Search:

Perk Up Your Vocabulary with Coffee Talk

We love our coffee. In fact, we love it so much that coffee is the most widely traded commodity next to oil. In fact, the consumption of coffee has reached about 400 billion cups a year, and the number is on the rise. Like every popular commodity, however, our beloved coffee has its share of controversies.

People around the world have both loved and hated coffee for many years. Many expletives have been used to describe coffee over the years, including "the drink of the devil", the drink that caused men's impotence and an evil brew. Still, coffee has always been there, as literary masterpieces were written, national testaments and oratories created, medical advances made and world-changing business deals brought to fruition. While these landmark events were not reached only because of coffee, it surely had something to do with them.

A cup of coffee is so much more than a humble beverage. For so many reasons, the world just loves its java.

Fine coffee, like wine, takes special preparation. Coffee is the antithesis of wine, but it requires the same amount of dedication, specialized processes and cultivation. Wine relaxes the body and tends to slow the mental processes. Coffee has quite an opposite effect. Coffee is calming, rather than intoxicating. It stimulates the senses, rather than dulling them. Someone once said that "It cheers the spirit without making one mad."

And like wine, coffee needs blending, brewing and the various other preparations that go with excellent drinks. Coffee also has its own vocabulary. To be truly familiar with coffee here are some of its more notable terms:

Coffee Acidity

The acidity in coffee contributes to its special liveliness, color and brightness. Carrots and coffee have roughly the same levels of pH.

Arabica Coffee

One of the most popular types of coffee is Arabica, the other being Robusta. Coffee Arabica contains less caffeine, and it is harder to cultivate as it grows best at altitudes from 3,500 to 7,000 feet. This type of coffee has a more full-bodied taste as compared to Robusta, and it is consequently more expensive.

Bourbon is a variety of Arabica coffee that is grown in Africa. For some time, the cultivation of bourbon Arabica coffee was not seriously pursued, because although it has more character and taste, it does not yield as large a crop as the other Arabica varieties. However, our insatiable love affair with coffee has brought about increased cultivation and a rise in popularity.

Blends of Coffee

While artists create wonderful things by mixing colors on their palettes, coffee blenders take beans grown in various regions and mix them to create unique taste and aroma. These blends create special flavors that cannot be achieved with coffee of a single origin.

Body or Feel

Pertains to the "feel" of coffee in the mouth. The body of the coffee could feel light, delicate, thin, syrupy or buttery.

Decaf/Decaffeinating

When the caffeine content of the coffee beans is minimized, it's called "decaffeinated" or "decaf" coffee. There are several processes that may be used to reduce the caffeine content in coffee including chemical, carbon dioxide and water system procedures. Regardless of the decaffeinating process used, efforts are always made to preserve the delicious natural flavors of the coffee bean.

Grades of Coffee

The classification of beans by their density and size is known as the coffee grade. Higher grades are considered to be premium, and are sold at a higher price.

Methods of Processing

This term is used to describe the separation of the flesh from the coffee bean. Drying and washing are the two main methods of processing coffee. In drying the coffee, the beans or "cherries" are spread across the ground to dry out in the sun. Every day, the beans are raked several times to ensure even drying. After two or three weeks, the dried flesh cracks and the beans emerge. This type of dry processing produces an earthy flavor and a syrupy texture to your coffee.

Washed processing is a method of slicing the skin of the coffee beans and letting the beans stand until they begin to ferment, and the skins are easily washed off with water. The beans are then dried. This kind of washed processing retains the natural flavors in the coffee.

Now that you can talk the talk, it's time to walk the walk. Meet your friends for coffee and wow them with your inside knowledge of everyone's favorite bean.