|
A Note On Coffee
Brewing:
Measuring-
Be sure to measure your coffee and water using the 1 to 6
ratio.
The "1 to 6" ratio uses
1 level standard coffee measure of coffee (2 tablespoons)
for every 6 ounces of water
used in the
brewing process.
This measurement
will give you 19% extraction - coffee that has a pleasant
balance of taste, aroma, body, color and snappiness.
Guessing how much to use or making arbitrary adjustments
will always give disappointing results. Use the proper
grind, and ignore advice to grind your coffee as fine as
possible. Over-grinding produces bitter tasting,
over-extracted coffee.
Coffee Grind-
Our expertly-ground "fine" grind is appropriate for
most coffeemakers that use paper filters and many that use
permanent filters. If you use a french-press or
percolator, you should select our "medium" grind.
For the espresso enthusiasts among you, we offer an "espresso"
(very fine) grind that is correct for use in the more
sophisticated machines available today. Should you require
a Turkish or powdered grind, we can grind coffee extremely
finely, but we do not have a stone mill. Conversely, if
you prefer a coarse grind to use in a Toddy cold-water
extract machine, electric perc, or french press, let us
know and we can grind your coffee that way.
Brewing-
The two major components of brewed coffee are the coffee
solids and the water in which they are suspended. If you
use good water and good coffee, and measure them properly,
it matters little what coffeemaker you use, for that is
personal preference.
Good water and good coffee, measured properly, brewed in a
$10.00 coffeemaker will make acceptable brewed coffee.
The best water and coffee in the world, measured
improperly, will not make acceptable brewed coffee in any
coffeemaker.
Bad coffee and/or bad water, measured properly or
improperly, will not make acceptable brewed coffee in any
coffeemaker.
So, do not spend $100.00 to $200.00 on a fancy coffeemaker
thinking that it will magically improve the quality of bad
coffee and/or bad water.
Use the coffeemaker that you already have, purchase our
coffee, measure carefully, use good water, and you too
will have good brewed coffee. Then experiment with various
styles of coffeemaker and find the one that brews the
style of liquid coffee that you prefer. Then you too will
have great brewed coffee to enjoy.
As we have been saying for almost 30 years, “There is no
good reason to drink bad coffee”.
Great coffee is a true pleasure, purchase it wisely, store
it carefully, brew it properly, drink less of it, and
enjoy it more.
Our Coffee Is Fantastic. Try Our Coffee; You Will Be
Amazed, And Pleased
back to coffee
^ Return to Top
A Note On Our Special
Packaging:
Over the years, coffee merchants have had an on-going
problem keeping coffee beans “roaster fresh” until
customers purchase, grind, and brew them. In the fifties,
when coffee first started to be packed in containers that
were airtight, no one knew that the container would blow
up from the pressure of the CO2 gas that coffee naturally
discharges during the cooling period after roasting. But
blow up they did, and it was a big problem! So “tinned”
coffee has to be ‘de-gassed’, also known in the trade as
‘pre-staled’, in order to prevent this phenomenon from
occurring.
The original Fresco Italian valve bag, vacuum-sealed, has
solved this problem. Introduced in the 1980’s,
forward-looking coffee retailers (such as Culinary
Specialties Coffee Gallery) realized the potential that
this packaging held for keeping coffee as fresh as
possible. In this system, coffee is vacuum-packed in a
three-ply poly bag with a one-way valve.
This valve was designed and perfected by NASA scientists
and medical heart-valve researchers. Basically, the valve
is used when two adjacent gases or fluids of different
densities need to be able to discharge, move, or be kept
separate without back-flow. So now, in addition to keeping
gases separate in space and allowing blood to flow in only
one direction through a heart valve, this unique device
also maintains coffee beans at their optimal freshness
from roaster to coffeemaker.
The valve bag allows the CO2 to discharge from the
container, while keeping the bag sealed so that oxygen and
air will not back-flow into the bag and stale the coffee.
It is important that the valve be present. If there is no
one-way valve present, then the coffee must have been
‘pre-staled’ just as is the “tinned” coffee in the market.
Properly employed, this vacuum-packing system for coffee
can bring to the consumer coffee that is as fresh as
coffee that has just come out of the roaster. This is
because the coffee can be packed immediately and ‘gas-off’
naturally, in its own time, without exposure to air, the
enemy of fresh coffee. Then, because of its vacuum seal,
the valve bag maintains that freshness for months, at
ambient room temperature. WOW!
This is how fresh we at Culinary Specialties Coffee
Gallery want our coffee to be, so we have been using this
system for almost 15 years.
Our Coffee Is Fantastic. Try Our Coffee; You Will Be
Amazed, And Pleased.
back to coffee
^ Return to Top
Storage:
Keep these vacuum-packed bags of coffee at ambient room
temperature.
DO NOT FREEZE THEM (coffee should almost never be frozen).
These bags, unopened, will keep whole bean coffee
just-out-of-the-roaster fresh for 6 months, and acceptably
fresh for one year. Bob says, “I would prefer to drink
Culinary Specialties Coffee Gallery coffee that has been
in our vacuum valve bag for a year rather than 95% of the
coffee sold in this country”.
Both our local and mail order customers appreciate the
convenience of being able to purchase several bags of
coffee at once and having it on hand as needed. Coffee as
good as ours is deserves packaging this reliable, followed
by a moderate amount of care on the part of the purchaser.
On that rare occasion when a portion of coffee from an
opened bag will not be used for a period of time (say,
decaf for friends or dark roasts for weekend espresso),
coffee beans can be frozen, provided that they are placed
in an absolutely air-tight container and removed from the
freezer only as necessary and returned immediately.
Try to keep coffee airtight and at room temperature as a
first choice. Our coffee is so fresh that it lasts much
longer than you are expecting. It is very possible that
you have never had coffee as fresh as ours is, and if you
don’t know us already it will be a pleasant surprise for
you to discover our exceptional quality and freshness.
Our Coffee Is Fantastic. Try Our Coffee; You Will Be
Amazed, And Pleased.
^ Return to
Top
Return to Coffee |
