Coffee Talk- Speak the Language

The challenge is to make espresso taste exactly the way ground coffee smells by extracting the maximum flavour from the bean while leaving behind bitter compounds and caffeine. Nothing is as bad as bad espresso. It is an intense unpleasantness that is difficult to remove from your palate. On the other hand, if it is made correctly the perfect espresso is delicious and exotic. Here are some key words that may help you communicate with other espresso enthusiasts.

Fragrance	The fragrance released when hot water hits the ground coffee. The first judge of the flavours released from the bean comes from the aroma and will tell you a great deal about the coffee’s freshness and personality. Words used to describe the aroma include “delicate”, “moderate”, “strong”, “rich”, “fragrant” or “complex”.
Aroma	The fragrance released when hot water hits the ground coffee. The first judge of the flavours released from the bean comes from the aroma and will tell you a great deal about the coffee’s freshness and personality. Words used to describe the aroma include “delicate”, “moderate”, “strong”, “rich”, “fragrant” or “complex”.
Body	The “body” of a coffee describes the weight and texture of the coffee in the mouth and on the tongue. It can range from heavy and full to light and thin. A full-bodied coffee has a rich texture and heaviness on the tongue, with a taste that lingers. Coffee lacking body is thin and watery.
Crema	Espresso coffee should have a golden coloured layer of foam called “crema”. Crema looks a little like honey coloured beaten egg white, but is in fact a product of the oil in the beans. The most delicate of the aromatic flavours are captured in the crema for just a moment, savoured at once and then remembered in the sweet lingering aftertaste. An espresso without crema has not been properly made.
Acidity	The word “acidity” is often used to describe coffee. The acidity of a coffee refers to the pleasingly crisp, sharp taste of it. Acidity is more of a sensation than a taste and is experienced on the roof of the mouth and the tip of the tongue. Coffee without acidity tends to taste flat, lacking a pleasant palate cleansing aspect. Roasting eliminates some of the coffee beans’ acidity, so a light roasted coffee will contain the highest amount of acidity and is said to have a lot of “bite”.
Flavour	This refers to the total impression of the aroma, acidity and body. A coffee that has a well-balanced flavour has the qualities of acidity, body and flavour that all must play in harmony so that no one element predominates at the expense of another. The tasting terminology used to describe coffee characteristics is very similar to that of fine wine.

CUBA Coffee harvesting starts, NICARAGUA Conacafe updates build up its estimates, COLOMBIA Coffee producers still confident how to approach target

NICARAGUA Conacafe changes build up this estimatesCoffee production into Nicaragua might become more popular more than previously expected, after rains into the flowering time boosted production. CUBA Coffee harvesting starts into Guantanamo. VIETNAM Ministry as to Agriculture To launch mechanization system. COLOMBIA Coffee producers still confident how to contact target. PAPUA new GUINEA Coffee as well as cocoa growers To aid out of. BRAZIL frigid weather expected over the weekend. ...

NICARAGUA Conacafe changes build up this estimates
Coffee production in Nicaragua might become more popular more than previously expected, after rains into the flowering period boosted production.
Coffee production on the stream crop year went probably jump To 2.28 million 46-kilogram (101-pound) bags, said Luis Osorio, technical secretary of Conacafe, the nations biggest coffee- growers group.
Conacafe last year forecast output as to 1.8 mill bags being the stream crop, up from 1.4 mill bags to the previous season, Osorio said.
CUBA Coffee harvesting starts on Guantanamo
Cubas coffee harvest being This year's-2011 cycle should be between 20 and also 25 percent higher than the unfavorable showing final year, said Ramon Frometa Ordunez, a deputy minister as to agriculture.
VIETNAM Ministry as to Agriculture how to launch mechanization system
Vietnam's Ministry as for Agriculture and Rural progress is launching a mechanization system focusing major crops liking rice, sugarcane, corn as well as coffee. using 2015, Vietnam believes it may achieve 70% mechanization in rice cultivation.
According how to Fao estimate, amount as to agricultural tractors on Use on Vietnam is approximately 163,000 items, and also amount of combine harvester - threshers is 223,000 items.
apart from out of using combined harvesters, Vietnam is also pushing as the Use of machinery in producing rice seeds. by the same time, lots of as for the milling adaptation into the country in most cases are at least 50 years old and also could no longer be as efficient a warm or hot environment the new-generation adaptation created.
Vietnam has regarding 1,300 companies producing agricultural machinery and also competing for the market. rather the agricultural equipment production rate doesn't suffice the demand.
The country imports more than 60% as for agricultural production machinery from China. Many components used how to produce machinery locally have to be also Chinese imports.
Experts NOTE, that every for a ‘allowed-to-Vietnam combine harvester this three lots of valuable sections in most cases are imported. Shops always import second hand engines out of Japan and South Korea and gear boxes and also chains out of China.
Within 5-year period Vietnam imported 12thousand items as to ag. machines (brand new as well as second hand). which accounts only 2-3% of all ag. machines in usage. The significant part as to machines in Use into Vietnam is old and also rebuilding rate is low.
COLOMBIA Coffee producers still confident To contact target
Colombia coffee producers in most cases are confident that bean output could hit 6 million bags in the last six months on the year do to dry weather between September as well as Apr given coffee flowers how to open the end result into a greater amount of berries.
PAPUA brand new GUINEA Coffee as well as cocoa growers how to help from world Bank approach
Coffee and also cocoa growers on Papua brand new Guinea went aid from a 25 mill US dollar layout funded using the areas Bank group.
The newspaper, The National, says the fund i has approved beneath the areas Banks productive partnerships on agriculture plan, as this this aims To help the livelihoods of rural PNG communities.
The world Bank says the funds in most cases are purposely as rural refinement projects into the agriculture market, particularly coffee and cocoa production use smaller holder growers to rural communities.
this acknowledged which over 80% of Papua new Guineans lived on rural parts who probably are largely contingent at agriculture being livelihood as well as that corroborating rural populations i has imperative how to both social progression as well as economic growth.
BRAZIL frigid weather anticipated over the weekend
A frigid spell will reach coffee growing areas in the time of the weekend into states like us Parana and also Minas Gerais, according how to weather forecasters..
there's a skinny chance of frost to isolated parts, local private weather assistance Somar said Wednesday.
Temperatures will drop To night-time lows on past 3 degrees Celsius in aspects like us Pocos de Caldas on southern Minas Gerais.
The threat as to frost will be isolated how to a couple coffee increasing regions at high altitudes and certainly not widespread, meteorologists say.
Brazil's arabica coffee (Brazilian Santos harvest is into full swing favoured by the dry weather.
INDONESIA Coffee exporters stockpiling beans To meet forward contracts
Unseasonably heavy rains brought using La Nina went go on across Indonesia for the Rest of this year, the countrys state weather agency said on a forecast issued by Wednesday.
Indonesia has seen mizzle keep up after the normal finish on the wet season into Apr.
indiana Ouput of certified coffee by use of rocket up
Indias output on ‘certified coffee' meeting specific environment as well as social welfare standards is predicted by about 18,000 tonnes as 2010-11, against with regards to 14thousand tonnes to 2009-10.
This amounts how to regarding 8 per cent on the country's coffee exports.
Tata Coffee is biggest producer of certified coffee via an output estimated at 9,000 tonnes.”
According how to company sources, the remaining 9,000 tonnes of certified coffee is expected how to avail mainly from the following places: Ned Commodities (3,500 tonnes), Ecom Gill (1,700 tonnes), ABC Group (1,600 tonnes), Savamalai Estates (1,000 tonnes), Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation (500 tonnes) and also Carrara Group Estates (350 tonnes).
Ned Commodities and also ECOM could be Netherlands-located and also Swiss-located export houses, respectively, that have on been organising farmers, both as individuals as well as groups, To increase certified coffee.
lots of as for the coffee is exported how to Europe.
According To Utz Certified, worldwide sales as for its certified coffee on the year ended June 30 amounted how to 58,800 tonnes against 43,300 tonnes into the same period a year ago. Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee sold worldwide was estimated at about 87thousand tonnes on 2009.
ASIA Laos increasing its exports To Japan
According how to a report out of the Laos Coffee partnership, Laos exported 1,300 tons as to Arabica coffee To Japan over the first six months as to this year valued at US$2.4 million, increasing out of 1thousand tons on 2009.

CoffeeCaffeine.com offers a wide selection on Gourmet Coffees, Flavored Coffees, Coffee Blends, Green Beans, Fair sell Coffee, Organic Coffee, Coffee News, Coffee videos, and much more at http://www.coffeecaffeine.com

Health Effects of Coffee

Reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease and Dementia,  

Reduced risk of Parkinson's disease

...and more....

 

Coffee and chocolate are the key to long life

Live Long with Coffee

Finca de Conception makes it on Survivor Video

 View the entire video....see Finca de Concepcion, Click Here --->>>Ometepe-Conception Volcano ---On Survivor Video

Poop-coffee war pits purists vs. producers Producers breed civets to harvest beans from their dung; Experts cry foul

Poop-coffee war pits purists vs. producers

Producers breed civets to harvest beans from their dung; Experts cry foul

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38865765/ns/business-going_green/ 

Lovers of the world's most expensive coffee, found half-digested in the dung of the wild civet, fear that its unique taste may be spoiled by planned farming of the animals.

Collectors hunt for the coffee cherries in the droppings of civets in Indonesian plantations to make a brew enriched by the bushy-tailed, cat-like animal's stomach that sells for as much as $770 a kg in London.

But as demand rises, producers have spotted an opportunity to increase supply by breeding the civets in cages and feeding them the coffee cherries. Production has started on a small scale.

Experts say the flavor relies on the civet's finicky feeding habits and varied diet to create the enzymes that enrich fermentation of the beans, so caged animals would produce a different coffee.

"I think wild civets offer more variants to the taste," said specialty coffee expert Edi Sumadi. "Inside the cage, the civets' diet is regulated, they're not free to pick following their instincts, so the enzyme inside their digestive system is monotonous."

Perkebunan Nusantara XII sells the civet coffee for $130 a kg from factories or $250 a kg in cafes on Indonesia's main island of Java, though the price multiplies as exports reach countries such as Korea, Japan, Italy and the United States.

"It's far tastier than any other coffee," said the firm's Danu Rianto. "To maintain high standards we have a standard operating procedure."

The coffee does not appeal to everyone. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took some as a gift on a visit to former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, only to find local media dubb it "crappucino".

But now that Indonesia's highest Islamic authority has certified the brew as no longer "haram", or banned for Muslims, in the world's most populous Muslim nation — so long as the beans are well washed — producers, including Perkebunan Nusantara XII, are eyeing a bigger market.

In Jakarta's cafes, a cup of civet coffee, known as "kopi luwak", sells for around $9 to $11, and is attracting more interest.

"The taste is very smooth, the smell nice, and hey, it's not entirely haram after you wash it," said Andrea Guna, a first-time taster.

"The price is double that of Starbucks, but the taste is way more than double."

Ometepe Island paradise

Ometepe Island - Overview

Ometepe Island is generally included within the archaeological area of “Greater Nicoya,” which also encompasses the Rivas area on the lake shore and descends into Costa Rican Nicoya Peninsula. Due to the deposits of volcanic ash over the millennia, the soil is very fertile, allowing constant planting without fallowing. This rich environment has allowed the island to be continuously inhabited since the Dinarte phase (ca. 2000 – 500 B.C.). There is a classified “Ometepe period” (A.D. 1350–1550)

Most Expensive Coffee !

The most expensive cup of joe, in the minds of many coffee drinkers, is a $4 coffee at Starbucks. Perhaps a half-caf soy almond latte prepared by a favorite barista.


But for serious coffee connoisseurs, people who are looking for a world-class drink rather than a "gourmet" cup, the top fare is made from the highest-quality beans in the world. The beans come from very specific regions and are prized for their unique characteristics. Cultivated on small farms, they are coddled by farmers who care more about quality than quantity.


You wouldn't dare add milk or sugar to coffee of this caliber--it would compete with the beans' natural sweetness, and distinct flavors and aromas.


Taste ten of the most expensive coffees in the world.


Such top-quality coffees are rare--and prices for them are accordingly high. Superior beans command retail prices of over $100 per pound in what the Specialty Coffee Association of America, a Long Beach, Calif.-based trade association, describes as a $11 billion-plus specialty coffee market.


We have searched the specialty coffee market for the priciest coffee in the world--not the most expensive cups of coffee, which can vary by a matter of cents--but the priciest specialty beans.


They include such products as Hacienda la Esmeralda Geisha from Panama, which made news at the end of May when it set an auction record of $50.25 per pound. Praised for its fruit and floral flavors, it retails for more than $100 per pound. There are also novelty coffees, whose prices are influenced not just by quality, but by the romance or uniqueness of their origins.


St. Helena coffee, for instance, is a high-quality coffee grown on the remote South Atlantic island to which Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled in 1815. Then there's the Indonesian Kopi Luwak, a coffee that is only roasted after it's been eaten and excreted by a palm civet.


The U.S. coffee market looks very different today than it did a half-century ago. From the 1950s to the 1990s, a few small roasters managed to obtain high-quality beans for select markets like New York's Little Italy or Berkeley, Calif. But most coffee was sold in cans, and consumers were more concerned with price and consistency than taste.


In 1962, the U.S. reached a peak in per capita coffee consumption: The average person was drinking more than three cups of murky brown swill per day. Despite the proliferation of Starbucks , which was founded in 1971, today the average American drinks less than two cups of coffee per day. That coffee is significantly tastier, however.


Coffee evangelists have long sought to elevate coffee above commodity status. For years, great coffees were blended away, used to make fairly uniform-tasting brews. Little recognition was given to the individual farmer, and the unique flavor profiles of different varieties of coffees, or coffees from different micro-climates, were ignored.


With the specialty coffee boom of the '90s, great beans are now making a more direct journey from crop to cup. Specialty roasters and retailers buy beans directly from the farmers, paying premiums that encourage them to improve growing methods and produce superior beans. The beans are transported and carefully roasted before being sold to consumers. "While you cannot make a mediocre coffee good during the roasting process, you can ruin a great coffee during roasting," said Mike Ferguson of SCAA.


George Howell, founder of the George Howell Coffee Company and its Terroir Coffee brand based in Acton, Mass., emphasizes that coffee is a "noble beverage," worthy of the same respect as fine wine. A 30-year veteran of the coffee industry, he has pushed to decommoditize coffee.


After creating models of economic sustainability for coffee farmers for both the United Nations and the International Coffee Organization, Howell co-founded the Cup Of Excellence program, among the most esteemed award programs for coffees. The strict competition selects the best coffee produced in a country for a particular year. The winners are auctioned off online.


Many of the most expensive coffees in the world are Cup of Excellence winners. In compiling our rankings, we examined auction prices for green (unroasted) beans and spoke to roasters and trade organizations around the country. Only single origin coffees were considered, which means that the beans come from one place. Blends were not considered, because they can contain inferior beans from unidentified sources.


In general, we ranked the coffees by retail price. One exception is El Injerto from the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala, which is not yet available but is expected to retail at more than $50 per pound. The second is Fazenda Santa Ines from Brazil, which has already been bought up and is only available by the cup; we ranked it by its auction price of nearly $50 per pound. We rounded all figures to the nearest dollar.


As expensive as these coffees are, when compared with wine, the best coffee beans are a relative bargain.


"If you pay $10 per pound for the coffee you brew at home, a cup of coffee costs less than a Coke from a 12-pack," Howell points out. Even if you pay twice as much for a pound of beans, an entire pot of coffee will still cost less than a glass of wine from a $10 bottle.


So even at these prices, feel free to drink up.


Taste ten of the most expensive coffees in the world.

Did You Know??? fun facts about coffee

The word "coffee" was at one time a term for wine, but was later used to describe a black drink made from berries of the coffee tree. This black drink replaced wine in many religious ceremonies because it kept the Mohammedans awake and alert during their nightly prayers, so they honored it with the name they had originally given to wine.

Fun Facts about Coffee

The Coffee Plant

Finca de Concepcion does its part to combat Global Warming....One Sip at a Time

Each hectare of coffee produces 86 lbs of oxygen per day, which is about half the production of the same area in a rain forest (source: Anacafe).

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/coffeeplant.htm 

Nicaragua Coffee Crop Seen 63% Bigger After Rain Lifted Yields, Group Says

http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/august/10/centralamerica10081001.htm
MANAGUA (Bloomberg) - Nicaraguan coffee output will likely rise 63 percent in the crop year ending next month, more than previously expected, after rains in the flowering period boosted yields, a growers group said.

Production in the current crop year will probably jump to 2.28 million 46-kilogram (101-pound) bags, said Luis Osorio, technical secretary of Conacafe, the nation’s biggest coffee- growers group. Conacafe last year forecast output of 1.8 million bags for the current crop, up from 1.4 million bags in the previous season, Osorio said.

The Central American country is the world’s 12th largest coffee producer, according to the International Coffee Organization.
 

Mark Twain visits Nicaragua in 1866 - What?... Lives to regret not stopping on the island of Ometepe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080602860.html

By Julian Smith

Special to The Washington Post
Friday, August 6, 2010; 10:48 AM 

Coffee....From Nicaragua or otherwise...The Morning Brew!

Tell me more about Coffee...Read on....

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 countries. Green unroasted coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.^[1] Due to its caffeine content, coffee can have a stimulating effect in humans. Today, coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide.^[2]

Learn about Nicaragua on Wikipedia

Nicaragua at Wikipedia

You might as well be who you are, everyone else is taken

The beginning of Ometepe Coffee

The plants started as seeds in February 2010, here they are as seedlings in June 2010....

Fince Del Concepcion