Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Starbucks DeMystified

I'm not really a Starbucks fan, but I do have a Starbucks cup in my cupboard from one Christmas when my brother in Seattle sent me a gift pack containing 2 kinds of coffee stuffed into this big green cup.  The coffee wasn't bad, but when I go out for coffee now, I go the the coffee nazi shop, so's I can get one of those killer bagels with my espresso.  But since I do get a lot of folx searching for Starbuck's information, here's some.   

For the serious ...

• Starbucks Drinks Simplified - ever wonder what the heck those drinks are?
• Make Your Own Starbucks Frozen Frappuccino
• Make Your Own Starbucks Coffee Frappe
• Starbucks nutrition info - Find the calories, fat content, vitamins, etc. for your favorite Starbucks drinks.  Yer basic grande caramel frozen frappuccino is 430 calories!
• Starbucks Copycat Recipes

For the devoutly not-serious ...

• Small, Medium, Large - a link I posted once before that's just too funny.  Visit Star-Schmucks but be careful how you order.
• Oracle of Starbucks - if you ever wonder who you are
• The Last Starbucks - they really ARE everywhere
• Starbucks in Heaven - joke
• That Starbucks commercial - the one that uses the actual Survivor members, singing a much modified version of Eye of the Tiger

Flowers We Love Part 3

Well, this is one I won't be trying to grow at home.  I would love to try to grow a coffee tree, just for the flower / scent alone.  Tea is a definite possibility for growing at home, although in my part of the world it might require some special care and protection from the heat.  But the chocolate tree, or rather, Theobroma Cacao, is one of the oddest and most persnickety plants around.

It apparently has a very narrow list of requirements about soil, temperature and moisture:

Cacao is a finicky plant. It has exacting moisture, temperature, and soil requirements, and falls victim to many insect pests and fungal diseases. For this reason, the plant was an unlikely candidate to coax out of the rain forest and into a plantation setting. It grows best in places where rain falls year round and the air is warm and humid. Accustomed to the shelter of the rainforest, cacao trees do not tolerate wind and need well-drained but moist, deep soils.
Quote and illustration from California Wild, drawing by Alan Chou

That rules out my back yard.  Theobroma Cacao ("food of  gods", theo=god, bromine/brosis=food) does best in certain areas of the world, and probably should have been left to grow wild.  But we've taken it from it's natural state and made it into a domesticated plantation creature, and according to some of the experts, that may have contributed to the problems the cacao trees are having now. 

According to Allen Young's studies, crowded plantation life is part of the problem, and breeding is another.

"Young found that selective breeding of domesticated cacao trees inadvertently altered the flower's smell, making it less desirable to nearby midges." 

The upshot is that the insects that would normally help in pollination ... aren't doing their job.  That means that though hundreds of flowers bloom on each tree each year, only a handful become the seed pods that we turn into chocolate. 

I sure hope we resolve this problem.  I can't imagine a world without chocolate.

It's an odd looking thing, the cacao tree.  The flowers are pretty, very intricately shaped, white and pinkish, about the size of a golf ball, but they bloom right off the trunk, what's called cauliflory in the world of botanists which I've been traveling the last few days. 

As they grow, assuming they've been pollinated, they turn into these giant pods that remind me of something from an old horror film (Invasion of the Body Snatchers?). 

It's a wonder that we ever figured out how to make chocolate from this odd looking thing.  But then, we're ingenious, we human beings, and especially when it comes to getting our pleasures from the things we ingest.

Flowers We Love, Part I: The Coffee Tree
Flowers We Love, Part II: The Tea Tree

Flowers We Love, Part 2

The Tea Tree Flower (Camillia Sinensis)

All the teas we drink -- whites, greens, oolongs, blacks, and pu-erhs -- come from the Camellia sinensis plant, an evergreen shrub that can grow to great height if left to its own devices. The differences come from the "varietal" that was used, where the tea was grown, and how it was processed. (A good explanation of the differences can be found here.)

The blooms, white and fragrant, appear in the fall.  How fragrant are they?  Dunno.  I guess I'll have to try to grow some of my own to see.  I found an excellent article on about.com: Growing Tea at Home, and some additional planting/growing tips here, and here. 

Pu-erh Tea Flower

We mostly are accustomed to using the leaves of the tea plant to make our tea.  But you can also buy special teas made with the tea flower, and enriched with the flowers' pollen. 

"Additional health qualities are attributed to them.  The flowers are also used to add a pleasant flavor to other green Puer teas. Just break a bit and add it to the pot of green tea to experience its mellowing effect."
from NatureProducts.net

Flowers We Love, Part I: The Coffee Tree
Flowers We Love, Part III: The Cacao Tree

The Flowers We Love, Part I

This is the first of a three-parter, all about the plants and flowers that become the stuff we love: coffee, tea, and chocolate. First: coffee. I am a huge lover of flowers, the more fragrant the better. The coffee flower is said to smell like jasmine. If that's true, the middle of a coffee planation would be a little slice of heaven for me.

Coffee Tree Flowers
The coffee tree is actually a tall shrub, a member of the Rubiaceous family.  Although there are about 60 different species, we're most acquainted with the two that dominate the coffee market: arabica and robusta. 

"The flowers of the coffee tree are white with 5 or 6 petals. The pistil that emerges from the cupule is tipped with delicate stigmas. The shape and scent resemble those of jasmine, and it is for this reason that the coffee tree was called "Arabian Jasmine" in the 17th century.

The flowers form glomerules, or little tufts made up of 8 to 15 elements, at the base of the leaves. They produce the same number of berries, commonly known as cherries because of their colour. The flowers last only a few hours and wilt as soon as fertilisation has taken place: however, others quickly replace them. As a result, it is not uncommon to find leaves, flowers and berries on the tree at the same time! One tree can produce over 30,000 flowers in a year. "
From JustAboutCoffee.com

Interested in growing your own coffee at home?  Check out this page. 

Illustration borrowed from Hopp Coffee Tours

Here's an interesting note.  Left Coast Kona, a coffee farm in Hawaii, plays music to their coffee trees.

"Each tree is hand fed every few months and the mountainside is wired for sound to maintain tree mental health. The Left Coast trees seem to like Blues, with a taste of Country thrown in. They find the Beach Boys to be, well, a bit passé."

Huh.  Who'd a thought it.  Coffee tree music snobs. 

Flowers We Love, Part II: The Tea Tree
Flowers We Love, Part III: The Cacao Tree

Coffee Songs!

More coffee songs at Kat's!  See what happens when you sleep through a Sunday?  You miss a whole lotta stuff.  Check out these great coffee tunes. 

* Java, by Al Hirt - I never knew the name of this song, but it sure brought back memories.
* Another Cup of Coffee, by Brook Benton
* Cigarettes and Coffee, by Otis Redding - C&C used to be my fav combo back in the day.  *sigh*  I liked this song, but I kept expecting him to segue into Try a Little Tenderness
* The Coffee Song, by The Andrews Sisters - classic harmonies, it doesn't get much better than this.

More Coffee / Tea Quotes

If I can't have a proper cup of coffee from a proper copper pot
Then I want a cup of tea
Troutfishing in America

(Say it fast over and over, it's a tongue twister.  :) )

A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.
Paul Erdos

You can tell when you have crossed the frontier into Germany because of the badness of the coffee.
King Edward VII

If it wasn't for coffee, I'd have no discernible personality at all.
David Letterman

Another novelty is the tea-party, an extraordinary meal in that, being offered to persons that have already dined well, it supposes neither appetite nor thirst, and has no object but distraction, no basis but delicate enjoyment.
Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
The Physiology of Taste

Low Fat Chocolate Friday

Just for D at ThirdWorldCounty, who wants to be able to fit through the kitchen door...

Low Fat Chocolate Recipes - From Low Fat Lifestyle.  This is a great collection of recipes from a woman who obviously knows wherein she speaks.  For general low fat substitutes, she recommends substituting cocoa for bakers chocolate, or even better, use dutch process cocoa (smoother and less harsh than regular cocoa).  She also recommends using applesauce and prune puree (baby food prunes work well) as substitutes for the fat ingredients in other recipes.

No Fat / Low Fat Chocolate Recipes - From Recipe*zaar.  Not sure about this collection, the search filter may not work properly.  There are WAY too many regular (high fat) chocolate recipes on the list.  I pulled out a few of the low fat recipes that looked interesting to try later: No Fat Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Creamy Chocolate Puddingand, since I gotta have brownies, Healthy Fudgy Brownies

Low Fat Rocky Road Fudge Bars - From Recipe Goldmine.  This sounds so good, my mouse is waddling.  The Chocolate Caramel Bars sound good too.  (They have an assortment of low fat recipes here.  Low fat fettuccine alfredo!?  I gotta try this one too.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie Recipe - From CDKitchen's Low Fat Dessert Recipe collection.  I'm not usually a peanut butter and chocolate fan, but this sounds good.

Vegan Low Fat Chocolate Cake - from animal-free recipes of The Vegan Chef, who also brings us Vegan Chocolate Ganache to glaze the top.

There, that ought to keep you busy for a while.  :)

Some additional low fat cooking tips from World Famous Recipes:

• Replace butter with polyunsaturated margarine, with liquid oil listed as first ingredient
• Replace unsweetened chocolate with 3 tbs. unsweetened cocoa plus 1 tbs. salad
  oil per ounce chocolate
• For eggs, use 1 egg plus 2 egg whites for every 2 eggs OR use egg substitute.
• Instead of ice cream use frozen lowfat or nonfat yogurt, sorbet or ice milk.
• Instead of whole milk use lowfat (1% or 2%) or nonfat milk
• Substitute sour cream with plain lowfat or nonfat yogurt, or lowfat or nonfat cottage cheese - blended until smooth.

What?  No substitutes for cream cheese????  How will I manage?

Heh.  That's IF I ever decide to eat healthy or low fat.

Yeah right.  Ok.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled NON-healthy lifestyle.

Blintzes for Brunch

Looking through my family recipes, it suddenly occurs to me we have some kind of cream cheese fetish.  There are more recipes made with cream cheese than anything else.  This is one of my favorites, but not one I make often.  I needs a very special occasion.

A blintz is basically a crepe (very thin pancake) filled with some kind of cheese filling.  This is the recipe my mom used for many a morning brunch, and her blintzes were always a big hit.  The recipe can be easily modified for a low fat meal.

Cream Cheese Blintzes

Crepe:
3 eggs
3 tbsp veg oil
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour

Beat together eggs, milk and oil.  Add flour and salt and beat until smooth.

Filling:
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp sugar
8 oz. cream cheese
2 cups cottage cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix together, a little lumpy is ok.

How to:
Coat a medium hot frying pan with butter (or Pam for low fat meals).  Using a ladle, pour batter into pan.  I usually pour a circle, count to 3, and then pour in the center.  This allows the outside to cook a little and keep the insides from oozing all over the pan.  Cook both sides a few minutes and set aside. 

Spoon 2-3 tbsp of filling mixture into center, and fold the sides in, fold the top down, then roll up from the bottom, just like a burrito.  Set aside - you can put them in a warm oven to keep until you're ready to serve.

You will find yourself getting into a rhythm ... pour batter into pan, and while that one is frying, do the fill-and-wrap of the other. 

This recipe will make 6-8 large blintzes or 8-10 medium.  Serve with topping of your choice. 

Topping ideas

• Sweetened sour cream - add a tsp of sugar to 1 cup sour cream.  Put a small dollop on top of each crepe
• Fruit jam or jelly
• Sprinkle powdered sugar on top
• Strawberries or other fresh fruit
• Syrup - I prefer fruit flavored syrups

Enjoy!
UPDATE: Apologies!!  I left out the flour in the ingredients list the first time around.  Bad Christine.
UPDATE #2: The Carnival of the Recipes is up at Beth's.  This is the first Carnival of the 2nd year, kind of a landmark.  Happy birdies!

Can't Get Enough Caffeine?

I get a lot of folx looking for comparisons on the caffeine content of tea and coffee.  I'm sure some of these are health-conscious folx with concerns about putting bad things in their bodies.  But some are from the opposite end of the spectrum - caffeine seekers.  I fall somewhere in the middle.  I want to be healthy.  No, really, I do.  But if it means giving up my coffee and black tea, well, I don't think so.  What is long life if there's no quality of life, no enjoyment? 

Well, anyway, before I wax too philosophic... caffeine is

"an alkaloid (C8H10O2N4•H2O) found in coffee, tea, cacao, and some other plants. It is also present in most cola beverages. Caffeine was discovered in coffee in 1820. In 1838 it was established that theine, discovered in tea in 1827, is identical to caffeine. The drug increases the blood pressure, stimulates the central nervous system, promotes urine formation, and stimulates the action of the heart and lungs. Caffeine is used in treating migraine because it constricts the dilated blood vessels and thereby reduces the pain. It also increases the potency of analgesics such as aspirin, and it can somewhat relieve asthma attacks by widening the bronchial airways. Caffeine is produced commercially chiefly as a by-product in making caffeine-free coffee.  (From THC: Encyclopedia)

Caffeine content of beverages and foods varies depending on type and preparation methods.  There seems to be no definitive number for comparing coffee and tea, but averaging out all the charts I found, a general comparison for a 6 oz cup would be 100 mg for drip coffee and 70 mg for black tea.  Some good lists:

Erowid Caffeine Vault - Caffeine Content of Beverages, Foods, & Medications
Caffeine Comparison Chart - from about.com
All About Caffeine - from answers.com

Now, if you just can't find a beverage with enough caffeine, if you just gotta have that extra-hefty jolt, try adding a little 100% Purity White Crystalline Powder Caffeine to your cup.  I don't know if I would want to try this stuff, personally, but hey, they claim it's absolutely the purest stuff.  "Just add 1/16 Teaspoon (105 mg.) caffeine powder to juice or soft drinks" and get ready to fly.  WeeeeeeeHAAW!

Cooking with Tea

Oy!  I wish I'd known about this one a month ago.  Is My Blog Burning does a recipe roundup similar to the Carnival of the Recipes, and July's roundup (their 17th) was a tasty collection of recipes, all made with tea.  Now, I've done some cooking with tea, but this is the most amazing collection of recipes I've ever seen. 

The roundup moves month to month, so check the IMBB site for current location.  This issue, hosted at A La Cuisine - tasteTEA - had so many entries they had to divide it up into three parts: 

• IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part I
• IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part II
• IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part III

Hooboy! It's going to take me a while to go through these and try them out.  I think I'll start with Chai Tea Apple Bread, shown in the photo here.  It sounds like it would be perfect for afternoon tea, or morning brunch. 

I'm so tickled to find this collection.  And to my great delight, many of the posts/recipes include photos!  (Thanks very much to TeaSwap for the link.)