Cold Organic Coffee Perfect for Hot Summer Days

Greenfield, MA- To help coffee drinkers switching from hot to cold coffee during the hot summer months, the Organic Coffee Collaboration, a project of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), is providing seven delicious cold organic coffee recipes. These include iced coffee, malteds, and even cold coffee shakes blended with avocado! The organic coffee drinks can be made with organic decaffeinated, caffeinated, flavored and instant coffees widely available at retail outlets nationwide and direct from roasters via the Internet.

"With a cup of cold organic coffee, consumers can enjoy a delicious, high-quality summertime treat while supporting organic agriculture in the U.S. and around the world," said Caren Wilcox, OTA executive director.

Wilcox notes that in 2005, organic coffees won Cup of Excellence competitions in Bolivia, Brazil and Nicaragua. The prestigious award program, managed by the U.S.-based Alliance for Coffee Excellence, results in the selection of the best coffees produced in a particular country on the basis of their smell, taste and other exemplary characteristics.

Data from the soon-to-be-released Organic Trade Association's 2006 Manufacturer Survey indicate that United States organic coffee sales totaled $89 million in 2005, up 40 percent from the previous year. Similarly, awareness of organic coffee among American adults jumped 9 percent from 2003 to 2006 (from 42 to 54 percent), according to the National Coffee Association.

Organic coffee is grown using methods and materials that have a low impact on the environment. Organic production systems replenish and maintain soil fertility, reduce the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers, and build biologically diverse agriculture. Third-party certification organizations verify that organic farmers use only methods and materials allowed in organic production. Organic coffee is grown in more than 30 countries, including the United States.

The Organic Coffee Collaboration includes: Arbuckle Coffee Roasters (Tucson, AZ), Café Bom Dia (Coral Gables, FL), Elan Organic Coffees (San Diego, CA), Equal Exchange (West Bridgewater, MA), F. Gaviña & Sons (Vernon, CA), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Waterbury, VT), Jim's Organic Coffee (West Wareham, MA), Organic Trade Association's Coffee Council (Greenfield, MA), QAI Inc. (San Diego, CA), Rocamojo (Los Angeles, CA), Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company (Vancouver, BC) and Wild Oats Markets (Boulder, CO).

For recipes, Click here.
Tags: organic coffee---Coffee tips---Green Mountain Coffee---Gourmet coffee---espresso---

How to Make Delicious Frothed Milk

Latte Frothing Basics - How to Make Delicious Frothed Milk
by Corinne Waldon

Frothing is probably the most underappreciated part of coffeehouse culture. After all, without the foam, your cappuccino or latte is just plain espresso. It takes a little practice for even the best baristas to get the knack. Let us take a little dive into the art of frothing.

Most experts agree that it is best to begin with a stainless steel pitcher, some cold milk and an espresso machine with a steaming wand. Past that, there are as many differing ideas about the frothing process as there are blends of espresso.

The kind of milk you start with depends on the kind of foam you want to result. The more fat in the milk, the heavier and harder to froth it is. Skim milk is light and airy, whereas half and half is thicker and rich. Any container can be used, as long as it is not plastic or susceptible to melting or cracking with heat. Stainless steel is preferred because it is easy to handle.

Use the cup you plan to drink from to measure how much milk to steam. Keep in mind that the milk will approximately double in volume as it froths, so fill the cup with half the milk the drink calls for. A cappuccino is half steamed milk and half espresso, so to make a cappuccino you would fill the cup a fourth of the cup with cold milk. Pour the milk into the pitcher.

It is important that the tip of the steam wand is consistently held just below the surface of the milk. If it is too held too deep, the milk with scorch or boil before it froths. If it is not deep enough, it will blow the milk out of the pitcher and make a mess. Keep the palm of your free hand flush with the bottom of the pitcher. This will help you monitor the temperature of the milk without interrupting the process.

Slide the pitcher away from the machine, at a consistent speed, so that the wand remains the proper depth as the milk expands. At this point, the pitcher should be warmer than the palm of your hand. If it is not, plunge the wand deeper into the milk to warm it up. Be careful not to boil it. If the milk has gotten too hot, turn the steam off and tap the pitcher against the counter a few times to release any large air bubbles. Gently swirling it around a few times will help cool the milk off.

Using a long-handled spoon to carefully hold the froth back, add the milk to the drink. Be careful to pour in one continuous stream. A spoon may be used to add the desired amount of froth on top of the drink, but if the frothing is done well, the result is a fine micro foam that can be poured directly from the pitcher. Cinnamon, nutmeg or grated chocolate is a nice addition to any drink.

Corinne Waldon enjoys writing articles on diverse subjects. She has written many gourmet coffee articles, gourmet decaf coffee articles and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Corinne_Waldon

Tags: cappuccino---Coffee tips---Green Mountain Coffee---Gourmet coffee---espresso---

Espresso

The first, and still the ultimate, single-cup coffee...

To many, the difference between regular coffee and espresso is a mystery. Is it the bean itself? The roasting of the bean? The grinding of the bean? The machine? The dainty little cup that people sip it out of? Well, yes. Kind of. But let's start from the beginning.

THE MACHINE

At the beginning of the 20th century an Italian by the name of Luigi Bezzera developed a machine that used the air pressure resulting from trapped steam to force water through ground coffee (this, as opposed to gravity doing the work). The strainers used in Bezzera's machine were of the single cup variety, similar in size and concept to the strainers of today's espresso makers -- the little metal cups that hold tamped-down grounds and screw tight into their receptacles.

In 1948, another Italian came up with an improvement on his countryman's design. In Achille Gaggia's version of the espresso maker, a spring-powered piston pushed water through the coffee harder and faster than the steam-created pressure had. This new spring-loaded system achieved a pressure that is still considered ideal -- about nine atmospheres, or nine times the pressure created by the earth's atmosphere.

Today, automated buttons and flashing lights have replaced the original pump-piston inventions, though some baristas still prefer the latter as they give the operator maximum control over the result.

And of course, in today's flurry of "double foam, extra hot, nonfat lattes" (and assorted variations) no discussion of espresso is complete without a mention of the milk frother. For, though espresso itself does not involve milk, its offspring (the lattes, the cappuccinos, the au-la its), wouldn't exist without it. Pleasingly for the efficiency-minded, the milk frother actually utilizes the steam that is created during the brewing of the espresso grounds, and produces delicious steamed milk with a customizable temperature and froth.

THE BEANS

Although espresso would be nowhere without the machine, the real thing has to start with the beans. Beans destined for Espresso are usually an assortment of a few varieties blended for a balance in sweetness, aroma, and smoothness. Once the perfect blend is achieved, the beans are roasted to a fairly dark color, though not dark enough to produce an overly-bitter brew. Actually, if the beans are blended well, some people think a light roasting may produce a superior cup. Finally, a burr grinder is used (it is far more consistent than electric blade grinders, and faster) to grind the beans into a fine coffee powder. The size of the grinds and the darkness of the roast will effect the extraction process; if your espresso maker errs to either side of the 23-28 second ideal range, you may want to adjust the size of your grinds: the darker the roast, the faster the extraction time; the finer the grounds, the slower the extraction time. Too confusing? Buy good espresso beans from your favorite specialty coffee roaster (May we suggest GMCR's Dark Magic Espresso Blend? Our Fair Trade Organic Espresso?), assume that they've been blended and roasted appropriately, and grind the beans into something that resembles dark brown table salt and is fine enough to adhere to your skin when you touch it.

CHOOSING YOUR EQUIPMENT

As with all aspects of coffee creation, getting a handle on your own taste, habits, and budget is the most important step. GMCR offers a range of options which range from simple and less-expensive to top-of-the-line Ferrari-style.

Jura Avantegarde S9 Espresso Maker

Impressa F9 Espresso Maker

THE DRINK

Ok, so how is espresso really different from coffee? Is it just dark dense beans brewed in a fancy way? Yes. But it's the fancy stuff that makes the product a separate beast all together. What the high heat and pressure of an espresso machine does is emulsify insoluble oils in ground coffee, oils that, in regular coffee makers, do not get extracted. The oils are formed into microscopic droplets and suspended in liquid coffee concentrate, thus forming the top third of a well-made cup of espresso, or the "crema." Once this luxurious light-brown layer is consumed, bubbles of aroma burst in the mouth, and oils glom onto taste buds, both resulting in a taste sensation that lasts long after your demitasse is empty.

According to Ernesto Lilly, "The distinguishing sensory characteristics of Italian espresso include a rich body, a full fine aroma, and equilibrated bittersweet taste with an acidic note, and a pleasant lingering aftertaste, exempt from unpleasant flavor defects."

Sounds good, eh? Wait till you taste it.

Tags: Coffee tips---Green Mountain Coffee---Gourmet coffee---espresso---

Water

Rule of Thumb: Water is 98% of your cup; if it doesn't taste good from the tap, don't brew with it.

Hard v. Soft:

"Hard" water is alkaline water and though the basic nature does not harm flavor or aroma, it will neutralize some of the natural acids in your coffee and you will end up with a blander brew. It is generally agreed that water containing 50 to 100 parts per million of dissolved minerals will produce the best tasting coffee.

But extra hard water doesn't mean you should soften it; the other extreme is just as bad. Softeners tend to slow the coffee-extraction process in most brewers, thus weakening the ultimate quality of your coffee. Our advice to people with hard water: either use bottled or filtered water, or stick to extra-acidic beans like those from Africa, Arabia, and the higher quality products from Central America.

Distilled water, the ultimate in soft water, has been stripped of all minerals - Please don't use distilled water to make regular coffee (espresso is, as always, a different story). It will NOT produce the cup you are trying so hard to achiev

In general, it's a great idea to get a filter. The cheapest way to go is the pitcher filter (Brita, PUR, etc.), a refrigerator-stored plastic pitcher with a charcoal filter. Of course, you need to remember to change the filter every two months or so and to clean the darn thing even more often.

More expensive but more convenient is the "faucet dongle" design which gloms on to your kitchen faucet at something of a price aesthetically-speaking. (Also available from Brita and PUR among others.)

We think the best way to go is the under-the-counter dual-stage variety -- two cartridges work together to filter out chemicals, heavy metals, and mysterious organic material. Though you still have to remember to change filters every now and then, it's worth the trouble. We like a design by Plymouth Products.

Important note: If you are brewing espresso, you are simply NOT allowed to leave your water unfiltered. Whereas the effect of water on regular coffee can often be merely a question of taste, the combination of hard water and espresso brewers verges on criminal. (well, not really.) With espresso, soft water is suddenly okay, even recommended! (It doesn't affect brew quality, and is easier on the delicate parts of your machine.)

It's all very confusing, we know. And you haven't even had your coffee yet!