This time I appeal to the sports enthusiasts among you, those who work out only occasionally, and particularly those who engage in fitness training on a regular basis. Every person who engages in physical activity aims to improve results and enable the body to begin the session filled with energy, from start to finish. In this post I will tell you about the interesting connection between drinking coffee before exercising to improving our sports performance.

One of the ingredients most identified with coffee is, of course, caffeine, which affects all body systems, especially the central nervous system. So what is it about caffeine that makes it a substance we should put into our body before working out?

Coffee drinking is recommended before which types of training?

Many studies indicate that caffeine is an ergogenic substance, namely a performance-enhancing substance, and therefore, it is often recommended that those engaged in a sporting activity sports should have a cup of Turkish (black) coffee before exercising.

These qualities of caffeine have been tested with athletes whose sports activities involve various effort levels and durations, and they showed that caffeine helps those engaged in athletic activity that requires prolonged effort.

Though caffeine has greater effect on sports that require sustained effort, a positive effect was found in both cases, with the level of improvement varying, of course, from one person to another and from one sports branch to another.

The link between caffeine and improved fitness and stamina

For those of you wondering what’s making caffeine so that effective with fitness and stamina – I should note that while the mechanism itself may not be completely clear, most studies suggest three possible reasons:

First and foremost, caffeine enhances alertness and therefore increases mental ability and the desire to sustain the effort over time. This phenomenon is explained, in part, from by fact that caffeine is known as a material that prevents contact between Adnosin – a substance that makes us feel relaxed and calm – and its unique receptor (point of “contact”). It also increases dopamine activity, a substance responsible for increasing awareness.

The second reason for which caffeine improves prolonged sports stamina, is that caffeine increases utilization of energy sources from triglycerides (organic fat compound comprised of fatty acids and glycerol) and reduces utilization of energy from glucagon .

Moreover, because caffeine increases the level of calcium in skeletal muscle, it enhances their mechanical ability, namely affects the contraction and stretching of the muscles.

We have a training session. When and how much coffee should we drink?

Having understood how caffeine works and why you should drink coffee before a workout, let’s talk about dosages and times.

You are invited to write down the following figures – Studies show that the recommended caffeine consumption before exercise is 150 to 300 mg.

Since caffeine concentration in the blood after coffee drinking reaches its peak after about 60 minutes, consuming up to two cups of Turkish coffee, one hour before a physical activity enhances performance and increases ability and stamina over time.

So what are you waiting for? Indulge in a cup of coffee and then exercise.

We all know coffee, nature’s invigorator, as a finished end-product – in powder, granules, vacuum bag and tin. But what happens until it is packaged and makes its way to a mug or a small glass?

In the coming weeks I will share with you the production process of coffee, take you behind the scenes of the beans, and unveil some interesting processes.

Let’s start with a video footage in which I describe the first leg in the coffee journey – Treatment of beans once they reach the production plant. Want to know what we do with them? You’ll find all the answers in the video:

See you in my next post,

Zion

Two very interesting coffee events are taking place this month under the World Coffee Championship. Since my colleague, Shay Baniel, has already told you extensively about the World Barista Championship, I chose to share with you details about another competition – which is just as exciting and fascinating – the World Cup Tasters Championship.

Different Strokes

Coffee is the most complex natural food product in nature, so much so that the taste and smell of coffee contain hundreds of chemical components more than wine or cocoa. Pre-roasted coffee beans contain 230 natural substances. When the roasting process is complete, they evolve into more than 1,000 different substances. Just for comparison, I should point out that the taste and aroma of wine consist of 300 different materials.

So in case you were wondering until today, the great taste and unique aroma of coffee are the reason for the fact that coffee products have become so favorable by the public.

Coffee Tasting Skills

Despite scientific advancement in recent years and the development of sophisticated testing equipment in laboratories, it is still impossible to evaluate the quality of the coffee flavor using instruments only. To this end, it is necessary to train a skilled coffee taster with unique coffee-tasting capabilities.

The professional term for coffee tasting is CUPPING, and the process is quite similar to wine tasting, just more complex.

A coffee taster accompanies the coffee beans from growth stage to final-product pack. At the initial stage, the coffee taster carefully examines the quality of the crop and the quality of the coffee varieties after receiving a sample from the coffee grower. Using his professional judgment, he determines whether the coffee has good quality and is defects-free, and then matches the mixture to the desired coffee blend.

Those of you who doubt the complexity of the work performed by a coffee taster, this is the right moment to tell you that there are about 500 coffee types of varying quality in the world. This undoubtedly demonstrates the complexity involved in the profession of coffee tasting coffee.

How is it Done?

The work tools of a coffee taster are mainly developed senses of taste and smell. A coffee taster samples 100 to 200 cups a day. Due to multiple samples and checks, tasting utilizes coffee gargling with the tongue and pallet, and then spitting.

Training a taster takes at least two years, usually under the supervision of an experienced mentor and accompanied by hundreds of daily tastings. As you can imagine, the longer the seniority of a professional coffee taster, the better his tasting abilities.

Between Coffee Tasting and Quality Coffee Production

Strauss Coffee is the only company in Israel which has such high-level coffee tasters. Coffee tasting conducted by a team of trained tasters with decades of experience between them.

Tastings are conducted routinely at company plants by a special team of tasters, who regularly support technology and marketing decision-making. We also engage this tasters team in the development of products for the Israeli market and for other countries in which Strauss operates.

Another daily activity of the team is quality assurance processes during various production stages.

Activate Your Senses

The World Cup Tasters Championship crowns the coffee taster that demonstrates skill, accuracy and speed, while managing to typify flavor differences in specialty coffee. Under this competition format, the professional coffee taster must typify and differentiate various coffee flavors.

The competition uses a triple test to distinguish between flavors, in which the coffee taster receives a set of three cups, each containing two identical cups of coffee and one exception, and he must identify the cup with a different or “strange” taste as quickly as possible.

During the competition, each taster receives eight sets of the triple test, and the 8 competitors with the highest identification score and fastest time move on to the semi-finals. At that stage, the four finalists continue to the finals, where the world coffee taster champion is crowned.

Cups used in the triple test must contain 125 ml to 250 ml, and the coffee liquid volume each in each cup must be between 75 ml to 150 ml.

Ready, Steady, Taste!

The time referee marks the starting time for all tasters, and the round ends when each taster leave the competition table, either signaling to the referee that they completed the assignment or once the maximum time of 8 minutes is over.

The winner is the contestant with the most correct identification scores at the shortest amount of time.

Sensory Sensitivity and Gender

Not surprisingly, the winners of this world championship in recent years are women and not men. This figure confirms the fact that women possess higher sensory capacity and sensitivity than men.

But before we jump to hasty conclusions, we shall wait patiently for the competition in mid-June in Vienna, which will officially announce the cup tasting champions for 2012. I promise to update you with all the details upon my return.

This festival was established by local coffee companies in a bid to familiarize both the companies and the various coffee consumers with the market, as well as to learn more about the various products available, and, of course, to explore options for cooperation in coffee.

The festival is a very interesting event, which demonstrates how coffee has become such an integral part of Indian culture and how India is becoming a pivotal player in the global coffee industry, with production of over 5 million bags of coffee annually (In terms of coffee volumes, this makes India the sixth largest country in the world).

The unique climate and growth regions in India facilitate growth and processing of the superb Arabica and Robusta types. The coffee manufacturing industry utilizes them extensively in high-quality coffee blends and products. Strauss Coffee’s high-quality coffee products are also based in part on varieties that come from India.

Coffee in modern Indian culture plays an essential part in the lifestyle, leisure activities and social life of the people living there. Previously identified with workshop and factory workers, coffee has become popular across all classes, due to the wide variety of beverages that can be produced from coffee beans, from black coffee to instant coffee, cold drinks and stylish shakes.

While Israel does not yet have an official coffee festival, there is no doubt that coffee is an intergral part of Israeli culture too, be it in the numerous coffee shops around, the many ice coffee drinks available, black coffee drunk during military reserve duty or even the warm cups of coffee drunk whilst writing seminar papers.

If you want to learn more about coffee, you can take a look at my last post which was entitled “ A big story about a small coffee bean”. Happy drinking!

Zion started his coffee career in the “Elite” corporation as a food technologist in charge of QA in the final manufacturing process. During his job, Tzion introduced a technological groundbreaking process of QA in the roasted coffee field, including acquiring special grounders, advanced computing systems & the training of teams on all aspects of the new technology and process.

Zion took a central part in leading Strauss to unify new R & D teams in the labs and to collaborations with leading universities and institutes around the world.

Zion is proud of his success in the company, and says he couldn’t have done it without the love and support of his wife, Amelia, and children, Shay & Shani.

A story about goats and Coffee beans

Coffee was discovered over 1000 years ago in Ethiopia, and was not consumed as a daily beverage for the masses, but rather by Ethiopian priests who would chew the bean during religious rituals, noticing the process contributed to their alertness.

No one knows how the priests were introduced to the beans, but legend tells the tale of an Ethiopian shepherd who discovered his goats chewing on cherry-like beans, resulting in an extremely vigorous herd. This same shepherd collected these beans and used them as a kindling substance for his fire. The pleasant scent that rose from their roasting resulted in a courageous act that changed the face of human culture; they dared to put the beans in their mouth. From that point, coffee began to spread throughout the region.

In the year 1300 (approximately), the coffee consumed in Ethiopia began to spread to Yemen, where the method of consumption shifted from chewing to drinking. The migration of the beans to the Arab peninsula followed the occupation of the area by the Muslim empire, where the Muslims adopted coffee as a substitute to alcohol.

Although roasted coffee had by now spread to the entire Arab peninsula, the Yemenites kept the secret of growing the beans to themselves. They quickly understood the enormous financial potential in growing the desired plant for trade reasons. Those caught smuggling unroasted coffee were severely punished; from amputation of limbs to death. Due to this harsh policy, the secret stayed in Yemen for more than 400 years.

These sacks spurred the curiosity of the locals, who started to consume coffee. Due to differences in income, it was mostly the nobility who could afford buy to this ‘wonder beverage’ from the Yemenites. Who knows, maybe they were the ones to start the tradition of “coffee with cake” while serving the aromatic liquid with pastry at social events.

During the same period, the Dutch, who were key traders and major players in the booming eastern spice market, managed to bribe a pilgrim to smuggle coffee sprouts from Yemen to Holland. These sprouts were then germinated locally, and from there transferred to wider and more suitable growing fields in Central America and further south. This practice soon became common with other countries; the Portuguese grew beans in Brazil, the Spanish in the midcontinent and the French in Africa. By now, coffee in its liquid form became  popular across the world.

From a traditional beverage to a popular one

That being the case, we still can’t point our finger to the sole reason that coffee became so loved; was it the intense flavor, the might of its scent and the intoxicating aroma? Or maybe it was just coffees’ vigorous character that created such a demand?

Although we probably will never know the secret of its alluring appeal, it is obvious that coffee indeed has a unique and interesting tale, influenced by political changes throughout history. It’s amazing to discover how such an everyday beverage has such deep roots and a fascinating history, which only raises the question of future developments to come…

But for now, and until my next post, it’s time for a coffee break.