Coffee

Every people have their own experiences to share when you talk about coffee, especially those who drink coffee from ages 18 and up. Many specialty coffee shops can be now found in almost any corner of the city, that’s because of our addiction to coffee. And because of this, I’m sure that those specialty coffee shops are making more money by serving thousands of caffeine lovers every day.

One of the fastest growing food industries in the world is the specialty coffee industry. These kind of shops are now almost every where. Try walking in the downtown area, and you will notice that there now a lot of shops serving caffeine lovers. To produce a gourmet or premium coffee, is should be grown in the world’s most ideal coffee producing climates, like in Costa Rica, and prepared according to exacting standards. And Specialty Coffee Association of America or SCAA set all these quality standards.

Specialty coffee industry have their own trade association, and this is SCAA. To maintain the quality, SCAA put standards for roasting, growing, and brewing of coffee. This association consists of coffee roasters, producers, retailers. Some coffee equipment manufacturers are also member of this association. As you may know, SCAA provide its own information of specialty coffee in terms of cupping, brewing, roasting, and more.

The first method, cupping, is the systematic evaluation of coffee beans based on its aroma and taste. This method is commonly used by coffee growers, buyers, and roasters to determine the quality of a specific coffee sample. There is a formal step-by-step evaluation process for doing a proper cupping and it requires the observance to an exacting set of brewing standards. A cupper generally looks for six characteristics to identify its quality, these include aroma, taste, fragrance, aftertaste, nose (vapors release by the coffee in the mouth), and body.

To enhance the taste of the coffee, proper brewing should be done. And it is properly done if the proper amount of flavor was extracted from the bean. The six essential elements of proper brewing are coffee to water ratio, optimum brewing method, properly operating brewing machine, a coffee grind that matches the brewing time, high quality water, and an appropriate filtering medium.

So, that is all. There is variety of reasons why premium coffee hit off the market. One, it needs to follow certain standards in order to produce a great tasting coffee drinks and simply because they taste better. If the coffee industry is continuous in implementing these high quality standards, it will continue to soar.

John Platiko is the created a website Coffee A Day for coffee lovers. Coffee lovers can also get the latest Starbucks Coffee Store discounts from the website.

Author: John Platiko
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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What would you say if your child or young teen wanted to become an official taster of coffee?

Would it be any different from becoming a wine or orange juice taster? What does it take to become an official coffee taster or “cupper”?

Cupping can be a fun occupation and a hobby. Cuppers run in families and it is not unusual for the job to pass from father to son and so on. There are female cuppers but the majority are males.

If your child or teen wants to become a cupper, they can practice at home and look for cupping events through coffee clubs or other groups. Who knows? You could have a cupper in the making right at home!

Cupping is a technique used to evaluate coffee aroma and the flavor profile of a coffee. Cupping is used to taste defective coffee or to evaluate coffee blends.

Learning how to distinguish coffees through cupping takes much practice and a love for coffee. It also requires following certain standards and habits to ensure objectivity and the ability to cup many times throughout the day as a professional cupper

Cupping takes place after the green (un-roasted) beans go through inspection before being graded for sale, especially for export. The professional cupper inspects the beans for color, shape, size, appearance, density and fragility. Next the samples are roasted. The beans are examined again for discoloration, appearance and smell.

What is a coffee cupping session like?

• Coffee cupping sessions usually start with the coffee table preparation set up with a cup for each of the 6 to 10 coffees to be sampled.
• The cupping session includes several coffees to evaluate.
• Throughout the various steps of the session, the coffees are evaluated in a consistent order.
• The setting includes a sample of the roasted coffee and a sample of the green coffee.
• These samples are covered until the coffee cupping session is completed and the aroma, fragrance and flavor profile of the coffee are documented.
• In addition, on the table, there is a cup of water at room temperature and an empty cup with the cupping spoons.
• The coffee sample preparation requires placing 2 tablespoons of freshly roasted and freshly ground coffee in an empty cup.
• The coffee is ground to a standard fineness and a weight of about 10 grams or equivalent to the weight of a nickel.
• Visual verification of roast similarity among the coffees included in each session is common practice.
• This requires placing ground samples next to each other on a black sheet of paper.

How does the cupper prepare to taste the fragrance and the aroma of the coffee?

• The cupper smells the ground coffee before water is added to evaluate the coffee fragrance.
• Next, the cupper adds hot water to each of the cups and to the cup with the cupping spoons so everything is at the same temperature.
• The cupper smells each of the cups without disturbing them and writes down observations about the coffee aroma.
• After 1 to 2 minutes, the cupper breaks the crust of the coffee using one of the preheated cupping spoons.
• The cupper puts his nose directly over the cup and pushes the coffee down.
• This is the time to get the best burst of aroma of the coffee during cupping and to write down observations.
• Next, the cupper stirs the coffee to make sure it is covered by water and to help the coffee sink to the bottom of the cup.
• Again, the cupper writes down additional observations.
• The cupper then rinses the spoon with hot water and moves on to the next sample cup until sampling all of them.

When does the cupper slurp coffee?

• When the coffee is sufficiently cool, the cupper takes sufficient coffee from a cup into the spoon and slurps the coffee to cover the entire tongue.
• Correct aspiration is important because the objective is to cover all the tongue evenly and to allow some drops to go into the throat and the nasal passages. Why? The aromatic compounds in the flavor of coffee are evident when your nose and tongue smell and taste coffee.
• The cupper writes down observations about the coffee flavor.
• Cuppers testing more than a couple of cups of coffee spit out the coffee to prevent too much caffeine which can impact the cupping ability of the professional doing this job.

Cupping is a very important step in the coffee evaluation process because it helps grade the coffee in terms of fragrance, aroma and flavor. Positive cupping marks mean higher prices for specific beans and branding opportunities for limited editions, selected varietals and other marketing qualifications.

So, ready to enjoy your next cup of coffee?

Timothy (“Tim”) S. Collins, the author, is called by those who know him “Gourmet Coffee Guy.” He is an expert in article writing who has done extensive research online and offline in his area of expertise, coffee marketing, as well as in other areas of personal and professional interest. Come visit the author’s website: http://www.ourgourmetcoffee.com

Copyright – Timothy S. Collins. All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Author: Timothy S. Collins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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