Coffee

For those who love coffee, you know that you can distinctly tell the quality of the coffee just by the aroma you get from the brew. But for the average coffee drinker, brand names usually reign supreme when it comes to sipping their favorite cup of Joe.

With the growing market of delicious coffee, people continually search their local area for the best coffee that’s convenient. While some may argue that Whole Food has everything you need for the perfect brew, there are gourmet coffee brands that some might dismiss.

It would help those looking for a great brew to experiment and try these higher ticketed beans to get a better sense of what is out there. This article will cover the top five brands of coffee in America today. Some range from the everyday to the premium merchant names that we have all come to admire.

Starbucks

Coming in at number one, Starbucks still remains at the top of the list. With loyal followers nationwide, some argue this is the best coffer brand worldwide. However, this fame to glory can also be attributed to the marketing and public perception of Starbucks Coffee. Its trendiest and cozy couches do help draw in customers day in and day out.

Coffee is embedded in daily culture and it’s no longer a breakfast thing. It’s has become a social engagement as well. It caters to both young and old, across all demographics.

With humble roots back in Seattle, Starbucks has grown internationally with over 16,000 stores worldwide. They also have expanded their product line for coffee lovers to experience the prefect brew at home. One of their more famous creations is the latte and blended coffee being sold in sachet packs.

Pee’s Coffee

Another homegrown coffee brand from Seattle, Peet’s coffee has grown into a 500 million dollar business as of 2009. Its coffee is also sold in groceries stores nationwide. A little history shows a relationship with Starbucks coffee house.

The founders of Starbucks sued to be able to for Peet’s and ended up introducing their own specialty coffee blend.

Dunkin Donuts

On the other side of the coin, Dunkin Donuts ranks in the top five of coffee brands in the United States. The allure of a simple plain good ol’ cup of black coffee has its appeal. Made fresh daily and consistently, Dunkin Donuts still brews a favorite fresh cup of java for its loyal and frugal customers. Some argue it’s just as good as the fancy Starbuck brand.

The simplicity of cream, sugar and coffee is a winner everyday at Dunkin Donuts and their revenue shows that. After buying the Mister Donut brand, they quickly gobbled up more of the market share.

Maxwell House Coffee

The fourth popular coffee brand on consumer favorites is Maxwell House Coffee. Many coffee aficionados claim that their coffee rivals that of Starbucks and can be it in a blind taste test. As a household name, Maxwell house continues to serve its client base every quarter. This Kraft owned brand continues to brew coffee that’s good to the last drop.

Caribou Coffee

Caribou coffee is the second largest retailer of coffee and espresso in the United States to Starbucks.

One of their popular blends is their Rainforest Blend that gives the coffee brew a unique flavor of fruitiness.

So whatever brand fills your cup of coffee, there are a wide range of taste, textures and price ranges to suit your mood. Be sure to also visit your local supermarket for additional selections.

Want the Perfect Brew?

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Author: Timothy Schwartz
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Pressure cooker

When it comes to buying a coffee maker, one that gets you through the morning, there are so many options that it may drive you crazy. Drifting away from Starbucks and the instant stuff, there are machines that can do the job fairly well. But they must pass through a set of criteria.

Simplicity

With coffee makers, as with most machines, simple is always better. You don’t want too many switches and buttons and overcomplicated procedures. All you want is a cup of coffee. A simple machine, one designed and tested to do one simple thing, and be good at it, tends to work better than a complicated one.

Function

You want a coffee maker that does the job all the way through, nothing too much, and nothing left half done. Underachievers that don’t extract enough flavor, and overachievers that boil the water too much that your coffee gets too bitter; you don’t want them.

Type of Coffee

It pays to know what kind of coffee you love to have from your coffee maker. For most brews, drip coffee makers are all right. For espresso, a dedicated espresso machine is the only one that will do. If you want espresso, but don’t want to buy a machine for it, a French press can actually do the trick. Percolators are also good, as they’re tried and tested. The coffee you want tells you what kind of coffee maker you need.

Cup Size

See if the coffee maker makes a decent-sized serving at one go. Decent-sized is relative. If your morning wake up ritual needs two cups, then see that your coffee maker can deliver just that. Some coffee machines limit themselves to serving sizes that are precise, but are annoyingly less or more than what some need. Make sure what you buy neither serves too little nor overflows your cup and wastes all that coffee goodness.

Reservoir

A good coffee maker should hold enough water for a decent amount of servings at one time. Make sure it can hold a good amount without the reservoir being too big that it takes over the machine. Bad coffee makers tend to have big reservoirs, and cheap machine parts within, just so that they can pass as coffee makers. Do not fall for this. Scrutinize, and choose wisely.

Value

Everyone wants a bargain, but remember that there’s such a thing as a balance between the price and the features. Measure the coffee maker’s set of features along with its build and its price. This kind of formula is a good rule of thumb. So this means you’ll need to check out the slightly costly items, and visit the reputable shops to get the best “balanced” value. It’s not just money at stake here, it’s your mornings.

Brand

It may not seem necessary, but buying a coffee maker from a reputable brand is much better than buying some run-in-the-mill counterpart (unless you’ve done a great deal of research behind some new or unknown brands). A branded machine can beat any brandless contraption anytime. That’s another consumer rule of thumb there. More of a guide, not a rule. When it comes to build quality, features, and overall design, brands like Bunn, Black & Decker, Cuisinart, Braun, and so on are the best there is.

Easy-to-Clean

Of course, you have to deal with cleaning issues. You want to maintain your coffee maker’s service life. Make sure that the crucial parts are washable so that you do not get coffee sticking to them over time. As long as you can wash the important parts like the pot and the reservoir with soap and water, you’re good to go.

Portability

You don’t want anything bigger than your counter. If you buy something that can sit snugly at the corner of your kitchen, then you’d want to use it day after day, since it doesn’t “intrude” in your kitchen space.

Safety

Make sure that there are no exposed electric parts; that everything is properly insulated. Sometimes there are spills, and you don’t want a shock when you clean up the spill. See if the handles are cool to the touch and children who fumble with them and won’t get burned.

Coffee makers come in many shapes and sizes. Simplify your search of your best coffee maker by setting your criteria of what you want from your machine before you start looking for your perfect coffee maker.

Yogi Shinde offers coffee maker ratings and reviews on different brands and types of coffee makers. Helping your find the best coffee maker to suit your needs.

Author: Yogi Shinde
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

There are many different distinct flavors of coffee throughout the world, ranging from fruit flavors, candied flavors, and even the distinct types of roasting that go into making different and unique flavors of coffee.

For example a light roast will have a unique flavor compared to a dark or medium, and its these different roasts that will determine and discern the different flavors of coffee. Also different fruit flavors go into making coffee, and other additives can appear in frappucinos, lattes, and espresso mixtures.

There are espressos with heavy and light cream, as well as lattes of many different and distinct flavors. Different coffee houses as well as different distributors will create different coffees in these unique ways, relying mostly on the roast of bean to determine the flavor of the coffee.

To begin with the best flavored gourmet coffees, the very beginning has to deal with roasting. Most of the most distinct flavors come from the Middle East as well as South America. These areas are good for roasting and distributing coffee to other regions of the world because in these areas coffee got its very beginnings.

Humans before us toyed with different roasting to produce highly aromatic and flavorful gourmet coffee based on different roasting techniques. Coffee will taste heavier or lighter depending on the particular roasting technique and the flavor and origin of the bean.

In the middle east strong coffee was usually brewed, making for a more distinct and strong flavor as opposed to other areas of the world where coffee is brewed differently. Some places are known for mixing cream and sugar into coffee and affecting the flavor. Flavor depends on a variety of different factors and substances that go into the coffee itself.

To explore these different regions, its best to begin with Italy and the origin of the latte and espresso. Espresso is flavored gourmet coffee based on distinct techniques and is a type of coffee that is made with heavy cream usually and is gaged in strength depending on the roast of the bean and the skill of the maker.

Many coffee houses expertly train their employees to get the skill of making espressos and lattes down pat, because without these skills the flavor of the coffee can be ruined dramatically.

In Italy people are generally extremely skilled at making espressos and lattes because these two different types of coffee have had much Italian influence. The handling of lattes is also crucial because of the different amount of cream or milk that needs to be added in to flavor the coffee effectively.

To get true, rich gourmet flavored coffee, its best to head to skilled coffee houses or to countries where the particular gourmet beverage originated from. Many of these skills are passed down or learned through much practice. All these factors are used when determining the flavor of coffee. It isn’t simply a matter of going to Starbucks or Coffee Beanery and picking up a bag of coffee and brewing it.

There is a good deal of effort and tasting that goes into making different beans and different brews have that distinct taste.

Discover the best Flavored Gourmet Coffees on the Planet at: Gourmet Coffee Net [http://www.premiumgourmetcoffee.net/the-zest-of-flavored-gourmet-coffee/]

Author: Jack Harmon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Espresso machine and the filter coffee makers took a turn for the better when they came up with the single cup coffee machine. Everyone was accustomed to the usual coffee machines that would make a whole pot of coffee, but there was always the “no good enough” feelings among the user.

The key complain, is the difficulty in getting the right amount of coffee, it is usually a problem of brewing too much or too little. Sure you could adjust the amount of coffee you wanted to brew but most people find that it is difficult to estimate the exact amount of coffee grounds for the amount of coffee they wanted to drink.

With the single serve machines, the pre-measured single serve allows you to make the perfect measured cup of coffee every time.

There are maybe close to hundred different brands of single serve coffee makers around, and it can be quite frustrating to choose the right one. However, it can be segment into 3 board categories: the K-cups, the T-disc and the pods.

First, is the K-cups where you can get gourmet coffee as well as teas and hot cocoas. You do not have to worry about measuring, filters or even grinding the beans. The K-cups offers over 50 types of beverages and they can be brewed anywhere in less than a minute with the Keurig machine.

The K-cups have their own brands and their own patented technology in sealing the coffee ground to ensure that you get the freshest cup of coffee with every cup. And, their variety range from Starbucks coffee to Twinnings tea, so you can say that they are serving some of the most branded F&B brands. If the above are consideration when purchasing coffee, then the Keurig is your choice.

Then, there is the T-disc that offer cups of pure pleasure such as an espresso or latté with no fuss or mess. However, the advantage of T-disc is definitely its cappuccino, that comes complete with real froth.

Their patented code on the T-disc brew each individual drink differently. The T-disc uses a machine that is called the Tassimo. And, this is the machine that converts the code that it read from the T-disc to a frothy cup of cappuccino.

If you are someone that is particular about how the brew would turn out, then Tassimo is the machine that you should get. Especially, if you want an instant cappuccino.

Lastly, there are the coffee pods machine that are more flexible than Keurig or Tassimo, some single serve are able to take in any range of pods from Douwe Egberts to Nespresso. These pods mitigate a major problem for single cup coffee machine -the closed brand system.

Despite all its convenience and ease of use, the single serve usually can only use its own brand of coffee, for example, Keurig can only use the K-cups and Tassimo can only use its T-disc.

However, with “no brand” pod machine coming into the market, they can use pods from any companies, giving the pod coffee maker the largest range of beverages to choose from. So, pod coffee maker is easy to use, measured to user preferences and have the widest range of coffee.

No matter what your tastes are in hot beverages you can be sure to find a single cup coffee machine within these 3 categories that will make your life easier. The ease of these machines and the variety of choices that you have, will make this a must have to any household, if not now, then in the near future.

Ebenezer Heng, the owner of On Coffee makers does the research for on any machines related to coffee. As long as you are looking for a machines to better your coffee experience, chances are you can find it at http://www.oncoffeemakers.com

Read about coffee stories at http://www.oncoffeemakers.com/coffee-maker-ratings.html

Author: Ebenezer Heng
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Gourmet coffee is more than just coffee for occasional drinkers or for those who drink it in order to stay awake. It is a special treat made of selected coffee beans, in a special manner, and its main purpose being to please the taste of the consumer.

One of the world’s most appreciated gourmet coffees is the kona coffee. Kona coffee is original from the Mauna Lao Hawaiian Island. It’s a rare and special coffee. The tree’s coffee beans come to be ripe especially after cold winters and they are then picked and carefully selected, dried and hulled.

The reddish kona coffee beans are roasted in different methods depending on the moisture of the bean, the result being a richly flavored coffee that is ready to be prepared. On the market Kona is generally sold as a blend, a Kona blend containing Arabic, Brazilian and African beans and only 10% of Kona coffee.

As the commercial market offers more and more sorts of ready-made coffee, coffee drinkers all over the world have come to favor “gourmet coffee”. Coffee’s sold by Starbucks, Peets, Tullies or Barnies can now be found in fine coffee shops and super markets alike.

Starbucks claims supremacy of the market as they offer a wide variety of coffees beverages ranging from the brewed coffee, to expresso drinks, to luxurious frappuccinos.

While Starbucks success is relatively new-founded, Peets coffee has a tradition in bringing tasty coffee to the consumers, dating back to the 1960′s; Gevalia proudly announces that they have been offering gourmet products to consumers for over 100 years.

Regardless of the time advantage that the two latter-named companies have, it is the young Barnies Coffee that challenges Starbucks as they come on the market with impeccable service and an extraordinary array of coffee types.

There are many kinds of coffee available today, varied enough to satisfy each consumer’s unique taste palette, no matter how finicky. Whether you prefer Columbian, Kona or Kenyan or Starbucks, Illy, or Gevalia as gourmet coffee, you can find a place to serve you your favorite coffee at virtually every corner.

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Author: Tyler Bond
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger