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Archive for the ‘Coffee’ Category

If you ever wondered where those great-tasting gourmet coffees derive their rich flavor, you might want to take a look at the gourmet beans, the source of delightful coffee the world has come to love. It is not derived from one particular variety, but rather from the very best coffee beans from around the world.

To take your appreciation of gourmet coffee beans to the next level, it might help if you better understand the process that leads us from the freshly picked coffee cherry to the final product, the green beans, ready to be shipped to coffee roasters for roasting. Roasting and grinding of freshly picked green coffee beans are the two very crucial steps in enhancing the rich coffee flavors that’s so very typical of gourmet java.

Natural drying via the sun can produce some truly exquisite gourmet coffee beans, with unique flavors that are rarely experienced in the west. You can select from a wide variety of coffee blends that are made from the choicest beans.

Making a gourmet cup of coffee at home is pleasing and easy to do. All you will need are whole coffee beans, (grinding the beans just before brewing insures the freshest coffee) fresh spring water, light cream and sugar.

Are you the kind of person, just like millions around the world, who gets cranky the whole day if you weren’t able to drink at least one cup of your favorite coffee? If you are, then you will definitely perk up with these new facts you are about to read.

According to recent studies coffee has several health benefits other than keeping you awake most of the day. It is said that just smelling the coffee upon waking up in the morning is good for the brain. The smell of coffee can help resist succumbing to stress due to deprivation of sleep. Other studies on coffee also show that it can lower risks of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, colon cancer, and even skin cancer. Yes, coffee is good for your skin!

Coffee can keep your skin healthy in a lot of different ways. Other than preventing skin cancer and melanoma-related diseases, coffee has anti-oxidant ingredients that can help:

You can be a coffee lover without knowing much about coffee beans, but learning a little bit about the different types of coffee can help you get the perfect cup every time. There are many types of gourmet coffee beans. The way they have been grown in processed has a huge effect on their taste. Here’s a little bit of information for getting the best from your gourmet coffee beans.

Coffee is a common agricultural product of many tropical countries. There are two main species of coffee plant – Arabica and Robusta. Gourmet coffee beans are mostly Arabica because of their superior flavor and smoothness. Many blends, however, include Robusta coffee beans to give an edge to the coffee.

After the coffee is picked, it must be roasted. Roasting makes the green coffee beans expand in size and changes their color to a light to dark brown. Lighter roasts reveal more of the flavor of gourmet coffee beans, while darker roasts take on the flavor of the roasting process itself. After roasting the coffee should be kept in vacuum packed containers to minimize flavor loss.

- Are All Recipes The Same?
If you like iced coffee then I expect as you are probably a serious coffee lover you love the starbucks iced coffee recipe. If you are reading this article then you have tasted and know what iced coffee is and you will certainly have tried a starbucks iced coffee recipe. But iced coffee is not what you are thinking it is. You do not make a cup of hot coffee and wait for it to cool down or chill it in the freezer to make a glass of iced coffee. You could not be more wrong! Yes of course iced coffee is a variety of a hot brewed coffee, but there is a method to make it, a method that is different from the way a hot coffee is brewed and the starbucks iced coffee recipe is just gorgeous.

Making Iced Coffee- Tips And Tricks

Hot coffees are hot-brewed, but if you want to make iced coffee the way it was made when it was started, then you have to cold-brew the coffee. Yes, you read that right – You do not need to heat coffee if you want to make an iced coffee. All you need is a special pot, cold water, and coarsely grounded coffee beans! Or if you prefer try the starbucks iced coffee recipe below and you can be the judge.

Coffee, like red wine, is a drink with both health benefits and dangers. Because coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant, it can increase the heart rate, boost adrenaline and up your cortisone levels. With this increased stimulation comes both pros and cons.

To learn more about the health impact of coffee, keep reading for 10 critical health facts about coffee.

1. Reduced Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease

A recent study published in the European Journal of Neurology shows that people who drank about 2 cups of coffee per day were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease when compared to people who only drank a cup a day or less.

2. Better Cognitive Performance

There may be another reason why students guzzle coffee during late-night study sessions - those who drink coffee regularly often perform better on short term memory recall, verbal memory and logical reasoning tests.

3. Increased Constipation

While coffee is a stimulant and can therefore stimulate the bowels, it is also a diuretic, meaning it can dehydrate the body and contribute to constipation. However, alternative medical practitioners often prescribe coffee enemas to clear out the colon.

4. Antioxidants

K Cup coffee is simply the easiest way to virtually guarantee a coffee-house-quality cup of coffee every time. All it takes for a great cup of coffee is a specially designed single-cup coffee maker and a K Cup filled with the perfect amount of coffee for an 8 ounce cup.

The K Cup is a plastic container filled with a single portion of coffee that’s tightly sealed with a foil lid to ensure the coffee tastes as fresh as the day the cup was filled. To make the coffee, simply insert the K Cup into the coffee maker and place the coffee mug on the brewing platform. When you turn the coffee maker on, a hole is pierced in both the top and bottom of the K Cup and a stream of pressurized hot water is sent through the K Cup to brew the coffee and dispense it directly into the mug. There is virtually no clean up either, all you need to do is dispose of the used K Cup and wipe up any spills.

Many of us drink coffee because we like the taste or “need” the stimulation of caffeine. However, as with anything that is woven into the cultural fabric of so many countries coffee has a history that contributes to its worldwide popularity today. So, sit back and discover “the rest of the story.” I’ll sip a cup while writing this article.

The Popularity of Coffee: An Historical Prospective

In 850 coffee was discovered by a goat herder in Ethiopia who notices his goats are friskier after eating strange red berries. But the internet was slower then and coffee wasn’t cultivated for another 250 years on the Arabian Peninsula. Because Arab Muslims are forbidden to drink alcohol they made a beverage from plants called “qahwa.” It was here, at around the year 1100, that the beans were first roasted and boiled.

What wine was to the Europeans, coffee became to the Arabs. In 1475 the worlds first coffee shop opens in Constantinople. Two more follow 80 years later.

As trade routes were established from Arabia into Africa and Europe this new bean, and beverage, enters Europe through the port of Venice and by 1654 the first coffeehouses open in Italy. As the Europeans established trade routes around the world coffee was a main component of trade.

Get this: for many years scientists claimed that drinking coffee was responsible for all kinds of ailments and illnesses, and they were wrong. In actuality most of the ailments were caused by the cigarettes on which most of the coffee drinkers were puffing. It turns out that coffee and cigarettes are habits that go hand-in-hand for many people, a factor that the studies did not take into account.

Not that coffee is as healthy as, say, a drink from an unpolluted spring high in the mountains. It’s not. The caffeine from coffee can be addictive, and those who drink coffee on a regular basis will find that quitting can be somewhat painful. In addition, coffee can be a bladder irritant and disturb your sleep. People who drink a lot of coffee are also at greater risk for developing osteoporosis.

Health Benefits of Coffee

On the other hand, coffee also has its health benefits. Aside from a mild (and sometimes useful jolt) here are a few:

Reduced Suicide Rates

Caffeinated substances act like mild antidepressants. According to the Nurses’ Healthy Study, suicide rates 50% less among coffee drinkers than among those who don’t drink coffee.

There are many theories about the best way to store coffee beans or ground coffee to retain freshness. One of the theories is to put your beans or ground coffee in the freezer for later use. Is this method the best way to store coffee? Let’s explore the idea.

Freezing seems like a universally accepted way to keep foods fresher longer. Freezing is a great way to store many of our everyday foods. Vegetables, fruits, meat, bread, and even butter can be given a life extension through freezing. In fact, freezing often retains many of the important vitamins and minerals in foods. Unfortunately, coffee may not share the same benefits from freezing.

There are 4 main enemies of our precious coffee beans: moisture, light, heat and air. At first glance, freezing doesn’t seem like it should be too damaging. Appearances, however, can be deceiving.

Coffee beans have been roasted in order to enhance flavor. The beans are also porous. Unfortunately a freezer can contain many other foods which have odors. The porous beans can absorb the flavors of many other frozen foods. Flavored coffees can be pleasant, but no one wants to drink seafood or garlic flavored coffee.

Do you have an addiction to coffee? Do you find it hard to get through even half an hour without having another cup? Have you worn a trail between your desk and the coffee machine? Well there are alternatives which will still keep you active, without the addictive properties of caffeine.

First of all, don’t try to go “cold turkey” and stop drinking coffee completely and suddenly. If you do that, you’re quite likely to have severe withdrawal symptoms such as sweating and shaking hands. Just take it gradually and cut down to start with. Try to reduce your coffee intake by about fifty percent in the first instance and replace those other cups of coffee with something else. Here are some ideas.

Drink something else: Variety is the spice of life, so why not alternate your cups of coffee with fruit or vegetable juices, hot chocolate, or even a low calorie carbonated drink but not cola unless it’s decaffeinated. How about decaf coffee? It isn’t completely without caffeine but it’s a start. Water, boring though it may seem, is also a refreshing alternative to coffee.