Tag: coffee

Coffee drinkers urged to take the plunge on recycling pods – dpa international

Anyone who has gotten into using coffee pods instead of old-school formulas using stove-top moka pots or plunger-style cafetieres has been faced with a dilemma: what to do with the used plastic shells. A British-Brazilian team has an answer. And it is not to tell coffee drinkers to stick to the tried and trusted methods preferred by purists, be that the high-pressure drip of an espresso or the aroma-tinged wait for a jug of pressed coffee to gain strength. Rather than end up in a landfill, the plastic in the pods can be re-fashioned to make filament for 3D printers. The team, from Manchester Metropolitan University and the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil, the world’s biggest coffee producer, tested the repurposed plastic out before writing up the results for the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Majority in most resource-rich countries set to remain poor – dpa international

DUBLIN — Despite often living in some of the world’s most resource-rich lands, people in many developing countries face continued poverty due to reliance on commodity exports, according to the UN. In a report published on Wednesday, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said many of the world’s poorer nations depend too much on exporting natural resources and are seemingly “locked into this undesirable state.” A “commodity-dependent” economy gets 60 per cent of merchandise export revenues from sales of goods such as coffee, gas, metals and oil, according to UNCTAD – trade which is “strongly associated with low levels of technology” and “low levels of labour productivity, low productivity growth.” In 2019, two-thirds of developing countries were commodity-dependent, compared to 13 per cent of wealthy or developed economies.

Pandemic restrictions pushing coffee prices up and undermining production – dpa international

Sign outside a Dublin coffeeshop. Cafes in Ireland have been restricted to takeaway services, and more recentky, offering outdoors dining, since December 2020 (Simon Roughneen)

DUBLIN — Even as the coronavirus pandemic has receded in some parts of the world, coffee drinkers might not be able to sip in peace anytime soon: According to a recent analysis, coronavirus restrictions have likely spurred a crisis across the global coffee industry. In a study published by the National Academy of Sciences in the US, researchers led by academics from Rutgers University said “socio-economic disruptions” since the start of the pandemic “are likely to drive the coffee industry into another severe production crisis.” Lead author Kevon Rhiney warned of “serious implications for millions of people across the globe” if there is turmoil in the sector.

Coffee in moderation lowers likelihood of deadly liver disease – dpa international

DUBLIN — Coffee not only takes bleary out of bleary-eyed, according to British scientists, but lowers the likelihood of liver disease so long as it’s no more than three or four cups a day. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Southampton looked at health data for almost half a million people and concluded that “drinking any type of coffee was associated with a reduced risk of developing and dying from chronic liver disease compared to not drinking coffee.” According to Oliver Kennedy, the lead author of the study, which was published by BioMedCentral, a Springer Nature journal, coffee “could offer a potential preventative treatment for chronic liver disease.”

Healthy versus hip – Nikkei Asian Review

JAKARTA — The tea industry has watched in envy as coffee’s cachet has skyrocketed across Asia, and now it wants a piece of the action. But it faces a difficult challenge: How to convince people that something they’ve been quaffing like water all their lives can be a premium product.  Eliawati Erly, vice president of David Roy Indonesia, the local distributor for Sri Lankan brand Dilmah Tea, recognizes that developing a culture of cool around tea won’t be easy. “People are accustomed to having tea and teh botol (bottled tea drinks sold in shops) since they are young,” she said.  Erly and others in the tea industry are well-aware of how coffee companies have benefited from promoting the ethical sourcing of beans and the distinct qualities of single-origin roasts from specific regions.

Big Tea takes aim at coffee’s crafted cool – Nikkei Asian Review

JAKARTA — Businessmen clad in batik shirts tap on laptops and smartphones, while women in designer Muslim garb chat over pots of hot chai and browse menus listing hundreds of teas, from the exotic (Yellow Gold Tea Buds from China) to the commonplace (English Breakfast). This crowd, a mix of old and young and mostly well-to-do, has made the TWG shop in the Pacific Place mall in Jakarta a lively meeting point in the city. With dozens of these boutique tea shops across Asia offering fine dining and veneered furnishings, Singapore’s The Wellbeing Group, known as TWG, is trying “to bring a new era of tea appreciation” in the region, said Trixie Anindita, the group’s communication and operation manager in Indonesia.

Pods vie to tempt Southeast Asia’s coffee drinkers – Nikkei Asian Review

JAKARTA — Southeast Asia hosts some of the world’s leading coffee growers and exporters, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, the world’s fourth- and second-biggest producers respectively. Neighbors such as East Timor, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand are home to smaller coffee-growing regions. Their beans have typically been for export. Many end up in cups in countries such as the U.S., the biggest importing country, and Italy, the third-biggest importer, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Italy is also the home of espresso, the strong and sometimes bitter caffeine shot that for many drinkers is the quintessential coffee pour. Now, coffee consumption is on the rise in what were mainly exporting countries of the region, and the race is on to see which kind of coffee will lure would-be local drinkers.

Growing economy darkens Sri Lanka’s tea future – Nikkei Asian Review

NUWARA ELIYA, Sri Lanka — K. Sagunthaladavi, 36, has spent half her life among the waist-high bushes that cover the verdurous slopes of Sri Lanka’s tea country, plucking hundreds of thousands of the green leaves used to make one of the world’s oldest and most popular drinks.