December 13th, 2009 by editor
I am simply amazed at the variety of coffee lovers’ gift baskets that are available today. One of my real coffee-loving friends had an upcoming birthday, and I had determined that I would send him a gift basket made up of coffee and coffee items. We had shared many cups of coffee over the years, and it seemed like an appropriate and thoughtful gift for my old friend.
The idea sounded simple enough, I thought. I would just go online, find a nice coffee gift basket and have it sent to him. Problem solved! That was before I discovered how many choices there were available. It was a mind-boggling array.
I had the option of choosing a gift basket that was already made up and consisted of a variety of gourmet coffees. I had the option of choosing a gift basket that I could determine which coffees…
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December 11th, 2009 by editor
I have friends who merely like coffee, and then I have friends who are true coffee lovers but are stuck on only one kind of coffee. I also have a few friends who are real coffee lovers and who also have adventuresome taste buds. They are the ones who go to Starbucks and order a different coffee every time. This last group is the one that I send gourmet coffee gifts to.
Coffee, you see, is a universal beverage. Coffee is served in some form in almost every country on this planet. Coffee that is served in different parts of the world bear little resemblance to one another, and yet they are all coffee. Coffees made from coffee beans that are grown in different regions of the world have tastes that are unique. For example, a Jamaican Blue coffee bears no resemblance to Turkish coffee.
Those who…
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December 7th, 2009 by editor
I have a dotty old uncle who lives alone and drinks his coffee right out of the coffee pot. He doesn’t bother to pour his coffee into a cup…maybe washing a coffee cup just makes more work…who knows?
Most people, however, prefer to drink their coffee out of a coffee cup or a coffee mug. It is the civilized thing to do.
When people buy place settings of fine china of just a set of everyday dishes, the thing that determines their choice is the shape and size of the cup. After all, plates, bread plates, soup or cereal bowls, saucers, and other pieces in a place setting or set of dishes are all pretty much the same. They may come in varying sizes and the patterns are different, but still they are all basically the same design. Only the cups are different. The size and shape of the cup and the handles…
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December 5th, 2009 by editor
I love my coffee mug! I use it everyday. There isn’t anything particularly fancy or special about my coffee mug, except that is my coffee mug and it holds enough coffee to actually do some good, unlike those itty bitty cups with the tiny little handles that my wife prefers. I hate those cups. My fingers get stuck in the handles and they don’t hold enough coffee.
Not that I have ever paid a lot of attention to my coffee mug. It is just there every morning. I fill it up with coffee and carry it around with me from room to room as I prepare to go to work, or it sits within easy reach as I read my newspaper. It keeps the coffee hot for awhile, and I don’t have to refill it but just occasionally.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the coffee…
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November 25th, 2009 by editor
The aroma of freshly ground coffee beans is like no other aroma on earth. It is almost intoxicating, and certainly warm and inviting. That aroma that has an underlying nutty essence is unquestionably one of the most pleasant odors on earth.
That wonderful aroma is likely one of the reasons that so many people now own coffee bean grinders and grind their own beans to make every pot of coffee.
Grinding coffee isn’t a new thing. In the old days, people actually used a bowl and pestle to grind coffee as well as wheat and corn. Using a bowl and a pestle to grind coffee required muscle power and time…a lot of time. As mankind got smarter, hand grinders were invented that made the task of grinding coffee much less physically challenging as well as quicker.
Manual coffee grinders were used for many, many years. In most of the old western shoot-em-ups, if you look closely at the general-store scenes you will be able to spot an old-fashioned manual coffee grinder.…
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November 11th, 2009 by editor
Mankind (and womankind) has been drinking coffee for thousands of years. There are several stories about how the coffee bean was discovered and by whom, but it doesn’t really matter much. Today coffee is brewed and severed in countries around the world.
Coffee is named many times for the region in which the beans are grown; Blue Jamaican Coffee, for example. Sometimes, though, coffee is named for the country or area that brews it; Turkish coffee, Italian coffee, etc. Coffees are varied, and so are the methods used for brewing it.
Turkish Briki: The coffee that is used in the Briki is powdered. It takes between 7 and 11 minutes to make a cup of coffee using the Briki. The coffee is very strong but clear.
Espresso Machine: Very fine coffee grounds are used in an espresso machine. It takes between 12 and 17 minutes to make 5 cups (4 oz) of coffee using an espresso machine. The coffee is very strong and muddy.
French Press Plunger: This coffee pot…
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November 7th, 2009 by editor
- Image by &y via Flickr
Do you love espresso coffee so much that you thought about trying to claim Starbucks as a dependent on your income tax this year? Okay, maybe it is time for you to consider buying your own espresso maker so that you can make espresso at home and save yourself a lot of money in the process.
Granted, the price of an espresso machine is going to put a dent in your wallet but it really won’t take very long for you recover the investment when you start making your own delicious coffee at home rather than buying it already made for you at those big chain coffee shops.
The first thing that you will need to decide about the espresso coffee maker that you will buy is what size machine will best serve your needs. Espresso machines are sized by the number of cups of coffee that…
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