The Coffee Tasting Diaries

Today I have been mostly sad.... I don't mean sad unhappy, I mean sad/anal.
Bought a big map of the U.K and under the pretext of educating my 8 year old where places are in the U.K, have started to stick bits of paper over the places where we have customers. Domination far from anywhere really, but we have someone as far north as Stornoway and someone as far south as Liskeard.
Having looked at my blog stats today, I realised I am not the only sad one out there...if I am reading it rigth, somebody has looked at my blog 37 times today....ONE PERSON THIRTY SEVEN TIMES...they deserve free coffee!!!!!!!

This month we will be tasting two different single estate coffees from El Salvador. As part of the club, I research as much as possible about the coffees we are supplying. Here is an insight into the plight of coffee from El Salvador, once a great coffee producing nation.

The coffee grown in El Salvador is of a great quality, but the industry is struggling. During the civil war (1980 – 1992) the country lost vital infrastructure. More recently, the coffee industry is trying to reverse years of pollution and faces scarcity of water and labour. Low prices forced hundreds of thousands of farmers into bankruptcy – yet, in the late 1950’S, El Salvador was the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world. Today, the industry is in such a poor shape that it produces just two percent of gross domestic product. One fourth of El Salvadorans live in the U.S.A. and send back $3 billion each year. El Salvador has lost 98% of its forests. Coffee groves provide much of the trees that are left. Unfortunately, American and local developers are destroying the coffee groves to build shopping malls and houses. Development and the loss of trees have led to erosion and a water crisis. Some El Salvadorans see coffee as something that can help save El Salvador…but it is an uphill battle.

I meant to write more earlier, but was wallowing in self pity with a heavy cold...interestingly enough, when I was feeling totally bunged up, a quick shot of coffee made me feel better...more than max strength lemsip. Actually, although this is not widely known, some pain killers have up to 120 milligrams of caffeine in them..as much as a strong coffee!
Back to the facts and figures...at least six studies have shown that people who regulary drink coffee are 80% less likely to develop Parkinson's Disease, with three studies showing the more you drink the lower the risk. Parkinson's drugs are now being developed that contain a derivative of caffeine based on this evidence.
I don't know..I'm not a scientist, but coffee has been around for a thousand of year (as a hot drink since A.D. 1000), all over the world.

Started researching July's coffees for the club...not a Brazilian in sight this month!!!

A short up date on the effects of caffeine on my dog (see previous entry).No ill effects in the end, although it did take a while for the dog to relax...when she did, she was out cold and in a deep sleep all night. Will write more about the research into the effect of caffeine on humans soon ...