Tag: coffee beans

A Barista Vacation to the USA

Posted on by Sara Walker

Are you one of the millions who absolutely love coffee? Do you wake up for the sake of smelling the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans? Do you order your own green coffee beans so you can toast them to perfection? Do you experiment to make different patterns with the foam of the coffee, or coffee art as it is known as? Maybe, just maybe it’s time for a barista vacation? In other words – it’s time to take a vacation to indulge in your passion for the little bean known as coffee.

There are many different barista schools worldwide that offers day, week and month long courses and in this article we will look at some in the States and in the next article some barista schools in other countries.

Portland and Seattle are known as the coffee capitals of America, so not surprisingly you find one of the best schools in Portland. It’s the American Barista & Coffee School The school boasts of having had clients from over 40 countries. Portland might not be your city of call if you want sunshine, but if you want a very eco-friendly town, with tons of hipsters and incredible cafes, you will be very pleased.

If, on the other hand, it is the beaches you want, what better than sunny California? They may have earthquakes, but on the upside you can drive to the desert (and even Vegas if you go out of state), mountains (for skiing), nature reserves for hiking, wine farms for well, wine and the big city, usually within an hour or two of where you are, if you are in Southern California. SoCal is also where the Ivy League Barista Academy is. It’s actually in picturesque San Diego, which offers a nice small town vibe. They offer consulting as well as hands-on barista training…and 247 days of sunshine a year.

If you want lakes instead of beaches Holland in Michigan is another alternative, as it is home of the Midwest Barista School. The school offers clients both hands-on coffee classes and courses to help entrepreneurs start or improve their cafe business. In summer you will want to bring your bathing suit and enjoy the fabulous lakes and in winter ice skates and really, really warm clothing! It might be a nice summer holiday, cozy autumn break, or beautiful summer vacation!

If you are looking for a vacation in a city that never sleeps and where the latest trends mingle with the fresh arts, the sophisticated views of centuries gone past and the craze of new entrepreneurs and old school economics, then New York will probably be your best bet. After all, there’s something for everyone in that town, including the Kitten Coffee Barista School in Brooklyn, who offers Espresso 100 and Advanced Espresso classes.

We hope this might have given you some ideas and inspiration, and as mentioned in our next blog we will cover barista schools worldwide. For now though, sit back and smell the smell of those fresh roasted coffee beans…

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Going of Coffee Vacation? Why Not?!

Posted on by Sara Walker

Buying coffee online might be one of the latest fads in the coffee industry (after all you have the whole world within reach – just Google whatever coffee you want to buy), but there is something about exploring coffee in person as well. Recently we caught a show on Discovery Channel, or similar, where a man went to Ethiopia in search of a new coffee bean he could export. There’s a reason this made for adventure TV – he was driving through the wilderness trying good and bad coffee in far off villages and plantations you probably couldn’t find with a map. That’s an extreme coffee adventure. Some would probably prefer to order their fresh roasted coffee beans from all over the world with a click of a button. However, if you want to go explore there are alternatives.

If you are looking for a coffee vacation to taste new varieties of coffee, or simply go see where your favourite coffee is grown, Google will once again be your best friend. You see all over the world coffee plantations are opening their doors for overnight guests. Many tours where you stay at a regular hotel but take trips to coffee plantations are also available. We have heard that Costa Rica and Kona Island (Hawaii, where the famous Kona coffee is grown) are particularly good destinations. We think the idea of beaches and palm trees sound fabulous, so why not? Also, why not make a trip to Jamaica to try some of the famous Blue Mountain coffee on location? If you fancy Africa, Ethiopia is the obvious answer, but you can visit coffee farms even in South Africa, if you prefer a more westernized trip. Peru where you can find the Tunki coffee (which we sell!) is another popular destination, not least because the coffee won an award for best tasting coffee in the world!

In short: there are coffee plantations all over the world, the questions you need to ask yourself is: 1) What coffee am I the most interested in? 2) What places would I most like to visit? 3) What am I prepared to pay for my trip?

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Swedish Cinnamon Rolls or “Kanelbullar”

Posted on by Sara Walker

Kanelbullar which directly translates to cinnamonbuns are a Swedish delicacy that you eat with…you guessed it: a good cup of coffee! (The Swedes are in the top five coffee drinking nations in the world, with Finland topping the list…maybe because it’s dark in winter the Nordic countries love some coffee to keep them going?) In Sweden the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans gingerly mingles with the smell of freshly made cinnamon rolls and once you get used to that smell you might want more…

We decided to share two different recipes with you – one is a bit unusual using pumpkin in it, but you could exchange that for applesauce (potentially sweetened). These delicious rolls will be the perfect companion to the coffee beans you buy from us. By buying coffee online you save yourself the trip to the shop, so why not use that time to bake instead?

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Cinnamon Rolls, original recipe can be found here.

DOugh

  • 3 dl yoghurt (300g)
  • 25 g fresh yeast
  • Just about 7 dl wheatflour (400g)
  • 1/2 dl honey (60g)
  • 1/2-1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt

FILLing

  • 100 g marzipan (or almond paste – it contains sugar and almond)
  • 1 dl almonds, whole (NOT blanched) (ca.50g)
  • 1 dl raisins (ca.50g)
  • 1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 dl applesauce
  • 1 egg for glazing

Instructions:

Ca. 24 buns

Crumble the yeast and add yoghurt at room temperature.

Add the flour whilst kneading, make sure you don’t get too much flour! Add honey, cardamom, oil and salt. Knead till you have a smooth dough.

Knead for about 10 min with a bread maker, or by hand. Let the dough rise to about double the size in a bowl covered by a clean towel in a room with no draft.

Take out the dough and roll with a rolling pin to an even square ca. 40×40 cm.

Grate the marzipan/almond paste. Chop or blend the almonds roughly, save 2 tablespoons for decoration. Mix marzipan, chopped almonds, raisins, cinnamon and applesauce.

Spread the filling over the dough, but save one thin line at one edge. Whisk the egg and brush the edge with no filling with it.

Roll the dough with the filling in it – roll so that you save the edge with the egg on it for last, using that to make the roll stick together properly.

Measure and cut the dough roll into 24 pieces for medium size cinnamon rolls. Cut it as soon as you’ve made the roll as if you wait it will be more difficult to cut as the dough will continue to rise. Use a sharp knife, preferably a bread knife.

Put baking paper on a baking tray and place the buns on it. You can also just put them straight on the tray if you butter it first, however, the buns might leave a mess for you to clean up on the tray. The buns will rise a lot, so leave a lot of space around each bun.

Brush the buns with the whisked egg and toss the chopped almond you have left over them for decoration.

Let the buns rise for about 50-60 mins (double in size – if they aren’t yet double in size let them stand for a while longer). Whilst rising cover them with a clean towel and ensure they are in a room with no draft and not in a cold spot either.

Then put the tray(s) in the bottom part of the oven – 225 degrees Celsius for 10-12 minutes. If you use a convection oven, you can keep it at 200 degrees instead. Once ready take them out to cool down on a grid covered by a clean towel once more. Serve warm.

Alternatively you can use butter, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom as filling.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, original recipe here. 

Ingredients:

40 cinnamon rolls

  • 50 g fresh yeast for sweet dough
  • 900 g wheat or spelt flour
  • 1 dl granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp freshly ground cardamom
  • 150 g butter
  • 3 dl milk
  • 2 yoghurt
  • 1 egg

Pumpkin filling

  • 100 g margarine, room temperature
  • 100 g  granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 dl pumpkin puree
  • ½ dl pearl sugar (also known as nib or hail sugar)

Instructions:

  • Heat up milk and yoghurt to luke warm (no warmer than 36 degrees C). Crumble the yeast to small pieces with your fingers and add to the fluid once warm. Add cardamom, flour, and soft butter cut into pieces. Knead into a soft, smooth dough. Let it rise in a place with no draft, covered by a clean towel, for 40 mins.
  • Prepare the pumpkin puree by roasting, or boiling the pumpkin and then put it in a blender till it reaches the desired, smooth, consistency.
  • Mix all ingredients for the filling.
  • Using a rolling pin roll the dough into two rectangles about 0.5-1cm thick. Spread the pumpkin filling evenly over the rectangles.
  • Roll the dough (so that you start folding from the longest side, ie you end up witha  roll the length of the rectangle) and cut in 2cm slices. Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Whisk the egg lightly, brush the cinnamon rolls with the egg and toss some pearl sugar atop.
  • Let the cinnamon rolls rise for 20 mins, then put them in an oven for 10-15 mins, 220ºC in a convection oven (ie an oven that blows hot air around inside…).

Wake Up to the Smell of Coffee!

Posted on by Sara Walker

Most of us joke about being awakened by the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans in the morning, or when we have our first sip of java, but did you know you could actually wake up to the wonder of coffee in the morning?

We live in a day and age where crazy inventions aren’t limited to families that happen to have an inventor in their midst, but where you can buy them freely on eBay or sponsor them on Indiegogo or Kickstarter. For better and worse as you might have to browse through many crazy inventions before you find what you are looking for. On the upside you can find new gems all the time.

One of those gems, or completely unnecessary inventions that we love, is a coffee alarm clock. That’s right the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans can LITERALLY wake you up. The problem? It hasn’t yet been developed. Maybe you can fun it though? We really think it’s a must have item! We can smell it now – fresh roasted coffee beans to awaken our senses…yum!

Find out more about the project HERE.

 

The Philosophy of Coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker

Have you heard of the perfect cup of coffee? Every year coffee enthusiasts try to find their own perfect cup of coffee and many coffee entrepreneurs travel the world to find what they believe to be the best cup for their clients. Often, if it’s a good coffee shop they will work with rare and expensive beans that grow in specific climates. In other words: that kind of coffee costs.

What is the perfect cup of coffee though? To some coffee is just coffee – so long as it isn’t too weak or too strong they don’t usually mind what beans, or what roast has been used, given the beans weren’t burnt when roasted. For those people to pay a lot of money for a cup of coffee when they can get another cup cheaper makes no sense. If you can’t tell the difference between a diamond and glass, why pay for the diamond? You won’t enjoy it more.

If, on the other hand, you have a developed palate when it comes to coffee then if you buy a coffee that’s inferior to what you think a good cup of coffee is all about, then you have just paid for a bad cup of coffee. Not as much as you would for a good cup of coffee, but nonetheless, you paid for something you didn’t really enjoy. If the coffee was decent, just not excellent you may find it a fair bargain, but if it tasted bad, then you have just wasted money.

Then you can choose to buy the perfect cup of coffee, or make it yourself. If you make it yourself, how much time are you prepared to spend? Is a little increase in taste experience worth a few extra minutes making the coffee, or is time worth more to you? Or do you prefer having others make it for you even if it costs more, as it makes you feel more luxurious, or relaxing?

Perfect coffee is different to everyone, because everyone enjoys coffee for different reasons. So is there a perfect cup? Well you decide…but if you are buying coffee online, then of course our coffee beans are the best! We even have green coffee beans so you can roast them yourself! And for the rest of the beans we only sell fresh roasted coffee beans! Quality to a good price – now that has to be the perfect cup, doesn’t it 😉

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There’s Nothing Like Coffee…

Posted on by Sara Walker

There really is nothing quite as inspirational as the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans in the morning. If you ever worked in a coffee shop that roasted their beans fresh, you know what we mean. As we sell green coffee beans we sometimes roast ourselves, or take a deep breath when we open the bags of fresh roasted coffee beans we also sell. Then we have to use them all very quickly so they don’t go stale. It’s the perfect excuse to use the beans all that much faster…

As coffee really does inspire us beyond that first refreshing cuppa in the morning (we do work with it after all) we thought we’d share some funny “coffeology” we found lately. Or maybe not funny, more like…profound. If you believe in the power of coffee that is.

Mocha Coconut Fudge

Posted on by Sara Walker

Now when it comes to the coffee ingredients you stock in your pantry you might include fresh roasted coffee beans, a slab of coffee flavored chocolate, chocolate covered espresso beans, instant coffee and maybe a coffee cake…but how many stock coffee fudge? Not many. It tastes divine though, so even if it isn’t exactly healthy it’s a brilliant treat. Especially when you make it yourself so you know it’s only pure ingredients used. So get those coffee beans out of the cupboard (or buy coffee online from us…brilliant idea! 😉 We have plenty of fresh roasted coffee beans in stock!) and start making fudge today!

Ingredients

  • 12 ozs semisweet chocolate (chopped)
  • 12 ozs chocolate (white baking, chopped)
  • 15 ozs sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 12 tbsps espresso powder (or instant coffee)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 12 tsps coconut extract
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 12 cup flaked coconut (toasted)

Directions

Spray an 8×8 pan with non-stick spray.

Add semisweet chocolate to a double boiler, and melt completely. One melted, add in half of the sweetened condensed milk, the vanilla, the coffee powder and 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil. Stir with a spatula until combined and fairly smooth, then spread evenly in the bottom of the pan. Mixture will be thick. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Add white chocolate to a double boiler and melt completely. Add in remaining condensed milk, coconut oil and coconut extract, stirring until combined. Remove fudge from freezer and add white chocolate on top, spreading evenly to coat. Top with toasted coconut, then chill in the refrigerator for 60-90 minutes.

When ready to cut, fill a large cup with hot water. Dip a sharp knife into the water, then blot on a towel. Use knife to cut fudge into your desired size of squares.

Note: the melting can also be done in the microwave. I suggest melting the chocolate first on medium power in 30 second increments, stirring after each time. Once melted, add in remaining ingredients and stir until smooth. You can also use this Lindt Coconut White Chocolate for the coconut layer.

[adapted from How Sweet It Is who adapted it from mother lovett’s 3 minute fudge]

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Coffee Chocolate Truffles

Posted on by Sara Walker
When looking for a good coffee chocolate truffle recipe you might get a bit annoyed by the fact that most people tend to use instant coffee in their truffles. If you are a coffee connoisseur eager to use your recently purchased high quality coffee beans you might feel a bit snubbed. What’s the fun if you can’t put to use the incredible coffee by matching it with equally incredible cacao? Of course you could just use the coffee beans for your regular cup of java in the morning, but it’s always nice to experiment with new flavors, is it not? At least here at the Wholesale Coffee Co. we enjoy trying out new things with our coffee beans, but then we are obsessed with coffee… Anyway: enjoy the truffles!

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours, 45 minutes

Yield: Makes about 20 to 25 truffles.

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 8 ounces good quality, chopped semi-sweet chocolate
  • 2 tablespoons finely ground coffee beans (I used Sumatran, but you can select based on your personal preferences)
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons Kahlua (or homemade coffee liqueur)
  • 1.5 cups finely chopped pecans, walnuts or other nuts, or 1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder or confectioners sugar

Preparation:

  1. In a double broiler, bring the cream to a simmer.
  2. Slowly add the chopped chocolate a few pieces at a time, whisking constantly until the mixture is thick and smooth.
  3. Whisk in the coffee.
  4. Whisk in the butter until it is fully melted.
  5. Slowly whisk in the Kahlua. Add it very slowly if it is chilled. (This will prevent it from hardening the chocolate and harming the final product’s texture.)
  6. Remove the mixture from heat and pour it into a shallow baking dish.
  7. Place the baking dish in the fridge overnight or in the freezer until the chocolate has hardened (roughly a few hours).
  8. Once the chocolate has hardened, spread the chopped nuts or other toppings across a large, flat surface (such as a cutting board).
  9. Remove the chocolate from the fridge/freezer.
  10. Scoop a bite-sized piece of chocolate from the baking dish, roll it into a ball with your hands and roll it in the toppings. Set it aside on parchment paper or a baking sheet.
  11. Repeat until you have used all of the chocolate.
  12. Cover and refrigerate the truffles until they are firm.

Serve cold or at room temperature. When stored in a sealed container, the truffles keep about two weeks in the fridge or two months in the freezer… assuming you can keep yourself from eating them all first!

chocolate truffle

Cold Brewed Coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker

It’s summer and iced coffees are everywhere. Frappuccinos are what the coffee shops are proudly advertising on big signs in the streets, hoping to lure in passersby with the idea of a refreshing cold drink to get their brain to wake up in the midst of the heat. If it’s noty raining of course. Being the UK you never know.

Frappuccinos and most iced coffees are usually made with regular coffee that’s then blended with ice. However, you can actually brew cold coffee. That’s right – you don’t need to heat the water first. If you are having a powercut, or are out camping, this might be good to know. It is also good to know if you like coffee and would like to find out what cold brewed coffee tastes like, as it will give you a different taste from regular coffee.

The best way to make cold brewed coffee is to have fresh coffee beans at hand that you then grind before you brew them. If you are out on a camping trip you might not have access to a coffee grinder and it’s preferred you bring already ground coffee. The best grind for cold brewed coffee is a coarse one.

You will need one cup of whole coffee beans per four cups of filtered water and the brewing process is simple: grind the beans, put them in a glass jar, pour over four cups of cold, or room temperature water, put on a lid, or cover with cling film and leave in the refrigerator for twelve hours. The filter the coffee using a regular coffee filter and either serve the coffee or keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Cold brewed coffee can be a great alternative to regular coffee during summer as it’s nice to distinguish the flavour of summer! We offer green coffee beans as well so if you are looking to really get a coffee with a distinctive taste profile you can choose to roast the beans yourself as well!

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Coffeeology…

Posted on by Sara Walker

When you smell the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans you know you can’t go wrong…well not very wrong at least. Maybe you had a bad day and are looking for something to perk you up, or you’re just starting your day and looking for energy to get through it, but one thing is for sure: the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans can’t but help cheer you up.

For us java lovers that special cuppa is definitively a life saver. Always there to perk you up! For us that make a living out of coffee, what kind of fresh roasted coffee beans we use really makes a difference – we taste every cup like it was a glass of wine, noting the different nuances in taste. We also come up with silly jokes about coffee, research new coffee gadgets, fill our days with making sure our clients get the best coffee on the market and the best supplies to go with it. We listen to customers’ thoughts about coffee, our own thoughts about coffee, the suppliers thoughts about coffee… In other words: there’s a lot of coffee going through our minds (rather literally). So when we find jokes about coffee, or little sayings…we get excited. We laugh. And we realize maybe we think too much about coffee, but hopefully you will love the below photo as much as we did!

Enjoy the coffeeology – with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, naturally!

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