Plain coffee is fast becoming a thing of the past. It’s now quite simple to whip up a gourmet hot beverage for guest, family, or just for yourself. Nowadays there are a number of coffee clubs and circles in which coffee drinking has become somewhat of a social club. These social clubs meet in the community or on the Internet.

Where did the good old days go where you could get just a regular, good cup of coffee all across America.

It’s all because there is a big craze over coffee these days. People are almost worshipping the coffee bean now. People get a thrill out of ordering and buying special coffees from specialty stores. They really like grinding their own coffee beans. They like visiting places such as Costa Rica and bringing back their]]>

Plain coffee is fast becoming a thing of the past. It’s now quite simple to whip up a gourmet hot beverage for guest, family, or just for yourself. Nowadays there are a number of coffee clubs and circles in which coffee drinking has become somewhat of a social club. These social clubs meet in the community or on the Internet.

Where did the good old days go where you could get just a regular, good cup of coffee all across America.

It’s all because there is a big craze over coffee these days. People are almost worshipping the coffee bean now. People get a thrill out of ordering and buying special coffees from specialty stores. They really like grinding their own coffee beans. They like visiting places such as Costa Rica and bringing back their special blends. And “coffee tasting” seems to be about as popular as “wine tasting”.

They even have furniture and home interior designs with a coffee theme. This would make great gifts for the coffee buff.

Coffee got its beginnings around 900 A.D. where it was at first used as a stimulant. It was also at times used as a wine and a medicine. It doesn’t look like anything is much different today.

There are not many products such as coffee that have continued “as is” for hundreds of years. And yet people are still scrutinizing and getting creative with it today and probably will be for years to come.

What is also interesting is that coffee is second to oil in dollar volume as a world commodity.

Did you know that there is two times more caffeine in a pound of tea than in the same amount of roasted coffee? This may be good news for those of you who **** the taste of decaffeinated coffee however wait just one moment. A pound of tea will make about 160 cups whereas a pound of coffee will usually make about 40 cups. This means that a cup of tea has about 1/4th the caffeine of a cup of coffee.

The content of caffeine in coffee decreases as it is grown at higher altitudes. If you want less caffeine in your coffee, grow it higher. Gourmet coffees are typically grown at higher altitudes so they have less caffeine than their grocery store counterparts.

There are many different types of coffee beans and way too many to describe in this article. Here are just a few of them:

You have Latte, Espresso, Low-Fat, Organic, Cal, Decaf, Half-Decaf, Black Forest, Cappuccino, Cafe au Lait, Alpine which has brown sugar, Arabian (lightly spiced and without filter), Cafe con Miel (Spanish for coffee with honey), and Cafe de Olla (a sweet coffee made with chocolate).

And you really should attend a coffee tasting at least once. You will get to experience how making and brewing gourmet coffee is slowly becoming a form of art. What is fun about the coffee tasting is that you could get a chance to taste two dozen or more different blends. You may even leave to start your journey as a coffee connoisseur. Any way you look at it, the tasting experience will be fun if you like coffee.

By: sudesh

About the Author:

Do you have an addiction to coffee? Do you find it hard to get through even half an hour without having another cup? Have you worn a trail between your desk and the coffee machine? Well there are alternatives which will still keep you active, without the addictive properties of caffeine.

First of all, don’t try to go “cold turkey” and stop drinking coffee completely and suddenly. If you do that, you’re quite likely to have severe withdrawal symptoms such as sweating and shaking hands. Just take it gradually and cut down to start with. Try to reduce your coffee intake by about fifty percent in the first instance and replace those other cups of coffee with something else. Here are some ideas.

Drink something else: Variety is the spice of life, so why not]]>

Do you have an addiction to coffee? Do you find it hard to get through even half an hour without having another cup? Have you worn a trail between your desk and the coffee machine? Well there are alternatives which will still keep you active, without the addictive properties of caffeine.

First of all, don’t try to go “cold turkey” and stop drinking coffee completely and suddenly. If you do that, you’re quite likely to have severe withdrawal symptoms such as sweating and shaking hands. Just take it gradually and cut down to start with. Try to reduce your coffee intake by about fifty percent in the first instance and replace those other cups of coffee with something else. Here are some ideas.

Drink something else: Variety is the spice of life, so why not alternate your cups of coffee with fruit or vegetable juices, hot chocolate, or even a low calorie carbonated drink but not cola unless it’s decaffeinated. How about decaf coffee? It isn’t completely without caffeine but it’s a start. Water, boring though it may seem, is also a refreshing alternative to coffee.

The sugar rush: If it’s the sugar from your cup of coffee that you need for energy, have a cereal bar instead or a piece of fruit. The sugar from an apple or orange is far healthier than the refined sugar you put in coffee.

Coffee instead of food: If you drink coffee because it takes the edge off your appetite and you’re trying to diet, it’s a very bad idea and incredibly unhealthy. Do eat something. Eat carrot sticks or other vegetables. Keep them in the ‘fridge ready prepared so it’s no effort or take them to work in an airtight box. Have some cottage cheese on crispbread or even a sandwich but take it easy on the butter and the filling. A scrape of low fat spread and a thin slice of ham or cheese with some tomato, lettuce and cucumber certainly won’t do you much harm even if you are on a diet and bread is a great source of carbohydrate and therefore slow-release energy, which is much better than the sugar rush you get from sweets and chocolates. If you must have something sweet, try sugar free mints or gum or low fat and sugar plain biscuits.

Start the day right: Have a good energy giving breakfast such as muesli or porridge. If the weather is cold, there’s nothing like a steaming bowl of porridge to set you up for the day. If you can’t be bothered to make porridge, get one of those instant oatmeal cereals that you just add hot water or milk to.

Exercise for energy: There’s nothing like some strenuous exercise to increase your metabolic rate and your adrenalin levels, So much so that you probably won’t even feel the need for caffeine if you take some exercise a couple of times a day, even for ten minutes at a time.

If you follow some or all of the above suggestions as well as gradually reducing your coffee consumption until you finally drink no more than three cups of coffee a day, that coffee addiction and nasty side effects will be beaten.

By: Liz Canham

About the Author:

- Are All Recipes The Same?
If you like iced coffee then I expect as you are probably a serious coffee lover you love the starbucks iced coffee recipe. If you are reading this article then you have tasted and know what iced coffee is and you will certainly have tried a starbucks iced coffee recipe. But iced coffee is not what you are thinking it is. You do not make a cup of hot coffee and wait for it to cool down or chill it in the freezer to make a glass of iced coffee. You could not be more wrong! Yes of course iced coffee is a variety of a hot brewed coffee, but there is a method to make it, a method that is different from the way a hot coffee]]>

- Are All Recipes The Same?
If you like iced coffee then I expect as you are probably a serious coffee lover you love the starbucks iced coffee recipe. If you are reading this article then you have tasted and know what iced coffee is and you will certainly have tried a starbucks iced coffee recipe. But iced coffee is not what you are thinking it is. You do not make a cup of hot coffee and wait for it to cool down or chill it in the freezer to make a glass of iced coffee. You could not be more wrong! Yes of course iced coffee is a variety of a hot brewed coffee, but there is a method to make it, a method that is different from the way a hot coffee is brewed and the starbucks iced coffee recipe is just gorgeous.

Making Iced Coffee- Tips And Tricks

Hot coffees are hot-brewed, but if you want to make iced coffee the way it was made when it was started, then you have to cold-brew the coffee. Yes, you read that right – You do not need to heat coffee if you want to make an iced coffee. All you need is a special pot, cold water, and coarsely grounded coffee beans! Or if you prefer try the starbucks iced coffee recipe below and you can be the judge.

• Pour the cold water in the pot.

• Put in the coarsely grounded coffee beans.

Other Ideas for you to try:

• Put some of the coffee you’ve made in the freezer and make ice cubes out of it.

• Try adding a bit of sugar syrup and a little chocolate flavoring.

• Top off your iced coffee with a generous helping of whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and a flake to really impress your friends- they will think you are an iced coffee expert or an employee of starbucks coffee house!

What will happen is that the cold water will extract the coffee flavors but will not extract the bitter compounds and the fatty oils that are present in the beans. This means that the iced coffee, which is made, will have less acid content than what it would have had if it were hot-brewed. Coffee made using this method was originally called iced coffee. This method was invented in 1962 by a chemical engineer, Todd Simpson, and his company is still around today (It’s called Toddy Products).
If you choose to make iced coffee using the hot-brew method, then you must get the coffee into the refrigerator once it reaches room temperature. If you allow it to get colder than that, then it may lose its flavor.

Starbucks Iced Coffee Recipe:

Starbucks Frappuccino

• 2 shots (3 oz.) espresso

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 2 1/2 cups low-fat milk

• 1 Tbls. pectin OR 1 tsp. pectin + 1 tsp. arrowroot

1. Stir sugar into espresso. Cool mixture.

2. Stir milk and pectin into espresso mixture until pectin is dissolved.

3. Fill a glass with ice and either serve mixture over ice, or pour glass contents into blender and blend for 30-45 seconds. Enjoy!

By: Sharon Price

About the Author:

What do these things have in common?

A morning wake-up call

An afternoon pick-me-up

A dessert’s perfect companion

A high cholesterol level’s worst enemy

It’s true. New studies show a link between coffee and high cholesterol. A compound in coffee called cafestol elevates cholesterol by capturing receptors in the intestinal pathway that helps regulation.

Okay, what is this menace that is raising your cholesterol and what does it do? Cafestol is a compound found in coffee that raises the serum concentration of triglycerides and cholesterol in humans. Cafestol also affects the liver cells, causing health complications and the high risk of heart disease.

If you’re assuming both decaf and regular coffee have cafestol, then you would be right. Drinking decaf coffee isn’t any better than drinking regular coffee. Both coffees contain this potent dietary agent]]>

What do these things have in common?

A morning wake-up call

An afternoon pick-me-up

A dessert’s perfect companion

A high cholesterol level’s worst enemy

It’s true. New studies show a link between coffee and high cholesterol. A compound in coffee called cafestol elevates cholesterol by capturing receptors in the intestinal pathway that helps regulation.

Okay, what is this menace that is raising your cholesterol and what does it do? Cafestol is a compound found in coffee that raises the serum concentration of triglycerides and cholesterol in humans. Cafestol also affects the liver cells, causing health complications and the high risk of heart disease.

If you’re assuming both decaf and regular coffee have cafestol, then you would be right. Drinking decaf coffee isn’t any better than drinking regular coffee. Both coffees contain this potent dietary agent called cafestol.

Studies show that those who drink more than two cups of coffee daily, regular or decaf, are more likely to have their cholesterol raised and have a high risk of getting heart disease and stroke.

Cholesterol has two parts: bad and good cholesterol. You want to keep your bad (LDL) cholesterol down and the keep your good (HDL) cholesterol up! This is something very difficult when you drink coffee.

You might be wondering what kinds of coffees have the most cafestol.

- French press coffee

- Espresso

These two kinds of coffees are the most concentrated with cafestol. Researchers indicate that if you drink up to five cups of French press coffee per day, your cholesterol could increase 8% in as little as four weeks.

Not only are the kinds of coffees affected, but also the way coffee is brewed can affect cholesterol levels. After debating this sensitive issue for decades, scientists and researchers have concluded that coffee made in a percolators or with grounds in a carafe both contain the cholesterol-raising compound, cafestol.

When you make coffee at home, there’s a simple way to decrease your chances of raising your cholesterol. Using a filter can dramatically remove cafestol that’s in your coffee.

Coffee isn’t the only thing that can raise your cholesterol levels. Many different things such as:

- Lifestyle

- Gender

- Heritage

If you just can’t go on with the day without your coffee, which let’s face it, almost no one can, then I suggest these simple changes that can avoid your cholesterol being tampered with:

1. Use organic coffee

2. Avoid milk, sugar, and cream

3. Use filters when brewing

4. Use Cholestasys herbal supplement

By: Elle VanHamagansky

About the Author:

If you love gourmet coffee drinks you probably love cappuccino. Our expert teaches you how to make a cappuccino in this free coffee drink recipe video. Expert: Simeon Lowe Bio: Simeon Lowe has worked for Biggby’s coffee for two and a half years. He helped open a new store, and he is the currently the manager there. Filmmaker: Bartholomew DiVietri

My mom tells me to put half the amount of spoonfuls than the cups of water. For instance, to use 4 spoonfuls of coffee for 8 cups of water. However it never tastes right when I make it. We use the same spoon every day so that measurement is right. How do you make coffee? Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts is not an option, I want to do it at home.

My mom tells me to put half the amount of spoonfuls than the cups of water. For instance, to use 4 spoonfuls of coffee for 8 cups of water. However it never tastes right when I make it. We use the same spoon every day so that measurement is right. How do you make coffee? Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts is not an option, I want to do it at home.

We constantly endeavor to decorate our home with attractive and functional furniture. so even a tiny empty space in an already interior decorated room may seem like a good place to re-try our decorating skills. However it is important to consider what will be the purpose or utility of that piece of furniture and what is the appropriate size of the furniture that you should be buying for that small empty space. most cases, a coffee table could be your answer. The available space will help you decide whether you should go for a small round coffee table or a bigger or differently shaped one.

To decide on the right size and shape, its important to identify what purpose you want the coffee table to achieve and what will be the extent of its use.]]>

We constantly endeavor to decorate our home with attractive and functional furniture. so even a tiny empty space in an already interior decorated room may seem like a good place to re-try our decorating skills. However it is important to consider what will be the purpose or utility of that piece of furniture and what is the appropriate size of the furniture that you should be buying for that small empty space. most cases, a coffee table could be your answer. The available space will help you decide whether you should go for a small round coffee table or a bigger or differently shaped one.

To decide on the right size and shape, its important to identify what purpose you want the coffee table to achieve and what will be the extent of its use. If you have many family members then it would be prudent and practical to buy a long regular table or two small square coffee tables which can easily accommodate multiple cups, bottles or snacks and will thus be convenient for a large family’s use.

A small or a round coffee table can have multiple uses too. On one hand it can properly occupy the empty space between an ‘L’ shaped sofa or alternatively it can serve as an end table if fit neatly near a wall.

What are the benefits of a Coffee table?

A small or a round coffee table may not be limited to serve a drink but can also be used for card games, meals and by kids to play their board games. It can even be used to keep a lampshade and add that extra beauty to your room. Since coffee tables are generally low, they can have multiple practical benefits if used wisely.

Depending on ones choice and requirement, the coffee table can be of any size, shape, color or material. The size and shape of your coffee table can be selected as per space availability and a small space should not be cramped by a large sized coffee table. Similarly, the color too should coordinate well with the décor. A chic and modern coffee table may not blend well with vintage, antique décor.

The material used for a coffee table too can vary. Depending on your choice and requirement you may select a coffee table made of glass, wood, metal or plastic. Whatever material you choose, you could fit a drawer or a shelf under your coffee table which can easily store magazines or children’s board games etc. Whatever the size, shape or material of the coffee table, you can make multiple use of it. So whether you use it as merely a coffee table or as a stand for decorative items, the choice is yours.

By: Adam Peters

About the Author:

I usually don’t drink coffee. However, when the holidays are round around the corner, I HAVE to have gourmet coffee. I would appreciate it if you can provide recipes for cappucinos, lattes, espressos, etc.

Also, which gourmet coffee makers and steamers are best? Mr. Coffee? Thank you.

I usually don’t drink coffee. However, when the holidays are round around the corner, I HAVE to have gourmet coffee. I would appreciate it if you can provide recipes for cappucinos, lattes, espressos, etc.

Also, which gourmet coffee makers and steamers are best? Mr. Coffee? Thank you.