It's my understanding the crema is made up of (Pay Attention! Here come the science bit...) the partial oxidation of the carbohydrates in the green beans prior to roasting, making it palatably acidic. Not being a Scientist though, you shouldn't rely on this info.

Also, if you love coffee, buy it freshly roasted and open the bag for a few days. Allow lots of air to get in: there'll still be something going on in the bean. Buttphucks etc. use really dark roasts (try telling the difference between Bongo Bongo Bongo roast and Wee Willy Winkie roast: there's none, but it ships well and lasts aaaaages on the shelf. And costs CHF 7.20 )

Re. Nespresso: they use the ground bones of unwanted cats to create the crema on their horrid little brews. Allegedly...

And for a great coffee, get a Quickmill machine with around 18+ Bar.

Gelatin anyway comes from pork bones or connective tissue or something....

Cat bones is definitely possible! ;-)

Yes. Definitely. I just read it on the internet so it must be true.

Aspic from bones, gelatin from hoof. Mmm, hoof.

This has puzzled me for a while.

I love spinach but after eating a certain amount it seems to give me a strange feeling in my mouth but only when it's cooked. It's as if my teeth are reacting or...I cant explain it. Even though I know this, I have to cook a pile of it because my mind keeps demanding spinach. It's as if my mouth and not my stomach tells me I've had enough.

I'm really looking forward to some kind of explanation.

P.S If it's just because I'm weired, please be kind.

I don't think you're weird at all, except that I have an odd feeling after eating raw spinach, as in a salad - rather like a dull, flat feeling. I love raw spinach too - doesn't stop me from eating it, but it's odd, isn't it?

e.

Apparently they eat spinach at the ETH, too:

Oxalate is something I work with a lot and the thing that'll kill you in rhubarb leaves (supposedly)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb#Toxic_effects

But it does make nice, shiny, magnetic crystals.
If it didn't, I'd have been out of a job some time ago...

Phew, so I take it, this means I'm normal thank you.

Thought the other sciency-people might like these:





I'm slowly going to do a few more...

Here's today's effort

OK. I'd like to ask a question in order to settle an argument.

My wife always stores opened jars of stuff like pickles etc in the fridge which naturally takes up lots of space. I say that as long as the contents are covered by the liquid then it's safe to keep them in the cupboard after all, in the olden days, the ships would pickle their food in order to preserve it on long voyages.

Who's right?

TIA

As you say - if the products are covered in vinegar, they're fine to store at room temperature.

It's not that they're covered in liquid, like CB says it's that they're covered in something that is a completely inhospitable environment to most bacterial growth (except for Extremophiles, which live in the craziest of places and under very harsh conditions).

Why is diet coke fizzier than normal coke?

Less sugar means they can put more CO2 into beverages. The sugar substitutes probably have better properties in this regard, in their normal concentration, and the cola factories might use this fact to put some additional CO2 into diet cola.

Can they then work this into their marketing slogans by saying things like

'just for the taste of it' or 'Less sugar, more fizz'

grumble grumble.

They make it fizzier to distract from the god-awful tatse of saccharine...
(he says while drinking Coke Zero to reduce his portlyness...)

Here's the latest of my cartoons. I'm nearly running out of jokes...

I can see few aircrafts in the air .. making white lines particularly in winter ? what they are doing ... are they practising ..
which type of aircrafts are they ?

All jet airplanes make these wonderful contrails, what you are seeing is condensation of water vapor coming out of the engines condensing in the upper (friggin cold) atmosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrail