AboutCoffee(s).com

In 1615 a Venetian merchant introduced the Turkish “drink of black color”to Italy and Europe. Recognizing the value in the brew, many traders wanted the means to mass produce the coffee bean.  The Dutch spirited the a coffee plant into Europe in 1616. In 1696 they founded the first European-owned coffee estate, on what was then colonial Java, now part of Indonesia. Business boomed and the Dutch sprinted ahead to adjacent islands. Amsterdam began bestowing coffee trees on aristocrats around Europe, and in around 1714, Louis XIV received his coffee tree for Paris’s Royal Botanical Garden, the Jardin des Plantes. Several years later a young naval officer named Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, was in Paris on leave from Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean. Imagining Martinique as sort of a French version of Java, he requested clippings from his king’s tree, but was denied. Undettered, de Clieu led a moonlight raid of the Jardin des Plantes , made off with a sprout, and sailed for Martinique.

On the return voyage to Martinique,  a “basely jealous” passenger,wrote de Clieu, “unable to get this coffee plant away from me, tore off a branch.” The ship was then attacked by pirates and nearly captured,  then came a storm which nearly sank it. Finally, skies grew clear. Too clear. Water grew scarce and was rationed. De Clieu gave half of his allotment to his stricken seedling. Under armed guard, the sprout grew strong in Martinique, yielding an extended family of approximately 18 million trees in 50 years or so. Its progeny would supply Latin America, where a dangerous liaison would help bring coffee to the masses.

The value of the crop was soon recognized by the Brazilian Governement and in 1727, they dispatched an agent to smuggle seeds from a coffee country.  Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta, was sent to French Guiana, ostensibly to mediate a border dispute. With the coffee farms protected like fortresses,  Palheta chooses a path of less resistance—the governor’s wife.  At a state farewell dinner she presents him a token of affection, a bouquet laced with coffee seedlings. From these, the world’s greatest coffee empire sprouts. By 1800 Brazil’s monster harvests would turn coffee from an elite indulgence to an everyday elixir, a drink for the people.

In 1981, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters opened a small café in Waitsfield, Vermont. This café roasted coffee on the premises and formed the base of operations for what was to become one of the nation’s leading specialty coffee companies.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ innovative brewing technology and socially responsible business practices helped to establish the company as a leader in the specialty coffee industry. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters maintains two business units: a “Specialty Coffee Business Unit”, which includes the Green Mountain Coffee® and Tully’s Coffee® brands, and the Keurig Business Unit, famous for it’s one cup coffee maker. Over 1400 people are employed Green Mountain.

The Company has delivered double-digit net sales growth for the last 27 consecutive quarters. And, since the acquisition of Keurig, Incorporated in 2006, the Company has seen accelerated net sales growth of over 39% for the most recent 12 consecutive quarters. In 2009, GMCR acquired the Tully’s Coffee brand and wholesale business, which provides the Company with a complementary West Coast brand and business structure.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ as GMCR.

Okay we all love our coffee, but there may be the odd time you want something different, or you have guests over that are not necessarily coffee drinkers. How about a nice cup of Cappuccino? Cappuccino is prepared by people in many different ways. This recipie is commonly used in Latin countries, but cappuccino prepared using this recipe tastes much better than what is available in North America.

• Start with cold milk (it doesn’t really need to be ice-cold), use homo. milk or carnation. 2% or skim is just not thick enough (though admittedly, it is easier to produce foam with skim milk).
• Place the milk in a special cappuccino glass with a cappuccino basket. (Cappuccino glasses have a thinner bottom)
• Aerate the milk near the top, within 2cm (1 in.) of the top. Move the glass down as the milk aerates. It is a good idea to have an oscillating motion while aerating the milk. (ed. The process of oscillation probably won’t really add much to your drink but it does look cool.)
• Aerating the milk in another container, then pouring in a glass and adding the foam with a spoon is sacrilege.
• If you need to aerate the milk in a separate container, aerate exactly the amount of milk required for one cup, so no need to add foam with a spoon.
• Wait for the steam pressure to build up again (for some cappuccino makers wait time is near zero, for others it may be as long as 60 secs.).
• Prepare the espresso coffee – you may add it directly to the glass if possible or use a cup and then pour it from the cup on the milk.

Tips

Once the milk has been aerated, promptly clean the aerator with a wet rag. Failure to do so will quickly result in rotten milk flavor coming from the aerator. Another warning for restaurant-type coffee machines is to leave the aerator valve open when powering the machine up and down. When the machine is off a partial vacuum is formed in the boiler that will suck milk residue into the boiler. This then coats the inside of the boiler and can cause bad smelling steam until the boiler is flushed. Some machines have a vacuum bleed valve to prevent this problem but many don’t.

In Italy, the milk is added TO the espresso, not the other way around, that way the milk is floating; on top, where you then add the sugar, and stir it up.

Cappuccino tastes better when it is really hot, and has two teaspoons of sugar. (small teaspoons, like the ones in expensive silverware).

Using this method, you won’t get single, glossy beans, but the taste is there!

1. Put dark roast coffee beans on a waxpaper-covered baking sheet.
2. Melt some chocolate by putting a container with the chocolate in a pan of boiling water, stir the chocolate when it is getting hot. Some experimentation regarding what chocolate to use is in place. I used chocolate chips from Ghiradelli. One should probably aim for dark and not too sweet chocolate.
3. Pour the chocolate over the beans and smear it so that each bean is covered – you should have a single layer of covered beans not too far apart.
4. When the beans have cooled off a little bit, put the sheet in the fridge/freezer.
5. When solid, break off a piece and enjoy. Note: I often use very finely ground (think espresso grind) coffee for this.

A Latte is usually a 3:1 ratio of steamed milk and espresso, but YMMV. Do what you like best.

Here’s how I make a latte. First, I grind my beans to fill my shot filter. Those are the removable components in your portafilter (that arm thing). If you don’t have a grinder, buy one, and buy a burr grinder – not one of those cheapo blade things.

So I grind my beans, fill my filter, and tamp it down tightly – that’s the act of compressing the grind in the filter. Note: you can’t really do this with the steam espresso filters because they are not designed for any real pressure (less than one bar I believe). If you do tamp a steam toy, the pressure release valve should kick in to save the day but if it does not work you are taking a chance with a very hot exploding machine. Don’t tamp steam machines.

I load the espresso machine with the grinds, then turn on the machine, but to the steaming ready stage – not the espresso stage. Once it is ready, I steam my milk first.

Lattes are steamed milk, not frothed. Though again, it’s your choice – if you want froth, go for it. Steam your milk to about 150F or so (you will notice a change in the steaming sound – it starts to rumble once it hits 150 or so). If you want froth, about midway, pull the steam nozzle to hover right at the surface – you want to hear a deep frothing sound – if the sound you hear is like blowing bubbles through a straw, you’re too high.

Once the milk is steamed, I then take a small 4 oz. cup I have and place it under the portafilter. I switch over to making my espresso, and I brew the espresso.

I then pour the espresso into the cup with the milk. Most of my “coffee” cups are actually glass or stainless steel, or a combo of both, so I pour my espresso slowly and it creates a cool looking drink… the espresso sits near the top, just below the foam.

Add sugar, sprinkle the top with cinnamon and/or chocolate, and drink!

Oh, don’t forget to clean your wand before you brew the espresso. It’s quick – just grab a washcloth and scrub it clean, then run the wand once more to “flush it out” – this keeps milk from turning into harmful bacteria that makes your milk taste bad.

Once you’ve had your latte, dislodge the portafilter, dump your beans, give the brewhead a quick wipe, a good rinse on your filters, etc., and you’re ready for your next one – less cleaning!

Note: Many people brew espresso then steam their milk. Many do it the way described here. The arguments go like this:
If you brew then steam the milk while you are waiting for the machine to reach steaming temperature, the espresso is getting old. On the other hand, if you steam then brew, you either have to let the machine cool a bit before making your shot, thus allowing the milk to cool, or you will be hitting the coffee grounds with steam and not hot water. Which is correct? I can not tell you. I rarely drink anything at home except straight shots so I don’t worry myself with it too much. On a side note: if you really want the best I believe some home machines may have dual water reservoirs which will allow you to brew and steam simultaneously, or at least nearly simultaneously.

The best coffee I ever tasted was while in the coffee growing regions of Mexico, in the state of Veracruz, in the town of Coatepec. The quality of the coffee was mostly due to the method of preparation rather than the quality of the grains (which is at about the same level as an average Colombian coffee).

Here’s how to make it:

1. Grind the coffee grains from coarse to very coarse.
2. Boil in a pan a liter of water (four cups).
3. When the water is boiling, turn off the stove and add 8-12 tablespoons of coffee (2-3 spoons for each cup).
4. Add 2-3 teaspoons of sugar per cup (for a total of 8-12 spoons of sugar).
5. Stir very slowly (the water is so hot that the sugar dissolves mostly on its own).
6. Let the coffee rest for about 5 minutes.
7. Strain the coffee using a metal strainer! Like the ones used for cooking. The strainer should be like the ones used by granny for making tea. The diameter is a bit smaller than a cup, with a semi-sphere shape.
8. This coffee has grit in the bottom, even after being strained. Therefore do not stir the pot or the cup. If the coffee is shaken, let it rest for about five minutes. Needless to say, do not drink the last sip of coffee from the cup: it’s all grit. If you want to add milk, add Carnation.

Warning: This coffee may fool you ’cause it has a very smooth taste but is extremely strong. Caffeine content per milliliter is right there with espresso, but you can’t tell!

For some strange reason, when preparing this coffee I tend to have a success ratio of about one out of two attempts. I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong, since, as far as I can tell, I always repeat the same steps. Perhaps sometimes I don’t let the coffee rest long enough.

This type of coffee is similar in nature to the French press. And in principle, you could possibly add sugar to the ground coffee, then pour water, and lastly press with the strainer.

Legend has it that  a Yemeni goat herder named Kaldi,  first took notice of the cherry red berries when his flock of goats were grazing on a the peculiar little shrub, around 800 A.D. Kaldi and the wise men of the village took notice of how they seemed to “dance” from one coffee shrub to another while consuming the berries, and decided he himself would sample the miracle fruit. Shortly thereafter, he was soon “dancing” along with his flock.

This incident was witnessed by a nearby monk who plucked some of berries for himself and his brothers. It has been said that that very night they were amazingly alert to divine inspiration. History records other Africans of the same era fueled up on a primative “power bar”.  consiting of  animal fat and coffee. They also unwound with a wine that was derived from coffee berry pulp.  Shortly thereafter, the coffee bean crossed the Red Sea to Arabia.

In about 1000 A.D. coffee beans were first recorded to have been roasted in Arabia.  One of the oldest known records of the use of coffee indicate that it was prescribed as a cure for intestinal difficulties as early as the 10th century by a Muslim doctors. By 1300 A.D. muslims were drinking the beverage religiously, and where they traveled they brought their bean broth with them. The world’s major provider of coffee at the time was a area named Mocha, and The Arabs rulers of Mocha made sure that any beans that were exported for trade were made infertile by parching or boiling them, and until the 1600’s it has been said that no coffee seed sprouted outside Africa or Arabia.

Around this time, an Indian pilgrim named Baba Budan reportedly smuggled fertile seeds out of Mecca by strapping them to his belly. Baba’s fertile beans bore fruit and initiated an agricultural expansion that would soon reach Europe’s colonies.