Coffee Territory

One and a half milliards cups of coffee are drunk in the world every day. Bitter, foamy, coarse and mild, Arabica or Robusta. Real, ground.

Sowed by the angel, made by the herder

Coffee is one of the best beverages which are known for our civilization. Perhaps, the flourishing civilization itself is in many respects owed to coffee. This beverage arises one’s thoughts, helps paint pictures and write novels, solves problems at the bargaining table and recovers state of health after last night’s party.

Over the last years the history of the coffee has become surrounded by a lot of legends…

At first the Arabs and Ethiopian made coffee from the whole grains. But just ground coffee has conquered the Arabian Peninsula. Later the flavor of coffee’s fame has reached Cairo. And in 1554 the beverage has appeared in Istanbul, where the Syrian merchants opened the coffee house. To the freshly ground coffee they added ground cloves, anisetree, cardamom seeds. Coffee got Europe about three centuries ago and became an integral part of our life.

Two sisters

There are more then seventy kinds of family coffee plants. But the main are just two – Arabica and Robusta.

Almost 80% of today’s ground coffee is just Arabica. There are a lot of quite different kinds of them. La Minita Tarrazu is grown in Costa Rica, it is strong and sourish. The Central America can boast of chocolate sort and elegant Puerto-Rican Yauco Selecto. There is Blue Mountain in Jamaica, which all harvest is sent to Japan. The African continent is proud of “Kenyan pea berries” which are grown on the Kilimanjaro mountainside.

The expert can distinguish them even with closed eyes. This process closely resembles wine-testing. Arabica has delicate and rich flavor, but its beans contain half caffeine than Robusta.

Wild Robusta – a sibling of Arabica, is less tame sort. The real Robusta – it is strongest coffee, with astringent flavor. It can’t compare with elegant aroma of Arabica. On the whole, Arabica was a beverage of Balzac’s characters, and Robusta was right for Marx’s heroes.

It was a great moment in the coffee history, when people started to mix two sorts of coffee. As a result, it was born a coffee mixture which combined advantages from both sorts. Usually each ground coffee represents the mixture received from grain milling of different sorts. The variations – are thousands upon thousands. The real gourmets ask a seller to grind various grains composing mixture for their money. There is nothing to find in this variety your own coffee. Bitterish Aroma Club, made from real Arabica, or strongest abundant foamy Aroma Point from the mixture of Brazilian coffee with Indonesian Robusta. Perhaps your choice is mild and tender Cream Aroma from African Robusta and Latin-American Arabica?

The Geography of Taste.

In the world people drink to 1,5 milliards cups of coffee every day. The target consumer is Europe. It is surprising, but main European coffee-achievers are not the Italian, but Finns and Norwegians – 10kg of ground coffee per man in a year. The Italians and the French drink coffee twice as little.

As for the sort, its roasting, grinding and making, each country has its own tastes and traditions. French coffee for example is not as strong as famous Italian espresso. The beans are slightly roasted and grade is larger than Italian. In general the Americans are unpretentious, if only the cup would be larger, however and plastic cup will do. As for Japanese, the main thing is a quality. There are special bars in Tokyo, where for 30 Euros you can enjoy a cup of Blue Mountain with unique flavor of Jamaica rum. This sort is very valued for its pronounced aroma and harmonious taste.

Africa has its own traditions of coffee ceremonies. For example, in Ethiopia, the café’s host washes out coffee beans in visitor’s presence. He makes it in special treated water. Then he roasts beans, grins them (manually of course) and boils in «Djeben» – special black clay coffee-pot. As thousand years ago…

By the way
Open vacuum packaging, it is desirable to use it for a week – abroach coffee loses its aroma and taste quite quickly. That is why it is usually packed up into the small, 100-250gr packages.

Irrespective of coffee sort, it is better to keep it in dark and cool place (but not in the fridge), as well as in closed ceramic or glass container. The air is an enemy of this product. That is why it is advisable to leave as few space as possible between coffee surface and vessel head. If you keep coffee in the soft package, try squeeze out air and paste closely with a sticky tape.

Never make coffee repeatedly. However one grandee remembered in his memoirs about Catherine II. In the morning she drank so strong coffee, that valets could make it repeatedly from remaining grind. After them chefs in the kitchen and then parlormaids. And finally lackeys used this grind with a great pleasure.

A cup of coffee from under the press.

Ground coffee is usually sold in vacuum packaging or in the pods (it is a portion of press powder 7g weight, in special filter paper). It is known that roasted beans excrete carbonic acid, that is why vacuum packaging for coffee beans is made with filter – otherwise the package will burst. Ground coffee contacts with air, so it «breathe out» its reserve of carbonic acid for the day, whereupon it is packed into the vacuum.

In order to have really excellent beverage, it should be properly prepared. Each grade has its own way. For example gross coffee, with grains sizes up to 0,5ml. intended for French-press. The powder is poured with boiling water in the special coffee pot. Then it is stirred up and covered with a lid. It should be brew for 3-4 minutes. Then depressing the plunger and trap the coffee grinds at the bottom of the jug. This method is worthy of real experts and tasters – it helps to catch the slightest nuances of the flavour.

The middle grinding is good for coffee-machines. Put ground coffee and pour with cold water. While heating it gathers into the funnel and leaks slowly through the paper filter into the coffee-pot – little by little. Such method of coffee-making allows you to squeeze out of coffee a maximum of caffeine. The middle grinding coffee is also used in espresso machines. By the way, this name doesn’t mean the speed of preparation, but only the fact that coffee is “from under the press.”

Some manufacturers of ground coffee recommend don’t boil it, but brew with a boiling water just in the cup – like instant. As a rule, it refers to fine-ground coffee. However, true connoisseurs still prefer to prepare coffee in the Turkish coffee pot – cezve, preferably – on the hot sand. By heating the coffee foam is raising to the narrow neck – at this moment the Turkish coffee pot is removed from fire in order to give the foam to settle. Then heat again – for three times. It cannot be allowed to boil coffee – the foam will be burst, and taste will be spoiled. If you succeed to avoid it, then you get a real Turkish coffee – “black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.“

Related Posts:

• Coffee in beans
• The coffee history in Ethiopia
• Coffee like a medicine
• Who invented instant coffee?
• Aromatized coffee

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Coffee History, Sorts Of Coffee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.