A Big Expensive Coffee Maker. WHAT ARE WE THINKING OF??

An $11,000 coffee maker—and a drip brewer at that—sounds like Exhibit A in a congressional hearing on criminally inflated military spending. It’s the Clover, a commercial machine that has gained a cult following for the heavenly coffee it produces. It precisely makes one cup of coffee at a time, letting you select brewing time and temperature to coax the best flavor out of the particular bean you’re using. The barista pours ground coffee onto an extremely fine filter atop a piston that descends into the machine. After the coffee steeps, the piston rises, creating a vacuum that pulls water through the grounds. The finished coffee flows through a spout into a waiting cup. Despite its price tag, a Clover can increase café owners’ profits by allowing them to charge more per cup according to the bean.

To date, only a smattering of roasters and cafés have the machine. I tracked one down at Intelligentsia’s Millennium Park location, to see if it was really worth it. Intelligentsia charges anywhere from a few bucks to $22 per 12-ounce cup of Clover-brewed java.

The sleek, 110-pound apparatus looked like an unassuming espresso maker. Although it is fully automated, it still requires some moves,.

After weighing and grinding the beans—the coveted Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha from Panama—I adjusted the Clover’s settings for cup size, time, and temperature. Intelligentsia’s quality-control team at its central roasting works in the city determines the settings for its top five beans every week. A cheat sheet is taped to the side of the Clover to aid baristas. After I poured the ground coffee onto the filter screen just below the attached hot-water spigot and pressed the start button, the pistoned screen descended into the brewing chamber and hot water flowed in. I gently agitated the mixture with a flat silicone whisk.

In 42 seconds, the filter screen rose up, bringing with it a patty of coffee grounds, which was squeegeed into the waste slot, leaving an amateur’s sloppy trail that had to be wiped down.

The finished coffee streamed out automatically from a spout underneath the control panel. Even before my initial sip, the deep chocolate color and rich aroma drew me close. I suddenly remembered my first whiff of ground coffee as a kid. My introduction to Clover-made coffee was exactly what I’d wished for from that childhood scent. It had full body, remarkable clarity, and bright acidity. I thought, “This has ruined me for all other coffee.”

You probably can’t afford a Clover, nor could you fit one in your kitchen. Not all is lost, though, if you don’t live near one of the few cafés that use a Clover. Baristas I talked to recommended that home brewers buy one of the coffee makers that are explained here.

The Chemex is an hourglass-shaped glass flask designed by German-immigrant chemist Peter Schlumbohm in 1941.

It makes beautifully clear, flavorful coffee, but compared to a French press (see next recommendation), it’s relatively time-consuming and messy, which can be a challenge first thing in the morning.

Dampen a special Chemex paper filter, insert it into the top of the flask, add medium-ground coffee, and continually add slightly-cooler-than-boiling water until you’ve brewed your desired amount. You don’t simply add water then step away. You must keep the top vessel filled while the finished coffee filters to the bottom. The sand-through-the-hourglass-like process is what makes the finished product so good. It gives the hot water time to infuse the coffee, yet also filter through.

Many coffee experts use a French press in the morning, because it’s easy to operate and clean out. Plus there are no paper filters, which people with very exacting palates claim can impart or absorb flavors. This Chambord model is a classic and considered to be one of the best.

It debuted in 1933, manufactured incongruously by a clarinet factory in Normandy. Now owned by Bodum, the press is still the same. It comes in several sizes. Like all French presses, it works like this: Add coarsely ground coffee and near-boiling water to the pot, then place the filter plunger on top, but don’t press down yet. After you let the grounds and water steep for about four minutes, press the plunger down slowly—the water will be pushed through the strainer, leaving the grounds behind on the bottom of the pot. Your coffee is ready.

Can a Good Coffee Maker Transform Bad Coffee?

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if the French press and the Chemex could make low-quality coffee taste good. I chose an inexpensive Classic Roast, which in my opinion somehow manages to be thin yet jaw-achingly sharp and bitter.

The folks at Intelligentsia declined to let me brew in their Clover, because a company representative said we wouldn’t know the correct settings and therefore wouldn’t give the coffee a fair shake. I felt it would have been a bit much to ask Intelligentsia’s quality-control team to determine the best settings, and Folgers does not have brewing guidelines for the Clover.

Following Intelligentsia’s general guidelines for brewing coffee in non-Clover appliances, I used Brita-filtered water—boiled in an electric kettle and the temperature verified with a digital thermometer to be 205 degrees Fahrenheit—and two tablespoons of ground coffee for every six ounces of water.

The standard grind of Folgers was too fine for the French press, leaving way too much sediment. The Chemex made a characteristically clean and sediment-free coffee.

Otherwise the finished cups of coffee were similar: There was no body. It was like drinking hot, brown, burnt water, an interesting concept actually. The piercing bitterness I usually taste with coffee of this caliber wasn’t there. So sadly, the answer is no, not even two great coffee makers can make bad coffee taste good. Just a little better.

Caffeine blocks disruption of blood brain barrier in a rabbit model of Alzheimer's disease

We find it amazing how every week a new study comes out on coffee. Most of them are positive and we tend to believe, coffee beeing a natural product, has mecicinal advantages. Moderate drinking of coffee is always advised and the higher the quality, the better the coffee. (arabica's only. That is our language)

High levels of serum cholesterol and disruptions of the blood brain barrier (BBB) have all been implicated as underlying mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Results from studies conducted in animals and humans suggest that caffeine might be protective against Alzheimer's disease but by poorly understood mechanisms. Using rabbits fed a cholesterol-enriched diet, we tested our hypothesis that chronic ingestion of caffeine protects against high cholesterol diet-induced disruptions of the BBB. New Zealand rabbits were fed a 2% cholesterol-enriched diet, and 3 mg caffeine was administered daily in drinking water for 12 weeks. Total cholesterol and caffeine concentrations from blood were measured. Olfactory bulbs (and for some studies hippocampus and cerebral cortex as well) were evaluated for BBB leakage, BBB tight junction protein expression levels, activation of astrocytes, and microglia density using histological, immunostaining and immunoblotting techniques. We found that caffeine blocked high cholesterol diet-induced increases in extravasation of IgG and fibrinogen, increases in leakage of Evan's blue dye, decreases in levels of the tight junction proteins occludin and ZO-1, increases in astrocytes activation and microglia density where IgG extravasation was present. Chronic ingestion of caffeine protects against high cholesterol diet-induced increases in disruptions of the BBB, and caffeine and drugs similar to caffeine might be useful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.

Kids Fed Lots Of Junk-Food Ads On Saturday

Nine in 10 food ads aimed at kids sell high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar, or low-nutrient foods.

The finding comes from a study of 27.5 hours of children's programs that ran on a single Saturday morning -- May 7, 2005 -- in Washington, D.C. During that time, advertisers inserted more than four hours of ads, half of which marketed food or restaurants to kids.

Ameena Batada, DrPH, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and colleagues analyzed the nutritional content of the advertised foods. Restaurant ads were considered to promote unhealthy foods if more than half of the restaurant's children's menu items were high in fats, salt, sugar, or were low in nutrients.The result: Most foods advertised to children are:

High in added sugars (59% of ads)

High in total fat content (19% of ads)

High in sodium (18% of ads)

High in saturated or trans fats

"We found wide discrepancies between what health experts recommend children eat and what marketing promotes as desirable to eat," Batada and colleagues report in the April 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

"We found wide discrepancies between what health experts recommend children eat and what marketing promotes as desirable to eat," Batada and colleagues report in the April 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

There were some positive things about the ads. Forty-two percent of ads that promoted non-nutritious foods offered health or nutrition messages, too. For example, an ad for Airhead Fruit Spinners fruit-flavored snacks told kids they came "with real fruit flavor and vitamin C-charged crystals."

And 47% of the food ads promoted exercise , such as the Cheetos ad that showed kids wakeboarding after eating the cheese-flavored snack. Moreover, 76% of the ads had explicit health messages, such as the one noting that cereals are only "part of a complete/balanced/nutritious breakfast."

Interestingly, the ads analyzed in the study aired in 2005. That December, the Institute of Medicine found that direct-to-children marketing by junk food and restaurant companies is damaging kids' health . A 2006 study showed that food ads aimed at preschoolers try to build brand loyalty for fast-food restaurants and sugary cereals. A 2007 study found that every day, advertisers beam an average of 21 food-product ads at American pre-teens.

These studies, too, were based on 2005 data. Advertisers say things have changed , and have set up a self-monitoring system. This is the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the industry-funded National Advertising Review Council.

However, in a 2005 letter to the secretary of the Federal Trade Commission -- still prominently featured on the CARU web site -- the group's director notes that it is not in the health business.

"[CARU] was not established to be the arbiter of what products should or should not be manufactured, sold, or marketed to children, or to decide what foods are 'healthy,' or to tell parents or children what they should or shouldn't buy," the letter states. It goes on to note that "food products are not inherently dangerous or inappropriate -- all foods may be safely incorporated into a balanced diet ."

Batada and colleagues suggest that health-message programs launched by food companies and trade organizations may do more harm than good.

"When coupled with foods of poor nutritional quality, health/nutrition and physical activity messages are likely to be misleading and perhaps do more to promote unhealthful eating than to promote health," they write.

In 2005, Batada and colleagues found, every single ad for snack foods, candy, restaurants, beverages, and breakfast pastries promoted high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt, or low-nutrient products. These ads made up 63% of food ads aimed at kids.

Whether this remains true in 2008 remains to be seen -- perhaps as soon as next Saturday morning.

Bakery-Cafés Round Out Quick-Serve Portfolios

John Cutter is moving to Denver, Colorado, as soon as he sells his house in Western Massachusetts, but the 63-year-old former CEO of Friendly’s says relocating has nothing to do with early retirement.

Cutter, along with his sons, Jamey and Stephan, formed a family business last October with the purchase of two Mile High City-based Corner Bakery-cafés, a franchise they plan on expanding to meet what they say is an increasing, yet overlooked consumer demand for bistro fare.

“I think it’s providing exactly what the consumers want,” says Cutter. “It has high-quality food, quick service, and the ambience is very warm and friendly. Plus, the check per person is only 7 to $8.”

Cutter’s isn’t the only quick-serve management company moving forward with plans for Corner Bakery expansion, according to P.J. Evans, vice president of franchise development for the Dallas, Texas-based chain.

To wit: Pennsylvania’s Rose Group, which manages 54 Applebee’s restaurants throughout Philadelphia, New Jersey and Maryland, plans to develop 25 Corner Bakery-cafés. Lakewood, California–based WKS Restaurant Corp. operates more than 50 El Pollo Locos in Southern California and has plans to expand Corner Bakery’s reach in Phoenix, Arizona, with 15 stores. And those are just two examples for one brand.

Survey Says…

The aggressive expansion mode at Corner Bakery supports the findings of a recent consumer survey conducted by Technomic, a Chicago-based food industry research and consulting firm.

According to Technomic’s findings, 57 percent of roughly 3,500 respondents said they had never been to a bakery-café. The main reason? No such concepts in their area (48 percent). An additional 28 percent of non-customers said they don’t visit bakery-cafés because they are not familiar with what food items the concept offers.

“We believe this spells significant, untapped opportunity for the already-successful bakery-café segment,” Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic Information Services, said in a prepared statement. “With less than a quarter of non-users citing ‘negative’ factors, such as price or preference, it appears that bakery-café operators’ greatest challenge is simply providing additional access and awareness.”

Both Cutter and Evans concur, saying the consumer is driving the bakery-café category while many restaurant management groups are looking to add these bistro concepts in an effort to balance their portfolios.

“Look at the Mexican chains. You have Chipotle, Baja Fresh and others. Plus, you have the burger chains,” says Cutter, pointing out the inherent competitiveness of other quick-serve and fast-casual segments. “There’s a lot of opportunity to step up and fill that white space with the bakery-café concept.”

“[Operators] are trying to pick up alternative brands to augment existing brands because the consumer is changing,” Corner Bakery’s Evans explains. “They are trying to follow and/or get in front of the customer as best they can.”

Among the consumers who have been to a bakery-café restaurant, 54 percent visited Panera on their most recent occasion, according to Technomic’s survey. The remaining 46 percent had been to a combination of smaller national or regional bakery-café chains. In consumers’ minds, Panera Bread has defined the bakery-café segment and set the standard for what other bakery-café concepts should offer in terms of food, atmosphere, and service.

Officials at St. Louis, Missouri-based Panera declined to comment on the survey findings, but that particular finding comes as no surprise to Corner Bakery’s Evans or Ed Frechette, senior vice president of marketing for Au Bon Pain in Boston.

“For our brand, it’s not a surprise at all because Au Bon Pain tends to be an urban brand or in airports,” Frechette says. “There’s a phrase from new customers we repeat a lot. It’s ‘I had no idea.’ We know our less frequent users think of us as a bakery, while our more frequent users know us more for soups and salads. Many were never aware of the breadth of offerings and the quality of the food.”

Technomic’s research also revealed differences in expectations by varying demographic groups. Among the more interesting findings:

• 
  Women and younger consumers use bakery-cafés not only as a place to eat but also as a place to socialize with friends. Due to the importance they place on the social aspects of bakery-café concepts, these groups find amenities like soft music, fireplaces, and comfortable armchairs more appealing than other demographic groups;
  
• Males and consumers with an annual household income of $100,000 or more find Wi-Fi access to be very appealing. It is likely that these groups are using bakery-cafés as an “office away from the office.”
  
• Asian and Hispanic consumers generally place greater emphasis on family dining, which might be one reason why communal tables at bakery-cafés were more appealing to these ethnic groups;
  
• Communal tables are more appealing to consumers with an income of $25,000 or less per year which might suggest that some may be using bakery-cafés for special occasions to dine with a group of friends or family members at a lower price point than they would have at full-service restaurants.
  

Technomic also found that bakery-cafés are gaining in popularity as a breakfast destination, with nearly 18 percent of survey respondents indicating that they most recently visited a bakery-café for breakfast. Portable breakfast sandwiches, baked goods, and new smoothie options are among the breakfast menu offerings most appealing to consumers.

While officials at Corner Bakery and Au Bon Pain say sales have increased across all day parts, Frechette says a bakery-café is somewhat of a misnomer, with the bakery part becoming just one aspect in a slew of offerings.

“We are seeing tremendous growth in breakfast, and we are now offering sides [such as] asparagus and almonds, Brie with grapes and crackers, and chick pea salad that allow people to add onto meals,” he says. “There is a big upside to this trend. Whether you call it a bakery-café or restaurant, that’s where consumers are headed.”