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According to an article in
FRIDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- 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.
To read more about this study on coffee beans and stress click on the link below:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061301343.html
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The use of coffee can be traced as far as the ninth century, when it appeared in the Ethiopian highlands. Based on a popular legend, the first to observe the influence of caffeine in coffee beans were the Ethiopian shepherds who noticed a weird behavior in the goats. After the consumption of wild coffee berries, the goats started to dance and began having an increased energy level. Legend names the shepherd “Kaldi”. Right from Ethiopia, coffee spread to Yemen and Egypt. Coffee beans were first brewed and roasted in Arabia, and through centuries, has been carefully preserved till date. Till the 15th century, coffee reached northern Africa, Turkey, Persia and Middle East.
Slowly and steadily, coffee spread to Italy from the Muslim world. The bustling trade between Egypt, North Africa, Middle East and Venice ushered new goods to the Venetian port, which also included coffee. The beverage reached the rest of Europe from Venice. The first Europeans to import coffee on a huge scale were the Dutch. They later grew the crop in Ceylon and Java. Thanks to efforts from British East India Company, coffee scaled popularity in England too.
During the colonial period when coffee reached American shores, it was hardly as successful as it was in Europe. Following the 1812 war, Britain cut its access to tea imports temporarily after which the demand for coffee grew tremendously amongst the Americans. Advances in brewing technology helped coffee secure the position of a daily commodity in the US.
Coffee has now become an important cash crop for several Third World countries. Presently, coffee is touted as one of the most valuable and largest legally traded commodity after oil. As many as one hundred million people in developing nations depend on coffee as their basic source of income. Coffee has now become a backbone and a primary source of export for African nations such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and several nations in Central America.
Spend quality time at Sono coffee shop and taste different coffee flavors, made from choicest coffee beans. Observe a refreshing change in your mind, body and spirit with Sono coffee beans.
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Legends about tea and its origin have been passed on from one generation to another. There is an interesting story dating back 2700 CE, which describes how the tea leaves accidentally fell into the pot of hot water of a Chinese herbalist. The herbalist found the fine flavor and soothing taste so tempting that he instructed the villagers to drink the wonders of the beverage.
Yet another fabled story mentioning about tea and its background have its roots in China. The Indian monk Bodhidharma went to China through sea route meditating for nine years. When he began to have his “Zen experience”, he closed his eyes and dozed off for a moment. To avoid sleeping, he instantly cut his eyelids. A tea bush sprouted from the earth where the eye lids fell to the ground. Hence, with the Buddhists in meditation, the plant found a second home. The plant helped them to maintain high level of concentration and alertness.
Several stories abound as to how tea originated and the manner in which it found its way into the boiling cup of water. However, a wonderful fact is that tea was not discovered accidentally, but tea discovered us through our willingness and openness to take in the beautiful offerings. Be it the tea cultivator, an emperor or a Buddhist monk, tea is and will always be used to uplift the soul and nurture the body. The health benefits and the subtle flavors of such a plant have helped it become the world’s most popular beverage in the world.
Even before tea could be introduced through trade to the outside world, China enjoyed it for centuries. Common belief has it that the first taste of this wonderful commodity from barter trade originated from the Turkish Empire. The other route through which tea trade flourished and reached Europe was in Macau through the Portuguese outpost. Most people understand that tea reached America with assistance from early English settlers.
Now, in the 21st century, tea is thoroughly enjoyed in the world’s remotest corners. Sono tea shop has the finest quality teas that help reinvent your senses and refresh you each day, no matter how hard you have worked.
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The effects and benefit of tea on health have been widely discussed for more than forty-five centuries and is attributed to Emperor Shennong – a legendary Chinese emperor. Right from its discovery, the emperor claimed that its stimulative properties and taste proved extremely beneficial for treating a wide variety of diseases including bladder ailments, abscesses, tumors and lethargy, besides other conditions. Though research has supported the beneficial health effects of tea consumption, several others haven’t observed any beneficial side effects. These studies clearly contrast the other claims, which includes the anti-nutritional effects such as prevention of the absorption of protein and iron, which is usually attributed to tannin. Though most studies include green tea, other studies have been conducted on other forms of tea, derived especially from Camellia Sinensis, such as black tea, oolong tea and white tea. Green tea has proved extremely beneficial for the treatment of patients suffering from LDL cholesterol, atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, halitosis, weight loss, liver disease, diabetes and even cancer.
Anti-carcinogenic properties
A new science magazine article supports the fact that green tea is beneficial against a host of diseases including breast, prostate and lung cancer. The main reason cited is the epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) – an antioxidant, based on a study carried out by Hirofumi Tachibana’s team at Japan’s Kyushu University. Research has indicated that the human lung cancer cell growth with the cell receptor known as 67 LR slowed down significantly following the consumption of just three cups of green tea containing EGCG. Research also proves that 67 LR is mainly concerned with propagation of several prion diseases that also includes the Creutzfeldt-Jakob (related especially to the mad cow disease). Though this is not a proven evidence of the effect of tea on prion diseases, it hints that effects of EGCG on LR are a vital lead in the search for treatments.
Sono’s tea shop has exclusive fresh and aromatic tea, procured from tea gardens around the world, packaged uniquely by maintaining its freshness intact, which is enough to tease your senses every time you take a sip. Enjoy the benefits of tea only with Sono’s tea shop.
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An unoxidized and uncured form of tea is usually referred to as white tea. Just like black tea, oolong and green tea, white tea comes from Camellia sinensis plant. Before the tea leaves are cured, black and Oolong teas are oxidized.
The unique feature of white tea is that it contains young tea leaves and buds, which contain lower caffeine levels compared to the older leaves, which suggests that the proportion of caffeine in some white teas could be a bit lower when compared to green teas.
Often, white tea contains young tea leaves and buds, which contain lower caffeine levels than the older tea leaves. This suggests that the caffeine level in certain white teas is a bit lower while compared to the green teas. White tea is the chief specialty of Fujian province of China. The tea leaves come from several varieties of tea cultivars. Most popular amongst them are the Chaicha, Narcissus, Small White (Xiao Bai) and Large White (Da Bai).
Below mentioned are the types and description of Chinese white teas:-
- § Silver Needle or Bai Hao Yinzhen – The highest possible Bai Hao Yinzhen grade has to be bright colored, covered with tiny white hairs and fleshy. Their shape has to be extremely uniform without leaves or stems. The best forms of Yinzhen are picked between April 10 and March 15 when it hardly rains and, that too, with unopened and undamaged buds.
- § White Peony Bai Mu Dan – This is a grade down from the Bai Hao Yinzhen tea, which incorporates the two leaves and the buds to get covered with the silvery-white, fine down. Just like the Silver needle, this tea also traces its origin to China’s Fujian province.
- § Tribute Eyebrow or Gong Mei tea – This is the third grade of white tea and its production uses leaves from small white tea trees or Xiao Bai.
- § Long, Noble life Eyebrow – This is a furry and fruity variety of white tea which is a chaotic mix of upper leaf and tips. Similar to Oolong, they have stronger flavor than other form of white teas. A fourth grade white tea, it is picked much later than the Bai Mu Dan. Hence, this form of tea is darker in color. This tea has its origins from China’s Guangxi and Fujian province.
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Chinese tea traces its origin nearly forty five centuries back. The Chinese consume tea at each and every meal for simple pleasure and good health. The Chinese tea includes those tea leaves that are especially processed with Chinese inherited methods. Based on a famous legend, Chinese emperor Shennong discovered tea way back in 2737 BC when a Camellia sinensis leaf fell into a boiling cup of water. Over the years, tea has deeply woven into the culture and history of China. Along with rice, sauce, vinegar, oil, salt and firewood, Chinese tea is considered one amongst the seven important necessities of Chinese life.
Numerous Chinese writers have classified tea into as many as four categories – black, oolong, green and white. Others also include compressed, scented and red teas. Nearly all of them arise from Camellia Sinensis plant. Though Chinese flower tea is extremely popular, it is not a true type of tea. Majority of Chinese tea are widely consumed in China and are hardly exported. Currently, the most popular form of tea employed in China is green tea.
Several varieties of individual beverages come under these main categories of tea, though researchers have till now counted above 700. Some others maintain the number in excess of 1000. The remaining variations mainly occur because of the various strains of Camilla plant. For instance, the most popular form of Chinese tea is called Tie Guan Yin. The origins of such a plant are traced to a single tree observed in Fujian province’s Anxi region.
There are several other teas which borrow certain characteristics from the local conditions. The biggest factor in wide variations basically comes from the processing differences, especially after the completion of harvesting process. In order to prevent the oxidation process, green and white teas are cooked as soon as possible. Certain Oolong teas are oxidized partially whereas red and black teas are completely oxidized. The other differences mainly come from the processing step variations.
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This is a form of tea that is prepared entirely from Camellia Sinensis leaves, and which has gone through minimal form of oxidation in the processing method. Originating from China, Green tea is closely associated with several Asian cultures, from Middle East to Japan. It has recently become extremely widespread in the western areas – a region where black tea is consumed traditionally. In nations where they are grown, several forms of green tea have been formed. These types vary substantially because of differing harvesting, processing and growing conditions.
Green tea, over the last few decades is subject to several medical and scientific studies that determine the level of its several health benefits, with little evidence indicating that regular drinkers of tea have lower chances of developing certain types of cancer and heart disease. In addition, green tea has also been extremely useful in the management of weight loss.
In East Asian nations such as Japan, Green tea is simply referred as tea. Sometimes, it is also described as Japanese tea, irrespective of the fact that this beverage was initially used in the Song dynasty in China and then shipped to Japan by a Japanese Buddhist priest Myoan Eisai, who has also brought forth the Rinzai schools’ Zen Buddhism.
There are several varieties of tea which are graded based on the parts of the plant and quality and also how they get processed. Within such broad categories, there are several variations in both quality and price. Besides, there are several specialty green teas which fall outside such a spectrum. The best form of available Japanese tea is believed to belong to Fukuoka Prefecture’s Yame region and Kyoto’s Uji region. Besides, the Shizuoka prefecture produces as much as forty percent of raw tea leaf amongst the total area that falls under tea cultivation.
Generally, for every 5 ounces of water, about one teaspoon of green tea or 2.25 grams of tea has to be used. In case of high quality teas such as gyokuro, excess leaves are used and the leaf is steeped several times in short duration
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Coffee tasting or coffee cupping involves observing the aromas and tastes of brewed coffee. Though coffee cupping is a professional practice, anyone could do it. The standard procedure of coffee cupping includes sniffing the coffee deeply and slurping the coffee loudly, such that it spreads till the back portion of tongue. Various aspects of coffee’s taste, including the sweetness, body (mouth feel or texture like oiliness), flavor, acidity, aftertaste and sweetness are checked during coffee cupping.
Following are some of the aromas used to describe coffee odor during coffee cupping:-
1. Animal-like – This form of odor is comparable to smell of animals. It has a characteristic odor of sweat, hides, leather, fur or urine.
2. Ashy – This has an ashtray like odor – the smell emanated during the fireplace cleaning.
3. Smoky/Burnt – This flavour and odor descriptor is comparable to that observed in burnt food.
4. Medicinal/Chemical – This odor descriptor has the smell reminiscent of medicines and chemicals.
5. Caramel – This flavour is reminiscent of odor produced during sugar caramelization process.
6. Toast-like/Malty/Cereal – It includes odors characteristic of toast, malt and cereal.
7. Nutty – This aroma is similar to the flavour and odor of fresh nuts and not bitter almonds.
8. Floral – This is similar to a flower fragrance and associated with scent of different varieties of flowers including nettles, dandelion, jasmine and honeysuckle.
9. Woody – This descriptor is reminiscent of smell of cardboard paper, oak barrel or dry wood.
10. Rubber-like – This descriptor is characteristic of smell of rubber stoppers, rubber bands and hot tyres.
11. Fruity/Citrus – This aroma resembles the taste and odor of fruit. Highly associated with such an attribute is the natural aroma of berries.
12. Floral – This odor descriptor is reminiscent of flower fragrance and is associated with scent of different flowers that includes nettles, dandelion, jasmine and honeysuckle.
13. Herbal/Green/Grassy – This odor descriptor incorporates three terms that are associated with odors resembling those of green beans, green foliage, fresh green grass, unripe fruit or fresh herbs.
14. Rotten/ Rancid – It includes two terms that are associated with odors reminiscent of oxidation and rancidification of several products.
15. Acidity – The odor associated with it is characterized by an organic acid solution.
16. Sweetness – It is a basic descriptor of taste characterized by fructose and sucrose solutions usually associated with caramel, chocolate and fruity.
17. Saltiness – This odor has a primary taste characterized by solution of salts like sodium chloride.
18. Sourness – The basic taste descriptor has an extremely unpleasant, biting and sharp flavor (such as acetic acid or vinegar). It is usually related with the odor of fermented coffee.
We at Sono Coffee strongly believe in maintaining strong and close relationships with its customers, just like the strong flavor and aroma of our coffee beans. We deliver quality and our freshly roasted organic coffee beans are sure to change your mood and enhance your day, both on a personal and professional front. |
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COME, BE A PART OF THE GLOBAL COFFEE REVOLUTION
The last two decades have seen phenomenal rise in coffee’s popularity. The rise of several coffee shops is making more people conversant of the numerous aspects of coffee. Coffee is a big business and it features amongst three most frequently traded commodities. A decade ago, worldwide coffee production reached 100 million coffee sacks. As the most loved drink, the availability of flavored coffee drinks and specialty coffee drinks speaks volumes about coffee’s hopeful future.
Coffee’s popularity is giving rise to a whole new movement which is designed to shed light in the entire coffee production industry. Though there is a high demand for coffee, the global slump has caused the drastic fall of coffee prices. Though this is excellent news for an average coffee consumer, it is actually the farmer who raises coffee plantations ending up in fancy coffee shops at the receiving end of the deal. Several coffee farmers are now being forced to sell their coffee beans for exceptionally cheap prices with a looming danger of having to live in an impoverished situation. Thanks to glaring inequalities in coffee trade, several farmers are now forced to adopt open sun-dried method for raising coffee which adds to their profit but gives rise to several environmental problems. This has resulted in the growth of organic coffee movement.
The positive point of such political movements is the fact that it has created increasing awareness amongst coffee lovers. Inspite of being one of world’s most valued commodities, there are few selected areas where coffee is grown. This is because coffee plants have to be grown in sub-tropical or tropical environments. Hence, certain areas of the world dominate coffee production and output. Currently, Columbia, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Puerto Rico and Mexico top in coffee production.
Majority of gourmet coffee bean produced has its name from the place of its origin. Reputed coffee beans like Kona, Mocha or Java have unique aroma and flavor that adds to its popularity amongst coffee lovers. However, the main reason for them gaining such unique characteristics is due to the area that they are raised. Even as most coffee beans grown in the world originate from the coffee Arabica plant, there are still several factors that influence coffee bean characteristics. This includes climate of the coffee growing region, the soil structure and texture and the altitude. These factors impact not only the body of coffee bean, but also its aroma and flavor.
Sono coffee is one amongst the few coffee shops that offers aromatic coffee beans which are artfully roasted fresh and shipped to you the same day. Pure and tasty, Sono coffee beans freshen up your day with its rich aroma and strong flavor. Have your spirits lifted with an invigorating cup of Sono coffee.
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