Gourmet Coffee Beans

Another good question received from a customer.

Question:
Does flavored coffee have sugar? What are the ingredients in flavored coffee?

Answer:
Our Volcanica gourmet flavored coffees are all made with all natural ingredients and have no sugar, no calories and no allergens. The ingredients are just fine fresh roasted coffee beans and the particular coffee flavor additive that is sprayed over the beans and then mixed in by tumbling them in a special container.

We have had some questions  and confusion from customers regarding Celebes Kalossi Coffee and how it relates to Sulawesi Coffee. Simply put Celebes Kalossi Coffee is another name for Sulawesi Coffee.

Sulawesi or Celebes Kalossi Coffee is grown by the very old Toraja region coffee trees on the island of Sulawesi located located in Indonesia. Celebes Kalossi Coffee is named from the Island of Celebes which was the old Dutch name for the island.

You can find Costa Rican coffee in many places across the country. The easiest is the local supermarket but it will not be that fresh since that bags have been sitting there for weeks just like in the U.S. You can try to tourist shops such as the ones in the airport but expect to pay premium prices and it also is not that fresh.

The best place to buy coffee fresh roasted coffee in San Jose, Costa Rica is also one of the cheapest and entails somewhat of an adventure to the what real Costa Rica is all about.

Take a trip to downtown San Jose and go the the Mercado Central (Central Market). Everyone knows where is is located but the address if you need it is Avenidas Central y 1, Calles 6 y 8. It is an indoor flea market where you can find fresh meats, cheese, leather goods, spices, souvenirs and of course fresh roasted coffee. This is the best place where to buy coffee in Costa Rica. You can eat a decent lunch of breakfast there as well. Understand that this is a flea market and there are no luxuries.

Near the northwest corner inside of the Mercado Central is a coffee roaster with a store front. They fresh roast coffee right there and pack it for you for taking it back to the state. Try the Costa Rica Peaberry Coffee which is the one of the best coffees in the world in my opinion which in Spanish is called Caracolillo. I suggest you load up with as many kilos as you can stuff in your suit case and of course only get whole bean to preserve the freshness.

Their phone number is (506 ) 2222-1769. The only precaution for the Mercado Central is that you do not where your fine jewelry and dress down so that you do not become a target of any thieves. It also is not a custom for males to wear shorts and if you do your are shouting out TOURIST!

Pura Vida!

Another good question from a customer.

Question:
Say I have a question that I hope you may be able to answer for me: I will be going camping – what would be the best way to make my coffee?  No electricity or propane, just camp fire.  I’m thinking maybe a french press?

Answer:
You got it. I go camping often as well and the French Press is the way to go. Boil the water over a camp fire then four minutes over your coffee in the French Press. Don’t forget to grind your coffee beans before you leave.

We live in South Florida and grinding a week’s worth of coffee is also on our hurricane preparedness check list. I learned after one storm that left us without power for a couple of days and no coffee.  It was almost as bad as not having water.

I have a collection of thermal coffee mugs that I use to drink my coffee on the road that I have collected over the years. Some have been free promotional mugs and other that I have bought. The best ones that I have found to fully enjoy your coffee are the ones with a stainless steel interior. The plastic interior on the most cups tend to leave a plastic taste to your coffee but the steel ones let you enjoy the full gourmet coffee flavor. I finally found a particular thermal coffee mug at Costco one day that has turned out to be the best one that I have ever used. It is made by Contigo and it has a solid top that seals in the heat with no spills.

It has a clip in the handle that you can use to attach to your book or lunch bag without worrying if it is going to spill. Since Costco does not currently carry the mug you will need to find an available retailer at Contigo.com.

I did have a problem with the pair that I bought in that the flip top levers both broke after a few months. I emailed the company and they gladly replaced the tops at no charge. A great coffee mug with great customer service that stand behind their product.

Ethiopian coffee exporters, accused of hoarding in Africa’s biggest producer, must accept lower global prices and sell stocks, the head of Ethiopia’s new commodity exchange said on Friday.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi issued a stern warning to exporters during a private meeting with industry players last week, threatening to “cut off their hands” if they did not release stocks they were holding in the hope of better prices. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, chief executive officer of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), said Meles used very strong language and had likened the exporters’ behaviour to a strike. “He gave them a stern talking to, and I think it was all done to say ‘You need to adjust to the new reality’,” she told Reuters in an interview. “I think the message was fairly clear: the market is out of line, there is evidence of stock-keeping or stockholding, and it looks like it’s for reasons that are not going to turn around.”

Ethiopia prides itself as the birthplace of coffee. It earned more than $525 million from exports of 170,888 tonnes of mostly high quality arabicas in 2007/2008 (June/July) — about 60 percent of the Horn of Africa country’s foreign exchange revenue. Some 15 million smallholder farmers grow the beans, mostly in the misty forested highlands of its southwestern region. But Eleni said overall production this season was forecast to drop 14.7 percent from an annual average of 330,000 tonnes, and some southern zones had seen almost total crop failure. “This is very dramatic,” she said. “But, unfortunately, we don’t think expectations have been adjusted.” “DOUBLE SQUEEZE”

The ECX was set up to replace a murky auction system that was often abused by market players, and it began trading coffee at the start of December. Since then, it has traded beans worth 196 million Ethiopian birr ($17.90 million). Meanwhile, coffee prices on the global market have fallen by more than a third in the last 12 months. Benchmark arabica futures on ICE were trading around $1.205 per lb on Friday, down 29 percent from a peak of $1.696 in February 2008. “There is awareness that there is a production shortfall domestically, so we’re in a kind of double squeeze, as I see it, between downward pressure from the world market and an upward pressure from the domestic market,” Eleni said. “So that is at the heart of this misalignment of our market right now.” The local currency has also plummeted 10 percent over just the last month, which she said had also encouraged some buyers to delay purchases in the hope of cheaper deals. The ECX, which has also been trading agricultural commodities like maize, wheat, corn and sesame since April, requires sellers to produce warehouse receipts and buyers to show pre-trade deposits in banks.

This month it increased its storage charges to commercial levels to remove what Eleni called a “perverse incentive” to hold onto stocks, while also reducing storage periods. Since the global credit crunch was likely to curb foreign investment and development aid to Ethiopia, she said Meles felt entitled to speak frankly to exporters who received concessional loans and other support from his government. “He said ‘I would be the last person to tell you not to make profits’,” she said. “However, he said that if what you do … hurts our national economy, then as a society we have to put some checks and balances in place. He was very gentle, but his point was clear.

We are sorry but our popular Kona Gran Reserve – Peaberry Coffee has been discontinued for the near future. The farmer increased his prices to a very high level. We are trying to bring this back but are uncertain as to the date. In the meantime we still offer another Hawaiian Kona Coffee which is an extra fancy though it is not a peaberry coffee variety.

Thanks for understanding and I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

Have you ever wondered why your coffee maker that use to quickly make a pot coffee now seems to take forever? Well you are not imagining things. The problems is with lime and other water deposit build ups that slow down the heating process and flow of water.

The solutions is to buy a special coffee pot solvent at your local merchandise store.  Wal-Mart sells Brew Rite Cleaner for a about $4 and it will last you for about three cleanings. Just follow the directions and flush out the coffee maker with water. You need to clean your coffee maker anytime you see it starts to slow down or every 4 months depending on how often you use it.
Your coffee maker will be brewing again like new. The most important part is that your fresh gourmet coffee will then start to taste better than before.

Kingston – Tropical Storm Gustav lashed Jamaica Thursday, tearing roofs off buildings and uprooting trees while bringing heavy rains. Local officials ordered the evacuation of low-lying areas as forecasters warned of floods and landslides. The airport in Kingston was closed and buses stopped operation. Word on the coffee crop is still early but it cannot be good considering Tropical Storm Fay also visited the island last week.

The Cayman Islands are next in the slow-moving Gustav’s itinerary today and a hurricane watch is in effect there. The latest death count from the storm is 51 in Haiti and eight in the Dominican Republic.

Coffee traders continue to monitor action of Tropical Storm Gustav, though for now, little potential for damage to the coffee stocks in New Orleans warehouses is seen, sources said.

Last year’s July issue of Wired Magazine “What’s Inside” expose on Red Bull. I am sure many of us like me have no idea so this will be surprising for some.

Glucose – Sugar water

Taurine – Also known as 2-aminoethane-sulfonic acid, this was originally isolated from bull bile in 1827. Don’t worry as this in now made sythetically.

Glucuronolactone – Not many studies are available that ascertain what this can do for you.

Caffeine – Ahh, the driver of coffee. Increases concentration and reaction speed improve emotional stat and boost metabolism.

Niacin – Also used to lower cholesterol. This increased the HDL, good cholesterol, is in such low amount that you will not be able to use this as an excuse to drink to improve your pipe work.

Sodium Citrate – Used as a preservative in soft drinks and soft cheese. This helps convert glucose into lactic acid during exercise that has been proven to improve athletic performance.

Inositol – Found in animal muscle, this carbohydrate has been found to reduce depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic attacks and agoraphobia. This sounds great but you will need to drink 360 cans per day to make this chemical meaning for you.