Columbia

If we’re going to take a trip around the world to sample different coffees, it would be impossible to avoid Columbia. The world-renowned Columbian coffees are always delicious. La Esperanza from Tolima, for example, is extremely unique. Grown at nearly 6,000 feet, it has a delicate aroma and a highly unusual flavor. It tastes cherry-like, but with hints of pipe tobacco and chocolate. While that may sound horrible in theory, in practice the flavors really work well together. The result will surprise you! Columbian Supremo is also excellent. It’s a complex mixture with hints of semi-sweet chocolate and vanilla. Unfortunately, it loses something quickly when it cools, so be sure to drink it hot and quick!

Hawaii

As we journey to Hawaii, we can’t help but sample the hand-picked Kona. It comes in both medium and dark roasts, but the espresso is incredible, with its dark, strong flavor and low acidity.

Africa

When we find ourselves in Africa, we have to try the Tanzanian Peaberry coffee. There are a couple of things that make it stand out. First of all, it’s grown on, of all places, the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro! Of course, the good news is that anyone who wants to climb Kilimanjaro has plenty of coffee available to keep them going. The second thing that makes Tanzanian Peaberry unique is the shape of the beans. Most coffee beans are actually composed of two flat beans. Not the Tanzanian Peaberry! It is a single oval bean. One consequence of that difference is that the Peaberry has higher acidity than lots of other coffees.

A quick side trip to Ethiopia, while we’re in the neighborhood, finds us faced with even more delicious options, The Yirgacheffe region contains an orangey, lemony, chocolaty brew, which is a delight to drink.

India

A visit to India reveals yet another interesting concoction, Monsoon Malabar. Three months of wet winds created the Monsoon Malabar. Its beans are puffy and yellow and its flavor tastes slightly of apricot. Also, while there, it’s important to try one of the sweet, raisin-tasting Jumboors.

Indonesia

Traveling east, to Indonesia, we should stop in Sumatra to sample a roast from the Lake Toba region. It has a sweet and flowery taste, but with just a bit of cherry as well. The Northern provinces also offer a darker roast, which is spicy and has hints of grapefruit and cedar.

Vietnam

Let’s not forget about Vietnam. The Robusta from Lampung is a joy to sample. The unique washing, drying and polishing process used to make it produces an astringent, woody flavor, which is reminiscent of Arabica.

Jamaica

A quick stopover in Jamaica, before heading home, reveals something unusual. Jamaican Peaberry, which, like its African cousin, consists of a single bean, produces a totally different taste. This strong cup is full-bodied, floral and very acidic.

So, as we return home, we are exhausted, yet enthusiastic about the many possibilities for tomorrow morning’s cup!

You may enjoy learning about Speciality coffees

Brazil

Brazil, of course, has been a coffee-producing powerhouse for over a hundred years. Brazil is known for producing excellent coffee, such as blends from Minas Gerais and Bahia. It’s hard not to be a coffee giant when a third of your landmass is perfect climate for coffee growth.

Columbia

Although Columbia is second as far as amount of coffee produced, it tends to be more popular and well-known. Columbian coffees, such as Narino and Popayan blends, are a delicious delight.

Mexico

As you know, your coffee-drinking options are not limited to just Brazil and Columbia. In fact, their Central American cousins, Mexico and Cuba, also produce some excellent coffee. Mexican coffee beans are small, so they have very little acidity, which means their flavor is light and mellow. Cuba, on the other hand, is known for its Cafe Cubano, which is so strong that it’s meant to be drunk like a shot of tequila.

Indonesia

Indonesian coffee is quite unique. It is known for aging its coffee. As it ages, the coffee’s acidity lowers and it produces a wonderful, full-bodied brew. Malaysia, meanwhile, is known for brewing coffee by filtering it through a muslin bag. This unusual practice produces a very strong result.

Thailand

If you are among those people who like your coffee cold, Thailand has a coffee for you! Thailand is known for a chicory-tinged coffee, which is served with condensed milk and ice. This just goes to show that even the smallest countries can have a big influence on the coffee-drinking community.

Favorite Coffees

The Java from Sumatra, the Kona from Mauna Loa and the Beanya from Kenya offer some interesting options as well. Whether you like full and rich, sweet and aromatic or deep and smooth, you can find it amongst those three coffees. Kona coffee is often thought to be the best in the world.

France

You might prefer the French cafe au lait, which is made of a mixture of half milk and half coffee, or you might side with the Australians, who are still using a Viennese tradition of two-thirds dark and one-third regular.

Italy
In the early part of the 1900’s, Luigi Bezzera and M. Cremonesi popularized Italian espressos. If you are trying to cut back on your caffeine intake that could be the coffee drink for you. They contain less caffeine than most coffees. However, if that’s still a bit much for you, you can try cappuccino or latte.

So, whether you have a personality that is more experimental or one that is traditional, there’s a coffee out there for you. Enjoy your next cup!

A ‘Green Coffee Seller’ is a person who helps to grade the coffee when it is green (before the roasting process). Graders have to look for a large variety of traits when they choose suitable coffee beans.

What Does A Great Coffee Bean Look Like?

Two of the biggest traits a grader looks for are size and shape. If some beans are larger than others they will not all roast at the same speed, which will cause an inconsistent flavor in the coffee. As for color, differences in color usually mean that the beans are either dried differently or mixed from different cultivars. That can be a major problem because beans need to be separated by region and cultivar if the final product is to be the best possible brew.

Coffee beans undergo a drying process soon after they are picked. The drying process is designed to keep the beans from fermenting.

Ripeness

Coffee beans can have a brown coating called a ’silverskin’, known as a ‘fox bean’ in Brazil, after they’ve been dry processed. However, under ripe beans can also have a silverskin. There’s a simple way to tell the difference though. The silverskin can be easily rubbed off if the bean has been dry-roasted properly. If the silverskin doesn’t rub off, the bean is not ripe enough. An under-ripe bean leads to a sour tasting cup of coffee.

There are many types of art in the world. Drying coffee beans is one of them. Sometimes, processors try to cut costs or save time by using harsh drying processes. If the beans are not turned often enough during the drying, or if they are dried too quickly, it can cause the beans to become discolored.

Drying Process

On the other hand, if the beans are dried correctly, they will go through a lengthy process of being first dried on a ‘patio’ and then mechanically dried several different times. Usually, beans that spend a few short sessions in the dryer come out superior to those that stay in the dryer for one long period of time.

All of these things are things that a coffee grader needs to be on the lookout for. Also, they look for things, such as beans with white edges, which is a sure sign that the beans were either not dried well to begin with or else they were stored improperly after drying.

Wonderful Aroma

Like everyone else on the planet, a good grader also smells the coffee beans. As you know, if you drink coffee on a regular basis, good coffee will smell fresh. Graders also try to detect other odors, such as smoky or musty odors, that might be left over from the time in the processing center.

So, the next time you’re about to take a sip of your favorite cup of coffee, take a minute and thank the graders who make sure it’s the perfect cup!

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These beans are normally a good price .. but at 35% they are the least expensive we have found for the quality! Sale ends Sept 30, 2009.

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Healthy Choice

Some coffee shops offer organic fair trade coffee instead of the regular coffee brands. Health-conscious consumers quickly caught on and started buying this organic coffee. Some of them had questions about what fair trade coffee was and why it was different from other types of coffee. While some thought it was just the coffee brand name, it’s actually something more important.

Helping Others

Coffee farmers have very difficult lives. The world economy makes the price of coffee change from day to day, so these farmers are especially susceptible to price changes and problems with their crops. If the crop is bad one year, these coffee farmers can be put out of business. Fair trade coffee is a coffee that ensures the farmers and other people involved in coffee making are being treated and paid fairly. It’s a good way to make sure the money you pay for your coffee is not helping to exploit these hard-working farmers. People who buy fair trade coffee are helping to make sure that these farmers can keep their businesses and earn a good living.

Best Coffee

Many people might not understand what is going on and may not realize why fair trade coffee is important. Every year, many of these coffee farmers lose their businesses to changes in the economy and other problems. When they lose their businesses, they have to work for larger companies that exploit their labor for less money than they earned previously. This means that their lifestyles change and they are unable to feed their families. The farmers are treated very badly. Instead of buying from large companies, fair trade coffee is bought right from the farmers. This is important, especially for people who want their money to support ethical business practices. Fair trade coffee is also delicious, making it an easy choice for any coffee lovers.

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Sometimes, the coffee beans are subjected to a wash at the beginning of the drying and roasting process. Since the beans come in different types and densities, some of them float while others sink. This allows them to be sorted easier. The wash also helps to clean the beans and remove the outer fruit. Other processors use a drying process which is more expensive and takes more time.

Wet-processed beans tend to have a greater acidity than dry-processed beans do. Exactly how much acidity is desired depends on individual tastes. One thing is certain though, some acidity is better than no. If your morning cup had no acidity at all it would taste lifeless and flat.

During the first stage of the roasting process, the green coffee beans slowly turn to a yellowish color as they heat up. Usually, if they’ve been properly roasted, the beans will smell somewhat like popcorn or toast at that point.

As they reach temperatures of 338-392F (170-200C), the carmelization process begins. If the beans do not have the proper moisture content to begin with, then carmelization will not work properly and the final brew will not come out well.

When the beans get to about 400F (205C), the beans begin to get bigger. They wind up being about twice the size they started out at. They also turn light brown and lose around 5% of their weight. The beans will lose around another 13% of their weight and give off CO2 gas by the time they get to temperatures of around 428F (220C).

The next major milestone in the process is 446F (230C), at which point the beans turn a medium-dark brown color and develop an oily sheen. This is also called the ’second crack’ phase, because the beans often make a loud popping noise.

It’s very easy to burn the beans at that point in time. The roasters have to be careful not to overdo the roast. Over-roasting allows oxygen to mix with the oils on the outside of the beans and remove good flavors and leave a burnt taste in their place.

Coffee roasters have to take great care during the entire roasting process if they want the best possible outcome. So many acids, flavors and aromas are produced during the process that the slightest error could cause a completely different end result. Each coffee bean should, with a lot of skill and a bit of luck, produce just the right balance of flavors.

It is also important that coffee have good body. The word ‘body’ actually refers to how coffee feels on your tongue when you rub it against the roof of your mouth. The body of a cup of coffee is determined by its fat content. The fat content is largely determined by how the beans are grown and by the way the beans were roasted.

Dark roasts can have a chocolaty, burnt sort of taste, while lighter roasts can cause the coffee to have a more bitter taste. Which roast is right for you? Well, the only way to figure that out is to try several different types. So, instead of getting stuck in the same old rut, the next time you go for your same old cup of coffee, don’t be afraid to experiment a bit instead. You might find that drinking coffee becomes a whole new experience.

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If you would like higher quality, rainforest alliance certified coffee, these 28% off Timothy’s World Coffee, Extra Bold Rainforest Espresso, K-Cups for Keurig Brewers are really wonderful and environmentally friendly. Finding coffee discounts is wonderful for the taste buds and the bank account!

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Coffee ‘beans’ actually come from fruits, which grow on trees that can reach heights of forty-five feet in the wild. However, domestic coffee trees do not usually grow over about twenty feet tall. There are many varieties of coffee, so the plant sizes vary greatly.

Most of the world’s coffee supply is grown between 25 degrees north and south of the equator, in damp, warm regions. That is due to the fact that coffee plants like a warm climate, usually between 60F (15C) and 70F (21C). Coffee plants also like plenty of moisture. Generally, they grow well if they get at least six inches of rain a month. Most coffee plants also thrive in shady areas with light winds.

Robusta, also known as coffea canephora, is the more common type of coffee. It is easier to harvest because it grows well at lower elevations. Coffea arabica, on the other hand, grows in much higher elevations. Coffea arabica is what goes into a gourmet cup of coffee. It tends to be more expensive because it takes longer to grow in the higher elevations and is more difficult to process.

Locating the perfect place and conditions to grow coffee is just the beginning of the battle. There is no instant gratification. Once a coffee crop is planted it generally takes around five years before it is ready to be harvested. Even then, each plant will only produce about two pounds of coffee (1 kilogram). Therefore, many plants are required to make a harvest worthwhile.

From the point that the coffee plants start to blossom with Jasmine-like flowers to the point of harvesting can sometimes take as much as nine months. The process will repeat every year for the coffee tree’s entire life, which is usually around twenty or twenty-five years.

Once the coffee crop is ready for harvesting, even more work begins. Each coffee ‘bean’ has to be hand-picked by workers. The standard equation is that each coffee plant will produce about 2,000 ‘beans’, which all need to be hand-picked by the workers. It may sound to you like picking coffee ‘beans’ might be mindless and simple, but it is an art form. The most skilled coffee pickers learn how to distinguish between good and bad coffee ‘beans’ at a quick glance.

Another thing. which can make a coffee picker’s job even more difficult, is the blossoming period in a particular region. In some areas, such as Brazil, the coffee trees blossom over a six to eight week time frame. In others, such as Kenya, the blossoming period is so long that mature ‘beans’ can be on the same tree as new ones. That means that pickers need to be even more skilled at discerning between good and bad ‘beans’.

The skill and time involved for each coffee ‘bean’ to be hand-picked by a worker is just one of the many reasons that most coffee is expensive.

So, the next time you take a sip of one of the world’s major commodities and wonder why it’s so expensive, take a moment to appreciate how it got to your cup.

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First Alternative: Low Acid Coffee

If you are finding yourself having acid issues when drinking coffee, there are many brands of low acid coffee beans. These may be exactly what you are looking for! They often have 50% of the acid of regular coffee allowing you to enjoy your cup of java everyday without issues!

You May Need to Consider Decaffeinated Coffee

Many people who are serious coffee drinkers think that they can never make the change to decaffeinated coffee. For coffee lovers, the caffeine is often what makes drinking coffee such an experience. Many coffee lovers who need to cut caffeine switch to tea or completely give up on caffeinated beverages since they think that decaffeinated coffee is disgusting and won’t taste as good as the caffeinated kind. Once these people taste a cup of good decaffeinated coffee, they realize they were wrong about the poor quality.

How To Make The Switch

People who switch to decaffeinated coffee beans often find that it can be as good as the caffeinated kind — if you shop around and buy carefully! You can find decaffeinated coffee beans that are flavored, roasted in different ways, or grown in different ways. This makes decaffeinated coffee more of a plausible option for those who enjoy their morning cup of coffee just as much as a relaxing shower at the end of the day.

Giving up caffeine can be difficult for some coffee drinkers. They look forward to drinking that first cup in the morning and getting a pick-me-up. Instead of decaffeinated coffee, you can also get coffee that has a low amount of caffeine in it. This means you’ll get the good taste of regular coffee without all of the caffeine that can be bad for your health. Unless you really like the decaffeinated coffee, you can switch to the low-caffeine coffee and keep the flavor of your regular coffee without the harmful caffeine.

Having High Quality Coffee

When you do switch to decaffeinated coffee, you shouldn’t change the quality of the coffee you buy. This will make you think that decaffeinated coffee tastes bad, but it’s really just the poor quality of the coffee crystals. Try buying beans and grinding them yourself and you’ll experience a better-tasting decaffeinated coffee.

So, like regular coffee, the freshness of your coffee beans, the way you store your coffee and how close you grind it before making it will affect the quality of your delicious drink. So treat your coffee well… and it will taste like heaven — even if you need to change types of coffee for your health.

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There are two major types of Coffee Beans available. One is Arabica and one is Robusta. Arabica is a fine coffee that grows in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Arabica coffee beans have a more complex flavor and scent, do not taste bitter, and have less caffeine than the Robusta beans.

Robusta beans are not used to create gourmet coffees, but many companies blend the two types to create some blends. The Robusta beans are less expensive, making this an attractive option for coffee companies. The blends have a weaker flavor and scent and are often considered inferior to the unadulterated Arabica or Robusta beans. If you want to purchase great coffee, be sure to look for a label that has “100% Arabica” somewhere on the package.

What makes Arabica good is the growing conditions for the coffee. The best beans are made when the trees are grown in higher altitudes under the shade of other trees. When the coffee beans are grown under a canopy of shade trees, the bean growth is slowed and the flavor changes because of the natural sugar and less caffeine that are in the beans as a result.

How the beans are roasted also plays a role in how the coffee tastes. There is no one roasting method that will result in the perfect bean. Roasting will depend on what kind of beans you have and what the flavor characteristics of each bean are.

The coffee beans are not roasted before they are sent to importers. Once these importers begin roasting the beans, freshness is then an important issue. When the roasting is complete, the flavor begins to break down and the oils that are for flavor and scent start to break down. You should always look for bags of coffee that are sealed in air-tight bags and in whole bean form. This will help you to purchase higher quality coffee. You should store the beans in a vacuum sealed container and grind the right amount each time you want to make a pot of coffee.

If you are into making the perfect cup of gourmet coffee, you can even roast your own coffee beans by buying them unroasted. Using a Coffee Roaster to roast your own coffee means it will be fresher and it’s also a great hobby for someone who enjoys coffee. You can work on roasting the beans until they are just right for your own tastes. The result will be a pot of coffee that is incredibly fresh, without any oxidation of the flavor or scent of the coffee. This will make all the difference in the world when it comes to making the perfect cup of coffee.

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