Is Organic Coffee Worth It?

You make your coffee every morning in a French press.  You use a Bodum model because they have high quality kitchenware and they also sell Bodum replacement carafes (you can find them at replacementcarafe.net ) – you’ve discovered the hard way that glass carafes can break easily!   You also use only organic coffee, although sometimes your friends question why you do not just buy the cheaper store brand.  “Coffee is coffee”, they say.  You’ve researched coffee and you know the answer – organic coffee is almost always better than generic store brand coffee, both taste-wise and health-wise.

Why pay more for organic coffee?  Many of the countries in which coffee is produced do not have the same safety standards as the industrialized world.  Pesticides that may be banned in some areas are not controlled in others and may be used to increase the crop yield.  To encourage farmers to grow organically, even though they bring in a smaller crop, it is necessary to pay them more.  But, the end product is coffee beans without the taint of unhealthy chemicals and pesticides.

Coffee Mugs!

It's been a while! Busy busy busy!

Coffee mugs are one of the most common coffee accessories - everyone has an old favorite one it seems. Quite often these are travel mugs that are used while driving back and forth to work - they're even called commuter mugs much of the time.

There's quite a variety of mugs, but the most common type are Thermal Mugs, often just called travel mugs. These come in a huge variety of styles, but most are either stainless steel or plastic - stainless steel is probably the best as it is more durable and more often than not uses a vacuum between double walls for insulation - this works better than just air or foam that is sometimes used in plastic thermal mugs.

Grow a Coffee Tree!

Coffee beans come form coffee plants. Generally they are grown in tropical and subtropical climates, but it is possible to grow a coffee tree in other regions as long as the climate isn't too extreme (three month long sub zero winters are out). To start, you need a live coffee seed - unground coffee beans from Starbucks won't do. You can also buy coffee plants from some nurseries. Robusta beans are considered inferior to Arabica, but Robusta plants are easier to grow, so you probably want to start with them. Both the climate and the soil affect the final taste of the beans, and there have been various books written on the subject in great detail. As most people are limited to where they live to grow their coffee, it's not really worth worrying about this, except to make sure that it is possible to grow a coffee plant in your climate.

Coffee takes about three to five years to grow to the point where coffee fruit is produced (known as coffee cherries). Inside the fruit are the coffee beans. Once the beans are ripe, they are removed from the cherry, soaked in water for a couple days, dried out and then finally roasted. Don't expect your coffee to taste the same as premium coffee brewed from beans that have been carefully and professionally tended though. Although the taste won't be quite up to that level, the satisfaction of growing your own coffee will make up for that.

What is Coffee Roasting?

Coffee roasting is simply heating the coffee bean to prepare it for brewing. Coffee beans are roasted at temperatures between 370 to 450 degrees for up to twenty minutes. As the beans are roasted they lose about twenty percent of their weight and change from green to tan and eventually to dark brown.

The amount of time a bean is roasted determines the type of roast. As one would expect, less roasting time creates a light roast and more roasting time creates a dark roast. Roasting also changes the flavor of the coffee. Lighter roasts contain more subtle flavors of the coffee bean itself, and darker roasts get more of their flavor from the roasting process. Each variation is named, and quite often there are many regional names for the same type of roast. One interesting fact is that lighter roast coffees have more caffeine than darker roast coffees since the roasting process tends to break down the caffeine.

Yikes! Broken Coffee Carafe!

Almost everyone's had the experience, usually early in the morning, and often on a Monday, of making a nice pot of coffee and then hitting the glass carafe just right and "Crash!" instead of getting a hot cup of coffee, you end up with a cold floor of coffee and glass. This obviously doesn't start the day off well, but even after the mess is cleaned up and a quick stop at Starbucks (or other coffee shop) takes care of the caffeine fix, there is still the problem of getting a new coffee maker.

Wait - it's not necessary to get an entire new coffee maker! Most coffee maker companies sell replacement carafes, usually at much lower prices than for a full coffee maker. The trick is to find the right replacement carafe for your particular coffee maker brand. A good place to start for this is Replacement Carafe Net, a source of information about coffee carafes as well as a variety of other coffee topics.

Keeping Brewed Coffee Fresh

One thing you may have noticed when brewing coffee is that it tastes best right after it has been brewed. This is most apparent with coffee makers that use a heating element to keep the coffee warm instead of a thermal carafe. As brewed coffee continues to heat, the composition changes over time and gives it a bitter burnt flavor. As a rule, you don’t want to leave a carafe of coffee on the heat source for more than 30 minutes after it’s been brewed. Using an insulated thermal carafe eliminates some of this problem as the coffee retains its own heat from the initial brewing, but even with a thermal carafe, the coffee will taste best right after it is made.

What Are the Different Coffeemakers?

You will always hear how great a coffeemaker is when visiting a friend's home. You listen to all the details of the machine and eventually sample a cup of coffee. Other friends have different coffeemakers, all the "best". You can make a great cup of coffee with a simple coffeemaker, the manual drip machine.

The French Press is a simple glass jar with vertical sides and a plunger attached to the mesh filter. The coffee is placed in the jar, hot water is poured in, the lid is attached, and after 4 minutes all you have to do is slowly press the plunger down. That is all it takes, and with that you will be able to enjoy a tasteful cup of coffee.

Next are coffee percolators. You do not want to make your coffee with one of these. Percolators are pots that have to stand on the stove for endless hours. This is not the best way to use up the coffee beans that you carefully selected. When coffee is brewed, the temperature of the water has to be just below the boiling stage. Percolators are culprits for boiling the flavor out of the beans. If you think otherwise, keep your old percolator. However, if you want the quality out of your coffee beans, try using a different maker.

Coffee Drip Brewers are the most common and the best when it comes to coffee machines. You probably own one or have one at work. All this requires is for you to add your coffee in the filter, fill with water, flick the switch and watch the container fill with coffee. If you have a good coffee maker model, the water will hit the coffee at the exact temperature. These brewers can supply you with a cup of coffee you will never forget.

There is however a downfall with these machines and you've probably tasted the downfall two hours after it was made in the machine. What happens is after the coffee has brewed and is now standing on the hotplate, after some time the hotplate starts cooking your coffee. The solution is to make just the right amount you think you will consume in the next thirty minutes. It is advisable to make a fresh pot if you want more coffee an hour later.

Single mug coffee brewers have their advantages and their disadvantages. The advantages are that you will have a fresh cup of coffee every single time and there will be no mess and coffee ground will not be spilled. The disadvantages are that you can only brew the coffee that is sold in these pods or cups. You will not be able to go down to the store to try a new blend of coffee beans. Manufacturers have their own coffee suppliers, and what they have on the shelf is what you get.