If you’re one of those people who doesn’t want anyone to talk to you until you’ve had your morning coffee honestly, same. But while it’s tempting to shuffle straight to the coffee maker as soon as you wake up, research shows that you may want to hold off a bit. To feel your coffee’s effects the most, you may want to wait until about an hour after you wake before you consume one of these popular types of coffee with tons of caffeine…..Continue story….
Source: TastingTable
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Coffee is usually brewed hot, at close to the boiling point of water, immediately before drinking, yielding a hot beverage capable of scalding if splashed or spilled; if not consumed promptly, coffee is often sealed into a vacuum flask or insulated bottle to maintain its temperature. In most areas, coffee may be purchased unprocessed, or already roasted, or already roasted and ground.
Whole roast coffee or ground coffee is often vacuum-packed to prevent oxidation and lengthen its shelf life. Especially in hot climates, some find cold or iced coffee more refreshing. This can be prepared well in advance as it maintains its character when stored cold better than as a hot beverage.
Even with the same roast, the character of the extraction is highly dependent on distribution of particle sizes produced by the grinding process, temperature of the grounds after grinding, freshness of the roast and grind, brewing process and equipment, temperature of the water, character of the water itself, contact time with hot water (less sensitive with cold water), and the brew ratio employed.
Preferred brew ratios of water to coffee often fall into the range of 15–18:1 by mass; even within this fairly small range, differences are easily perceived by an experienced coffee drinker. Processes can range from extremely manual (e.g. hand grinding with manual pour-over in steady increments) to totally automated by a single appliance with a reservoir of roast beans which it automatically measures and grinds, and water, which it automatically heats and doses.
Another common style of automated coffee maker is fed a single-serving “pod” of pre-measured coffee grounds for each beverage. Characteristics which may be emphasized or deemphasized by different preparation methods include: acidity (brightness), aroma (especially more delicate floral and citrus notes), mouthfeel (body), astringency, bitterness (both positive and negative), and the duration and intensity of flavour perception in the mouth (finish).
The addition of sweeteners, dairy products (e.g. milk or cream), or dairy alternatives (e.g. almond milk) also changes the perceived character of the brewed coffee. Principally, dairy products mute delicate aromas and thicken mouthfeel (particularly when frothed), while sweeteners mask astringency and bitterness.
Roasting coffee transforms the chemical and physical properties of green coffee beans. When roasted, the green coffee bean expands to nearly double its original size, changing in color and density. As the bean absorbs heat, its color shifts to yellow, then to a light “cinnamon” brown, and then to a rich dark brown color. During roasting, oils appear on the surface of the bean. The roast will continue to darken until it is removed from the heat source.
Coffee can be roasted with ordinary kitchen equipment (frying pan, grill, oven, popcorn popper) or by specialized appliances. A coffee roaster is a special pan or apparatus suitable to heat up and roast green coffee beans. The whole coffee beans are ground, also known as milling, to facilitate the brewing process.
The fineness of the grind strongly affects brewing. Brewing methods that expose coffee grounds to heated water for longer require a coarser grind than faster brewing methods. Beans that are too finely ground for the brewing method in which they are used will expose too much surface area to the heated water and produce a bitter, harsh, “over-extracted” taste.
At the other extreme, an overly coarse grind will produce weak coffee unless more is used. Due to the importance of a grind’s fineness, a uniform grind is highly desirable. If a brewing method is used in which the time of exposure of the ground coffee to the heated water is adjustable, then a short brewing time can be used for finely ground coffee. This produces coffee of equal flavor yet uses less ground coffee.
A blade grinder does not cause frictional heat buildup in the ground coffee unless used to grind very large amounts as in a commercial operation. A fine grind allows the most efficient extraction but coffee ground too finely will slow down filtration or screening. Ground coffee deteriorates faster than roasted beans because of the greater surface area exposed to oxygen.
Many coffee drinkers grind the beans themselves immediately before brewing. Used coffee grounds can be reused for hair care or skin care as well as in the garden. These can also be used as biodiesel fuel. There are four methods of grinding coffee for brewing: burr-grinding, chopping, pounding, and roller grinding.
Coffee beans can be chopped by using blades rotating at high speed (20,000 to 30,000 rpm), either in a blade grinder designed specifically for coffee and spices, or in a general use home blender. Devices of this sort are cheaper than burr grinders, but the grind is not uniform and will produce particles of widely varying sizes, while ideally all particles should have the same size, appropriate for the method of brewing.
Moreover, the particles get smaller and smaller during the grinding process, which makes it difficult to achieve a consistent grind from batch to batch. Blade grinders create “coffee dust” that can clog up sieves in espresso machines and French presses, and are best suited for drip coffee makers. They are not recommended for grinding coffee for use with pump espresso machines.
Arabic coffee and Turkish coffee require that the grounds be almost powdery in fineness, finer than can be achieved by most burr grinders. Pounding the beans with a mortar and pestle can pulverise the coffee finely enough.
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