 was reported in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences in early December. However, either of the factors was sufficient to protect the women, whose average age was 73.4 years. A woman who sleeps well could make up for having a lack of friends and other positive social contacts and vice versa. The women who participated in the study submitted to numerous blood tests,gave general information about themselves and spent a night in a clinic where researchers tested their sleep patterns. The researchers plan a second study designed to determine whether high levels of IL-6 can rob older people of sleep, leaving them tired and grumpy, thereby hindering their efforts to make positive contact with other people.

Think More, Do Less, E ven at Coffee Shop

2006-09-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

With school and college vacations around the corner, those exam blues and tensions must have been forgotten in anticipation of the good days of fun and frolic soon to come. So, don’t you think it is the right time to evaluate what type of an exam person you are? You could be:
The Bindaas Dude
Exams may come and exams may go, but there is only one cool dude and that is you. “What’s the big fuss about exams? They are not the end of the world”, is your answer to people’s queries about your lack of preparation for the exams. You have much more important things to do with your precious time than sit and study. You rely on your peers to help you out by copying and cheating whenever you can. C’mon man put in some of your own effort and see the difference.

Think More, Do Less
You make lavish plans about your study schedule with neatly and colourfully done up time-tables, complete with the subjects and time when you will do them. However at the appointed time, you will be found hanging out with pals at a coffee shop and discussing which movie to go for once the exams are over.

Combined Study
Here, friends form a study group and take their mega collection of likelies at a friend’s place to study. They ask each other questions and make it a fun session to study and learn. However, sometimes the topics get diversified and the focus shifts from studies to other areas.

Miss Overconfident
You think you know your syllabus so well that in your overconfidence, you tend to make silly mistakes specially in the Maths, Accounts and Costing papers. You then later on get angry with yourself for making mistakes.

Last Minute Worker
Most of the students fall in this category. A month before the exams, you will be found scampering around for the entire year’s notes and books. You study what you hope will come in the exam and rely on your fluke to pass.

Sleeping Tips: “Natural sleep is healthier than drug-aided sleep,”

2006-08-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

Many people suffering from insomnia automatically reach for sleep medications, but those drugs are rarely a good first choice, says a sleep expert at National Jewish Medical and Research Center. “Natural sleep is healthier than drug-aided sleep,” said Dr Robert Ballard, director of the Sleep Center at National Jewish. He offers some advice on good sleep habits: Prepare yourself for sleep. The calmer and more relaxed you are before you go to bed, the better you’ll sleep. Try to wind down with a relaxing activity before bedtime. Turn down the lights and avoid loud music and television. Reading, yoga and meditation often prove to be beneficial toward sleep habits.

Stick to a regular schedule by going to bed at about the same time every night. Your body will get used to that schedule and will be better prepared to sleep at bedtime and awaken in the morning. Create a sleep sanctuary. Dark, cozy environs are where people experience their deepest sleep. If you’ve spent more than 15 minutes tossing and turning while trying to get to sleep, you should get up. Insomnia often results from anxiety about not getting enough sleep.

Exercise is one of the best things you can do to help you sleep. But you have to exercise at the right time of day. Exercise late in the day can actually contribute to sleeplessness. Morning is the best time to exercise. Don’t eat large meals before bed and don’t consume caffeine in the afternoon. Both tobacco and alcohol can impair sleep.

Drink coffee without arthritis worry

2006-08-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

Drinking multiple cups of coffee every day does not appear to increase risk of r h e u m at o i d arthritis (RA), new research suggests. These findings appear on the heels of numerous other reports suggesting that the opposite was, in fact, the case. After reviewing information collected from more than 80,000 women over an almost 20 year period, US researchers found that the risk of arthritis appeared unrelated to the amount of decaffeinated coffee, coffee, tea and total caffeine women consumed. However, a p rev i o u s Finnish study found that people who drank at least four cups of coffee daily were more than twice as likely to develop arthritis, while another report showed that drinking multiple cups of tea each day could reduce that risk.

The author of the current report, Elizabeth W. Karlson, said that her study followed more people for more time than previous reports, and there is “very little biologic reason” why coffee or tea might influence the risk of RA. “These findings should help settle the debate,” she said. RA is a chronic inflammatory condition in which the body’s own immune system attacks the tissue lining the joints. The cause of RA is not well understood, but research suggests that age, smoking, obesity and genetic factors may play a role in the development of the disease.

During the current study, reported in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, Karlson and her team reviewed dietary information collected every four years between 1980 and 1998 from 83,124 women. Over the course of the study, 480 women developed RA. Although women’s choice of beverage appeared to have no influence on their risk of RA, their smoking habits did. Specifically, the researchers found that heavy smokers were more likely to develop RA than non-smokers, a finding that other researchers have discovered, as well. Karlson, who is based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said that coffee drinkers may be more likely to be long-term smokers than non-coffee drinkers, and this tendency may help explain why previous reports

Coffee has been found growing on tress !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-08-30T05:19:00.000-07:00

This is said to be the first time that a decaf variety of Coffea arabica has been found. It is thought to lack the gene for an enzyme that is required to make caffeine. Though caffeine is known and sometimes appreciated as a stimulant, it raises blood pressure, and disrupts sleep. There is a worldwide trend of healthconsciousness, so demand for decaf coffee is considerable. Over 10% of coffee consumed worldwide is said to be decaf.

But current processes for removing the caffeine from the coffee are expensive, and they may also damage the flavour. To keep the taste and remove the caffeine, carbon filters have to be used, but that’s even costlier. That’s why the caffeine-free plants may seem an attractive business proposition. People wondering about the taste of the coffee manufactured from these plants will have to wait: the plants aren’t grown yet. They also grow around 30 per cent slower than ordinary plants. That’s why researchers want to cross-breed them with ordinary varieties to produce a fastergrowing, yet caffeine-free variety.
This cross breeding will set back commercial exploitation of the ‘decaf bushes’ by a decade or more, giving other contenders a chance. A genetically-modified coffee plant is just a few years away from maturing.
Genetically modified plants may be completely caffeine-free, whereas the naturally bred Brazilian varieties have small amounts of caffeine. But people opposed to GM crops might prefer to wait for their cuppa.

Get Beautiful Face with Coffee and Chocolates

2006-08-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Remember the last time your girlfriend was angry and you had to give her a box of chocolates to cool her down? Well, the next time she shops for the chocolates herself or even asks you to get her some, it may not be to pamper her taste buds but her skin! Indeed chocolates and coffee are both on their way to becoming the most preferred skin care solutions for women in general and brides in particular.

An extension of the ever-changing list of beauty tips that are available to women from beauty experts, the cafe orly treatment or the chocolate wrap treatment are all set to make their debut in Kolkata.

“The thing about chocolate is that it has a feel-good factor, the reason why people eat chocolates whenever they feel down,” said a Delhi-based beautician who is introducing chocolate facials and body massage for the first time in the city. Apparently, while on the one hand the smell of chocolates is an aphrodisiac and just right for the bride on the day of her marriage, chocolate is also rich in anti-oxidants that keeps the skin fresh.

While chocolate takes the cake, coffee can also act as an excellent scrub. The coffee scrub not only helps to tighten the body, but also lightens the skin with the cocoa in it checking pigmentation. It seems it’s time coffee and chocolate travelled from just the taste buds to every cell of the body.

KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOT CUP

2006-08-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

For the coffee aficionado, understanding all the subtleties that make a great cup can be as captivating as knowledge of good wines is to the wine lover. Fortunately for all of us, however, achieving the perfect cup is easy once you’re familiar with a few basic coffee-making concepts.

Know Your Beans: When you walk into a specialty coffee shop, a coffeehouse that sells coffee beans — or even a grocery store with a wide variety of whole-bean coffees — you’ll probably spot an enticing display of coffee beans. Knowing a little bit about the origins of coffee beans and how they’re harvested, roasted and named can help you choose the bean that’s right for your cup. With all the different monikers on the beans you buy at the store, you may think they are from different species of coffee plants. However, most of the beans you can purchase today come from only two species of coffee plants: coffea robusta and coffea arabica. The kind most often found in cans is generally made from coffea robusta, as are most instant coffees. Specialty coffees — those served at coffeehouses — are generally made from coffea arabica.
What’s in a Name? : The names of the beans normally do not refer to the kind of coffee plant they come from. Quite simply, a name may designate where the bean was grown (Ethiopia, Colombia, Kenya, Yemen). Coffees can be designated as “single-origin” coffees —that is, originating from one country only — or “blends,” a combination of beans from a variety of geographical areas. Brewing Techniques: Each brewing method has advantages and disadvantages. No matter which roast and method you select, keep these points in mind: Measure ground coffee for consistent results. If you like a bold cup of coffee, try two tablespoons ground coffee for each six-ounce cup. Because coffee strength is a matter of personal preference, experiment until you find the perfect measure for your taste. Start with fresh, cold water to make coffee. If your coffee tastes bitter or unusual, the water could be the cause. Highly chlorinated water, water treated by a softener, and hard water can affect your coffee’s flavour. A solution is to use bottled water.
Types of coffee: Brewed coffee — usually produced through a drip filter— is perhaps the most common way to fill the American coffee cup. However, these specialty coffees are popular, too. Espresso: Italian in origin, espresso is cherished for its hearty flavour and thin layer of silky froth (or crema) on top. Because of its intense flavour, espresso is served in demitasse cups, often with sugar. It is brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee in an espresso machine. Caffe Latte: It combines one part brewed espresso to about three parts steamed milk, with a little froth (or foam) on top. Caffe latte is served in a latte bowl or a tall glass mug. Cappuccino: Equal parts brewed espresso, steamed milk and froth make a cup of cappuccino. It has a more intense coffee flavour than latte and is usually served with sugar.

Hot Coffee mugs

2006-08-28T05:46:00.000-07:00

Let's begin with the basics. It's a word you often hear - ceramics. You have some vague idea of what it means and associate it immediately with pottery, with coffee mugs, with tiles and with home accessories. Experts tell us, however, that the definition of ceramics isn't as easy as it used to be. 25 years ago, you were talking about 'objects made from fired clay', and this definition took in bricks, cement, terracotta, stoneware, porcelain, and similar materials, mainly oxides derived from mineral sources. The more modern definition is slightly more complicated. Ceramics are supposed to be 'crystalline compounds of metallic and non-metallic elements', characterised by high brittleness, rigidity, and hardness; high melting points (1900-3900 degrees C); high strength under compression; and resistance to chemical attack. Put simply, they are typically produced by the application of heat upon processed clays and other natural raw materials to form a rigid product.
Let's forget the technicalities, however, and go back to where the word actually comes from. The word ceramic can be traced back to the Greek term keramos, meaning 'a potter' or 'pottery'. Keramos, in turn, is related to an older Sanskrit root meaning 'to burn'. Thus, the early Greeks used the term to mean 'burned stuff' or 'burned earth' when referring to products obtained through the action of fire upon earthy materials.
Archeologists have uncovered human-made ceramics that date back to at least 24,000 BC. These ceramics were found in Czechoslovakia and were in the form of animal and human figurines. They were made of animal fat and bone mixed with bone ash and a fine claylike material, and fired at temperatures between 500-800 degrees C in domed and horseshoe shaped kilns partially dug into the ground. While it is not clear what these ceramics were used for, they were probably decorative; the first use of functional pottery vessels is thought to be in 9,000 BC, when they were used to store grain and other foods.
Today, ceramics are everywhere - in your coffee cups and home accessories; in your wall tiles and your floorings; in your home insulation and your aircraft… the electronics industry would not exist without ceramics, for they have a wide range of electrical properties including insulating, semi-conducting, superconducting, piezoelectric and magnetic. Ceramics are also critical to products such as cell phones, computers, television, and other consumer electronic products. Surgeons are using bio-ceramic materials for repair and replacement of human hips, knees, and other body parts, and dentists are using ceramics for tooth replacement implants. There are many more uses of ceramics, and new ones are still being discovered.

Enjoy, it is spring all the time on these peaks

HOW TO MAKE HOME COFFEE BREW

2006-08-28T03:34:00.000-07:00

Buy green coffee beans. Preheat your oven to 500F. Spread the beans evenly on a flat baking sheet. Place this on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Watch the beans roast. NEVER leave your roasting coffee beans unattended. In about 8-10 minutes there will be a crackling noise and smoke with an unmistakable coffee fragrance. About two-three minutes after the crackling, your coffee beans should be the rich dark shade they taste best at. Using an oven mitt, carefully remove the sheet from the oven and pour the beans into a metal colander. Stir the beans with a wooden spoon to help them cool quickly. Do this over a sink or outdoors, as there is chaff that comes off the beans during roasting. Also, any appliance used to pop popcorn can be used to roast coffee beans. Today, with the Indian market opening up to global trends, there are a number of home coffee roasters available as well.

GRIND I
Never grind more coffee than you will use immediately, as the coffee loses its unique flavour within a week of grinding. Once the beans are ground, the flavourful oils are exposed to the damaging air. As these oils dissipate, so will the flavour of your coffee. Once ground, coffee will begin to lose its flavour almost immediately. Different methods of brewing will require different grind consistencies. When using a French press, the coffee will need to be ground extremely coarse, whereas espresso requires an extremely fine grind.

STORE I
Never store your coffee in the refrigerator. Coffee should be stored in a clean, dry, airtight container, in a cool, dark place.

BREW I
There are six popular ways of brewing coffee (excluding espresso): Turkish brewing, concentrate brewing, percolating, vacuum brewing, drip brewing, and French press brewing. We don’t recommend a percolator as it boils the coffee and often leads to over-extraction of coffee. As the French press is the preferred method for most modern-day aficionados, we’ll focus on only this method. When using a French press, place coarsely ground coffee in the glass carafe, pour water at the desired temperature over the grounds and place the top on. When brewing is complete, press down the plunger (a mesh filter on a stick), pressing the grounds to the bottom and leaving the coffee liquor on top to be poured off. A brew time of between three and six minutes is common for French pressing. This prolonged, direct contact of the grounds with the water allows for a more complete, more controllable, and even extraction. The most common mistake is to use too little coffee. The rule of thumb is to take two tablespoons per three-fourth cups of water. Start there and experiment to find what is best for your beans, your grind, your brewer, your water, etc. After all, if you don’t like it, it isn’t a good cup of coffee.

BLEND I
With easy access to global coffees, it’s not surprising that Indians are increasingly aware of the subtle differences in flavour between the likes of a Jamaican Blue Mountain and an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. You can slowly build your knowledge and collection of coffee beans from across the world, ordering them off the Internet or buying from a reliable supplier. As you buy and experiment, you can start making your own blends and treating yourself and your friends to artistry in a cup

Something natural about Coffee

2006-08-26T02:39:00.000-07:00

Naturally caffeine-free coffee has been found growing on trees, reports New Scientist. It has raised hopes of a cheap alternative to artificially decaffeinated coffees available on store shelves. Brazilian researchers grew 3,000 Ethiopian coffee plants in an effort to find low-caffeine coffee nuts. They found a plant containing 15 times less caffeine than commonly-used varieties. The discovery was reported in Nature magazine.
The caffeine-free coffee plants belong to a popular species, Coffea arabica, and yield superior quality beans.
This is said to be the first time that a decaf variety of Coffea arabica has been found. It is thought to lack the gene for an enzyme that is required to make caffeine.
Though caffeine is known and sometimes appreciated as a stimulant, it raises blood pressure, and disrupts sleep. There is a worldwide trend of healthconsciousness, so demand for decaf coffee is considerable. Over 10% of coffee consumed worldwide is said to be decaf.
But current processes for removing the caffeine from the coffee are expensive, and they may also damage the flavour. To keep the taste and remove the caffeine, carbon filters have to be used, but that’s even costlier. That’s why the caffeine-free plants may seem an attractive business proposition. People wondering about the taste of the coffee manufactured from these plants will have to wait: the plants aren’t grown yet. They also grow around 30 per cent slower than ordinary plants. That’s why researchers want to cross-breed them with ordinary varieties to produce a fastergrowing, yet caffeine-free variety.
This cross breeding will set back commercial exploitation of the ‘decaf bushes’ by a decade or more, giving other contenders a chance. A genetically-modified coffee plant is just a few years away from maturing.
Genetically modified plants may be completely caffeine-free, whereas the naturally bred Brazilian varieties have small amounts of caffeine. But people opposed to GM crops might prefer to wait for their cuppa.

Morning cup of sunshine into your lips.

2006-08-26T01:11:00.000-07:00

/You can buy coffee powder in quite a few general shops and supermarkets (we are, of course, not talking instant here) and some places even sell beans. But to do so would be to deny yourself one of the simplest workday routes to sudden sensual pleasure. To step into a coffee roasting and grinding shop is to be assaulted by the strong seductive smell of fresh coffee, soothing, yet stimulating and dangerously liable to get you hallucinating about mornings in Paris with coffee and fresh-baked croissants or thick Turkish brews poured from brass ibriks.
That isn’t the only reason to buy from these places. Because coffee tends to be lumped with tea, we often forget there are some profound differences between the two products. Tea is the ideal grocery store product—light, dry, with a long (but not indefinite) shelf life and requiring little after purchase than adding it to hot water. Coffee is not the same. It needs careful roasting and grinding, and every stage in the process also decreases its shelf life.
Hence the coffee drinker’s dilemma: buy it in bean form and the coffee will last longer, but you’ll have to risk roasting and grinding yourself; buy it roasted and ground by a professional and it will soon go stale.
One common solution that does not work is keeping it in the fridge. As Harish Bijoor, marketing guru and coffee expert, tells us, ground coffee is highly hygroscopic, picking up moisture from the fridge and other odours along with it. “It absorbs every taint,” he says. “Don’t be too surprised to find notes of cabbage or tomato in your coffee. You might as well be drinking Dhansak!”
Real coffee enthusiasts will learn how to roast and grind properly and to do so every day. Bijoor gives us one tip for the amateur roaster: buy ‘peaberry’, a term for a technical defect where only one bean forms from a coffee berry instead of the usual two. Because round peaberry beans are more likely to be the same size, they will roast more evenly than unevenly sized regular beans.
You also have to be careful to grind just right—too coarse and water just slips through without brewing enough; too fine and it clogs to get overbrewed and bitter.
So direct is the effect of the roasting and grinding on the final brew that I’d argue they even outweigh where the coffee comes from. Of course, real coffee purists, who buy Blue Mountain direct from Jamaica and boast of drinking ‘kapi luwak’, made from the choicest coffee beans eaten, digested and excreted by civet cats, will never agree, but this column is hardly meant for them.
For most of us, who want a good cup without insane effort, you’re best off finding a good roasting and grinding shop, and buying from them in small quantities.
And to do this the answer is simple: head for the South—South Indian neighbourhoods, that is, like Matunga in Mumbai or Lake Market in Kolkata where you’ll find the small coffee roasters that have a high turnover so you know you’re buying fresh. In Mumbai the Philips Coffee & Tea chain of stores—South Indian owned, naturally—provides good coffee across the city, with many swearing by their Highlander coffee.
In South India itself, each city will have its preferred suppliers, like Leo in Chennai, Narasus in the Salem area and so on. Small, dingy, unpretentious and with none of frills of modern retailing like air-conditioning, they will still provide excellent fresh coffee—and that incomparable aroma in plenty.

HOME BREW

Storing ground coffee in the fridge does not work. It will pick up moisture from the fridge, as well as odours
If you are not confident of your skills in roasting the beans right, go for peaberry beans as their round shape ensures they roast evenly
Still not sure about roasting coffee? Head to the South Indians neighbourhoods in your city and use the services of any of the small coffee roasters that have a high turnover

Fantacy at Midnight

2006-08-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

After dinner destinations are changing. Whereas people would head out to a pub or a coffee shop in the past, today’s generation is busy indulging its sweet tooth, finds Priya Pathiyan
GLOBALLY, from Greenwich Village to Greater Kailash, desserts are the dish du jour. People with a taste for tiramisu might enjoy it at any time of the day, but the new trend is for people to frequent dessert bars into the wee hours of the night.
Even in New York, despite the vibrant club scene, places like ChikaLicious, Cocoa Bar and Daniel’s dessert lounge have become hangout hotspots, especially for the chocoholically-inclined.
“Today, there’s a greater emphasis on fun conversation, which you can’t really indulge in if you’re in a noisy pub or disco. My friends and I prefer to hang out at the nearest parlour, gorging on pastries or icecream,” says 22-year-old Khyati Daryanani from Bangalore. And whether it is the simple pleasures of a brownie with ice-cream or an elaborate slice of decadence made from imported ingredients, Indians are increasingly familiar with all kinds of desserts. Across the country, people are pampering themselves with mousses, cheesecakes, mud pies, crème brûlées and much more. Observes Vijay Arora, owner of the hugely popular Gelato in Delhi, “Although our ice-creams like Ferrero Rocher and Belgian Chocolate are best-sellers, people love our sorbets, especially the kiwi one, and fruit sundaes as well.”
Dessert bars are coming into their own. Bunty Mahajan, proud proprietor of Deliciae, a dessert café in Bandra, Mumbai, says, “As of now, there are just a few places like ours that specialise only in desserts. Our clientele is varied, from 18-year-olds to the older agegroup, but they are all diehard dessert fans.”
Management consultant Chaitanya Mule admits, “My wife and I have decided to dedicate one night a week for sheer gastronomic indulgence. We treat ourselves to a three-course dessert meal, starting with something like a flaky pastry (apple or peach pie) with ice cream, going on to a cheesecake and ending with something extremely rich and chocolatey. The rest of the week, we watch our diets and work out, but this ritual is sacred!”
A dessert aficionado herself, Kainaz Messman, chef and owner of popular South Mumbai dessert bar, Theobroma, agrees: “Eating in moderation is the key. If you have a balanced diet and lead an active life, a dessert (or two!) will do no harm. They make you feel better instantly and they are much cheaper than therapy!”
And speaking of cheaper, the latest concept of a ‘dessert date’ suits people’s pockets better than a formal dinner. Anka Radakovich writes in the New York magazine: “The dating pecking order tends to go like this: dinner, drinks, coffee. Anything less than dinner tells your companion you’re less willing to invest, in one sense or another. But the dessert date, a trendy new courting ritual, sends no such message. It’s still cheap – without seeming that way.” Closer home as well, the younger generation has discovered the joys of pigging out in tandem, without worrying about the price tag. “My girlfriend and I meet at the dessert café almost every night. This way, we don’t spend a bomb, and are able to enjoy some cosy time. And plus, there’s chocolate!” enthuses collegian Neil Sequeira.
Getting your just desserts just got more exciting!

Start your Day with Coffee

2006-08-25T04:27:00.000-07:00

Coffee improves short-term memory and speeds up reaction times by acting on the brains prefrontal cortex, according to a new study.Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine how coffee activates different areas of the brain in 15 volunteers.
Caffeine modulates a higher brain function through its effect on areas of the brain, explains Florian Koppelstdtter, who carried out the research with colleagues at the Medical University at Innsbruck, Austria. Prior to testing, the group fasted for four to six hours, and abstained from caffeine and nicotine for at least 24 hours. Then they were then given either a cup of strong coffee containing 100 milligrams of caffeine or a caffeine-free placebo drink. After 20 minutes all participants underwent fMRI scans while carrying out a memory and concentration test. A few days afterwards the experiment was repeated under the same conditions but each received the other drink.

Executive memory
During the memory tests, participants were shown a fast sequence of capital letters, then flashed a single letter on a screen and told to decide quickly whether this letter was the same as the one which appeared second-to-last in the earlier sequence. They had to respond by pressing a Y for yes or N for no button. The group all showed activation of the working memory part of the brain,” Koppelstdtter explains. “But those who received caffeine had significantly greater activation in parts of the prefrontal lobe, known as the anterior cingulate and the anterior cingulate gyrus. These areas are involved in ‘executive memory’, attention, concentration, planning and monitoring.” This type of memory is used when, for example, you look up a telephone number in a book and then mentally store it
before dialling, he adds.

Pick-me-up
Koppelstdtter stresses that the study is preliminary and that he has yet to discover how long the memory effects last or what other effects coffee has on brain function. He adds that the longterm impact of caffeine use is also an important consideration. But he says the study shows that coffee has an effect on specific brain regions involved in memory and concentration that tallies with anecdotal evidence of the drink’s pickme-up effect.
Caffeine is known to influence adenosine receptors which are found throughout the brain on nerve cells and blood vessels. It is thought that the drug inhibits these receptors and that this excites the nerve cells in the brain. This may be the mechanism involved, suggests Koppelstdtter.
The research was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

All things nice

Coffee doesn’t affect your heart

2006-08-25T00:53:00.000-07:00

That hot (or cold) cup of coffee does not increase the risk of a heart attack.
Go ahead and have that second cup of coffee. A recent study shows that heavy, long-term coffee drinking does not raise the risk of heart disease for most people. However heavy coffee drinkers who tend to smoke and drink alcohol more often have chances of heart attacks, which followed 128,000 men and women for as long as 20 years, showed that drinking filtered coffee did not raise the risk of heart disease.
"We believe this study clearly shows there is no association between filtered coffee consumption and heart disease," said Esther Lopez, an instructor in the School of Medicine at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain, who worked on the study. This lack of effect is good news, because coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world.
There is no link between heart disease and how much caffeine people drink. But this does not mean that everyone can overload with impunity. "We can't exclude the association between coffee consumption and the risk of (heart disease) in small groups of people," Van Dam said in a statement.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that
people with a "slow" version of a particular liver enzyme gene had a higher risk of heart disease if they drank more coffee, compared to those with a fastmetabolising version. Liver enzymes metabolise coffee and many other compounds.
The researchers found more than half the women and 30 per cent of men who drank six
or more cups of coffee a day were also more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and use aspirin, and were less likely to drink tea, exercise or take vitamin supplements.
Once these factors were accounted for, there was no difference in heart attack risks between the light and heavy coffee drinkers.