Coffee Guide

When you enter a coffee house, you have a multitude of drink choices like latt?, cappuccino, straight shot and caff? mocha just to name a few.

Sometimes knowing what to order can be overwhelming unless you know what you are getting. After all, who wants to pay an outrageous amount of money for a mystery drink that you may not even like?

So PerfectCoffees.Com has come to the rescue, and after you read this, you’ll have a basic understanding of how the most popular coffee drinks are made and what they are made of.

Most coffee drinks start with espresso and espresso is just coffee that is brewed a certain way. It is finely ground to almost a powder then very hot water is forced through the grounds under intense pressure.

The brewing process is timed so that the flavorful and aromatic oils are extracted from the coffee and not the bitter components. This produces a strong flavored, but not bitter, concentrated shot of coffee.

Straight Shot

The straight shot refers to espresso coffee and the secret to good espresso is the extraction time, volume, and golden crema which is a thick light brown layer of frothed coffee oils that float on top of a properly extracted espresso.

The short shot or ristretto is extracted to a volume of three-quarters of an ounce. The shorter restricted pour magnifies the essence of the coffee and the chance of any bitter elements being extracted is minimized. If you have ever ordered an espresso shot in Europe they usually serve the ristretto.

The long shot or lungo is extracted to a volume of one and one-half ounces.

The double shot is a 2 ounce shot using twice as much coffee in the portafilter.

The correct way to serve a straight shot is to extract it directly into a warmed demitasse cup. The warm demitasse cup will keep the straight shot warm and prolong the crema. A straight shot is best enjoyed immediately after brewing.

It is rare to see people drinking straight shots of espresso in the US. Most people here drink variations using steamed milk mixed with the shots to make the different coffee drinks listed here.

Espresso Macchiato

The Espresso Macchiato starts with a shot of espresso and then a small amount of foamed milk is spooned over the shot. Macchiato in Italian means marked, as the espresso is marked with foam.

Espresso Con Panna

This is an Espresso Macchiato using whipped cream in place of the foamed milk. The drink gets its name Con Panna which means with cream.

Caff? Americano

The Caff? Americano is a drink similar to American brewed coffee. It is made with a single or double shot of espresso combined with 6 to 8 ounces of hot water out of an espresso machine. The result is a very smooth cup of coffee that is much hotter than brewed coffee.

Cappuccino

Cappuccino is made with a fluffy, wet foam, mixed with espresso coffee upon the pour to create a blend of the two flavors. Cold milk is essential, as is expertise in the foaming process. Cappuccino has a large volume of foam making it a light weight drink and less filling.

Caff? Latt?

Caff? Latt? is similar to the cappuccino but with much less foam and more steamed milk. A latt? is made by holding back the foam with a spoon while pouring the frothed milk from the steaming pitcher. The caff? latt? is completed by being topped with a small amount of the held back foam.

Caff? latt? gets its name from the addition of coffee to milk. For an iced latt?, cold milk is combined with the espresso and then the ice is added.

Caff? Mocha

A caff? mocha is made by adding powdered or chocolate syrup to a hot shot of espresso and blended. Steamed milk is then be added to the espresso-chocolate mixture and usually it is topped with whipped cream.

Iced mochas are made with cold milk and the ice added after the coffee and chocolate have been blended.

Flavored Coffee Drinks

Some popular coffee flavors are: vanilla, Irish creme, almond, hazelnut, caramel and fruit flavors such as orange and raspberry. These drinks usually start with a flavored syrup that is mixed with hot espresso and stirred. Then steamed milk is stirred in like in a latt?.

An iced version of these flavored coffees made with cold milk instead of steamed makes a delicious cold drink in the summer months.

So now that you know what’s in the basic coffee drinks, try one you haven’t tasted yet. Who knows, you might find a new favorite.

Copyright ? 2004 PerfectCoffees.com – All Rights Reserved.

This article may be re-published as is (unedited) as long as the author’s bio paragraph (resource box) and copyright information is included. The URLs in the resource box should be set as hyperlinks if used on a web page.

About The Author

Gary Gresham is the webmaster for www.perfectcoffees.com where you can purchase quality coffee, tea, cups & mugs, coffee gifts and delicious desserts online. He offers a free monthly coffee newsletter at www.perfectcoffees.com/newsletter.html.

Gary@perfectcoffees.com

Italians are unique to the world when it comes to coffee. They aren?t content to just drink it the old ordinary way. They love it so much that they also enjoy tinkering with the recipe.

It started with the unique thick coffee invention known as espresso. Later, Italians came up with cappuccino, which is similar to espresso but not as heavy, yet loaded with power. Eventually cappuccino?s flavor spawned other coffee conceptions, such as desserts (you ever have cappuccino ice cream?), frappuccino and others. But cappuccino is quite a popular worldwide drink itself.

Cappuccino is normally made using the rich and heavy espresso as its foundation. As a rule then, milk that has been steamed is added to the espresso, and finally a lovely foamy cream tops off the mixture. Naturally there are several deviations from this idea, such as equal parts of all 3, or a huge amount of foam to tower over the cup, or a smaller amount of milk for a stronger cappuccino.

In America, we usually will drink cappuccino after dinner, as a coffee substitute. But in Italy, it is often enjoyed during the breakfast hour. When it is made strong, it can really wake you up for the day ahead. The cappuccino Americans enjoy is not quite so strong, rich or bold, but still quiet pleasant.

Nowadays there are many coffeehouses that will serve cappuccino drinks at anytime of the day. Also cappuccino can be enjoyed at many of the finer restaurants, whether Italian or not. Many places such as bookstores that feature caf?s serve many varieties of cappuccino as well as coffee. For sure, cappuccino has become a stronghold among the coffee drinkers of the world.

And I must admit, I love cappuccino far more than coffee. It is richer, has more flavor, and I just love to hear that unique sputtering sound of when a cappuccino maker is adding the frothy cream to the top. It makes me feel that the restaurant is making something special just for me.

And cappuccino doesn?t stop with its drink in the cup. You can get cappuccino ice cream as mentioned earlier, and cappuccino cheesecake and cappuccino cookies. There is no limit to the variations of delicacies made with the cappuccino flavor and texture.

The Italians have come a long way with improving on the tropical born drink known as coffee. And as cappuccino testing continues, there will be even more wonderful versions of this lovely drink to come.

Jim Konerko is the publisher of http://www.coffee-craze.net where he provides interesting articles such as How To Buy Coffee, and other advice, tips, and information about coffee.

Coffee is one of the oldest drinks to connect itself to a social activity, the social activity of drinking together as a group is in fact it an almost uniquely human activity, drinking is essential to survival and at one point in human history the habit of drinking together has become one of the most acceptable forms of human interaction and socialization all over the world.

The drinking of coffee together probably dates back a few hundred years ago when Muslims had started using rituals in their coffee preparation.

Almost every adult on this planet has visited a coffee house at some point of his life, even those who do not like coffee or do not even drink coffee are aware of the coffee house being a place of socializing and meeting. It is interesting that it is coffee, one of the worlds most popular drink, one that is consumed in such large quantities in different parts of the world would become a center of gathering for people.

The main quality of coffee is in its caffeine, that makes the drinker more alert and enjoy a feeling of energy regeneration and awakens, but coffee is not only drunk for the propose of keeping awake, it is consumed at all times of the day and in many cases in direct relation to a social meeting of sorts.

The coffee house can be found in most cities in the world, it is one of the truly international habits of people, and you will also find that many nations and individuals value their local favorite coffee as a national treasure, from Africa and the deserts of Arabia to the samba dancing streets of Brazil you will find different views on drinking coffee. The cultural differences between nations in the regard to coffee is intriguing, some people will say that drinking coffee with milk is feminine, others gaze in wonder when they see a full cup of coffee drank in front of them, others are installed by the fact that coffee is produced from boiling water that came out of an electric kettle.

In Europe the coffee houses became much more than just a meeting place for drinking coffee, the coffee houses became establishments by themselves, in England many of the places that sold the coffee later contributed to coffee becoming a commodity that is traded until today in the stock markets around the world. In France the coffee houses joined the leisure philosophy and combined with the world renowned deserts and cakes and in Austria the coffee houses have become establishments of unquestionable seriousness and professionalism, serving the best coffee and food with full respects to privacy and solitude of the drinker.

Today the coffee house is a much more relaxed version of the ancient coffee house, the corporate world stops for a moment when drinking coffee to enjoy the company of other people, most of them strangers that happen to enjoy a cup of coffee on the end of a working day or on their way to some other place. No matter how you examine it, coffee is still binding people together in one way or the other.

Celia Namart an avid traveler has collected her thoughts and ideas during her many travels around the world, back from a recent trip to Asia Celia writes about Coffee House and natural health remedies.

Without a doubt, coffee production and consumption is a major business throughout the world. Coffee production has the second largest commodity ranking in the world (oil production is first), and coffee is a major foundation among family circles worldwide. But when exactly did this worldwide love affair with coffee start? When was it first realized that the innocuous little coffee bean would cause so much enjoyment?

There are several conflicting stories about the origin of coffee. One such story involves a goat herder in Ethiopia around 800 A.D., who noticed that when his goats ate certain beans from a bush, they became more animated than normally. So he ate some himself and got the same reaction, and so he passed some around to his fellow herders, and pretty soon the coffee bean became a rage.

That story is probably untrue, and we really don?t know exactly where or when coffee was discovered and who discovered it. We do know that the coffee plant was originally found in Ethiopia, and the plant?s beans were eaten as is. We know Ethiopia later exported the beans. Also we know that by the first millennium, coffee was very well known in most parts of the world. Arabs were probably the first to discover the ability to roast the bean and drink the resulting mixture.

Eventually coffee became very popular throughout the world as an energizing drink. By the 1500s, in Istanbul, coffee houses were first created. They became so fashionable that other European countries soon followed suit, including France and England. Of course, these houses, just like the drink itself, were probably nothing like the trendy gourmet coffee shops we have today.

A man named Edward Lloyd set up one of the first coffeehouses in England, and that house later became the famous insurance carrier Lloyd?s of London. Of course when the British came to America, they set up coffee shops throughout the 13 colonies.

And the coffee beans were found to grow in different southern climates. Columbia started growing the plant in the early 1800s, with Brazil soon following suit. Of course today Columbia is one of the most famous and largest growers of the plant, as is Brazil. But also soon Hawaii got into the act with their Kona coffee, and of course the Indonesian island of Java became so widely known for their coffee, that one slang word for coffee is ?java.? And today there are many different types of flavored coffees to choose from, for all sorts of gourmet coffee lovers

So all together it took about 1000 years for coffee to start from a possible humble beginning as goat energy snack food, to becoming the 2nd largest tradable commodity in the world. Millions of tons of coffee are produced every year, and there is no doubt that the industry will continue to grow by leaps and bounds.

Jim Konerko is the publisher of http://www.coffee-craze.net where he provides interesting articles such as ?How To Buy Coffee?, and other advice, tips, and information about coffee.

Throughout history, coffee houses have been more than just places where innocent people like you and I could get a regular caffeine fix.

Although coffee itself apparently originated in Ethiopia before the 11th century, the first coffee house known to history was located in Constantinople in 1475. Coffee is an important part of my life, but in those days a wife could divorce her husband if he could not keep her properly supplied with coffee. In Turkey, coffee was normally brewed in an ibrik, a long-handled pot originally designed for brewing coffee upon the desert sands.

In the early 1500′s a coffee house was established in Vienna, Austria by the only person in town who had both lived in Turkey and who recognized the intrinsic value and potential income lurking in several bags of coffee abandoned by Turkish invaders. It seems to be about this time that the custom of softening coffee by adding sugar and cream came into practice. Value was added when coffee shops began serving pastries as well as coffee. Although some pious individuals considered coffee to be the drink of the devil, the pope who was asked to so describe the beverage in this manner was already a coffee drinker and, instead, blessed it, calling it a Christian beverage.

Although coffee houses spread through Europe, England actually got into the act through a Turkish link rather than the import of the new custom from the continent.

It was in 1652 that history records the first coffee house being founded in England by two servants of an importer of Turkish goods. They left their employer and went into business for themselves marketing the new brew at their establishment, The Turk’s Head. Coffee houses of this era were referred to as penny universities because of the penny that was charged for admission and the camaraderie and exchange of ideas that were included in the price.

In fact, coffee houses of that era were the mass media of the day. The free public exchange of information was actually frightening to those in power. Because of this, coffee houses in England were shut down for a while in 1675. Public outrage was so great, however, that this only lasted a few days.

One figure of note, Samuel Pepys, famed diarist of the era and proclaimed right hand of the navy noted that he often frequented coffee houses for naval news as it seemed to be more up to date and reliable than the information available to him at the admiralty. One well known coffee house of the day probably provided him with a great deal of news concerning ships and the sea.

Edward Lloyd’s coffee house which opened in 1688 (or 1687, by some sources) near the Thames river on Tower street, eventually lost its roots but became one of the most famous institutions in the world – Lloyd’s of London. This was perhaps a natural metamorphosis due to the number of seafaring men from the ships at London’s docks who found their way to Lloyd’s. Edward Lloyd, being an astute individual, as are all of us addicted to coffee, began in 1696 the practice of listing arrivals and departures of ships in addition to information received from arriving vessels about the conditions of ships and crews and conditions at sea. Eventually, so much shipping information was exchanged at the nearly round-the-clock establishment, that insurance brokers began doing some of their business there.

One of the earliest functions of the coffee houses of the past was to provide a meeting place for many, but particularly for intellectuals of each era. The combination of the exchange of ideas and caffeine proved to be a heady experience, launching careers and in some cases legends. Perhaps you have heard of Jonathan Swift, Honore de Balzac, Alexander Pope, Oliver Goldsmith, or Henry Fielding?

One source states that by the end of the 17th century, there were over 2,000 coffee houses in London alone. Although most were just in the business of serving coffee, some had unsavory reputations and customers, and more than one could have been mistaken for a brothel. They were also often the place for assignations or just plain dates.

It has been said that our modern word tip as in to leave a tip was first coined (no pun intended) in early English coffee houses. Usually a tin receptacle of some sort was marked with a sign reading To Insure Prompt Service (TIPS) to receive the coins of those who needed their coffee and needed it fast!

In the new country of America, the coffee house seemed to follow in the footsteps of its Britannic predecessors. One of the earliest coffee houses in America served as the founding location for the New York Stock Exchange. Of course, after the Boston Tea Party, being a coffee drinker was considered to be patriotic. Many strategies of the American revolution were born or raised in the coffee houses of the day.

A breakthrough in the history of coffee occurred when instant coffee was first successfully produced and marketed by Maxwell House in the 1950′s.

Whether instant or brewed, most modern American coffee drinkers would probably not recognize the brew of their forefathers. With a much higher ratio of coffee to water (one tablespoon to 16 ounces of water), and having been boiled for half an hour, not even the introduction of such common additives of the day as fish skin or egg shell would probably have done much to bring the taste close to a modern Starbucks mocha or latte.

In fact, the modern coffee house, typified by Starbucks or Tim Hortons might be recognized by the denizens of the past…if they were able to identify laptops as intellectual tools for research and the exchange of ideas, and cell phones as a means of conversation.

After much success in America, the modern coffee house, in the Starbucks name, image, and mold has moved westward to the East…the Far East, that is. Although coffee was not of much national interest until 1961, by the 1980′s coffee shops were quite the rage in Japan, and Starbucks opened its first store in Japan in August, 1996. Starbucks’ name recognition seems to have been its ticket to success in Japanese culture. By the time the first outlet opened, world-traveling Japanese had already had the Starbucks experience in foreign lands. The story is told that upon the opening of the first Starbucks store in Japan, the first customer, who ordered a ?Double short latte!? did not speak English! As of 2003, Starbucks had 503 stores in Japan.

Starbucks opened its first store in China in 1999, and as of February, 2006, had 165 outlets, complete with cell phone carrying, laptop using customers like anywhere else in the world. I guess it’s possible that considering the history of coffee shops something besides coffee might be brewing.

The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service, has worked as an accountant, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, and instructor. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. Although primarily interested in the subjects of health, weight loss, and making money, he began drinking coffee at about age six and 55 years later, still hasn’t figured out how to stop…nor does he want to! Learn more about coffee.

Could you ever resist the craving to have a second cup of that beautiful, strongly aromatic and lazily steaming cup of coffee? Perhaps no one can do it. A passionate Gourmet?s delight, freshly brewed, thick and dark brown and irresistible coffee just brightens up your day like no other drink or anything else can do.

Why Is Gourmet Coffee So Special

One might be tempted to ask why gourmet coffee is so special. Well, here is the answer. For starters, gourmet coffee is always made by high quality fresh Arabica coffee beans which are always hand picked unlike other commercial coffees which are mostly machine graded. Hand picking of coffee beans eliminate chances for dirt such as twigs, leaves etc to sneak in and spoil your coffee.

Secondly, gourmet coffee beans are specially treated with oils after roasting which enhances its flavor to no end. The oil used for coffee bean treatment is a blend of many natural oils which do not have their adverse effect on the shelf life or stability of the ground powder unlike synthetic oils. The oils are so mixed that their characteristic flavors neutralize each other.

You can have different tailor made roast for your gourmet coffee. Deep roasted beans some what loose their natural aroma and this is why you feel the ?roasted flavor? when drinking it. Rather you would prefer a lighter roasting which retains its entire natural aroma.

Arabica coffee beans are ground to the exact perfection of fineness to get its best taste. But generally a finer grind results in a full-bodied cup of coffee, but as many would like it, coarser grinds are preferred to make coffee with coarse filters.

Finer grinds are preferred by those who like espresso but true lovers of gourmet coffee will almost invariably go with the coarse ground coffee powder as boiled water takes its own sweet time to pull out the flavor completely, especially in drip type filters.

Arabica coffee beans are never stored in warehouses as they are dispatched quickly after harvesting. It is the same story after roasting and grinding them, too. The beans from Arabica trees are, by nature, tastier than Robusta, another cheaper variety.

To its credit, Robusta coffee bean offers you higher caffeine content along with that characteristic acidic taste. Another little known fact is some marketers mix a small percentage of Robusta with gourmet coffee beans.

NamSing Then is a regular article contributor on many topics. Be sure to visit his other websites Coffee Resources, Coffee Grinder and Tea Resources