9. The most useful thing you should know--coffee cultivars

 QAQ  It is the last post; however, there are still much knowledge of coffee.  Since many people don't want to know many details about coffee, just having it, I want to introduce cultivars and countries.

  Czardas  performed by Kennedy is a gleeful piece. ~(*´艸｀*)　　
 Arabica
     Nowadays, most estate coffee cultivars is derived from Arabica. Though Arabica doesn't produce as much as other cultivars, it tasted far greater than others. However, depending on which country coffee beans is grown, flavor of Arabica differs a lot.

Then, here is the country.

 Yirgacheffe ( Ethiopia)
     A coffee region in Ethiopia, known for wide variety of aroma, ranging from jasmine, orange, strawberry. There are two types of it, dry processed and wet processed (日曬&水洗), the former fruity, the latter clean-cup, more acid, floral.

Geisha ( Panama )
    It is expensive but great coffee, winner of each year coffee contest, known for orange aroma.  It is reported that Don Holly, a quality control manager of SCAA, said he was the least religious person in the contest, and when he tasted the coffee, he saw the face of God in a cup.  So. YOU MUST TRY IT  >"<

Geisha ( Columbia)
     To compete with Panama, Columbia introduced Geisha. Because climate of Columbia is different from Panama, and there are many volcanoes in Columbia, the Geisha in Columbia has peppermint aroma.

Kenya
     Kenya is known for bright, unique acidity. Maybe due to unusual coffee cherry process, though some people don't like acidity of coffee, Kenya is really attractive.

Blue Mountain ( Jamaica)
    It is very famous in Japan and Taiwan, known for clean-cup, balance, Extremely Expensive. I've not tried yet, and some people said there are many good choice besides expensive blue mountain.

 

8. The Processing of Coffee Cherry

     Do you wander how coffee cherry, red, like cherry, a ripe fruit of coffee tree, become coffee beans?

Inside the coffee cherry, there are two stones, called green coffee beans. After peeling off the coffee cherry, we can get the seed of it. However, it's hard to peel using machine because of the thick layer containing pectin,果膠. After putting coffee cherry into water to distinguish bad coffee cherry, floating one,we usually adopt three ways to get rid of it, wet process, dry process and honey process.  

In wet process, bacillus,乳酸菌, and yeast,酵母菌, and some enzyme, 酵素, in the coffee beans decompose the pectin, pectin deriving lactic acid乳酸, alcohol, ketone 酮類, further deriving to acetic acid醋酸, which gives bad smell.  So the time is important in each process of coffee lol. After fermenting, the coffee beans is washed, dried. 

In dry process, the coffee cherry is put in the sunshine two weeks, pectin decomposing, most important, different to the wet process, glutamic acid decomposing into Aminobutyric acid 氨基丁酸, not apple acid.  Unlike apple acid, aminobutyric acid isn't that sour. The research pointed out there are more glucose and fructose果糖 in dry process.  

In honey process, the coffee cherry is peeled, placed in the sunshine two weeks.  Though I cannot tell why it differs from dry process, coffee have honey and fruity aroma without strong, bad smell.  My experience of honey processed coffee is wonderful!!!!!  #edited at 6:34 am ( I couldn't resist to type after having a cup of honey processed coffee.) 

reference: 咖啡精品學 author:韓懷宗

7. How to Make Coffee (iii) & Coffee Cupping

     Sorry, I use this title third times because to make coffee is difficult.  Forgive me. >"<

This piece is <Vocalise> by Rachmaninov, beautiful and  peaceful, performed by Parelman.

      When you brew the coffee, the coffee smells differently as the time goes.  In the first stage, the floral or cut meadow smell goes out, then the fruit smell , then the caramel smell, in the end, the coal smell and every bad smell XDDD
      Some love more floral smell, while some love more sweetness, the caramel smell. So you need concentrate on the smell of coffee while brewing, brewing the coffee to a certain degree you love the smell the most, turning off the fire.  
     In the whole process, be careful not to burn the coffee beans because of too strong fire. If you feel coffee is too acid and bitter, you may burn the coffee beans

       The second part is coffee cupping.  You may ask why the price of coffee beans differs, how retailers determine the price. The answer is the professional coffee tasting-- the coffee cupping. In the coffee cupping, all the circumstances are rigorously demanded by SCAA, specialty coffee association of america, like at which temperature of water or extracting time. After cupping, the coffee will be given a score.  Generally speaking, the score over 80 is a good coffee without major defects.  

      p.s. After tomorrow Chemistry test, I can treat one person a cup of coffee in my dorm. I will choose the first one unless you don't want  :P  

   ref: http://www.scaa.org/?page=resources&d=cupping-standards

6. Aroma and taste of coffee

   This week I want to introduce the aroma of coffee.  Read and find out how many kinds of scent you can find in coffee.
    
   -- Caramelly  
         due to the roasting of coffee beans, almost every coffee bears this flavor

   -- Acidity 
         Not bothersome, the acidity of coffee can be very attractive. Citrus(orange)and  berry are  common flavor you may find especially in Africa coffee. A great acidity isn't harsh and acrid but smooth and mild. 

  -- Fruity&floral
        Many coffee have at least one scent of a fruit or flower though I think this is a little bit hard to distinguish them. Just imagine the flavor of fruits when you drink coffee, finding the flavor in common.

     The taste of coffee is the thing we concern.  Depends on each person, the balance of bitterness and acidity  varies. Some people love light body, and some doesn't. A good cup of coffee waits you to find it out (*´艸｀*)

p.s. this week I went to a fantastic pancake restaurant called " ozna omom " https://www.facebook.com/uznaomom.pancake 　

reference :http://www.zecuppa.com/coffeeterms-cupping-tasting.htm#acidity

  

5.how to brew coffee (ii)

　Hello, this week I continue to introduce how to brew coffee. The left parts are brewing and ending, respectively. 

      Today's music is enlighten and exhilarating. I hope you can thus get rid of bad mood of midterm.٩(｡・ω・｡)و

　To begin with, you need to turn on the heater to make water go to the upper vessel. As the water going to a certain level, about half of the water, you can pour the ground coffee beans into the upper vessel rapidly, using wooden stir to level the beans, waiting until the water fully goes up. In this step, we want to heat up the beans and cook them thoroughly, and thus you shouldn't stir the beans for about 30s~1min. 
　
   Next, poking just through the layer of coffee beans with care every 10~15s for 3~4 times, ensuring not to make the temperature to high, making coffee bitter and even ashy( however some people love ashy coffee, calling it 炭焙珈琲）.
     
      Here we move on to the final step, ending step. Be careful, any movement without elegance can make the coffee into a catastrophe. (￫ܫ￩) Pushing the water forward and backward slowly to disperse the coffee beans "without forming any spiral", turning off the fire, enjoying your own-made coffee.　ก็ʕ•͡ᴥ•ʔ ก้　 

4. How to Brew Coffee through Vacuum Coffee Maker

 

     Hello, this week I will explain how to brew coffee and give some tips that we need to bear in mind. Before the coffee, shouldn't we have a piece of music?  

(ﾉ>ω<)ﾉ Though the midterm is coming, don't be panic and enjoy the next few minutes~ =D

    Do you notice I've uploaded this clip in my first post? The whole process looks difficult, but we can divide the time span into three parts, preparing, brewing and ending. 

    In the preparing process, you need to pour a particular amount of water about 75 Celsius into lower vessel and grind the beans whose grams depend on  the volume of water (typically 100ml water for 7g coffee beans). Next, place the filter into upper vessel properly and pull the spring  to fix the filter. Last, place the heater below the coffee maker.  Here is some photo to make things clear.

     Since the post will be too long to read, the other part will be in the next post><.  Before learning the brewing step, you should know that coffee beans are vulnerable after heated since they are made of vegetable fibers. In the whole brewing and ending step, elegant stirring is important, or you will spoil the coffee and make it too bitter to drink. 

3. Coffee Miller

coffee miller 

  Before I start today's topic, since our classmate last week introduce Saint-saens, so I want to recommend a piece of him.

David oistrakh is one of my favorite violinist. =D Hope you can enjoy it~(ﾉ>ω<)ﾉ

  Okay, now when you want to brew coffee, the first thing is that you need to "mill"(磨)the beans. There are many ways to mill, and one example is coffee mill (though you can use mortar and pestle to grind coffee beans...it may be a tough work)

  Every coffee miller, including electric or traditional, can adjust the grind to make beans become finer or coarser. Here is the point you should jot it down. The finer the coffee beans are, the faster the time you brew the coffee is and vise versa.(反之亦同) (sorry :P i am not mean to use big words~ I love this word after getting it from a paper)

  

  So, since the temperature is relatively low in filter coffee, you should grind finer. On the other hand, the temperature of vacuum coffee is higher than filter coffee. However, there are no strict rule here, and to brew a pleasant coffee takes a lot of trial and error.

   (coarse & fine coffee powder)

reference:http://www.specialty-coffee-advisor.com/how-to-grind-coffee.html (only for finding terms) (words:209)

  

1. for the love of coffee -- why i choose this topic

For The Craze of Coffee

     Have you ever  walked through a cafe and been attracted by the aroma of coffee--either from roasting or brewing. Another situation may like you lay back on the couch with a cup of coffee and reading Maupassant's story--enjoying your lovely Saturday afternoon. 

    Indeed, coffee magnetizes me with its scent.  For instance, the coffee connoisseurs are curious about what the kind of scent it is. The scent depends on the producing country or estate. 

2. coffee maker

To Start With--- the coffee maker introduction

• vacuum coffee maker

A vacuum coffee maker need a heater which make the water in the lower vessel to boil  and thus to create vacuum environment to push water to the upper vessel.  The temperature of this brewing type is relative high, and this way is believed  to be suitable for  light roast coffee beans.   Through this way, body of coffee has tendency to be full. (vessel means the glass bottle)

• drip brew coffee  

In drip brew coffee, which also be said "filtered coffee", water seeps through the coffee beans and extracts oil and fragrance  of  them. This way can brew a cup of  light or medium body. And the speed of pouring water is the main factor which changes the  flavor.

Though there are many ways to brew coffee, I only learn two above-mentioned ways.  But in my blog, I will focus on vacuum coffee maker. ٩(｡・ω・｡)و

p.s. "body" is a term that we use to describe the texture of coffee.and the full means there are more oil or more thickness.
Espresso is a typical example for full body.(color is dark)
To whom tends to like illustration, here is a video for you

the next post, I will talk about how to brew a cup of coffee~