A Few Coffee Tips

I don't even consider it morning until I’ve had my cup of coffee, and there are a lot of people who share this belief. I prefer making my own coffee with my Cuisinart Single Serve coffee Maker, this little machine makes some phenomenal coffee. But there are always tricks to making your coffee better.

• Be sure to store coffee beans properly: Some people freeze their coffee, but you shouldn’t do this if you are using your coffee right away, as coffee should not go straight from the freezer to steaming water.  Keep a week’s worth of coffee in an airtight container at room temperature. Keep the rest in the freezer, this way what you are using each morning isn’t frozen, while the rest is able to stay fresh in your freezer.
• Caffeine guide: Some coffee offers a rough chart on how much caffeine their brew has, but the majority do not.  Here is something to keep in mind about caffeine in your coffee: Robusta beans pack twice as much caffeine as does Arabica beans. Also drip coffee usually has more caffeine in it than espresso does. (This is a handy tip to remember if you are ordering coffee at a coffee house and want to be sure you get the amount of caffeine you need)
• Cure that Bitterness: Made a cup of coffee and it turned out too bitter?  Add a pinch or so of salt to it.  The salt tricks your tastebuds into not tasting as much of that bitter flavor.

Sources:
http://lifehacker.com/#!5312052/top-10-tips-and-tricks-for-better-coffee
http://coffeemakeroutlet.blogspot.com/2011/02/coffee-bitterness.html

Coffee Plant or Where does Coffee Come From?

The beans of the coffee plant provide us with coffee. (this is my new favorite plant, let the plant worship begin.) The most common plant used in coffee production would be Coffea Arabica. The coffee plant is a tropical plant that grows more like a bush than a tree reaching 10-12 feet in height. The coffee plant is not a winter hardy plant so it cannot be grown in temperate climate zones. Coffee requires a lot of water, fertilizer and prefers alkaline (basic) soils. The coffee beans are the seeds of the plant. Many insects and animals eat these seeds. The plant has created its on natural defense to these attacks, caffeine.

Coffea arabica is considered to have the best flavor to produce brewed coffee. Other types of coffee plants can yield a coffee that is either too bitter or too bold. Cheaper brands of coffee may have a mixture of Coffea arabica and a substandard species. You can usually tell the difference.

There are a lot of politics surround coffee production and practices. You can check that out on your own. I have my own opinions, but I’m more interested in the processing of coffee after the beans have been harvested.

Coffee has to be ripened if picked green. This is done in one of two ways, dry process, simpler and less intensive, wet process method, which incorporate fermentation yielding a milder coffee. Fermentation results in a lot of coffee wastewater. Once the beans are ripened they have to be dried. This is done either on a drying table or in the sun. The best method is to use drying tables, but unfortunately this method is used less. More modern methods have been introduced that produce inferior grade coffee. More companies are returning to the traditional methods.

Roasting the beans is the next step taken after ripening the coffee beans. Roasting can change the taste of the beverage by changing the physical and chemical make-up of the coffee bean. As the bean is roasted the weight decreases due to moisture lost. When the temperature inside the bean reaches 200 degrees Celsius the roasting process begins. Carmelization occurs as intense heat breaks down starches in the bean. This changes the starch into simple sugars that brown changing the color of the bean from green to brown. Aromatic oils are created when the acids weaken inside the beans. These oils change the flavor. One of the oils that give coffee its aroma and flavor is caffeol.

The color of the bean determines the boldness of the bean. If the bean is a darker brown it will have a more robust flavor. Once the beans have dried they will be sorted into these different grades. Darker roasts are bolder because they have less fiber content a more sugar. Lighter roasts have a complex and stronger flavor.
Decaffeinated coffee is somewhat of a myth. Because coffee naturally creates caffeine it is difficult to remove all of it. Decaffeination occurs when the beans are green. They are soaked in hot water or steamed. Then using a solvent to dissolve caffeine-containing oils the caffeine is removed. The caffeine that is removed is often sold to the pharmaceutical industry.

To store the beans, an airtight container must be used and placed in a cool, dark, and dry place. This will help to maintain the coffee's flavors. Ironically, the bags we often purchase coffee in are not the best method for storing coffee.

If you think you would like to have a coffee plant in your house, go ahead and get one! Don’t expect to get any coffee beans from it unless you live in the tropics. The flowers are beautiful though! If you live in a climate that is warmer most of the year they make a great ornamental plant.

Now after all this coffee talk I need to fire up my Melitta Coffee Maker and have a nice aromatic brew myself.

Coffee Pot as Food Cooker

Wait...What did that say?

While the only thing that goes in my coffee maker is beverages (yes I have made tea in it, but still that is similar to coffee, right?) I have stumbled across a blog that talks about making food in a coffee maker.  This both disgusts and interests me…

Food? Really?

Many of the commenters on this blog said that during their Dorm Days they had used a coffee maker to make ramen noodles.  Here are some of the foods that Max Eddy says can be made in a coffee maker, and while I will not be trying any of them I just want to share and see your thoughts on this college dorm room phenomenon:

1. Oatmeal
2. Broccoli
3. Rice
4. Soft Boiled Eggs
5. Lemon Pepper Chicken
6. Fish Steaks
7. Chive and Butter Sauce
8. Chocolate Fondue
9. Chicken Pesto Pasta
10. Beer

Now while I would never cook food in my favorite coffee maker, I am a little curious as to how this would work. So instead of trying it i want to hear back from you… have you ever cooked food in your coffee maker? If so how did it turn out? Would you recommend this method of madness to anyone?