Soda Just Can’t Win Against Coffee

You may have not heard the great news lately that coffee is actually good for you, but it is. As it turns out, this most loved of drinks actually is good for your health in a variety of ways. Now if that isn't good news, what is? The fact that a moderate amount of coffee can be enjoyed and has health benefits is nothing short of fantastic. Let's take a look at a few of the ways that coffee can help your overall health now and in the future.

If you are concerned about how much sugar you get on a daily basis, then you should definitely drop the soda can and switch to the more logical alternative, coffee. Coffee, unlike soda, is free of all that sugar. The average soda can is brimming full of sugar, whereas coffee, on the other hand, only has as much sugar as you want to give it. Of course, this means that the control is in your hands. But this is not the case with a can of soda. With a can of soda, you are essentially at the mercy of the soda manufacturer in terms of how much sugar you consume.

Of course there is also the very important issue of sugar. Soda might as well be called "chemical-sugar water," for in reality that is exactly what soda happens to be. Most of the sodas on the market are really just liquid mechanisms for the delivery of large amounts of sugar. Look at the back of any soda can, and you will likely be shocked to see how much sugar is in just one can. Coffee doesn't have this problem, unless you add the sugar yourself. We have all seen the movies and television shows where characters add ridiculous amounts of sugar to their coffee. But that doesn't mean you need to do it. With coffee you have a choice, but you don't have a choice with soda.

It is important to note that coffee does not have artificial sweeteners. Many diet soda not only has chemicals, but they are artificial sweeteners that have been the cause of serious medical concern. One easy way to avoid these sweeteners is to simply drink coffee instead of soda. By doing so you can regulate what you are putting in your coffee.

There are many choices available as the beverage market is one of the more competitive markets in the food industry. Yet, with that stated, there is no real room for doubt where the comparison between soda and coffee are concerned. In the end, coffee is the superior pick.

Rik Philips is a chocolate and coffee snob, and he readily admits it! Rik's parents infused him with a love of the coffee bean and chocolate at a young age. Rik loves to write about his passions whenever he has the chance. He seeks to spread the word about the finer aspects of organic coffee and dark chocolate. Often you can find Rik indulging at both at one of Austin, Texas's finer coffee houses.

Related posts

• Coffee – Varieties Around The World (0)
• Coffee – Straight or Mixed? – A Purist Reforms (0)
• Coffee – Specialty Coffees (0)
• Coffee – Specialty Coffees (0)
• Coffee – From the Tree to Your Cup (0)

March 09 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments »

Coffee – From the Tree to Your Cup

The harvesting of coffee beans is a huge industry. Coffee is second only to oil as a worldwide commodity.

Though there are dozens of bean varieties, the plants fall into two main classes: the arabica, first cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula, and the robusta which contains about twice the caffeine.

The fruit is not of any interest to coffee growers. It simply serves as a protective home to the valuable seed, or bean, that it holds inside. This beans is the start for the over 400 millions cups of coffee made worldwide on a daily basis.

The beans come in two main varieties, green and red, with the latter - with its higher aromatic oil and lower acid content - used to produce the finer coffees. Hence one of the most important stages in the life cycle of bean to shelf is the picking.

Must of the fruit is hand picked. This is a slow process. But it requires skill to be able to correctly distinguish between the beans picked and separate the red from the green.

After the fruit it is soaked and scoured to remove the beans from its center. After being removed the beans are cleaned to remove any excess fruit. The beans are then laid out on the ground to dry in the sun until almost all moisture from the bean is evaporated away.

Once dried the beans are separated. Some of this work is still done by hand, though machines are now more prevalent to do this part of the job. Once sorted, some beans are allowed to age from between 3 to 8 years, to be used later to make special types of coffees. Others are set aside to be roasted within the same year picked.

During the 400-degree Fahrenheit roasting the beans expand to about twice their dry size, crack and change color from green to brown as oil in the interior is released. It's this oil that gives the different coffees their basic flavor.

Once roasted the bags must be allowed to stand so that the carbon dioxide that they produce can dissipate. Roasting is done to different degrees to produce different flavors of coffees. Kenya and Java have a technique of lightly roasting their beans and this gives their coffee bean a unique flavor.

Related posts

• Coffee – From Beans to Shelf (0)
• Coffee – Varieties Around The World (0)
• Coffee – Straight or Mixed? – A Purist Reforms (0)
• Coffee – Specialty Coffees (0)
• Coffee – Specialty Coffees (0)

July 27 2009 | coffee | No Comments »