Thursday, September 2, 2010

Storing Your Coffee – Should You Freeze Your Coffee?

There are many different suggested ways to store coffee in order to maintain freshness. One of the suggested methods is to put your ground coffee or coffee beans in the freezer. Is storing coffee in the freezer a good way to maintain freshness? Let's look at the pros and cons.

Freezing has been used for centuries as a way to extend the life of many foods. A diverse selection of foods can be frozen. Bread, meat, fruits, vegetables and even butter can be successfully stored in your freezer. Freezing even maintains many of the vitamins and nutritional value of a wide variety of foods. Coffee, however, isn't as likely a candidate for storage in the freezer.

Coffee has four main enemies against freshness: air, heat, light and moisture. At first, freezing doesn't seem to contain many of the offending enemies. However, appearances can be deceiving.
Coffee beans have been roasted in order to enhance flavor. The beans are also porous.

Unfortunately a freezer can contain many other foods which have odors. The porous beans can absorb the flavors of many other frozen foods. Flavored coffees can be pleasant, but no one wants to drink seafood or garlic flavored coffee.

Moisture can also be absorbed by the coffee beans. Moisture can cause deterioration and loss of flavor. The more often you take coffee out of the freezer and put it back in, the more moisture absorption takes place into the bean. If you absolutely need to freeze some coffee because you have a large excess you'd like to keep, only freeze it once. The more you take it in and out of the freezer, the more damage you do.

Freezing also breaks down the oils in the beans. The oils contribute to the flavor of the coffee. Breaking down the oils means taking away flavor, and let's face it, a large part of a good cup of coffee is the flavor.

When it comes down to it, freezing is not the best way to store your coffee. Keep coffee stored in a cool, dry, airtight container away from light. Freezing coffee is possible, and is best if you only freeze it once. The resulting loss of flavor and quality from repetitive freezing makes it a method of storage to stay away from. Your best bet is to purchase only enough beans or ground coffee to supply you for 1-2 weeks. Enjoy the coffee at its freshest!


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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Top 5 Best-Selling Coffee Makers

Coffee is the number one breakfast drink the world over. There are very few places that do not serve this staple and that is a very good thing to say the least. So many people depend on this drink for that bit of energy in the morning to get through the day and of course there is some big business when it comes to coffee and the coffee maker. The business that surrounds this part of the world is big and more and more people are trying to get in on it. This means that there is more than enough competition to make the best in coffee maker products that the world has seen. This is an important thing to a good many people as the coffee maker is the number one appliance in their home.

Bunn is the best-selling coffee maker currently on the market. For a good many years the company was not making products for the home, but instead only those for the many businesses that served the drink. This has all changed as the Bunn company has seen the demand for their top quality coffee maker products for the home. This has brought new levels of financial stability to the company and they are enjoying the success overall.

Senso makes a great coffee maker as well and they are second only to Bunn in terms of quality and sales. This is normal when you see the many products that they offer. Some of the finest makers are brought out by this company and there are a good many people who make the best coffee with them. They are a staple in the restaurants across the world as well.

Cuisinart is a big name in the small home appliance world and their coffee makers make that statement as well. While they have not always been in this business, they are making a mark across the world with the new lines. Many people trust this company more than many others because of the attention to detail and quality that they have always had.

Keurig is one of the newer players in the coffee maker game but that does not mean they are anything but great. They have makers that will do just about everything for you and they are of the best construction to boot.

Krups is a fine company that does offer some fine coffee makers. There have been a few problems with the company as they were plagued by some recalls when they tried to out-source some of the products and took a big hit in the process.


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What Happened To Coffee?

As you probably know, coffee is 2nd most important commodity in the United States. Obviously, if you turn on your TV to watch the news you'll know what is first. But the coffee industry is big business, what you get at the fast food restaurant or at the office doesn't even touch on the quality that is out there.

It's funny how anything that doesn't come out of the can is considered gourmet coffee. Gourmet coffee is not something that you can't buy at the grocery store; the most expensive stuff there doesn't even begin to touch on the quality that is available. Coffee roasting has become an art form.

In a day when big companies use computers to do the dirty work, small specialty companies are still doing it the old-fashioned way with their experience and their brains. Roastmasters spend years honing their craft, and their experience is what makes for a great cup of coffee.

These companies rely on freshness and quality to compete with the big boys who stock the grocery store shelves or ship it out to your local drive thru. You won't see any of their commercials on TV, even real late at night when there is the cheapest air-time.

These specialty companies are successful simply based on their reputation. They work to get the highest grade beans from all over the world. They test everything to make sure the quality is as good as it gets. And then they baby it. Gourmet coffee is usually roasted in small batches to guarantee that nothing can go wrong.

The time and temperature is completely under their complete control, and experience tells them when the beans are roasted perfectly. Any imperfections and the beans are tossed out and a new batch begins. They can do anything with coffee. They can create the perfect blends, add the best flavors, and guarantee that you will get the best cup of coffee that you have ever tasted.

They rely on word of mouth, reviews, and tasting competitions to get their name out there. In most situations the only way to place an order with them is through the internet. Gourmet Coffee sites are everywhere on the web, but it is often hard to determine where is the best place to go. If you want a head start jump to http://www.bestsite4reviews.com/coffee/ and read about some of the best gourmet coffee companies out there.

And believe or not, most of their coffee costs no more that what you pay for a bag of beans at the supermarket that have been sitting around for a couple of months. But best part about it is that you can have all of this in the comfort of your own home. This may give you the little extra that you need to get out of bed in the morning.


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