You've decided to switch to specialty coffee. You've made a bold move to enter the realm of the tastiest, freshest coffee around. Specialty coffee typically has gone from the roaster to your cup as fast as humanly possible. After all, coffee is a perishable and delicate commodity. Its peak taste has a very short life span. It will weaken with time, air exposure, and exposure to moisture. Speed in the entire coffee process, from when the beans were picked right up to when your machine brews your pot, is essential.Because specialty coffee is an especially perishable item with a very limited shelf life, try to keep it as fresh as possible when you get it home. Store it in airtight containers or in a sealed coffee bag like the kind from the supermarket or gourmet store where you bought the coffee. Heat, light, air and moisture can all diminish your coffee's flavor. That's because all of these factors speed up the release of the coffee's aromatic gases over time. Refrigerating or freezing the coffee may slow this process, but only if the coffee hasnot yet been exposed to air. Opened coffee that is later frozen will build up condensation from the moisture in the air, and the coffee will end up tasting worse than if it had not been frozen at all.Also, make certain to grind your specialty coffee immediately before brewing. Coffee beans are like little containers that store the coffee oils and aromatic compounds. The flavor is exposed to air and moisture once a bean is ground. If brewing doesn't occur right away, the precious flavor and aroma can be lost. In other words, grinding coffee at home is the second most important step to getting the most out of your coffee.The third step is knowing exactly how long a time to allow your specialty coffee to brew. If you let water contact the grounds for too long, your coffee would end with an excessively bitter flavor. In contrast, if you let water contact the grounds for too short a time, your coffee may not reach its full flavor potential.The final step in delicious specialty coffee brewing comes after your coffee is finished brewing. Don't allow your coffee to sit on a burner or hotplate too long afterward. Any longer than 20 minutes is too long because the coffee's taste would start to become bitter. Your taste buds, and your stomach, will appreciate it.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Brew It Yourself With A Coffee Of The Month Club
A "coffee of the month club" membership is one the best gifts you can give to your favorite coffee lover. You can give and receive some of the best roasts that the world has to offer. First, you have beans that are produced in Africa, which are renowned for their wine-like undertones and their citrus tastes. Central America will ship you beans with a mild to medium taste and an even, well-balanced flavor. The beans from Brazil, which most Americans drink routinely without knowing, will be a top-notch quality not found often in a can, with the same familiar and reassuring flavor but more pronounced. Coffees produced in Asia have a more earthy flavor, with notes of mocha and citrus. However, whether it's you receiving the coffee of the month club or your dearest friends, you can't completely enjoy your 12 monthly gifts without the proper knowledge of how to make the coffee.The key to getting the most out of your "coffee of the month club" membership is outfitting your drip coffee machines with a gold, nylon, or other type of permanent filter. Such permanent filters guarantee that the essential flavor and oils of the coffee grinds make their way through the filter and into the water. In addition, these permanent filters accomplish this without adding unwanted, unappetizing tastes.Paper filters will do just that to your tasty blends from the coffee of the month club. Paper filters leave an aftertaste in your daily morning brew. Paper filters also soak up some of the aromatic oils and special flavor molecules from your coffee grinds. If you lose these sources of the coffee's flavor and you will lose the coffee's enticing taste. If you must use paper filters, first rinse them with hot water. If possible, use permanent filters. You may need to clean the permanent filters after each use, but such effort is worth it.Another important factor for brewing a proper cup of coffee is minding the proportion of grinds to water. As a quick rule of thumb, a properly brewed pot of coffee will use 2 tablespoons of coffee grinds per six ounces of water. If the resulting flavor is too strong, you can add more water to the brewed coffee to dillute the coffee. It is important that you do not aim for a weaker flavor by brewing more water or using less grinds, because doing so will prohibit the brew from achieving the right amount of oils and flavor molecules.The freshness of the coffee grinds can also affect the flavor of the coffee. Ideally, use grinds within 24 hours of grinding the whole beans. Whole beans can be stored for up to six months. To avoid weakening the flavor due to condesation, do not refrigerate or freeze coffee beans or grinds after the coffee has been exposed to air.Also, when brewing your "coffee of the month club" varieties in a drip coffee machine, grind them to a medium to fine grinds of coffee. Always begin brewing with cold water, and make sure that your coffee machine is fine tuned to bringing the water to the proper "brewing" temperature. The proper temperature for water is between 195 degrees and 205 degrees, which guarantees the best coffee ground extraction. After brewing, follow one last rule before you actually taste your delicious new coffees: dump the grounds from the filter before the last few drops of water drip through.
Delicious Choices For The Coffee Connoisseur
Coffee is a beverage, served hot or with ice, prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant. These seeds are almost always called the coffee bean. It is one of the most popular beverages in adults today.The coffee bean, itself, contains chemicals which are mind-altering (in a way some find pleasing) to humans as a coincidental result of their defense mechanism; those chemicals are toxic in large doses, or even in their normal amount when consumed by many creatures which may otherwise have threatened the coffee beans in the wild.A coffee bean from two different places usually have distinctive characteristics such as flavor (flavor criteria includes terms such as "citrus-like" or "earthy"), caffeine content, body or mouthfeel, and acidity. These are dependent on the local environment where the coffee plants are grown, their method of process, and the genetic subspecies or varietal.Some well-known arabica coffee beans include:* Colombian - Coffee was first introduced to the country of Colombia in the early 1800's. Today Maragogype, Caturra, Typica and Bourbon cultivars are grown. When Colombian coffee is freshly roasted it has a bright acidity, is heavy in body and is intensely aromatic. Colombia produces about 12% of the coffee in the world, second only to Brazil.* Colombian Milds - Includes coffees from Colombia, Kenya, and Tanzania, all of which are washed arabicas.* Costa Rican Tarrazu - from the Tarrazu Valley in the highlands outside of San José, archetypal estate coffee is La Minita.* Guatemala Huehuetenango - Grown at over 5000 feet in the northern region, one of the most remote growing regions in Guatemala* Ethiopian Harrar — from the region of Harar, Ethiopia* Ethiopian Yirgacheffe — from the area of the town of Yirga Cheffe in the Sidamo (now Oromia) region of Ethiopia* Hawaiian Kona — grown on the slopes of Hualalai in the Kona District on the Big Island of Hawaii.* Jamaican Blue Mountain — From the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica. Due to its popularity, it fetches a high price in the market.* Java — from the island of Java, in Indonesia. This coffee was once so widely traded that "java" became a slang term for coffee... and more.Some coffee bean varieties are so well-known and so in-demand that they are far more expensive than others. Jamaican Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona coffees are perhaps the most prominent examples. Often these coffee beans are blended with other, less expensive coffee beans and the suffix "blend" added to the labelling, such as "Blue Mountain blend" or "Kona blend" even though they only contain a small amount of the coffee bean mentioned.One unusual and very expensive variety of robusta is the Indonesian Kopi Luwak and the Philippine Kape Alamid. The coffee bean is collected from the droppings of the Common Palm Civet, whose digestive processes give it a distinctive flavor.
Coffee Five Ways!
Coffee has five primary ways of being brewed. Each method has brewing variables - introduction of water, brewing temperature, and separating the brewed liquor from the coffee grounds. These five methods are called Turkish brewing, concentrate brewing, percolating, drip brewing, and French Press brewing."Turkish" or "Greek" CoffeeTurkish coffee or kahve is the traditional name is made in small containers directly on the flame with water and finely ground kahve comes to a boil. Often times it is brewed up with sugar already introduced. In some traditions they will pour off a little into each cup and then bring it to a second boil, pouring the rest off into each cup insuring an even distribution of grounds. In some regions they serve the kahve with added spice which is usually cardamom. The coffee is not filtered from the liquor which leaves a thick pungent and muddy brew. The mud settles to the bottom of the tiny demitasse cups the coffee is served in. In many countries they read the coffee mud after you have drank your coffee and tell you your future.Concentrate BrewingConcentrate brewing is very popular in Latin America and other parts of the world. It is beginning to make a come back in the U.S.. Concentrate brewing takes large amounts of coffee that is brewed with small amounts of water to brew a concentrate. To make a cup of coffee you mix some of the concentrate with hot water. The concentrate is brewed either hot or cold. When it is brewed cold you must let the coffee sit for at least a day. This method creates a mild light-bodied coffee with little aroma and a little acidity with a muted flavor.PercolatingThis procedure involves a continuous brewing of the coffee grounds using boiling water which then turns to boiling coffee liquor brewing over the grounds. This method is practical but is an insult to the coffee bean. Brewing with boiling water is bad enough, then boiling the liquor is asking for a thin, bitter and tarry coffee.Though this produces an awful cup of coffee many people still prefer percolation. If its for you then more power to you!Auto dripThis is the most popular way to brew coffee in the U.S.A. Pouring hot water over grounds in a filter and letting the brew drip out the bottom, simple. Drip brewing can produce an excellent cup of coffee if the proper equipment is used. One of the biggest issues with auto drip machines is they don't brew at the right temperature. Bunn is one of the few companies which calibrate their machines to the proper temperature. If you have a good auto drip brewing machine then the next hurdle to tackle is the filter. Paper filters can deposit a flavor in the coffee and also do not allow a lot of the coffee oils and organic compounds through. A gold-plated reusable filter is the perfect option for drip brewing. It will not deposit a taste in the coffee and doesn't trap as much of the coffee's essence as paper filters do.French Press or Press PotFrench Pres brewing gives you complete control. It is more labor intensive than auto drip the brewing variables can be better controlled. Coarsely ground coffee is placed in a glass carafe. The hot water is then poured over the grounds. When the brewing is complete the top is placed on and a plunger that consists of a metal mesh plate is pressed down pushing the grounds to the bottom. The coffee liquor is on top ready to be poured off. The mesh filter allows the oils and fine coffee particles through without a problem. Also because a coarser grind is required a longer brewing time is required. A general rule of thumb is four minutes for a French press. This direct contact of the grounds to water allows a more complete, controllable, and even extraction. Even with the coarse grind though a coarse grind will still produce some fine particles. A cup of French-pressed coffee will be fuller, more body, and more flavor. It will also have sediment on the bottom of the cup.
4 Easy Steps To Better Coffee
After trying a few gourmet coffee recipes, you will find it’s not very hard to make great tasting coffee. But many people overlook 4 simple steps that will give them a significantly better cup every time. The following 4 steps will help every cup of coffee you make taste even better:Clean Your Coffee PotOld oils and soap scum can be left in your pot from previous batches. This causes a stale taste to your coffee. Clean your coffee pot with baking soda and water, rinsing well to avoid any residue.Use Clean WaterApproximately 98% of coffee is water, so it makes sense to use the best water possible. Starting with stale water will produce stale coffee. Likewise, if your tap water is heavily chlorinated, the coffee will not be at it’s best. You may want to try brewing your coffee with bottled water, or water that has been purified using either a filter jug or filter tap. The taste of your coffee will improve remarkably.Use Unbleached FiltersPaper coffee filters often release dye, chlorine and other nasties into your coffee. By using brown, unbleached filters you can minimise the amount of nasties in your cup. For the dedicated, stainless steel or gold filters can be purchased.Use Fresh CoffeeIf you can put up with the inconvenience of grinding coffee beans before each brew, you will notice a big difference in the taste of your cuppa. Store your beans in a clean ceramic container, not in plastic or in the fridge. If you insist on using pre-ground coffee, then purchase good quality drip ground coffee. Don’t reheat your coffee once the water heated, this will only introduce unpleasant flavours.By following these 4 easy steps, you are bound to notice an improvement in the taste of your coffee.
Savoring The Scandinavian Flavor Of Gevalia Coffee
It all began in the year 1853, one man, Victor Engwall, decided he needed to create the tastiest cup of coffee around. He was dedicated to coffee and had a very peculiar skill of detecting the finest coffee in his experiments. Therefore, after many different combinations of coffee beans, roasted to perfection, and ground in many different ways, along with drinking the coffee day in and out, he finally created a gourmet premium coffee that is perfectly blended and unique.Now after 140 years of business, Gevalia coffee creates in excess of thirty different types of coffee and fifteen different types of teas. Their selection of fine, gourmet coffees that have been built on the traditions started with Victor Engwall and continued which makes Gevalia coffees the perfect coffee for any coffee fan, no matter what mood they are in, what they may desire at that particular moment, or what their personal tastes are in coffee.No matter what your tastes are, Gevalia coffee has you covered. Perhaps you are in the mood for something a little closer to nature and purity. Something that is natural, smooth, and light. Then Peruvian Organic Coffee from Gevalia may be the way for you to go. No? Well, then perhaps roasted Gevalia coffee is more your taste, there are eight different varieties of roasted Gevalia coffee from the new invention of French Roasted which is dark roasted and smooth, available in regular or decaffeinated, to Breakfast Blend which is smooth and silky to the taste buds, a perfect way to start your day.If your mouth is not watering yet, why not consider some of your favorite flavored coffees. Flavored Gevalia coffees are available in amaretto, cinnamon, Irish crème, hazelnut, mocha, French vanilla, chocolate raspberry, and vanilla nut coffees for any flavorful taste. That is definitely not all, when it comes to convenience and busy schedules Gevalia coffee has you covered with the introduction of coffee pods. Coffee pods are perfect for the one cup, in a hurry, coffee lover. No more having to waste cup after cup of your favorite coffee. Simply pop the sealed coffee pod into the machine and you have fast, hot, tea or coffee ready in minutes.Sure, we have talked a lot about Gevalia coffee in this article, but Gevalia offers so much more than just coffee. Tea lovers can enjoy fresh Scandinavian flavor too. If hot cocoa is the beverage you are looking for, for those long, cold winter nights look no further than Bellagio Italian hot chocolate available in caramel praline, french vanilla, raspberry parfait, chocolate truffle, orange pecan, or white chocolate.As you can see, Gevalia is the perfect choice for anyone in the mood for a hot and flavorful beverage.
Coffee Maker - Cleaning
Your coffee maker could be killing you. Well it is if your morning cup of coffee is a matter of life and death and you have a filthy coffee maker. When was the last time you thoroughly cleaned your coffee maker? Washing the pot is important but getting the internal components of a coffee maker clean is a task that shouldn’t be skipped. Did you even know that you were supposed to clean it? A clean coffee maker can be the difference between a good cup of coffee and a nasty cup of sludge.A clean coffee maker really makes a big difference in how your coffee tastes. Left over coffee oils can accumulate inside your coffee maker. Also mineral deposits can form especially in areas with hard water. These deposits are called “scale”. There are two kinds of scale, lime scale and mineral scale and you don’t want either one. Scale can affect the heating unit and the water flow of your coffee maker and reduce it’s efficiency. How quickly scale forms depends on the quality of your drinking water. If you use bottled water to make your coffee, scale probably won’t form as fast but you still have to worry about accumulated coffee oils. Better to play it safe and clean your coffee maker regularly.Cleaning your coffee maker is not a hard task to accomplish and in fact it’s as easy as making coffee. All you have to do is pour a pot of half vinegar and half water into the coffee maker’s water reservoir. It goes without saying that white vinegar should be used. Steer clear of the red wine or apple cider vinegar varieties. Then just turn on the regular brew cycle. You’re kitchen will probably have a nice salad smell while it’s brewing which you may even like. If you’re not a salad fan though, just remember that it’s a small price to pay for a good cup of coffee.Now rinse the coffee maker out by using only water this time in the water reservoir and running the brew cycle again. You may have to do this a few more times if you still smell vinegar.Another easy way to keep the coffee maker clean is to put a glass marble in the water chamber. All the mineral deposits that would usually accumulate inside the coffee maker will instead accumulate on the marble. Every once in a while just remove the marble, wash it and then place it back in the chamber. How much easier could that be?The best solution would be to clean your coffee maker with vinegar monthly while also using the marble method. Change the marble once a week and you’re coffee maker will be in great shape.If you have an old coffee maker and you aren’t happy with the taste of it’s brew, why not try cleaning it. A clean coffee maker will brew better tasting coffee.