According to the experts, the first rule is following – coffee should not be kept abroach. If in the morning you open a tin with coffee, in the evening it will lose its aroma.

The second rule. Coffee can easily absorb strange smells. So, do not put something «fragrant» next to coffee. For coffee storage the experts advise to use glass containers. The professionals confirm that coffee is easily „come under somebody’s influence”. That is why you should pay proper attention to the place of its storage and do not settle to it «unkindly neighbors».

The third rule. Read instruction on the package very carefully. There should be the information how to keep coffee correctly. If you conform to these rules, the product will not lose its taste. Remember, every sort of coffee or mixture has its own storage requirements.

The forth rule is rather belongs to cafes` owners and others establishments where this drink is served. The professionals give an advice to pay attention to barista’s working.

The fact is that it is impossible to keep already grinded coffee. It is better to mill such amount which can be required during an hour. According to the specialists, milled coffee should be drunk during 4-6 hours. And the time of roasting to its consumption should take 5 days.

One coffee bean contains a hundred of compound organic matters. Some of them are water dissoluble. In usual extraction process According to expert opinion, the best coffee contains 98,4-98,7% of water and 1,3-1,6% of dissolved solids.

By any temperature, water takes all compounds, which contain coffee. But in a hot water this process goes faster.

You should not pour grinded powder with fiercely boiling water, even if it is an instant coffee. In this case it becomes unpleasant taste.

The optimum temperature for coffee making is 92-96°С.

If you use cooler water, you will get very weak coffee. In case of long boiling, you have to add some sugar.
(the process of compound extraction with a help of dissolvent), it is possible to evolve from beans one third of such substances. The purpose of coffee making is a selective extraction, as a lot of substances have unwanted properties.

There are some main weaknesses. Foremost is of course a temperature. Do not try to do something until it is less than 92°C. Theoretically, if you put beans into the cool water, you will anyway get something restorative, however weak. The Japanese are working with temperature about 85°С, in European coffee-machines – 90-92°С, the Turks and Arabs have 96°С. The basis here, either to burn slightly coffee at the edges of the ibrik or to boil it for a long time. It is one of the examples of good spoiled coffee. By the way, ibrik is here the most successful variant. Just overboil it – that’s the easy part! In case of European and Japanese preparation methods, it may be arised some problems. It is not a reason to give up.

Because we have a powerful key factor as grinding. First, make it a bit crude and instead of flavored drink you will get clear water with a light smell. Second, the progress has placed at our disposal an excellent machine. We call itelectric coffee-grinder. Its high-speed gear burns beans to the best advantage. Make not big portions, put full speed and grinding time – and bitter coffee is assured.

The season of coffee harvest in each country is different. For example, in Guatemala it is lasting from August till May, on Java island – from May till December, in Cuba – from July till December, in Brazil – from April till August.

It is more easier to gather sorts of Robusta and Liberica – they do not fall becoming overripe and that is why can dry on the tree. The harvesting of Arabica is executed in several phases according to fruits ripening two weeks apart. As a rule, there are three of such phases – preliminary, main and late. This selective harvest of absolutely ripen fruits provides the high quality of coffee beans.

The harvest is considered to be average, if they have about 0,8 tons of fruits from one hectare. It is good when 1,2 tons, and excellent if harvest exceeds 2 tons. Yearly they get 2,5-3kg of fruits (2 000 grains) from one three, it means 500g of raw or 400g of roasted coffee. In other words, each coffee bush gives a possibility to make 50 cups of flavored drink.

The labor productivity of one experienced coffee picker is one standard bag (100 pounds) a day. To fulfil this norm, a coffee picker should gather about 8 coffee cherries in a second.

The coffee pickers, in spite of their hard work, earn a little. The wages are measured with a gathered bucket of coffee. For example in Cuba, coffee pickers value their labor in «latas» (cans). The «Lata» is equal to three-quarters of bucket or to a big tin.

Growing Organic Coffee

About the Coffee Growing Process

Brisal coffee growing farm

• It turns out that coffee is not only for reading its grounds. It gives a polish to produces made from dark leather. For that you can wrap moist grounds into the woolen rag and wipe leather’s surface.
• If you make coffee with strong drinks and you would like to decrease its proof, you can bring a beverage to a boil.
• One of the way to check freshness of coffee beans is to take one bean and crack it – if it turns crispy and tasty, it means that coffee is fresh. If the bean is chewing like rubber and besides tastes bitter, then coffee is not very clean and we advise do not use it.
• Ground coffee should be kept in china-ware or glass dishes, but not in metallic.
• Roasted coffee beans should be kept in hermetic containers. It protects coffee from off-flavors and loss of aroma. Roast as much coffee as it necessary for one dose. It is recommended to keep roasted coffee no more than a week. Store it in the dry and cool place, otherwise it will lose its qualities very quickly.
• Before grinding, look through and sort out coffee beans. After that, cut dockages out, because they worsen quality of beverage and may lead to coffee-grinder’s breakage. As far as possible it will be better to grind beans before its making. In this case you will get more flavored drink. Coffee should be roasted on a slow fire while continuous mixing. For coffee making use only fresh water. Already boiled water is unfit. It is better to use treated water.
• Make coffee in such a way, that for its readiness you can at once pour it into the cups. Prolonged infusion worsens coffee qualities. Do not warm up cool coffee. For the second time it is impossible to get a good drink. If it is necessary, you can keep coffee on water bath or in the thermos. Before making, swill coffee-pot with a hot water. Make coffee in china, ceramic, glassy, enamel wares or in stainless steel coffee-pots. The coffee-pots from oxidizing materials spoil taste, as well as they are of little help.
• Add a half of teaspoon into the coffee-pot with ready coffee. In this case the sediment will sink faster into the bottom.
• Some grains of salt before coffee making strengthen its aroma and improve its taste.

Espresso – it is a very strong coffee. It is served without milk in little cups. Espresso in Italian means «express» or «fast».

Espresso has become a basis of coffee recipes. In spite of the fact that invention of this recipe is a merit of the Italians, the first espresso machine was found in France. This machine was unsuccessful and just the Italians have developed in its basis that one, which we know today. The hot water under the strong pressure is passed through well ground coffee and we get espresso.

The Italians serves this coffee “demitasse” (that means a half of cup). It contains one and a half oz of elegant black coffee with goldish cream.

Making espresso it is also necessary to take into account the sort and quality of used coffee. The dose of coffee which is put into one cup depends on sort of coffee. For example the sorts which contain Robusta are notable for high content of caffeine and typical bitter taste.

The sorts of Arabica have different caffeine amount, but it is in a great measure less than in Robusta.

By choosing, comparing and tasting we recommend tasting coffee without sugar.

Cappuccino

Cappuccino – is a foamy mixture of espresso and boiled milk in equal proportions. At first, cappuccino means that coffee in this drink will be prepared with the aid of espresso method (steam under the pressure). Secondly, for cappuccino we use milk (by the way, certainly whole milk – powdered milk will not be beaten). The milk is frothed with a steam, otherwise it is impossible because it may stay watery. At the same time milk should not be too fatty – optimum alternative 3,2-3,5 %.

Caffe latte

Caffe latte – another coffee drink which includes milk. It is espresso with boiled milk and big portion of whipped milk on the top (it has much more milk than cappuccino).

For caffe latte it is taken one part of coffee, which is made by espresso method (as for cappuccino) and three parts of hot milk with some froth.

Except of main kinds of coffee (espresso, cappuccino and latte), there are a lot of others.

Mocha – one third of espresso, one third of hot chocolate and one third of boiled milk.

Corretto – espresso with alcoholic drinks, for example grappa.

Romano – espresso with a big portion of whipped cream on the top.

Granita de Caffe – it is cold espresso, served with a piece of ice.

Demi-creme – it is coffee with cream or milk in equal proportions.

Cafe con Leche – it is Spanish or Portuguese dark roasted coffee with sugar. It is served with warm milk.

You can taste these wonderful kinds of coffee in good cafes. Nowadays we have a lot of them. Or you can make it yourselves, deriving a great pleasure. So you can show yourself as a gourmet and true connoisseur of coffee.

If you look into the dictionary, it will be easily to determine that the word has Italian origin. In Italy (and not only here) barista resembles a barman only vaguely. But there, it raises to the profession – it is a person who is working with coffee with competence.

As a rule, the Italians start taking an interest in coffee since early childhood. The real connoisseurs of this drink are studying its history, harvesting methods, as well as they roast on their own. They also compose their own mixtures and make coffee. With time this business gets family, and it is appeared coffee clans which become famous to the whole world.

The chief task of barista – is to make real delicious coffee using special espresso machine.

Gradually this profession has become more interesting, whereby the first barista championships took place. The rules were made immediately – every competitor should made espresso and cappuccino for four judges, as well as his four author’s drinks. The performance has been appreciated in respect to coffee taste, its design, correct serving and author’s erudition.

By that time my friends had already ripe berries on the other coffee bush, and again I got a pair of them (at that, one of them had two grains, however it should be only one). Now I decided to deal with them in such a way as I have done with seeds of tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins. I put them on a humid filter (toilet) paper into the Petri dish. The seeds were absolutely fresh, but during the observation (about two months) I have not noticed any changes, like swelling, point of sprouting, etc.

Then I made up my mind to seed scarification – the artificial crippling of outer skin. And here has happened something unexpected. I could flay the yellow filmy husk from the seeds which thickness was nearly 0,5ml. At first I have done it with one of the seeds and I was surprised, when just after this operation I saw germination signs already in two days! Of course I have done the same with a rest of seeds and they also germed.

In two years there were already some ripe coffee berries. It must be understood that flowers and fruits usually appear on tertiary branches. With these seeds I treated more sensible. After peeling, the beans were placed into a Petri dish. I looked after them for a week but did not notice any germination signs. Then I took away the husk from the beans and saw white points – places of rootlets. Later on the same day I peeled other beans and in 10 days I saw again typical white points, and in some more days arised rootlets.

After that, beans were planted into the glasses, and after a while have appeared some seedlings (on the germ in the right glass have burst cotyledonous leaves – equally removed from coffee leaves). It is interesting, but in the voluminous literature on coffee growing you will not find anything about this peculiarity (protective skin). It is reasonable that in nature for the germination of coffee seeds, they need to get into the birds bowels, where this notorious skin dissolves (we know this fact by the example of some other plants).

After getting the germs, a care of them is quite easy – good breathable soil, timely watering, additional fertilizing, sufficient lighting. In that case your plants will surprise you not only with flavored flowers and bright berries, but also with very beautiful glossy deep-green leaves.

The main purpose of coffee package – do not let oxygen to the beans. Entering into chemical reaction with oxygen, fats, which are contained in coffee beans, are oxidized. That distinctly worsens the taste of the product. That is why the package quality of roasted coffee has a profound effect on the shelf life of this product.

In paper bags coffee keeps its quality about two weeks, in foil bags – till three months, and in tight packs coffee can be stored up to six months. Longest, coffee is stored in ordinary glass jar.

As a rule, packages are consists of some layers. It can be a number of used materials. For example, the first layer is polyamide or nylon, the middle one – aluminium, and inner layer – popular polyethylene.

There are 2 types of modern coffee packing – vacuum and gas-filled, which help to increase the product shelf life up to one year and even more. Both these versions are quite expensive and required the presence of special processing line.

Only ground coffee is packed into the vacuum bags. It is made after air-cooling. In this case the carbon dioxide will be released from coffee. Then in special vacuum chambers they pump out oxygen from packings. Such strong blocks contain 250 or 500g of ground coffee. If package is damaged, it becomes soft very quickly because of the oxygen intake.

Another kind of packing – is gas-filled with ventilation damper. It is used for grain coffee. From the whole coffee bean in its cooling-down process after roasting, gas is escaped slower, then from the ground coffee. The valve acts only in one way – it lets the gas out, but prevents oxygen penetration into the package. The gas-filled packages contain usually 250, 500 or 1000g of coffee.

The nutrition value of real coffee (100 g. of drink without sugar) is: proteins – 0,2 g., fats – 0,6 g., carbohydrates – 0,1 g., calcium – to 9 mg., phosphorus – 7 mg., and even iron – 2 mg.

The caloric content makes 9 calories. All these vitamins in a varying degree are necessary for normal functioning of our organism. For example, iron is a component of hemoglobin in the blood. Calcium and phosphorus are part of bone tissue. The presence of potassium and calcium in man’s body influences normal heart rhythm.

As a therapeutic agent coffee had been used in Arabian medicine in 900-1000 A.D. Called “bunchum” it was described by scientific doctor and alchemist Arabian Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī, known as Rhazes. However with increase of coffee consumption as a drink, its medical properties have been forgotten.