Coffee
Everyone's favorite wake-me-up can be somewhat complex if you're really looking for a great cup of Joe.
Beans
The key to good coffee  is to buy whole beans and grind them when you are ready to make the coffee - not before.
Even with whole beans, coffee doesn't keep long. You want to buy the coffee from a purveyor who has roasted it recently -- preferably in the last couple days. Find a coffee company in your area who roasts locally, or try Internet sources that roast their own beans and then immediately ship to you.
Online coffee providers to consider are La Colombe and Peet's.
There are two kinds of coffee available: arabica and robusta. They come from different species of coffee plant and have slightly different flavors. Robusta beans are easier to grow but aren't as flavorful or complex; they are usually used as a filler in coffee blends, to make inexpensive coffee produces (such as instant coffee), or in espresso blends to promote formation of crema. Arabica coffee, on the other hand, is more difficult to grow (and therefore more expensive) but brews a more flavorful, complex cup. Robusta also has almost twice as much caffeine as arabica.
Roasts
There is much more to coffee than popping open a can of Maxwell House blend. The first thing you might notice when you go to a coffee shop is that there are light, medium and dark roasts. What's the difference?
Roasting is what makes green coffee beans into something you would want to brew. The heat of the roaster causes a series of chemical reactions; the end products are the aromatic compounds that give coffee its distinctive aroma and flavor. The longer you roast the beans, the darker the coffee gets.
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Light Roasts |
Medium Roasts - Medium roasts include full city, American, "regular" , breakfast, and "brown" .
- Your average day-to-day coffee; neither too light and sour nor too dark and roasty. Full-bodied.
- Roasting brings out sweetness, so medium roasts are lightly sweet but balanced by a bit of acidity.
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Dark Roasts - Dark roasts include high, Viennese, Italian Espresso, Continental, and French.
- Dark roasts trade terroir for body; sweeter and spicier than other roasts, but not as aromatic.
- French roast is the darkest of all; the smoky roasting flavor is the predominant one, rather than the coffee itself.
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Coffees by Region
While coffee originated in eastern Africa, it is now grown throughout the tropics. Although only two species are grown, subspecies, local cultivars, and regional influences all affect how the coffee tastes and smells. You can read more about different coffee varieties on Wikipedia.org.
Latin America
Coffees from Latin America are some of the most popular; Brazil is also the world's leading coffee exporter. While you can get coffee grown in just about ever country south of the United States, some of the finest coffees come from Guatamala, Costa Rica, and Colombia. Brazil and Mexico also produce some fine blends. Except for Brazil, which grows both, Latin American coffees are almost always arabica beans. Many excellent coffees also come from the Carribean; Jamaican Blue Mountain is probably the best known of them all. Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico all grow coffee.
Africa/Middle East
Coffee was probably first prepared in Ethiopia, and you will find some excellent coffees from that country. Kenya and Tanzinia also produce coffees. The type of bean varies by country; both arabica and robusta are grown here. Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania tend to grow arabica, but the rest of central Africa tends to grow a mixture or mostly robusta. Uganda is another major producer.
South Asia/Pacific Islands
Coffees from the South Pacific are well known -- especially those from Java! Sumatran coffee is another popular local variety; Indonesia is one of the biggest coffee producers in the world. Most of the coffee grown in this region is robusta.
United States
Only one state out of fifty has a climate appropriate for growing coffee -- Hawaii! Coffee grows on one side of Big Island (Hawaii), and Kona coffee is some of the rarest in the world; look for "100% Kona Coffee" on the label to make sure you're getting the real deal.
Pods
Coffee pods are convenient ways to make espresso one by one with no mess and no grinding. While the result is not as good as freshly ground beans, it's convenient and the quality is decent. Pods only work with espresso machines specifically made for pods.
Fair Trade, Shade Grown, and Organic
Coffee growers have come under intense scrutiny in the last decade or so for their labor practices. You might have noticed that some of the coffee even in your local supermarket is now labeleled "Fair Trade Certified" -- but maybe you wondered what that means. Basically, Fair Trade Certification guarantees that the laborers and farmers receive a fair price for their coffee beans, not an artificially low price due to the glut of cheap robusta coffee on the market. Fair Trade coffee growers have greater stability within their families and Fair Trade practices can benefit and strengthen entire communities.
Another increasingly common label on coffee is "shade grown" or "bird friendly" . Modern coffee farms often clearcut areas of rainforest to plant coffee bushes. Direct sunshine causes the coffee to ripen more quickly, but the habitat devastation can have a considerable impact on the population of birds, insects and other wildlife. Shade grown coffee is grown the traditional way -- under a canopy of trees. This keeps more of the habitat intact, and while the coffee takes longer to ripen, it is often considered to be of superior quality.
You might also see coffee labeled "organic" . Organic coffee may also be free trade or shade-grown, but one does not always imply the other. Organic simply means that the coffee was grown in accordance with organic farming practices; essentially, no artificial chemical fertilizers or pesticides were used on the coffee. Organic farming practicies are also beneficial to the environment.
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