Carpuccino, coffee beans as fuel. Sam Burnett, BBC
A coffee-powered car, nicknamed “car-puccino,” is going on a 260-mile road trip today (Mar 11, 2010). It will burn the equivalent of more than 10,000 espressos. Will it make it?
The converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco will go from BBC’s Television Centre in London to Manchester, where it will showcase alternative fuels at the annual Big Bang: UK Young Scientists’ and Engineers Fair.
The car, averaging 56 espressos per mile, has a system that converts used coffee grounds into flammable gas. It will have to stop every 40 to 60 miles to add more granules and rid the coffee filters of the soot and tar generated by the process. Because of the frequent coffee stops, the journey will take about 10 hours.
Jem Stansfield, an engineer and presenter of BBC One’s science show. Driving will be Jem Stansfield, engineer and presenter of BBC One’s science show Bang Goes the Theory. Why all this bother?
“With the energy challenge that is facing the world, the more we encourage children to think about alternative fuels, where energy is stored and how it can be released, the better,” Stansfield says in a press release.
Nick Watson, the show’s producer, says coffee, like wood or coal, has some carbon content so it can be used as a fuel, according to a report in the U.K.’s Mail Online.
“‘The coffee needs to be very dry and in pellets to allow the air to move through the pile of coffee as it burns. The brand doesn’t matter,” he tells the Mail. He says the same gasification process could be used to power a car with other unusual fuels such as “woodchips or walnut shells.”
Colombia’s coffee region, located in the south-west of the country, was nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ministry of Culture announced Monday.
A statement released by the Ministry says that the coffee zone, whose UNESCO nomination will become official on February 1, hopes to join several other Colombian sites already included in the list.
According to the Ministry, “between September and October of this year, professional delegates from the subsidiary bodies of UNESCO will visit our country to appraise the zone … It is hoped that the World Heritage Committee approves the application for inclusion in the World Heritage Site list during the meeting that will take place in 2011.”
The Ministry went on to explain that inclusion on the list will “strengthen the plans being implemented [in the region] for conservation and preservation of the coffee landscape,” in addition to bringing international recognition that will “contribute to the economic and social development of the region.”
The “Eje Cafetero” is a region that encompasses 47 municipalities from five departments, and is responsible for the majority of the coffee produced in Colombia.
Over 80,000 people are involved in the cultivation of coffee in the region.
Primus Kimaryo, a senior official with the Tanazania Coffee Board, is asking locals to abandon the entrenched tea culture, double their coffee intake by 2014 and dot the landscape with more modern coffee bars. This effort would assist small, local growers in boosting the quantity and quality of their crop for export. Although small-scale farming accounts for 90% of Tanzania’s coffee, many local growers are currently unable to compete with the 10% of foreign-owned coffee estates exporting a higher-quality product on the world market without more local support, financial incentive and increased employment.
Currently, 56% of Tanzanian coffee is graded as specialty coffee, such as Tanzania Kilimanjaro, which we carry and enjoy in our cup. The Tanzanian government is focused on increasing the amount of specialty graded coffee to 100%.
Botanists at London’s Kew Gardens announced the discovery of 7 species of wild coffee. Among the discoveries, mostly from Madagascar and Brazil, were the world’s largest coffee beans (over twice the size of commercially-used Arabica beans), two species flaunting winged fruits and two varieties with hair.
Scientists are exploring how to fortify and diversify current species with special reserves using the new finds, while working to increase knowledge of climate change to help preserve the natural habitat for wild coffees yet undiscovered.
Behind oil, coffee is the second-largest traded commodity world-wide.
For those who find pulling paper or plastic out of a wallet too time-consuming, your savior has arrived… The Smug Mug. Yeah, it saves the environment and stuff, too.
Coffee lover turned inventor, Chris Hallberg, devised a way to use radio frequency identification as a means of paying for your favorite beverage. When added to a reusable travel mug, it can be swiped in front of a machine and the associated account would be debited for the purchase. So simple – and green!
The chip will be contained within a water-proof covering on the mug. Parents have been doing this for years with their children’s artwork; however we’ll assume Chris’ version will be more water-proof than ours turned out to be. Sorry little Bobby.
Kudos to Chris for coming up with this idea for RFID – which we suspect manifested after a long night of studying something amazingly intense in biomedical engineering at Marquette University.
A German farm declared victory Monday in a bizarre race to acquire the world’s largest collection of old china coffee pots – saying the Guinness Book of World Records had certified it as the winner with 13,267. Karl’s Farm, which offers fields of pick-your-own strawberries, restaurants and children’s playgrounds, had appealed to visitors to search their attics for old china sets and to donate the pots.
The porcelain is now arrayed on every available wall at the visitor attraction in the small town of Roevershagen near Rostock.
But in a dastardly twist, the race became bitter when Oschatz Park, a visitor attraction in another eastern German town, vainly tried to overtake the Karl’s mark.
Karl’s said the previous top collection in the Records Book numbered 5,014.
None of the pots are allowed to be duplicates.
The collection was begun by the strawberry farm owner, who ran out of home space when the collection became too large.
A Karl’s spokesman said donors, some of whom brought cartons of pots, would be invited to a free coffee party to celebrate.
Coffee pots, rather than teapots, are a standard item in German tableware sets.
Interesting perspective on certain raw foods; however, what struck me was the reference to chocolate as the “food of the gods” because I’ve always referred to coffee as the “nectar of the gods.” I admit to having a deep fondness of both coffee and chocolate, but to combine them uncovers an amazing weakness… my Kryptonite: chocolate coffee and chocolate cherry coffee. As the late mythologist Joseph Campbell would say, “Follow your bliss!” ~ Michelle
A celebration of chocolate’s psychoactive properties
The basement of the Millennium Center in Winston-Salem was transformed into a primordial cave den of chocolate ecstasy during the Raw Food Party on Sept. 25. No primordial cave den would be complete without a shaman and Daniel Vitalis, a raw food nutrition expert, shared important information about the enormous health benefits of consuming the cacao bean – which is traditionally delivered in the form of chocolate.
Vitalis’ message could best be described as part alchemy lesson, part conspiracy theory. He emphasized that chocolate is a psychoactive drug made from the seeds of the tropical cacao tree known as “Theobroma cacao.” “Theobroma” means “food of the gods” and it turns out that cacao is the perfect vehicle for delivering other medicines to the human body, Vitalis said. At that point, chocolate becomes a Trojan horse to deliver healing herbs into the body.
“Just so you know, you can suffer through bitter medicine or you can eat chocolate,” Vitalis said.
Eating raw chocolate appeared to be the top priority of the roughly 60 people in attendance. The bar area was chock-full of females sampling the dozen or so varieties of the well-known aphrodisiac and endorphin-deliverer, while sipping wine. The 8-to-1 ratio of women to men came as no surprise. There are a number of scientific theories as to why women have an affinity for chocolate, none of them proven. Whatever the reason, the ladies in attendance seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly, and paid rapt attention to Vitalis’ information session.
A brief sampling of the raw chocolate delicacies revealed the following observations: The spicy nature of the Wild Fire Rose diminished the pleasure of eating raw chocolate, while the “SuperChoc” delivered a deep, tangy vibe with a hint of Goji berries. The Still Pointe mint flavor offered a dark, light mint concoction with a mellow aftertaste, while the Fluffy Citrus overwhelmed the palate with lemon and orange, masking the raw chocolate underneath. The Immune Mushroom had an earthy feel and taste, and the India Sunset presented a chai and curry rapture – a warm, smooth, pleasant blend of sweet and spicy flavors.
The Purple Sage was not one of my favorites. It tasted like something akin to grandma’s potpourri. The Heart of Cocoa, a 100-percent cacao delight, offered raw chocolate pleasure. The Coco Nibby offered a slightly nutty, sweet mixture with a hint of coconut.
Early in the evening, event organizer Julie Wilson grabbed the microphone and debunked some of the myths about chocolate.
“Listen folks, raw chocolate – chocolate in its raw state from the cacao bean, which is actually a nut – is good for you,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t make you fat; it makes you skinnier. It heightens your metabolism; it’s an aphrodisiac and a brain booster. It has all these amino acids in it – it’s wonderful for you.”
According to the website chocolate.org, cacao has numerous health benefits due to the fact it contains such compounds as anandamide, theobromine and tryptophan. An essential amino acid, tryptophan is associated with the brain’s production of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Vitalis picked up on the theme of alchemy, stating that psychoactive plants, like the cacao tree, are the No. 1 missing nutrient in our diet.
“When you consume psychoactive plants, here’s what happens: The plant makes neural transmitters, brain chemicals just like the one your brain makes, but better,” he explained. “In the presence of neurotransmitters, new neural pathways are laid down. We call them synaptic networks. These networks are where the neurons of your brain start to link together, connecting this thought to this thought, so when you start to take in these plant substances, you become more intelligent.”
Vitalis encouraged the audience to experiment with the raw chocolate and let the psychoactive properties wash over them, and then observe its impact on the social interaction in the room. Although, it would take consuming pounds and pounds of chocolate to get some of the physical and psychological benefits Vitalis espoused, the audience appeared to relish the small samples of the cacao delicacies offered and the endorphin rush that filled the dark den of pleasure in the catacombs of the Millennium Center.
Don’t raise any dust
Before you clean the ashes out of your fireplace, sprinkle them with wet coffee grounds. They’ll be easier to remove, and the ash and dust won’t pollute the atmosphere of the room.
Deodorize a freezer
Get rid of the smell of spoiled food after a freezer failure. Fill a couple of bowls with used or fresh coffee grounds and place them in the freezer overnight. For a flavored-coffee scent, add a couple of drops of vanilla to the grounds.
Fertilize plants
Don’t throw out those old coffee grounds. They’re chock-full o’ nutrients that your acidic-loving plants crave. Save them to fertilize rosebushes, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreens, and camellias. It’s better to use grounds from a drip coffeemaker than the boiled grounds from a percolator. The drip grounds are richer in nitrogen.
Keep worms alive
A cup of used coffee grounds will keep your bait worms alive and wiggling all day long. Just mix the grounds into the soil in your bait box before you dump in the worms. They like coffee almost as much as we do, and the nutrients in the grounds will help them live longer.
Keep cats out of the garden
Kitty won’t think of your garden as a latrine anymore if you spread a pungent mixture of orange peels and used coffee grounds around your plants. The mix acts as great fertilizer too.
Boost carrot harvest
To increase your carrot harvest, mix the seeds with fresh-ground coffee before sowing. Not only does the extra bulk make the tiny seeds easier to sow, but the coffee aroma may repel root maggots and other pests. As an added bonus, the grounds will help add nutrients to the soil as they decompose around the plants. You might also like to add a few radish seeds to the mix before sowing. The radishes will be up in a few days to mark the rows, and when you cultivate the radishes, you will be thinning the carrot seedlings and cultivating the soil at the same time.
To mark the 15th year anniversary of the TV series Friends which was originally launched on NBC in the US on September 22, 1994. Warner TV are to recreate in London the ‘Central Perk’ – the famous coffee shop that played a central role in the series.
The pop-up operation will be sited at 67 Broadwick Street, Soho in the heart of the capital.
Opening on September 24, fans will have just two weeks to relive their favorite ‘Friends’ moments enjoying a cappuccino one of the famous sofas.
The venue will be decked out with rare memorabilia from the show. By registering at the website www.warnertv.com/friends, fans will be able to download a voucher entitling them to a free cup of coffee inside the mock-up venue where some of the best-loved props from the series, including the infamous Gellar Cup, will be on display.
Warner Home Video is also releasing an extra special limited-edition celebration Box Set of all ten seasons to mark the occasion.
