Get Fresh Tips Every Week!
Don't Miss Any Coffee Tips. Subscribe to the Coffee Tip Newsletter.

View Archive

Bookmark This Site
Keep up with our Tips



Tip of the Day RSS Feed
Fresh Coffee Tips Daily


Sponsor Program
Our tips are powerful.
Our writers are experts.
Our results are guaranteed.

 

Listen to our Radio Show
Hot topics for both consumers
and webmarketers
on WebmasterRadio.FM

Every Wednesday, 4PM Eastern.

 

A Coffee-Lovers Love Of Espresso

Espresso grounds, according to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, feel almost like confectioner's sugar in your hand and can be compressed with little effort. The brew from these grounds is heavily extracted and tastes rich and heavy.

Green Mountain’s Dark Magic Extra Bold K-Cup offer the rich aromatics and flavor qualities of espresso, but they are designed for the K-Cup.

If cappuccino is your drink, texturing milk for lattes and cappuccinos is something of an art. The right tools include a 20-ounce steaming pitcher is perfect for steaming and stretching milk for one to four espresso drinks.

Made of durable stainless steel, it features a reverse bell shape — with walls narrowing toward the rim — which helps keep steamed and stretched milk in the pitcher during spinning and twirling. A pouring lip directs textured milk and foam, making it easier to control your pour.

When texturing milk for coffee drinks, start with ice-cold milk and an ice-cold pitcher, too.

Need more milk? Invest in the Bodum Frother, which froths milk quickly and easily. Insert the whip end into cold milk and then push the button. The frother whips into action, creating a nice froth that will last in hot beverages. It works best with cold milk.

Tips For Choosing Your Home Coffee Maker

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Tip: Do you want a function to interrupt the brewing to grab a cup and them resume brewing? This feature is becoming more common, but it is not available on all machines. Do you want to program your machine so coffee is ready when you wake up? How about automatic or programmable
shut off? How about a coffee maker that tells you when it needs to be cleaned? You can order several coffee makers through Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, including the Keurig brewers, which gives you the convenience of single-cup brewing, and CoffeeTEAM by Capresso, which grinds your whole beans and allows you to choose how fine or course you want the grounds, as well as the strength of the brew.

Give The Gift Of Gourmet

The increasing popularity of gourmet coffee has made gourmet coffee gift baskets a popular gift for any occasion, from a birthday to the holidays.

Specialty coffee shops in shopping malls dedicate more space to coffee-related products than they do to the beans or the coffee counter. These include prepackaged gifts at the holidays.

Specialty coffee companies sell their gourmet signature roasts and blends, but many go beyond the bean to provide gifts that complement the coffee. Some also sell food, mugs and products made in the countries that produce gourmet coffee beans.

Are you buying a gift for a dessert coffee drinker? Gourmet coffee companies make it easy to pair it with chocolates, dessert baking mixes, hot chocolate and a mug to drink their evening beverage in.

Gourmet coffee has made coffee a more personal gift because of the many different roasts, flavored coffees, whole beans, fine grinds and coarse grinds. Getting just the right beans shows that you know something about the person to whom you are presenting the gift. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has gourmet coffee gifts for people who drink a little or a lot of coffee, coffee enthusiasts, coffee drinkers who like to make their own mocha by combining coffee and hot chocolate. There is a better world gift basket with organic and fair trade products, coffee cakes, insulated glasses, coffee presses and more.

Single Cup Coffee Means Never Wasting A Pot

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Tip: With single cup coffee makers, you don’t have to make a pot of coffee at all. You choose flavors when you order the single-serving pods. The customer chooses the flavor he or she wants, buys it by the cup, and receives the single serving packet. You also have control over whether the sales staff or the customer makes the coffee. The machines are easy to use and small enough to place near the existing coffee bar. They're also great for easy clean up - just throw the used packet away. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sells single-cup pods, called K-Cups, in traditional, seasonal, flavored, Fair Trade and organic coffees.

You Are Not Alone In Your Love Of Gourmet Coffee

If there is any question whether gourmet coffee is growing in popularity, check to see how many coffee houses are in your town.

Seattle, Wash. gave birth to the café or latte culture in the 1970s to a café or 'latte' culture. This has improved the general quality of the coffee Americans drink, according to the National Coffee Association.

Coffee franchises no longer focus on major metropolitan areas. Today, most public place have at least one coffee cart. Suburbs outside cities, as well as those in more rural areas have some major chains serving coffee. It just took a little longer to get to t hem.

The specialty coffee sector has improved the image of coffee in the eyes of American consumers.

In 1991 it was estimated that there were just 500 gourmet or specialty coffeehouses. By 2005 there were an estimated 10,000 or more. This number excludes coffee carts, kiosks, vending machines and cafes in bookstores, sporting arenas and transportation facilities, which have also grown.

The National Coffee Association predicts that gourmet coffee consumption grew from 12 percent in 2003 to 14 percent in 2004, according to 2004 National Coffee Drinking Trends . Consumer awareness of the origins they drink does lead to product loyalty and the development of a brand image, which only leads to the belief that the gourmet coffee drinking public may continue to grow.

Give Up The Coffee Compromise: Keep it Clean

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Tip: Do you ever forget to remove the filter of wet coffee grinds from your coffee pot? You are probably familiar with the moldy results that are neither pretty nor hygienic. In fact, they are down right nasty. Good news: the growing trend of one-cup coffee makers means that many people no longer have to think about the filter and the grounds because there are none. Instead of filters, the single-cup coffee makers take individual packets of coffee. Operating a single-serve coffee maker is easy and the daily cleanup is minimal. There is also a reduced risk of spills because the machines have a setting for the size of the cup of coffee. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sells Keurig coffee makers along with k cup coffee in varous different roasts, blends and flavors. Choose from Green Mountain coffees, Newman’s Own varieties and more at the company’s website. To make things even more user-friendly, some systems can be attached to the plumbing so you won’t even need to fill the reservoir.

Brew Up Your Favorite Gourmet Coffee Beverage

Gourmet coffee makes a great coffee beverage. Here are a few recipes you might enjoy:

Iced Coffee Recipes

Flavored coffees and decafs make nice great iced coffee cocktails.

Nutty Rainforest Freeze

Flavors: caramel and brazil nuts

To make:

  • 1 cup (6 oz.) Fair Trade Rain Forest coffee (brewed strong)
  • 2 tbsp. cream or half & half
  • 2 tsp. Sugar, or two packets of Splenda
  • Brew fresh coffee, add sweetener to hot coffee.
  • Fill a shaker with ice, add milk or half & half over ice. Add coffee, shake, strain and serve in chilled glass.
Blueberry Rhapsody

  • 1 cup (6 oz.) blueberry coffee (brewed strong)
  • 2 tbsp. cream or half & half
  • 2 tsp. Sugar, or two packets of Splenda
  • Brew fresh coffee, add sweetener to hot coffee. Fill a shaker with ice, add milk or half & half over ice. Add coffee, shake, strain and serve in chilled glass.
  • Garnish with fresh blueberries.
Pecan Praline Dream

  • 1 cup (6 oz.) Southern Pecan coffee (brewed strong)
  • 2 tbsp. cream or half & half
  • 2 tsp. Sugar or two packets of Splenda
  • 1 tsp. coffee caramel sauce
  • Brew fresh coffee
  • Add sweetener to hot coffee.
  • Fill a shaker with ice, add milk or half & half over ice.
  • Add coffee, shake, strain and serve in chilled glass.
  • Then swirl caramel sauce into chilled martini glass before adding strained iced coffee mix.
  • Want a Southern Turtle? Swirl caramel and chocolate sauces in the glass!
For single cup brewers, brew a single cup of your favorite coffee and follow the techniques above.

Corporate Social Responsibility Includes the Office Coffee System

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Tip: Single-pot bags of coffee have improved flavor and consistency in office coffee, but there is nothing like freshly brewed coffee and more offices are investing in one-cup coffee makers, such as Keurig coffee makers. These machines are cleaner because there are no grounds to remove from the filter and no pots to clean. The pot is the employee’s coffee cup. Single-cup brewing means fresh coffee because the coffee is made from single-cup serving pods, or K-Cups for Keurig machines. Keuring and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters make K-Cups in many flavors to give employees more choice during their coffee breaks. They are eliminate the need to replace old coffee pots.

What Makes A Coffee Gourmet

Gourmet, or specialty coffee, is made from beans grown in ideal coffee-producing climates. Start with checking to see if your coffee is made from Arabica beans.

Gourmet coffees tend to feature distinctive flavors, which come from the soil of the coffee growing region that produces them. Beans become gourmet during the “green bean” phase and those beans must have no defects.

Next, comes the roaster’s talent. He or she must bring out the coffee’s distinctive quality and it the roasted bean must be aromatic. Master roasting involves matching roast temperature and time with a given bean to maximize its potential, so that it does not obscure the coffee’s origin flavors and aromas.

There are several things to look for in a gourmet coffee: fragrance, aroma, acidity or brightness that leaves a pleasant taste on the tongue, flavor, body, finish and balance. Truly great specialty coffees have distinct flavor profiles without flavor additives.

In 2005, approximately 15 percent of the adult population in America said they enjoyed a cup of specialty coffee. Gourmet coffee comes from many places. You can get it from a coffee shop, a specialty coffee company or, in come cases, the supermarket.

How Do I Care For My Coffee Machine?

For optimal brewing, it is important to keep your coffee maker clean.

The manuals of coffee makers recommend regular cleaning of the brew basket and carafe. For KitchenAid coffee makers, the recommendation is daily cleaning.

Some new machines come with cleaning needed indicators that alert you that it is time for descaling.

Descaling removes the calcium deposits, or scale, from water can build up in your coffee makers heat pump and can affect the quality of your coffee. Cleaning indicators sense the build up of scale.

To descale your coffee maker, KitchenAid says to ensure the brew basket is empty and then remove the water filter. See manual for instructions.

Run coffee maker through a brewing cycle using a full carafe of a descaling solution or a vinegar/water solution.

If your machine has an indicator, repeat this process until the light goes off.

Rinse the coffee maker by running two full brew cycles using fresh water.

Wash the brew basket and carafe with soapy water and rinse with hot water – or wash in the dishwasher if your coffee maker is dishwasher safe.

Reinstall the water filter. The filter should be replaced every two to three months for regular use.

According to manuals from a Braun coffee maker, using a water filter and exchanging it regularly might eliminate the need to decalcify. If your coffee maker takes longer than usual to brew, consider descaling.





 
Founded in 2000, LifeTips.com, Inc offers custom publishing programs to writers
and businesses that want to share knowledge and advice to millions of readers on
the web, and in printed and digital books.
Privacy Guaranteed.
Satisfaction Required.