Meet Meredith Taylor, Counter Culture Coffee’s New Sustainability Coordinator

What is sustainable coffee?
As a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America Sustainability Council, Meredith Taylor says this question, as simple as it sounds, is somewhat unanswerable.
“We’ve wondered in the sustainability council if we should define sustainable coffee,” Taylor recently told Daily Coffee News. “But is that our job to do? Is it possible to do? I know it’s going to be difficult for us to know what we’re talking about as an industry if we’re not transparent about this.”
Transparency is among the key charges for Taylor in her new role as sustainability coordinator for Durham, N.C.-based roaster and wholesaler Counter Culture Coffee. CCC has long been one of coffee’s most forward-thinking companies, but its 8-year-old sustainability department has essentially been manned by one person until now, green coffee buyer and sustainability manager Kim Elena Ionescu.
Counter Culture Coffee Sustainability Coordinator Meredith Taylor
While Ionescu’s sustainability efforts have naturally leaned toward supply sustainability and issues at origin, Taylor says she hopes to help the company grow a more well-rounded sustainability approach.
“Think companies like Patagonia, Seventh Generation or New Belgium — when people think of sustainable companies, we want to be on that list,” says Taylor, who got her start in coffee as a barista then manager at Washington D.C.’s Peregrine Espresso. “We’ve done a lot toward sustainability in the coffee world, but not much outside the coffee world.”
To this end, Taylor says the company plans to look deeper inward. “This new position is meant to do a lot of the projects that have been thought of, but that have been put on hold,” she says. “We’re trying to figure out all the sustainability metrics we want to track internally and figure out procedures to measure those.”
For example, under Ionescu’s leadership, CCC has measured seed-to-cup greenhouse gas emissions for several years, but it has not yet tracked internal water usage. The idea is to develop a sustainability approach that reaches every part of the company, from origin to roastery to board room to wholesale delivery.
“We’re also figuring out good ways to report all this stuff,” says Taylor. “We want to be increasingly transparent, and part of that involves getting that raw data and transforming it into something usable, interesting and digestible.”
That digestible data, she says will improve both internal and external communications regarding the company’s sustainability plan. Says Taylor, “I’ve been talking a lot with marketing about how to better communicate the sustainability of our coffees, not necessarily to consumers, but to our employees and our partners.”
This goes back to the problematic question of defining sustainable coffee.
“How do we communicate that sustainability is a spectrum?” Taylor asks. “A lot of times, sustainability is presented as a dichotomy — ‘Is this coffee organic or is it not?’ Well, there are farms that are organic but not socially or environmentally sustainable. There is no clear definition of sustainable coffee, and we need to evolve our collective understanding of the spectrum.”
Taylor is spending some of here existing time simply brushing up on buzzwords and other corporate-speak — the unfortunate result of sustainability increasingly making good business sense. “There is a lot of that corporate-speak and jargon,” she says. “I think it’s important for us to understand how other companies talk about sustainability, even if we don’t want to use that language.”
CCC has launched a new sustainability section on its site, including several new blog posts from Taylor on the company’s sustainability program, as well as coffee sustainability issues, at large.
Author: Nick Brown Nick Brown is the editorial director of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. Feedback and story ideas of welcome at publisher@dailycoffeenews.com.
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Green Tea With Ginseng: Double the Health Benefits?

These days, tea is flavored with pretty much anything, but I recently came across a blend I had not previously heard of—surprisingly so, since the pairing actually makes a lot of sense: green tea with ginseng. Both tea and ginseng have similar purported health benefits and no serious side effects, so pairing the two seems like a great idea. If you don’t like green tea, Art of Tea has an oolong tea with ginseng, which they call Kings Tea.
Very few are still unaware that green tea is healthy and the same can probably be said for ginseng. Most people even know several of the purported health benefits of drinking tea and they might be familiar with some of ginseng’s benefits as well. Nevertheless, let’s look at the most important benefits a ginseng tea might offer. As always, research into the benefits of both tea and ginseng are inconclusive and much further study is needed.
One of ginseng’s uses in alternative medicine is as a booster for our immune systems. Similarly, green tea is said to aid in preventing cold and flu symptoms, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). Additionally, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) state that tea can help improve the body’s response to antibiotics and certain vaccines.
It is not known for certain whether a combination of tea and ginseng can stimulate the immune system and help in preventing or treating a variety of viral and bacterial infections, but preliminary evidence suggests that ginseng teas do offer some level of effective immune support.
Ginseng and green tea are both generally tied to an improvement in cardiovascular function. Ginseng has received a “B” rating from the National Institutes of Health. This signifies that good scientific evidence exists for its use in treating certain forms of heart disease, in conjunction with more standard medications.
As for green tea, the University of Maryland Medical Center has determined the plant to be effective in preventing a hardening of the arteries. Additionally, they claim that drinking green tea can reduce both total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol while also increasing levels of HDL cholesterol (LDL is also known as “bad” cholesterol, while HDL is known as “good”).
The combination of green tea and ginseng could aid people suffering from reactive hypoglycemia and diabetes by helping to control fluctuations in blood glucose levels. The National Institutes of Health has found “promising” results when giving ginseng supplements to people with hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes—the supplements effectively lowered blood sugar levels before and after meals, but did not lower them to dangerous levels.
The UMMC claims that green tea could help in delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes. Furthermore, it can help regulate glucose levels in the bloodstream.
There is a possibility that tea with ginseng could help reduce the risk of several common—and deadly—forms of cancer. Promising, but unfortunately still inconclusive, research from the UMMC suggests that ginseng possesses potent anticancer properties that help reduce the risk of cancers affecting the stomach, lungs, ovaries, liver and pancreas. It also found that polyphenols in green tea may help prevent the formation of cancers that affect the bladder, ovaries, breast, lungs, esophagus, prostate, colon, rectum, stomach and skin.
As mentioned, these findings are thus far inconclusive and, in fact, the NIH considers them “controversial” and points out that much further study is necessary to prove the anticancer properties associated with either tea or ginseng.
Pretty much all of the potential health benefits of both tea and ginseng require further study, but since the side effects of tea are virtually nonexistent and those of ginseng are generally mild, trying tea with ginseng should be fine for most people.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Ginseng could cause nervousness and insomnia, while long-term high doses can result in dizziness, headaches, an upset stomach and other symptoms. More importantly, ginseng could potentially interact negatively with certain drugs, so if you are on any medications, you should consult your doctor before trying any ginseng teas. That said, the amount of ginseng contained in them is quite low and unlikely to cause any problems.
If you’d like to give ginseng tea a try, you can find a green tea with ginseng here and an oolong tea here.
More general info on green tea and oolong tea can be found on the following pages:

http://www.letsdrinktea.com/types-of-tea/green-tea/
http://www.letsdrinktea.com/types-of-tea/oolong-tea/
Photo by Nate Gray.

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Matcha McFlurry at McDonald’s

I have mentioned the green tea powder matcha a few times on this site: since it is made up of ground tea leaves, meaning those leaves are consumed whole, it is the healthiest tea available. It is complicated to brew, however, so the easiest way for most people to enjoy green tea powder is to cook with it. In Asia, a lot of companies already add it to various products, like these Green Tea Kit Kats. In the west, some people may be familiar with the green tea latte from Starbucks. If you’ve been to a McDonald’s in Japan or Singapore, at least during the limited times it was available, you will also be familiar with this matcha product:
That’s right, McDonald’s has decided to combine matcha with Oreos, one of the few sweet foods I can’t really imagine complimenting it well. Matcha powder is commonly used in desserts, because the bitter flavor goes very well with sweetness and green tea ice cream is actually one of Japan’s more famous products among travelers. Sprinkling the powder on vanilla ice cream makes for a delicious treat as well. I’m not so sure if it still tastes good once Oreos are added to the mix, though.
I’ve never tried or even seen this dessert myself, but I’m almost certain I wouldn’t like it. I’m not a huge McDonald’s fan as it is and I find their desserts especially off-putting—they are simply much too sweet for my taste. I read a review of this on another site recently and it said you could barely taste the matcha and that it was completely overwhelmed by the sweet vanilla flavor. Knowing what I know about McDonald’s, that rings true.
Apart from the taste, this is just another one of those ideas—like the latte from Starbucks—that takes a healthy food item and manages to make it completely unhealthy by overwhelming it with sugar. Let’s be honest: anyone who orders one of these things because they think it will help them lose weight deserves to be fat.
If you really want to enjoy the health benefits of green tea, have some green tea! If you absolutely can’t stand the taste and you see cooking with green tea powder as a great way to get the health benefits without the flavor, add it to something at least remotely healthy! Definitely don’t add it to some of the unhealthiest foods (I really should be putting quotes around “food”, shouldn’t I) imaginable, with which is pretty much anything on a McDonald’s or Starbucks menu. All of that said, I would actually try the Matcha McFlurry purely out of curiosity. I don’t think I would enjoy—or even manage to finish—it though.

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Pasadena’s Copa Vida Launches Roastery While Readying San Diego Bar

Copa Vida roastery opening. Photo by Amparo Rios.
Copa Vida has been quietly establishing itself as one of Los Angeles’s friendliest quality-focused multiroaster coffee and tea bars since opening in Pasadena 20 months ago.
As it prepares to open another shop in San Diego, it is now a full-fledged roastery. A single tagline hangs over all the spaces: Go. Enjoy. Experience.
The Copa Vida team, led by owner Steve Chang and managers Sam Hong and Frank La, recently held a formal celebration of the roastery opening, including new packaging for its house-roasted coffees and a sweet new CV delivery truck. The roastery, made possible in part through a crowdfunding campaign, is a mere five minutes away from the Copa Vida flagship shop at 70 South Raymond Avenue in Old Town Pasadena.
Daily Coffee News friend Amparo Rios went, enjoyed and experienced the roastery opening, capturing these shots:
Author: Nick Brown Nick Brown is the editorial director of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. Feedback and story ideas of welcome at publisher@dailycoffeenews.com.
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Inside Topeca Coffee Roasters’ New 2,500-s.f. Coffee Lab in Tulsa

The main training area
Topeca Coffee Roasters has added a 2,500-square-foot laboratory and training facility to its roastery headquarters in Tulsa, Ok.
Topeca Coffee is calling the facility, an SCAA-certified teaching lab, the Topeca Instruments Division, and the company is offering courses under the SCAA’s coffee professional “Pathways” program, for baristas, roasters, tasters, buyers and Golden Cup Technicians.
The manual brew lab
The Topeca team tells Daily Coffee News that they hope the facility, the first of its kind in the region, will attract existing and aspiring coffee professionals from throughout the United States, while also attracting local baristas, home roasters and coffee enthusiasts through additional on-site programming.
The professional lab includes five main areas: a 18-student-capacity classroom; an espresso training bar; a coffee preparation bar; a cupping and analysis lab; and a sample roasting and roaster training space. There is also a cocktail training bar, because 1) Why Not?, and 2) Topeca Coffee currently owns two craft cocktail bars locally, including Hodges Bend.
The espresso lab.
Atop the espresso bar are two La Marzocco models, a Linea and a Strada, and Topeca Coffee Roasters Coffee Director Ian Picco recently told Daily Coffee News that the team plans to add two additional Unic models. Compak grinders fill out the espresso bar and the manual- and batch-brew bar. Walled off from the rest of the training spaces, the cupping lab includes Mahlkonig grinders and a La Marzocco GS3 for espresso analysis. Last but not least, the roasting area includes a Proaster 1.5k model and a Quest M3 sample roaster.
The roasting area
For the interior, Topeca collaborated with local firm W Design to create a clean, modern industrial look that also preserves many of the touches of the existing building. Hard materials such as brick, cement, wood and steel help define the space, while much of the building’s original tin ceiling was able to be salvaged.
“We still have a few little finishing touches, which we hope to wrap up by the summer,” Picco says.
The cupping room Author: Nick Brown Nick Brown is the editorial director of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. Feedback and story ideas of welcome at publisher@dailycoffeenews.com.
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Where to Buy Green Tea Leaves Online

Most people don’t have a good tea store in their neighborhood. Most neighborhoods don’t have a tea shop at all, but even if they do, the tea leaves they sell are often low quality and overpriced. Luckily, there are many online tea stores—too many, in fact. It can be hard to find a trustworthy one. If you’re looking to buy some loose leaf green tea, but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place.
Eisai’s Choice Sencha from Art of Tea
I’ll begin with, my favorite online tea purchase. If you love the taste of green tea, you’ll want a sencha. This Japanese green tea has the quintessential green tea flavor: grassy, crisp and clear. The best value I’ve found is Eisai’s Choice Sencha from Art of Tea. The leaves are high quality, but the price is very reasonable, with a sample tin costing $5 and an 8 oz. pouch (makes about 120 cups) going for $40.
If you prefer the slightly milder Chinese green teas, I’d definitely go with a Dragon Well tea. It is the classic Chinese tea with a gentle, mellow flavor. Once again, Art of Tea has the best value with their organic Dragon Well. At the time of writing, this tea was sold out, so I was not able to check on the current prices. You can expect to pay a bit less that you would for the Sencha.
This is actually the main problem with any good Dragon Well tea. The Longjing (Dragon Well in Chinese) region in the West Lake area of Hangzhou is very small, meaning that the year’s harvest sells out quickly and once any store has sold all its stock, they won’t be able to replenish it until the next year. You can still find a lot of cheaper Dragon Well, but it will come from other regions and thus not be a true Dragon Well, even if it carries the name.
Generation Tea has a good alternative if Art of Tea’s is sold out. Actually, make that a great alternative, as their Early Harvest West Lake Royal Longjing is the best Dragon Well you’ll find outside of China. Naturally, it is also much more expensive (ranging from $28 for 2 oz to $200 for 1 lb). Because it is so expensive, it doesn’t generally sell out nearly as quickly. The main problem with this tea is that you have to put up with Generation’s hideous website. It looks like a leftover relic from the early days of the internet.
The Uji Gyokuro from Art of Tea
Gyokuro is the best green tea money can buy (apart from Matcha, but that is a matter for a different article—specifically, this one). This shade-grown Japanese tea will not come cheap, generally costing twice as much as a Sencha or a Dragon Well. The Uji Gyokuro from Art of Tea is the best value. It ranges from $24 for 2 oz (~30 cups) to $160 for 1 lb (~240 cups).
Virtually everyone has an account on Amazon, making it a convenient place to buy tea. The main problem is the extremely large selection, most of which is not very good. It can be hard to find the quality offerings among all the junk, but they are there.
For sencha, the best option is the excellent organic Sencha from Rishi tea. It is reasonably priced at under $12 for 2.1 oz. For Dragon Well, try the 4 oz box from Serendipi Tea which also goes for around $11. Aiya sells a good organic Gyokuro on Amazon. 80 grams cost $35.
Silver Leaf Tea has the lowest prices on loose leaf green tea, but the quality is low and their website looks terrible. Their tea works well if you make large amounts to carry around all day in a thermos or something, but I would not recommend it for brewing on a cup by cup basis. Their Sencha is only $29 for a pound.
Alternatively, you could try some of the cheaper options on Amazon. I haven’t tried any myself, so I can’t give you any advice. Chances are you’ll end up with a horrible tea, but you won’t spend much to get it, so it might be worth trying a few until you hit the jackpot.
If you’ve been asking yourself, “Where can I buy green tea,” I hope I was able to offer some good suggestions to get you started. If you have any questions or if you’ve found a great tea you think I would enjoy, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact me through my contact page.

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Zojirushi CV-DSC40 VE Hybrid Water Boiler and Warmer Review

Hot water at the push of a button — no more waiting
Want to drink more tea, but hate waiting for water to boil?
I can’t tell you how many cups I’ve skipped because I was too impatient to wait for the water (it’s sad, I know…).
Then I got a water boiler and warmer. The Zojirushi CV-DSC40 VE gives you hot water at the push of a button.
With its variable temperature settings, you get water at the exact temperature you need for the different kinds of tea. No more bitter green or white tea from water that is too hot.
A water boiler comes in handy for all kinds of other uses as well, from making coffee, to oatmeal, to hot chocolate, to noodles, to baby milk, etc.
Of course you can simply use a standard electric kettle to heat water for all the same uses. It would certainly save you a lot of money.
The question is: do you hate waiting for water to boil as much as I do? The Zojirushi keeps the water at the temperature you choose throughout the day, so you can quickly make a steaming cup of tea whenever you get the urge.
Read on to see what else a Zojirushi hybrid water boiler and warmer does and if buying one makes sense for you.
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The Zojirushi CV-DSC40 VE has three variable temperature settings:
208°F: for black, herbal tea, pu-erh tea, coffee, instant noodles195°F: for oolong tea and Darjeeling tea (technically an oolong)175°F: for green teas and white teas
The water is kept warm using a hybrid of electricity and vacuum insulation technology, which uses far less energy, saving your money and our environment. The unit also has a completely non-electric mode, which saves even more energy. This is the mode to use if you are keeping the water at the same temperature for long periods of time.
The inside of the water boiler/warmer is made of stainless steel and is entirely BPA-free. The same goes for the inside of the lid. The only plastic or silicon components that could potentially come into contact with your water are some of the gaskets and the outer lid. Naturally, all of these components are BPA-free as well.
large 4-liter (135 oz) capacity means plenty of hot water for parties, small offices or even the largest of familiesVacuum-electric (VE) hybrid keep warm system saves energy and your moneyMicro computerized temperature control system to ensure accurate water temperaturesEnergy-saving timer function (6-10 hours), so your hot water will be ready for you when you get up in the morningEasy-to-clean clear coated stainless steel exteriorEasy-to-hear sound indicator to alert completion of boiling process or low water levelRemovable magnetic power cordOptional “Cafe Drip” dispensing mode which allows for slower dispensingThree keep warm temperature settings (175°F, 195°F, 208°F and Vacuum Insulated Non-Electric Keep Warm)cETLus listedDimensions: 8-3/4 x 11-1/8 x 13-7/8 inchesMade in Japan (not China, like the cheaper Zojirushi CD-WBC40)Instruction manual in English, French, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese
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At the time of writing, the Zojirushi CV-DSC40 had 374 customer reviews and a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. The vast majority of reviews are very positive, but I did notice that several people reported the same problem.
According to their reviews, when the water reached the boiling point, an HH error code would appear in the display and the unit would go into automatic shutdown mode. I have not had this problem personally and neither has anyone I know who owns this water boiler/warmer, but since several reviews reported the same issue, I would definitely test yours as soon as it arrives and return it immediately if you find your unit displaying an HH error code.
Apart from that, most reviews are downright glowing, with customers saying “
Very easy to use and well made” or “An excellent tea tool for the frequent drinker“ or “Worth EVERY penny!”
I did see a few people complain that the unit will heat the water all the way to boiling and then let it cool back down to a lower temperature setting, instead of simply heating it to that temperature and then stopping. They didn’t like having to wait longer for lower temperature water than for hotter water.
I can definitely understand this complaint, but I like knowing that my water has been boiled completely and thus sterilized. It does take a bit longer as a result, but I simply use the timer. I set it at night and have hot water waiting for me when I wake up in the morning.
I concur with most reviewers and happily recommend this product.
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The Zojirushi CV-DSC40 is a high quality hybrid water boiler and warmer that makes drinking tea as easy as getting a cup of water from the faucet. No more waiting for water to boil. Even better, no more bitter tea from water that is too hot for the leaves.
You get tea brewed at the perfect temperature each and every time and you don’t have to wait for water to boil. I highly recommend this product for the home of any tea drinker or for any office with several tea drinking employees.

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