A good cup of coffee is like fine wine and good quality chocolate. Just like wine and chocolate, their quality depends on the ingredients used and how they are processed. There are various different types of coffee beans and these determine the flavors that the blend presents for the coffee connoisseur. Every wonder why some coffee is more delicious that others? Check out these facts about coffee.
Facts About Coffee
The Blend
Many coffee makers blend a combination of lower cost Robusta beans with more expensive Arabica gourmet beans. The Arabica beans have a finer aroma, a richer flavor and more body than the less expensive beans. The coffee quality depends on amount of each of these types of beans mixed into the blend. A coffee is sometimes advertised as a blend of gourmet and lesser quality beans. when in fact there are only small traces of the gourmet beans in the blend.
Some well-known arabica coffee beans include:
- Colombian – Coffee was first introduced to the country of Colombia in the early 1800’s. Today Maragogype, Caturra, Typica and Bourbon cultivars are grown. When Colombian coffee is freshly roasted it has a bright acidity, is heavy in body and is intensely aromatic. Colombia produces about 12% of the coffee in the world, second only to Brazil.
- Colombian Milds – Coffees from Colombia, Kenya, and Tanzania, all of which are washed arabicas.
- Costa Rican Tarrazu – from the Tarrazu Valley in the highlands outside of San José, archetypal estate coffee is La Minita.
- Guatemala Huehuetenango – Grown at over 5000 feet in the northern region, one of the most remote growing regions in Guatemala
- Ethiopian Harrar — from the region of Harar, Ethiopia
- Ethiopian Yirgacheffe — from the area of the town of Yirga Cheffe in the Sidamo (now Oromia) region of Ethiopia
- Hawaiian Kona — grown on the slopes of Hualalai in the Kona District on the Big Island of Hawaii.
- Jamaican Blue Mountain — From the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica. Due to its popularity, it fetches a high price in the market.
- Java — from the island of Java, in Indonesia. This coffee was once so widely traded that “java” became a slang term for coffee
Growing Coffee
The gourmet beans gain much of their flavor from the soils they are grown in. The best beans come from the volcanic regions with rich soils producing the best tasting beans. Coffee should always be made from fresh beans as the quality diminishes rapidly with age.
The age of the beans is more noticeable when comparing a supermarket grade coffee with a coffee shop brew made with freshly ground beans. Bear in mind supermarket coffees generally have a lower blend quality. And, in some cases, the blends also have a mix of older and newer beans to reduce production costs. Despite those trends, more good tasting coffee brands are for sale in local grocery stores.
Taste Taste to Find Your Favorite
The only way to be sure of the quality and taste, is to buy fresh gourmet quality coffee for yourself. Once you have acquired the taste for gourmet coffee you might never want to drink commercial grade coffee again. You can buy coffee from many different regions throughout the world and each one has it’s own unique flavor. One of the advantages of the internet today is the ability to find products, like gourmet coffee, you can’t shop for in your home town.
Coffee aficionados can pick the region where the coffee bean was grown just by tasting it. The method of processing the beans also has an effect on the final flavor so you can’t always assume that a coffee will be good just because it came from a particular region. And, one of the advantages of the internet today is the ability to find products, like gourmet coffee, you can’t shop for in your home town.
How You Brew
Finally, Even the best coffee can be ruined by a bad coffee machine. Plus things like hard water can make your machine not work as well. And, will also effect the coffee flavor. If you want quality coffee, then you need a quality coffee machine. A popular type of machine today uses handy cups of premeasured grounds and sold by companies like Hiline Coffee.
Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages and more suppliers are catering to the needs of an ever-growing demand.
