Poor Farmer

By  Lizette Borreli Medical Daily November 26, 2014 When asked “How do you take your coffee?” most of us specify whether or not we want cream, sugar, or milk as a way to perfect our caffeinated beverage of choice. However, one thing that stands between us and drinking the best cup of coffee is the color of our mug. According to a recent  study  published in the journal  Flavour , the color of our mug can affect the way we perceive the taste of our coffee. The color of your coffee mug can make the difference between a bitter  and sweet tasting cup of caffeine. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock via Medical Daily The color and design of a product can affect consumers’ perceptions.  Louis Cheskin , psychologist and marketer, increased margarine sales in the 1940s when he suggested it be colored yellow to more closely resemble butter. Now, researchers from the Federation University Australia, believe café owners, baristas, and kitche...

By Luc Cohen Reuters NEW YORK  (Reuters) -   Starbucks   Corp has this year bought coffee beans from   China   at its highest volume ever, shipping data show, reflecting the country's burgeoning role as bean supplier amid supply concerns among traditional exporters. The world's biggest coffee chain imported nearly 14,000 bags of arabica beans from   China   into the United States in the first nine months of 2014, more than five times last year's total, according to data from shipping intelligence firm PIERS, which aggregates cargo manifest details from customs data. Customers walk out of a Starbucks coffee store in Shanghai July 28, 2014.  Courtesy of Reuters ( CREDIT: REUTERS/ CARLOS BARRIA) That is a fraction of total coffee imports by   Starbucks   - also the leading overall importer - from across the globe in the January-September period, but the company's purchases represent more than half of China's cof...

Stars are turning their love of java into a side business as they open cafes and lines of beans. By Gina Pace NEW YORK DAILY NEWS November 16, 2014 Get ready for a new kind of celebrity roast. Hollywood heavyweights — including Leonardo DiCaprio, Hugh Jackman and David Lynch — want to be in your morning coffee cup — the latest A-listers to join usual suspects such as Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart who turn their love of java into a side business. Here we go again. Stars have been hawking products since Archimedes sold a novel way of moving water from one place to another. More recently, Paul Newman set the standard for star products with his salad dressings, lemonade and pasta sauces, but the trend has continued with Francis Ford Coppola and Dan Aykroyd making wine, Elizabeth Hurley selling organic snack bars and jerky, and Jessica Alba hawking home products. So now it’s big stars and coffee bars. You can be forgiven if you’d prefer to grind your ax rather ...