Coffee

Coffee is a complex and delicious drink, but how much do you know about your cup of Joe?

First of all, Java itself is actually a fruit, and it grows as a seed within a cherry. Coffee trees produce coffee berries or coffee cherries, and they turn bright red when they are ripe. Each cherry will contain two coffee beans, which will be removed from the cherry when the coffee beans are harvested. Within the harvesting process, the coffee beans will be fermented, similar to making a fine wine. However, the end resulting taste is much different than wine. In harvesting, the coffee beans will be separated from the fruit, and fermentation is used to break down the fruit skin that covers the coffee beans. If this outer layer is not removed, it will directly affect the taste of the coffee beans for the worse.

Coffee beans have different characteristics all over the world based on where they are grown. This is another reason that coffee is similar to wine because climate and geography directly affect the taste of the final coffee product. Some other factors that affect coffee beans are soil type, amount of rainfall, altitude, and method of processing.

Along those same lines, the word “coffee” was once used for wine. However, the word later began to be used to describe black coffee brewed from Java berries. This was something that was used in ancient religious ceremonies to keep the monks awake during their all-night prayer meetings, so they gave it the same name as their wine.

Java contains caffeine, which is the reason that it is actually prohibited by Olympic athletes. If an athlete tests positive for a certain amount of caffeine, they have the potential to be banned from the Olympics. This amount is equivalent to 5 cups of Joe, meaning that Olympic athletes certainly need to moderate their daily coffee drinking to stay in the game.

In ancient Turkey, Turkish grooms were required to promise to their new wives that they would provide them with Java. If they did not live up to this vow, that was grounds for divorce!

What many coffee lovers don’t know is that espresso actually has less caffeine than a regular cup of Joe. Fresh brewed espresso has one third less caffeine than coffee because the Java grounds are extracted for a shorter period of time. An ideal shot of espresso is brewed within 25 seconds, but coffee takes longer to brew. This is why Java contains more caffeine than espresso because the coffee grounds are in contact with the water for longer in the brewing process.

Last of all, Japan is now the third largest coffee consuming country worldwide. Japan used to be a tea drinking culture, but coffee popularity is spreading globally. The Japanese drink coffee regularly and even use it to treat the body by bathing in coffee grounds that are fermented with pineapple pulp.

Coffee is truly a celebrated drink with a number of beneficial uses!

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Author: Mark Ramos
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The history of coffee dates back more than a thousand years and is as rich as the brew itself. It is believed that coffee plants originated on the shores of the Red Sea, in the Horn of Africa. Initially, coffee beans were eaten as a food, not drunk as a hot beverage. Tribes located in East African would grind the coffee cherries (the fruit containing the pulp and seed – what we now call the coffee bean) and mix the ground pulp with animal fat making a paste. This paste was eaten by tribal warriors to gain energy for battle. Ethiopians, around the year 1000 A.D., created a coffee wine by fermenting the bean in water. Coffee was also native to the Arabian Peninsula where, in the eleventh century, it was first taken as a hot drink.

Like wine during the first century, coffee developed a mystical, religious reputation. Many believed that the stimulating properties of coffee gave a religious ecstasy to those who consumed it. This drink became shrouded in secrecy and associated with the educated people of the times usually priests and physicians. Out of this environment two stories developed to explain the origin of this gift to man.

The most common history of coffee told relates a goat herder, named Kaldi, became frisky after eating the red cherries of a wild plant. After eating the fruit he was excited to feel the effects of caffeine, of course not knowing what that was. Later, it is told, he was spotted by some monks passing by dancing with his herd. After some experimentation, the monks created a drink by boiling the coffee bean. This beverage was consumed just before all-night ceremonies to keep the monks awake.

The second story that is popular involves a Muslim dervish who was sentenced to death by his enemies. He was forced to wander in the desert to die of starvation. During this time he heard a voice telling him to eat the fruit of what was a nearby wild coffee shrub. In his delirium he tried to soften the beans in water. When this failed he simply drank the soak water out of thirst. He was immediately invigorated and believed this to be a sign from God, returning to his homeland to share his discovery.

It was during the fifteenth century that coffee was first cultivated and the Arabian province of Yemen was the most prominent source of coffee. As demand grew past the boundaries of the Near East, the exportation of coffee went through the Yemeni port of Mocha, destined for Alexandria and Constantinople. This trade was lucrative and cloaked in secrecy. It was so closely guarded that no live plants were allowed to leave the country. The restrictions proved to be no match for those Muslim pilgrims who smuggled coffee plants back home after their trips to Mecca. Soon cultivation grew in India.

As trade routes flourished, coffee began to pass through the port of Venice where shipping fleets along the Spice Route brought Arabian merchants with tea, cinnamon, and other luxuries, including coffee. Liquid consumption became the most popular method with street vendors offering the hot beverages next to their cold ones, like lemonade. As Europeans traveled and experienced coffee in Arabia they also began to return home with this new and exotic drink.

The Dutch started the first plantation-styled coffee cultivation, during the seventeenth century, in their colonies in Indonesia primarily on the islands of Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Bali. The French, taking a cutting from a coffee tree to Martinique, introducing the plant to the Caribbean and Latin America. Brazil became the worlds largest producer of coffee after a rare plant disease killed the coffee plants in Southeast Asia in the mid-nineteenth century.

It is interesting that today coffee is the second most traded commodity behind oil, and many of the nicknames we have for this drink, e.g. Java and Mocha come from locations that have played a prominent role in the history of our favorite beverage.

Lance Curtis is editor and contributor to TheCoffeeDrinker.com where coffee lovers gather with a cup of their favorite brew.

The Coffee Drinker uncovers those hard-to-find gourmet tidbits that coffee lovers, like you, enjoy.

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The history of coffee can be traced to as early as the 9th Century. Early stories of the discovery of coffee have been told when it first came to the town of Mandi in the Ethiopian highlands. As the story goes, there was said to be a lowly goat herder by the name of Khalid who had observed that his flock of goats tended to become lively every time they eat the berries off the coffee plant. Quite intrigued by the effect, the goat herder himself tried boiling the coffee beans and thus became the first discovery of coffee as a drink.

The popularity of coffee as a drink later on spread from Ethiopia to Egypt and Yemen where they were sold by merchants. Early version of coffee had the beans directly boiled and then drank. It was in Arabia that the coffee beans were first being roasted and brewed that has become the practice still today. The popularity of this beverage soon spread to other countries. By the 15th Century, coffee drinking has spread to the rest of the Middle East as well as to Persia, Turkey and Northern Africa.

Coffee was first introduced in Europe by way of Italy. Trading between Venice and the Middle East as well as Egypt and parts of North Africa began thriving. Through this route, coffee found its way to the Venetian ports and was then introduced as a drink to Italians. From there it was introduced to the rest of Europe. Its popularity became so great that it led to the establishment of the coffee houses in Europe, the first one being opened in Italy in 1645.

Coffee then spread to parts of Asia by way of the Dutch explorers who brought with them coffee seeds that they planted in their colonies in Java and Ceylon. The introduction of coffee in North America was not as widely accepted initially as compared to other countries. It was brought along the American shores along with tea by the English colonizers. But it was tea that first became the accepted beverage. Not until the English limited the supply of tea in North America did the Americans grow to prefer coffee as their beverage of choice.

Throughout history, coffee has been a widely accepted beverage and its popularity grew due to its highly stimulating effects. It is also for this reason that coffee drinking during ancient times was widely associated with spiritual practices. Coffee drinking has since become a regular ritual among many people and its popularity seems to grow bigger and bigger everyday.

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With so many wide and varied coffee producing regions throughout the world it is hard to know what to expect when you buy a coffee from these places. Some of regions rely on small independent farmers to produce the coffee other regions are run by the multinational companies. We are well aware of how famous Java is in the world of coffee, it has now become a second name for coffee. But there a many less well known regions that are producing some of the most outstanding coffee in the world, These beans get their unique flavours and aromas from the way they are grown and processed, for instance some regions in the Americas grown their coffee in the shade, while other prefer their beans to be grown on the slopes of mountains. To name and describe ever region of coffee producing world would take a little longer than I can afford, but they can be broken down into the main regions so you get a general overview of what to expect of the coffees from these regions.

The Americas.

The largest and most diverse of all the regions, coffee is produced from the Caribbean all the way through south and central America and as far as Hawaii. Most of these coffees can be described as having a well balance and medium bodied flavours, because of these characteristics many of the coffees from the Americas are perfect from bending with other strong more acidic coffee verities. Some other well known characteristics of these coffees are chocolaty and nutty tones. Probably the most famous of all the American coffee’s are the kona coffee produced on the slopes of the volcanic Hawaiian mountains and the blue mountain coffee of Jamaica which is the highest mountain in the Caribbean.

Africa and the Middles East.

With Ethiopia being the birth place of coffee Africa has a long history with the Coffee bean and some of the most famous coffees have their origin in African and the Middle East, Mocha Coffee got it’s name from a port in Yemen. Coffee from these regions will always remain popular with each region having its own unique flavours and aromas and this is mostly down to the wide variety of climates from the desert like regions of the Middle East to the tropical regions of the Cameroon and Kenya. Even though there are many different varieties of African coffee you are always assured of a wonderful cup of coffee.

Asia And Indonesia

Almost 75% of all the coffee beans produced in this region come from the Canephora plant, with the remainder produced from the Arabica plant, The tropical and sub-tropical climates of these regions make the ideal conditions for growing some of the world’s finest coffee beans. In general these coffees are low in acidity with a full body and distinctive aromatic flavours of earthy tones. Because the beans are low in acidity with a strong body they are often used in a blend with a milder coffee usually from Africa or the Americas. Some of the most well loved of all the Asian coffee’s are the monsooned malabar coffee produced in India. This is one of the most unique coffees in the world as the beans are left in open sheds though out the monsoon season. This imparts a wonderful unique flavour to the beans. Another famous coffee is Kapal Api which produced on the Indonesian island of Java and in the past 80 it has grown to be a world famous brand.

As you can see that the choice and variety of coffee today is endless, and if you decide to roast your own green Coffee beans not only will have the freshest cup of coffee imaginable but you can also begin to experiment with different blends of coffee from around the world.

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Dark roasted coffee is more popular than ever, and the odds are that you may have enjoyed a dark roasted cup of Joe a time or two in your lifetime. However, as a coffee lover, it is important to understand the difference between dark and light roasted coffee because they are two diverse coffee styles.

Interestingly enough, mass marketing and commercial appeal has presented dark roasted coffee as the best quality and choice. Dark roasted coffee is popular on the market, especially when you consider that the coffee industry is the second-largest exporter next to oil worldwide. This gives the coffee industry the opportunity to market dark roasted beans as the number one choice available. A dark roast is actually made of coffee beans roasted for a longer period of time at a higher temperature, which causes many flavor molecules within the beans to burn away. This is both good and bad because bad flavors can be burned away in the roasting process, but that can include good flavors as well. When a coffee is roasted very dark, it is difficult for the drinker to tell if it is made from good or bad quality beans because it has a smoky and charcoal flavor overall.

Many coffee companies are attempting to dark roast all of their coffee to mask the type of beans that they are using, which is why dark roast Java is presented as the more popular variety on the market. This does not always mean a dark roasted coffee is a bad choice because there are many wonderful beans used to create dark roasts of Java. However, it still pays off to be a savvy customer and choose a roast made of flavorful and quality beans, whether it is light or dark.

A light roasted coffee is roasted for a shorter period of time, and it will have more flavor characteristics from the region that it is grown in. Some of these flavors may include those influenced by weather and soil, and some examples of light roasted coffee beans are Java and Kona. Light roasts are for coffee drinkers who want more specific flavors and characteristics within their brew, native to the region that the beans were grown in. Oftentimes, the coffee drinkers that choose a darker roast are not focusing necessarily on where the beans came from but the flavors that the roasting process provided as a result.

The lightest roasted Java available is called the City Roast, and the beans will normally look light or medium brown. These beans are roasted after the first crack in the roasting process, and the second lightest roast, Full City Roast, will be roasted until the second crack.

If you are a dark roasted Java drinker, it may be worth your while to try a lighter roast if you want to experience flavors and tastes from each specific coffee growing region. This is an excellent way to sample premium varieties in your cup of Joe!

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Author: Mark Ramos
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