The New Complete Coffee Book: A Gourmet Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Cooking
I am almost done with the book I have been reading for the past week so I thought it was time to search for some new interesting reads. I ran across this book on Google Book Search (as usual – I just love this Book Search!) and from what I have read in the preview, it looks like a good buy.
The book is quite short – a little over a hundred pages – and has 5 main chapters (introduction not included). The chapters are:
History
The Bean
The Roast
The Brew
Recipes
I think that The New Complete Coffee Book: A Gourmet Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Cooking would be perfect for your coffee table – something to browse through on a lazy Sunday morning as you sip your cup of joe while watching TV or whatever else it is that you do on lazy Sunday mornings. There is a lot of information on coffee within the pages of the book and you can get a lot of ideas for unique meals using coffee.
On the other hand, I felt that something was lacking. Sorely missing were the most basic of information, like, how to make cappuccino, latter, and the like. I know, perhaps the authors purposely left information out in order to focus on the more advanced aspects of coffee but it would have been nice to have it in the book as well.
Anyhow, I am still thinking of whether or not to buy the book – we’ll see this weekend.
The Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
We’re all familiar with the English tea ceremony but have you heard of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony? You probably already know that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. Naturally, they have some sort of ceremony to celebrate the wonders of this brew.
The Ethiopian coffee ceremony is part of their culture. In fact, whenever they entertain visitors, the ceremony is required. So how does it go?
Emily Doyle explains the ceremony:
The ceremony is usually conducted by one young woman, dressed in the traditional Ethiopian costume of a white dress with coloured woven borders. The long involved process starts with the ceremonial apparatus being arranged upon a bed of long scented grasses. The roasting of the coffee beans is done in a flat pan over a tiny charcoal stove, the pungent smell mingling with the heady scent of incense that is always burned during the ceremony. The lady who is conducting the ceremony gently washes a handful of coffee beans on the heated pan, then stirs and shakes the husks away.
When the coffee beans have turned black and shining and the aromatic oil is coaxed out of them, they are ground by a pestle and a long handled mortar. The ground coffee is slowly stirred into the black clay coffee pot locally known as ‘jebena’, which is round at the bottom with a straw lid. Due to the archaic method used by Ethiopians, the ground result can be called anything but even, so the coffee is strained through a fine sieve several times.
The youngest child is then sent out to announce when it is to be served and stands ready to bring a cup of coffee first to the eldest in the room and then to the others, connecting all the generations. The lady finally serves the coffee in tiny china cups to her family, friends and neighbours who have waited and watched the procedure for the past half-hour.
I have never experienced such a ceremony but just the thought of being part of one makes me want to go to Ethiopia.
European Coffee
How do you like your coffee? Are you getting bored with your usual cup every morning? Here is a recipe for European coffee that I found on About.com. It is quite unusual, really, but I find the ingredients to be interesting. You can easily find the ingredients at any grocery store or supermarket.
So what do you need for a cup of European coffee? Here are the ingredients:
A cup of strong coffee – the stronger the better. You can brew this in the usual manner that you brew your coffee.
1 egg white – yes, an egg white. Don’t write this recipe off just yet!
¼ tsp vanilla extract – choose a really good brand so that you get the purest flavor.2 tbs half and half – this really depends on your taste. If you want whole milk then go ahead and use it. Skim milk will also work but the creaminess and taste will not be the same. If you’re health conscious, though, then half and half would be the happy medium between taste and health reasons.
What’s next? Once you have the ingredients all ready – it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of minutes to get them together, really – take the egg white and then beat it. Continue beating till you get soft peaks. You can use a manual egg beater so you don’t over do it. Once you get soft peaks, fold in the vanilla extract. This time, continue beating the mixture till you get stiff peaks. Now split the mixture into two cups and pour the hot coffee over the egg white mixture. Top the cups with a tablespoon of half and half for each.
Let me know how it goes!
Starbucks’ Pike Roast
I have not had the chance to try Starbucks’ attempt at a mellower flavored coffee but a reader of ours, Anna Brew, has brought it to our attention. It seems that Pike Roast is a new blend that is the result of customer reactions to Starbucks’ traditional blends. According to Consumer Reports, the typical Starbucks coffee is burnt and bitter. Now, with the Pike Roast, this is what Consumer Reports has to say:
The result is a mellower flavor that our three expert tasters and other CR staffers, who sampled the blend at a dozen U.S. stores on the East and West coasts, described as generally mild, “with very subtle floral notes, a hint of cocoa-like aromatic, and a medium roast impression.” Generally, they found Pike Place Roast to be “a smooth cup of coffee with some bitterness, but not particularly complex.” Because the flavor is so mild, our experts said, adding dairy or sweeteners might overwhelm the coffee. To experience the full flavor of the brew, you might want to drink it black, our testers suggest.
What can I say? First of all, I never really did agree with their report that Starbucks coffee is burnt and bitter. I have always thought well of Starbucks’ coffee. If I were part of the company, I would be thinking – first it was too bitter now it is too mild! Well this is what I think – as long you know you are making good coffee and you are satisfying majority of your customers, then don’t fix what isn’t broken!
Anna is right – too much drama! Let’s just enjoy coffee now, shall we?
Demand For Coffee On The Rise
You think? If you can judge the demand for coffee by the way I drink the brew, then this statement is definitely true. Seriously, though, it seems that the price of coffee is not about to go down anytime soon despite the forecasted increase in supply. This is due to the growing demand of coffee worldwide.
International Coffee Organization (ICO) Executive Director Nester Osorio in his latest coffee market report, said imports reached a record level in 2007.
Demand is thus the main factor influencing the market, at present. During the first six months of the coffee year 2007-08, exports from Brazil and Vietnam were considerably lower.
The average of the ICO composite indicator price for April fell to 126.55 cents per pound, compared with136.17 cents in March.
Despite this decrease, price levels are still firm and price volatility has become less intense. Average prices in the first four months of 2008 are higher than those recorded during previous months.
Exports during of March (8.7 million bags) were higher than those recorded in February (7.7 million bags). However, exports during the first six months of coffee year 2007-08 fell by 4.9 per cent compared to the same period in coffee year 2006-07.
New estimates of Brazilian production for 2008-09 have been just released. This establishes the size of the crop at 45.5 million bags, comprising 34.7 million bags of Arabicas and 10.8 million bags of Robustas.
That’s a whole lot of coffee!
Ethiopia: Highlight of the 20th Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference
The 20th Specialty Coffee Association of America Conference just ended today. This 4 day event marks not only a milestone in terms of the “age” of the group, but this conference is the first to highlight the birthplace of coffee – Ethiopia. I only read an article about this earlier today and I find it a nice coincidence that I had just bought a bag of Ethiopian coffee from Starbucks hours before.
Anyhow, here are some things that key people in Ethiopia had to say about the conference.
“Ethiopia is immensely proud to be at the forefront of this year’s SCAA Conference. Ethiopians have cultural and social traditions of coffee drinking going back many, many centuries, and, as such, we have much that is unique to share. The invitation to Ethiopia to be the first ever African portrait country featured is an honor. We take this as a symbol of both the Specialty Coffee industry’s high regard for our place in the expanding and dynamic specialty coffee market, as well as a tribute to our unique heritage and historic role in the coffee business,” said H.E. Yakob Yalla, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development to the assembled experts and enthusiasts.
“Few developing countries have realised that intellectual property plays a crucial role in income generation in the modern, global economy. Ethiopia is truly proud to be among the first to see IP management as a tool for development and poverty alleviation. It is a tribute to the coffee industry and our pioneer licensees that they agree with us and are prepared to cooperate with Ethiopia on its mission to capture a greater share of the retail price for Ethiopian coffee farmers and coffee workers,” commented Getachew Mengistie, Director General of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office.
This has gotten me more interested in Ethiopia as a coffee-producing country – expect to see more posts soon.
Too Many Choices=Quality?
I have always loved variety. Whatever it may be, having the same set of choices time and again makes me feel bored after a while. Then I realized, sometimes, I get a yearning for the old set of choices. Sometimes, the “old” things just can’t be beat.
I had this realization while I was reading an editorial by Burle Pettit on the Lubbock Journal Online. He was on a roll – ranting about how there are so many choices in the market today. We have all sorts of flavors, all sorts of sizes, packaging, and what not. What he can’t find, though, is the original product that he loves. He talks about all sorts of products but rants largely about one thing – coffee.
WHERE ALL THIS really bugs me is in the area of coffee.
Man and boy, I have grown up drinking Folgers - regular ol’ every day Folgers. Nothing against Maryland Club or Maxwell House, mind you, I just liked Folgers better. I suppose that goes back to my upbringing.
The point is that Folgers now makes every strength and flavor of coffee you can dream up … every flavor except one, that is. They don’t make Folgers that tastes like the Folgers that hooked me on the product. Now the company will tell you that what they package as Classic Roast is very close to the original. Hey, what is it they say about “close,” that it counts only in horse shoes, washers and hand grenades.
I feel what he feels – though not about Folgers. The truth is, sometimes, when I go to restaurants and coffee shops, and I order a cup of coffee, I just want the real bold taste of plain coffee. I have had several disappointing moments when the coffee didn’t taste as I was expecting it too. Watered down, overly flavored concoctions – they have tons of these, each store with their own versions.
Where can we find good old plain coffee? Come visit my kitchen – I have some brewing most of the time!
Hilary And The Coffee Machine
This is a blog about coffee and NOT politics. God forbid that I start talking about politics! I actually make it a point not to dip into that pool – but this is just too funny to pass up!
You’ve probably heard something about this already – there are countless copies of the video circulating on the Internet today. So a potential president of the US can’t figure out how to coax coffee out of a machine, huh? Priceless.
Free Samples At Apres Tasting Club
A few weeks ago, we received an e-mail from Luke Bunting of the Apres Tasting Club, which is part of the main web site, Apres Café. Apres Café is actually a site that is all about coffee and tea. They offer gifts, coffee, and tea in their online store. More than this, they also provide a host of information about coffee and tea. Enthusiasts will certainly find a lot to read in their “Learn” pages.
What Luke e-mailed us about is the Apres Tasting Club and while going through their site, it really caught my interest. How does the Tasting Club operate? It is quite simple – if you are interested, sign up for the Club. You will then receive free samples of either coffee or tea. Once you have tried the free samples that were sent to you, you can go online and then rate them. If you rate the samples that you receive, you will continue to receive new samples every 3 to 4 weeks. It’s a pretty good setup, isn’t it?
Other benefits of being a member of the Apres Tasting Club:
1. Discounted prices not offered to the general public when purchasing a sampled coffee or tea
2. Advanced notice of special purchases or offers
3. Automatic eligibility each month to win a coffee or tea gift box (valued at $20)
4. The chance to sample some of the finest coffees and teas in the world – for FREE!
5. An opportunity to help us choose only the very best coffee and tea products by offering your comments on each sampled brew
6. Instant access to exclusive email offers through the ApresCafe.com email club. (You may unsubscribe from this email service at any time.)
One drawback – I think they only ship to the United States.
Starbucks And iTunes Show Love
Starbucks and Apple are perhaps the two brands that I like the most – well, perhaps is the operative word here. In any case, these two groups have teamed up to bring more pleasure to their customers. Sometime last week, Starbucks proudly announced its new program – the Pick of the Week.
Yes, it is true that the name for the promotion could have been more creative. (Come on now guys, you make millions! You can surely pay someone to come up with something more than “Pick of the Week!”) However, the idea is quite an interesting one.
Imagine yourself sitting at your favorite spot in your regular Starbucks hang out. You spend a relaxing hour or so sipping your favorite coffee drink, doing whatever you are doing, and listening to your favorite music on your iPod all the while. Perhaps you don’t even need to imagine this – it is reality!
YOU are the target clientele of Starbucks and Apple. With the Pick of the Week, loyal Starbucks and Apple customers can enjoy free downloadable content. How?
I don’t know the exact details (obviously the Starbucks nearest me does not seem to have this promo running yet) but the idea is that people who buy coffee from Starbucks will receive a Pick of the Week download card. This card can then be used to redeem a free song or music video from the iTunes store. Users have up to 60 days to claim the song or video but can also download on the spot with WiFi access.
