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The ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives has allowed coffee growers to sell their crop at international auctions. The deputy minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives, Dr Mathayo David, told the National Assembly in Dodoma yesterday that the government had put in place plans aimed at securing handsome prices for local coffee at international markets and with individual buyers.

The minister was answering a question asked by Savelina Mwijage (Special Seats—CCM) who had wanted to know what the government was doing to prevent coffee growers from selling their cash crop at throw-away prices.

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There is a best way – mathematically– to pour your second cup of coffee, says a study called Recursive Binary Sequences of Differences that will appeal to anyone who is truly pernickety about their beverages.But no one realised it until the year 2001, when Robert M Richman published his simple recipe in the journal Complex Systems. During the subsequent passage of nine years and billions of cups of coffee, the secret has been available to all.

"The problem is that the coffee that initially comes through the filter is much stronger than that which comes out last, so the coffee at the bottom of the pot is stronger than that at the top," says Richman. "Swirling the pot does not homogenise the coffee, but using the proper pouring pattern does."

Here's all you have to do. Prepare coffee – two cups' worth – in a carafe. Now get two mugs, call them A and B. Then: "If one has the patience to make four pours of equal volume, the possible pouring sequences are AABB, ABBA, and ABAB."

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 Health-conscious coffee drinkers just got a little pick-me-up. Last week, livescience.com highlighted a number of recent studies demonstrating the various health benefits regular coffee drinkers enjoy. Among the advantages were:

A 39 percent decreased risk of head and neck cancer (according to Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention), diminished risk of coronary heart disease (Harvard Medical School), and the prevention of memory loss (University of Lisbon).  Then again, contradictory reports concluding negative consequences to drinking coffee come out about as frequently as a new Starbucks opens.

Espresso enthusiasts from around the Inland area discussed how the findings affected their love of latte. "I pretty much drink coffee every day with a little bit of guilt. ... this puts me at ease," said Riverside resident Brittany Pierce, lounging on a couch at Riverside's Back to the Grind. "I have a couple of friends down on coffee, so now I can tell them this."

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Many swear by their daily cup of java to kick-start their brains in the morning or increase alertness in the afternoons. But they may actually be kidding themselves if they think that coffee helps. Caffeine addiction is such a downer that regular coffee drinkers may get no real pick-me-up from their morning cup, according to a study by British scientists, which appeared recently in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal.

Bristol University researchers found that drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing and the stimulating effects of caffeine, meaning that it only brings them back to baseline levels of alertness, not above them.

"Although frequent consumers feel alerted by caffeine, especially by their morning tea, coffee, or other caffeine- containing drink, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal," wrote the scientists, led by Peter Rogers of Bristol's department of experimental psychology.

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Coffee’s already been proven to reduce the risk of various cancers, heart disease and Alzheimer’s, and now new research has found Parkinson’s disease is yet another condition regular consumption can protect against. A review of all the available data conducted by scientists from the University of Porto, Portugal, found that dinking two to three cups a day can reduce the risk of acquiring the debilitating neurological disease by up to a quarter.

That figure fell to 15% when the researchers looked only at women. There was also a direct link between the amount of coffee consumed and the extent of protection conferred, with only those drinking several cups a day gaining the full 25% reduction in risk. Although the protective properties of coffee had been suggested before the evidence proved conflicting.

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Traders lost some of their appetite for coffee futures Friday as warm winter weather provided help for what could be a robust Brazilian harvest. Coffee prices fell about 2 percent on light volumes as investors looked ahead to the three-day holiday weekend in the U.S. "They're still looking at pretty big crops and decent production," Lind-Waldock strategist Tom Mikulski said.

Coffee for September delivery fell 3.95 cents to settle at $1.643 a pound. The price has risen about 19 percent since June 1 after cold weather initially threatened Brazil's harvest. Spencer Patton, founder and chief investment officer for hedge fund Steel Vine Investments LLC, attributed some of Friday's drop to traders who were taking profits after the sharp runup in prices.

Metals prices were mixed. In September contracts, copper rose 3.9 cents to settle at $2.9160 a pound; silver fell 7.1 cents to settle at $17.719 an ounce and palladium fell $2.15 to $426.90 an ounce. July platinum fell $4.10 to $1,499.20 an ounce. Gold for August delivery gained $1 to settle at $1,207.70 an ounce. Oil prices continued to slide after the government issued a weak June jobs forecast that added to concerns about whether the recovery has stalled.

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OK, I admit it. I’m a full-fledged caffeine fiend — have been for almost four years now after never having so much as sipped on coffee or tea at any time during my first 24 years of existence. A cup of black coffee in the morning and another one mid-afternoon, along with the occasional mug of tea after dinner, has become the standard these days.

Oddly enough, and as ashamed as I am to admit it, consuming hot caffeinated beverages has become something I do with unbridled interruption on daily basis. Part of my race-day routine, in fact, involves downing a steaming cuppa joe exactly two hours before the starter’s gun goes off. It’s as important a part of the preparation process to me as making sure my racing flats are tied tightly.

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From the bean picking and roasting to the electricity for grinding them and boiling the water, an independent roaster based.

On Salt Spring Island has calculated the emissions created during the entire life of its coffee beans as it strives to track its environmental footprint become carbon neutral.

Salt Spring Coffee Co., a fair trade, organic roaster that borrows its name from the quaint hippie hideaway off Vancouver Island, asked a Vancouver-based carbon offsetting company Offsetters to look at every aspect of the coffee-making process.

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Drinking plenty of strong coffee could be the key to running a marathon or finishing a long-distance cycle race. A study has shown that high doses of caffeine boost an athlete's power by up to six per cent in any activity where muscles are not working flat out

The British researcher behind the discovery believes caffeine pills or tablets could help anyone taking part in an endurance sport. Because caffeine is not classified as an illegal stimulant in sport it means athletes could legally use it.

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Studies about the drinking habits of coffee and tea drinkers have always managed to excite attention, and with more and more studies being conducted, newer information has surfaced. Nine existing studies were looked at and analyzed.

Researchers determined how much of coffee was consumed by more than 5,000 cancer patients and 9,000 healthy people.In the latest study conducted, researchers have found that the incidence of head and neck cancers   appeared to decrease when four or more cups of coffee were drunk every day. The risk in such cases decreased by 39 percent in respect of oral cavity and pharynx cancers. However, it did not appear to have any effect on laryngeal cancer.

By and large, the results seemed really positive, but Mia Hashibe, lead researcher and an assistant professor in the department of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah, cautioned against drinking lots of coffee.

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