Coffee

Grinding fresh roasted coffee beans is done at the roastery by using a burr mill, which employs rotating elements to shear the beans; or else in an electric coffee grinder which uses blunt blades to smash the beans at a high speed. The type of grind used is frequently named for the method of brewing. For example, Turkish grind coffee is the finest grind; espresso is a fine-to-medium grind; and French grind is the coarsest. The grind which most home coffee brewing machines use is a medium grind. There are lots of methods for brewing coffee: it can be steeped, boiled, or pressured. The boiling method is the traditional way which has been used for centuries, and Turkish coffee is brewed in this fashion. Turkish coffee is made by pounding the coffee beans to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle, and then this powder is added to water and boiled in a pot known as a cezve (briki in Greek). Turkish coffee has a strong taste and usually a foam layer on its surface.

Automatic coffeemaking machines and percolators employ gravity to brew coffee. Roasted and medium ground cheap bulk coffee beans are placed in a coffee filter made of perforated metal or paper, and hot water drips through the coffee grounds. As the water seeps through the grounds it absorbs the essences and oils of the coffee. The gravity flow moves the liquid down into a pot or carafe and leaves the spent coffee grounds in the filter above. In a coffee percolator the boiling water creates a pressure which forces water into a chamber located above the filter. Then gravity pulls the water down through the grounds in the filter. This process continues cyclically until a timer shuts it off. Typically a thermostat is used to turn the heat off when the percolator attains a certain temperature. The thermostat also turns the heat on again when the pot cools down (however the filter containing the grounds must removed to prevent additional brewing when the pot reheats). Gourmets tend to eschew coffee which has been reboiled.

A bean coffee company brews French grind by steeping it in a French press, or cafetiere. The ground coffee is combined with hot water in the coffee press and allowed to brew for several minutes. Then a plunger is depressed which pushes the coffee grounds to the bottom of the press. Since the coffee grounds are contacting the water directly, the aromatic oils in the coffee remain in the drink, making for a strong beverage with more sediment left in the coffee than an automatic coffee machine leaves. An espresso coffee maker forces hot (but not boiling) water under 10 atmospheres’ pressure through the finely ground coffee powder. This high pressure brewing produces a more concentrated beverage than gravity methods, containing as much as ten or fifteen times more coffee in the water. Espresso has a reddish brown foam known as crema which floats on top of the surface. Americano espresso is cut with water to make it less strong, the way Americans prefer it.

Espresso coffee made from fresh roasted coffee beans can be served in a wide variety of ways. It can be served black in small demitasse cups; or watered down in the Americano style in which a shot of espresso is placed in the cup and hot water poured over it. Adding steamed milk to espresso brewed from roasted cheap bulk coffee beans makes caf latte. A popular bean coffee company treat is cappuccino, made with foamed milk.

Author: Alice Lane
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The history of coffee has a rich and fascinating tradition, resulting in gourmet coffee available to you in your kitchen or at your favorite coffee house.

Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Today, a good cup of coffee ties our world together in ways that are truly amazing through the years.

The Origin of Coffee

No one knows how coffee was discovered. One popular legend says coffee was discovered by an Arabian shepherd named Kaldi who found his goats prancing around a shrub bearing bright red fruit. He tasted the fruit and experienced the same energy.

Kaldi shared his discovery with the local monks, and they used the fruit to stay awake during long hours of prayer. The “mysterious red fruit” spread to monasteries all over the world, starting the relationship between the church and coffee that has lasted for centuries.

Coffee is mentioned in writings as early as the 10th century, and historians since then have followed coffee’s history and use throughout the world.

In 1471, not long before Columbus left to discover America, the first coffee house opened in Constantinople. The merchant trade of Venice brought coffee to Italy, where the first European coffee shop opened in 1645. Coffee houses spread throughout Europe and England and later to America. By 1675, there were over 3,000 coffee houses in England, demonstrating coffee’s tremendous appeal so many years ago.

As coffee production started around the world in different tropical regions, the growing conditions produced new and distinctive flavors. Various cultures invented new ways of enjoying coffee, and starting new traditions.

Coffee Making Through the Years

How we roast, grind and brew coffee has changed tremendously over the years. At first, coffee was boiled after being crushed by a mortar and pestle, as it still done with Turkish coffee.

Drip brewing started around 1800 in France, about the same time as percolators were invented also. Vacuum coffee makers were invented in 1840 to brew coffee that was clear and without sediment. By the end of the 19th century, espresso machines were developed for brewing coffee through the pressure method. Paper filters were invented by Melitta Benz in 1908. She and her husband patented them and started the Melitta family coffee business, which their grandchildren continue to this day.

Drip coffee makers for home use in the United States became popular after the Mr. Coffee coffee maker was introduced in 1972. Prior to that time, most coffee at home was made with a percolator, either electric or on the stove top.

The rise of the corner gourmet coffee house in America is an even more recent event. Founded in 1971, Starbucks popularized dark, gourmet coffee and expanded on a massive scale in the 1990′s. Now there are 16,000 stores worldwide, including 11,000 in the United States and 1,000 in Canada. This rise in gourmet coffee houses has brought a new coffee lifestyle to American society, greatly increasing expectations for coffee quality.

Growing Coffee Around the World

From coffee’s start in the Arabian peninsula, coffee has become one of the largest commercial crops grown around the world.  Coffees are grown in tropical and subtropical areas, including some of the most impoverished areas of the world. The traditional coffee production areas in are in South America (with Brazil and Columbia as the two largest coffee producers in the world), Africa (primarily East Africa) and Indonesia. Other areas grow coffees that have become prized, including Jamaica, Hawaii, Australia, India, and Costa Rica, winning the hearts of coffee aficionados worldwide.

Gourmet Coffee Today

In general, the coffee beans from from Central and South America are known for their mild yet potent flavor. East African and Arabian coffee beans are known for their intense flavor and bright acidity.  Indonesian coffee beans produce smooth, rich and low acid flavors.

Coffee has brought amazing changes to our society and our world in the past 1,100 years. Coffee continues to span the globe, connecting us with people far away. The coffee in your cup came from beans grown in an exotic location far away and transported around the world to you.

What will be next for coffee? Who knows, so enjoy your cup of gourmet coffee and the rich tradition that goes with it!

DJ Toman is a lawyer and coffee enthusiast living in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is the author of http://www.CoffeeDaydreams.com, a site dedicated to gourmet coffee and choosing the best coffee makers. Even beginners get helpful tips about how to brew and enjoy the coffee of their dreams.

Author: DJ Toman
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Turkish coffee is one of the simplest ways to make delicious coffee. This is a guide to help you avoid the most common mistakes when making Turkish coffee.

Using the wrong proportion

One of the most common mistakes is using the wrong proportion of coffee to water. If you use too much water or too much coffee the result will not be drinkable! The most common rule is one demitasse cup of water with one teaspoon of coffee. If you want your coffee strong you can use two teaspoons but don’t use more…

Using the wrong grind

In order to make Turkish coffee you must use very fine ground coffee. If you use coarser coffee then you will not be able to extract the delicate coffee flavours. You will also fail to create the special coffee foam on top which is highly prized in many Middle East and Balkan countries. This special foam resembles the espresso crema and it is known as kaimaki in Greece. So, make sure that you use very fine ground coffee.

If you want to grind your own coffee, use a high quality burr grinder (manual or electrical). You can also use a mortar and pestle.

Boiling coffee

You must use a Turkish coffee pot to prepare the coffee. Stir the coffee with the sugar a bit to help them mix with the water.

After you light up the fire and you start heating the coffee in the pot, it is very important to watch carefully as the coffee comes slowly to a boil. It’s imperative that you don’t let it boil!

If it boils then the coffee will get bitter and flat tasting. In order to make delicious Turkish coffee, you must stop the heating when the coffee mixture comes ALMOST to a boil.

At this special moment, the coffee foam forms a ring on top. This foam ring slowly increases in size, closes the gap on top and then the coffee starts rising. As soon as the foam ring closes the gap on top and starts rising out must stop the heating. If you fail to do this it will boil and the flavour will get destroyed. So, just be careful and take it slow!

Bringing to boil more than 3 times

There are some people who prefer to bring the coffee to almost boil more than once. I find this a loss of time and sometimes it can also lead to a loss of quality. Bringing the coffee to almost boil more than 3 times is an exaggeration!

Adding sugar after the boiling

If you want your coffee medium sweet add one teaspoon of sugar for every teaspoon of coffee. If you want your coffee sweet double the amount of sugar. It is important to put the sugar before the heating, to optimize the flavour. The sugar melts and becomes one with the coffee in your mouth.

Using the wrong size pot

In order to make 2 demitasse cups of coffee use a coffee pot (ibrik or cezve) that holds 3 demitasse cups of coffee. You can also measure the capacity of the pot using water. The extra cup is counted to facilitate the whole stirring and foaming process.

Now, you may ask:

“Why can’t I use a 5 cup size coffee pot to make 2 cups of coffee? The bigger the better!”

Unfortunately it’s not like that!

You see… if you use a much bigger coffee pot this makes the coffee foam creation rather hard. The shape of the coffee pot (conical) facilitates the creation of a special oven like effect that makes the foaming much easier and more precise.

If you use a very big coffee pot then it will be hard to make a nice foam on top of the Turkish coffee. Just try it and you will see the difference!

Using hot water to make it faster

There are many professionals who start with hot water in order to make Turkish coffee faster. Actually they have big boilers and when a customer asks for a cup of Turkish coffee, they pour hot water from the boiler inside their coffee pot, they put coffee and sugar and they boil the whole thing as fast as possible!

The result as you may guess is the destruction of all the delicate coffee flavour. This is because of basic physics and chemistry… hot water (90 C degrees or higher) interacts with the coffee and then as if this is not enough you boil the coffee some more!!!

So just use cold coffee and don’t rush. Your taste buds will thank you!

Pouring fast and sloppily

When the heating is done pour the coffee slowly in order to retain the foam on top. If you do it quickly the foam may break apart.

Not letting the coffee settle a bit after serving

After you serve the coffee, the small coffee grounds float everywhere in the cup. Just let them settle for a couple of minutes (except if you like eating coffee )

Not taking enough time to enjoy!

This is in my opinion the greatest mistake of all. We live in very quickly paced timed, full of stress.

Why should you also be in a hurry when drinking your Turkish coffee? Relax! Take a small sip, lay back and enjoy! Share what you learned with your friends and offer them a cup of coffee too, won’t you?

Enjoy!

Karolos Tsiligirian is the author of the “Fresh Coffee Encyclopedia” and the owner of FreshCoffeeShop.com

Author: Karolos Tsiligirian
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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