Brew a Perfect Pot of Coffee

 

Coffee Beans and coffee cup

To keep coffee fresh, keep it in a cool, dry, dark area of your kitchen but not in the refrigerator.  I was raised believing the refrigerator was the best place to keep ground coffee until ready to use it -- my mother and grandmother both did that.

When to Refrigerate Coffee -- Never, unless you are conducting a science experiment on how long it takes to ruin perfectly good coffee. The fridge is one of the absolute worst places to put coffee.-- source: coffeeam.com

Valve-Sealed Bags are best.   I have bought vacuum-sealed beans many times thinking such beans stay fresh longer.  Wrong again.  Now I know to look for bags that are sealed with valves.

Vacuum-sealed coffee does not equal fresh coffee. When coffee is roasted, it releases carbon dioxide and continues to release it for days afterward. Fresh-roasted coffee can be packaged in valve-sealed bags to allow the gasses to escape and will taste best about 48 hours after roasting.-- coffeam.com

How to Grow Coffee Trees

A coffee tree or plant is a tropical evergreen shrub that yields beans for ten years but may live more than 60 years and get 40 feet tall.  The coffee beans begin to appear on a young coffee plant 6 years old and stop producing after ten years.  Coffee trees older than 16 years become shade producers but that's about it.

If you have a tropical climate (70 degrees average) and want to grow a coffee plant, keep the plant down to six feet tall to get the best yield and to make it easier to harvest. "Rainfall should be plentiful and the weather should switch between heavy rainfall and sunshine to bring the berries to full maturity" (source: www.thegardenhelper.com)

According to most sources, coffee plants don't care what the soil is like as long as there is not standing water.  Without excellent drainage, the coffee plants will not flourish.

Recommendation from www.thegardenhelper.com: 

Coffee plants are fairly easy to grow in the home as a potted specimen, but they should be moved outdoors for the summer if possible. They grow best in filtered sunlight, with night temperatures in the lower to mid 60s and day temperatures of 70F or higher. Plant them in any good commercial, fast draining potting soil . The soil should be kept on the moist side, but never soggy.
Coffee plants will produce fruit without any fertilizing whatsoever, but for best results and maximum yield, they should be fed every 2 weeks from March to October, and then monthly from November through February. Use a soluble, all purpose (10-10-10) fertilizer.

Coffee: a Social Drug

Meet a friend in a coffee shop anywhere at anytime of time and 95% of the time, the friends will order coffee, even if they really don't want it or even end up drinking it.' Coffee sets the stage for conversation. 'Let meet for coffee,' a friend will say and that means 'we need to talk on a serious note.'

'I am going out for a cup of coffee somewhere and try to get my head together,' a confused mother might say. She means 'I want to escape somewhere where no one can find me for an hour or so.'


I wonder if we coffee lovers would use coffee as a social get-together if child labor was used to get the coffee beans.  For instance, in the early 1900s in America, child labor was used to sort out the coffee beans from the sweepings of the coffee manufacturer plant. 

From what I read at the Library of Congress, these children worked after school and on Saturdays and added their income to the family piggy bank.

Turk's Head Coffee Houses in 1700s

This is a sketch of one of the many coffee houses known as Turk's Head Coffee House; this building is in Westminster.  (Note: Another coffee house also known as Turk's Head sold gourmet coffees, chocolates, and teas.)  

 I don't know if Turk's Head Coffee House was a chain like Starbucks's, but there were quite a few of them.  Altogether at least two thousand (2000) coffee houses were in business in London by 1700 A.D.


Considering that coffee by the pound cost as much as a working man's used winter coat, London residents must have been for the most part well-off financially at that time. Hey, wait a minute. Less than a pound of coffee costs us as much as a used winter coat too. 

Coffee houses were attended by people who wanted to discuss politics, science, poetry, literature and the like.

Some information from A History of Coffee Houses, Ayton Ellis, 1956

Benchmark Coffee

Typical home in the Ozark hills and valleys up until all the dams were built and large lakes replaced them.

This home is self-sufficient. Not on the grid. You may or may not be invited in for coffee unless it is morning or evening and all chores are done.

With the addition of some self-generated electricity to run a light and both our computers, I could very happily live in this little cabin.  I would also want it in a small clearing back in the woodlands.

This blog is all about coffee.  Coffee is the hub around which I'll write things here.  This is a benchmark change in Coffee Cup Cafe blog.  Really do hope you'll hook on.

Campfire Coffee Best Worst Coffee

Campfire coffee is the best worst coffee I have ever enjoyed. Coffee tasting like hard-boiled campfire coffee on a coffee break at the office is deplorable.  We feel ripped off -- a good cup of coffee is as much a psychological state as it is physical.

However, hang a kettle of mountain stream water over a low campfire until it reaches the hot state and adding a handful of coffee grounds to the kettle and setting it aside on a rock -- that is almost 100% delicious yet powerful and strong at the same time.

I was going to include the recipe for campfire coffee but realize now that I already did in the previous paragraph.  I can't add to that recipe at all.  Just making coffee outside is in itself a pleasant experience and I don't know if it's the fresh air and open atmosphere or not, but campfire coffee is always savored.

Growing a Great Cup of Coffee 3

Ah, the beautiful full-bodied coffee tree.  Yes, that is a coffee tree in the photo on the left.  When left unattended, a coffee tree can grow to about 40 ft.


Experienced coffee tree plantations like to keep their coffee trees at about six feet tall; the coffee tree yields double the beans when the tree is pruned right.

I am almost obsessed with fixing the perfect cup of coffee and I try, but do not always succeed, to fix that perfect cup about 12 times a day.

The coffee must be freshly ground and the water cool and clear.  when I add whipping cream to the hot coffee, the coffee must become one particular color for me to know, yes, that's perfect.

How to Get More from Hazelnut Coffee Beans

Last year I could buy all the Hazelnut coffee beans I wanted; this year, I buy only one bag of coffee beans every few weeks and the coffee beans are not always Hazelnut.

I found this image of an old metal sign that probably sat in a cafe somewhere at sometime in the past.  Now it is replicated and sold for decoration.

I believe one good cup of coffee deserves another and always have.  Like right now, I'm going to get another good cup of coffee and post this.