How did Espresso Arrive in the Coffee Scene?

Espresso means made expressly for you.

Whether or not you are a history buff, that is a good question. It is a question that I would like to explore since I am such a coffee fan. I think it would be good to know where my favorite beverage originated. Don't you?

So I went digging on search engines looking for the answer to this question: "when, how and from where did espresso enter the coffee scene?"

Here is what I found:

The first true espresso originated in Italy in the early 1900's. I found some impressive information at "1st in Coffee" so visit their site to read more. According to their information, "Luigi Bezzeri patented the first steam driven espresso machine."

Fascinating. Did you know that?

How did the word spread about this new coffee taste sensation with lots of caffeine kick?

The Word for Today is Relaxing so Pick a Calming Tea

Today I feel very relaxed and sort of melancholy. I'm imagining all those leisure walks we used to take just strolling with no particular place to go. I'm hoping that my hubby will be open for a nice walk either down by the river or along a mountain road. We have been way too stressed out lately with our vehicle problems and the burdens of life in spiritual, personal and financial areas. I'm making a healthy decision to bring about some changes in my life to protect my spiritual and physical and emotional well being.

One of the steps I decided to take that I want to share with you is to take in more healthy food and drinks. You all know from reading my posts how much Cephas and I love coffee. It's like a staple for us and some days it's more like a daily ritual. That is why I want to change it. I want to drink coffee because I want to enjoy it not because I need to drink it. If anything becomes an addiction it could be a problem so we're going to attempt to nip this habit and make it a drink of choice, not need. How will we do that?

By drinking more teas and juices an smoothies. These are all healthy for you and they are part of the Cafe/Coffee Shop experience as much as coffee. This is exciting news for all of you because we can delve into many new territories here. You can learn with me as we share information on great drinks and their benefits. I would like to find the best economic deals on some of those products as well so help me out here. I still want to hear about your favorite drink.

ON to Today's Word Pick: relaxing and calming.

I am choosing one of my favorite teas for this effect, chamomile.

Have you ever tried chamomile tea? It is smooth and calming with a slight euphoric effect. If you are tired it will induce sleep or it will enhance your desire to meditate. Babies will calm right down if you give them some chamomile for their stomach or their teeth. I have used it for my grandchildren with great success.

Chamomile has many benefits from helping children with teething pain, settling the stomach, calming the nerves or aiding with sleep. Herbal journals purport that it protects against staph and strep so it is a handy medicine to keep in your kitchen. Mixed with a bit of yarrow it carries great antibiotic and antiviral effect.

I love the taste. If you want it sweet add a touch of honey but do not give honey to children or infants under one year old.

Brew a warm cup of chamomile today and relax.

The Midnight Writer

Famous Coffee Shops Around the World

Image by Ewan-M via Flickr

Image by Ewan-M via Flickr
As of yet, I have not received any nominations for any one's favorite coffee shop or cafe. So I'm extending the invitation again and hoping that my readers will reciprocate with an entry. I'm really anxious to start writing features here about coffee shops, cafes and your favorite drinks as well. Hurry and send those entries today and include a photo, too if you can. Send all information to themidnightwriter1@gmail.com for a quick response.

While I'm waiting for the nominees of all those great cafes around the country and around the world, I'm starting my own feature spot on famous coffee shops around the world. Maybe this will stir some inspirations from my audience.

The photograph shows the lovely "Old Coffee House in Soho, London, England". The address is 49 Beak Street which was formerly known as Silver Street. I love the design of this coffee house. It is featured on The Randomness Guide to London so visit their site to learn more and tell them The Midnight Writer's Cafe sent you.

What do you find attractive about The Old Coffee House?

I like the location, the building style and the colors are very nice. As for the service, I've never been to this lovely coffee house yet but it is on my list of places to visit.

Aside from serving ale from their own micro brewery and they have a wine list, too. Food is served with banquettes held in the back, according to the Randomness Guide to London. When I conducted a google search for this coffee house under its name The Old Coffee House, they were the first one on the list. I found a google map to locate it so you can bookmark it for your travel plans.

Tis the Season for Iced Frappuccinos

It's heating up outside so folks tend to go for the ice. Featured drinks everywhere add the ice, from iced tea of all kinds whether it be earl grey or green, to frappuccinos served on ice- blended or not. There is an appeal for these iced coffee drinks that are espresso based. They come with a host of flavors added such as vanilla, hazelnut, caramel and mint. The icing on the drink is the whip, of course.

With all the craze for iced drinks and frappuccinos, how much information is available about whether iced drinks or hot drinks are better for you in the warmer weather?

Between you and me, we can uncover this information and share it right here on your favorite online cafe. Now don't get me wrong. Regardless of the outcome of our research, I fully intend to enjoy some iced tea and an occasional iced vanilla frappuccino this summer with lots of whipped cream on top. Cinnamon adds the perfect finishing touch to any iced or hot coffee. You should try it!

My personal preference in drinking coffee remains with the hot espresso based drinks and lately I'm leaving out the syrups 75% of the time. I need to cut back on the sugar. You might consider using less sugar in the summertime to help keep those bugs away! If you're sweet smelling they will love you more.

The Midnight Writer

Watching "The Day After Tomorrow" Makes me Want a Capucchino

The cup is warm in your hand as the steam rises teasing your nostrils with its rich sweet aroma. A cozy feeling washes over you while you inhale its aroma and let the scent of the vanilla that mingles with the rich French roast coffee you used to make the espresso shots. The cream makes it thick, rich and soothing to the stomach as you drink copiously from the venti sized cup in your hands. You are still savoring the warmth within your hands.

The warm beverage is creating heat inside your stomach which feels good as you watch the approach of the superstorm on the movie. A polar shift will take place and the whole northern hemisphere will be plunged into an ice age. Anyone who steps outside during the temperature shift will freeze almost instantly. That is cold. Now they're talking about giving orders to the National Guard to evacuate as many people as possible to Mexico to prevent total loss of life during the freeze.

I'm watching this storm advance with high winds, rain, ice, snow and frigid temperatures invading the continents freezing everything still in place as it advances. The scientists are sharing a twelve year old bottle of scotch. I look down in my still warm hands and gingerly sip some more of this delicious capucchino that I have been nursing for ten minutes now. The foam has all dissolved by now adding more creamy texture to the beverage.

I reach for a fleece blanket and wrap my legs in it to warm up. My room isn't really cold. It's just the power of suggestion watching all this ice advance on the city of Manhattan. Someone is convincing people to go outside but the young man whose father is a scientist is warning them not to go outside into the frigid temperatures. He's telling the people they will freeze to death but they are not listening. Droves of them are leaving the library to walk outside trying to run south before the snow gets too deep. What a terrible misjudgment!

I pull my blanket closer to my body and add a dash of cinnamon to my vanilla capucchino. I'm thinking about sitting closer to my husband for this movie so we can emulate sharing body heat to survive the frigid storm onslaught...by proxy from The Day After Tomorrow.

Do you suppose that all the predictions of the polar shift and weather disasters predicted for 2012 will happen?

Is Hot Chocolate Just for Cold Winter Days?

Photo Credit: The Midnight Writer
Seriously, what is your opinion? Hot chocolate- is it just for cold winter days or is it just as enjoyable in the summertime?

Oh, you thought this blog was just about coffee? I'm sorry if you had that misconception, but I thought I explained it very well in the introduction to this blog. This is a cafe. Here, we will share about all drinks shared in a cafe/coffee shop setting. This includes many kinds of drinks, such as:

• ~ teas
• ~ coffees, espressos, capuchinos, lattes
• ~ hot chocolate, cocoa and chocolate based drinks
• ~ herbal teas
• ~ energy drinks
• ~ smoothies
• ~ juices

As you can see, there is a lot of room for discussion. But this post is about hot chocolate.

MMMMmmmmm......Delicious, rich, hot, steamy cup of chocolate is great for the cold hands in winter time. After coming in from sledding all afternoon, we used to cozy up in the living room near the woodstove and share hot chocolate with marshmallows. Mom knew how to make it best. The conversation centered around the chocolate, the next day's sledding excursion and who was going to shovel the driveway after the next snow. Beyond that, we talked excitedly about a good movie to watch that night and was there enough cocoa and marshmallows for the next round.

Can you relate?

What about drinking hot chocolate in the summertime? Do you have some good experiences to share or suggestions as to when and where this is a good warm drink to share with family and friends?

My favorite place to drink hot chocolate in the summertime is while sitting around a campfire during a high mountain campout. Usually we spend the days hiking and foraging for neat rocks and plants, so come night fall when the moon rises we build a cozy campfire and circle around to share exciting adventure stories. Sometimes we tell ghost stories or discuss possible adventures for tomorrow.

Camping. Campfires. Family. Friends. Moonlight. Hot chocolate. A perfect combination. With toasted marshmallows from great willow branches.

Smorty will Help you Make Money with your Blog

You have probably seen the ads for many companies that pay you to blog or the ones that allow you to make money from your blog. Smorty is unique in that it works to help prevent you from losing page engine ranking.

I know, two questions come to mind.

• How does Smorty prevent page rank loss?
• Why is this important to you?

The answers are fairly simple.

First, Smorty helps prevent page rank "spanking" from major search engines because they encourage the use of high quality blogs without all the "paid posting" tags. These sites are targeted by search engines who drop the rank because they consider sites that have paid repetitious blog posts written about them to be sort of "spammers". Smorty's method encourages tactful practices and it controls the quality of blogs in their network.

Smorty does not use Wordpress because they do not allow paid posting.

Why does any of this matter to you?

Your site will climb faster in page rank if quality is maintained, if paid ads are kept to a minimum and the layout and content are clean and copy free. If you have a higher page rank, your site will likely be read more frequently by people who browse the internet. This means sales for you.

If you have a higher page rank, and you are a freelance blogger or ghost blogger who uses their own blog domain to write ad copy or reviews for clients, you will get more work. Higher page rank means a site is rated to receive more page views. This tells the advertiser that their ad will receive more exposure than a site with lesser page rank. What do you think the advertiser will choose?

Smorty takes the guesswork out of it for you by outlining the guidelines on their site. Check it out today and consider applying to be a blogger with Smorty. Be sure that you follow some simple rules.

1. I highly recommend that you establish a blog exclusively for Smorty because it's guidelines are unique and differ from many pay to blog companies out there. I have checked out a lot of them so I can attest to this as a fact. That is why this blog will be geared to be a "Smorty blog" reserved exclusively for my personal use and to write reviews and ad copy for Smorty and their clients.

2. Buy the domain and write posts for three months before you submit to be a writer for Smorty. It may be six months before they approve you but give it a try at three and be willing to continue posting on your blog as it increases in size and page rank. Then resubmit when the six month time frame passes.

I have touched on the bare essentials to introduce you to Smorty. Don't worry though, I will be posting more in depth reviews of this company. Come back to monitor my progress with Smorty as a paid blogger because this Cafe blog is awaiting approval. We'll follow the timeline and study the blog's progress to be qualified.

Do you have a Smorty experience that you would like to share with us?

Welcome a Special Out of Season Guest

A&P, COFFEE, SANTA CLAUS, originally uploaded by George Eastman House.

Normally, Santa Claus would not make an appearance away from the North Pole unless it was Christmas and he was delivering gifts on Christmas Eve. Today, The Midnight Writer's Cafe has the honor of entertaining this very special guest. When Santa heard we opened a cafe, he saddled his reindeer, hitched them to the sleigh and headed right on over here to enjoy some of the best company in the world- YOU!- and to taste some of the world's most sensational coffees.

It gets mighty cold at the North Pole, so Santa keeps a plentiful supply of his favorite coffees, teas and hot chocolate for all those elves. You know he needs to keep them happy if he wants to see all that toy production throughout the year. Those busy elf hands take time out to sip hot chocolate by the fireplace with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Thank you for taking the time to join us and our very special guest for a delicious cup of vanilla capuccino with cinnamon. As a special thank you to Santa for traveling all this way just to sample our goodies (we gave him a box of fresh baked cookies for the road. Who says he has to wait till Christmas Eve?) we are also giving Santa ten cases of his favorite coffees, hot chocolates, teas and flavors to carry him over until his next visit.

He told us some funny and adventurous stories about driving the sleigh through blizzards, rain and winds. The whole time Santa Claus talked about his near mishaps because Rudolph forgot to turn on the light of his nose, he still laughed and smiled in his jolly old way. What a pleasure to listen to this mysterious legend up close and personal tell his stories. It was like sharing coffee with my Dad on a Sunday afternoon. Delightful!

Santa is on his way back to the North Pole to feast on one of Mrs. Claus' special dinners that she has waiting for him. Don't worry, you still have time to give him your wish list for next Christmas. Santa will return to pick up your letters right here at The Midnight Writer's Cafe. So be sure to post your list in the comment section any where on this blog. We'll be sure to drop it in our special Santa Claus mailbox for you.

The Midnight Writer

I am Waiting for This Blog to be Approved by Entrecard

Practice some yoga. Take some deep breaths. Stretch. Breathe in deeply. Repeat twenty - five times.

Are you relaxed?

Good. If you came here expecting to drop an Entrecard, please be patient. Admin is reviewing it and I am certain that it is only a matter of time before I receive the greenlight email. Then I can place that wonderful Entrecard widget that we all love so much.

Did you say you're not a member of Entrecard yet? Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry on over to Entrecard and sign up! It is so much fun and it's a great way to find other great blogs to read. Entrecard will help to increase your blogs traffic because it encourages other people to browse the internet looking for blogs to read. Surfers will drop on your widget which will earn you ec points, credits given by Entrecard that allows you to buy advertising on other blogs. Your page rank will increase over time, too.

It's a wonderful way to meet new friends and to learn a lot about blogging, about business, internet marketing and almost any topic that you can imagine.

Joining Entrecard was probably one of the most fun I've ever had online. See you over there, and here. Be sure to come back looking for the widget in my sidebar.

Now, what should I write about in the topics of coffee? Do you have a favorite coffee shop?

The Midnight Writer

Going Radioactive on Entrecard with Midnight's Cafe

Five posts folks and now this blog qualifies for Entrecard. Right On! woot! Yeah! and all those expletives. You can tell I am overjoyed.

Now I understand that for a blog, five posts is just a hair among thousands to make a wig! I promise you, I will be adding lots of hairs to make an awesome full bodied wig. Okay, enough with the puns.

I have several drafts in process right now and I'm working on many new ideas for this blog while I construct outlines to some really good content to share with my readers. (that's you. uh hum.) I need caffeine!

This is where you come in. My ideas fill boxes and file cabinets galore. That does no good if you do not want to read what I write about. So pull up a chair, pour yourself a brew of espresso or whatever you like, and take a minute to jot down some ideas in my comment section. Leave a way to contact you so I can let you know when your brilliance appears on this blog. Sound like a plan?

Okay, let's get busy and write some riveting content here. Meanwhile, drop on my Entrecard so I can pay you a visit and share more ideas on life, love and coffee.

The Midnight Writer

This Cafe is Now Listed on Technorati so Please Fave Me

You probably noticed the neat little green button that is classic for Technorati. It is so small and unassuming. And it takes up very little room. So please, click that button and join Technorati if you don't already belong to it. If you do, please add me to your favorites. I could use the brownie points.

Thanks in advance. Oh, I apologize. I didn't hear you ask that question at first. I was thinking hard about how to get page ranking for yet another blog domain.

What do you get if you fave me on Technorati?

That's easy. You get the satisfaction of knowing that you helped someone who is striving with all her heart and soul to become a successful freelance writer and blogger.

Not enough for you?

Well, you also get faved by me on Technorati. That will help pick up your blog page rank and give you a back link.

Still not enough for you?

Hmmm...let me think for a minute. Oh, I have it! If you leave a comment right here on this blog, with your blog link, you will get a second back link to your blog and drive more traffic back to you. In return, I'll come over to your blog and leave a comment with my link. I might even ask a profound question to stir the minds of your readers and get a big dialoue happening.

Sound good? If it's still not enough, well then meet me at Starbucks when I pass through your town and I'll buy you a cup of coffee. First, you have to email me or write in the comments what town you live in. When I come that way, I'll drop you an email and it's a coffee date. okay? Is that bribery?

My email is themidnightwriter1@gmail.com. What's yours?

The Midnight Writer

Looking for Unique Items to Sell in our Cyber Cafe

Do you have a unique product that you normally sell in your local coffee shop? It could be any type of item for any price. Just calculate what percentage you will give to us for commission when we market your products on our blog. You would have to ship all products once they sell, but we would handle all the ads and publicity to get those sales for you. We would need photographs of your items and a signed release statement giving us permission to market the product in your behalf. Guarantee us in writing that your items are unique and created by you, then let's get started making those cyber sales.

I am especially interested in products that are hot in popular cafes and coffee shops like greeting cards, chocolates, coffee mugs, gift assortments of teas and coffees, espresso machines, hand made jewelry, scarves, hats and other interesting home made items. Books of poetry and journals are good products for any cafe. Folks like to spend time reading while drinking coffee. Board games are a popular item.

We highly value hand made items. It is the latest market rave. Consider this: unique hand-made items with the artist's unique signature would give an item more value simply because it is not mass produced. Crafting is an old art form that was used for centuries before modern technology created all the factory mass production. Return to the simplicity of crafting useful and unique items that people use in their every day lives, and you will contribute to stimulating a local economy while you encourage individuals to be creative. This will also stimulate the economy and help to employ more people by boosting entrepreneurs and by helping encourage them to come out into the market. Let's start right here. Submit your handcrafted item for consideration.

Can you offer some other suggestions? If you have a product, contact themidnightwriter@themidnightwritercafe.com and let's get it posted in the cyber world.

There is Something Good About a Basic Cup of Coffee

There is just something special about a basic warm cup of coffee. I like mine with cream. To me, sitting in a cozy chair with a good friend and cup of java just sets the tone for the day. I can take it without cream if I have to drink it that way, but I definitely can take it without sugar.

When my hubby and I visit Starbucks we drink espresso in a good coffee like Italian roast or Pike's Place with vanilla syrup added. Now that is a wonderful drink if you are traveling and taking some down time at a coffee shop. I like to write at Starbucks for a few hours so this sweet espresso drink pumps me up for a the time period that I need to stay pumped. Most of my freelance writing happens on the road so I have grown to love Starbucks.

After drinking so much espresso sweet coffee this winter, I really look forward to a plain cup of coffee made with Italian or espresso roast grind with just a little cream added. Lately, my hubby and I have been either brewing our own or visiting friends and family so we plugged in the coffee maker and brew some java. Sip a cup with a friend or loved one and feel the warmth of mingling coffee and conversation with friendship. Now that is a flavor that cannot be found in any bean. I call it the love bean. Mix with any setting and you have a winner!

Talking about coffee drinks and flavors brought up a question in my mind. What is your favorite coffee drink?

The Midnight Writer