Coffee

There is so much more to drinking coffee than just knowing whether you want a cappuccino or a shot of espresso. What really makes the drink are the beans, and the art of growing good beans is akin to the difference between a bottle of cheap wine and the finest Brunello from Montalcino.

Furthermore, coffee beans are a bit of a mystery to a lot people since they only grow in specific regions, due to their finicky nature and need for specific weather patterns. Here is a break-down of some of the most popular beans, and why they make such great coffee.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
Ever enjoyed a drink at a bar that included Tia Maria? Then you know the secret of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, which is known for its surprisingly mild flavor and serious lack of bitter aftertaste. In addition to flavoring one of the tastiest coffee liqueurs around, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee also is brewed as regular coffee. The coffee beans grow between Kingston and Port Maria in the Blue Mountains, where a cool and misty climate with a huge annual rainfall ensures the soil is just right to grow these special beans.

Colombian Coffee
One of the biggest producers of coffee beans is Columbia, a country with a perfect environment for growing different varieties of Arabica beans, like Caturra, Typica, and Bourbon. The coffee grown in Columbia is imported by many countries around the world, like Japan, The United States, Australia, and Holland. Initially, harvested beans were roasted with charcoal in saucepans at the very beginning of Columbia’s long-going historical trade and harvesting.

Aloha Island Coffee Pods
Some of the best coffee in the world comes from Hawaii, really the only place in the States where coffee beans thrive. The type of beans, Kona, come in many varieties, but the absolute best are produced at a private coffee plantation on the Big Island of Hawaii, located right on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the famous volcano. It is the volcanic soil, coupled with rainfall and tropical sunshine, that makes these beans grow so well here, resulting in a cup of coffee that is incredibly smooth and not at all acidic.

Kopi Luwak
Always wanted to try a coffee made from beans that have already been eaten and digested? Well, you might have done that inadvertently, with Kopi Luwak coffee beans. Grown in Java, the coffee is some of the most popular around, all thanks to Asian Palm Civits, which love the coffee beans, eat them, and then digest them in a remarkable process that adds more flavor for us humans later. Apologies in advance if coffee was just ruined for you forever.

Remember, while different countries all produce different types of beans, it does not mean that the names on this list are the only type of coffee bean grown in that particular country. Furthermore, it is possible that many of these beans have shown up in different names and varieties through United States importers.

For socially-conscious consumers, one of the best things you can do, before deciding you absolutely must try a type of coffee bean, is to see if there’s an organization that produces and imports said beans in a fair-trade way. Harvesting coffee is tough work, and it is a shame how unfairly paid a number of these production countries are, especially considering how much the beans draw around the world.

Damian Papworth has always loved to start the day with a coffee. He recently purchased an 8 cup coffee maker which he wrote about on his website, One Cup Coffee Makers.

Author: Damian Papworth
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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There’s no questioning it, most of us have Coffee during mornings. Well this might have become a habit but then, the credit must still be given to the value of coffee to man.

Thanks to the goatherd who noticed his goats jumping after eating the coffee beans, coffee was born into earth. Nowadays, there are literally thousands of coffee variations to accommodate the various individual tastes of coffee drinkers worldwide.

The two main species of coffee beans are Arabica and Robusta and the three most popular variations of coffee are Turkish coffee, Cappuccino and Espresso. To top these, it is good to mention that there are various types of roasts that give more accents to the taste of coffee beans. Among the most famous ones are Continental roast, French roast, Full City roast, Viennese roast, New England Roast, breakfast roast and American roast. From these emerged some of the best tasting coffees in the world.

Judging coffee can be very subjective. For some people, the bitter ones are the best coffees in the world, but to those who prefer it sweet and smooth, the tasty ones are better. Whatever line you stand on in this argument, for sure, you have your own preference of coffee which for you remains to be the best.

Both species of coffee beans, Robusta and Arabica, are grown in the equatorial regions. Robusta thrives best in lower regions while Arabica at the higher regions.

Robusta consists of 30% of all coffee production worldwide. It has a stronger flavor and is normally used as ingredients for instant coffee. It has a woody after taste and full body flavor.

Meanwhile, Arabica is considered to be the more superior breed than Robusta. It consists the 70% of all coffee production despite of having a lower yield per plant. It has relatively low caffeine content and has more acidic flavor with caramel aftertaste.

Both of these species are blended into various coffee products. More expensive blends have more Arabica content while cheaper blends normally have higher proportion of Robusta beans.

Turkish Coffee is made of Arabica beans and is characterized by very fine powder grind. Often, the aromatic spice cardamom is added for flavor enhancement. This coffee has 6 levels of sweetness which range from sweet down to black. Spoons are basically not needed when drinking this coffee since there is no sugar added into it.

Cappuccino, on the other hand, is a coffee with frothy cream and chocolate powder as toppings. The name came from the coffee brown robes that Capuchin monks wear.

Espresso Coffee is an Italian coffee that is made through forcing steam into the roasted coffee beans. The result is a strong black coffee. The brewing is done through an especially dedicated coffee brewer which works by pressurizing the beans to release flavor.

The most controversial coffee though is the most expensive. This is called the Kopi Luwak.

This coffee comes from cat shit. Yes, you heard it right. No one knows how this coffee came to be but the truth still remains to be the truth, the beans come from Luwak feces that were collected and brewed. The taste is said to be exotic and earthy with hints of caramel and chocolate flavor. Certainly not the best coffee in the world but apparently, people spend outrageous amounts of money just to have a cup of Kopi Luwak.

Read more advice about Coffee at the online guide at http://coffee.advice-tips.com

Author: Celia Namart
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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You may know about which coffee beans taste best and maybe even about roasting and grinding beans, but here are ten coffee beans facts, some of which you may have never heard before!

1. Colossal Coffee Beans – The largest coffee bean is the Nicaragua Maragogipe, a variety of the Arabica species.
2. Good Things Come to Those Who Wait – With just the right amount of shade, sun, rain, and the right climate, coffee plants will begin producing coffee berries containing the “beans.”
3. Coffee Bean Not a Native of Costa Rica – The Spanish traveller, Navarro, introduced Cuban coffee to Costa Rica in 1779.
4. Not Really “Beans” – Believe it or not, coffee beans are not really beans at all. They are not in the legume family, but rather they are the pits found inside of the coffee berries.
5. Making the Grade – Coffee beans are graded in various ways. Columbian beans are graded from highest to lowest as: “Supremo” “Excelso”, “Extra” and “Pasilla”. Kenyan beans are graded with letter grades AA, AB, PB, C, E, TT, and T and the grades simply refer to the size, shape, and density of the coffee bean. For coffee beans, size does matter because larger coffee beans contain more of the oil that makes coffee so tasty. Costa Rican coffee beans are graded as Strictly Hard Bean, Good Hard Bean, Hard Bean, Medium Hard Bean, High Grown Atlantic, Medium Grown Atlantic, and Low Grown Atlantic, from highest to lowest, respectively, and these grades refer to the heights at which the beans were grown – Strictly Hard Bean, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the Costa Rica coffee crop is the top grade grown above 3,900 feet.
6. Hand-Picked – Even to this day, most coffee is still picked by hand, and a coffee worker can pick from 100 to 200 pounds of coffee berries a day!
7. An Acre of Coffee – How much coffee would you guess to get out of an acre of coffee plants? One acre typically yields about 10,000 pounds of coffee fruits or coffee cherries – which comes to around 2,000 pounds of coffee beans.
8. Imported Coffee – As much as Americans adore coffee, no coffee is grown in the Continental U.S.; the only American places that produce coffee are Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
9. The Most Expensive Coffee – The most expensive coffee in the world is Kopi Luwak, selling for between $100 and $600 USD per pound (2009)
10. Also the Most Unusual Coffee – The most expensive coffee is also quite possibly the most unusual coffee in the world – since the coffee berries go through the digestive tract of the Kopi Luwak (a small cat-sized Indonesian animal), are then harvested from the animal’s waste, and then the beans removed, cleaned (hopefully!), roasted, and sold.

That’s right, believe it or not, it takes 3-5 years for a coffee plant to produce coffee, and only if the conditions are perfect; coffee beans aren’t really beans at all; and the most expensive coffee comes from digested coffee gathered from animal feces!

Jennifer Hall enjoys spending her days in coffee shops writing articles and trying out different blends and offers tips and information on coffee beans for Coffee Beans 101 – the premier coffee bean site on the web!

Author: Jennifer Hall
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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In this article we discuss the coffees from India, Indonesia and the Pacific Rim.

Vietnamese Coffees

Vietnam is the second largest coffee producing country in the world today, behind Brazil. It is generally of poor quality with light acidity and mild body almost entirely of the Robusta variety. Consequently the coffee is mainly used in the production of instant and processed coffees. Most of the coffee is grown in the southern half of the country.

Indonesian Coffees

As the fourth largest coffee producer in the world, the islands of the Indonesia produce a wide range of coffees. Although the vast majority is robusta from small plantations, there are some very good arabicas produced too. Amongst the most notable are from the islands of Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Flores amd Timor. Sumatra is the name given to all single origin coffee produced on the island.

The most notorious of all Sumatran coffees is the Luwak. Rather uniquely the coffee cherry is collected after it has been eaten and passed thorough the digestive tract of a small island animal. Apparently this produces a lovely mellow coffee. It’s uniqueness earns its reputation as the worlds most expensive coffee.

Java coffees from the island of Java are grown on large farms mostly operated by the government, and are wet-processed using modern methods. These display the rich character of other Indonesia coffees, but are lighter in body.. Old Java, Old Government, or Old Brown are mature coffees from Java, created to mimic the flavour characteristics of the original Java coffee, which was aged in the holds of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ships during their passage to Europe.

Indian Coffees

Despite being most famous for its teas, India is also the 6th largest producer of coffee on the planet, mainly from the southern regions of the country, where both Arabica and robustas are grown.
The best known are from the Mysore area and are known by that name. The best mysores have good body with sweetness.

Monsooned coffee is a process whereby the coffee is exposed to the monsoon winds in open warehouses. The idea is to recreate the natural ‘ageing’ that occurred during the long sea voyages to Europe. This gives the beans a particular earthy flavour and a smooth and rich taste with a spicy aroma.

Papua New Guinea

The best-known coffees from New Guinea are produced on large, modern estates that produce a clean, fragrant, and acidic coffee. Organically grown New Guinea coffees are produced on small farms and processed by the farmers using simple means. Arabicas and robusta are both grown.

Thai Coffees

Coffee is very important to the economy in Thailand. However it is intensely cultivated in the south of the country using fertilizers and pesticides and is it of low quality. Much of the coffee is used in to produce soluble products, roasted, ground, and canned coffee in their domestic market. A small amount of good quality arabica is produced in the north

Philippines

Disease destroyed most of the coffee plants in the Philippines in the late 1800′s. Today, however it has recovered somewhat and it produces generally low grade robustas for the soluble coffee market. A small amount of good quality Arabica are also produced

Hawaiian Coffee

Although not on the Pacific rim but in the Pacific itself Hawaii is a minor coffee producing island, the most famous of which is Kona coffee. It is a rich nutty and buttery coffee and often considered to one of the best coffees in the world.

Visit http://www.cafebar.co.uk for further information.

Author: Fenton Wayne
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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