Fair trade coffee is sustainable. A simple change that helps others live in reasonable working conditions with agriculture meant to last. Organic coffee avoids chemicals that may be harmful to the planet and to your body.
So celebrate with fair trade coffee and know you are helping out!
Technorati Tags: fair trade coffee
Choosing the right gift is often difficult, especially when the people you’re buying for are on a diet. This means that buying chocolate gifts or baskets filled with cheese and summer sausage aren’t a good idea for gift givers. Sending flowers can be a good idea, but many people have allergies you may not know about. Sending flowers is also a plain gift idea that doesn’t show much thought going into the purchase. Wine is a good gift, but how do you know what kind of wine your friends will like, or even if they will like wine at all? The one gift that usually works is a coffee gift basket or a tea gift basket.
Coffee Gift Baskets
Tea Gift Baskets
The same things can be said about tea gift baskets – if you know the person loves tea. In the US, coffee is more popular. However, in other parts of the world, tea is king.
Making Your Own Gift Basket
Another great thing about coffee and tea gifts
A Loved Gift
Whoever receives the beautiful coffee gift basket will really enjoy it. Most people love coffee, so you’re almost guaranteed to have a hit gift on your hands when you make a coffee gift basket. If you want to really make the ideal basket, you can add jars of spices, chocolate shavings, and other embellishments. This will allow the recipient to really customize the flavor of their coffee and enjoy a different flavored cup every day of the week. If you’re lucky, you’ll even get a coffee gift basket in return when the recipient wants so show his or her appreciation for your gift.
Technorati Tags: coffee gift basket, tea gift basket
If you like flowering teas, here’s a wonderful tea sale:
Get 30% Off Numi Flowering Teas
Numi teas are delicious — and very fun to watch. The tea flower expands as the tea seeps. It blossoms before you. It is fun to watch.
So try something different and enjoy!
Technorati Tags: tea sale
It’s that time! Black Friday Coffee and Tea Sales — the best sales of the year!
Coffee Deals:
Save lots of money at this great coffee sale!
50% off coffee
25% off Gourmet Coffee – fabulous Kona coffee and more!
Tea Deals
Enjoy wonderful teas at fantastic prices during this tea sale
42% off: Numi’s Bouquet Bamboo Gift Set with Clear Teapot and Nine Flowering Teas – If you haven’t tried these – they are wonderful! They are a fantastic experience.
Technorati Tags: Black Friday Coffee and Tea Sales, Coffee Deals, great coffee sale, Tea Deals, tea sale
Have you ever dreamed of being a ‘Cupper’? What is a Cupper, you ask? A Cupper is a professional coffee taster. Cuppers do such things as judging coffee
The first thing you need, if you’re going to produce the Cupper’s experience in your own home, is fresh, filtered water. Water can easily take on odors from the air around it and it can also contain minerals that change the taste of your coffee. You should have fresh, filtered water on hand for your coffee tasting experience. You should also avoid softened or distilled water. It may still contain too much of the softening salts.
Aside from fresh water, you may also want a tray, as many small glasses or bowls as you want to make samples for, spoons, measuring cups and, of course, the coffee itself. As a general rule, you should have about two tablespoons (10 grams) of coffee for every six fluid ounces (180 ml) of water. You may want to adjust those amounts as you experiment, though.
First, you should boil enough water for each of your samples. You should also grind your coffee beans with a burr grinder. Try setting the grinder to different settings. Even if you are using the same type of bean, the fineness of the grind can completely change the flavor of the cup.
Second, steep the samples for a few minutes and then filter or allow them to settle accordingly.
Before you begin tasting, you should keep in mind what to look for. A few of the things that professional Cuppers evaluate coffee based on include aroma, flavor, body and acidity.
When you taste each sample, first concentrate on the smell, and then taste it by running the liquid over your entire tongue. After a few seconds of that, spit the sample into a container. As you are going through that process, consider the coffee’s major characteristics. Ask yourself, does it tastes woody, winy, smooth, acidic, thin or syrupy, peppery or floral?
Since coffee is grown in a wide variety of climates around the world, it should come as no surprise to you that their smells and tastes vary greatly. For instance, a Kenyan coffee tastes quite different from a Yemen Mocha or a Columbian coffee.
Always consider the different components of each coffee sample’s profile.
* Aroma – coffee aromas can smell nutty, floral, fruity or herb-like. Explore each coffee’s unique scent.
* Acidity – Both the age of the sample and the type of roast can make a huge difference in this category. Coffee acidity is characterized by a somewhat dry tartness. Mexican, for instance, has a noticeable acidity, while Sumatran is softer.
* Bitterness – Bitterness is something you can measure best by swishing each coffee sample on the back of your tongue. Most coffee bitterness is caused by caffeine, so decaf or darker brews are generally less bitter. Arabica tends to be less bitter than robusta.
* Body – Body measures how ‘thick’ the coffee is. For instance a dark French roast will be a sharp contrast to a light American roast.
* Nuttiness – Nuttiness is generally not considered to be a good thing when it comes to coffee. Aldehydes and ketones combine to create a taste similar to roasted nuts. That’s generally a sign of poor quality coffee beans.
* Sharpness – Sharpness is usually most pronounced in inexpensive robusta coffee. It’s created from a combination of salts and acids.
These are some good beginning guidelines to start you on the road to coffee tasting just like a professional Cupper. Just remember, coffee is an art form. All coffee is unique, so start with these guidelines, but be prepared to journey off into the unknown with each sip.
Technorati Tags: Cupper, professional coffee taster
As holidays approach, finding good deals on coffee and tea are appreciated. Here are some great deals that can save you lots of money on your favorite brew.
Coffee and Tea Gift Baskets
Coffee and/or tea gift baskets are great gifts. If you want to have one that is pre-made with free shipping, this is a fantastic sale.
Save up to 50% off on Coffee and Tea Gift Baskets
Coffee Deals
We all drink coffee or tea – so let’s save on our favorite brews – or try favorites of others to discover something even better.
Tea Deals
I enjoy afternoon tea. It is a wonderful tradition. Here are great teas to try at a discount.
Hopefully you will enjoy these coffee and tea discounts too!
Technorati Tags: Coffee Deals, Tea Deals, tea discounts
Have you been wondering what the difference is between regular and decaf coffee? There’s been a long standing debate amongst coffee drinkers as to which is better.
If you happen to be among those who vote for caffeine-free coffee then you may find it interesting that a type of coffee tree was recently discovered that has almost no caffeine. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that that coffee tree will be commercially grown anytime soon. So, for now, you may be stuck with traditional caffeine removal methods.
You are probably wondering how such methods affect the taste of your coffee, right? Well, honestly, blind taste tests have shown that lots of people can’t tell the difference between regular and decaf if the cups are brewed properly. If you think that there is a difference, though, you are not crazy. The difference does exist.
First, you need to understand the:methods of removing caffeine from coffee.
There is a major debate about whether or not any of those methods remove flavors from the coffee permanently. If you’d rather take a different approach to limiting your caffeine then consider darker roasts. Darker, less acidic roasts usually have less caffeine, because the caffeine is lost as the beans are roasting. Also, if you want to cut your caffeine intake back a bit, without eliminating it entirely, you can try a blend of decaf and regular coffee. That may help you limit your caffeine, while increasing the flavor of your coffee.
As with anything else, regular vs. decaf coffee is all a matter of individual preferences. Now that you know the differences, you can find the coffee that works best for you. Enjoy your own personal perfect cup!
Technorati Tags: what the difference is between regular and decaf coffee, methods of removing caffeine from coffee, regular vs. decaf coffee
If you don’t always make your coffee pods (see how to make your own coffee pod), you may want to buy them on sale: Save 15% when you purchase any eligible Senseo coffee pods
Though making coffee pods are cheaper, this is great when you don’t have time or simply want making coffee to be super easy.
Technorati Tags: coffee pods
If you love tea or someone you knows loves tea, here is a fantastic tea deal. Through June 30th, you can Save 50% on Select Bentley’s Tea Chests
These teas are already discounted, and you get an additional 50% off. A beautiful gift, at a fantastic price. Remember to use promotional code TEAGIFT5. What a thoughtful Father’s day gift!
Technorati Tags: tea deal
If you think all coffee tastes the same, you are mistaken. Much of the final taste of coffee depends on the drying and roasting process. DO you like a light roast or a dark roast best? To find out, first you need to learn a bit about coffee roasting.
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
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
Technorati Tags: coffee beans
