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» Slayer Espresso » Direct Trade vs Coffee Certifications
This was a good read – and some interesting observations which illustrate some of possible pitfalls of fair trade programs.

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Certainly not the most appetizing sounding blend… but what can you expect from an ugly cat? Actually looks like a skunk.

Sounds like the excessive price was chosen purely to generate publicity – much like the publicity over the high auction prices of some of the Esmeralda coffee’s over the last few months.

The other coffee used in the blend – the Jamaican Blue Mountain I have had before – many years ago actually – and back then it was sold by the gram! I recall getting enough coffee for one pot of coffee for about $5o.

Read more about the $100 shot of coffee here

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Carlos Martin – CoffeeGeek

Two people died tragically recently. Two people I didn’t know anything about. Yet when I heard the news, their senseless deaths consumed many of my random thoughts and even some of my dreams.

Lately I’ve become more interested in the regions where coffee is grown, particularly after seeing Black Gold, and a recent Fifth Estate episode about a boy that came into Canada from Guatemala.

It’s an eye opener to see how people live, and how their livelihood depends upon the coffee bean, and how corporations have done little to help.  This awareness adds to my own selectiveness in choosing which coffee to buy – it means more to me now when I buy a pound of coffee knowing that a greater portion of the price that I pay actually gets into the hands of the people that need it most.

Mark Prince’s article about Carlos Martin is a moving one…. and it brings us all a bit closer to the origins of the beans we buy.

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It seems that there seems to be a general consensus that coffee is bad for you. Just the other day I was watching Leo Laporte’s show on G4, and during his intro he was commenting about how he felt he drank too much coffee, and that he should stop drinking it. I was kind of surprised, as I had heard the contrary – that there are actually many health benefits of coffee consumption in moderation.

Some of the research has been going on for almost 20 years, and has included thousands of people.  Also, many of the benefits are realized with caffeinated coffee… so if you’re drinking decaf because you think it’s healthier – think again ;^)

Here are a couple reports that I’ve come across that tout some of the beneficial side effects (again, it’s all about moderation) :

• Health Benefits of Coffee – WebMD
  There seems to be a lot of benefits, reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, diabetes…
• Harvard Women’s Health Watch

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