Coffee is a very ancient drink which has been drunk for over two thousand years. Coffee is now one of the most popular drinks in the world, and is almost as valuable as petroleum. Whether you are choosing instant coffee, espresso, or just one pod of coffee for your coffee machine, choosing coffee can be complicated. There are many different types of coffee bean, they all fall into two categories of plant. The Arabica was originally cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula. The Robusta is a more hardy plant but contains double the amount of caffeine. The coffee berry is not prized for its fruit, people are only interested in the bean inside, the seed. The fruit is discarded, it's the bean which is ground, roasted and brewed to make a delicious drink. Amazingly over 400 million cups everyday are drunk around the world. There are two main varieties of beans, green and red. Red beans have a nicer smell and are less acidic. Red beans are used to produce lighter coffees. Most beans are picked by hands of locals and they pick quite slowly, perhaps a few baskets full per day. This means that the laborers must be skilled enough to separate the red and green beans quickly in order to get the best cup possible. After the beans are picked they are soaked to remove the fruit, scouring is also used to remove this fruit. The beans are then washed in order to remove any of the flesh which is left over. The beans are then dried out in the sunlight until they only retail around 12% of their water. The beans are then sorted depending on their color and size, sometimes by hand however more often now by using machines. Some beans will be discarded while others will be polished. If these are going into specialist blends of coffee then the beans may be aged, this process can take up to eight years. Other beans are roasted in under a year. The beans are roasted at 400F during which process they double in size and will change to be the brown color we all know and love. There are a number of different methods which can be used to roast coffee. Beans from different countries are often roasted in different ways which creates a unique and interesting flavor. These roasted beans are then ground within just a few weeks, there are a number of different methods of grinding the beans which can create different results. Burr grinders can be used to grind the beans, or blade grinders which actually chop the beans up. Turkish coffee grinds the beans by using a pestle and mortar. This coffee is then brewed, which again there are a number of different methods of brewing it. There are four main types of brewing including pressure, boiling steeping and gravity. When using the boiling method boiling hot water is run through the coffee grounds and then filtered to remove the grounds. Pressure methods are used when brewing espresso and is where hot water is forced through the grounds at very high pressure. Gravity methods drip water onto coffee grounds which is then filtered. Another way is steeping which is similar to using tea bags.
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