Meridian Coffee House

Coffee is also found to reduce the risk of liver cancer. Coffee has antioxidant and caffeine which both are good for liver health. Coffee is thought good for heart and brain concentration.

Coffee is found out to be good for metabolism so helpful in losing weight.

Coffee plants are grown under shade trees. The migrating birds get shelter in those trees and in return feed the insects which are harmful for coffee plants.

Coffee effect as stimulant Decaf is more bitter than caffeinated coffee.

Researches shows that the coffee is very helpful in reducing the risk of certain diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, gallstone disease, diabetes mellitus type 2.

Apart from advantages there are some disadvantages also

Teeth staining occur if not brush properly after drinking tea or coffee.

Constipation is also thought to be another side effect but there is no such prove . Previous researches states that high blood pressure is also associated with caffeine consumption but still not so sure about it. The high consumption of coffee is not good during pregnancy . But still there is no proof or evidence to support the hypothesis

Coffee are extracted from mainly two different types of beans which are Robusta and the other is Arabica. Both species are found strong against tough weathers and their plants are ever green. Coffee are available in market in two varieties ,caffeinated and de-caffeinated.

Caffeinated coffee has some good impacts on our brain cells. Research says caffeinated coffee helps our brain to concentrate more. The caffeine in coffee or tea effect directly our brain cells and so the cells are active and so improve our short-term memory.

De-caffeinated coffee are made from beans higher in cholesterol ,therefore might not have good effect on heart. The de-caffeinated  coffee are extracted from a bean high in cholesterol, strong in flavour but low in caffeine. Most often Robusta bean is used to obtain de-caffeinated coffee. While caffeinated coffee beans, are low in cholesterol and flavour as well. The caffeinated coffee extracted from Arabica. The de-caffeinated coffee is more expensive but less tasty as well.

People with high blood pressure, high in cholesterol or with heart disease should be caution in caffeine in take.

My day will not be complete without a cup of coffee. I always start my day with it…regardless if it’s an expensive one from starbucks or just a 3-in-1 coffee. What is important is I HAVE MY COFFEE.

According to wikipedia, coffee is a widely-consumed stimulant beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant.

Hmmm coffee? For me it is simply my companion in the morning that will start my day with a bang!

BUPA investigative news 21^st oct,2003 

Effect of Coffee were studied on men’s fertility health. The studies concluded that sperm are more healthy and  move fast  in those men who consume coffee daily as compare to men who do not drink coffee or smoke marijuana.

The research were done on four different group of men.  

group one—-does not drink coffee at all (0 ml)

group two—-mild drinker  (one to three  hundred ml )

group three—-moderate drinker (more than three to six hundred ml)

group four—– heavy drinker   (more than six hundred ml) 

The finding were, the sperm strength and fertility were found better in caffeine drinker (all normal to heavy drinker). The sperm motility was higher compared to non –coffee drinker men  

The conclusion was the caffeine compound is helpful for sperm fertility and motility. This might be helpful for some men with infertility problem   

I am from the land of Benguet Coffee.  Nearby the the land of Kalinga Coffee.  Nearby is one source of Alamid Coffee.  BUT I AM COFFEE BLIND.  By that, I mean I have tasted instant coffee and a cup of alamid coffee, and I didn’t know the difference. Shame, shame, shame!

But it I still know a thing or two about coffee.

To preserve the quality of coffee, it is best to use a coffee maker.  Cooking it with a kettle depreciates it greatly.  Also, the ground coffee is still good for at least three times of preparation.  Do not throw away the residue, it is good, organic fertilizer.
Coffee is best enjoyed without sugar, milk or cream.  Others may protest - “but it is bitter!”  I say, you want to drink coffee, then drink coffee.  Good coffee tastes like heaven by itself.  Yeah, well, many enjoy it with good creamer, too.  Not a few put in lots of sugar too.  But beware of diabetes.
I always hear coffee drinkers say that when they drink too much coffee, their heart palpitates, and they become nervous without reason.  Hear ye, hear ye.  I also heard that it is adulterated coffee that gives those effects.  By adulterated, I mean it has already been infused with chemicals.  An unadulterated coffee, pure, natural and organic coffee, will not give you those.

Studies say too that coffee is good antioxidant.  It is also a good stimulant.  Another study says it improves or sharpens the memory.  This must be true, a very good friend, who consumes at least five cups of coffee a day,  has just passed the bar exams.

Can that afternoon Americano actually be good for you? Does that Red Bull have more or less caffeine than the same amount of coffee? Test your coffee knowledge with this coffee 101!

Fact or fiction? 3 cups of daily joe helps boost your memory…

Fact. In November 2005, Austrian researchers confirmed that caffeinated coffee can temporarily sharpen your focus and memory. After giving volunteers the caffeine equivalent of about two cups of coffee, their brain activity was increased in two locations - the memory-rich frontal lobe and the attention-controlling anterior cingulum.

Now a new study published in the August 7, 2007, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found the effects of coffee may be longer lasting - specifically in women. At the end of this four-year study, researchers found that women age 65 and older who drank more than three cups of coffee per day (or the caffeine equivalent in tea) had 33% less decline in memory over time than women who drank one cup or less of coffee or tea per day.

This caffeine-memory association was not observed in men - the authors hypothesize that perhaps that’s because men and women metabolize caffeine differently.

This is exciting news for women, though it’s certainly too premature to recommend caffeine as a memory cure-all. And it’s important to point out that this study found no protective effect for true dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Fact or fiction? Coffee and exercise prevent skin cancer…

Perhaps. According to a new Rutgers University study on mice (it has yet to be tested on humans), the combination of exercise and caffeine increases the body’s ability to combat precancerous cells damaged by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. The caffeine consumption alone helped destroy precancerous skin cells, as did the exercise alone. But the two together provided significant protection. Dr. Allan Conney, one of the paper’s authors, points out the possibility of some sort of synergy between the two.

Of course, this is not a substitute for sunscreen!

Fact or fiction? Coffee is a potent diuretic…

Fiction. It’s true the stimulant effect of coffee can act as a slight diuretic. However, the overall volume of water you consume while enjoying your cup of coffee will more than make up for the small amount lost in your urine.

Fact or fiction? Energy drinks deliver more caffeine than coffee….

Perhaps. It varies from drink to drink. For example, Red Bull is known as an ultimate energy drink, but it only contains 80 milligrams of caffeine in one 8-ounce can - less than the 100 milligrams in an average cup of coffee. That said, this is a case-by-case comparison…. check the caffeine amount on the label to know for sure.

Fact or fiction? Coffee enhances your workout…

Fact. A burst of caffeine before a workout can give you a slight edge: As little as 100 milligrams of caffeine - the amount in just a cup of coffee - has been shown to improve the athletic performance of dedicated exercisers (though casual exercisers won’t experience the same boost). Researchers aren’t sure why, but it may be because caffeine signals your muscles to ignore fatigue and contract differently.

P.S. The following folks should avoid caffeine altogether:

• People who are caffeine sensitive: The stimulant effects of caffeine will exacerbate restlessness, anxiety, irritability, and/or headaches.
• People with sleeping issues: Caffeine can stay in your system anywhere from three to eight hours. So depending on your personal sensitivity, stop drinking it accordingly.
• People with gastrointestinal problems: A dose of caffeine may irritate your stomach if you have irritable bowel syndrome or ulcers.
• People with elevated blood pressure or abnormal heart rhythms: In this case, your personal physician knows best.
• People with severe PMS and cystic breasts: Caffeine has been shown to worsen these conditions.

Back when I was working in a site-based company, my friends and I would have breakfast and then coffee after our shift. We work the graveyard shift and as a reward especially when we get our paychecks, we rush to the nearest fast food offering breakfast.

Once finished, we never let the opportunity pass to have our favorite coffee. Caramel frappucino for me and some hot coffee for my friends. This has come to be like a comfort food for me. I know it’s cold but still it has coffee and that’s enough for me. I only drink hot coffee at home, the one that I prepare.

The coffee at the coffee shop we frequent is expensive. Its price is even enough to buy two value meals but we buy it anyway. It has become a status symbol. One instantly becomes “cool” when spotted drinking coffee at the said joint. People spend hours and hours making sure to sip slowly on their coffee just so they have a reason to stay longer. Well, it really is a good place to stay because of the ambiance. I while there, I notice students making their reports or some professionals having their meeting.

Whatever type of coffee I drink, it satisfies me. It reminds me of a cold, rainy day where a good cup of coffee is the perfect companion.

Here is an article about the health benefit of coffee beans. Article can be found here

Just sniffing that first hot cup of coffee in the morning may help ease some stresses you might be feeling, a South Korean trial indicates.

When rats inhaled the aroma of roasted coffee beans, a number of genes were activated, including some that produce proteins with healthful antioxidant activity, the researchers reported.

“The meaning of it is not totally clear yet,” said Dr. Peter R. Martin, director of the Institute of Coffee Studies at Vanderbilt University. “What it does show is that coffee smells do change the brain to some degree, and it behooves us to understand why that is happening.”

The findings, from a team led by Han-Seok Seo at Seoul National University in South Korea, were expected to be published in the June 25 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

The experiment was done with laboratory rats, some of whom were stressed by being deprived of sleep. The researchers did detailed genetic studies that showed the activity of 11 genes was increased and the activity of two genes was decreased in the rats that smelled the coffee, compared to those who did not. In effect, the aroma of the coffee beans helped ease the stress of the sleep-deprived rodents.

The experiment provides “for the first time, clues to the potential antioxidant or stress-relaxation activities of the coffee bean aroma,” the researchers wrote.

And they added, “These results indirectly explain why so many people use coffee for staying up all night, although the volatile compounds of coffee beans are not fully consistent with those of the coffee extracts. In other words, the stress caused by sleep loss via caffeine may be alleviated through smelling the coffee aroma.”

“They used the latest in technology to see how brain expression of RNA changed,” Martin said. RNA is the molecule that carries out the instructions encoded in genes. “This is just the beginning of a very interesting line of investigation,” he added.

The aromatic compounds responsible for coffee’s odor may be antioxidants, “but they are not the same as the major antioxidants that are in the drink,” said Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Chemically, the antioxidants in liquid coffee are polyphenols, Vinson said. Those in the aroma are heterocycle compounds containing sulfur or nitrogen atoms.

“There are two ways to get things into your system, and the quickest way is to smell them,” Vinson said. “Caffeine gets into the brain via the blood stream. Here, aromatic molecules get into the brain through the olfactory system. The levels in the air are parts per million, so obviously these are minor components in the air. But they are doing something.”

Previous studies have shown that coffee consumption can reduce depression and suicide risk, as well as relieve stress, effects generally attributed to the caffeine in coffee, the researchers noted. But while some 900 compounds that float away from the bean have been identified, this is the first study to assay their possible effects, they added.

It’s too early to recommend that people feeling stress sniff coffee to ease their way, Martin said. But, he added, “people who don’t even drink coffee are fascinated by the odor of it. Ever since my little boy was two years old, he has loved the odor of coffee. I have always thought that coffee has some mystic quality, and there is some deep historical basis for it.”

Some men see things as they are and say “why?”.
I dream things that never were and say “why not?”

All it takes is the right attitude. To reach our dreams, our ambitions, our goals. And of course, with the right guidance and support… by our fathers. Children become what they are according to how they were brought up by their parents.

To all the fathers out there who fueled our dreams, a toast to you. We can never thank you enough. Whatever we are right now, we owe this to you.

But most of all, I’d like to give the highest honor to God, our loving Father. Through Him all things came to be. And we are nothing without Him.

Happy Father’s Day!

Coffee Alamid comes from wild civet droppings on the varied forest floors of the Philippine mountain ranges. The Paradoxorus philippinensis is a civet belonging to the mongoose family. It is a nocturnal animail which uses its nose to choose the sweetest and ripest coffee cherries and eats them during the coffee months. Forest dwellers climb the mountains and pick up civet droppings before the sun rises.

Coffee Alamid as called in the Philippines is a blend of the finest Arabica, Exelsa and Liberica beans. It has a strong, sweet, dark chocolaty taste which makes it one of the world’s best coffee.

Civet coffee is also called Kopi Luwak in Indonesia.