Tag: coffee ordering

What’s on Britain’s coffee menu?

Posted on by Sara Walker

Tea might be Britain’s unofficial natural drink, but from a historical point of view coffee beats its rival hands down. The first coffee house opened in London in 1652, whereas tea took much longer to become really popular, and wasn’t commonplace until a hundred years later, in the mid 18th century. Originally, the only addition to the basic coffee would have been sugar, but nowadays, there’s a vast range of coffee drinks available to suit every possible taste. Here are some of the most popular:

Espresso

An espresso is a very concentrated shot of strong coffee served in a small cup. It’s made by forcing hot water through very fine coffee grounds, and is more popular on the Continent than in the UK, where it’s often drunk after meals to aid digestion. As it’s so concentrated, espresso is often diluted with water or milk to form the basis of other coffee drinks such as Americano.

Latte

More properly called ‘caffè latte’ from the Italian meaning ‘coffee with milk’, this drink is known as ‘café au lait’ in France and ‘café con leche’ in Spain. The perfect latte involves a shot of strong espresso, made from freshly-ground coffee beans, and an equal quantity of warmed milk.

Cappuccino

Cappuccinos are similar to lattes, but are made with the addition of steamed milk foam to give a creamy, velvety texture. Cappuccinos can be tricky to prepare, as heating the milk too quickly or to too hot a temperature will cause it to split, and the perfect cup involves the combination of a good commercial coffee machine and a skilled barista.

Liqueur coffee

A liqueur coffee is a long coffee, normally served in a clear glass for visual appeal. Sugar and liqueur are added to the basic coffee, then the cream is floated over the top of the liquid to produce an attractive layered effect. Popular variations include Irish Coffee, containing whiskey, and Russian Coffee, which contains vodka.

 Buy coffee beans online at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk

Composting With Coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker

Composting with coffee

If you use commercial coffee machines on a daily basis, you’ll know how much waste those freshly-ground coffee beans can produce. Those grounds aren’t really waste, though – they’re full of nutrients that plants love, so instead of tipping them into the bin, you could try using them in the garden.

Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, which means they’ll help a compost heap to decompose more quickly – and you can even throw the paper filters on the heap too. If you don’t have a compost heap, you can spread the grounds directly onto the soil as a mulch. Rainwater will wash the nutrients out of the coffee and into the soil, and a thick layer of grounds will help warm the soil and protect delicate plants or bulbs. In addition, slugs and snails aren’t as fond of caffeine as we are, and faced with a layer of coffee mulch might decide to quit your garden for easier pickings. Using coffee as a mulch can also help to deter neighbouring cats from using your garden as a litter tray, as they’re said to dislike the strong smell.

If you don’t have a compost heap or flower beds, treat your window box plants or tubs to an occasional feed made with coffee grounds. Dilute a few good handfuls of grounds around 1:40 with lukewarm water to produce a feed that’s rich in nitrogens. Plants with dark green leaves tend to love nitrogen, and will be particularly grateful for a little leftover coffee. These plants include rhododendrons, camellias and hydrangeas as well as vegetable plants such as Brussels sprouts and rhubarb.

If your garden is tiny or non-existent, or you don’t think you’ve got green fingers, why not put a sign up offering leftover grounds to local gardeners – it’s a shame to let all those lovely nutrients go to waste.

Visit www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk for commercial coffee machines and coffee supplies with next day UK delivery.

Beans, seeds, cherries or berries – just what are coffee beans?

Posted on by Sara Walker

When is a bean not a bean? When it’s a coffee bean.

Confusingly, coffee beans aren’t really beans at all. They’re called ‘beans’ because of their physical appearance, but they’re actually the seed of small fruit called coffee berries or cherries, which grow on evergreen trees in tropical climates.

According to the World Coffee Organisation,around 70 countries worldwide have the right climate to produce coffee, with Brazil topping the chart as the world’s largest producer and exporter. As each country produces coffee with different characteristics, the taste can vary from fruity to acidic to rich depending on the country of origin.

The two types of coffee normally found in the supermarket are Arabica and Robusta, with Arabica accounting for around 80% of the total. Arabica trees like high altitudes, and their beans are normally ground for fresh coffee as they have a rich, mellow flavour. Robusta, as the name suggests, is a much hardier plant capable of flourishing at lower altitudes. It fruits more prolifically than Arabica, and the resulting beans are often used in blends and freeze-dried instant coffee.

Once the berries have ripened from green to red, the bean inside is fully formed and the harvest is picked and dried. The husk of the berry is removed, and the bean removed. Most commercial coffee beans are then roasted to intensify the flavour, with the degree of roasting varying from light, medium, medium-dark or dark depending on the strength of flavour required. It’s also possible to buy non-roasted beans for home roasting. Coffee aficionados know that roasting the beans in small quantities as they’re required guarantees the freshest possible flavour – but most of us would find this a little extreme, and prefer to enjoy one of excellent varieties of commercially-roasted bean on the market.

Once roasted, the beans are normally either sold as wholesale coffee, to be ground in cafés and bars by commercial coffee machines, or ground for sale in small packs to consumers.