What's Brewing

Thank you Italy, for contributing to the world the purest and strongest form of coffee -espresso. When coffee first arrived at Italian ports it was considered that thing the Muslims' drink until Pope Clement VIII tried it and claimed that something so good must certainly be God’s work. Shortly after, the pope famously baptized the coffee and soon coffee became the Italian staple we know these days.  There’s plenty of ways to make coffee, but the Italian way always starts with freshly brewed espresso. Traditionally, it is drunk straight black and strong, but options are endless. Here is a list...

A spoilers free review For the first time, Disney has dived into South American culture and unavoidably stumbled upon the coffee traditions of the countryside. Here is everything you need to know about their take on our favorite subject. For starters, have you heard of Magical Realism? It is a literary style traditional of Colombian literature, but widely common throughout the world. It was popularized by one of Colombia’s most famous writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez, locally known as Gabo, after he won the Nobel Prize in 1982 with his most renowned novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.  There is even...

  Coffee has proved to be good for human bonding. It mixes uncommon and usually disassociated elements: increased ability to focus and the comfort from holding something warm. It has also proven to be good for our health. For most people, drinking one to two cups of coffee per day provides enough antioxidants to steer away from cancer and other diseases caused by cellular malfunctions. The downside of too much coffee is the disruption of sleep and the high acidity could upset your stomach, but neither effect would occur for one or two cups, it would depend on individual tolerance...

Coffee was first discovered in Africa, when Ethiopian farmers noticed their goats changed their behavior and became more active after chewing on coffee cherries. Soon after, coffee was consumed as a natural energy bar. It is still common practice among African cultures to chew on different strong stimulants early in the morning before farming or even going to war.  It was later, during the middle ages, when Middle Eastern traders brought the African coffee beans to Arabia and started growing and exporting their own coffee. These traders also started brewing their coffee the same way they brewed many other spices,...

The coffee industry as a whole is a family business. It is one of the largest commercial commodities in the market and 80% of the world’s coffee is grown by small-scale farmers. I find it mind blowing to think that the world at large relies so heavily on small family farms responsible for growing, drying, and exporting the beans growing in their fields. How can these family businesses across the world remain so successful? Here are the three pillars of their success.   A Spirit of Service   Service is a two way street. It may be directed to a...

Various outlets have been encouraging people to start their Christmas shopping early due to the global supply chain disruption and the fact that it does not seem it will be fixed in time for the Holidays season. Maybe this is the year we take a leaf from Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the classics written to inspire us and remind us what Christmas is all about.  My hope is that this year we raise the quality of our gifts. Given that buying what is in-style, or what advertisements have convinced us we must have is...