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Did you know that all of the worlds coffee is grown in countries close to the equator? Also did you know that these are the poorest countries in the world? The commodity price for coffee is just over USD$1.10 now (by the way, similar to what it was in the 1970s) but specialty coffee is purchased for considerably more than that due to the work the farmers have to put into creating a quality product.

Fans say a peaberry tastes sweeter, others say it tastes the same but what exactly is a peaberry?Coffee grows inside of a cherry fruit and usually there are two coffee "beans" per cherry that grow back-to-back - and where the two cherries touch each other it grows flat but the other side is allowed to grow round. What happens in a peaberry coffee is that sometimes there is only one beans that grows inside of the cherry. Since there is no other bean inside the cherry the peaberry is allowed to grow almost round - giving it its distinct shape.A...

Did you know that coffee is always decaffeinated before its roasted? There are a few main methods to removing the caffeine from the beans.First the yucky method: The traditional/cheap decaffeination process was invented in 1906 and involves steaming the coffee beans with acids or bases to open the pores of the coffee bean and then using a solvent such as dichloromethane the caffeine is extracted. Yummy, right?The second method - called Swiss Water Process - uses water and osmosis to remove the caffeine by soaking the coffee in hot water and running the water through filters. This process is performed several...

My daily grinder for my espresso machine at home is an older Baratza Vario (serial number 0749). I've had this grinder for about 5 years and while it is a great grinder the daily use has taken its toll on the pulley and belt that turn the burrs.  Also the burrs had worn down from putting hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds through it.  So, last week I was conducting a silly experiment trying to grind a non-coffee product which would up seizing the burrs which made the drive belt slip on the plastic drive gear and ultimately melting the...

How do you take your coffee? This question usually refers to someone taking cream or sugar in their coffee. But what about the temperature at which we drink the coffee? The amount of variation in flavour that can be obtained by drinking the same cup of coffee at different temperatures can be eye opening. There are several times when people will comment that the only way they can drink coffee is if it's piping hot.  When asked why they don't like it when it's cold they say it's because it only tastes good hot. So we decided to do some research...