1) Plants love coffee
You can use your old coffee grounds as mulch for your plants that love acid, like roses, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreens, camellias and hydrangeas.

2) Give Carrots a boost
Mix carrot seeds with dried coffee grounds before sowing to give them a boost of energy.

3) Helps dark hair
Brunettes and dark redheads can rinse their hair in coffee to rejuvenate their color. Steep the coffee grounds in two cups of hot water and then rinse this through your hair.

4) Promotes healthier and tighter skin
You can exfoliate with coffee grounds to help stimulate blood flow. Add mineral oil or vitamin E oil to old coffee grounds and apply it to your skin with a loofah

5) Insect Repellant
Mosquitoes, ants, slugs and maggots all dislike the acidity of coffee and will stay away from any area in which there are coffee grounds.

6) Coffee air freshener
Cut off the end of an old pair of stockings, put coffee grounds and 2 drops of vanilla extract and tie it up.

7) Wood stain
You can brew a pot of coffee and place the grounds back into the pot and allow it to cool and then apply to untreated wood as a light stain

8) Refrigerator deodorizer
You can place old grounds in a mason jar or tie it up in a cut up old pair of stockings. This will naturally deodorize the space.


We all love the taste of coffee but who knew that coffee could do so many other amazing things to benefit you and your life!

I found this survey on a different blog and thought it was very interesting. I have always heard that Seattle is very big on their coffee but I also know that New York city is one of the most popular on the go coffee cities so I was surprised they were at number 9.




Since Seattle is number 1 I decided to take a look at the culture over there and why it is so popular.
I was extremely surprised by the fact that they actually partake in tons of coffee activities and tours. They have the Coffee Crawl which is a 2 hour tour of some of the best coffee offerings in the city. Seattle is also the world center for coffee roasting. They drink on average 3 cups of coffee a day and more than 50% of the popular consumes coffee. There are also 694 independent coffee shops in Seattle, AMAZING!




If you have traveled and have your favorite city for coffee, let us know!

As everybody may know, Italy is the most popular place for coffee. I wanted to take the time to write down some facts that I have come across. 
The coffee culture in Italy is huge and Italians are very passionate about their coffee.

Turin has the oldest standing coffee shop at the moment. It opened in 1763 and is called Caffe Al Bicerin,  this would be an amazing place to go! They apparently have an historic drink called 'Bicerin' and the recipe has always been a secret unknown to anybody. 


The most iconic images in Italy, coffee wise, is a stove-top peculator called 'macchinetta' and is found in almost every Italian kitchen. This coffee maker produces the most perfect espresso you will ever see. 


One of the most surprising facts that I have come across is that in Italy, if you order a latte, you will get a glass of cold milk. What we consider a latte here is called a 'caffe macchiato' in Italy. 


Italians also strongly believe that you should never order a cappuccino after 11:00 a.m. They view this as a breakfast drink only. 


You should not use the word espresso. If you want an espresso you should be ordering it as 'un caffe' which is a single espresso. Italians do drink a lot of coffee but they like to do so in small doses so a double espresso is not common.

Most Italians do not sit down and enjoy coffee like we do here. Coffee should be downed in one sitting, standing. Speaking of that, they do not make their drinks too hot. Since it is so common to drink your drinks standing or on the go, they make it at a perfect temperature. 


All of this information is so amazing to me and I really hope I have the chance to visit Italy and experience this culture which is so different than ours. If you have been to Italy before and have experienced this culture please let me know what it was like. I'd love to hear more!

It is a gloomy, rainy day here at Saratoga Coffee Traders so I decided to ask some of our staff their favorite things about our customers. Then I decided to make a list of all the things we love about you!

1) They challenge us with new ideas for new drinks we have come up with throughout the years
2) They fit us into their normal routine
3) They have friendly conversations with us on a daily basis
4) They like to make us smile, just like we like to make them smile
5) Most of our regulars are just like our best friends
6) When we make suggestions to our customers, they end up getting it all the time
7) They will hang out in the store with us for a while
8) They will always tell us how good their drink is
9) They always remember our name
10) They become very loyal to us

So overall, I just want to say how much we appreciate our customers and how you always brighten our day when we see you. We our more than proud to serve you every day! WE LOVE YOU!

All morning I have been researching this recent trend among coffee drinkers, Cold Brew coffee. 

What is this and how is it different from just regular iced coffee? 

Well to get started, it is an entire different process.
Iced coffee is made by pouring hot water through the grounds of the coffee and letting it sit to cool.
Cold brew coffee is coarse ground coffee steeped in room temperature water or cold water for about 12 hours, the coffee grounds are then filtered out of the coffee and then it is poured over ice. 
Cold brew coffee has lower acidity since the beans never come in contact with hot water.
The result of this is sweeter, smoother taste of coffee. Yum!

It all started in Japan when it was introduced to the Dutch traders from Indonesia in 1609. For this reason many call it Dutch coffee. 

Because of the rising popularity of cold brew coffee, we decided to install the machine to start making it! Right in time for summer and the track season coming we are in the works of putting together this machine and learning how everything works. It will be up and running soon so we can start delivering this delicious coffee to you on a daily basis. 

If you have any delicious cold brew coffee recipes in mind, please leave them in the comment box!

When deciding between coffee shops, here are a few things to keep in mind. Instead of focusing on whats trendy, we should be focusing on whats better for the world.

Below I am attaching an article that I felt should be shared on the difference between local coffee shops like us and the largest worldwide chain.

At Saratoga Coffee Traders, we focus on what is better for the people. This is why we use all organic, fair-trade, shade grown coffee AND tea. We support local farms by purchasing our milk from Battenkill Creamery. Not only that, we also carry Soy and Almond milk free of charge because we know it is better for the people and people love it! 


http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_30213.cfm

Let us know what you think about this article and the subject in general. Is there anything we can do to make our coffee shop more eco friendly?

I have been reading some studies recently that prove that coffee has tons of benefits. Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of some serious diseases. Below are some health benefits that I wanted to share. Some of these facts are ones that you may already know, some may be a little more shocking.

1) Coffee improves energy levels
This may be the most obvious fact but I wanted to go into a little more detail about it. Everybody knows the main stimulant that we all consume while drinking coffee, caffeine. I never knew before how caffeine actually works through our body. Caffeine actually blocks an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, which leads to the stimulant effect. As this happens, it improves energy levels and your mood.

2) Coffee helps burn fat
If you are dieting or dieted before, you may have noticed that caffeine is found in almost every fat burning supplement. Studies show that caffeine can boost your metabolism by 3-11%. Based on your body type, caffeine can increase fat burning by 10-29%.

3) Caffeine can improve physical performance
An hour and a half before you go to the gym it may be a good idea to have a cup of coffee. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system which breaks down body fat. It also increases adrenaline levels which releases fatty acids from fatty tissues.

4) Coffee may help you live longer!
Below are some numbers from studies that do suggest that coffee drinkers are less likely to get many diseases in general so it definitely makes sense that it helps you live longer. There is a 20% lowered risk of death in men and 26% lowered risk of death in women. It's amazing what coffee can do.



Below I will show you certain diseases that coffee lowers risks in. Studies may not know exactly how or why but I do have numbers!

.Type II Diabetes: lowers risk by 23-50%
Each daily cup associates a 7% reduced risk of developing Type II Diabetes
.Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia: Unfortunately there is no cure for this disease but it does lower risk up to 65%  
.Parkinson's Disease: lowers risk from 32-60%. Decaf does not help in this situation, it is caffeine itself that lowers the risk
.Liver Cancer: lowers risk up to 40%
.Colorectal Cancer: those that drink 4-5 cups of coffee per day have a 15% lowered risk


Basically, it is amazing what coffee can do in this world. It's one of the first things you think about when you wake up and it's one of the first things during the day that actually make you happier and ready to take on the world. Coffee is one of the healthiest beverages on the planet. I never knew what good it can do to your body up until I read these studies, it's quite incredible.