It’s no surprise that flavored coffees are very popular. This is the 21st century and we’re in America, the land of all things sugary sweet and menu boards with myriad choices.

The big coffee chains have made the acceptance and consumption of artificially sweet coffee drinks de rigueur in today’s society.

Years ago this was not the case. Coffee was supposed to taste like coffee. The most accessible flavoring agents one could add were cream and sometimes a teaspoon or packet of plain sugar. More adventurous drinkers might add a shot of Irish Whiskey to their coffee and cream.

Today, practically any and every flavor you can think of has been conjoined with coffee to satisfy our collective desire for both variety and something new and delicious.

Can you imagine a person from the 1960s suddenly finding himself in line at a modern-day Starbucks. This fellow is from an era when people drank coffee solely because they needed it to get through the day, not because it necessarily tasted “yummy.”

He’s confused enough when he looks around and sees people sitting at tables typing away on their laptop computers. His head begins to spin even more as he sees the people in line ahead of him talking into cell phones and texting on their Blackberries. Then he gets near the counter and the lady in front of him orders a caramel macadamia yummy-a-cino with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles. Now he knows there has been some jagged rift in the space-time continuum and that he has been beamed into some alternate reality universe.

Yep, times have changed. And our view of coffee has changed with it. If you read this column fairly regularly you probably know by now that I’m pretty much a “just gimme coffee” kind of guy. I like my coffee with a splash of cream but usually say no to the sugary syrups and sprinkles. I love the varieties of coffee that are grown with care by passionate farmers around the globe. The different terroirs of each region or even each hillside offer enough variety and nuance of flavor to keep me interested.

That’s not to say that I frown upon those frou-frou drinks. Not at all. It’s a wonderful new culinary world and variety may indeed be the spice of life. We’ve created signature coffee drinks at our café that feature ingredients such as cacao spiced with peppers and cinnamons; stout beer and white chocolate; bacon and dark chocolate; various liqueurs and spirits; even tobacco infused cream. They’re all fun to make and delicious to drink.

You can buy any number of coffee flavoring syrups at just about any grocery store today. But if you’re a foodie and like to experiment you can create your own coffee flavoring syrups at home. Besides being easy and fun this is also a nice option over purchasing most store-brand syrups because it gives you more control over the quality of ingredients and, just as importantly, what ingredients to leave out of the mix (no need for chemical preservatives when making your own).

Here’s what you do:

Add two cups of sugar (I prefer raw cane sugar) to around a cup of filtered water in a small sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the sugar has dissolved add two or three teaspoons of whatever flavoring extract tickles your fancy (vanilla and rum are sure to please, but any extract will work). Stir it to mix well, then turn the heat down to medium and let it thicken up a bit. Once it’s cooled just pour it into a clean jar or funnel it into a clean, empty soda bottle and cork it.

It will last for a few weeks in your refrigerator. Add as much to your coffee to suit your taste. It’s your coffee so drink it how you want it.
That’s not to say that I frown upon those frou-frou drinks. Not at all. It’s a wonderful new culinary world and variety may indeed be the spice of life. We’ve created signature coffee drinks at our café that feature ingredients such as cacao spiced with peppers and cinnamons; stout beer and white chocolate; bacon and dark chocolate; various liqueurs and spirits; even tobacco infused cream. They’re all fun to make and delicious to drink.

You can buy any number of coffee flavoring syrups at just about any grocery store today. But if you’re a foodie and like to experiment you can create your own coffee flavoring syrups at home. Besides being easy and fun this is also a nice option over purchasing most store-brand syrups because it gives you more control over the quality of ingredients and, just as importantly, what ingredients to leave out of the mix (no need for chemical preservatives when making your own).

Here’s what you do:

Add two cups of sugar (I prefer raw cane sugar) to around a cup of filtered water in a small sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the sugar has dissolved add two or three teaspoons of whatever flavoring extract tickles your fancy (vanilla and rum are sure to please, but any extract will work). Stir it to mix well, then turn the heat down to medium and let it thicken up a bit. Once it’s cooled just pour it into a clean jar or funnel it into a clean, empty soda bottle and cork it.

It will last for a few weeks in your refrigerator. Add as much to your coffee to suit your taste. It’s your coffee so drink it how you want it.

Cutting-edge nightlife usually finds its way to Hollywood rather quickly.

The neighborhood is generally a destination for all sorts of new social gathering places. Whether it be upscale clubs, dive bars or multi-purpose venues that feature a night club, bar and restaurant all in one, Hollywood has not lacked for party options.

Until recently, however, the area had yet to really latch onto the growing national popularity of hookah lounges.

As recently as a year ago it was a challenge to find a place in Hollywood in which to partake in the ancient Indian tradition.

In much of the rest of California and around the country, hookah lounges have been springing up rapidly for years.

It has become an alternative to the traditional bar and club scene for many hipsters. For those who don’t know, it involves smoking tobacco (known as shisha) through a water pipe (which is the hookah).

Typically, groups get tables for a flat rate and those sitting around the table take turns smoking from the hookah.

With these establishments having taken off in many urban and college areas, it seems natural that they would fit right in among the Hollywood scene.

And they appear to be doing so, now that they have finally arrived.

Within the past few months, three have sprung up within a six-block radius of Hollywood Boulevard.

All three are often crowded on weekends and have carved out a niche for themselves among the throng of partiers that flock to Hollywood on a weekly basis.

The hookah lounge isn’t for everyone (I have never tried one and have no interest in doing so), but it definitely brings a new and different vibe to the Vegas-ization of the Boulevard.

If nothing else, it provides some pretty awesome looking pipes to stare at from the windows while strolling down the Hollywood strip.


© Examiner

ANKARA – Patrons of a usually smoke-filled hookah bar stepped outside to light up yesterday as Turkey extended a ban on indoor public smoking to bars, restaurants and coffee houses.

The ban in this nation of smokers came into effect despite protests from bar and coffeehouse owners who fear it will ruin businesses that have already been hit by the economic crisis.

“The country woke up this morning having carried out a cigarette revolution,” an editorial in the newspaper Radikal read.

“Smokeless life has begun,” was the headline on the Milliyet paper.

In Ankara’s Sakarya St – famed for its fast food outlets, bars and beer halls – owners staged a brief protest saying many of the businesses there risked bankruptcy.

“We are good for the summer, as we can go outside, sit outside. But in winter it will be a problem,” said Fatih Toprakkale, owner of Calcene hookah bar. “I am afraid that we may eventually have to close, which will be a shame as we employ about 15 people.”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented Government widened a ban that already covered offices, public transport and shopping centres to now include bars and restaurants, intent on reducing smoking rates and the effects of secondhand smoke. The Government says the previous prohibitions on indoor smoking have already cut smoking rates by 7 per cent.

The smoking ban brings Turkey in line with practices in the European Union, which it hopes to join. Under the new legislation, patrons violating the ban will be fined 69 Turkish lira ($69.70), while owners who do not enforce the ban could be fined between 560 and 5600 lira.

Members of a 4500-person team established to enforce the new ban began carrying out surprise checks on bars and restaurants in Ankara and Istanbul, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

An association of coffee house owners said it would take legal action to try and have the ban overturned, saying it would take 70,000 establishments to the brink of ruin.

Yesilay, an organisation devoted to reducing alcohol and tobacco consumption, says around 40 per cent of Turks over the age of 15 are smokers, consuming around 17 million packs a day.

How smoke-free does Grapevine want to be?

A discussion between the City Council and staffers Tuesday evening that centered on a potential tobacco ordinance for youth sports facilities wound up including a brief conversation about whether the city should also look into tobacco restrictions for botanical gardens, all neighborhood parks, city buildings, indoor facilities — or even a citywide ban.

The impetus for the discussion was more basic: Should the city add an ordinance banning cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco at facilities where youths play baseball, soccer, softball and other sports?

Various youth sports associations have asked for an ordinance, officials said.

“We’re behind the times,” Mayor William D. Tate said. “People don’t need to be smoking around the kids.”

Other city officials would support tobacco restrictions to reduce litter.

In upcoming weeks, Parks and Recreation Department staffers will provide a potential ordinance dealing with youth sports facilities.

Whether to expand any ordinance to include all parks will be discussed later, officials said.

Issues like how to enforce a tobacco ordinance at neighborhood parks will still need to be hashed out, Councilwoman Darlene Freed said.

Some council members believe that an ordinance alone would be enough to curb the behavior, although the threat of $200 tickets would give the deterrent some teeth.

As for making Grapevine even more smoke-free, it remains to be seen whether there is enough support — or momentum — to warrant a more comprehensive ban.

Ever wonder why Heinz carefully labels its ketchup bottles as “tomato ketchup”? Doesn’t that seem vaguely redundant, like mustard labeled as “mustard-seed mustard”? Well, apparently it isn’t.

For one thing, ketchup made with tomatoes was a relatively late American innovation, a cheap new local-ingredients-based twist on a traditional sauce made primarily with mushrooms, or oysters, or walnuts and anchovies.

And for another thing, a friendly A.V. Club reader from the Philippines named Nicole recently informed us that a non-tomato ketchup is big in the Philippines—specifically ketchup made with bananas. In fact, it’s so popular that a Filipino company has just released a ketchup made with apples, as well. As weird as banana and apple ketchup may sound to Americans, Nicole had this to say:

“Banana ketchup is much more popular than tomato ketchup here in the Philippines. I’ve personally never liked it, but I’m very much in the minority. The stuff is apparently really made of bananas with much red food coloring, and is used like regular ketchup, on burgers, fries and most popularly, fried chicken.

Apple ketchup is evidently the result of a brain wave by some product development person at the ketchup company. It’s a brand new product, I’ve never tried it, and neither has anyone else I know.”

Well, you can’t say that anymore, Nicole, because we went out and bought a bunch of fries from the deli across the street, and tried the hell out of both banana and apple ketchup, just for you.

© Avclub

Colorado is a state with inhabitants which few years ago drunk much more hard drinks than today. However, now they are more likely to smoke spot.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health argued that Colorado was the only state in which alcohol use was decreased.

Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States and is associated with multiple adverse health results, including liver cirrhosis, various cancers, unintentional injuries, and violence.

Meanwhile, Colorado is one of seven states that scored “significant” increases in teens and adults who say they are more likely to smoke pot at least once a month than those who participated in the last survey.
Mason Tvert, executive director of the Denver-based pot-legalization group Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, said: “We’ve been saying for some time that many adults want a safer alternative to drinking”.
He added that the price of pot is inflated because of criminalization. Still, people seeking to get intoxicated perceive they get a better deal sitting at home smoking a little pot than going out and spending $30 at a bar to get drunk.
This study also showed that Colorado leads the nation in the increase in people 12 or older who smoked a cigarette in the previous month, from 26.5 percent to 29.8 percent.
Researchers also put Colorado among the top 10 states for:
• The highest illegal drug use in every age category;
• Failure of teens and adults who need alcohol treatment to receive it.
Iowa had the lowest estimate, at 5.2 percent, and Rhode Island had the highest, 12.5 percent.
Marijuana is the most popular illicit drug nationwide, as an estimated 10.2 percent of teenagers and adults used it at least once in the previous year, the survey found.
However, alcohol is still the vice of choice among Americans. The survey found also that 51 percent had a drink in the past month, while 5.9 percent used marijuana during that span.
The findings are based on hour-long interviews with more than 135,000 confused selected people nationwide.
Coloradans consider that smoking marijuana is safer than drinking hard drinks, and even statistics are agreed with them. They show that about 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense.
Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been a factor.
Among spouse victims, 3 out of 4 incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had been drinking.

Number of people who are smoking is on the increase in Maldives, according to Maldives Customs statistics. Customs statistics indicate a 10 percent increase in cigarettes during the first quarter of 2008 as compared to the same period last year. Various brands of cigarettes worth Rf.34 million were imported in the first quarter of 2008 while this year cigarettes worth Rf.37 million was imported for the same period. The figures represent values of cigarettes imported directly in to the country as cigarettes sold in duty free shops are tax exempt items.

Health Coordinator at Ministry of Health and Public Works Zenia Ahmed said that the government was working on raising the tax levied on cigarette imports and when the bill on taxation will introduce taxes on tobacco products.

The government has expressed concern over the increase in number of people who are smoking despite various programs aimed at discouraging and preventing the people from smoking. Maldives National Narcotics Control Board (MNCB) has said one of the reasons for rise in number of smokers is due to increase in drug abuse in the country.
Source: Southasianmedia

Want to indulge in a guilt-free tobacco experience? Then head to Lebanon, a smoker’s paradise where you can work, dine and have your hair styled in a cloud of smoke.

The anti-smoking lobby is barely a blip on the radar and the government cares little about the issue.

So the price of Cuban Havanas is among the world’s cheapest, cigarettes are free of punitive pricing and the health warnings are barely visible on the side of packs — a far cry from the bold warnings and images the World Health Organisation (WHO) is promoting this Sunday on “World No Tobacco Day”.

Even teenagers can afford the average one dollar per pack, compared to an average seven dollars (five euros) in France or nearly nine dollars in Britain.

“The minute you land in this country you start huffing and puffing,” said Ghazi Zaatari, a physician and chairman of the department of pathology at the American University of Beirut as well as head of a WHO study group on tobacco regulation.

“As far as tobacco is concerned, Lebanon is a health disaster.”

George Saade, a cardiologist and head of the tobacco control unit at the ministry of health, presents a similar picture.

“The Lebanese government is doing nothing as far as tobacco control is concerned,” he lamented, partly attributing lax enforcement to a rocky political situation.

He said his unit, located in two small offices at the ministry, barely has a 20,000-dollar annual budget — a drop in the bucket compared to the millions available to the tobacco industry.

“Tobacco companies are very powerful in this country and they are involved in many things that would raise concerns of conflict of interest elsewhere,” Saade told AFP.

“They sponsor concerts, television shows and sports events where free cigarettes are sometimes distributed.

“You even see them at ski resorts,” he added. “Where there are youths, there are tobacco companies.”

The area manager for Philip Morris, the largest importer of Marlboro cigarettes in Lebanon, rejected the accusations.

“We market our products to adult smokers only and we’re very strict about that,” said Emile Moukarzel.

“We try our best to prevent minors from smoking, not only because it is mandated by the serious health effects of our product but also because it also makes business sense.”

British American Tobacco, the second largest importer of cigarettes in Lebanon, had no one available to comment for this article.

Health professionals say the number of smokers in Lebanon is among the highest in the region and cancer-related illnesses directly linked to tobacco are rising at a rapid rate.

An estimated 3,500 people die annually from illnesses related to smoking, they said.

“In the last five years we have seen a 17-percent increase in cardio-vascular disease while the United States saw a 17-percent drop for the same period,” Saade said.

Ironically, some of the local companies that market cigarettes are also the agents for cancer-fighting drugs.

Most worrisome is a growing trend of narghile, or water pipe, smokers, especially among teenagers who wrongly believe it is less harmful to their health than cigarettes, experts say.

“We are facing every day new evidence about narghile smoking, which is spreading among all age groups but more specifically among youths,” said Rima Nakkash, an American University of Beirut professor who is doing research on the issue.

She said according to a 2005 survey carried out by WHO, 60 percent of youths in Lebanon aged between 13 and 15 smoke cigarettes, narghile or cigars, the highest number in the region.

Overall, an estimated 42 percent of males and 30 percent of females smoke in Lebanon, a country of 4.5 million inhabitants, health experts say.

“The tobacco industry has recognized the Middle East as one region of the world which has the least restrictive regulations compared to other countries, even in Asia,” Zaatari said.

“So sometimes they use countries like Lebanon as dumping grounds for products they are unable to bring into other countries.

“And they are particularly interested in young people because once you’re hooked, you’re hooked for life,” he added.

Zaatari also noted that although Lebanon signed WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005 it has failed to ratify the document and has shown little interest in enforcement.

For example a survey conducted at 40 restaurants nationwide in coordination with the Harvard School of Public Health showed that air quality in such establishments was, on average, hazardous by WHO standards.

“The thing with Lebanon is we are behind 20 or 30 years as far as tobacco control but we can learn from the experience of other countries,” Nakkash said. “We can learn how they failed and succeeded.

“It’s not like we are drawing up a nuclear strategy.”