Organic Decaf Coffee
July 12, 2010
Organic decaf coffee is a decaffeinated coffee that is made from organic coffee beans. It is organic because no chemical is used during the production process. The farmer does not use chemical spray to induce the growth of the coffee bush. Standard coffee contains chemicals such as pesticides, and synthetic fertilizer.
The farmer uses natural fertilizers to feed the coffee plants. They use shaded trees and other types of agricultural tools to increase the productivity of the coffee plants. Organic decaf coffee is environmentally friendly because it helps to reduce the amount of chemical in the ground.
Before the coffee is roast, it undergoes the decaffeinated process. During the decaffeinated process, the coffee color will change from light brown to dark brown. Organic decaf coffee tends to be more expensive because of the care that is undertaken to ensure the organic plant grows well. It takes a lot of time to cultivate organic coffee plant. In addition, the organic coffee plants are imported from a faraway overseas country. The cost of duty import increases the price tag of the beans for the organic decaf coffee.
Decaf organic coffees tend to have a faster roasting time compare with standard coffees. Decaf coffee is different than the standard coffee because of the changes that is made to it during the decaffeinated process. The decaf organic coffee beans have a smooth surface that allows the air to move around. Thus, it prevents the heat from transferring to them.
Decaf organic coffee beans have a darker color so they are harder to roast. When roasting decaf coffee beans, make sure you pay attention to the crack sound. If your hear crack sound from the coffee beans, it means that it is completely roasted. The aroma of the coffee beans can also help you to determine if the coffee is roasted. Roasted decaf coffee has a strong aroma. The oil will emerge on the surface of the decaf coffee beans. The emergence of the oil is caused by the broken cell walls of the coffee beans after the process. After the roasting process, the cell wall of the coffee beans will become more fragile and easier to rupture. The oil will cause the coffee beans to become stale when it comes into contact with oxygen.
Coffee Storage
June 22, 2010
In order to relish and enjoy the delicious taste of coffee you should make best use of coffee storage methods. Coffee storage is a must for preserving the taste of coffee. When you are investing so much money in purchasing or cultivating coffee you should also take steps to ensure that coffee retains its delicious taste.
There are different coffee storage methods for storing different varieties of coffees. Coffee beans should always be stored in airtight glass vessels or containers in order to keep them away from moisture and air so that they wont get affected by them.
Types of Coffee Storage
Coffee storage is done in various forms and methods depending on the types of coffee you are using. The following are some of the methods of coffee storage.
Standard Ground Coffee Storage
Ground coffee should not be stored in fridge because it will be exposed to water and oxygen. It will also be difficult for ground coffee to retain its flavor as it quickly catches up other flavors. At the most one can store ground coffee in a fridge for not more than two months. If stored for long oils in the coffee break down thus affecting its flavor. Ground coffee storage is best done with the help of zip lock bags. Ground coffee should be put in airtight zip lock bags so that it wont get in touch with water, moisture and air.
Coffee always has capacity to pick up flavors of other items in the freezer even though the items in the freezer are frozen. Coffee in the zip lock should be stored in such a way that the air is sucked out completely from the bag and then the bag is wrapped some more times making it totally air tight.
Whole Bean Coffee Storage
Storing coffee in the form of whole beans is the most effective and preferable method. Purchasing only sufficient amount of roasted whole beans and then grinding them before you brew is the best option. If whole bean coffee has to be stored for more than three weeks then one should store it in a dark airtight container. One should take steps to minimize the exposure of coffee to external atmosphere like oxygen, water, sunlight, heat and other types of odors and flavors.
Green Bean Coffee Storage
Unroasted or green coffee beans must be stored stable environment and more commonly they are stored in jute or paper bags. This method enables coffee to be stored for more than two years under these conditions.
Full sun grown coffee beans
June 18, 2010
People living in various regions in different parts of the world enjoy and relish the delicious taste and rich aroma and fragrance of the coffee many times a day without even sparing a thought on from where the coffee is cultivated, harvested, produced, roasted and reach finally to your dining room.
Coffees whether it is coffee Arabica or coffee robusta the two most popular types of coffee seeds are generally produced in high altitudes and in congenial and special environment and climate. These plants require shaded region especially coffee arabica as they cannot survive direct sunlight and high temperatures. So majority of coffee plants are cultivated and harvested in wet region and grown under shaded trees.
Coffee arabica is grown under shaded regions in most of the regions like Central America, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and Columbia along with India. In all the other parts of the world coffee arabica is grown in full sun shade.
Features of Sun Grown Coffee beans
The advent of technology and innovative techniques led to many new growing and cultivating methods of coffee plantation. The green revolution in the world during the 70’s led to this new method of cultivation. Full sun grown coffee produces faster results and the quality of the product better than the shade grown coffee. Full sun grown coffee is also cost effective and the yield produced by full sun grown coffee is very high compared to shade grown coffee.
Even though full sun grown coffee has lot of advantages and has gained lot of popularity and thrust with various coffee growing countries the global warming and environmental problem led them back to square one. For the cultivation of full sun grown coffee you need to cut lot of trees and plants as the cultivation mandates large areas for the production and cultivation of coffee.
This led to lot of destruction of forests and plants for the creation of full sun grown coffee farms. The coffee plants in the farms also require lot of chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers for the protection of coffee beans getting affected from direct sun rays. This led to lot of ecological and environmental imbalances and pollution of the environment. Now people are advised to turn back to traditional and conventional methods of coffee cultivation to protect the environment even though the coffee costs more for the end users. The farmers are even given concessions for following traditional methods compared to full sun grown coffee.
Organic Coffees
February 15, 2010
With the advent of technologies and advancement of modern day agriculture there are lot of different methods of growing and cultivating coffee. Depending on the type of method and technique used in the growing of coffee, the coffee is named after them.
Organic coffee is one such coffee where coffee is produced with out using any artificial methods and techniques. This means growth of coffee using organic farming methods and techniques without using artificial pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. There are different certifications available in growing organic coffee that include organic, shade grown and fair trade. Even products or farms that implement socially responsible or ecofriendly activities and methods like soil health, composition and recycling are also termed as organic.
Benefits of Choosing and Drinking Organic Coffee
There are various benefits from choosing and drinking organic coffee. People may think and question about the benefits of organic coffee because organic coffee costs more than the other types of coffee produced using other methods.
The main advantage of drinking organic coffee is that it is free from chemical preservatives and additives and also as it doesn’t contain any fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and all other synthetic substances there are no side effects involved with it. Organic coffee is ecofriendly and is good for health.
Organic coffee is healthier than traditionally grown coffee as it is rich in ingredients like enzymes and natural anti oxidants. Organic coffee is not that easy to produce and for growing organic coffee one should meet the required ecofriendly and environmental standards. Organic coffee must be grown and produced on land for three years with out using any of the artificial substances and chemical pesticides in order to qualify, meet and get the required organic coffee certificate.
The farmers who wish to produce organic coffee requires to maintain a sufficient buffer zone between traditionally grown crop and the organic coffee beans. Farmers should take steps and ensure prevention of soil erosion and depletion of nutrients in the soil and also undertake rotation of crops in order to control pests.
People can really enjoy relish and savor eco friendly organic coffee that is rich in quality, delicious in its unique taste and has no health affecting ingredients. Organic beans are full, rich and have natural robust flavor that attracts each and everyone across the world. So if you want to avoid doctor visits and also contribute your part in making environment ecofriendly then go and purchase organic coffee.
Shade Grown Coffee
February 15, 2010
Coffee that is grown and cultivated under a canopy or shade of trees is known as shade grown coffee. This type of cultivation is also eco friendly and helps in balancing the environment. One can consider shade grown coffee a resultant of agriculture premaculture.
Backdrop of shade grown coffee origination follows this historical fact. Majority of the original coffee plants that are purchased from the European countries cannot survive in sun. These coffee plants require shaded region to protect them from sun. This prompted people to develop a new type of sun resistant coffee plants.
For the past three decades people are using sun tolerant plants for the cultivation and production of coffee. Even though the quantity and yield produced is more than the original coffee plants they are producing negative effects on the environment.
So again people are promoting the shade grown coffee plants and taking steps to facilitate its growth.
Different Methods of growing coffee
There are different methods of growing shade grown coffee. They include rustic method, traditional polyculture, commercial polyculture and shaded monoculture.
Rustic method is used for cultivating small family farms. In this method coffee is cultivated in the existing forests with the help of naive vegetation alteration. There will be different diverse species of trees.
Traditional polyculture involves growing coffee trees along with the combination of plant trees, plant species and native forest trees and vegetation. In the commercial polyculture many trees are removed to facilitate growth of coffee plants on a large commercial scale as the name suggests by planting fruit and timber trees.
In the shaded monoculture plantings of coffee is done on a dense scale making use of heavily pruned one or two species of trees in between.
Advantages of shade grown coffee
There are various advantages of shade grown coffee. With growing awareness among the customers and farmers people are going back to the traditional ways of growing coffee. This is ecofriendly and there won’t be any environmental and ecological hazards. Even though this produces fewer yields this is the best way of becoming ecofriendly.
Coffee is always grown in rich and dense forests and trees like Amazon forests. Only recently people have started growing coffee using sun tolerant trees. So reverting back to shade grown coffee production is not a problem and by doing this one can contribute to saving the planet and the world from the after effects of pollution for the benefit of mankind.
Facts About The Coffee Plant
December 13, 2009
There are many people who start their day by enjoying the sip of delicious coffee. Even though they savor every bit of it, many of them are not aware of the basic history and some interesting facts about coffee plant.
Coffee originated from coffee plants present in the tropical forests of Africa. You will be surprised to know that there are more than 25 different types of coffee plant is available out of which only two are commercially grown and reaches our coffee cups.
Types of Coffee Plants
The most popular coffee plants are arabica coffee plant and robusta coffee plant. One can even grow coffee plants in houses. Coffee Arabica grows like a single trunk with branches separating from the trunk. Coffee Arabica has the qualities of complex delicious taste and very rich flavor.
Coffee Robusta has the appearance of the shrub with small branches and has high caffeine content. Coffee Robusta can’t compete with Coffee Arabica in terms of quality, content, taste and flavor.
Indoor Coffee Plants
With the advent in technology one can now even think of growing coffee plants indoor. People who whish to have fresh coffee can grow coffee plant indoors. Coffee plant grows only in simulated and special climatic conditions, so in order to have that climate one should grow coffee plant in a container. The following are the instructions for growing coffee plant indoors.
Place the coffee beans in one inch of water inside a container. The beans should be soaked till you can see a white growth at one side of the beans. Generally it takes two days for the white growth to appear on the side of the beans.
Once the white growth is noticed, the seeds are sowed under 1-1/2 inch soil filled in a pot. The seeds should be watered and the pot must be covered on the top. You can cover the top with the help of plant tent or even plastic cover or wrap can be used for the purpose. The seeds should be watered in order to keep the soil moist. The seeds in the pot germinate in around two months.
The pot covering must be removed once the seeds get big enough for the covering. The soil should be remained moist so as to enable the growth of the coffee plant. It takes a few months for you to see plant leaves on the seeds.
Fertilizers should be added during the month of spring so that the plants are nourished and grows at faster rate.
The pot should be placed in such a way that it receives sunlight. If it is not possible then you can even use grow light so that ultra violet rays falls on the coffee plant.
Coffee Cultivation
December 8, 2009
Coffee cultivation is the most popular in many countries across the world. In as many as 70-80 countries coffee cultivation is taking place. Coffee cultivation is mostly done with coffee arabica and coffee canephora types of coffee plants. Coffee cultivation is done mainly in combination with other types of crops like rice, beans and corn during the initial stages of cultivation.
There are different methods of coffee cultivation and one selects the suitable method based on their requirements and needs. If selected properly and done with care it is the most profitable form of business.
Process of Coffee Cultivation
The process of coffee cultivation is quite tedious and time consuming. The best growth of coffee plant can be noticed on vast fields with deep soils, which are well aerated and well drained. This is because the coffee plants finds need of good air and oxygen circulation on their roof systems.
Depending on the method and type of farming used the coffee cultivation can turnout to be very time-consuming that stipulates handwork and labor. Environment where temperatures don’t fluctuate too much and will be around 15-24 degrees is the most ideal for the coffee cultivation. This is the reason why coffee plant is found in abundance in the countries present near the equator.
Generally coffee plants are cultivated in large plantations. The coffee plant requires 1500mm-2000mm amount of rainfall so that best results are obtained. The farmers who are into the business of coffee plantation and coffee cultivation should make sure that the plants get sufficient amount of shaded sunlight, quality fertilizers and regular amounts of water supply.
The farmers should also take care in abundance that they are free from weeds and pests so that the best results are obtained. The time needed for coffee flowers is normally 6-8 weeks and the entire harvesting process lasts as long as nine months depending on various external and other environmental factors.
Then the red coffee fruits on the coffee plant take more than six to eight months to ripen and farmers here should be extremely cautious and vigilant as the fruits will over ripe and get spoiled with in fourteen days. Expert laborers should handpick the coffee fruits and the coffee seeds present in the fruits as the mechanical device is not that effective.
This process requires expert evaluation of each coffee fruit. Then the coffee beans are harvested involving roasting and drying readying them for fresh harvesting.
