The stock market was in the news again past few days...  ...  But did you know that one of the famous stock exchange has a deep relationship with coffee ?   Yep, that's right, coffee.

The New York Stock and Exchange Board (now called the New York Stock Exchange) started in a coffeeshop. On May 17, 1792, 24 brokers gathered underneath a buttonwood tree outside of 68 Wall Street in New York City and signed an agreement (Buttonwood Agreement) to only trade with each other. The brokers then started to conduct their business in the Tontine Coffee House on the corner of West and Wall Streets.

The building with the American flag on top is the Tontine Coffee House

By 1817 The NYSEB had outgrown the coffee house and had to move to a bigger place. Although the Tontine itself went through a number of transformations, becoming a tavern in 1826 and a hotel in 1832, it is best remembered as the birthplace of the New York Stock Exchange.

The place for coffee devoters ... in the making

93 degreesC in the making ...

Coffee Packers at Work in Istanbul

Come across this video clip.  Notice the speed of the workers, amazing.


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Coffee for health ?

Check out the interesting findings from Harvard university.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/health/coffee-lowers-risk-of-prostate-cancer_713250.html

Roasting again

Got into roasting again yesterday.
This is a picture of the Yirgacheffee beans before and after roasting to City roast. The colour reproduction is a bit off though.
Notice the change in size.

2 sexy beauties

Which do you think is more sexy ? The Spanish beauty or the French ?

Expobar Brewtus from Spain

Reneka Amici

Freshly Roasted Sumatra Mandheling

Nice huge beans from Aceh in Sumatra. I just learnt the place is called Takengon. 

Mini Garden

Previously I blogged about using used coffee powder as alternative to organic fertilisers. This is the result of dumping used coffee powder into my mini-garden (mixture of plants ranging from onion to pumpkin to fern & cactus) over the past two months or so. The coffee waste contributed to nitrogen during the break-down of the coffee powder which is a powerful fertilizer.  I also noticed that the population of earthworms has increased significantly. 

Thailand as coffee producing country

Thailand is in the Top 20 list of coffee producing countries in the world. In fact, according to the 2007 stats, its capacity of 55,660 tons earns it the 20th place.

Not sure if how many has tried Thai coffee, I was lucky to pick up some Chiang Mai beans earlier. Roasted it to medium, City+. I found that it works better with pour-over. Good body, not overwhelming aroma, well-balanced and gives an incredibly sweet after-taste.

Pour-Over coffee technique

Video from Sweet Marias teaching you the correct way to brew pour-over coffee.