Easy Guide to Food And Drinks

March 23, 2010

Coffee - Do Your Bit To Help The Environment

Filed under: Coffee — Tags: , , , , — CakeAuthor @ 1:57 pm

After oil, coffee is the most highly traded substance in the world. The worldwide demand for coffee stretches from coffee houses in New York, to cafe’s in Italy, to street stalls in Vietnam.

Undoubtedly, this coffee consumption takes a heavy toll on the environment. Most of us do not consider the deforestation caused by commercial coffee farming, the huge amount of water consumption, and the mountains of paper products (filters, cups, etc.) we create as a by-product of our coffee habit.

If you want to drink coffee (relatively) guilt free, below are some ways to make your coffee habit less harmful to the environment:

Drink Local Coffee - Buy coffee which has traveled the shortest distance to reach you to help lower the impact of shipping on the environment.

Buy A Cool Mug - Purchase a really cool mug that you will want to again and again; eliminating the need for plastic or styrofoam cups.

Do Without A Coffee Stirrer - Rather than mixing cream and sugar into your coffee, try adding it in the empty cup. Then gently pour your hot coffee on top, letting the heat naturally dissolve the sugar.

Compost Your Coffee Grounds - Instead of throwing out your old coffee grounds, create a compost heap and toss your used coffee grounds in. The nitrogen rich coffee will produce a potent fertilizer. Alternatively, you can spread it on top of your plant’s soil.

Purchase Organic Coffee - Organic coffee is grown without toxic chemicals, and is grown in such a way that protects sensitive ecosystems and the animals that live within them.

Opt For Fair Trade Coffee - Rainforest Alliance and Transfair coffees not only ensure fair living wages for coffee farmers, they consider environmental standards in their certification process.

Choose A Good Coffee Filter - To reduce unnecessary paper consumption, buy a reusable gold coffee filter; not only will it help the environment, it improves the taste of your coffee. If you do use filters, look for unbleached, biodegradable ones.

Keep Unwanted Away - Rather than using chemicals in your garden to keep away unwanted pests like ants and neighborhood cats, sprinkle coffee grounds and orange peels in your garden. The nitrogen in coffee burns ants’ legs and is much better than using harmful chemicals.

Natural Deodorizer - Coffee absorbs scents from the environment around it, so let your used coffee grounds dry and then put them in your fridge or freezer.

Consume Less Coffee - It takes 200 liters of water to produce the coffee, milk, sugar, and cup for one regular latte. So, Cutting out just one cup of coffee a day would do wonders for the environment.

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TheCoffeeMakerStore.com is a daily blog and e-commerce store about coffee, coffee makers, and coffee culture. Download our free eco-friendly coffee tips widget that displays ways to make your coffee habit more gentle on the environment.

January 30, 2010

Coffee Makers - Finding The Right One For You

Filed under: Coffee — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — CakeAuthor @ 11:51 am

If you’re looking to buy a new coffee maker, you obviously want to get the best one that you can. However, “best” is relative and it depends on what you need. It could mean cheapest, it could mean fastest, it could mean the best equipped, or the most modern. Therefore, it’s necessary to know the pros and cons of the differing types of coffee makers, and weigh your needs against them, in order to know which is the best for you.

The most popular type of coffee maker is called a drip coffee maker, and you can find them literally all over the places - homes, offices, hotels, restaurants etc. They work by using a pool of hot water to pass over coffee grounds in a paper coffee filter. The fact that they are so widely used is testament to the fact that they make a good cup of coffee. However, there is a downside to them - coffee that’s left in them for more than 30 minutes has a habit of developing a slightly bitter taste, as it starts to burn. It’s not difficult to get around that issue though, as you just need to use only as much coffee as you know you will finish in 30 minutes.

Coffee percolators are seen as the classic form of coffee maker, and are very popular for use at home. They’re typically the cheapest option, so are best if you’re on a tight budget, but they have little else going for them. Basically, they will make an ok cup of coffee, but not much better than ok. Even if you use an expensive coffee blend, the final cup of coffee won’t taste great due to the method it uses to make it.

The French press coffee maker is simple, elegant, and classy. It’s basically a glass cylinder with a plunger and a flat mesh filter. You put some ground coffee in the jar and douse it with hot water. After that you simply put the lid on and press the plunger repeatedly, hence the name “French press”. It makes a decent cup of coffee and requires coarser coffee grounds - much more coarse than what’s required in a drip coffee maker.

A relatively new entry onto the coffee maker market, is the one cup coffee brewer. To use them, you simply pop a pod or disc of coffee (these are kind of similar to tea bags in size and shape) into the machine and press and button - a minute later out comes your finished cup of coffee. On the plus side, these make ok cups of coffee, are quick, and hassle free (no filters or coffee grounds to mess around with). However, you are limited on the types of coffee you can use with them, as lots of coffee producers don’t yet sell the pods / discs that you need in order to use. a one cup coffee brewer

So, which is the best coffee maker for you? It’s just a matter of evaluating your lifestyle and coffee habits, and establishing which type best suits your needs.

http://TheCoffeeMakerStore.com is a daily blog and e-commerce store about coffee, coffee makers, and coffee culture. Leave a comment on the blog for a chance to win a free coffee maker!

April 13, 2009

Pointers On Appreciating Wine Through Taste

Filed under: Wine Spirits — Tags: , , , , — CakeAuthor @ 6:40 am

Wines are one of the most popular beverages that are served in parties either formal or just a simple get together. The thought of wine tasting is simply a straightforward experience that will cause you to realize how it is to taste something made out of time. Appreciation for every tangy taste made by the wine through careful hands of wine-makers can be achieved.

Think of the smell, look and exciting taste that tingles your senses and make you soon become a pro in recognizing one wine from the other. You have to remember that wines can have several varieties which have unique scents and tastes that can range from sweet, bitter, salty and sour. Discerning the flavor is due to the combination of the taste and smell of the wine at hand.

Wine tasting can be done in no time. Here are some of the things that you have to do to be able to be a pro in wine recognition.

Check for the Wine Clarity and Color

After pouring the wine into a fine wine glass, observe the wine itself. Check out the color by tilting the wine glass away from you direction and determine it from the rim to the middle part of the glass. You can appreciate this more if you have a white background which can either be a napkin, paper, etc. Just by watching the color, you can make the differences when it comes to wine quality. Red wines are usually colored as ruby, maroon, brownish, purple and even brick red. White wines are known to be colorless although, some white wines are colored amber, light green and golden yellow.

Give into the smell

A person’s sense of smell is considered as one of the most important factors in tasting wine because it can analyze primarily if the wine is something that their taste buds can take. In order to get a very good impression of a wine’s aroma, try to swirl your wine glass gently which is a way of vaporizing some of the wine’s alcohol content and on the other hand, releasing the drink’s aroma. Afterwards, try to stick your nose slightly into the glass and have a deep breathe. Here is some of the most popular aromas of a wine namely oak, vanilla, flowers, citrus and berry. Through a wine’s aroma, one can easily identify the drink’s uniqueness and quality.

Taste the goodness

This is the best part of the entire process. Taste the wine discreetly by starting sipping in small amounts. Then let it stay in your tongue while you enjoy being captivated of the wine’s taste. There are three stages in order to taste a wine the first attack stage, then evolution and last is finish.

The attack stage is considered as the initial phase of tasting wherein your palate is the one responsible. There are usually four parts of the puzzle initiating the attack stage which are levels of tannin, content of alcohol, the residual sugar and the acidity of the drink. When these four puzzles combine with one another, they display a distinct crucial sensation right on the palate.

The evolution stage is known as the actual presentation of wine inside the person’s tongue and palate which discerns the flavor of the wine. The finish in wine tasting is known as the last stage of wine tasting which is a factor of time ,relating to wine’s flavor remaining inside in your mouth after it is totally swallowed.

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