coffee : Java Glossary

by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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coffee

Java, the language, is named after the Indonesian island where coffee is grown. Coffee is known as the addictive drug of choice of computer programmers. Java product names typically play on both the Indonesian and coffee themes. Here is the best way I have discovered to prepare coffee.

Coffee Makers

Paper filter coffee (Melitta style) makes the best tasting coffee, though other techniques such as percolating create better room aroma. Percolators fill the air with wonderful coffee smell, but leave little flavour in the coffee, and tend to be bitter. A bodum tends to create a cloudy rich peasant coffee.

Recipe

Add a pinch of salt to the dry coffee grounds. The trick is to make concentrated coffee then water it down, rather than filtering all the water through the coffee grinds. This avoids leaching out the bitterer components of the coffee. Of course, you must grind the beans freshly. The odour of the beans is far more intoxicating than the final beverage.

I find the milder, cheaper beans such as Mocha Java, Brazilian, Guatemalan, Kenyan and Kona make a mellower coffee. Add a little Dark French if you want to give it a Starbucks bite.

To make the perfect cup of coffee, make sure you wipe out the grinder with a Kleenex after use so you will have no coffee grounds going stale to spoil the next batch.

Adding a subliminal pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove or ginger or a drop of organic vanilla or orange juice can add a little interest. Be subtle. People should just barely be able to tell the coffee is different, not how.

Of course you want to use fair trade coffee, both because you get the higher quality beans that way, and to play fair with the people who grow the beans for you. Thermos carafe

Preserving Flavour

If you don’t serve the coffee right away, put it in a Thermos carafe. If you leave the coffee exposed to the air it will rapidly oxidise and get that all-night diner taste. It will keep a remarkably long time in a sealed Thermos. Coffee makers with warming trays under a glass pot turn out horrible coffee by oxidising it.

Personal

When I was young, my rebellion into the drug world consisted of learning to recognise the various types of coffee, much like a wine connosieur. I would buy 100 grams of beans at a time to try out all the possibilities. I hid coffee making equipment in the back of my closet. I did manage to pull off a Wire Paladin/James Bond thing a few times, surprising people by telling them what was in their personal blend. Age has taken away my unusually keen sense of smell, so I doubt I could do it now.

coffee cup
fair trade chocolate laser talk
fair trade chocolate soapbox
fair trade coffee
fair trade coffee soapbox
Global Exchange
Java
JustUsCoffee: fair trade coffee in Nova Scotia
Kicking Horse Coffee (a Canadian source)
Salt Spring Coffee: certified organic and fair trade
Student Programming Project: fair trade webstore

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