Technology - Dutch power company to use coffee husks as fuel

 

Arnhem - Development organisation Solidaridad and Dutch energy company Essent have introduced a new form of biomass using coffee husks as raw material. The coffee husks are a residual product from Brazilian coffee cultivation and suitable for replacing coal or other fossil fuels to produce electricity in some of Essent's power stations. Using coffee husks as fuel to generate green electricity is a world first, says the company. Early calculations of output, says Esset, show that with this innovation it will very soon be possible to achieve a CO2 reduction of at least 90 per cent, compared to an average Dutch power station.

The certified coffee companies that supply the raw material work with respect for people and the environment. The coffee harvest in Brazil produces the coffee husks that are compressed to pellets. At the end of this year, the entire production (c. 5.000 tonnes) from this first year, will be used in The Netherlands to generate green electricity at Essent's Amer power station in Geertruidenberg. If the whole process is successful, there will be a second load of about 20,000 tonnes. In Brazil there is a potential of 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of coffee husk pellets available on an annual basis. This is sufficient to provide more than 100,000 households with green electricity for a year.

Essent is keen to stress that the coffee husk is not edible, there is no competition with the food or animal feed chains. It is a residual product with a value of about five per cent of the main product. The new market is not expected to cause any expansion of this cultivation and there will not be any additional pressure on nature and small farmers. The coffee farmers involved are all certified in accordance with the standards of Utz Certified and/or Rainforest Alliance. They now have an extra income thanks to the sale of coffee husks.

The Doen Foundation is supporting the project because it is making a positive contribution to solving the climate problem.

(Souce: Biofuelreview)

 

Asia /3 - Thai Nacha coffee gains world-class status

 

Bangkok - Nacha Coffee, the latest winner of the Asia Best Coffee Award, is ready to introduce its locally roasted Arabica coffee to the Thai market.

''Jamaica has its Blue Mountain Coffee while Hawaii enjoys the fame of its [Kona] coffee. Now we can say Thailand has Nacha Coffee up to world coffee cupping standards,'' Chanon Pongcharoenkul, president of Nacha International Co said proudly.

Nacha stood out among 104 entries at the awards held in Long Beach, California two months ago by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), the world's most recognised coffee association. The award has put Thai coffee is now on the world map alongside the country's popular food and fruit, Mr Chanon said.

Nacha received an 84% rating, putting it in the same category as Kona which scored 85% to 87%, said Mr Chanon.

''It surprised tasters around the world as they didn't know that Thailand could produce world-class coffee,'' he said.

Nacha Arabica beans are grown in Chiang Mai's Doi Saket, a large plantation site that lies about 1,200 metres above sea level. ''It's good to make it at a single plantation as we're able to control product quality, taste and ensure the product is free from chemical fertilisers,'' Mr Chanon said.

About 150 tonnes of coffee beans are produced every year and the company started supplying the beans under its own brand, Nacha Coffee, to Chiang Mai's finest hotels two months ago.

Mr Chanon said that with the award and the market response, the company planned to supply the beans to more fine hotels, restaurants and coffee shops in big cities. It also plans to export coffee to Thai restaurants in foreign markets, especially the United States and Japan.

To promote local sales, Nacha will offer cupping classes to help consumers differentiate quality and recognise premium grades. ''It's an appropriate time to launch Nacha Coffee in Thailand as fresh coffee has become popular in the last ten years,'' Mr Chanon said.

Thai people consume about 500 grammes of coffee per head per year, compared with three kg in the United States

 

interview - Growth in gourmet coffee market has only just begun, Illy says

 

Milan - “If there were only Armani, there wouldn't be an Italian fashion industry—just Armani. But because there are competing Italian fashion brands, there is a whole industry, and Armani itself is bigger”. So says Andrea Illy in an interview published in this week’s edition of The Economist. illycaffè’s 42-year-old Ceo, who was recently in New York to launch the “Beauty has a taste” event at the Time Warner Centre, is described as the Armani of coffee, he “looks every inch an Italian fashion executive  says the article - but is in fact the boss of a family coffee firm”. According to The Economist, there is another analogy with Armani: it is in the way he praises his rivals, starting from Starbucks. “Starbucks has done an excellent job of raising consumer interest in coffee, especially in premium coffees,” Mr Illy says, adding that today's booming market for gourmet coffee is the product of vigorous co-opetition” between various kinds of firm—Starbucks and similar retail chains, big conglomerates such as Nestlé, and upmarket coffee brands such as illy. “Eight years ago, people talked of coffee as a commodity; now, nobody does,” he says.

According to Mr Illy, the growth of the market in gourmet coffee has only just begun and there is a huge potential on the upside. Speaking about his firm he claims (though some espresso-lovers dispute this), that illycaffè has been responsible for three of the seven big innovations in coffee-making in the past century, including standardised espresso-making and single dose paper pods for espresso machines. He also points out to the “massification of luxury”, a broad trend which should portend a boom in the number of people willing to buy expensive coffee. illycaffè's biggest challenge may be to produce enough high-quality coffee to meet growing demand. Reserves of beans are now at record lows: enough for less than four months' drinking worldwide, he notes. With oil prices falling, he predicts, hedge-fund speculators will soon be switching into coffee. "Addicts should buy now, while stocks last”, concludes the article.

 

Denmark – Norwegian team wins Nbc

By Enrico Wurm

 

Copenhagen - It is not a goal of the Nordic Barista Cup to focus on grams, extraction times and many others variables judged during similar competions. The judges focus more on:

 

TEAM SPIRIT The team is always in focus. Who well are individual strengths and skills used, does everybody participate in the program, task organisation in general, open mindedness etc. are topics that are considered by the judges in this category.

 

CREATIVITY Composition and use of raw materials, adaptability to new ways of brewing, use of new techniques etc. are look upon here.

 

THE DRINK Taste – how is the composition between acid, sweetness, salt and bitterness.

If a raw material is used in the drinks does it also appear on the taste etc.Also appearance and presentation of the drinks.

 

CONCERNING THE COMPETITORS The competitor has to be a member of the national team.

At the Nordic Barista Cup only 4 national team members can compete.

 

THE WINNER IS … This year’s winner was once again Norway which also won in 2003 and 2005. The Finnish team established a new record in cappuccino making: they prepared 17 cappuccino in 5 minutes. All participants where astonished by the huge steaming power of the La Marzocco FB80 dual-boiler machine, which made possible this outstanding performance.

                                                                                                             Enrico Wurm

Jamaica – Labour party concerned about safety of imported coffee

 

Kingston - A major dispute is brewing in Jamaica over a decision by the Coffee Industry Board to allow the importation of a quantity of green coffee beans.

The Board is defending its decision in the face of strong criticisms from the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) while the Agriculture Minister has denied any knowledge of the situation.

The matter was brought to public attention Tuesday morning by Opposition spokesman on Agriculture, Senator Anthony Johnson, who asked if the long standing ban on the importation of green coffee beans had been lifted.

Senator Johnson expressed concern that the beans could contain a wide range of diseases which could harm the local coffee industry.

He said the nation needs to know the rational behind the decision to import the coffee beans particularly in light of the recent statement by Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke that the country was poised to produce its best ever crop.

 The Board said it gave the green light for the importation with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture.

It said the coffee from the imported beans is to be sold exclusively to the hospitality sector with strict labelling requirements to ensure that it is not passed off as Jamaican coffee.

Revealed: how to make the perfect cuppa

Scientists have taken the bold, many would say foolhardy, step of wading into a fraught debate about what makes the perfect cup of tea.

For decades, purists of drinking tea British-style have quarrelled over which country provides the finest ingredients, whether loose-leaf tea or teabags is better, if an extra spoonful should be added "for the pot" or whether one should add the milk before pouring the tea, or afterwards.

The men and women in labcoats now have the answer, basing their findings on empirical evidence rooted in chemistry, physics, materials science, psychology and proteomics.

And, of course, personal bias.

The "perfect cup of tea," according to Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry is made with loose-leaf Assam tea, with one rounded teaspoon per cup, no extra for the pot.

"Teabags are a handy convenience but they do slow down infusion, and favour infusion of the slower-infusing but less desirable higher molecular-weight tannins," the society says, quoting Loughborough University chemist Andrew Stapley.

The water should be freshly drawn and freshly boiled (previously boiled water loses dissolved oxygen, which is important to bring out flavour) and it should preferably be "soft" water.

Hard water contains calcium and other minerals which "gives rise to unpleasant tea scum".

The teapot, pre-warmed of course, should be ceramic, for metal pots can sometimes taint the flavour of the tea.

The tea should be allowed to brew for three to four minutes but no longer, to avoid bringing out the dreaded "higher molecular-weight tannins" which have the flavour of stewed cardboard.

Showing limitless courage, Dr Stapley even tries to settle a question that divides the English and the Scots, two nations well-known for a scrap or two.

The Scots argue that you should add milk after pouring the tea, in order to adjust the flavour to your liking.

The English tradition, though, is to put the milk in first.

Dr Stapley comes down on the side of the English.

"Milk should be added before the tea, because denaturation of milk proteins is liable to occur if milk encounters temperatures above 75 Celsius (167 Fahrenheit)," he says.

"If milk is poured into hot tea, individual drops separate from the bulk of the milk and come into contact with the high temperatures of the tea for enough time for significant denaturation to occur.

"This is much less likely to happen if hot water is added to the milk."

There is a final piece of advice about when to drink this perfect cuppa.

Its temperature has to be between 60 and 65 C, or about a minute after having been poured from the pot.

Below this temperature, many of the tea's bouquet of flavours disappear.

Any higher, and there is the danger of "vulgar slurping, which results from trying to drink tea at too high a temperature".