Coffee

Coffee is so popular these days that it ranks as one of the three top beverages that people drink. Different people have different tastes, which is the reason why coffee manufacturers have taken to blends and coffee flavors to meet the demands and tastes of different people. The different kinds of coffee and coffee blends are sometimes called gourmet coffee.

The Beginning Of Coffee

The discovery of coffee was sometime in the 9th century, in Ethiopia, when a shepherd notice his goats cavorting around with fresh energy after having dined on some red berries on a high bush. It was told that the shepherd took home some of the berries and roasted them to be able to eat the seeds. This was how coffee was discovered. Soon, coffee reached the Turks and they started to pound the coffee beans and mix them in water.

As the beverage traveled to Europe, many people liked the strong taste and energy, which came with it. Many coffeehouses sprouted in Europe and people started experimenting on different roasting processes and different ways to prepare coffee.

Specialty Coffee

Nowadays, many companies and stores sell their coffee products with variations. Coffee is not anymore the simple black with sugar and cream but it has many different flavors. Some people still prefer their coffee straight black with just sugar but some of the younger generation like the newer gourmet coffee.

Gourmet coffee or specialty coffee is coffee made from exceptional beans and grown in very specific climates and soil. These kinds of coffee have very distinct flavors, which are sometimes adapted from the soils they grow on. Even the care that is given to the plant and the ways it will be harvested or process may be factors to the coffee being gourmet coffee plant.

Freshness is also an essential part to gourmet coffee being called gourmet coffee. If the beans that are used are processed while they are fresh, these give out a definite aroma. Truly fresh coffee is ground right before brewing and brewed within a week of roasting. Being aromatic is a big part to coffee being called a specialty coffee. It is usually the highest quality green beans roasted by expert roasters.

Specialty coffee does not refer to the way that coffee is brewed but instead refers to the quality of the beans used to make the coffee grounds and the process by which the grounds are processed. True gourmet coffee does not need additives to enhance their flavor. When flavor is added to coffee it becomes flavored coffee, not specialty coffee.

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Author: John Hilaire
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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If you always thought that Starbucks coffee was good, then to you the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee will definitely be extraordinary. Blue Mountain Coffee is a treat you will love to deserve. The best lots of blue mountain coffee are noted for their mild flavor and lack of bitterness. What makes this coffee so much better than all the other coffee has something to do with the unique growing, harvesting or roasting processes. Unfortunately, a lot of coffee is wrongly labeled as “Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee” as they are sometimes blended with inferior grades of coffee and sold to unsuspecting customers for lower prices. So be sure to get the real stuffs to taste the goodness of this coffee has for you.

Jamaican Blue Mountain ranks right up there with Kona as the most overrated coffee on the market today. Broadly speaking, coffee harvested from the parishes of Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Portland and Saint Mary, and grown at elevations between 1,500 and 3,000 feet, may be considered Blue Mountain coffee. Coffee grown below 1,500 foot elevation is called Jamaica Supreme or Jamaica Low Mountain. This fine gourmet coffee has to be certified by the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (the highest regulatory authority for coffee in Jamaica) and is widely recognized in the industry and by coffee connoisseurs by name for its smooth delicate taste, and unmistakable aroma.

When you place your order for this coffee, always be sure to order freshly roasted Grade 1, export quality Blue Mountain Coffee beans. The fresh ground beans are the main factor that made a significant difference in taste. On the other hand, although freshness and variety counts, it’s the roast that matters the most. When buying the coffee, do buy those that are vacuum packed in one-way valve bags to further ensure quality and freshness. If you are a regular drinker of good coffee, you can even consider buying good high grade single crop coffee beans in bulk as it is far cheaper and it also ensure freshness from the roaster.

If drinking premium coffee is your area of expertise, then you will find that Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee will definitely make your taste buds happier than any other coffee in the world. It is a great coffee day for Fridays when one is catching up on paperwork and mindless data entry. Starbucks coffee is good, Dunkin Donuts coffee is good, but Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is one coffee that belongs in the category of true excellence in coffee.

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Christopher Wen is the webmaster for http://www.greenhealthcoffeeclub.com/ where he provides you articles, info, and news on coffee and coffee related info.

Author: Chris Wen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Kona coffee comes from the famous Kona Coffee region, located on the Big Island of Hawaii. Many of them are small family farms. From August till December the farmers focus on picking and processing the ripe red coffee cherries. The steep, rocky terrain of most plantations does not lend itself well to mechanical cultivation or harvesting, so most of the work must be done by hand. The remainder of the year is spent pruning trees, planting new ones, spreading compost, maintaining the processing mill and home. Family owned plantations produce the finest coffees, because folks watch and maintain the whole cycle from the soil to the bean. Of course, processors, coffee brokers, shippers, handlers, dock- and storage managers, roasters, stores e.g. are in between you and the farms. By going through so many hands most coffees are running chances to be mishandled and results in being simply less fresh! So when ordering Kona coffee from a website, make sure you find a farm, can communicate with the owners and cut out the middlemen: The result will most likely be cheaper, fresher, tastier.

Kona coffee maintains individual subtleties; much better tasting than pooled, generically sold cheaper alternatives. The Kona region is comparable to the Champagne region in France, which produces the only legitimately named ‘Champagne’ product. And like Champagne, 100% Kona coffee is distinguished from other coffees not only by region and the ideal growing conditions, but also by the enormous amount of care taken throughout each step of the farming, harvesting and roasting processes. Whether it’s from the individual pruning of the trees, handpicking, carefully sun-drying on large open decks and roasting prior to packaging the coffee to ensure freshness–you can be assured that small estate Kona coffee is comparable to no other.

What’s in your cup? Most likely machine picked coffee, chockfull of pesticides and herbicides from South America, which is todays norm. Millions of tons circulate as ‘commodity’ on the Future markets at all times. During harvest combines with huge bristles sweep the trees of old cherries, green cherries, and some ripe red cherries. Twigs, insects, dirt all end up in the pulper. This generic coffee is stored and shipped for many months before it ends up in your cup. As every coffee company wants to have a high profit margin, the cheaper the green coffee is being bought, and the higher they can sell the roasted beans, the better they do for their shareholders. That’s where so called ‘Fair Trade’ coffees come in, because the first thing which is lowered is the money the actual farmers and pickers earn. Other tricks of the trade during processing and packaging: Flavor it with hazelnut or vanilla! Roast it very dark! Flavor it with, yes, COFFEE aroma extracts itself! Pump coffee aroma in the bag so that when the bag is opened the first time, the cheapo stuff will actually smell like coffee! Produce a sugary & milky coffee drink!

Back in Kona century-old coffee trees are still being handpicked to obtain the best flavor, assuring that only the reddest, ripest and finest cherries make it into your cup. This naturally shade grown coffee grows in nutrient rich soil, which reduces acidity and produces dense and more flavorful beans. During the course of any given Kona day the land is gently heated by the sun, which draws moist breezes up the slopes to create what’s called vector clouds. These clouds not only make shade trees obsolete, but they prompt drizzly convection rains throughout the afternoon. Therefore only in Hawaii coffee is grown at lower altitudes and naturally irrigated. In the rainy season around 20,000 gallons of rain are poured onto each acre of farm land. But moments after these periodic rains disappear, one may witness the sun once again pushing its way through at the coast below, creating magnificent rainbows and the most breathtaking Hawaiian sunsets. In the pulping process, the harvested red cherries are to ferment overnight in the freshest and purest Pacific rainwater. This labor-intense ‘wet method’ is the preferred way of processing high grown arabicas. Their skins and pulp are soaked, and then removed from the beans, which are later washed and spread out to dry on a wooden deck. The moist beans are hand distributed upon the drying floor and are raked many times throughout the day so that the drying happens uniformly. Kona’s warm sun and gentle breezes dry the beans to the perfect moisture level. Generic coffees utilize a mechanical drying method, which forces hot air over the beans to speed up the drying process. This method proves less labor intensive, therefore lowering the price. However, one can actually taste the difference between sun and kiln-dried beans. Sun-dried coffee maintains more of a delicate, mellow flavor–whereas kiln-dried coffee will oftentimes lose some of the aromas Kona coffee is famous for. Many farms package and ship their Kona coffee immediately after roasting to preserve its freshness. The essential flavored oils of coffee are delicate and fade quickly when coming in contact with oxygen.

But be aware: 100% KONA coffee is hard to come by on the mainland, which is why many coffee consumers are easily duped. But once you’ve tasted 100% pure Kona coffee, you’ll know the difference! Many roasters and companies mislead customers by using only 10% Kona beans and mixing them with 90% lower-quality and heavily fumigated Central or South American beans. This combination produces an atypical, cheaper taste, but is commonly referred to as “KONA BLEND”. The name, however, leads consumers to believe that the bag of coffee they’ve purchased contains ‘blends’ of various Kona coffee farms, whereas it actually means that the entire bag contains as little as three to four actual Kona beans! The law of Hawai’i stipulates that a bag of pure Kona coffee must have printed on its label the words 100% KONA to guarantee its contents. That’s why most small estate, shade grown and handpicked coffee can compete successfully against the ultra-productive, low-waged labor, machine-picked, and often artificially ‘coffee’-flavor enhanced, coffees.

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Author: Keoni Lassiter
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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