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Gourmet Coffee: An Executive Summary Part I

First of all, exactly what does “gourmet” mean? Wikipedia, in its infinite, collective wisdom, defines “gourmet” in the most basic sense as:

Gourmet (pronounced /ɡɔrˈmeɪ/) is a cultural ideal associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterised by elaborate preparations and presentations of large meals of small, often quite rich courses.
The term and its associated practices are usually used positively to describe people of refined taste and passion. For some, it holds a negative connotation of elitism or snobbery. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourmet)

When talking (or writing) about food and beverages, as opposed to people, “gourmet” is usually used to describe a food or beverage with a more aesthete, more elaborate style, usually requiring more work in the preparation, a more elaborate presentation to go along with all that, often an “educated” palate to appreciate the difference, and almost always, a higher price tag. “Elitism?” “Snobbery?” Well… yes!

Getting closer to our subject here, I found a reasonable definition in the Internet (surprise?), even though Wikipedia did not come through for me there-dot-ven goes on to “define gourmet coffee” as

Gourmet Coffee: Sometimes called “specialty” or “premium” coffee, gourmet coffees are made from exceptional Arabica beans grown in ideal coffee-producing climates, and usually harvested by hand in mountainous areas. Gourmet coffees have distinctive flavours, specific to botanical variety, processing method, and the unique characteristics of the soil and environment that produces them. Gourmet coffees stand in stark contrast to the often bitter Robusta beans grown at low elevations and harvested by machine.
(http://www.aaqq.net/2008/02/20/coffee-glossary/)

Now, you have to appreciate that “typically,” gourmet eats and drinks have been tagged as the daily stuffing for the fich and ramous who will shell out the cash for the high-priced list that goes with the finer things of life at the dinner table. Now, coffee has been around as basic, medium, and extra money for quite some time, and folks everywhere are drinking more every year. What’s called gourmet coffee used to be served only to Mrs. GotRocks and her buddies, but today, anybody can get it, and for the most part afford it as well.

The beverage we know as coffee is made from the fruit of the coffea bush – they are really berries, not beans, but who can stand in the way of popular opinion? Once the beans – or berries, take your choice – are ripe, they are picked and then get the initial field processing. Once the berries are dried and sorted (to get rid of the sticks and leaves and mal-developed berries and insects and stones), they are dried – traditionally in the sun – and then they will be roasted, once the hulls of the berries are removed. The extent to which the beans (let’s call them that now) are roasted determines how the flavour of the resulting coffee will turn out. It also determines to a lesser extent the physical changes the beans undergo in the process, and how much moisture is left in the beans (this is very important for grinding). The roasting step often takes place somewhere closer to the consumer than the grower. The final step for preparing the coffee for your kitchen of office or dinner table is grinding them down to a fine powder with a mechanical grinding mechanism. The grinding can be done by the commercial mass-producer, or by the shop or store selling to the end consumer, or by the end consumer himself, either privately or in a restaurant or coffee shop or coffee bar. The very last step prior to consumption is brewing the liquid product itself. There are numerous ways to do this process, and the brewing method will also determine how the end product tastes.

There are two main varieties of the coffea bush that produce most of the coffee grown and (consequently) consumed around the world today: arabica and robusta. Arabica is considered the more tasteful and more appreciated variety, and produces most of what we know today as gourmet coffee. The most favoured coffee berries are grown at elevations at 3000 ft (900 m) and above under virtually ideas conditions for climate and soil quality. The resulting coffee berries produce more flavourful, more strongly aromatic coffee, containing less caffeine than most other varieties; these are almost uniquely chosen for gourmet coffee. Arabica berries coming from lower altitudes retain some of the qualities of the high-altitude versions, and are often still preferred over the plebeian robusta berries.

Storage of whole and ground coffee beans must be kept in a cool environment and tightly sealed packaging. The packaging you receive when you buy whole or ground coffee beans should probably be replaced with a properly designed vessel with an airtight closure. A “long time” for coffee storage should be limited to two or three weeks at a maximum, which in turn dictates that you should try to buy your coffee, whether ground or whole beans, at a location that sells large volumes of coffee, so that your purchase is fresher. It also appears that it is easier to get fresher coffee by buying from the Internet, if you use a reputable seller.

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Gourmet Coffee: An Executive Summary Part I

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