Grinding Gourmet Coffee Beans from Costa Rica

A good cup of coffee starts with the coffee bean and how you grind it. First be sure you select the finest coffee bean - the Costa Rican coffee bean. Then grind it properly.

Grinding Gourmet Coffee Beans from Costa Rica

Quality brewing always needs a quality grind. It is not enough to grow superior coffee beans. If you are not having a proper coffee grind, then get ready for a worse brew. Costa Rica is best in both growing nice beans and grinding them in the right way.

The grinding is done only to get the best flavors out of the coffee beans while infused in hot water. There are three categories for perfect Gourmet coffee grinds, the fine, the medium and the coarse. The third kind i.e. the coarsest one is mainly used in the traditional pot method, the medium grind is required for plunger methods (methods used in drip filters) of coffee making and the finest one is needed for perfect espresso brewing.

If you try to bring in some alterations in the usage of these three diverse coffee grinds, you will surely fail. Trying the coarse one in espressos and the finer ones in drip filters will never work the wonders for you. Strong and mild brews are based on the quantity of coffee your use, not the grind.

The best flavor is obtained if you grind the gourmet beans just before brewing the coffee. This freshness and superiority exists only for a few days after the grinding. Moisture and oxygen oxidizes the coffee and it gradually looses the original flavor. So it is always better to grind the beans just before the brew.

Grinding gourmet beans is quite a simple task to pursue. The market holds a large variety of coffee bean grinders, which can also add up to the exquisiteness of your kitchen. The most hugely used coffee bean grinders of the past are mortar & pestle. The grinds obtained from these devices are not consistent and also requires a lot of time. However, the present day electronic grinding devices have made the task a lot easier.

The electronic motor-grinders are either with powerful blades or crushing burr-plates. The first one is a lot cheaper compared to the burr-grinders. But the burr-grinder is more liked by the mass due to its attractive appearance.  Once you become comfortable to grind your own gourmet coffee beans, having a pot of healthy coffee daily will no more be a dream for you.

About the Author

boake mooreTwo years ago I founded Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee, a church coffee,  www.missiongrounds.com. It is a non profit that sales coffee and donates all the profits to children. Most of the sales come from Kroger Grocery stores and from a growing on line business. I support children in Atlanta; Buffal and New Orleans and in China, Russia, Venezuela and Africa

Grinding Gourmet Coffee Beans from Costa Rica

Two Types of Coffee Beans

By Ten Leu Jaw

Today coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. As a stimulant drink, coffee is prepared from roasted beans. Coffee beans also have become one of the top agricultural exports for many countries.

From flower to cherry, the colour of the bean is first green and turns red when it is ripe. The fruit is sweet in taste and after biting off the fresh; each little red cherry contains two seeds. After being picked, the cherries are then processed and dried. The seeds are then roasted to different degrees depending on the flavour and there come our brown coffee beans. Generally there are two common types of bean: Arabica and Robusta.

Coffea arabica accounts for more than 70% of the world's coffee trade. Originated from Ethiopia and Yemen, it is known as 'mountain coffee' or 'coffee shrub of Arabia'. Arabica beans are more delicate and planted at higher and cooler ground; making them more costly. They grow at about 1000 to 2000 m above sea level; generally, the higher the altitudes, the harder the beans and the better the quality. So they are also called hard bean coffee. Arabica has a wider taste range and the roasted bean is more fruity in smell.

Coffea canephora or Robusta coffee has its origins in Africa, and also Brazil which is now surpassed by Vietnam as the largest exporting country. The plant grows at lower altitudes near sea level and requires little rainfall. Robusta plant is hardier and less susceptible to pest. So it could yield more fruit and the production cost is less. The beans are smaller and yellowish in colour. The taste of Robusta is more neutral and the roasted bean has a more burnt smell compared to Arabica.

Which types of bean you like is subjective. Although Arabica bean is pricier, there are different grades of bean. A high quality Robusta will taste much better than a low quality Arabica. It is best that you do some homework before buying coffee bean. It is also worth noting that Robusta contains higher caffeine compared to Arabica.


Ten, writer for brew1819, a cafe situated at one corner of 8 Shenton Way, Singapore. http://brew1819.com/blog/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ten_Leu_Jaw

Two Types of Coffee Beans

The Adventurous History of the Coffee Bean

By Leroy C. Calstard

Beer and wine are in close competition as far as the oldest man-made brew, but beer wins just slightly. Beer recipes date back as far as 6000 B.C. while winemaking only goes so far as the first millennium. Coffee came onto the scene just a few hundred years later, although how old the coffee plant is still is unclear. Some evidence suggests that people were eating the berries as much as a hundred thousand years ago.

It has been said that an Ethiopian goat herder saw his goats become very excited after eating the red berries from one of the nearby trees and experienced the same stimulation when trying the berries himself. By 600 A.D., this stimulating berry and the resulting brew from its dried and ground seeds made its way to the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula to a location called Yemen.

Some stories speak of a native of India smuggling these seeds from a tree in Arabia around 1650 A.D. after which he planted them in the Chikmagalur hills since the law of Arabia at the time did not permit the exportation of beans that could germinate. This successfully controlled the coffee trade for many years. Whether this is myth or historic fact, the berries from those seeds now make up one-third of India's large coffee production.

The coffee bean then spread to many other countries thanks to travels of the Europeans, Dutch, French and British, among others. The Dutch introduced the coffee bean to Java during the eighteenth century which history relays as the famous tree the king of France coveted so greatly and that was finally gifted to him.

Louis XIV of France soon found that the tree did not grow well in frost and, consequently, he had a greenhouse built so he could continually be supplied with the beans that made the brew he so much desired. This is said to be the source of cultivators used in South and Central America.

Having reached Martinique around 1720 A.D., the seeds grew well in the Caribbean climate. Some of the thousands of trees that sprouted were transported to Mexico which is now one of the largest exporters of this coffee product.

The tree also grew well in the steamier environment of French Guiana when it finally reached this area around the same time. Francisco de Melo Palheta managed to get the help of the governor's wife to help smuggle the seeds out of the country. The story is that she handed him a bouquet of flowers containing the forbidden bean as he prepared himself to leave for Brazil. Interestingly, Brazil has become one of the largest coffee producers.

From Brazil, these seeds made their way to Kenya and Tanzania during the late nineteenth century which is, coincidentally, not far from Ethiopia. They nearly made a large circle as they traveled the globe, only taking around six centuries to do so. So, next time you enjoy a tasty, low-priced cup of coffee at a local restaurant, think about the history behind that drink. It may be plentiful now, but there was a time when it what just beginning its journey to where it is today.

The free-lance writer Leroy Calstard is particularly passionate about ideas associated to single cup coffee brewer. You might discover his comments on single cup coffee brewers over at http://www.coffee-espresso-maker-tips.com/single-cup-coffee-maker.html and various other sources for single cup coffee brewers news.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leroy_C._Calstard

The Adventurous History of the Coffee Bean

Which Countries Grow the Best Coffee Beans?

By Scott Andrew Richards

If you are like me and you love coffee, you are probably consistently searching for that perfect cup. Well, the perfect cup starts with the perfect bean. And the perfect bean is largely based upon the combination of soil quality and climate. So when you think of the perfect country for coffee bean growth what comes to mind? Probably, somewhere tropical. A place with regular rain and sun. If you are like most people you will undoubtedly say "Brazil". It's true, Brazil is the biggest dog on the block accounting for a whopping one-third of all coffee bean production. Its climate is ideal for coffee bean production. It's no wonder they hold top spot. But, do they make the best bean?

Ironically, coffee bean production did not start in Brazil. It actually began in Ethiopia. Even though they can still be seen there they're popularity has spread. Today you can find coffee beans being produced in many countries throughout the free world. Matter of fact, there are now about seventy some countries officially growing coffee beans. Unfortunately, only a few of these countries actually have the most ideal situation for producing beans of a high quality. Aside from Brazil, some of the most popular destinations for coffee bean production are Columbia, Indonesia, Hawaii and Mexico.

We must not forget that aside from climate and soil quality, the altitude at which beans are grown has a significant impact on their quality. The higher they are grown the better. With this in mind we must give some attention to Columbia. They certainly produce some of the best beans in the world. However, its poor economy and underdeveloped infrastructure makes transport to processing plants difficult. Therefore, I am sure we are not seeing the best that that country has to offer.

If you have ever had Hawaiian coffee, you probably will swear up and down that it is the best in the world. Well you could be right. Even though they don't produce large quantities Hawaii's volcanic ash, large amounts of rainfall and hot sweltering sun create the perfect environment for production. There is, also, probably something to the small quantities they produce. The small crafted feel no doubt enhances Hawaii's mystic as a supreme coffee bean producer. Much like we see here in the states with regards to small-batch Bourbons.

Lastly, a very popular place that could possibly win the best coffee bean award would have to be Indonesia. The countries humid climate is ripe for perfect growth. Also, they have taken the production of coffee beans to new heights. They use very advanced technologies that help them grow beans in remote places like Java and Sulawesi. Coffee is so popular from this area that we often euphemistically refer to our coffee as a "Cup of Java".

To read other coffee-related articles visit my blog: A Coffee Lovers Blog
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Andrew_Richards

Which Countries Grow the Best Coffee Beans?