Tag: coffee beans

What next? Coffee Scented Newspapers

Posted on by Sara Walker


wake up and smell the coffeeImagine flicking through a recipe book and smelling the food through the pages, reading a book infused with scents, or picking up your junk mail to throw it in the bin, only to discover that you can actually smell the product its advertising.

Creative Directors at the advertising agency, DC Thomson & Co may not have branched out into the realm of scented food ads, but they have created a newspaper advert for the Scottish based IT company, BusinessPort, that smells of real coffee beans. Ingenious – now you can literally wake up, read the paper and smell the coffee.

You’d think the advert would be more appropriate for a company selling coffee machines or other coffee based products, but BusinessPort wanted to be innovative and attract more attention. They certainly accomplished that. An advert for an IT company smelling of coffee beans, isn’t exactly what you’d expect is it?

The advert first appeared in the Scottish newspaper, the Press and Journal and is said to be the first of its kind for the paper. As a result, BusinessPort hope to get people talking about it and buying their products. Other adverts on the radio and social media platforms have also helped to promote the idea.

So how does it work? When I first heard about this, perfume ads sprung to mind – the kind where you peel back the bit of foil and rub the scent over your neck and wrists only to discover that you’re not a huge fan of it.

However, BusinessPort’s coffee infused ad has been made differently. The coffee bean scent was actually injected directly into the ink to create the effect.

So, what next for the future of advertising? Will we start to see and smell more scented messages? Will the idea take off or is it just a bit intrusive? I’m sure we’ll find out in due course.

Make your own coffee and go on holiday

Posted on by Sara Walker

holidayStatistics can be scary; you know, the kind that tell you exactly how much you’ve spent on chocolate, cigarettes, alcohol… (insert your creature comfort here) over the last 10 years.

I’m not going to bombard you with lots of preachy data, but I will tell you that I recently came across a study outlining that about one third of us in the UK say we can’t afford to go on a one week holiday. I thought, that’s a bit sad; we all deserve holidays!

Anyway, at the same time, I discovered that as a nation we’re drinking more takeaway coffee than ever before. If you’re a fan of your morning shop bought coffee before work, you’ll know that the average cup costs about £2.

So, this is where I propose the ‘coffee beans from your coffee machine’ plan. OK, it’s a simple suggestion really, but a helpful one — stop buying so much takeaway coffee and instead, invest in a small home coffee machine, stock up on decent coffee beans, then get yourself a flask and start making your own coffee. It’ll taste better.

Or even better, lose the flask, and just bring your coffee machine to work and get everyone involved. If you buy takeaway coffee every day, that’s £10 you can pocket away every week. You do the maths for six months.

And now, here’s the best bit — in 5-6 months time, you’ll have saved up enough to go away somewhere. It’s not going to take you to the Caribbean, but there’s loads of places you can go with a couple of hundred quid if you’re a bit creative with it.

Here are some money saving holiday suggestions you can try out once you’ve saved all the money making your own coffee.

1. Buy a cheap flight, then stay somewhere lovely and for free with couch surfing.

2. Go camping in the UK. There’s a lot of people with pretty gardens who rent out the space in the summer to campers. It’ll be cheaper, prettier and you’ll have more space.

3. If you’ve got any old friends who moved away, go and visit them for a week.

Coffee-themed Valentine’s Day menu

Posted on by Sara Walker

coffee heartIf you’re planning to create a special meal for your loved one on Valentine’s Day, why not go for something a little different with this coffee-themed menu?

Starter (all quantities serve two)

Chicken with coffee marinade

You’ll need:

  • Two skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
  • 1 tablespoon freshly-ground coffee beans
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon liquid honey
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix all the marinade ingredients together to a paste, then stir in the chicken, making sure the strips are evenly covered. Cover the bowl, and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours or preferably overnight. Fry the chicken until cooked through, and serve with green salad.

Main course

Beef and mushroom casserole with coffee

You’ll need:

  • About half a kilo of braising steak, cut into chunks
  • 1 red onion, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 6 – 8 mushrooms, sliced
  • 25g/1oz butter
  • 25g/1oz flour
  • 290ml/1/2 pint red wine
  • 290ml/1/4 pint coffee, made from freshly-roasted coffee beans
  • Beef stock
  • Oil, for frying

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees centigrade. Fry the steak with a little oil until the meat is sealed, then remove it from the frying pan and place it in an ovenproof casserole dish. Fry the onion in the butter until soft and golden, then stir in the flour. Add the wine and coffee, and bring the mixture to the boil. Pour the liquid over the beef and add enough stock to completely cover the meat. Stir in the garlic. Place in the oven for around 3 – 3 1/2 hours. Half an hour before the end of the cooking time, stir in the mushrooms. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes and green vegetables.

Pudding

Chocolate Coffee Mousse

You’ll need:

  • 140g/5oz good quality dark chocolate
  • 60g/2oz icing sugar
  • 115g/4oz mascarpone
  • 60ml/2fl oz strong espresso coffee
  • white of one large free-range egg

Break the chocolate into pieces, and carefully melt it in the microwave. Allow to cool slightly. Whisk the egg white until it stands up in peaks, and in a separate bowl beat together the mascarpone, sugar and coffee. Carefully beat the chocolate into the mascarpone mixture, then fold in the egg white, taking care to keep as much volume as possible. Pour into espresso cups, and leave in the fridge to set.

 

 

 

 

The history of instant coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker

instant coffeeInstant coffee – coffee granules soluble in water – has been around since the early 19th century. The first commercially successfully process for making a powdered product was developed by chemist George Constant Washington, and his product hit the shelves in America as ‘Red E Coffee’. His process was patented, but the taste of the instant coffee still left a lot to be desired when compared to the real thing made from freshly-roasted coffee beans. In the 1930s, the Brazilian coffee industry, then the world’s top coffee producer, became interested in developing instant coffee as a way of preserving their excess crops. Various companies began to experiment with liquid coffee extract, but the Swiss company Nestlé, who was at the forefront instant coffee research, launched its iconic powdered coffee product Nescafé in 1938. Instant coffee became enormously popular during the Second World War as a convenient and long lasting product, which could be made anywhere without the need for a coffee machine. In one year, the U.S. military bought more than one million cases of Nescafé, which represented a whole year’s output for the company.

Although the original instant coffee contained equal portions of soluble carbohydrate and coffee, the process was being enhanced all the time and in 1963 Maxwell House launched a freeze-drying process which came to dominate the market, giving a taste more comparable to fresh coffee.

Other milestones in instant coffee’s history include the launch of Nestlé’s famous brown tin in 1961, which in 1971 gave way to the clear glass jar still in use today. In 1986, the Nestlé also became the first company to launch a decaffeinated instant coffee.

Although modern manufacturing methods have greatly improved the taste and solubility of instant granules, the freeze-drying process means that fresh coffee will always have the edge for aroma and complexity of taste. However, the convenience factor that made instant coffee so popular during the war means that it continues to thrive in a modern market.

Latte Art

Posted on by Sara Walker

latte artIf you’re not a trained barista, you may not have heard of ‘latte art’ – but you’ll probably have seen it at some point in your coffee-drinking life. ‘Latte art’ refers to the practice of drawing a picture or shape in the froth on top of the finished cup of coffee, as a presentation technique. The more usual shapes are hearts and flowers, but a good barista can produce astonishly complex pictures from geometric images to animals.

How’s it done?

The trick to producing the perfect latte art is to steam the milk correctly – a good commercial coffee machine will have a built-in milk steamer to simplify the process. To produce the correct consistency for drawing your design, the milk needs to be heated slowly to between 150 and 155 degrees centigrade, so that it contains no bubbles and attains a smooth, thick, velvety texture. Draw the milk off into a jug, and swirl it around until any stubborn bubbles have disappeared.

Next, prepare the coffee – a single shot of espresso made from good quality coffee beans. Carefully pour the milk into the cup until it’s half full. Now, you can make your design by manipulating the jug with careful motions of the wrist. Always move the jug rather than the cup, and remember that practice makes perfect!

Drawing designs

To draw a flower design, position the pouring stream of milk at one edge of the cup and steadily move the jug backwards over the surface, while simultaneously moving your wrist from side to side. For a heart, pour a circle of milk into the middle of the cup and carefully fill in the hollow outline, then flick your wrist up so that the stream of milk pulls the bottom of the circle into a point for the heart shape.

Another decorative technique is known as ‘etching’ and involves using a pointed object such as a skewer to draw a design into the foam. You could also embellish your finished masterpiece with chocolate powder or chocolate swirls.

 

Wake up and smell the coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker

Coffe_timeFor dedicated coffee lovers, the smell of those freshly-roasted coffee beans in the grinder or the scent of that first cup of coffee, wafting through the kitchen, is an integral part of the morning routine.  You may think that the reason the smell is so delicious is that you’re anticipating that caffeine hit when you take a sip, but in fact, the smell is the first and vital step of the whole tasting process.

According to Professor Barry Smith of the University of London, humans have two senses of smell – one when we inhale and the other when we exhale, so scents are actually processed twice. A huge percentage of what we think of as ‘taste’ actually reaches us through scent receptors in our noses, explaining why the smell of fresh coffee as it brews in your coffee machine is almost as satisfying as the taste itself.

According to the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC), a research institution based in Oxford, “the so-called taste-buds on our tongues can only distinguish four qualities – sweet, sour, bitter and salt – all other ‘tastes’ are detected by the olfactory receptors high up in our nasal passages.”

Each one of these taste-buds contains a number of receptor cells, each with a tiny hair-like probe that tests the chemicals of the food or drink you consume. When these probes are activated, they send nerve messages to your brain. However, if you have a cold, causing the lining of your nose to swell up, you lose the ability to use your smell receptors and this makes the food taste bland.

So next time you switch on the coffee machine for that first brew of the day, remember to savour the smell and take a deep breath – for maximum enjoyment, it really is time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Coffee in Fiction

Posted on by Sara Walker

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAIt’s a measure of how important coffee is to our culture that it makes so many appearances in fiction. Possibly the most famous example is Agatha Christie’s popular play Black Coffee, first staged in the 1930s, and so-called as a cup of black coffee turns out to be the murder weapon! Here’s a selection of the thousands of other books and plays inspired by this iconic drink.

The Coffee Trader by David Liss

This historical novel, set in Amsterdam in the 1690s, follows the fortunes of Lienzo, a Portuguese exile. Lienzo, struggling to make a living as a trader on the stock exchange, stumbles across a novel new commodity – coffee beans. He’s all set to make his fortune, but there are many twists and turns ahead as other traders try to muscle in.

Atmospheric and with a great sense of place, the novel contains a wealth of historical detail about the introduction of coffee into Western Europe, making it an interesting read for both coffee lovers and fans of historical thrillers.

The Various Flavours of Coffee, by Anthony Capella

Another historical novel, The Various Flavours of Coffee is set two centuries later in 1895. The down-on-his-luck hero, Robert Wallis, is employed by coffee merchant Samuel Pinker to differentiate and catalogue the different flavours of coffee. With the action taking place partly in London and partly in Abyssinia, the book’s characters and story are set against the context of the all-important coffee bean trade.

Coffee by Thomas Sephakis

Set in modern-day New York, this contemporary novel explores the concept of free will versus destiny, and poses the question of whether any of us really want to know about our own future. In a quirky plotline, hero Tom Barry has the opportunity to ask God some searching questions when he encounters Him working in a coffee shop.

Fresh Brewed: Tales from the Coffee Bar by Henry Myerson

This book contains eleven short plays, all of which are set in the same coffee bar. The use of a single static location unifies the otherwise different storylines, and provides continuity throughout – a coffee bar being one of the few realistic locations where such a diverse range of emotions could play out.

The Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle

US author Cleo Coyle is clearly a caffeine junkie, basing her whole series of thirteen murder mystery books around coffee. With punning titles as Roast Mortem and A Brew to a Kill, the reader can expect lots of coffee facts and tips wound in with their mystery.

 

Coffee & Chocolate – A Combo To Die For?

Posted on by Sara Walker

Here are some chocolate and coffee combinations:
Chocolate syrup in your latte turns it into a mocha – why not experiment with mixing cacao with honey, or maple syrup (or both!) and making your very own chocolate syrup to stir in? You can also sprinkle cacao and sugar atop the froth!
Chocolate covered espresso beans are a good kick to munch on!
We found someone online experimenting with grinding cacao nibs to put in their ground coffee to make a new taste…maybe?!
Add a shot of espresso to your chocolate brownie recipe!
Have your next espresso with a square of dark chocolate.
Shade Grown Coffee – An Environmental Bliss
Shade grown coffee might cost a penny or two more to buy, but it might be well worth your money. According to recent studies it does the environment a whole lot of good.
If you clear wooded “shade” plantations first of all it will hurt the biodiversity as the animals that used to live there will either have to move, or if they can’t, will die. It also makes it more difficult to control pests and can lead to crop losses. If pest control isn’t possible, people usually take to poison and sufficient to say most of us prefer as organic coffee as possible. Mainly because we won’t have to get the poison in our bodies, but also because poison doesn’t just kill the pest, but also animals that come across it.
“As you go to more and more open agriculture, you lose some bird groups that provide important ecosystem services like insect control [insect eaters], seed dispersal [fruit eaters], and pollination [nectar eaters], while you get higher numbers of granivores [seed and grain eaters] that actually can be crop pests,” Ça?an H ?ekercio?lu said in a University of Utah press release about a study in the Journal of Ornithology.
Apparently the only birds that seem to prefer open farmland is the seed eaters, who might lead to a profit loss, as they eat the seeds you plant!
In a time when the environment is becoming more and more precious to us the more we can do to help it, the better. After all it would be lovely if generations to come still had a rainforest to visit. Not only does it provide plenty of oxygen for the planet, as well as stunning beauty, it also provides a lot of different plants that might very well contain cures to various diseases, such as cancer.
All of us aren’t die hard environmentalist whose main purpose in life is spending time lobbying for Greenpeace, but it’s nice to know that there are small, simple things one can do, such as paying two pennies extra for shade-grown coffee, cacao, cardamom and yerba-mate!

Top 5 Coffee Myths

Posted on by Sara Walker

Myth 1 – you need to use boiling water to make the perfect cup of coffee.

In fact, using water that’s too hot will scorch the coffee, causing it to release bitter-tasting
compounds and spoil the taste. The correct temperature to use for the perfect cup is around
93 degrees centigrade – good commercial coffee machines will regulate this automatically.

Myth 2 – the best place to store coffee is in the freezer or refrigerator.

Actually, roasted coffee beans are porous, and quickly absorb liquids, moisture and food
smells, making the freezer or fridge one of the worst places to store coffee. Keep any
leftover coffee beans at room temperature in an airtight container, and make sure they’re
well away from strong light or heat which can quickly cause the flavour to deteriorate.

Myth 3 – buying ready-ground coffee is just as good as grinding your own

In reality, the flavour of coffee beans starts to deteriorate as soon as they’re ground, and
despite modern manufacturing and packaging methods, ready-ground coffee will never be
as fresh as coffee that you grind yourself. Ideally, coffee should be freshly ground each time
you use it.

Myth 4 – if you buy good-quality coffee, it’s fine to use cheap paper filters

Cheap paper coffee filters can produce inferior results, as they’re treated with chemicals
that can affect the flavour. If you’re using paper filters, check for brands that say ‘oxygen
bleached’ or ‘dioxin free’.

Myth 5 – a strong cup of coffee needs to brew for a long time

As a rough guide, coffee should brew for between four and five minutes. Leaving it any
longer than this may result in stronger coffee, but the resulting drink will also have a bitter,
unpleasant taste. Brewing for less time may give you a weaker drink, but it will be insipid
and flavourless. For the perfect cup, you’ll need a good coffee machine to take care of the
brewing time, and you’ll also need to choose the right blend. Robusta blends are stronger
than Arabica, and dark roasts are more intense than lighter roasts.

The story of decaffination

Posted on by Sara Walker

Decaffeinated coffee now accounts for around 10% of worldwide coffee sales. If you
drink coffee on a regular basis, you may sometimes choose decaffeinated coffee
over standard – but have you ever wondered just how the process works?

Coffee is a natural product, and it contains many substances which all contribute to
the complex flavour and aroma. Caffeine is just one ingredient among many, and the
problem faced by manufacturers is to remove it without compromising all the other
substances and thus affecting the flavour. There are several possible methods, all of
which treat the green coffee beans prior to roasting.

The first commercially successful method was invented in 1903, and involved
steaming the coffee beans then washing the caffeine out with a solvent. A method
still in use today by small local producers is Swiss Water Processing, which involves
soaking the beans in hot water. Once the caffeine has dissolved into the solution,
the beans are thrown away, and the solution is filtered through carbon to remove the
caffeine.

The decaffeinated solution is then used to soak a new batch of green coffee beans.
As the solution already holds the maximum amount of other coffee compounds from
the original beans, but contains no caffeine, only the caffeine from the new batch
filters out. The process is repeated several times using the original solution, which is
continually filtered to remove the caffeine, until the maximum amount of caffeine has
been extracted from the new beans, which are then dried and roasted as usual.

EU standards dictate that coffee sold as ‘decaffeinated’ must be at least 99.9%
caffeine free by mass, so sometimes the beans have to go through the process
ten or twelve times, making decaffeinated coffee expensive to produce. However,
there’s good news for decaff lovers – scientists have discovered a coffee bean that’s
naturally low in caffeine, which could have a big impact on the decaffeinated coffee
industry, making your daily decaff as full of flavour as regular coffee.