The Magic Bean: Enjoy Coffee In its Infinite Varieties
You’re craving a coffee, so you duck into a cafe. You look up at the board and you find yourself faced with an overwhelming list of choices: espresso, macchiato, Americano, latte, flat white – the list goes on and on. Since you don’t know every variety, you stick to your standard order … but do you know if is this really your favorite cup of coffee? Or is it simply the safe choice?
There are as many ways to enjoy the flavor of coffee as there are coffee lovers in the world, and for the uninitiated, it can seem a bit overwhelming. We’ve compiled a few different ways to satisfy your coffee cravings.
The Classics
The Classics are the most common coffees that you find in a coffee shop. They use a base of espresso, a small amount of liquid (or “shot”) created from a pressurized brewing process. This process results in a liquid that is thicker than standard brew coffee with higher concentrations of flavors and chemicals. On top of espresso, ingredients like milk foam, steamed milk, whipped cream, water, and flavored syrups are added.
The Many Varieties
Once you have the basics down, there are infinite ways to jazz up your cuppa Joe.
Flavored Variety: Spice up your drink with a pump of syrup — be it chocolate, hazelnut, almond, caramel, vanilla, or something seasonal like peppermint, cinnamon and pumpkin.
Make your own easy almond syrup mocha!
Irish Variety: Fill a warm glass ¾ with freshly brewed hot coffee. Add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Add 3 tablespoons of Irish whiskey. Top with whipped heavy cream.
Make your own original Irish whiskey!
Frappe Variety: the most chill way to enjoy a coffee. Blend ice cream, ice, coffee, milk, and simple syrup in a blender until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and top with whipped cream and cocoa power.
Cooking with flavor of coffee
Coffee isn’t just for drinking! If you enjoy its aromatic flavors in foods like tiramisu, then you would certainly enjoy it mixed in with the rich chocolate flavors of a coffee brownie.
Make your own coffee brownie!
Lastly, coffee has a special relationship with meats. It can be used in rubs, marinates, and sauces will bring out the savory complexity of beef, pork, and chicken. Grounds can go well in rubs and some marinates, but using the liquid prevents sauces and other dishes from getting grainy. Wake up your taste buds with this truly amazing coffee-braised pot roast with caramelized onions.
Make your own coffee-braised pot roast with caramelized onions!
The history of coffee
Coffee is only limited by your creativity, and it’s truly amazing to think about how such a complicated process was devised. While coffee was first cultivated in Ethiopia, the earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in Yemen. As a result, there are two competing myths about its discovery.
The most popular legend is about, Kaldi, a 9th century Ethiopian goatherd. He discovered that when his goats snacked on the bright red berries of the coffee bush, they became full of energy, jumping and dancing. When he ate the plant himself, he was surprised by the exhilarating effects, so he brought the berries to a monk in nearby Islamic monastery. The monk, disapproving of the strange and unknown magic beans, threw them into the fire. As the beans burned, they gave off an appealing and pleasant aroma. The roasted beans were quickly removed from the embers. They were smashed to put out the flames and then placed into water, making the world’s first brew.
Other accounts claim that Sheikh Omar discovered the famous beverage. Omar was exiled from Mocha, Yemen to a desert cave near Ousab. He was starving, so he ate the red berries. He found them to be bitter, so he tried to roast them to improve the flavor. Roasting made them hard, so he placed them in hot water to soften them. The resulting fragrant brown liquid revitalized Omar and sustained him for days. When word of the magical drink went back to Mocha, Omar was invited back and made a saint!
No matter how it came to our cups, coffee is one of the worlds most consumed and loved beverages. Expand your love for it by experimenting with its preparation. Coffee machines and ground are available on Epermarket.com.
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This post is sponsored by Epermarket, an online grocery store with more than 5,000 imported and safe local goods and a growing selection of organic products – the largest online selection of its kind in China. Shop for fresh produce, personal care products, pantry staples, organic foods and high-quality imported meats and beverages with convenient customer service in English, French, German, and Chinese.
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