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An Old-Fashioned Coffee Klatch
Coffee and Weight Loss
You can find those on both sides of this issue. Is coffee a weight loss help, or a weight loss hindrance? On the one hand, coffee is a stimulant and it is addictive. There are those who even call coffee a drug. These are people who are firmly against the use of anything that could remotely be called addictive or a stimulant. They advocate abstinence from practically everything.
On the other side of this coffee and weight loss issue, you will find those who point out that there are no calories, no carbohydrates, and no fat in a cup of black coffee. Coffee has a satisfying taste that one can enjoy guilt free. These people agree that coffee is a stimulant, but they see that as a good thing. Coffee is recognized by many as a very natural appetite suppressant, which is an extremely desirable quality for those who are trying to lose some unwanted pounds.
Coffee as it comes from the pot is all natural, without any calories, carbohydrates, or fat at all. However, if you start adding "stuff" to it, like sugar, heavy cream, coffee-flavoring syrups, etc., these sterling diet qualities are lost. If you order a double latte at Starbucks, for example, you will blow your diet big time no matter whether you are counting calories, carbohydrates, or fat grams.
If you can drink coffee black or with an artificial no-calorie sweetener, then coffee can actually be a very good aid to your weight loss efforts. You will get a boast of energy and a natural appetite suppressant along with it. If, on the other hand, you insist on adding several spoons of sugar and a big gulp of heavy cream, you should probably scratch coffee off your allowed food and drink list.
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Decaf Coffee
Coffee Filters
One of the secrets of making really good coffee is the filter that you use in your coffee maker. The standard paper filters are abundant, and the ones that are most often used. Barring other choices, they are at least sufficient. You certainly should not ever make coffee in an automatic drip coffee maker or in a percolator without using a filter. If you do, there will be little coffee grounds floating in the pot of coffee.
If you are going to use the paper coffee filters in your coffee maker, you need to buy the ones that actually fit your coffee maker. Paper coffee filters do come in various sizes and are made for specific brands of coffee makers. The reason that it is important that the coffee filter is a perfect fit for the coffee maker is that a coffee filter that is either too large or too small for your coffee maker will allow coffee grounds to get into the coffee -- not a good thing.
While paper coffee filters are the ones most often used, they are not the only choice in coffee filters. There are permanent filters for coffee makers that can be purchased. These permanent filters must be cleaned thoroughly after each and every use. Believe it or not, there is even a permanent coffee filter that is actually lined with gold!
The very best choice of all coffee filters, though, is the cloth variety. Yes, it does have to be cleaned after each use, but coffee made using paper filters has a slightly papery taste to it, and cloth filters add no taste at all to the coffee. Cloth coffee filters are available in the same sizes as paper coffee filters. They are more expensive initially, of course, but they last much longer. Cloth coffee filters are made from unbleached cotton, so they are environmentally friendly as well. |
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Home Coffee Roasters
There are people out there who really prefer to roast their own coffee beans at home rather than buying coffee that is already ground and ready to put into a coffee maker. These people swear that home-roasted coffee beans make a far superior cup of coffee than any pre-roasted and pre-ground coffee bean ever dreamed of.
Coffee beans can certainly be roasted using a regular stove or even a popcorn popper, but if you are serious about roasting your own coffee beans at home, you should probably invest in a coffee-roasting machine. You will have far better control of the temperature and other conditions.
The prices of coffee bean roasters seems to range from a low of about $70 to a high of about $595. The smallest and least expensive coffee roaster will only roast enough green coffee beans to make one 10-cup pot of coffee at a time. The most expensive coffee-roasting machine that I located would roast about nine ounces of green coffee beans at a time.
There are varying aspects of coffee-roasting machines that you will want to consider before you purchase one. For example, you will want to know just how long it will take to roast coffee beans, how many coffee beans can be roasted at a time, and how much control you will have over how long the beans are roasted. Some coffee roasting machines (the more expensive ones) will give you greater control over the coffee bean roasting process than the less expensive ones.
However, before you invest any big bucks in a coffee roasting machine, it would probably be an excellent idea to start out with the least expensive variety and work your way up.
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All About Coffee, The Daily Coffee Grind
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