Archive for June, 2010

Coffee And Heart Disease

Are drinkers of coffee more likely to experience strokes and heart attacks later in life? At first, it was thought to be the case since consuming four to five cups of coffee can increase your blood pressure by as much as 5 points. Coffee has also been linked to increased homocysteine levels in the blood which increases the risk for heart attacks.

More recent research, however, disputes these claims and states that its okay for coffee lovers to keep on consuming their favorite brews. Such a study included 20,000 Finnish women and men which indicated that coffee consumption did not lead to heart disease. In fact, studies indicate that those who drink coffee over tea are much more likely to have healthy hearts.

One Scottish Hearth Health study observed individuals who drank larges amounts of tea or coffee. Because it has antioxidants, many believe that tea is better for you than coffee. Antioxidants are believed to stop good cholesterol from turning bad, resulting in heart disease in addition to reducing the risks of cancer.

This particular study observed 11,000 women and men from the ages of 40 to 59. The participants for this seven-year study were selected randomly. Each day, they consumed up to 21 cups of coffee and 36 cups of tea.

Long term, coffee proved to be the better option in the Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. More so than tea drinkers, coffee drinkers were observed to have better overall and heart health. Lower rates of heart disease have been linked to increased consumption of coffee. This was not true of tea.

In a Harvard School of Public Health study, research indicates that drinking up to six cups daily can prevent premature death caused by heart disease. It reviewed the coffee consumption habits of 41,736 men and 86,216 women who were followed for up to 24 years.

Research showed that heart disease risk decreased with more coffee consumption.

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June 16 2010 | coffee | No Comments »

The Cappucino Revolution

Tracing back the roots of the coffee wonder, cappuccino takes as back in Italy, where ingredients like espresso, hot milk, steam-milk foam and of course coffee are combined to a rich and creamy taste. The name cappuccino is derived from the Capuchin friars mainly because of their religious attires at that time, their general appearances of having a white head and a remaining ring of brown hair.

First, a cappucino uses less milk that a latte which supposedly was invented to suit American tastes and is basically a cappucino with more milk. Secondly, the layer of foam may or may not be on lattes. There are some similarities in the usage: a wet cappuccino is basically the same as a short latte that just has more foam. American coffee chains, such as Starbucks, may serve lattes and cappuccinos at identical sizes, and only distinguishing them by greater foam in the cappuccino.

In comparison with the regular caffe' latte, it has also its own share of frothed milk to be able for it to express and a wet cappuccino equals a short latte, although anyone can see few differences. Latte doesn't necessarily come with the milk foam, but for the cappuccino, it's an essential. Another is that cappuccino uses relatively less milk than the latte, the latter being invented to suit the taste of American coffee drinkers. In some coffee shops like the famous Starbucks, both coffees at the same size but only distinguished by the quantity of the milk foam in it, latte having lesser.

In Europe, traditional cappuccinos served with an average of 150 ml and 180 ml of espresso, however most of the American coffee shops serve as much as a twelve ounce one.One requirement in making a nice cappuccino is the espresso machine. The espresso machine was introduced by Luigi Bezzera of Milan in the early years of the 20th century in 1901. Later then, most of the coffee servers and restaurants would use and even improve espresso machines thus gaining widespread popularity from the coffee drinking public after the World War II. Later in the 1950s the world welcomed the birth of more modern and high-pressure machines which we are currently using.

In Italy the cappuccino is drunk in the morning and rarely after 11:00 am. The greatest aspect in the preparation of a cappuccino, second to a shot of espresso, is the texture and temperature and texture of the milk.Whenever the milk is heated for a cappuccino tiny air bubbles are introduced into the milk,causing the formation of foam.

Cappuccino is basically an espresso on which foamed milk is poured,creating a 2cm thick foam on top.There are a variety of mixtures called cappuccino scuro (also called dry or dark cappucino)with more foam and less milk and cappuccino chiaro(wet cappuccino also known as as white cappuccino) if they have an excessive amount of milk. The cappuccino is one of the hardest espresso-based beverages to prepare,because one has to pay close attention when steaming the milk.It is required that all water in the nozzle left from milk which was previously steamed,be removed and not be allowed to get into the milk.

It is essential to remove all of the water from the nozzle left from previous steaming of the milk it into the milk. Cappuccino was originally served in Europe, Australia, South Africa, South America and some of North America. Cappuccino was much popular with North Americans by the mid-1990s, when upscale coffee shops sprang up.

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June 15 2010 | coffee | No Comments »

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