Author Archives: rebecca

3 Brands Claiming to be “the Strongest Coffee in the World”

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I can easily claim that Filipinos are a ready market for the strongest coffee in the world. Over here, there’s a running joke that we like our coffee strong enough to fight for us – “kapeng matapang, kaya akong ipaglaban.”

We use the word “matapang” for coffee in a way that means either “rich in flavor” or “has a strong kick” (it bears mention that “matapang” is also used in many different ways outside of coffee – sometimes it’s used to mean “brave,” sometimes “fierce,” etc). So if there’s coffee out there that claims to be “matapang” in both flavor and caffeine content – I say bring it over!

Quite a few brands compete for the honor of being called “the strongest coffee in the world,” but I’d like to spotlight four specific brands, which catch attention due to their aggressive online marketing campaigns. If you happen to be both a social media addict AND a coffee lover, you must’ve encountered these brands on your Facebook feed at least once recently.

dw-small

(image from the Death Wish Coffee Official Website)

1. Death Wish Coffee – The company that manufactures this brand claims that a single bean has 200 percent more caffeine than regular coffee.

A review on Huffington Post says it definitely has a formidable kick: it is Not Kidding when it says the caffeine is strong. However, if flavor is important to you, the review also says this may not be a brand that’ll get you hankering for more.

Also, in terms of caffeine content, it seems that this year Death Wish took a backseat to…

forto-espresso

(image from the FORTO Strong Coffee Official Website)

2. FORTO Strong Coffee – One of the benefits of the cold brew process is that the end product usually has higher caffeine content than regularly brewed coffee. So it’s no real surprise that a cold brew was named the strongest coffee in the world earlier this year, beating even Death Wish and Nespresso.

You may want to dilute this reigning caffeine champion in quite a bit of water. Or enjoy it as it is! Just note the manufacturer’s warning: “Limit 2 bottles per day, several hours apart. Not for children, nursing or pregnant women – they will have to wait to experience such joy.”

nespresso sampler

(image from the Nespresso Official Website)

3. Nespresso – If you look through “world’s strongest coffee” lists, such as this one, you may find that Nescafe brewed or brewable products often top those lists. When it comes to amount of caffeine per ounce, Nescafe simply doesn’t scrimp.

Before I end this writeup, I believe one kind of coffee that’s grown here in the Philippines deserves special mention, for its claims to strength of flavor AND kick:

barako coffee

(image from Philippine Herbal Medicine)

Barako Coffee – This coffee is made from liberica beans, which are grown not in the highlands of Northern Luzon – but rather in the fields of Batangas, in warmer Central Luzon. Liberica beans are only grown under special conditions, which makes barako quite rare and hard to find outside of Malaysia or the Philippines.

The name “barako” itself loosely means “stud,” and is a very, very masculine term. Studies on exactly how strong its caffeine content is have been few and hard to find, but sometimes studies are not required: from smell alone, one could tell that it’s Really Strong Coffee. And barako is such a large part of our daily lives, you’d be hard pressed to find a Filipino who claims he or she does not like the taste of barako.

Could it someday be counted among the strongest coffee in the world? A nation can hope!

Barako coffee deserves a post all its own. I’ll be working on that soon.

My 5 Best Songs About Coffee

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I find it helps me write on this blog to actually have a cup of freshly brewed coffee within reach, and to have coffee songs playing in the background while I write.

By “coffee songs,” I don’t mean the songs they play in cafes. I mean songs ABOUT coffee. I have Spotify installed and there’s a sponsored playlist there called “Your Favorite Coffeehouse”; perhaps the chill, smooth lounge songs there make for good background music for when you’re at your favorite establishment, lazily awaitin’ some caffeinatin’, but I’m afraid many of the songs in it do nothing for me.

Simply put, my coffee songs need to have lyrics that mention, and if possible extol, the virtues of drinking coffee. Without further ado, let’s dive into the list:

1. Sarah Vaughan – Black Coffee – There are many versions of this song out, with Ella Fitzgerald’s lovely version probably being the most popular one, but Wikipedia tells me that Sarah Vaughan was the first to record it. And between her version and Ella’s, I like Sarah’s just a little more.

And okay, this song doesn’t quite celebrate coffee, but it’s still central to setting the bluesy mood.

my nerves have gone to pieces
my hair is turning gray
all I do is drink black coffee
since my man’s gone away

(Read the rest of the lyrics here).

2. Diana King – Mi Coffee – No video or lyrics available for this song, sadly. I first encountered it while listening to Ms. King’s second album, Think Like a Girl, and this highly personal, 31-second piece got to me immediately. Ms. King claims her mother used to sing this song, as she “HAD to have her coffee in the morning.” It’s fun and simple and a capella – unique in itself.

3. Carroll Gibbons and Marjorie Stedeford – Black Coffee – A light-hearted tune, to offset the more melancholy mood of the Sarah Vaughan song with the same title. (And in case you were wondering: they’re two completely different songs.)

4. Kojima Mayumi – Turkey Coffee (小島麻由美「トルココーヒー」) – I’d say “whimsical” is an understatement for this one; it’s a bit of a rush, this song. I’m not a fluent Japanese speaker and I can’t say I fully understand the lyrics, but for me, the melody captures the high and subsequent mellow feeling you get from imbibing REALLY strong, high-quality coffee. I haven’t personally tried Turkish coffee yet, but I’ll probably get back to you after I have.

Watch the video here (click on the video screencap to open the song in a popup window) and read the lyrics (in Japanese) here.

5. Caffeine – Patty Larkin – Of all the songs in the list, this one I think has the most laid-back, “coffeeshop” feel. I’m not aware of any cafe or brand that’s used it for a commercial yet, but if one has, I wouldn’t be surprised!

Notice that all the songs in the list were sung by women? Maybe someone reading this can recommend other good coffee songs by male artists. I’ll happily put it in my “songs about coffee” playlist if it catches my fancy; a more balanced playlist would certainly be nice.

If these don’t quite satisfy your craving for good coffee songs, there are tons of other mixes/playlists on the Web. Check these out, for starters:

10 Coffee Songs to Jump-Start Your Day @ Esquire

Readers Recommend: Songs About Coffee @ The Guardian

The Best Sad Coffee Songs @ ThoughtCatalog

Jittery Jams: 10 Songs For Coffee Lovers @ NPR

Korean songs with the ‘Coffee’ theme @ Ningin Voices

Is There Going to Be a Coffee Shortage?

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The news went viral last year, when news of droughts hitting Brazil and other South American countries – the world’s foremost suppliers of coffee – sparked fears of a global coffee shortage. Brazil’s coffee industry undoubtedly took a hit starting in 2014, leading to lower quality goods and higher prices.

As climate change wreaks havoc on plantations worldwide, we remain on tenterhooks about the future of the coffee industry. The International Business Times reported just earlier this month that we may be looking at a “chronic long-term shortage of supply.”

However, not everybody agrees that undersupply is imminent. Daniel Bier of the Foundation for Economic Education says the numbers just don’t add up.

Supply shrank, demand grew, and we didn’t have a shortage — thanks to the miracle of the price system, coordinating the behavior of millions of coffee growers, investors, wholesalers, retailers, entrepreneurs, and drinkers around the globe.

In fact, coffee is more abundant than ever. World coffee production has roughly doubled since 1961.

(Read the rest of the writeup here)

So if you ask me, the jury is still out on whether or not there is actually a “shortage.”

There’s no question that climate change is affecting food production all over the world, however. El Nino is a problem faced by agricultural areas worldwide, even here in the Philippines. However, there don’t seem to be reports as of  yet about coffee plantations taking major losses. Many plantations are located in the cooler northern regions of the country, and for the most part it’s plantations in the south that have borne the worst of this weather phenomenon.

This makes me wonder: could the Philippines use the fears of a “coffee shortage” to its advantage, and bring more of its coffee to the world? I know it’s not the nicest thing to say one should cash in on widespread panic, but maybe it’s a good time to position ourselves to the global market as an alternative source.

(Somewhat related: there are fears of a chocolate shortage all over the world. Due to a generally warmer climate in the region, Central American farmers are finding it difficult to keep planting coffee, so they’re planting cacao trees instead. It’s evidence of how the market adjusts and continues to thrive. So maybe non-coffee producing agricultural regions will find themselves able to meet the coffee demand, in turn.)

Baguio Coffee Artist and Environmentalist Vincent Navarro Dies, Aged 23

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Vincent Navarro made the news a few years back as an up and coming young artist who uses coffee grounds for making art – not stains, or beans, as other niche artists have been known to do, but grounds, the oft-overlooked aftermath of the global coffee trade.

The news broke only a few days ago that he has died, and the world lost another young, talented artist, who was also a passionate environmentalist. The Kicker Daily article I’ve linked here says he got into coffee art as a way of helping prevent the buildup of garbage in Baguio’s landfills.  (One imagines that in the northern Philippines’ coffee-growing regions, agricultural garbage is a problem.)

His frequent subjects: the coffee farmers of Benguet, the unsung heroes of the industry. Coffee farmed in the Philippine highlands is often organic, relying mainly on the labors and traditional wisdom of the farmers, yet there is little effort made to know them personally and to highlight their struggles.

Coffee grounds are used to make many things, but art is perhaps one of its least popular uses. Navarro was able to take an environmentally friendly material and transform it into a lasting, beautiful way to immortalize a marginalized group.

I’m still researching other uses of coffee grounds myself… I don’t generate a lot of them, but they amount to a lot over time. It feels like I can still do my part in conserving nature and making sure the grounds don’t go to waste… but since I am not very good at art, I may need to find other ways.

My love for coffee and my love for art come together in works by artists like Navarro. Here’s to the hope that his works will be remembered for a long time, and that the messages he embedded in them will reach more people all over the world.

Visual artist Vincent Navarro based in Baguio City died last February 16 at the age of 23 The artist allegedly died due to complications after undergoing surgery He is known for using coffee grounds in a portrait series of Benguet coffee farmers

Source: Baguio visual artist Vincent Navarro dies at 23 | Kicker Daily News