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Health Benefits of Coffee
Coffee Clubs
If coffee is what turns you on, you might be interested in joining one of the many, many coffee clubs that are offered on the Internet. Or, if you know someone who really, really enjoys their coffee and has adventurous taste buds, you might consider giving them a coffee club membership as a gift for Christmas, birthdays, Mother's Day or Father's Day.
There are several "coffee of the month" clubs that are available. There are gourmet coffee clubs, as well as flavored coffee clubs. You can even hoose specialized coffee gift baskets for the real coffee connoisseurs on your gift list.
Many different kinds of coffees are sent out each month to coffee club members. Depending upon the kind of coffee club membership, coffees that might be the "coffee of the month" are:
Cinnamon or American Roasts: These coffees are made with lightly roasted coffee beans. The longer beans are roasted, the more volume that they lose, so Cinnamon or American Roasts are the least expensive coffees to produce.
City Roast: This kind of coffee is made from beans that are the very lightest roast. City Roast coffees are a tiny bit acidic, but the bean flavor is still fully realized.
Full City Roast: This kind of coffee is made from beans that have been roasted longer. They are darker than City Roast coffees and have a kind of caramel taste.
French Roast: These beans are roasted a very long time. All of the acidity has been removed, and there is a burned taste which many people like. (Think south Louisiana.)
Italian Espresso Roast: This is the darkest possible roast. The beans are actually burned to a crisp. Italian Espresso Roasts are used for making espresso and cappuccino.
See Also:
Coffee of the month club, Fresh coffee of the month with our Monthly coffee & gifts clubs
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Gourmet Coffee Gifts
Coffee Grinders
Grinding one's own coffee beans is quickly becoming a part of the American version of the coffee drinking experience. The choices for coffee grinders available for purchase is mind-boggling, so you really do need to know a few things about coffee grinders before you purchase one of your very own.
The earliest version of coffee grinding was done with a bowl and a pestle. The beans were roasted first, then they were placed in a bowl and crushed or ground with a pestle. Then things got mechanized, and changed quickly when coffee grinders that were hand-cranked came into being. If you have ever watched old western movies, there is always a hand-cranked coffee grinder in the local general store.
Then along came electricity, and things just got easier. The first electrified coffee grinders actually operated on the same principle as the hand-cranked version. There were basically two flat plates (one stationary and the other moving) that the coffee beans were crushed between. Things have gotten better since then although the principle remains basically unchanged -- only improved upon.
Today, you can buy coffee grinders with blades that simply chop the beans into fine particles. However, these particles are not of identical size. These blade-type coffee grinders can be bought for as little as $20, but they are not the best choice.
The best choice for a coffee grinder is a "burr" grinder. The burr coffee grinders operate on the same basic principle as the old hand-cranked coffee grinders in that there are two plates. However, these plates have burrs on them, and the coffee particles of beans that have been ground in a burr grinder are all of identical size. Burr grinders are, of course, more expensive, but they are much better coffee grinders. |
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More articles:
Health Benefits of Coffee - WebMD
2004 - Coffee Club | Why not stay a while?
Specialty-Coffee Retailer: State of the Industry
Espresso Zone - Espresso machines, coffee makers, grinders and gourmet ...
My Coffee & The Perfect Froth
An Old-Fashioned Coffee Klatch
Flavored Coffee Syrup
To give your coffee some zing and more body, or just to add a surprise flavor to a cup of coffee, you might want to try some of the many choices of flavored coffee syrups that are on the market today. Coffee no longer has to be plain coffee. It can be flavored almost any way any body could possibly want.
There are flavored coffee syrups available in all of the flavors that you might expect; chocolate, vanilla, various fruits and nuts. But then there are flavored coffee syrups available in some flavors that you might never expect, like Granny Smith Apple, lavender, gingerbread, eggnog, cheesecake, or pumpkin spice, just to name a few.
Do you have to watch your diet? No problem, you can still enjoy many of the flavored coffee syrups on the market because they come in sugar-free and even low-carb varieties.
If you are very creative or really into the flavored coffee syrup thing, you can even make your own flavored coffee syrup. The syrups that you make can be used in coffee, of course, but they can also be used to make shakes, smoothies, or over ice cream as a dessert. You can find recipes for flavored coffee syrup all over the Internet. Here is one example of a flavored coffee syrup that you can make at home:
Stir together until fully blended:
1 ½ cups of sugar
1 cup of powdered cocoa
1/8 teaspoon of salt
Gradually add 1 cup of water to the mixture stirring constantly. Don't beat the mixture. Simply stir it until it is blended completely.
Then heat this mixture until it comes to a full boil and boil it for a full three minutes. You must stir constantly to prevent lumping. Now, remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool, then add two teaspoons of vanilla flavoring and store it in the refrigerator.
Related Topics: Perfect Coffee,
Coffee with a Twist, The Origin of Coffee
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