Coffee-holic Sensation!

Coffeeholic, a term used by some people who are literally addicted in drinking coffee. What makes them happy?? I don't know, maybe because of the ingredients coffee does have especially its caffeine, we will talk about that later. So, coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world that's why it has different kinds and culture where it was came from. So, let us define what coffee is.

Coffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee berries, of the coffee plant. Due to its caffeine content, coffee has a stimulating effect in humans. Coffee was first consumed in the ninth century, when it was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia. Coffee berries are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the genus Coffea. Coffee plant is a shrub found growing in areas where there is moderate rainfall and the climate is neither hot nor cold. It is a member of Rubiaceous family, a widely distributed family of mostly tropical trees and shrubs and herbs. The two most common species are Coffea canephora (also known as Coffea robusta) and Coffea arabica. These are cultivated in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Coffee berries are green initially, then turn yellow, red, deep red and then almost black. The beans are plucked, dried and roasted when they are red. The seeds are then roasted, undergoing several physical and chemical changes in it.They are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a couple of ways.

Coffee beans are not literally beans. The name originates from the Arabic words gahwa and bunn; gahwa means coffee and bunn means berry. They are the seeds of the coffee plant, and almost all coffee traders call these seeds beans.


Coffee berries and their seeds undergo several processes before they become the familiar roasted coffee. The first step would be roasting. First, coffee berries are picked by hand. Then they are sorted by ripeness and color and the flesh of the berry is removed and the seeds—usually called beans—are fermented to remove the slimy layer of mucilage still present on the bean. When the fermentation is finished, the beans are washed with large quantities of fresh water to remove the fermentation residue, which generates massive amounts of highly polluted coffee wastewater. Finally, the seeds are dried; the best, but least utilized method of drying coffee is by using drying tables. In this method the pulped and fermented coffee is spread thinly on raised beds, which allows the air to pass on all sides of the coffee. The coffee is then mixed by hand and the drying that takes place is more uniform, and fermentation is less likely. Next, the coffee is sorted, and labeled as green coffee. Another way to let the coffee beans dry is to let them sit on a cement patio and rake over them in the sunlight. Some companies use cylinders to pump in heated air to dry the coffee beans, though this is generally in places where the humidity is too high to correctly get the moisture out.

The next step in the process is the roasting of the green coffee. Coffee is usually sold in a roasted state, and all coffee is roasted before it is consumed. It can be sold
roasted by the supplier, or it can be home roasted. The roasting process influences the taste of the beverage by changing the coffee bean both physically and chemically. The bean decreases in weight as moisture is lost and increases in volume, causing it to become less dense. The density of the bean also influences the strength of the coffee and requirements for packaging. The actual roasting begins when the temperature inside the bean reaches 200°C, though different varieties of beans differ in moisture and density and therefore roast at different rates. During roasting, caramelization occurs as intense heat breaks down starches in the bean, changing them to simple sugars that begin to brown, changing the color of the bean. Sucrose is rapidly lost during the roasting process and may disappear entirely in darker roasts. During roasting, aromatic oils, acids, and caffeine weaken, changing the flavor; at 205°C, other oils start to develop. One of these oils is caffeol, created at about 200°C, which is largely responsible for coffee's aroma and flavor.

Depending on the color of the roasted beans as perceived by the human eye, they will be labeled as light, medium light, medium, medium dark, dark, or very dark. A more accurate method of discerning the degree of roast involves measuring the reflected light from roasted beans illuminated with a light source in the near
infrared spectrum. This elaborate light meter uses a process known as spectroscopy to return a number that consistently indicates the roasted coffee’s relative degree of roast or flavor development.

Darker roasts are generally smoother, because they have less fiber content and a more sugary flavor. Lighter roasts have more caffeine, resulting in a slight bitterness, and a stronger flavor from aromatic oils and acids otherwise destroyed by longer roasting times. A small amount of chaff is produced during roasting from the skin left on the bean after processing. Chaff is usually removed from the beans by air movement, though a small amount is added to dark roast coffees to soak up oils on the beans.
Decaffeination may also be part of the processing that coffee seeds undergo. Seeds are decaffeinated when they are still green. Many methods can remove caffeine from coffee, but all involve either soaking beans in hot water or steaming them, then using a solvent to dissolve caffeine-containing oils.

Next step would be storage. Once roasted, coffee beans must be stored properly to preserve the fresh taste of the bean. Ideally, the container must be airtight and kept cool. In order of importance, air, moisture, heat, and light are the environmental factors responsible for deteriorating flavor in coffee beans.

Then here comes the preparation of the coffee beans. Coffee beans must be ground and
brewed in order to create a beverage. Coffee beans may be ground in several ways. A burr mill uses revolving elements to shear the bean; an electric grinder smashes the beans with blunt blades moving at high speed; and a mortar and pestle crushes the beans.

The type of grind is often named after the brewing method for which it is generally used.
Turkish grind is the finest grind, while coffee percolator or French press are the coarsest grinds. The most common grinds are between the extremes; a medium grind is used in most common home coffee brewing machines.

Coffee may be brewed by several methods: boiled, steeped, or pressured. Brewing coffee by boiling was the earliest method. It is prepared by powdering the beans with a
mortar and pestle, then adding the powder to water and bringing it to a boil in a pot called a cezve or, in Greek, a briki. This produces a strong coffee with a layer of foam on the surface.

Machines such as
percolators or automatic coffeemakers brew coffee by gravity. In an automatic coffeemaker, hot water drips onto coffee grounds held in a coffee filter made of paper or perforated metal, allowing the water to seep through the ground coffee while absorbing its oils and essences. Gravity causes the liquid to pass into a carafe or pot while the used coffee grounds are retained in the filter. In a percolator, boiling water is forced into a chamber above a filter by steam pressure created by boiling. The water then passes downward through the grounds due to gravity, repeating the process until shut off by an internal timer or, more commonly, a thermostat that turns off the heater when the entire pot reaches a certain temperature. This thermostat also serves to keep the coffee warm, but requires the removal of the basket holding the grounds after the initial brewing to avoid additional brewing as the pot reheats. Purists do not feel that this repeated boiling is conducive to achieving the best-flavoured coffee. There is a measuring convention adopted for automatic coffeemakers, that is unique to coffee preparation, namely, using "cup" to mean 6 ounces instead of 8 ounces of fluid. The incriments labeled on the pot and water resevoir of an automatic coffeemaker usually correspond to this convention. This is because, typically, one uses about 1 rounded tablespoon of ground coffee per 6 ounces of water.

Coffee may also be brewed by steeping in a device such as a
French press (also known as a cafetière or coffee press). Ground coffee and hot water are combined in a coffee press and left to brew for a few minutes. A plunger is then depressed to separate the coffee grounds, which remain at the bottom of the container.

The
espresso method forces hot (but not boiling) pressurized water through ground coffee. As a result of brewing under high pressure (ideally between 9–10 atm), the espresso beverage is more concentrated (as much as 10 to 15 times the amount of coffee to water as gravity-brewing methods can produce) and has a more complex physical and chemical constitution. A well-prepared espresso has a reddish-brown foam called crema that floats on the surface.

Next is presentation of the brewed coffee. Once brewed, coffee may be presented in a variety of ways. Drip-brewed, percolated, or French-pressed/cafetière coffee may be served with no additives or sugar (colloquially known as black) or with milk, cream, or both. When served cold, it is called
iced coffee.

Espresso-based coffee has a wide variety of possible presentations. In its most basic form, it is served alone as a shot or in the more watered-down style
café américano—a shot or two of espresso with hot water. The Americano should be served with the espresso shots on top of the hot water to preserve the crema. Milk can be added in various forms to espresso: steamed milk makes a cafè latte, equal parts steamed milk and milk froth make a cappuccino, and a dollop of hot foamed milk on top creates a caffè macchiato. The use of steamed milk to form patterns such as hearts or maple leaves is referred to as latte art.

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