Choosing A Great Coffee Variety Or Blend

Coffee lovers are blessed with a large variety of coffee blends and flavors. Choosing a blend and flavor can be quite daunting when you consider the range available. How do you choose from over 30 varieties and flavors on the shelves at your grocery store?

Specialty coffee stores may have an even larger range of flavors and blends available. A lot of blends are imported from France, Italy, Austria and Holland. Typically European varieties are made from darker beans - however these beans are seldom grown in Europe. The names of the coffee varieties come from the roasting process and the length of time that the beans were roasted. Italian roasts are darker as they have been roasted for longer that a typical Viennese coffee.

While European names are derived from the roasting period, other regions name the coffee after the origin of the bean. A good example being a Mexican roast originating from Mexico.

There are often other names on coffee labels. The more exclusive brands are Estate name brands. These have been grown, harvested and roasted on a single estate and then packaged for sale to customers. Think of estate coffee as the single malt of the coffee world. Estate coffees never blend their beans with other varieties or coffee from other estates. One of the more popular brands is the Wallenford Blue Mountain brand which is grown in Jamaica.

There is a large variety of flavored coffees available as well. These are less expensive than Estate products, but offer a great flavor. Typically, flavored coffees have an extension in their name - creme, chocolate, vanilla or any nut or fruit variety. Flavored coffees are usually roasted medium brown instead of black. The various flavors are added in a liquid form.

Blends are a mix of two or more coffee varieties. Like blended whiskeys it is important that the various varieties are able to compliment each other. The taste and aroma should be a harmony of the various blended varieties without dominating the overall flavor. There are several popular house blends that have tried and tested blended components.

How To Select A Coffee Gift This Holiday Season

A coffee gift might just be the perfect present for this holiday season. Why you ask? Think about it...

1. Almost everyone loves great coffee
2. A coffee gift is reasonable priced...so you're not going to break the bank
3. You can show someone you care without going broke
4. You can purchase a coffee gift online and have it shipped directly to your friend or family member
5. It's easy to ship so last minute so a coffee gifts should arrive on-time

Here is some more food for thought. Everyone is talking about "going green" and supporting your local economy. We all know this to be true. So why not support these principles and apply them to your gift giving. Just as important these new trends have helped spark the economy as a whole. One of the benefactors of these growing trends is the small batch coffee industry. More and more you see local coffee shops sprouting up offering premium organic and fair trade coffees. These shops are usually crowd favorites for those of us that are tired of the usual suspects ie; the big chains that mass produce and prefer quantity over quality. These local coffee shops typically offer a range of organic and fair trade coffees. Organic and fair trade embodies certain standards that support quality natural products and fair labor ethics.

As you get started with your online shopping this holiday season here are a couple of tips to help with your coffee gift search:

1. Use the search terms coffee gift, organic coffee, organic and fair trade coffee, coffee of the month and buy coffee online. This will produce plenty of good results in google
2. Pricing - for organic & fair trade coffee - look to pay between $10.99 - $14.99 per pound
3. Product Options - We recommend you purchase whole bean coffee because it preserves the quality and freshness of the flavor better than ground
4. Coffee of the Month Club - consider a membership to a coffee of the month club as your coffee gift. This offers your friend or family member the opportunity to try a number of premium and specialty blends. And..they will be thinking of you every month when that package arrives.
5. Accessories - consider including an accessory as part of your coffee gift. Maybe a nice serving set, a storage container or grinder make the perfect complement to the perfect gift.

Online shopping is expected to grow in popularity this holiday season and gifts such as coffee are convenient, easy to ship and practical which makes them such as great choice. But, shoppers beware...there has been an increase in fraud and online theft. Make sure the sites you purchase from have a high quality look and feel to them. And look for things such as secure shopping and Better Business Bureau accredited logos. I always suggest calling the contact number listed on the site beforehand to ensure they are a legitimate business.

A coffee gift makes a perfect present for the holidays, a birthday or special occasion. It's a gift that works any time of year and is unique and special. Enjoy!

Best Coffee Brewing Techniques The Top 4

Coffee is very popular anywhere in the world. Drinking coffee has also been seen as a socializing activity. This has become a venue to meet up with old friends catch up with each other over a hot mug of coffee. Each place has their own way of making their favourite cup. It changes all over the world. Here are some of the best coffee brewing techniques.

1. Middle Eastern. This is the simple way. Coffee grounded to dust is mixed in boiling water. This is usually brewed with sugar but could also be done with none. Spices could also be added to the mixture. The resulting texture is usually thick and muddy.

2. Concentrate brewing. This is popular in Latin America. Coffee is brewed in large amounts with just a little water in order to form a concentrate. When one would like to have their own cup, they get a small portion of the concentrate and add water to it. This could be used either for a hot cup or a cold drink. This results in a mild flavoured coffee.

3. Vacuum brewing. This uses a device made of glass globes that are joined in an air tight seal. The method might be a little complicated but the gist is that coffee ground and water is separated into each globe. The water is the heated until the pressure goes up to the globe containing the coffee. After some time, the water is allowed to cool down and the decrease in pressure causes the coffee to go down the seal into the water. This is one of popular types of making coffee. However, it is not the best tasting. Making the coffee is more fun than drinking it if this method is utilized.

4. Autodrip. This is one of the most popular methods in the United States. It simply means pouring hot water into a filter containing the coffee. The result from the filter is a very good cup. Some argue that this may not meet the desired temperature of the water but some machines were developed to calibrate the temperature of water before it is poured. The paper filter may also add a different taste to the coffee that is why gold plated reusable filter are also available in the market.

Choose from the best coffee brewing techniques and enjoy your cup now.

Drinking Coffee and Health The 6 Benefits

Many people are avid coffee drinkers. They drink not only because of need but because it has become a form of socialization. Drinking coffee is a way of catching up with friends and family. In this way, coffee consumption has somewhat increased and the repercussion of this towards the health of the person is greatly discussed. Drinking coffee and health issues that it raised has become a topic of hot debate.

However, many people believe that drinking coffee has a lot of positive effects for the body. Studies done in the past has great benefits. Here are some of the positive effects of caffeine in the body.

1. People who are moderate drinkers, they are refereed to those who drink 3 to 5 cups per day as less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than those who are light coffee drinkers or who drink 0-2 cups per day. This was stated in a study conducted in 2209. It also showed that the risk of dementia was significantly lowered for moderate coffee drinkers.

2. Caffeinated coffee was shown to decrease the occurrence of gallstones and gallbladders disease in both genders. This is supported by the fact that coffee protect the primary neuronal cells against the damage of hydrogen peroxide-induced cell death.

3. A person who drinks an average of 3.5 cups of coffee a day is less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than a person who is a non-coffee drinker. A reverse study has also stated this fact that non-drinkers are more likely to develop Parkinson's disease at a later stage in their life.

4. The main ingredient found in coffee is caffeine and experts state that this increases the potency of pain medications especially those targeting migraine. That is why, some headache medications include caffeine in the drug's ingredients.

5. A coffee drinker may reduce the risk of having type 2 diabetes mellitus by up to 50%. This is not only applicable for heavy coffee drinkers but also for moderate drinkers as well.

6. Coffee drinker are less likely to die from a heart disease as stated in a study conducted at a university in Madrid. This shows that drinking coffee and health wellness are partners

The Differences Between Organic Coffee and Other Coffees

What is organic coffee? How does it differ from traditional coffee? It all begins in the way that this ever-popular drink's beans are harvested. First of all, the farms that grow organic beans are set up completely differently.

Conventional coffee beans are treated with chemicals including pesticides and the like. When they are not treated directly, if the soil near coffee plants has chemicals present in it, some believe they can make their way throughout the plant. That means all the way into the coffee beans themselves.

Whether pesticides have an adverse effect on the human body is a longstanding debate that will probably continue. However, organic coffee consumption removes the worry from the minds of consumers who choose to drink it.

The farms that grow organic beans are required not only to not treat the crop itself with synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, but they are also mandated not to allow them to be grown in near proximity to land that has been treated synthetically. These strict guidelines ensure there is a near-zero chance that the coffee beans harvested from such land will contain any potentially harmful chemicals or any prohibited substances.

Objections to coffee plantation (as opposed to organic coffee plantation) span far beyond the consequences of human consumption. The fact that fossil fuels are used to produce synthetic fertilizers adds to the problem. That means that the plants themselves are not healthy due to the limited composition of the unhealthy 'food' they are provided in order to grow. Most fuels used to produce these fertilizers are blends made up of nitrogen, phosophorus and potassium.

Shopping For a Coffee Machine

Coffee makers are a great way to get a perfect cup of coffee every time. There are a lot on the market and it can be confusing which ones to go for. The first decision you need to make is whether you want a pod coffee machine or a bean to cup machine, the main difference between the two is the bean to cup machine uses ground coffee beans to filter water through and produce your coffee. Pod coffee machines however; filter water through a small 'pod' which can come in a variety of flavours.

Coffee drinkers generally prefer one or other but bean to cup machines can be extremely expensive and impractical. Pod machines however are generally a lot less expensive and produce great tasting coffee.

The advantages of using a pod coffee maker is that the manufacturers of the pods produce them in a whole host of new and exciting flavours, you can not only get great tasting coffee from your coffee maker but you can also get hot chocolate, latte's, mocha's and even cups of tea! Are these the new must have accessory for the modern kitchen?

With pod machines instead of buying more coffee beans for the machine you buy pods which are available in every major supermarket these days and most stock a massive range of flavours. Make sure you compare the cost on each different manufacturers pod refills so you aren't stuck with buying overpriced refills for your chosen coffee machine. Most brands do offer cheaper varieties and a range of more premium flavours.

The newer machines are also catching up with their profession coffee shop counterparts by boasting higher pressure, this can make a huge difference to the taste as it affects the way the water is filtered through the coffee. Anything between 8-15 bar pressure will result in a pretty amazing coffee so be sure to check this.

How to Make the Perfect Cappuccino

One of the most important things you need to get a nice layer of froth is a good steam source. We've all seen how those fancy qualified baristas do it in cafe's, with their big professional coffee machines. Those machines come equipped with steam wands. You can usually find them towards the left or the right, next to the E61 group heads (those would be the things where you see the coffee come out of). Often the steam is taken directly from the machines copper boiler. This is a HX (heat exchange) process.

So what else do we need? That's right - milk! Believe it or not; the kind of milk you use will not only have a direct impact on the taste (or lack of) of the froth, but it also affects the froth texture. For example, skimmed milk will not taste as good as full cream milk, and it will also produce a lot less froth. Ok, so it might be healthier for you, but if healthy is what you want, go have a nice cold glass of water.

The coffee you use for the cappuccino is not as a big factor as you might think. Because you're adding so much milk to it, the taste gets heavily diluted. People that drink cappuccino are not considered 'real' coffee drinkers. For example, in Italy, people only drink milk based coffee in the morning, because it contains some additional nutrients and energy, to start off the day. After 12 noon, all you'll see people drink are espressos. If you go to a cafe and order a coffee, an espresso is what you get. When most of us go to our local cafe and order a coffee, we tend to get a long black served. This has the same amount of coffee, but more water.

So, rule of thumb for a perfect cappuccino is this; 1/3 coffee, 1/3 milk, 1/3 froth. In order to get a good froth, you simply need to use a metal milk jug, and heat it up with the steam wand. You hold the bottom of the jug in the palm of your hand - as soon as it gets too hot to hold, stop the steam. You then 'bang' the bottom of the jug on a solid surface once. The milk is ready to get poured now.

You can grab a teaspoon if you want, this helps with making sure you get enough froth out of the jug. Some baristas will tell you that you don't need a spoon, but hey, whatever gets the job done. Carefully pour 1/3 of milk in the coffee. Now gently start scraping out the froth, until you have a nice, thick layer of creamy froth. Personally I stop just at the edge of the cup, just to make sure I can still stir my sugar without making a big mess. You can top it of with a little sprinkle of chocolate powder.