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Know Your Java Jargon

By: Benedict Neel

Aside from oil, coffee is the most widely traded commodity. We consume about 400 billion cups of coffee every year, and this consumption continues to grow. Like all popular commodities, 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.

Coffee is surely more than a simple beverage. The world loves it, and for good reason.

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."

Like wine, coffee needs blending, brewing and various other preparations that go with excellent drinks. Coffee also has its own vocabulary of terms. If you wish to be truly familiar with coffee, here are some of the more notable terms to learn:

Acidity

Carrots and coffee have nearly the same pH. Acidity in coffee contributes to its special liveliness, color and brightness.

Coffee Arabica

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 an African variety of Arabica coffee. The cultivation was not seriously pursued for some time because, although it has delicious character and taste, crop yields are smaller than the other Arabica varieties. The growing popularity of coffee, however, has increased the cultivation of this wonderful bean.

Unique Blends

Blending coffee is much like artists mixing colors on their palettes. Coffee blenders take beans grown from various coffee growing regions, mix them to craft a taste that is special and cannot be achieved with coffee of single origin.

Body

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.

Coffee Grade

This is a classification of the beans by their density and size. The highest grade is known as premium and is sold at a higher price.

Methods of Processing

The separation of the flesh from the bean. The two types of processing are the dry and washed processes. With dry processing, the cherries are spread across the ground to dry out in the sun. The beans are raked several times each day so that drying is even. After two to three weeks, the dried flesh cracks off of the bean. Dry processing produces an earthy flavor and a syrupy texture in your coffee.

The washed processing is a method of cutting the skin off the coffee bean and allowing it to stand so that it ferments until the skin can be easily washed off with water. After that step, the beans are dried. This kind of processing sustains the natural flavors in the coffee.

So now that you have a grasp of some of coffee's vocabulary, don't neglect to get your daily dose!

Article Source: http://www.articlebankonline.com

Author Benedict Neel contributes to numerous popular web magazines, on recreation and leisure and recreational leisure themes.

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