Did you know:

• Coffee was used as a murder weapon in New York. A man poisoned his soon to be ex-wife's coffee with cyanide.
• If you are female and drink 3 or more cups of coffee a day, you could be shrinking your breast size. (I didn't make this one up. It's a real study done in Sweden at Lund University.)  Better news from that study, if you have a certain variation of a gene (50% of women have it) then coffee can reduce the risk of breast cancer by as much as 2/3. Seems coffee counteracts the hormone effects on the breast tissue.
  • Limit the amount of coffee you drink if you're pregnant. If you have two or more cups a day, the odds are higher you'll have a low birthweight baby.
  • Starbuck's is giving away coffee if you vote. Honor system. But the state of California considers it be be a bribe since food can be an influencer of voting. California evidently took a donut shop to task 20 years ago.
  • Jeremy Clarkson in the UK TImes Online is convinced coffee drinking countries are staying on top. He despairs of the UK tea drinkers saying,
    

  " Because when you stop and think about it, how many French or Italian banks have gone bust? And while we  wobble, Spain’s Santander bank is stalking the globe like one of the country’s gigantic trawlers, sucking up the broken minnows.  This is because they are all coffee drinkers. They wake up, have an espresso; then, invigorated, they go to work quite literally full of beans.  We, on the other hand, expect to be able to operate on a stomach full of wet leaves. Tea, in actual fact, caused our banking crisis.

  • McDonalds in the Ozarks (Missouri to the rest of us) is offering free coffee to those making donations to the Ozarks Food Harvest food bank. Bring a non perishable item and you'll receive a small regular or gourmet coffee of your choice.
  • If you happen to be up in Maine, not Down Maine on the coast drop by the University of Maine.  The University of Maine at Orono holds an International Coffee Hour every Friday at 4 p.m. in Memorial Union's North Dining Room. This past week they celebrated Guy Fawkes Day(which is actually November 3rd.) Hosted by the International Students Association, you'll meet some people from different cultures and have some coffee as well.
  • From Gillian Hurst Down Under at the CourierMail.au here's a recipe for espresso granita.

  To make your own all you need is 350ml of strong espresso (not instant coffee), about a tablespoon of sugar and 250ml of whipping cream whipped together with a few teaspoons of vanilla sugar. Simply dissolve the sugar into the coffee and place the sweetened coffee into ice-cube trays and freeze. When frozen place the cubes into a food processor and blend.Return to the freezer until required. Serve with the lightly whipped Chantilly cream.

  That's all the news for today. I'm expecting my Sumatra Gayoland Coffee today. Will let you know how it brews.

  Not the usual grind,

• 

Tip of the mug to Woodsy for the use of the photo

I found this website called Gourmet Sleuth. The person must be a chemist as he or she breaks down recipes so a person can recreate all the drinks and recipes at home.

And the recipes are right on-at least the coffee ones.  So I got Jillian the ingredients for her favorite coffee drink including Starbucks Vanilla Syrup and Carmel Sauce, added some illy  my favorite Italian espresso and took it over to her house.   I also added the recipe in the package.

Jillian was thrilled and so am I.  I'm not cooking dinner tonight, Jillian is.

Here's the recipe from Gourmet Sleuth.

Starbucks Caramel Macchiato

Serves: 1

I N G R E D I E N T S
2 tablespoons Starbucks' Vanilla Syrup
1/2 cup fresh brewed espresso
8 ounces steamed milk
3 to 4 tablespoons Starbucks' Caramel Sauce

I N S T R U C T I O N S
Add vanilla syrup to 16oz glass.  Add steamed milk and caramel sauce and stir well.

Not the usual grind,

Tip of the mug to the Gourmet Sleuth