Gourmet Coffee – You Can't Resist The Second Cup

Could you ever resist the craving to have a second cup of that beautiful, strongly aromatic and lazily steaming cup of coffee? Perhaps no one can do it. A passionate Gourmet's delight, freshly brewed, thick and dark brown and irresistible coffee just brightens up your day like no other drink or anything else can do.

Why Is Gourmet Coffee So Special

One might be tempted to ask why gourmet coffee is so special. Well, here is the answer. For starters, gourmet coffee is always made by high quality fresh Arabica coffee beans which are always hand picked unlike other commercial coffees which are mostly machine graded. Hand picking of coffee beans eliminate chances for dirt such as twigs, leaves etc to sneak in and spoil your coffee.

Secondly, gourmet coffee beans are specially treated with oils after roasting which enhances its flavor to no end. The oil used for coffee bean treatment is a blend of many natural oils which do not have their adverse effect on the shelf life or stability of the ground powder unlike synthetic oils. The oils are so mixed that their characteristic flavors neutralize each other.

You can have different tailor made roast for your gourmet coffee. Deep roasted beans some what loose their natural aroma and this is why you feel the ‘roasted flavor' when drinking it. Rather you would prefer a lighter roasting which retains its entire natural aroma.

Arabica coffee beans are ground to the exact perfection of fineness to get its best taste. But generally a finer grind results in a full-bodied cup of coffee, but as many would like it, coarser grinds are preferred to make coffee with coarse filters.

Finer grinds are preferred by those who like espresso but true lovers of gourmet coffee will almost invariably go with the coarse ground coffee powder as boiled water takes its own sweet time to pull out the flavor completely, especially in drip type filters.

Arabica coffee beans are never stored in warehouses as they are dispatched quickly after harvesting. It is the same story after roasting and grinding them, too. The beans from Arabica trees are, by nature, tastier than Robusta, another cheaper variety.

To its credit, Robusta coffee bean offers you higher caffeine content along with that characteristic acidic taste. Another little known fact is some marketers mix a small percentage of Robusta with gourmet coffee beans.

NamSing Then is a regular article contributor on many topics. Be sure to visit his other websites Coffee Resources , Coffee Grinder and Tea Resources

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Coffee: Bean Storage Issues

There is much debate over how people should store their coffee beans. This article hopefully address some of these issues for you in a clean cut and straight forward manner.

So you've read a great article in your local town's newspaper telling you of all the benefits of home ground and made coffee. So you took the insights found in the article and went ahead and bought some coffee beans of all varieties, from Vietnamese, to Jamaican, and others.

But the question now is, how are you going to store all of these coffee beans without causing it them to suffer in quality and taste? Unfortunately it is widely practiced where coffee beans are stored in a freezer in hopes to retain it's freshness.

However the opposite normally holds true. The best environments to preserve beans are in a dark, moisture-free, and cold place. The problem with freezers is that it doesn't fulfill the moisture-free criteria. Placing your unused coffee beans in a freezer will result in it's natural oils being tarnished and even destroyed as a result of the surrounding moisture seeping in.

Your best bet is to not buy in bulk, but to buy in smaller quantities. An amount that you can finish in a week in other words.

Superb coffee thermos products can be requested from our web site.

Superb coffee thermos

What is the Big Deal With Coffee Makers?

It's true! But did you know that the type of perculator that awaits you at home makes a huge difference in how the bean will taste once it hits your cup? When you go to the market you're not thinking about your coffee makers when you buy your favorite coffee beans.

That's why it's important to know the difference between the various percolators before you select that favorite bean of your's for your coffee in the weeks to come.

Water is boiled from underneath the grounds and the coffee seeps into the water until it's fully brewed. To brew a cup of coffee, grounds now are placed in the basket at the top of the pot. The percolator is still found in many kitchens, but is mostly a relic of days gone by.

However, the percolator doesn't do justice to most coffees and instead has something of a foul taste according to the tongues of many coffee experts. The result is coffees that are full-bodied and steaming hot.

These are available relatively inexpensively at almost any store that stocks household supplies and even most large grocery stores and supermarkets. The most common type of coffee makers today are the drip coffee makers.

The majority of American homes have a drip coffee maker. The drip coffee maker produces clear, light-bodied coffees that lack the natural oils and sediment and/or grounds that can come with other varieties. But these machines don't produce coffees that are as hot as they can be, which is a turn-off for some people.

The French Press is the choice in coffee makers for most Europeans. Boiling hot water is poured directly over the coffee grounds, and then a plunger is inserted through the center of the pot to press the grounds down and allow their flavor to brew into the water.

The resulting coffees are rich, full-bodied, and extremely aromatic. However, they can also be a bit muddied and cloudy because of coffee grounds and powder that can sometimes slip into the cup of coffee. And it's impossible to keep the coffee hot, so it must be served immediately or poured into another container built for heating.

Espresso coffee makers are gaining in popularity as coffees like espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes become more commonplace. These machines brew the coffee extremely quickly, producing a flavor that is extremely unique.

Boiling water and steam are forced through tightly-packed grounds, resulting in coffees that are free of bitterness and full of flavor. Some of these machines don't even require the beans to be ground ahead of time, resulting in an even fresher taste.

Perhaps the most unusual and eye-catching are the balancing siphon coffee makers. An alcohol burner heats water that's in a metal pot, which boils and travels through a pipe to a glass jar where it flows over the coffee grounds.

Once all the water has boiled out of the metal pot and into the glass jar, the balanced lever puts out the alcohol burner. As the metal pot cools, a vacuum is created which suctions the brewed coffee back through the pipe and into the metal pot for serving. This setup produces coffees that are as close to perfection as possible according to most coffee experts.

When it comes right down to it, the type of coffee maker that's best for you depends on the type of coffees you prefer. For instance, if you value a clear cup of coffee over flavor, than you would use a drip coffee maker.

If you prefer the flavor and aroma of a rich cup of coffee, the French Press may be right for you. And if you want a conversation piece for after your next dinner party, the balancing siphon coffee maker needs to grace your granite countertop.

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