July found us back in Southern California visiting family and marketing our coffee.

In addition to our website store, we market our coffee in gourmet food markets on the west side of Los Angeles county.

“Within site of the Pacific Ocean”, has been our sales moto, and Cup O’Kona is becoming well known, as the locally available brand of freshly roasted 100%  Kona Coffee.

Southern Californians love the SILKY SMOOTH FLAVOR, with NO BITTERNESS and LOW ACIDITY, allowing them to drink coffee all day long, and not suffer an over-acidified stomach. 

We give “tastings” at our stores, giving customers the chance to actually taste and compare our three roasts. We get the chance to meet our customers and talk about coffee, and get feedback from the community.

Our customers include celebrities, entertainers, writers of print, film, music, and video games. At one location, the mechanics of a high tech automotive shop. Many families from many Hills, and many interesting people that simply love the coffee, black, without any milkenators or sweetenators.

Southern California is not all work and no play.  We had brunch at Duke’s Huntington Beach and were entertained by Titus Napoleon and Eric Kela. These two sweet guys are so talented that the time flies by magically and the music takes you back to that island feeling. When they sang “Somewhere Over a Rainbow”, Eric used a bag of Cup O’Kona, with its rainbow, to give us a plug. Thanks Eric!

The article summarizes the findings of a host of recent studies performed at academic centers around the world, and presents the conclusions and current thinking on the health benefits of coffee. I have copied the article to this report for your convenience:

Coffee’s Mysterious Benefits Mount

By Remy Melina, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer

Original Article:                                                                                              

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/coffees-mysterious-benefits-mount-0879/

From lowered cancer risks to a sharper memory, more studies are showing that coffee is good for you – but why?

Regular coffee drinkers have a 39 percent decreased risk of head and neck cancer, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Those who drank an estimated four or more cups a day had significantly fewer cancers of the mouth and throat than non coffee drinkers, the study found.
“Coffee contains more than a thousand chemicals, some of which have antioxidant and antimutagenic activities,” Mia Hashibe, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Utah and the study’s lead researcher, told Life’s Little Mysteries. “Further research is necessary to identify which ingredients in coffee are responsible for the results we observed in our study.”
Scientists are still trying to determine exactly what it is about coffee that gives it its disease-fighting properties, but recent research is getting closer to unlocking the mysterious power behind the energizing brew

Your brain on coffee
Coffee may be good for the brain, too. A study earlier this year by neuroscientists at the University of Lisbon showed that drinking coffee can help to prevent the neural degeneration associated with brain disorders and aging. The scientists found that drinking up to four cups of coffee a day over a long period of time actually prevented the deterioration of memory.
Other research has shown that coffee is good for the cardiovascular system. Women who drank one to three cups of java a day reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by 24 percent, according to the Iowa Women’s Health Study that tracked 27,000 women for 15 years, although it was noted that this benefit diminished as the quantity of coffee rose above three cups.
And while coffee has been given a bad rap for supposedly upping the risk of stroke and coronary heart disease, scientific studies have revealed the contrary. Drinking coffee lowers the risk of stroke by 19 percent among women, according to a 2009 Harvard Medical School study that tracked the coffee habits and stroke occurrences among 83,000 American women for nearly a quarter century.
The risk of some cancers may be cut by drinking coffee. Research presented at the 2009 American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference showed that coffee cut male coffee drinkers’ risk of aggressive prostate cancer by 60 percent, based on a 20-year study of 50,000 men.
And people who drink coffee reduce their risk of developing liver cancer by 41 percent, compared to people who never drink coffee, according to a study in the journal Hepatology. The researchers theorized that compounds found in coffee may block the action of enzymes involved in detoxifying carcinogenic compounds that may lead to liver cancer, the third largest cause of cancer deaths around the world, after lung and stomach cancer.
Other recent studies have shown that coffee is protective against certain brain tumors, endometrial cancer and advanced prostate cancer, Hashibe said.
While it is true that some of the chemicals present in a cup of joe may be gastrointestinal irritants, coffee is not as much of a cause of heartburn and acid reflux as previously believed. Scientists have actually identified a chemical in coffee, called N-methylpyridinium, which inhibits acid production. The compound is more common in dark roasts like espresso and French roast blends, according to the Research Platform of Molecular Food Science at the University of Vienna.

Chemical coffee concoction
But not all of the chemicals found in coffee are good for you. It’s been blasted for containing pesticides and dangerous chemicals.
A typical cup of coffee contains about 10 milligrams of known carcinogens, such as benzene and formaldehyde, according to McGill University chemistry professor Joe Schwarcz, writing in “The Fly in the Ointment: 70 Fascinating Commentaries on the Science of Everyday Life” (Ecw Press, 2004). However, other experts argue that these trace amounts are too small to pose a serious cancer risk, and point to studies showing that coffee reduces the risk of several cancers.
In fact, for most adults, coffee is the number one source of antioxidants, or chemicals that prevent cellular damage, according to a study funded by the American Cocoa Research Institute.
“Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source,” said Joe Vinson, lead author of a study on antioxidants conducted by the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania. “Nothing else comes close.”
While antioxidants help to reduce cell damage and aging, scientists have yet to determine if they are the compounds responsible for coffee’s weird -but wonderful- health benefits.
There are many organic and inorganic compounds in a regular cup of coffee, including chemicals called phenolic compounds, melanoidins, and diterpenes. Some of these chemicals are believed to be beneficial, such as chlorogenic acid, which is a natural compound found in coffee beans and other plants that is an antioxidant and believed to aid in digestion, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“Coffee is a very complex mixture of various chemicals,” Hashibe said. Researchers are still trying to track down exactly what it is that makes coffee so mysteriously beneficial, but it’s antioxidant components may be part of its protective effects against cancer.

Potential downside
But because coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant, drinking too much of it could lead to headaches, jitters and a racing heartbeat. Even decaffeinated coffee contains at least trace amounts of the drug, as the decaffeinating process cannot remove caffeine completely.
The safe daily dosage of caffeine is 300 milligrams for adults and 35 to 40 milligrams a day for children, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). While caffeine was once considered unsafe for women to consume while pregnant, the HHS has determined that mothers-to-be who drink less than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day do not put their child in any risk.
However, the HHS warns that women who drink or eat more than 300 milligrams of caffeine per day may have a harder time getting pregnant, and a study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research found that high doses of daily caffeine – two or more cups of regular coffee or five 12-ounce cans of caffeinated soda – during pregnancy may increase the risk of miscarriage.
“Each individual metabolizes caffeine and the other components of coffee differently,” Hashibe said, so broad recommendations for everyone aren’t possible. Coffee can increase heart rate, blood pressure, and affect sleep, but do each of these things differently in different people.

See original article:

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/coffees-mysterious-benefits-mount-0879/

That’s according to two studies presented on Feb 19, 2009 at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2009, in San Diego.
Researchers attribute the benefits to the chlorogenic and caffeic acids, the strong antioxidants that are formed during the coffee roasting process (and which give coffee its color, aroma, and flavor).
The antioxidants have been proven healthful in a multitude of studies examining cancer, degenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and cardiovascular disease. In the blood vessels, antioxidants reduce damage to the cells lining the blood vessels, including that done by LDL cholesterol, and smoking.

A reduction of 27% in the incidence of strokes, in a population that consumes up to 30% of its fluids, as coffee, is a very important public health benefit.

The researchers have found these health benefits to not be related to the caffeine in the coffee. Decaffinated coffee was of equal benefit to regular coffee.

However, adding milk or dairy products was found to cancel the benefits. It is believed that the antioxidants become bound and inactive by the dairy products.
(People who find coffee too “acidic” for them, requiring milk to buffer the bitter aftertaste, are advised to buy Cup O’ Kona, 100% Kona Coffee, which is silky smooth without that awful aftertaste).

It was also found that the amount of coffee consumed affected the antioxidant benefits, with better results being found in people who drank 3 or 4 cups per day, when compared to people who drank 1 to 2 cups per day.

References:
1. Coffee and Tea Consumption and Risk of Stroke Subtypes in Male Smokers
Susanna C. Larsson, PhD; Satu Männistö, PhD; Mikko J. Virtanen, MSc; Jukka Kontto, MSc; Demetrius Albanes, MD Jarmo Virtamo, MD
(Stroke. 2008;39:1681.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc

2. Coffee Consumption and Risk of Stroke in Women
Esther Lopez-Garcia, PhD; Fernando Rodriguez-Artalejo, MD, PhD; Kathryn M. Rexrode, MD, MPH; Giancarlo Logroscino, MD, PhD; Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD; Rob M. van Dam, PhD
Circulation. 2009;119:1116-1123.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc

It is a not-so-secret, secret, amongst coffee farmers in the Kona coffee belt, that the best flavor comes from a mixture of medium and dark roast beans. Most people I know just use a 50%-50% mix, often scooping the different roasts right into the grinder where the mixing is completed.

Medium roasted coffee (433 F) and Dark roasted coffee (460 F) have quite different flavors.(Whether or not they are made “strong” or “weak” depends more upon how much coffee is used in the coffee machine, not upon the roasting temperature).

At the lower temperatures, the Maillard Reaction allows the formation of an array of the flavor compounds which give the color, aroma, and flavor of roasted coffee.

As roasting continues and the temperature approaches 460 F, carmelization of plant sugars occurs, and adds its own bouquet of flavors, although some of the flavor compounds present in the medium roast are lost.

A mixture of the two roasts can give a much wider array of flavors, than do the individual roasts. In the case of Cup O’Kona, the flavor is broadened, and may be made strong or less strong, without a bitter aftertaste.

To explore your own taste preferences, open bags of each roast, and then scoop varying proportions into the grinder. A heaping tablespoon of beans will yield a heaping tablespoon of ground coffee, which will make a standard mug of coffee.

Coffee makes up nearly a third of all liquids ingested in the USA.  Coffee vendors are on nearly every corner.  For millions of people, the day can only be launched with the help of a cup of coffee.

And as the toils of the day fatigue us, coffee can renew us, bring back strength to our tired limbs, reawaken our creativeness, and bring back our sense of humor.

Surely something as good as coffee, has to be bad for you. That would be the conventional wisdom. Caffeine is one of the most pharmacologically active compounds found in nature. But a flurry of scientific studies have now concluded that with a few exceptions, coffee (and caffeine) has surprisingly few, or no serious health consequences.

An occasional patient with recurrent cardiac arrhythmias would be advised to avoid coffee, but the studies have proven many old wives tales of the perils of drinking coffee to be unfounded, (when consumed in moderation, of course).

Two recent studies suggest that caffeine might even have an important beneficial role in preventing or reducing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Caffeine added to the drinking water of mice with the rodent equivalent of Alzheimer’s disease resulted in a 50% reduction in the amount of abnormal beta amyloid plaques. Dr Arendash, who led the study at the Florida Alzheimer’s Research Center in Tampa, said: ” The new findings provide evidence that caffeine could be a viable ‘treatment’ for established Alzheimer’s disease, and not simply a protective strategy”. (1)

Researchers in Finland and Sweden examined the records of 1409 people whose coffee drinking habits had been recorded when they were at midlife. Those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in midlife were much less likely to have developed dementia or Alzheimer’s disease in follow-up checks two decades or more later. (2)

  Coffee’s great story does not end with caffeine. Consider the Antioxidants.

For over 1000 years man has cultivated coffee, picked the red cherries, squeezed the beans from the pulp, and dried the nearly tasteless green coffee in the sun. Then, the art of roasting the coffee in exactly the correct way, yielded the wondrous aroma and color and taste of the final product.

The roasting of coffee is not caramelization, unless a very dark roast is performed.  At lower temperatures (310 degrees F) a collection of amino acids with six-sided rings, called chlorogenic acids are “fused” with plant sugars into the compounds that give coffee its aroma, its color, and its taste.

The temperature at which this heated reaction occurs (the Maillard reaction) corresponds with the commonly performed “medium roast”.  The intensity of flavor and aroma is highest at this dark tan-colored stage. If roasting is continued, these compounds which yield the flavor, are diminished as the roasting temperature rises. Dark roasts have less caffeine and less flavor compound content, and they do have flavor added by caramelization.

The chlorogenic acids and many of the flavorful, aromatic compounds resulting from the Maillard reaction have a strong antioxidant activity.

Daily ingestion of coffee adds significantly to the benefits of ingestion of antioxidants and has been credited with certain beneficial health effects, including the reduction of colonic cancer and perhaps some protection against the progression of degenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia, etc.(1,2)

The chlorogenic acids that are unique to coffee are produced in highest concentration in full sunlight, at the lower elevations of the coffee belt.

Manufacturing the 1000 or so compounds found in the coffee cherry requires the full energy of the sun, and is only weakened when grown in the shade.  “Makai” coffee from the lower elevations gives the distinct full flavor found in CUP O’ KONA,  100% Kona coffee, from Patrick Farm.

1. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Press Releases, 5  July 2009 , Caffeine reverses memory impairment in Alzheimer Mice. Gary Arendash, Ph.D., Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

2. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Press Releases, 14 January 2009 , Midlife coffee and tea drinking and the risk of late life dementia. Sabina Bossi, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.                                                                                                                                                                                               3. Science Daily(Oct. 15, 2003)    www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003
Highly Active Compound Found In Coffee May Prevent Colon Cancer. Thomas Hofmann, Ph.D., professor and head of the Institute for Food Chemistry at the University of Mnster in Germany, and Veronika Somoza, Ph.D., deputy director of the German Research Center for Food Chemistry in Garching.

2.www.Anti-Aging -Guide.com/41coffee.php.  Anti-Aging Guide 2009

Dr Koon-Hui Wang advocates the use of sunn hemp for its ability to provide biological protection from the root-knot  nematode pest, which presents an ominous threat to coffee farmers in the Kona coffee corridor.

In addition she endorses sunn hemp as a nitrogen fixing “green fertilizer” and conservational ground cover. In a video accessed from YouTube:  Sunn hemp for Soil Health and Nematode Management. The techniques used by her team, for growing sunn hemp between the rows of cash crops, and harvesting and applying it ‘in situ”, where it is grown, as a surface mulch is most important (in our opinion).

We heartily applaud the findings in this study, and we would like to add a few suggestions for the harvesting process. Sunn hemp is indeed one of the great fiber producing plants in nature. Most is used to make rope or clothing. Attempting to chop or shred sunn hemp requires special machinery. It is most easily harvested (cut down) when it is still in the vegetative phase, and just starting to flower. The plant may be simply cut or broken, just above the soil surface, leaving the roots (with their nitrogen fixing nodules) in the soil. The stalk and leaves are simply layed down between our coffee trees and the surface mulching begins. The ground is covered, weed suppression is aided, water is conserved, soil health is improved. The roots decompose, but the soil population of rhizobial bacteria which render atmospheric nitrogen available for plant metabolism, is increased and in place for incorporation into the next planting of sunn hemp.

Thank you Dr Koon-Hui Wang.

Check out the video on YouTube:   Sunn hemp for Soil Health and Nematode Management

Sunn Hemp

The Kona Coffee Belt, on the volcanic slopes of  Mauna Loa, is not an area where “plowing” green manure into the rocky soil, is practical. However, composted  Sunn Hemp can be applied to the soil surface around the base of the coffee trees, where each ton of dry hemp yields up to 51 lbs of  Nitrogen!

That fact becomes exciting when converted into equivalent bags of fertilizer required to supply the same amount of Nitrogen, (for example: 20 bags of a commonly used product).  Without Nitrogen, plants cannot grow.
Sunn Hemp is grown on Patrick Farm, specifically for the purpose of composting it into a high fiber, high nitrogen fertilizing mulch that can be applied around the base of the coffee trees , where it gradually decomposes  and mixes into the soil. The mulch acts as a weed suppressant around the coffee tree as it breaks down, and helps conserve water.

Four crops of Sunn Hemp are planted, harvested and composted in our fields each year. A small portion of the crop is allowed to flower and develop seed for replanting. The bulk of the crop is cut off just above the soil, leaving the roots, with their nitrogen fixing nodules, in the soil. The leafy stalks are placed around the coffee trees where they mulch aerobically. The hemp is best harvested before flowering has occurred, and the plants become so fibrous, that they are difficult to cut with a weed whacker. Three months after planting, by broadcast, the sunn hemp has reached approximately waist high, and the first flowers are starting to appear. At this stage the hemp is cut and placed on the ground around the coffee trees, and then the reseeding is repeated.

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MCSORLEY, R. 1999. Host suitability of potential cover crops for root-knot nematodes. Supplement to the Journal of Nematology 31: 619-623

ROTAR, P. P., and R. J. JOY. 1983. ‘Tropic Sun’ sunn hemp, Crotalaria juncea L. Research Extension Series 036. College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii. 7 pp.

REEVES, D. W., Z. MANSOER, and C. W. WOOD. 1996. Suitability of sunn hemp as an alternative legume cover crop. in Proceedings of the New Technology and Conservation Tillage 96 (7): 125-130. University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Tennessee

Dempsey, J.M. 1975. Fiber Crops. The University Presses of Florida, Gainesville, FL