Swiss Water

We are excited about our mini road trip to Seattle at the end of this month for Coffee Fest. As the ultimate coffee city on the west coast with tons of great coffee shops and lots to see and do, it’s shaping up to be a fantastic way to spend the Halloween weekend. We will be exhibiting a booth at the show and are abandoning the press pots this year and instead will be sampling a variety of our current decaf coffees on our Hario pour-over.

Andrea, Nicole, Tad, Dee, and Jinnie will be at the show, so come say hello and meet some of the newest members of our team. Find us at booth #1118.

Do not adjust your monitor, (or turn it on its side) the image you see above is real. Since the invention of coffee, the places serving it have always been inspiring gathering places for artists and innovators, so it only makes sense that cafes be just as unique as the people often sitting in them. We came across this one on Madison Avenue in New York on the architectural and interior design blog, Contemporist. If you think things at D’espresso are looking a little sideways, they are. That’s because the interior is inspired by the nearby Bryant Park library, a convincing rendition indeed, except for the fact that it’s been turned on its side. Perhaps a more appropriate name for this place might be Time For Decaf. Have you seen any inspiring Cafe interiors lately?

View more photos of D’espresso at Contemporist
Visit D’espresso in New York

If you haven’t seen this Youtube of 11yr old Birke Baehr speaking at TEDxNextGeneration about the food system in North America and what we can do to help fix some of its faults, you’re in for a treat. It was posted only one week ago and has already racked up over 100, 000 views, proving that when kids speak passionately about things, people listen. We’ll leave most of what Birke had to say about the problems the food industry is currently dealing with to him, but a few key points from his short speech that stood out were:

- A few simple, small changes can make a big difference
- Hospital bills are more costly than the price of eating organically
- Kids would eat more vegetables and fresh foods if they knew more about them
- Think local, know your farmer, and know your food

TEDxNextGeneration is a speaker forum for the next generation of thinkers, artists, scientists, social activists and entrepreneurs. You can watch more videos like this one on their site.

This Sunday morning you can come here, and in the video player above this post, watch a live stream of the 2010 Canadian Barista Championship in Toronto. The competition is being held as part for the two day Canadian Coffee & Tea show at the International Centre in Mississauga. Last years winner was Vancouver barista Kyle Straw, and a list of this years competitors can be found here. Since the baristas are required to present to judges 12 different coffee concoctions in under 15 minutes, it should be an entertaining event, so don’t miss it.

Come back to our blog on Sunday (September 26th, 2010) at 8:00am EDT and on Monday, the 27th, at Noon for the second half of the competition. We’ll be watching, so grab a coffee and join us. And may the best barista win!

As you may have noticed, we’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter over the past year. It’s a fantastic way to gain insight into our customers and their concerns about the food and beverages they’re consuming. It’s also a powerful tool that helps us connect with our many partners and coffee industry friends.

One thing that we underestimated though, when we started out with twitter.com/swisswater, was the amount of conversation that goes on surrounding decaffeinated coffee. Over the year, we’ve seen it all (well almost all). Sometimes up to thirty tweets a day, all of them talking about decaf. And while it doesn’t exactly trend as popularly as the king of Twitter, Mr. Justin Bieber, it can be interesting to see what people are saying about the often under appreciated, but definitely undervalued role that decaf plays in the world of coffee. So let’s take a moment to peruse just a small handful of conversations that took place about decaf on September 16th and 17th, 2010.

Often on the minds of Twitter users is the question, “why decaf?” Realized with a simple tweet like the one from @nart1s, who posed the question to one of their followers on September 16th at 12:56pm, “@CallingAdam decaf? What’s the point? :p”

Never mind simplicity though, Twitter users can get very imaginative in their 140 character descriptions of decaffeinated coffee, like @Cinaoleary26at who at 12:43pm on September 17th compared decaf to – a sausage? “@deanodown decaf coffee is like…. Quorn Sausages = Pointless!!!” If you had to Google “Quorn Sausage,” you’re not alone. As it turns out, it’s a brand of meatless sausage, who knew!?

Then there’s @BrenyAndTheJets who likens drinking decaf to shapeshifting, and dispatched the following tweet at 3:05pm on the 16th of September, “If you drink decaf, you might be a shapeshifter gone wrong.” We’re not too sure about shapeshifting? But there is a lot of science involved with the decaffeination of coffee, so maybe Breny is onto something.

Of course every conversation has two sides to it. Thankfully, for every tweet questioning decaf, there’s always another user raving about it, like @deluxeGourmet who wondered at 5:20pm on the 16th of September, “Is it bad to be addicted to decaf coffee??” To which we have always said, everything in moderation!

Decaf drinkers rely on their coffee being without caffeine, and we hate to see a decaf drinker dealing with caffeine getting into their system accidentally, especially if they’re not used to it, like @frostnip. You can just hear the panic in their September 16th, 8:33 AM tweet, “That. Wasn’t. DECAF!!!!!” What a way to start the day.

We see regular coffee drinkers realizing they’ve accidentally been served the decaffeinated version of what they’re used to as well, exemplified in @Tei_Babi’s September 16th, 9:25am message, “I think starbucks gave me decaf cuz i sure am still sleepy.”

Obviously we’re having a bit of fun here to make a point, but we’re passionate about what we do, and when we see a post like the one from @chadney at 1:52pm on the 16th of September, which was directed towards one of our Licensed Vendors, “@49thParallel My wife, who can’t really consume caffeine, really enjoys your decaf espresso.” It validates what we do, and reminds us that there is a place for decaf on the palettes of coffee lovers, especially those who can’t ingest caffeine.

Unfortunately, another thing we see on Twitter a lot is the way caffeine can wreak havoc on some of our stomachs, either unsuspectingly or predictably, like the tweet sent out from the account of user @Amanda_Rudelt at 10:45am on September 16th, “I am starting to very reluctantly think coffee is making my tummy worse. I wonder if decaf will help. And yes I feel that bad.” We hope she’s feeling better by now.

At the end of the day, what can be learned from these conversations is that caffeine affects us all differently. Some of us obviously love it, while others – like it or not – can’t stomach it, for a variety of reasons. So there will always be decaf, and we suspect as long there is decaffeinated coffee, people will be talking about it and of course we’ll be listening.

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Good fat!? Certainly you had a moment when you first heard the term and found your imagination running wild with endless enjoyment of foods on your no-go list. Well, unfortunately that’s not quite the case with a good fat. If you’re not quite certain of what the term means, let’s take a quick moment to get familiar with good and bad fats.

What you’re likely already aware of is that the term “good fat” isn’t really referring to fat, like butter, but rather it’s making claim to foods high in Fatty Acids, specifically food that is high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids. This is what is often referred to as a “good fat.” Omega-3 Fatty Acids are found in cold-water fish and shellfish; along with nuts, algae, plant oils, some types of walnuts, flax, and fortified foods. Or you can skip the hunt and just take supplements. High in protein, vitamins, and minerals while low in saturated fat (that’s a bad fat for sure) there is a plethora of evidence out there that support omega-3’s as a source of protection from diseases like cancer, asthma, depression, cardiovascular disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.

These findings have been public for some time, so it’s likely you’re on board with omega-3’s. Still, we often wind up confusing good and bad. So now that we’ve introduced you to good fatty, meet omega3’s much more omnipresent partner in crime; omega-6.

Unfortunately most North American diets are rife with omega-6 fatty acids instead of omega-3’s. You might recognize omega-6 in one of its tastier, but much unhealthier incarnations like cookies, crackers, farm raised fish, egg yolks, and all manner of processed foods.

Omega-3 good, Omega-6, bad. Sounds easy! Right? Well, it is, but unfortunately there is one small point that we’ve decided to leave for last, and that’s the possible exposure to toxins that can arise from consuming a lot of fish. If you drink Swiss Water Processed decaffeinated coffee, it’s likely you’re not a fan of toxins coming into contact with your food, or used in the processing of that food.

Mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s) are common toxins in seafood. And while many countries have banned the use of PCB’s as far back as 1976, these and other chemicals are still present in the air, soil, and most importantly for fish lovers, the water. The end result being that they wind up in the bodies of the fish we’re consuming and make our way into us.

So eating fish requires some diligence and knowledge to ensure we’re doing the best we can at pursuing a decaf life, but still getting in on the omega-3 goodness fish offers. Eating fish, safely and sustainably is really the subject of an entire blog post unto itself. For now though, just keep in mind that safer fish sources include:

- Canned light tuna
- Catfish
- Pollock
- Salmon, especially wild salmon
- Shrimp

And let’s not forget our prior post about natural dieting where we mentioned the benefits of tuna and to get it packed in water, not oil. Tuna packed in oil mixes nicely with all the fish oils that are laden in omega-3’s, and often wind up down the sink. Not good. And being the ethically minded coffee lovers we are, the fishing industry requires our integrity too, so make sure you do some investigation into making sure you’re pursuing sustainably and ethically caught and handled fish; this guide can help you. Ok, so we’re sorry good fat isn’t a license to endless containers of ice cream, but if you ramp up your omega-3’s and continue to pursue a healthy diet sprinkled with some exercise, you can easily enjoy your favourite indulgences in moderation. Which is kind of like transforming a bad fat into a good one.

One of our readers following us on Facebook saw a feature on healthy eating tips while watching a Canadian lifestyle television show called Cityline and thought we might be interested in a recipe they made during the program since its main ingredient is quinoa, a grain-like seed that’s high in protein. That’s not all though, quinoa has an amazing array of health benefits that, just to name a few, include:

- Antioxidants
- Protection against Breast Cancer
- Cardio benefits for postmenopausal women
- Eases Migraine Headache frequency

You can get the details of how quinoa specifically achieves these health benefits on a more detailed blog about it over at Whfoods. For now though, let’s get cooking with quinoa by trying out a salad that features almonds, oranges and of course,  quinoa!

Toasted Almond And Mandarin Orange Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:
2 cups of quinoa, rinsed well
3 cups of water
2 284 ml of mandarin orange segments
1 red pepper, thinly sliced into strips
1 bunch of green onion, chopped
100 grams of slivered almonds, lightly toasted

Sauce:
1/2 cup of orange juice
1 large seedless orange peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbsp. of finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp of minced ginger
1 tsp of sesame oil

Method:
Rinse quinoa well. 
Combine 2 cups of quinoa with 3 cups of water – bring to boil, cover with tight fitting lid and simmer for 12-15 minutes. 
Fluff quinoa with fork. 
Add in mandarin oranges, red pepper slices, green onions and toasted almonds and mix. 
Combine all ingredients for sauce and bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 10 minutes.
 Drizzle sauce over top of quinoa and enjoy.

Recipe courtesy of drjoey.com and Cityline

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It can be frustrating to see people with rake-thin physiques seemingly enjoying all the food they want while most of us are feeling the constraints of our latest dieting tactic. Common sense gets the better of us when we’re confronted with these frustrating moments. Everyone comes in different sizes, everyone has different diets, nobody is the same, etc. We know this! But it can still be something that’s easy to forget under what is often perceived as the oppressive activity of dieting.

One of the main reasons for disparity between body types, food intake and dieting success and/or failure is metabolism. Let’s face it, you’re either blessed, cursed, or somewhere in the middle, because everyone has a different metabolic rate. Wherever you fall into the metabolism lottery is not something that you can control, however, there are plenty of natural steps you can take so that you’re working with your metabolism, and not against it. Metabolism doesn’t only regulate our body weight, it can play a major roll in the way we feel throughout the day too. What follows are just a few basic things you should know about metabolism.

Water has a huge impact on how the body’s energy level systems are controlled, and this couldn’t be more true with its effect on metabolism. Dehydration will cause the body to diminish the desire to produce energy. We like the 8×8 rule which should find you consuming 8, 8oz glasses of water in a day. If you’re feeling sluggish mid-day, it can often be because you’re thirsty, not hungry.

Next, the time you choose to consume your food can have an impact on how it effects your metabolism. So instead of cutting back on the amount of food you eat, think about when you’re eating it. You should be striving to eat bigger, more frequent meals early in the day with a snack or two between, when you’re body most needs it. Save the lighter fare for night time.

Carbs, much the enemy of dieters lately, but reducing carbs also decreases metabolism as a response. Probably not the answer you wanted to hear from your body when you decided to take the high road and pat yourself on the back by skipping the pasta last night.

And lastly, it’s exercise that probably plays the biggest roll in how we metabolize food; obviously. The benefit of exercise that you’ll really like is that even after you’ve finished your workout the metabolism level in your body will be increased for hours afterward.

These tips might seem like things you’ve heard before, but it’s easy to lose site of them during the day to day doldrums of dieting. Especially if you’re surrounded by friends happily consuming anything and everything they want because they may have a different metabolism than you. Hopefully, with these few simple steps, you’ll be able to have a little more energy in your day and maybe even burn off a few extra calories by getting a handle on something that has a high degree of fluctuation.

What we like most about these tips though, is that their natural. There’s nothing to buy, no supplements to take, or gimmicks to subscribe to, just simple common sense trying to get through to our bodies.

We never thought that we’d be discussing George Clooney and John Malkovich here on our blog. There’s a first for everything though, and these latest ads being shown only in the United Kingdom feature the A-list actors as angels in heaven with an innate desire for the perfect cup of coffee. Yes, they love the Nespresso in heaven, and angels apparently need their coffee too. According to these ads, though, it would seem that they can enjoy it at all times of the day, drink as much of it as they want, and never have to worry about going to sleep! That’s because, according to John Malkovich’s character, they don’t sleep in heaven. Lucky them!

Well, that’s all fine for angels, but down here on earth, us commoners need our sleep. Sure, we’d like to while away endless hours sipping coffee, but some of us have diets that can’t handle caffeine in any form. Then there’s real life and the parts of it that will find coffee drinkers re-addressing the presence of caffeine in their diets due to things like pregnancy, nursing, and menopause. And let’s not forget the coffee lover who made the mistake of enjoying one last cappuccino too late in the day only to find themselves tossing and turning all night long.

You’ve probably figured out by now that while these ads are pretty entertaining, we’re using the one above as a departure point for a larger discussion about decaffeinated coffee. It’s easy to lose sight of decaf’s necessity, and as part of the many conversations we follow on Twitter we see users questioning its value all the time. So, just a quick reminder that we’re not all alike (wouldn’t that be boring!) And that decaf drinkers need a premium, naturally decaffeinated coffee, that’s organically processed for as many reasons as their are coffee varietals. As it turns out, decaf is the drink for us mere mortals, well, some of us anyway.

Watch more Nespresso commercials that feature George and John

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If you liked the caffeine poster that we posted to our Facebook back in January that plotted the levels of caffeine found in many popular beverages in a rather attractive info graphic style, then we’re sure you’ll like this.

The boutique agency, Plaid on Spring Street in Manhattan has designed a visually efficient representation of the many ways in which we enjoy our beans. It’s all here: Basic Black, Red Eye, Triplo, and The Miami Vice (we haven’t a clue what that might entail) in a nice graphic representation for your home, office, or if you’re like many of our coffee industry readers, your café.

The poster is called The Perfect Pour and Plaid has printed 500 of these gems on high quality paper. If you’re interested in getting one, they have all the ordering information on their website. We’re guessing that we’ll have to wait until ours arrives to figure out what a “Miami Vice” is.