Coffee 2 Tea

There is a lot to learn about coffee.  The terms Robusta and Arabica for instance, which are often mentioned in the same breath as coffee, cannot be defined by many coffee drinkers.  The two are actually the foremost varieties of coffee being grown today. Robusta, which contains more caffeine than Arabica coffee beans, ranks lower in quality and comprises about a fifth of the coffee produced worldwide.  Arabica coffee is more prevalent, accounting for more than 70% of the world’s coffee business.  It is also more superior in taste and aroma. These days most people consider Arabica a gourmet coffee.

Green beans and organic beans are two more terms associated with coffee.  Simply put, green beans are coffee beans that have yet to be roasted.  In contrast, organic coffee beans come from coffee plants grown naturally and sans the use of pesticides. Coffee retailers purchase them raw then have them roasted and packed just before transport and delivery for maximum freshness.

COWBOY COFFEE: Ground coffee steeped in hot water then strained to separate rounds from brew. Legend has it that the separation method often called for a clean sock into which the ground coffee was spooned before being immersed in water. (Also called hobo, campfire or open-pot coffee.)

CHLOROGENIC ACID: One of the principal acids in green coffee beans, unpleasantly astringent by itself. As the roast progresses much of the chlorogenic acid disappears and other flavourful acids form, more thank making up for its loss.

CINNAMON ROAST: The lightest roast commercially available, with no oil on the surface. Large manufacturers often incorporate very light roasted coffee into their b lends, because roasting for a short time both saves money and adds bulk. A cinnamon roast rarely appears in specialty shops, though, because it is so high in chlorogenic acid and low in body and flavour.

CITY ROAST: A roasting term controversial for its impression but in wide use. Today a city roast is barely darker than a cinnamon roast. “Full –city” is used for a l medium roast, more or less dark cinnamon in color and with no oil on the surface; this is the fullest development of a bean before oils appear. The next stage is usually called a Vienna roast.

CLEAN CUP: A term professional tasters use to indicate a brewed coffee that is free, of virtually free, of taste defects. A clean coffee is not the same as a great coffee, but it will bring the grower or broker a higher price.

CREMA: A golden foam made up of oil and colloids, which floats atop the surface of a perfectly brewed cup of espresso. Achieving crema depends on a number of factors, including kind of coffee used, its freshness and the degree of pressure used in brewing; achieving it is tricky when not using a professional espresso machine.

CUPPING: The process by which professional tasters evaluate a sample of beans, Roasted and ground coffee is steeped in hot water, like tea, and the liquid is stasted both warm and as it cools.

For many years my wife and I bought our coffee beans in bulk. We both delight in taking the time to grind and brew our gourmet coffee, but we started to notice that toward the end of the bag the beans started to taste a bit off. That led me to do some research on coffee storage. How should the beans be stored, I wondered – in their raw, green form, or roasted? Left whole or ground? Frozen or at room temperature?

It didn’t take long to discover that fresh roasted coffee beans store best, and they should be kept whole until just before consumption. Most beans will retain their freshness for up to two weeks when stored at room temperature provided that they’re kept in an airtight container. When storing your own beans, bear in mind that they create excess carbon dioxide. Open up the lid of the coffee periodically to allow this gas to disperse.

CAFFEINE: The chief mood altering substance in coffee, with an average of 1.1 percent in Arabica and 2.2 percent in Robusta beans, the tow main coffee species. When extracted, as in the decaffeination process, caffeine is a pure white crystal, bitter to taste. Caffeine is the world’s most widely used psychoactive drug, appearing naurallin in tea leaves and, in very small quantities in cocoa beans.

CAFFEINE WITHDRAWL: Not yet an official diagnosis, but a syndrome currently under research for possible inclusion in psychiatric manuals . its symptoms include headache, sleepiness or drowsiness, impaired concentration, difficulty working, precession, anxiety, irritability, nausea and vomiting, and muscle aches or stiffness.

CAPPUCCINO: A espresso based drink classically made with one third espresso steamed milk and one third foamed milk. The king of Italian espresso drinks.

CARAMELIZATION: Beans are naturally high in carbohydrates, which must be heated to develop toasty, sweat flavours. Caramelized sugars give body and mouth-feel to darker roast: the darker the bean, the higher the degree of caramelization. When caramelization is taken to far, coffee tastes burnt.

CEZEV: More commonly called an ibrik, this is the correct term for the long handled brass or copper pot, tinned on the interior that lopes inward at the top and is used to make Middle Eastern coffee.

CHERRY: Coffee beans are seeds of a berry, called cherry for the shape and for the deep crimson color of the fully ripe fruit. The even, ovoid shape resembles a plump holly berry or cranberry.

CAFÉ au LAIT: A French breakfast drink made up about one third strong brewed coffee, as in coffee for a café filter or Napolitana pot or the stovetop moka brewer, and two-thirds scalded or steamed milk. Virtually identical to the Italian family version of a caffé latte.

CAFÉ FILTER: The metal flip-drip pot not more commonly called by its Italian name, Neapolitana, used in French households. The Italians like to claim credit for it, but in fact the French invented the device I the early nineteenth century.

CAFÉ AMERICANO: In Italy, usually a thin drink made with instant coffee. In America, an espresso lengthened with plain hot water after brewing (not by brewing for a long time), so that the body is the same as that of a filter brewed coffee, A good way to spread out the taste of espresso over a longer sipping time without adding cups of milk.

CAFFÉ LATTÉ: In Italy (where it is spelled caffe latte), this is a family drink made in the morning with coffee brewed in the napoletana or moka and milk scalded on the stove, in proportion of 1 part coffee to 3 parts milk. Italian espresso bars use genuine espresso and sometimes add more steamed milk, but not as much as is used in the United States. Also, Italians don’t add foamed milk, as Americans usually do. The drink served as a “latte” in American coffee bars is really giant sized cappuccino.

CAFFÉ MACCHIATO: An espresso “stained” with about two tablespoons of foamed milk.

Let’s start with the ‘A’s

ACIDITY:  Not a defect , acidity is one if the reasons the best    high grown Arabica coffee beans fetch the highest prices. As a roast gets going, flavourful acids form, giving coffee life and sparkle. The lighter the roast, the more the acids are highlighted; very dark roasts destroy most acids. Not be confused with bitterness.

ADENOSINE: One of the chemicals, or neurotransmitters, the body makes to control neural activity; adenosine triggers a series of slowing effects in the body. Researchers think caffeine acts as an adenosine imposter, locking into special receptors on brain cells and fooling the body into thinking that adenosine is circulating when it is not. Caffeine thus speeds up by not slowing you down.

AGED COFFEE: Green coffee beans that have been stored in the climate, typically hot and humid ,on which they were grown, for a year or two ore even three before being shipped similar to monsooning , which takes less time, aging bean is expensive, because stocks are tied up. Aged coffee has a soft roundness many connoisseurs seek, especially for blends.

AIR QUENCHING: The cooling of roasted beans with blown air rather than with sprayed water. (see water-quenching)

ARABICA:  One of the two main coffee species. Coffee  Arabica is named for its original popularizes, the Arabs, who   bought it to native East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula in the fifteenth century. All the delicate, prized flavours possible in coffee are found in Arabica and not robust, the other main species , although not every Arabica is fine. Arabica beans, which produce the best flavors when grown at high altitudes in semitropical climates near the equator, naturally contain about half the caffeine (an average of 1.1 percent) of robusta beans (which have an average of 2.2 percent).

Coffee probably originated in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and presumably takes its name from the Kafffa province there. Coffee cultivation moved form Africa to Yemen, which soon supplied coffee to the entire Arab world. At the beginning of the 17 century, the first coffee beans were brought to Italy from the Yemeni port city of Mocha. With siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, coffee began is triumphal march through all of Europe.

When the Turks retreated, they left behind hundreds of sack of coffee. A clever Viennese took advantage of the opportunity and immediately opened the city’s first coffee house. At first coffee was a rate and expensive and therefore reserved for the aristocracy. To meet the large demand, colonial powers established plantations in all suitable, subtropical areas. But coffee didn’t become a drink for the common people until the arrivals of the new industrial age, when the methods for processing coffee were simplified and the luxury drink became slightly more attainable.

Decaffeinated coffee is less about the beans; it is all to do with the process of extracting the caffeine out of the bean. The process and method of extracting the caffeine from the beans is a complex one. The decaffeinating process is done with green and unroasted coffee beans.

There are several varying methods to decaffeinating coffee. In short the initial step involves the process of steaming the beans. Thereafter the coffee beans are rinsed in solvent between 8 and 12 times or until a minimum of 97% of the caffeine has been extracted for the coffee beans, as required by international standards.

It a true tried and tested method and the beauty of the process of rinsing the beans, is it does not remove any of its essential oils, chemicals, aroma or flavour, key components to good coffee.

It is important to mention that all decaffeinated coffee retain some caffeine between .01 and 3%. Although it doesn’t appear to be a great amount to most of us, those that are highly sensitive to the chemical might like to know that they are getting small amounts of caffeine that may make them excitable and affect their sleep. You should simply know that when you drink any coffee you will be introducing some caffeine, into your system.

When choosing a decaffeinated coffee, choose one form the Arabica bean as it contains lesser amounts of caffeine than the Robusta coffee bean.

Coffee from Arabia is still a part of the Islamic faith and is use in ritualistic ceremonies.

The coffee growers of Arabia protected their monopoly on the prized plant. They were the exclusive providers of coffee throughout the world for several hundred years.

That is until a coffee plant finally made its way to the Caribbean. This began a new legacy of high-quality coffee in Latin America.

It is said that all the Arabica Coffee grown in the world started from this plant as cuttings were transplanted all over the world. Coffee from Arabia is truly the source of coffee throughout the world.

The word mocha comes from the name Mokha, the shipping port in Yemen where all Arabian coffee was exported. Mocha has become a term used for describing a coffee beverage in which chocolate is added. But originally it had nothing to do with chocolate.

According to legend, human cultivation of coffee began after goats in Ethiopia were seen mounting each other after eating the leaves and fruits of the coffee tree. In reality, human consumption of coffee fruits probably began long before humans took up pastoralism. In Ethiopia there are still some locales where people drink a tisane made from the leaves of the coffee tree.

The first written record of coffee made from roasted coffee beans comes from Arabian scholars who wrote that it was useful in prolonging their working hours. The Arab innovation of making a brew from roasted beans, spread first among the Egyptians and Turks and later on found its way around the world.