Gourmet Coffee Beans

We have a nice selection of coffee gift baskets available this Christmas season which have been very popular. They are the perfect gift for your coffee lover. Each gift basket contains some of our best estate gourmet coffees, special treats such as a Wicked Jacks Tavern Rum Cake, an assortment of Fine Teas, Biscotti’s and chocolate spoons in a beautiful basket wrapped in cellophane with ribbons. There are a variety of coffee gift baskets for different coffee aficionados and budgets. All gourmet coffees are in large size 16 oz. bags.

We have made the change over to 16 oz coffee bags from 12 oz. We did this because we believe that customers receive a better value with the 1 pound bags (which is 16 oz in case you wondered). A few years ago all of our coffees were in 16 oz bags but we moved to the smaller sizes to offer a less expensive option which we no longer feel is necessary.

In this change we are better able to absorb the coffee bean price increases that have taken place around the world with a minimal effect to our customers.

Just in time for the Christmas and the holidays we have made it easier to find our holiday flavored coffees. We have created a special section in our stores where you can find Holiday Coffees and Holiday Decaf Coffees. There you will find some nice seasonal treats such as Eggnog Flavored Coffee, Gingerbread Flavored Coffee, Gourmet Coffee Stocking Stuffers and my personal favorite, Pumpkin Spice Flavored Coffee.

We had these coffees for the past couple of years but they may have been hard to find since they were located in the flavored coffee sections. Even so they have been very popular over the last two Christmas seasons. The bonus is that they are available all year long for those that need that Christmas spirit in the middle of the year.

Everyone at Volcanica Coffee wishes you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!

The most expensive coffee in the world is also the one that has a lot of controversy surrounding it. The most expensive coffee is Kopi Luwak Coffee which sells for $349.99 per pound.

Where the Most Expensive Coffee Originates

The Kopi Luwak Coffee beans are actually excreted from an animal called the palm civet. It turns out that palm civets , which are a type of cat, like to consume the red coffee cherries which contain coffee beans. The cats carefully select only the ripest, reddest cherries so in a sense they are naturally refined coffee bean pickers for the most expensive coffee in the world. In the digestive process, the inner seeds of the berries which are the actual coffee beans are not consumed and are passed through their system. The stomach enzyme of the cat on the coffee bean gives it a bitter, complex taste which can be considered a natural fermentation process. After the civet  defecates the local pickers will collect the beans from the dung and send them to be washed to remove the impurities. The supplies are limited which also contributes to making this the most expensive coffee.

The green coffee beans are then packed and sent to specialty roasters such as Volcanica Gourmet Coffee. The roasting process significantly reduces the bitterness of the bean and retains the complex flavors. The beans are safe for consumption since they have undergone thorough processing and washing prior to packing.

Tasting the Most Expensive Coffee

The Kopi Luwak Coffee is rich and exotic in flavor. It also possesses a musty, earthy taste with a slight hint of syrupy smoothness. It contains an aroma that is rich and strong and the most expensive coffee is incredibly full bodied, almost syrupy. It’s thick with a hint of chocolate, and lingers on the tongue with a long, clean aftertaste.

Another good question from a customer.

Question:

Are real hazelnuts used in the flavoring or just a flavoring substitute? The reason why I ask is because my allergy doctor informed me that I am allergic to hazelnuts and to stay away. I am wondering if the hazelnut flavoring is something I should avoid.

Answer:

We do not use real hazelnuts in our flavoring. We only use natural substitute ingredients for our coffee flavoring. All of our gourmet flavored coffees are all made with all natural ingredients and have no sugar, no calories and no allergens. For me information and to order please visit our Hazelnut Flavored Coffee page.

Italians first brought coffee to Europe. The first shipment came from Turkey to Venice in 1615. Coffee houses had opened in the major European cities of Paris, Marseilles, Oxford, London, Venice and Exeter by the mid-seventeenth century.

The Coffee shops of Europe became platforms for intellectual discussions and had a nickname, “penny universities” which was the price to enter. Women were not allowed in English coffee houses and were exclusively for women.

The coffee house that was frequented became associated with a man’s politics. At the height of the coffee house popularity in London, they were denounced as places for treasonous activities. So much so that King Charles II attempted to ban them but it was reversed due to popular demand.

Legend has it that 90% of the world’s coffee can be traced to a simple act of theft. The Dutch were the first to bring coffee to the new world and cultivate it commercially. The mayor of Amsterdam in 1714 sent Louis XIV of France a coffee tree. About nine years later a young naval officer, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu stole a seedling from this tree and brought it to his home in the Caribbean. De Clieu took special care of the seeding despite the harsh voyage. He planted it in Martinique and 50 years later there were more than 19 million coffee trees on the island.

It is believed that that all of the trees in the West Indies came from this single seeding. Missionaries, traders and colonists took seedlings to other islands and throughout Latin America. Coffee became one of the New World’s most profitable crops by the end of the eighteenth century. This one seeding is responsible for the existence of coffee farming in the New World.

I have to report this cool looking volcano eruption in Indonesia. The cone looks very much like the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica which was the inspiration for our trademark and picture on our packaging.

Washington – A team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from the Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) in Washington state has spent three weeks in Indonesia, working with the government there to evaluate the threat of volcanic eruptions.

Their work included studying Mount Merapi in central Java, a 9,800-foot peak considered the most dangerous of Indonesia’s 129 active volcanoes because of the large nearby population, a frequency of severe eruptions, and increased activity in past weeks.

Mount Merapi´s threat is magnified because it is near Yogyakarta, home to more than 1 million people, and located less than 20 miles from the volcano’s summit, according to a May 17 USGS press release.

More than 100,000 people also live within hazardous zones on the flanks of the volcano. During the past 12 years, Mount Merapi erupted six times.

Mount Merapi began showing signs of new unrest in summer 2005, with an increase in seismic activity that prompted the Merapi Volcano Observatory to conduct volcano hazard education programs in villages on the volcano’s flanks.

A “coffee industry problem” is that a true cup of coffee is 6 oz. but the majority of coffee makers use 4 oz. The correct measurement is 1 tablespoon for each 6 oz. then adjust to taste. To get there you need to measure your water with a measuring cup and measure your cup with a measuring spoon. After you do this a few time you can figure out exactly how much water and
your grinder settings for a great cup of coffee.

I have a Capresso coffee maker that I bought last month and just went through this process to fine tune how I like my coffee. For the 10 cup water level I use the the 4 1/2 cup grind setting with the grind set two notches below the mid-point.

To determine the exact number of cups does take some measuring to pinpoint it. It is a learning process. I first put the cup setting to grind the projected amount in my burr coffee grinder then I measure the coffee grounds from the container to find the best setting. This also varies depending on the type of ground fine or coarse. A little less for  fine a grind because the grounds are more compact and and more for coarse.

In my Cusinart Burr Coffee Grinder, if I want to grind a different type of coffee, such as decaf for a single pot, I usually pull out my blade grinder since emptying out hopper and the blades is a major project.

To keep my beans fresh I usually only fill the bean hopper about half-way. The top does keep it sealed so I would not worry too much.