Starbucks the big coffee giant is trying something new they are going to start banning high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and dyes and cutting down on artificial preservatives in an effort to make its food more appealing to health-conscious customers.
The company has been listening to their customers and asking them what they would like to see changed.
Sandra Stark vice president of food with Starbucks announced “We answered their call with a delicious new menu of food made with real ingredients and more wholesome options.”
Roasting of coffee is something that I have always wanted to do. Since visiting an old friend who owns a wonderful coffee shop in Guatemala Lake Atitlan area called Crossroads Cafe I fell in love with the concept of roasting my own coffee. This friend moved to Panajachel, Guatemala on the shores of Lake Atitlan about 10 years ago from California and opened up a small coffee shop catering to the tourist and the hippies that live in the area. He roast and grinds his own coffee and it is wonderful. Him and his wife roast about 30 pounds of coffee a day and use it in their own café or sell it to the patrons that come in to visit.
Icame across a web site called Sweet Maria’s a few months back. This web site is filled with some interesting recipes for home roasting along with some good and off the wall techniques for home roasting . You may ask off the wall, what do you mean. How about this, home roasting using a WOK.Yes a WOK, this is to me a little off the wall, some say it works and others give it a thumbs down.
For me I found a lot of useful techniques to help me with home roasting.
I love my coffee, to me I try everything to get the best, freshest and the most favorable coffee I can. Even if it is flying to where I can pick the bean off the tree and roast it myself. I will do it.
I was doing some work on Squidoo today and I came across an interesting recipe on a website that I frequently visit called www.Ineedcoffe.com
This recipe sound so wonderful that my mouth is watering just thinking about it. If you have never heard of Tres Leches or know any recipes for Tres Leches please visit my website for Tres Leches.
The Tres Leches milk syrup is roughly 2 parts evaporated milk, 2 parts sweetened condensed milk, and 1 part heavy cream. Since you will surely want to share with your friends the easiest recipe is as follows…
Stir together:
1-14 oz can of evaporated milk
1-14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 Cup heavy cream
For my latte I started with 4 oz espresso
Steam: 5 oz milk, 3 oz Tres Leches syrup, and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract.
Come check out my squidoo lens http://www.squidoo.com/addictedtocoffee addicted to coffee. This lens has been fun to build and it has some awesome information on it. So take a moment and check it out.
Another good squidoo site to visit is the Group Page for Addicted to To Coffee Group Site: http://www.squidoo.com/groups/addictedtocoffee This site has over 39 other lens that you are welcome to check out. Very good information on different things about coffee.
Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee gets it name from being grown in the blue mountains of Jamaica. This coffee is one of the most expensive coffees I have ever witnessed. Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is the most sought after coffee in the world. This coffee is certified by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica as 100% Pure Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. In addition to its use for brewed coffee, the beans are the flavor base of Tia Maria coffee liqueur.
Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is one of the most sought after coffees in the world. This "Java of Kings" has been satisfying coffee connoisseurs around the globe for more than two centuries and is famous for its exquisite flavor, good acidity, a clean refined taste,unusual sweetness, excellent body and intense bold aroma. As rare and prized as this coffee is, we`ve been able to secure a very limited supply of Peaberry beans.
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Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is like I mentioned above one of the most expensive coffees I have seen. At our resort gift shop Blue Mountain coffee was running around $39.00 a pound. I am told there are a large amount of fraudulent blue mountain coffee on the market and if you come across coffee saying it is Blue Mountain coffee and it is priced at around $12.00 a pound then more than likely it is a fake. So be careful and be ready to spend a good deal of money for this brand of coffee.
Long before Castro, great Cuban cigars, and the dictatorship that made Cubathe way it is today, some of the best coffee in the world came from this once rich country.. In the 19th century, the epicenter of coffee production was in the foothills of Sierra Maestra, a lush mountain range in southeast Cuba. In 1959 the Castro Revolution killed the coffee industry. Before the revolution there was some of the best coffee coming out of Cuba, today the only good coffee coming out of Cuba is going to Japan and Europe. More or less the Cuban coffee is industry destroyed
HISTORY
Coffee was introduced to Cuba in the early 18th century, with it rich untouched soil, high humidity and great climate it wasan ideal location for growing coffee. It started with small scale coffee farming and them with the help of slaves from Africa the coffee industry grew all the way from the western hills to the limits of Havana. By 1870 Cuba was exporting 185,000 quintiles a year to Spain. Then with the revolution hitting nearby Haiti French farmers came to Cuba and they grew the coffee industry even larger. By the mid 1800’s the coffee plantations grew to a remarkable 2,067 but in the later years with the fight between Cuba and the Spanish the coffee industry took a sharp nose dive.
In the early 1900 the coffee industry took another major nose dive to sugar cane and tobacco exports. This lasted for several years but by 1950 Cuba was once again exporting coffee. By 1956 Cuba was exporting some 20,000 metric tons of coffee beans. After the marxis take over in the later 1950’s the coffee industry really fell apart and by 1970 the industry for Cuba was almost wiped out.
Today there are still some small private farms. The problem is;
“The loss of experienced workers has forced the government to rely on unpaid middle- and high-school students to harvest the coffee crop,” reports CubaNews. “During the harvest, tens of thousands of students go into the mountains for several weeks to pick coffee. While they are reportedly earnest in their efforts, their lack of experience and stamina is one reason the sector continues to languish.”
TODAY
Today, Cuba’s coffee plantations are located mainly in three regions. The most important are on the slopes and valleys between 1,000 and 2,000 ft, located in the Nipe-Baracoa and Sierra Maestra mountains of eastern Cuba (in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Granma); the Escambray mountains near the center of the island (in the provinces of villa Clara, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spíritus); and, to a lesser extent, the Sierra del Rosario, close to the western tip of Cuba in the province of Pinar del Rio. The government owns most of the coffee plantations in Cuba, though in the 1990s it began to reverse earlier policies and allowed farmers to lease land for the first time since the revolution.
Today France and Japan are the largest importer of coffee from Cuba, The U.S. does not import one bean from Cuba and hasn’t since 1962 with the embargo set against Cuba.
From Wikipedia
Cuban coffee (café cubano, cuban espresso, cafecito, cuban pull, cuban shot) is a type of espresso which originated in Cuba after espresso machines were first imported there from Italy. Specifically, it refers to an espresso shot which is sweetened with sugar while it is being brewed, but the name covers other drinks which use Cuban espresso as their base. Drinking café cubano remains a prominent social and cultural activity within Cuba as well as the expatriate community.
So if your like me and like to taste the bean when you drink your coffee, try some Cuban coffee that is if you can get your hands on the true coffee from Cuba.
French missionaries first brought coffee to Vietnam with the first tree being planted in 1857. Vietnam was not a thriving producer of coffee until about 1975. Coffee has been grown in different regions of the country since 1910 but only on small scales. It was in the 70's and 80's when coffee really hit the large scale markets. The coffee that was and is being grown and produced is a Robusta coffee. In the past few years the industry leaders are looking into more of the Arabica development programs.
Most of the farming is done in the Central Highlands by the borders of Cambodia and Laos. Most of the farming is done by families with one to two acres of property.
Production and exporting of coffee for Vietnam is on a rapid rise. Vietnam is now second to Brazil in in tons of coffee exported. The problem is that with so much coffee being exported the market price is in a rapid decline which hurts everyone including Vietnam.
When you think of coffee next time, Vietnam may not be the first thing that pops into your head but when it does give a cup of Vietnam coffee a try.
Vietnamese coffee is very rich full bodied coffee, Vietnamese coffee can be brewed in your own home coffee maker but it does come out better if brewed in individual servings in an Vietnamese Coffee Filter
