I think I'm qualified to provide some input here. I own a coffee plantation in central america. It's not my core business; it is on some land I bought. I have learned much about coffee in the past 8 years. The most highly coveted commercially available coffee beans come from the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica (mon!). The highest price per pound coffee beans this past season came from costa rica. But there's much more to coffee then the beans and you don't have to go out and buy $40/ pound beans (or $400/ pound beans) to have good coffee. The big bag of 8 O'Clock coffee from your local grocery can and will make very good coffee if you put some planning and effort into it. You can make very good tasting coffee at home by following some simple steps... A major factor in the flavor of your coffee is the water. Shit water makes shit coffee. I have a reverse osmosis plant at my house and that's all I use for making coffee. If you like good coffee, you can get a RO plant for under $500. For more flavor per quantity of beans, set your system to grind fine (espresso setting or similar). The finer you grind the beans the more flavor you get from them. If you grind the beans immediately prior to brewing the coffee, that's much better then grinding the beans say a week in advance. Don't be shy on how much beans you use. In South Beach we drink a shot at a local coffee bar (11th & Collins if you go there) that give you about a 3 day buzz! While you don't have to "get that high" on coffee, if you use more beans then most people use I think you'll find it's better tasting coffee. Don't keep heating the coffee after you brew it. Continuing to "cook" the coffee is very bad for it. I have a cuisinart machine that grinds whole beans immediately before brewing and the coffee goes right into an insulated thermos decanter; no warmer to ruin it and it stays very hot very long. I can program it the night before and it grinds the beans immediately before brewing; nothing better. I paid $200 for mine at Macy's about 5 years ago at Christmas when this product had first come out. It still works great today. I see the price has come down. http://www.cuisinart.com/catalog/product.php?product_id=14&item_id=34&cat_id=3 My RO plant is made by GE. They make "whole house" systems and they also make smaller systems, which I have. It is piped to my refrigerators (ice and drinking water in the doors) plus a RO spigot at each of five sinks. When a storm is coming I draw 10 gallons. Cheers!
Even more highly prized and much more expensive coffee is (and you won't believe this unless you've already seen The Bucket List): <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak">Cat Poop Coffee</a> I am not making this up.
I'm interested in showing/telling barristas how to create the la crema (the chocolate colored foam on top -- kind of like icing on the cake). Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks.
I make an awesome dessert for dinner parties. Use the cream part of it: Vanilla Ice Cream (good stuff; not cheap) Fresh berries - blue/ black/ straw One Quart heavy whipping cream Frozen mixing bowl & beaters Mixer Lots of sugar Chocolate syrup Cherries Wash & cut up the strawberries, place in bowl with other berries. Add lots of sugar and let sit in fridge 4-12 hours before serving. In frozen mixing bowl, add cream and beat slowly until it starts to increase in volume. Add lots of sugar. Beat at high speed until it grows real big then stops growing. Scoop ice cream into bowls. Top with lots of fruit. Top with lots of whipped cream. Top with chocolate syrup and a cherry. I would imagine you could add a little chocolate syrup to the cream when you add the sugar. You should chill the syrup first though. I would also suggest topping it with some grated Baker's Chocolate (I like the dark chocolate in the brown box). The whipped cream has lasted up to three days here and been fine. I would imagine if kept cold (34F) it should keep for a week which means if you make a batch on the weekend you could have it all week long. Please let us know how it comes out.
Mm, Mmm! Visualizes fantastically! (I'm just trying to justify 3-5 minutes of savory experience versus the 90 minutes of huffing and puffing on the StairMaster at level 10 to take it off) The la crema I'm interested in is usually found on an Americano or espresso shot poured in regular coffee (also known as: Shot in the Dark; Depth Charge; Roadrunner; Hammerhead; Sludge Cup).
Nice thread! Thanks for the tips. You got me thinking how to design a little lab roaster to get those beans to 420 Deg using my industrial heat gun... a little Microchip micro to control the roast with a couple of IR thermocouples ought to do the trick...
Nope! Not what I'm looking for. Unbelievable! Nobody knows what "crema" is? This is like the crown jewel of coffee drinking! Wait a second... I may have found my niche... Forbes 400 here I come!
Nanook, crema is the light creamy foam on top of espresso. Nothing extra, it is part of the process. If you make a cup and do not drink it soon, the crema goes away. Very hard to serve espresso with crema if you try to serve a large amount of people.