If you're driving around the DC Metropolitan area, the streets are about to become just a little bit friendlier. Enter the Java Cruiser, the latest addition to the Mayorga Coffee family, and this time it's on wheels! Yes, a full-service coffee bar will be rounding the corner in a neighborhood near you, complete with Mayorga's signature coffee and espresso beverages, both hot and cold, and an accompanying selection of fresh-baked pastries to complement the experience. The Mayorga Java Cruiser will also be available for rental, so keep it in mind for your upcoming corporate party, festival, etc.

The first-ever Mayorga Coffee Java Cruiser is independently owned and operated by Cafe Jeffe's Java Cruiser, LLC and has already been permitted to operate throughout Montgomery County, MD. If all goes according to our expectations, be prepared to see a fleet of Java Cruisers zipping around throughout the DC Metro area to give people an alternative to the "usual" coffee offerings.

In the next few weeks, we will have a dedicated spot on our website giving details on the Java Cruiser, including its route, menu, and how to book it for special events. 2007 will be an interesting year indeed!

The effects of coffee have been the subject of many debates, both casual and scholarly. In recent years, studies have shown many reports of adverse effects of caffeine to be incorrect; moreover, caffeinated beverages such as green tea have been heralded as positively beneficial. Coffee, too, has a long history of medicinal use in Chinese medicine; as the West becomes increasingly attuned to the ancient and ever-applicable wisdom of these practices, we are once again repositioning our relationship to coffee.

In the Chinese system of medicinal herbs, coffee is included with the rest of its plant family, the Rubiaceae. Of course, to be classified as medicinal, the usage of such herbs also includes a dosage; in coffee's case, that dosage translates to what would typically be 1-3 average-sized cups of coffee. In this Chinese system, the coffee bean is associated with liver qi, in that it is the source of energy stimulation. It is also, as is the case with such liver qi-stimulating herbs, known to purge the gallbladder. Both of these properties correspond to coffee's ability to protect against gallstones and to relieve constipation.

Once again, such indications are only valid when the proper levels of coffee are consumed, and many of its subtler effects are beyond the scope of this article. For more information regarding the complex role of coffee in Chinese medicine, please refer to the 2003 article “COFFEE IN CHINA and the Analysis of Coffee According to Traditional Chinese Medicine” by Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Traditional Medicine in Portland, Oregon.

12/19 - 12/24 Beltsville, MD, Fairfax, VA

CHECK OUR WEBSITE IN EARLY JANUARY FOR THE UPDATED 2007 SCHEDULE