Coffio.info

Preparing a good cup of coffee should be easy - you’re simply combining ground beans with water until the brew is drinkable. But the variations in technique are almost infinite - and the quality depends on sure-handed knowledge. Different coffee machine models will require different techniques, but here are a few helpful tips for all makes:

Coffee is perishable. Make a cup as soon as possible after opening the jar or packet.

Coffee can pick up odours. Maintain the unique taste by storing coffee in an air-tight container. To keep it fresh for even longer some people recommend you to put it in the fridge or freezer. A.C. Drinker writes: Coffee contains light volatile oils which taste nice, and less soluble substances that taste bitter. Keeping your coffee in the fridge will keep these in. It’s also why you shouldn’t use water that’s too hot to make coffee. In theory, you may get problems with condensation and moisture. These might leech out the bitter chemicals, but that’s not been my experience. Keeping the coffee in a paper bag would help stop this, though I use a jar. I suspect freezing coffee will have a bad effect due to severe condensation of moisture after taking it out of the freezer. I doubt the crystalisation of moisture in the coffee has much effect as coffee is quite dry, and I suspect any microscopic structure from the plant is destroyed at roasting.

Others say never put the coffee in the fridge or freezer. ( I’d be interested to hear their reasons - A.C.D. )

Measure the coffee and water accurately; two level teaspoons of coffee to six ounces water.

Be sure your coffee is fresh and your coffeemaker is clear. The lime deposits that build up in the pot can be removed with a strong solution of vinegar and water.

Choose the correct grind for your machine. Draw fresh water from the cold tap. Hot water can pick up impurities in the pipes, and water that has been sitting loses its oxygenation. Make sure your water is hot, but not boiling, for the best mix of grind and water.

Remove the brew basket containing the grounds immediately. Don’t keep the coffee in the brewer or on a hot plate for more than forty-five minutes.

How to make cappuccino in 3 simple steps!
Author: Ebenezer

Learning how to make cappuccino is 3 simple steps make it sound so easy, but to get a good froth requires practices. At least now, you can start learning to froth after reading this article…

Consider this the basic in the how to make cappuccino series. This article would highlight the steps to make cappuccino like the baristas you see in Starbucks and most coffee shops…

Before moving on to the 3 simple steps to make the cappuccino, do you know what is cappuccino? The key to understanding this, would be invaluable to learn how to make it. Knowing the components of a cappuccino enables you to visualize the procedures later.

Cappuccino is actually an espresso filled with 2 types of heated milk, i.e the steamed milk and the frothed milk. And, it is the frothed milk that gives cappuccino that classic look and it is also the “so difficult ” frothing that lead world coffee bodies in using the froth to evaluate the skills of baristas.

The proportion of cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 heated milk and 1/3 frothed milk. We would not touch on espresso in this article, as it warrants one entire article on how to get a good espresso, here we would highlight the other 2 components, the steamed and frothed milk, to better your learning in how to make cappuccino.

You would get steamed milk when the heat source (usually the steam wand) is injected into the milk, slightly below boiling point. As the injection of hot air is controlled to a minimal, there would not be any change in the milk volume except for a small amount of micro bubbles or froth.

To get more bubbles, i.e. to get frothed milk, place the steam wand at the surface of the milk, and this would creates more of the micro bubbles, remove the steam wand, when the froth has the look and feel of whipped cream.

Now, let’s learn how to make cappuccino in 3 simple steps:

i. when using an espresso machine, while waiting for the espresso to brew, steam and froth the milk in a frothing pitcher. Once done, set it aside for approximately 30 seconds.

This is to allow the milk densities to separate. To speed up the process, you can try what Starbucks or most coffee shops’ baristas are doing -by knocking the frothing pitcher on the table, this would separate the steam from the froth milk.

ii. Then, take a large spoon to keep the milk foam as you pour out the steam milk. As you pour the steam milk into a mug, do it slowly to prevent breaking the froth, and stop when you reaches 1/3 of the mug.

With the 1/3 steam milk done, spooned up the froth milk and put it on top of the steamed milk, this foamed milk should take up another 1/3 of the mug.

iii. For the last 1/3 of the mug, pour in the espresso down the middle of this foamy sculpture. And there you have it, a foamy cappuccino!

Not that complicated right? No need to ask how to make cappuccino like that Starbucks baristas anymore right? You can do it with 3 simple steps!:)

About Author

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

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com/author-ebenezer-8008.html

Excerpt from UTNE READER, Nov/Dec 94, by Mark Schapiro, “Muddy Waters”

Prior to 1000 A.D.: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that they get an energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed with animal fat.

1000 A.D.: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the beans, creating a drink they call “qahwa” (literally, that which prevents sleep).

1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world’s first coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

1511: Khair Beg, the corrupt governor of Mecca, tries to ban coffee for feat that its influence might foster opposition to his rule. The sultan sends word that coffee is sacred and has the governor executed.

1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs attention in high places. In Italy, Pope Clement VIII is urged by his advisers to consider that favorite drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the infidel threat. However, he decides to “baptize” it instead, making it an acceptable Christian beverage.

1607: Captain John Smith helps to found the colony of Virginia at Jamestown. It’s believed that he introduced coffee to North America.

1645: First coffeehouse opens in Italy.

1652: First coffeehouse opens in England. Coffee houses multiply and become such popular forums for learned and not so learned - discussion that they are dubbed “penny universities” (a penny being the price of a cup of coffee).

1668: Coffee replaces beer as New York’s City’s favorite breakfast drink.

1668: Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse opens in England and is frequented by merchants and maritime insurance agents. Eventually it becomes Lloyd’s of London, the best-known insurance company in the world.

1672: First coffeehouse opens in Paris.

1675: The Turkish Army surrounds Vienna. Franz Georg Kolschitzky, a Viennese who had lived in Turkey, slips through the enemy lines to lead relief forces to the city. The fleeing Turks leave behind sacks of “dry black fodder” that Kolschitzky recognizes as coffee. He claims it as his reward and opens central Europe’s first coffee house. He also establishes the habit of refining the brew by filtering out the grounds, sweetening it, and adding a dash of milk.

1690: With a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha, the Dutch become the first to transport and cultivate coffee commercially, in Ceylon and in their East Indian colony - Java, source of the brew’s nickname.

1713: The Dutch unwittingly provide Louis XIV of France with a coffee bush whose descendants will produce entire Western coffee industry when in 1723 French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu do Clieu steals a seedling and transports it to Martinique. Within 50 years and official survey records 19 million coffee trees on Martinique. Eventually, 90 percent of the world’s coffee spreads from this plant.

1721: First coffee house opens in Berlin.

1727: The Brazilian coffee industry gets its start when Lieutenant colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta is sent by government to arbitrate a border dispute between the French and the Dutch colonies in Guiana. Not only does he settle the dispute, but also strikes up a secret liaison with the wife of French Guiana’s governor. Although France guarded its New World coffee plantations to prevent cultivation from spreading, the lady said good-bye to Palheta with a bouquet in which she hid cuttings and fertile seeds of coffee.

1732: Johann Sevastian Bach composes his Kaffee-Kantate. Partly an ode to coffee and partly a stab at the movement in Germany to prevent women from drinking coffee (it was thought to make them sterile), the cantata includes the aria, “Ah! How sweet coffee taste! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee.”

1773: The Boston Tea Party makes drinking coffee a patriotic duty in America.

1775: Prussia’s Frederick the Great tries to block inports of green coffee, as Prussia’s wealth is drained. Public outcry changes his mind.

1886: Former wholesale grocer Joel Cheek names his popular coffee blend “Maxwell House,” after the hotel in Nashville, TN where it’s served.

Early 1900’s: In Germany, afternoon coffee becomes a standard occasion. The derogatory term “KaffeeKlatsch” is coined to describe women’s gossip at these affairs. Since broadened to mean relaxed conversation in general.

1900: Hills Bros. begins packing roast coffee in vacuum tins, spelling the end of the ubiquitous local roasting shops and coffee mills.

1901: The first soluble “instant” coffee is invented by Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago.

1903: German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turn a batch of ruined coffee beans over to researchers, who perfect the process of removing caffeine from the beans without destroying the flavor. He markets it under the brand name “Sanka.” Sanka is introduced to the United States in 1923.

1906: George Constant Washington, an English chemist living in Guatemala, notices a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his silver coffee carafe. After experimentation, he creates the first mass-produced instant coffee (his brand is called Red E Coffee).

1907: In less than a century Brazil accounted for 97% of the world’s harvest.

1920: Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales boom.

1938: Having been asked by Brazil to help find a solution to their coffee surpluses, Nestle company invents freeze-dried coffee. Nestle develops Nescafe and introduces it in Switzerland.

1940: The US imports 70 percent of the world coffee crop.

1942: During W.W.II, American soldiers are issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their ration kits. Back home, widespread hoarding leads to coffee rationing.

1946: In Italy, Achilles Gaggia perfects his espresso machine. Cappuccino is named for the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin order.

1969: One week before Woodstock the Manson Family murders coffee heiress Abigail Folger as she visits with friend Sharon Tate in the home of filmmaker Roman Polanski.

1971: Starbucks opens its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place public market, creating a frenzy over fresh-roasted whole bean coffee.

History of Coffee Bean
Author: Adam Akelis

History of coffee is a legend, it is believed that Kaldi, an Arabian shepherd discovered his goats behaving funny; they seem to be actually dancing around a bush. When the Shepherd investigated, he found that it was the bright berry in the bush which made the goats act funny.

History of coffee is a legend, it is believed that Kaldi, an Arabian shepherd discovered his goats behaving funny; they seem to be actually dancing around a bush. When the Shepherd investigated, he found that it was the bright berry in the bush which made the goats act funny. Soon Kaldi came to a conclusion that these particular beans from the bush cause some kind of excitement when eaten. So Kaldi himself had tried these beans and he was able to fell the ‘effect’ of these beans. Later, the shepherd passed this message to the monks from the local monastery. Everyone from the monastery was able to feel the stimulating effect of these red berries. These berries were distributed to other monasteries and this had spread all across the globe.

The coffee plant belongs to the family Rubiaceae which is a woody evergreen perennial dicotyledon. The plant has an orthotropic trunk with primary, secondary and tertiary plagiotropic branches. There are several species of coffee plants, the two common species cultivated are the Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora. Throughout the globe Coffea Arabica is widely cultivated; Coffea Arabica is also called as the Arabica coffee. The Robusta coffee is the Coffea canephora, which has very high caffeine content but the taste seem to be inferior. Both Arabica and Robusta coffee are grown at high altitudes and in places where the temperature is low.

There numerous kinds of coffee beans. The Typica is said to be the base from which many kinds of coffee has been developed. The Pache comum is the mutation of the Typica type. The Bourbon coffee plants make about 30% more coffee than the Typica variety. Bourbon coffee fruits are basically small and dense and they tend to mature faster. The Catuai produces a superior yield, which is a cross between the Caturra and Mundo Novo. The Amarello produces a yellow fruit hence not preferred by cultivators. Again Maragogype is a mutation of Typica and this was discovered in Brazil. The Kent is known for its resistance to coffee rust and produces high yield. The Catimor is a cross of Caturra coffee and Timor coffee which was produced in Portugal. The Catimor variety matures earlier, and has larger coffee fruits and seeds hence the production is high. The most famous coffee is the Blue Mountain; know for its flavor and resistance against many diseases and they have the ability to grow in higher altitudes.

About Author

Adam Akelis is a professional copywriter who has a sound knowledge on best gourmet coffee, his favorite drink. Not only Adam, there is lot of coffee lovers all over the world interested in knowing the benefits on coffee intake. To know more on coffee, its types (roasted coffee, gourmet coffee, Cains Coffee etc…) and its benefits please visit http://www.bluehillcoffee.com/ and to contact Adam Akelis mail to adamakelis@gmail.com

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com/author-adam-akelis-1228.html