Basic Information on Gourmet Coffee Blends

Coffee! Yes, Coffee Blends.

          It's the rich bodied, heavy aroma bearing, delicacy drink which keeps 80% of America awake! With over 200 million coffee consumers in the US alone, it's no wonder there’s such variety when it comes to coffee blends. If you haven't already, its guaranteed that throughout your work and social life, your going to face some “coffee blend connoisseurs”. And choosing the wrong coffee blend for your boss at your internship or at your girlfriends mom's wedding wouldn't blend as smooth as coffee, eh? So choose your coffee blend, brew it up, and learn your blends with me!

         So you want to be a coffee blend expert? Down that cup because this information is about to be pouring at you. Fast. Here are the “Blend Basics”... Every coffee blend you drink starts out as 1 of 2 types of coffee bean; robusta or arabica. These names are gathered from the coffee bean mother plants; coffea canephora and caffea arabica. Understand that “robusta beans” are considered to be low-grade, while arabica is the “good-shit”. For that, along with various other reasons, about 70% of coffee consumed worldwide is arabica. I recommend you stay away from the robusta bean coffee blends from personal taste preferences, however, every coffee drinker is different.

         Caffea robusta gets her name from being, well, robust. She's more tolerant to pests, weather, and disease than the arabica strain is. The taste of the brews using this bean, accurately reflect the plants' tough qualities. Robusta coffee blends have a powerful, earthy flavor, accompanied by a hard, bitter aftertaste. Alternatively, caffea arabica is known for its graceful satisfaction to the taste buds. Almost exclusively, gourmet coffee blends are high-quality mild varieties of arabica. Uniquely in Italian coffee culture, the distinguished flavor of the robusta bean coffee blends is considered desirable. In France, the world statistics mentioned earlier for arabica vs. robusta, reverse. Only 30% of the coffee consumed there, is brewed from arabica-based coffee blends.

         Colombian, Sumatran, Java, Indonesian, and French Roast are all different names for coffee blends that you've heard, or will hear, as you jump around in the coffee community. Most Colombian coffee blends are considered high-end tasting with a full body and sweet aroma. Sumatran and Java are also known for their heavy body and low acidity. The qualities of Java and Sumatran coffee blends provide the ideal setting to mix with their higher acidic counterparts from Central America and East Africa.

          As for light and dark roasts, the rule is quite simple. The lighter the bean is, the stronger it tastes. When coffee is being manufactured, a bunch of coffee berries are roasted until they reach the desirable color. The longer they roast, the darker they become. Along with becoming darker as the roast time increases, the nutrients, caffeine, and moisture decrease. Therefore, a lighter roast will contain more flavor, caffeine, and overall coffee qualities. Its rare, but some people do brew with green, or non-roasted beans for an extremely strong coffee blend.

    Hope you learned something you can share with your friends! For more reading on specific coffee blends and their taste details, read more here: Gourmet Coffee Blends for Beginners