Tag: buy coffee beans online

Coffee helped 11-year-old boy recover from rare condition

Posted on by Sara Walker

Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, we do love a positive coffee story – and this tale from Paris takes some beating. In a recently published case study, researchers have released the details of an 11-year-old boy in Paris, diagnosed with a rare condition called ADCY5-related dyskinesia, which is an abnormality or impairment of voluntary movement and causes the sufferer to have severe shakes similar to those caused by Parkinson’s disease.

Scientists at the university hospital Hopitaux de Paris tried the unusual step of asking the young patient to drink coffee, as caffeine is a muscle relaxant and also helps boost an enzyme that helps muscles to contract. The results were extraordinary. One standard 60ml shot of espresso, which contains around 100mg of caffeine, stopped the shakes for around seven hours. Adding another cup and a half gave the youngster almost a whole day of relief from his condition. The child had been suffering with the condition since he was three, and by the time he was 11 was having up to 30 episodes a day which were having a severe effect on his everyday life.
During the trial, the boy’s parents accidentally gave him decaffeinated coffee and only realised with the alarming symptoms returned, as badly as before. Once they realised, they switched back to ‘full fat’ coffee and the symptoms were once more alleviated. The authors of the report said that the accident went to support the theory that caffeine was responsible for the improvement. They went on to say that caffeine ‘should be considered in all patients with ADCY5-related dyskinesia’.

We do like a positive story about the health benefits of coffee, which is a great mood booster and pick me up. If you’d like to discuss what we can do for your commercial coffee business, café, restaurant or office, then do give us a call on 0800 0121226 or browse our range of coffee supplies online.

US sweet company launches caffeinated gummy bears

Posted on by Sara Walker

Every time we think we’ve heard it all, we’re given a reminder that we haven’t yet. In California (where else?) a sweet company called Sugarfina have teamed up with a coffee chain called Alfred to produce the caffeinated gummy bears. For those of you not familiar with the gummy bear, it’s a small teddy bear shaped sweet made from gelatine and sugar and normally flavoured with fruit. The new caffeinated versions are even available in different flavours – bourbon cold brew, iced vanilla latte and cold brew. And yes, the bourbon flavour does apparently contain real whiskey.

Each 100g serving of the sweets contains the same amount of caffeine as a cup of espresso.

According to the coffee shop, they pride themselves on ‘staying ahead of trends’ – and we think they certainly have! The sweets took two years to develop and have been made with real coffee. They retail at around £5.70 for 100g – a lot more than most espressos.

Alfred has collaborated on all sorts of coffee-themed collections in the past, with their partnership with Sugarfina being the latest partnership.

We’re not entirely sure who these sweets are aimed at – although obviously not children! We guess they’re more portable and practical than a cup of hot drink can sometimes be – after all, you couldn’t stick a cup of coffee in your pocket or handbag – and they mean you can get an instant caffeine fix wherever you are. On the downside, though, they contain a lot more than just coffee, including sugar, so aren’t a like-for-like substitute. The sweets are nicely packaged in a miniature coffee cup or a paperbag, and are already proving popular on social media. We think, though, that we’ll stick to the real deal and drink actual coffee!

If you’d like to browse our range of top quality coffee beans, coffee accessories and coffee supplies, all aimed at cafes and coffee businesses, then take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

Drinking coffee could help protect against breast cancer, new study suggests

Posted on by Sara Walker

Researchers from two Spanish universities have found evidence that eating more phenolic acids in your diet can help protect against post-menopausal breast cancer.

Scientists have found evidence of a protective effect from a diet full of phenolic acids on the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer. Phenolic acids are plant compounds found in a variety of plant-based foods, usually in the leaves of vegetables and the skins and seeds of fruit. The study found that the phenolic acid with the strongest effect was chlorogenic acid, which is mostly found in coffee, especially green coffee beans, and some other fruit and vegetables. It shares some health benefits with caffeine, but is less potent.

The study looked at the link between phenolic acids and the incidence of breast cancer in over 11,000 women. All the participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire to confirm how often they ate 136 particular types of food. Researchers followed them over a period of around 12 years, and found that just over 100 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. Scientists worked out how much phenolic acid each woman had in their diet by matching up the incidence of consumption of each food type with a database containing the amount of phenolic acid each food contained.
Depending on the results of the food matching, researchers put the participants into groups.

Researchers split women into three groups according to their intake of specific phenolic acids. Those who consumed the most hydroxycinnamic acid in their diets had a 62 per cent reduction in their risk of getting breast cancer, compared to those who consumed the least.

Those who included the most chlorogenic acids in their diet saw their risk reduce to 65 per cent less than the group who consumed the least.
The study concluded that eating more phenolic acids, particularly chlorogenic acids found in coffee, fruit and vegetables, was associated with a decreased risk of post-menopausal breast cancer. Researchers concluded that the high levels of phenolic acids may possibly work to reduce fat tissue inflammation or resistance to insulin, both of which could make women more susceptible to breast cancer.

Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, we’re coffee experts. Over at our online shop you’ll find everything you need for your coffee business, including coffee beans, coffee machines and a range accessories for your restaurant, café, office or retail space.

Coffee trends: Vietnamese egg coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker

Coffee as a drink by the side of a full English breakfast is an idea most of us can get behind. Coffee with the egg actually in it though – sounds revolting, no? In Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, thousands of locals and tourists would beg to differ as they sip their cà phê trúng (egg coffee). The drink was invented in the 1940s during a milk shortage, when an enterprising barman was looking around something else to put in the coffee.

Now, it’s a Vietnamese staple and can be served hot or cold. Adding the egg makes the hot version very thick, so it’s usually served with a spoon on the side. It’s sweet-tasting, but tastes creamy rather than like a coffee omelette.

Nguyen Van Dao, whose father invented the drink by adding whisked egg yolk to coffee, still serves cà phê trúng in his Cafe Giang, although it’s available all over the city. Mr Nguyen’s secret mix involves coffee powder, condensed milk, butter and even cheese but the exact recipe is a closely-guarded secret.

To make your own version at home, you’ll need per person a measure of hot, very strong black coffee, one tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk and one egg yolks. Put the coffee in heatproof jug and stand it in a bowl of boiling water to keep warm while you prepare the topping. Using an electric whisk, combine the egg yolks and condensed milk until very thick and foamy – this will take several minutes.

Pour two thirds of the coffee into a heatproof glass, and add all of the egg mixture. Pour the remaining coffee over the top – this will help to cook the egg topping through. Serve with a sprinkle of vanilla sugar on top.

For all your commercial coffee supplies, including wholesale coffee beans, take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

Coffee can help maintain a healthy gut

Posted on by Sara Walker
A daily glass of wine and a cup of coffee can help maintain a healthy digestive system
A daily glass of wine and a cup of coffee can help maintain a healthy digestive system

If, like most of us, you like the odd glass of wine in the evening and the odd cup of coffee during the day, there’s good news courtesy of a new Dutch study.

As humans, we all have trillions of bacteria in our guts which help us to digest our food, and to be healthy it’s vital to maintain a balance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria. Good bacteria have anti-inflammatory effects and help to support a healthy immune system, while bad bacteria can cause inflammation and exacerbate conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome. That’s why probiotics and health drinks claiming to boost levels of healthy bacteria have become so popular.

The new study suggests that a glass of wine in the evening and a cup of coffee during the day can help to keep a healthy balance of good bacteria. The research was carried out as part of the LifeLines programme, which follows the health of 165,000 inhabitants of the Northern Netherlands. The study collated information about diet, prescription medicine and general health as well as analysing gut DNA.

Dr Cisca Wijmenga, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Groningen said: “We have mapped all the bacterial DNA to gain much more detailed information about bacteria types and see, for example, the effect of diet in the gut.”

In total, the research team found 60 dietary factors that had an effect on the diversity of gut bacteria with coffee and wine having a positive effect. Other factors, such as antibiotics and the diabetes drug metformin had a negative impact.

Increasing the diversity of digestive bacteria can help keep you healthy for longer, and eating a more varied diet helps to maintain a balance.

Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, we specialise in all things coffee at great wholesale prices. For coffee beans, coffee accessories and coffee ingredients for your coffee business, take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

Low fat coffee muffins

Posted on by Sara Walker

IMGP4142Spring is here, the time when we all traditionally start thinking about getting into shape for the summer! Being healthier doesn’t mean denying yourself, though. These low fat muffins are packed with flavour and contain a good helping of our favourite ingredient – coffee! These are perfect for breakfast, morning coffee or a teatime treat to get you through until dinner. Here’s what to do.

To make about a dozen, you’ll need:

430g self raising flour

2 tablespoons good quality instant coffee, dissolved in 2 tablespoons hot water

150g granulated sugar

2 large freerange eggs

350ml fat free plain yoghurt

75ml vegetable oil

50g good quality 70 per cent dark chocolate

You’ll also need a 12-hole muffin tin, and muffin cases.

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Put the eggs, oil, yoghurt, sugar and coffee in a large bowl, and beat with a hand mixer or wooden spoon until smooth and fully combined.

Fold in the flour, and beat until fully combined.

Break the chocolate into squares, then cut each square into pieces with a sharp knife. If you like, you can substitute chocolate chips for this stage, but chips tend to be sweeter and of lower quality. Using block chocolate means a more intense, chocolaty hit. Stir the chocolate into the batter.

Divide the batter between the muffin cases, smoothing out the tops with the back of a spoon.

Put the tray in the middle of the oven, and bake for around 25 minutes until the muffins are well-risen and golden. Turn out onto a cooling rack, and eat!

The muffins will keep in an air-tight container for up to a week.

To find the perfect ground coffee or coffee beans to accompany your muffins, visit our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk, where you’ll find everything you need for your coffee business at great wholesale prices.

How to make your own cold-brew coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker

beans and groundsLast week, we took a look at cold-brew coffee, hailed as the hot new summer drink in bars and cafes across the country. If you’d like to have a go at making your own cold-brew coffee at home, here’s what you need to do.

Cold-brew coffee differs from iced coffee in that iced coffee is made hot, allowed to cool then diluted with ice. It has a tendency to a bitter aftertaste, whereas cold-brew coffee, which is actually made cold, has a sweeter and more complex flavour. The only downside is that it takes a long time to brew properly! In Japan, where they’ve been making cold-brew for hundreds of years, they have glass brewing flasks to produce their kyoto coffee, but an ordinary large jug or jar will do the job just as well.

Ideally, it’s best to grind your own beans for this as you’ll need coarse grounds – forget powder and think breadcrumbs. Using finer grounds will make the filtering process tricky and affect the result. Put in around 150g of coffee for every litre of cold water. Cover the jug with a lid or clingfilm and put it in a cool dark place (the fridge is fine but not obligatory) for at least 16 and no more than 24 hours. The length of time you allow the mixture to steep will have an effect on the strength of the finished coffee. Once or twice during the steeping process, give the jug a little shake to move the grounds around.

At the end of the steeping time, pour the mixture carefully through a tea strainer or fine mesh sieve into another jug or bowl. Once the liquid looks comparatively clear, strain it again through paper coffee filters. If you don’t have any filters available, you can use the sieve lined with kitchen roll. The finished brew is quite concentrated, and will need to be diluted 50 per cent with water before drinking. Serve chilled, with or without ice as you prefer. Unfinished coffee will keep in the jug in the fridge for up to a month.

If you’re looking for the perfect ingredients for cold-brew coffee, take a look at our coffee beans page. You’ll find a range of top-quality coffee beans, all available wholesale at competitive prices.

The importance of coffee roasting

Posted on by Sara Walker

Coffee LocationUnless you’re a dedicated coffee geek and like to roast your own beans, chances are that by the time you see your coffee beans they’ve been roasted and packaged. Home roasting coffee beans is an inexact science, as to produce a consistent result a whole range of factors need to be the same every time. This really requires commercial machinery, and although it’s perfectly possible to home roast your own coffee and get a good result, it generally involves too much messing around for most of us.

The first factor affecting coffee tastes is the location in which it’s grown. As a general rule of thumb, South American coffees have a nutty or citrussy note and African coffees tend more towards a berry taste. Other flavour notes include chocolate, caramel, pepper and spice, which is affected by the growing region, weather and variety of plant.

Once the beans are picked and process, the single most important thing that happens to them in their journey from plant to cup is roasting. A skilled roaster can bring out the flavour of the beans, highlighting their natural characteristics. A dark roast will result in an almost smoky taste, whereas with a lighter roast more of the subtle flavours will be kept. It can be fun to roast and blend your own coffees, but it takes a trained professional to match different flavour profiles together for a result that’s both delicious and consistent. Experiment by buying blends that have broadly similar compositions but are roasted differently to find out just what a difference roasting makes. Everyone will have their own personal preference, but trying the occasional new blend or roast can result in a greater understanding of the process involved and how it affects the flavour.

Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, we’ve got a range of expertly-blended and roasted coffee beans for sale, all at great wholesale prices. To find out more, take a look at our main website.

 

More reasons to love coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker
It's official - coffee can be good for you!
It’s official – coffee can be good for you!

Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, you’d expect us to be big fans of coffee. Until recently, though there was a bit of a perception that coffee was incompatible with a healthy lifestyle and was on many people’s list of ‘thing to give up for Lent’.

A number of recent scientific research studies, though, reveals that current thinking is in favour of drinking coffee to support a healthy lifestyle. Some of the studies showed links between coffee and a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, some kinds of cancer and overall, a lessened risk of premature death.

While this is great news for coffee lovers, it’s obviously not a free pass to drink 30 cups of coffee a day – experts recommend two to four cups to reap the health benefits.

 

Among other positive coffee news, recent studies reveal that coffee drinkers live longer. A study involving almost 1 million people linked those who regularly drank two to four cups of coffee a day to a 14 per cent lower risk of dying prematurely from any cause whatsoever. Drinking one or two cups a day had a proportionately beneficial effect, with an 8 per cent lower risk. Caffeine didn’t seem to be a factor in the study, with regular decaff drinkers enjoying the same lowered risk.

Coffee also has a positive effect on your risk of developing certain kinds of cancer, including liver cancer and prostate cancer. Coffee contains naturally occurring compounds which have anti-inflammatory properties which can be useful in protecting the body from toxins and carcinogenics.

 

 

Drinking coffee can also help to protect you against the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, with those who drink more than three cups a day enjoying a 21 per cent lower risk. Again, the type of coffee (caffeinated or decaffeinated) didn’t seem to affect the results. Chlorogenic acid which occurs naturally in coffee can improve your body’s ability to metabolise glucose as well as have an anti-inflammatory effect.

 

 

If we’re inspired you to go on loving coffee, take a look at our range of wholesale, top quality coffee beans and accessories available to buy online.

What time of day is coffee time?

Posted on by Sara Walker

beans and groundsAt the Wholesale Coffee Company, we think any time of the day is a good time to drink coffee. From kicking off with a cappuccino to unwinding with a decaff at the end of the day, coffee’s a big part of our everyday routine. It turns out, though, that drinking coffee first thing in the morning might not be the best way to enjoy it. Getting the first caffeine kick of the day too early could mean you start to build up a tolerance, so subsequent cups won’t have as much of an effect.

Naturally, we produce a hormone called steroid hormone called cortisol, which helps regulate many of the body’s processes such as the immune response. It also helps the body respond to stress, appearing when we’re either under pressure or afraid. In addition, though, it also helps regular our natural hormonal cycle known as the circadian clock. That’s what tells us to wake up in the morning, and to start winding down at night, so we feel more awake when our cortisol levels are higher first thing in the morning.

Scientists believe that we shouldn’t drink coffee when our cortisol levels are at their highest, partly as caffeine can interfere with the production of the hormone and partly as it’s the time of day when we need the caffeine least. Drinking coffee early can also help you build up a long term tolerance, which is why caffeine fiends have to drink more and more to get their buzz.

The other peak cortisol production times are mid-day and in the evening. Avoiding drinking coffee during these times, and instead focusing on the periods of low cortisol production will help you get the most from the energising effects. Try a cup between 10am and 12pm or 2pm and 5pm for the best results.

For great quality coffee beans and coffee accessories all at wholesale prices, take a look at our coffee beans page.