Coffee Guide

Are you the selection of roasting confused at your grocery store? Not sure which is right for you? If you understand the difference between the degree of roasting, you can choose to enjoy what you can.

All coffee beans start out as green beans. They look like a dried vegetables and have little resemblance to the final product. Roasted coffee beans are trained professionals. Every degree of roast, or as the bean is darkdecided by the roaster where the coffee comes from (and origin), the type of bean and it is. Spend many hours roasting coffee roasting and tasting, the perfect balance of flavors for each source found. The goal is the best quality of coffee roasters.

light roasts have different names. If you read a package with the following terms is usually a lighter roasted coffee: light, cinnamon, New England. The color of theseThe beans are in the vicinity of chocolate milk. Many of the unique flavors of course the beans are roasted. Coffee has a light snappy, often with hints of flowers and citrus. This coffee is also known as "acid" in which a delicate coffee is best with a light roast. Contrary to popular belief, the light roast coffee actually contains more caffeine than dark roast coffee – up to 10% more! Origin coffeeTraditional fried some light are: Kenya AA peaberry, Colombia and Guatemala.

American breakfast, City-or medium-sized enterprises see the names that are fried with a media. Coffee beans are roasted medium dark brown and may have grease stains. Oily stains are some of the coffee's natural oils come to the surface. There is less acid with the roast and some caramelization occurs. The more spicy and nutty andof course they are. medium roast is really good highlight the best features of each type of coffee. few source typical coffee, do well with an average firing are Costa Rica,

Dark roasts are generally described as: European, French, Italian, Espresso, Full City or Vienna. Note that these are not home, but only to describe the degree of browning. Roasted coffee at this level is almost black and very shiny or oily. Many of tasteThe features are gone from beans roasted at this level and have a smoky, deep flavor. There will be some hints of caramel and, for the caramelization of sugars in the bean. The roast is more of a bittersweet taste. Some of the roots that hold up to a good dark roast are: Sumatra, Mocha Java and Sulawesi (Celebes).

When you choose a coffee, he thinks that it is as bright taste of citrus fruits, or even nutty, caramel. Or even a smoky, earthy flavor.While there are levels of coffee blends that combine various roasts, this should get you started on your way to a perfect cup!

What is the best coffee? is a question that my clients ask more often than I would have expected. However, I am not certain that this question has an objective answer like the fact that the blue whale is the largest mammal, or that the Lexus is the most reliable vehicle. Statements like these have more empirical proof.

Those discussions require some sort of standardized definition of the word best whereas that definition is not feasible in this discussion. One might define the best coffee as the one that is in most consumer demand. Another might define the best coffee as the one that is held in the highest regard by the masses, like the Jamaican Blue Mountain, Kona Fancy, or Puerto Rican Yaucco Selecto AA. Upon mention of any of these particular varietals, most of you are probably reacting as if everyone has heard of them, but does that really make one of them the best coffee?

Perhaps price is the most important consideration. If this was the case, the Jamaican Blue Mountain would be, hands-down, the best coffee. I am not suggesting that this isn’t true. However, I am suggesting that this might be the wrong criterion on which to focus. There has been some evidence in the coffee world that not all coffee labeled Jamaican Blue Mountain is actually Jamaican Blue Mountain. While I cannot claim to have empirical evidence either confirming or denying this claim, I have not seen any evidence of price depreciation to account for any impure blending. The point is that whether or not Jamaican Blue Mountain is, or continues to be the best coffee, it will likely always be the most expensive coffee, so we should probably explore another method of measurement.

Another possibility is that the best coffee is the rarest coffee. However, this approach immediately makes me think of the jewelry industry in which diamonds are considered the best gemstone, yet they are not rare at all. Every person planning to propose marriage can readily find a diamond engagement ring if they have the proper finances available. For this reason, I doubt that the rarest coffees are the best coffees. It is also silly to think that rarity increases the quality of a substance. It is certainly possible that a coffee of poor biological composition could only exist on one remote island in the world.

Of course, the correct response is that the best coffee is your favorite coffee. Gourmet coffee beans have a diverse array of flavor, body, acidity, and richness characteristics related to their country of origin, growing conditions, preparation methods, and so on. The intricate balance of characteristics found in each varietal appeals to different enthusiasts in different ways. I personally find few coffee experiences more pleasurable than smelling the spicy peanut fragrance of freshly roasted fine Guatemalan arabica coffees. I find the Huehuetenango to be the best example of this. However, someone else might prefer the citrus notes apparent in a lightly roasted Peruvian La Florida coffee.

Mexican coffees are known for their pleasantly dry acidy snap, while Sumatran coffees are known for their exceptional body. Not only do different coffee varietals provide different flavor, acidity, body, and richness characteristics, but the situation is complicated further by the fact that different coffee enthusiasts put greater or lesser value on each of these categories. Therefore, our conclusion is simple. What is the best coffee? It is the one that you like best!

John A. Russo, MBA
The Perfect Bean Roasting Company
http://www.perfectbeanonline.com
PerfectBean@mail.com

If you need a custom roaster to prepare the best quality of your favorite coffee or blend, we would be glad to help you out at The Perfect Bean Roasting Company. Please feel free to e-mail us for a free consultation to figure out what you would like best.

Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia by a goat herder named Kaldi who while watching his goats noticed that they were acting very bizarre. As he investigated this peculiar behavior he noticed that the goats were dancing from one bush to the next eating cherry colored berries. He started partaking of the berries himself and was soon dancing with his goats. It became an aid for him and fellow goat herders to help them stay alert through out the night as they watched their herd.

Coffee moved north to the Arabia?s where it flourished and transcended from raw (green beans) to roasted beans that were grounded and brewed. To gain control over this magical crop Arabians would boil their export beans making them infertile. For almost 600 years from about 1000 A.D. to the 1600?s coffee only grew in North Africa the Eastern Mediterranean, and India. This crop was dominated by the nation of Islam for literally centuries. It was when a smuggler named Baba Budan finally opened the coffee market by smuggling live coffee seeds into Europe. This made the coffee empire shift hands in 1615 A.D.

The Turks were at this time known for having a magical drink of black color. A few of their merchants introduced the drink to the Italians. The merchants of Venice introduced coffee to the rest of Europe. In 1616 the Dutch did what was thought to be impossible. They grew what is known as the first coffee plant in Europe. In 1696 they started the first European owned coffee empire in an area called Java, which is now part of Indonesia.

The Dutch soon after their Java conquest moved forward to other areas. Amsterdam, was now growing coffee? This seems to be the case. The Dutch were very prosperous in their coffee conquest. It was in 1714 that King Louis the XIV received his first coffee tree for his royal courtyard the Jard des Plantes. A few years later while on a French expedition to the Caribbean?s a Naval Officer petitioned the king for some of the seed from the Jard des Plantes, but his request was denied. Several days later the Naval Officer and a few of his shipmates raided the Jard des Plantes and took a shrub, which later yielded 18 million coffee trees in a fifty-year period.

In 1727 Brazil wanted to have a piece of the coffee empire, but had to find a way to smuggle some seeds from a coffee country. Colonel Palheta was sent to settle a border dispute in France. This smooth talking Officer found the coffee fortress impregnable, so he found a road of lease resistance. That road was none other then the Governor?s wife. His plan paid off. At a fair well dinner she presented him with a bush with seedlings. From these seed sprang forth the largest coffee empire ever. By the 1800?s Brazil?s coffee was no longer a drink for the elite. Everyone was able to partake from this magical drink.

How fortunate we are today that coffee has been made accessible to the Millions who love it. Our history lesson has taught us that coffee was meant to be share the world around. No King can rule the coffee empire!

Don is the owner of several free information websites and the sole proprietor of Java Jakes Gourmet Coffee Co. Visit: http://www.megainfosource.com http://www.javajakes.com http://www.egolfplace.com Visit these sites today and become informed.

In my experiences dealing with a gourmet coffee enthusiast clientele, it has become increasingly apparent that in their quest to enjoy a bold cup of coffee, many people will demand only dark roasted coffee regardless of the country of origin. I wanted to write this article from my own roasting experiences to shed a little light on how a bold cup of coffee can be achieved while keeping the coffee bean’s origin character intact.

It is important to note that coffee beans from certain countries are inherently more suited for dark roasting that others. South American coffee beans tend to be grown at the highest altitudes, resulting in the hardest beans. Therefore, these beans would best be able to handle dark roasting. Indonesian coffees are grown at relatively high altitudes, although typically not as high as the South American beans, and therefore produce a slightly softer bean.

African coffees tend to be the least flexible when trying to produce a dark roast. However, the best examples, like the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe add a terrific zip to a properly proportioned blend.

This raises the question of how to best describe bold. It seems that most coffee enthusiasts define a bold coffee as one that leans more toward the roast character than the origin character, which is usually achieved in a dark roasted coffee. However, a bold coffee could also be defined as one that leaves a more lasting impression than a coffee that is not bold.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bold defines the word bold as Fearless and daring; courageous. in its first definition. When applying this definition to gourmet coffee, we understand that a coffee can be fearless and daring whether it is a light roast, a dark roast, or a medium roast. The country of origin seems to have much more to do with achieving a bold cup that does the roast. A Peruvian or Brazilian coffee does not have the distinct spiciness that a fine Guatemalan coffee has.

With this said, I would like to suggest a new blend for those of you that prefer dark roasts for their boldness. The following is one of my favorites and I know that you will like it too: blend 40% French (dark)-roasted Guatemala Huehuetenango arabica coffee beans with 40% medium-roasted Sumatra Gayoland arabica coffee beans, with 20% light-roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe arabica coffee beans. This blend takes advantage of the best characteristics of each origin country and produces a flavorful, aromatic cup of coffee with a tantalizing zip.

So, when trying to roast a bold cup of coffee, keep this recipe in mind. Through experimentation, I have found it to be quite pleasurable for our clients, and it has become one of my favorites as well. I hope you have fun roasting this one yourself, but if you are not a home roaster, we would be glad to help you out.

Best Regards,

John A. Russo, MBA
The Perfect Bean Roasting Company
PerfectBean@mail.com
http://perfectbeanonline.com/

In the supermarket you have alot of choices. It is fair to say that there are thousands of companies in the coffee industry. So, how do you decide which is right for you? Do you start at the supermarket and buy every single brand of coffee on the shelf? Well, before you do that let me clue you in on the freshness of supermarket coffee.

Typically, after the coffee completes the roasting process it sits in a warehouse for about two weeks. Then the coffee is loaded on a truck and transported to a distribution center where it sits from about 48 hours to a week depending on which supermarket chain wants it the most if at all, and then it is shipped again to another distribution center owned by your favorite supermarket where again it sits until your store orders it. It then gets transported once again to your supermarket where it sits until you buy it. If the coffee is a number one seller like Folgers it sits for no more then a week, but if it is an uncommon name brand it may sit for months. How is that for freshness? YUK!!!! As my kids would say! The real catch is that the comsumer believes that they are buying a full one pound bag of coffee, but read the fine print. Almost every company sells their coffee in 12 oz bags shorting you 4 oz. This is done for less expense on shipping a truck load of coffee.

What are the alternatives to supermarket coffee? If you desire fresh roasted coffee then you need to buy straight from a roastery. Many roasteries are different, but most of them have by far fresher coffee then any supermarket. Before you purchase from a roastery call them or email them and ask when will your coffee be roasted. If they respond by saying we have coffee already roasted then you may want to try somewhere else. The roaster that tells you that they roast it just prior to shipping is selling you very fresh coffee.

You may ask, what is the cost difference between supermarket coffee and a roastery? Cost always vary, but if you think that $8.95 a lbs to $35.95 a lbs is to much then you probably will never have a great cup of coffee that leaves your palate screaming for more. I personally can’t stand the taste of stale coffee. I only drink the good stuff.

Don is the sole proprietor of Java Jakes Gourmet Coffee Co. His goal is to provide the freshest coffee imaginable. His coffee is always fresh because he just roasted it. http://www.javajakes.com