The Art of Painting with Coffee

Coffee painting is not a new art form by any means, but has recently been increasing in popularity. Not only is it appealing to the eye and smells great, it is a great medium for any artist who is looking to try new things.

The art of painting with coffee is known as arfé, which is a combination of the words "art" and "café". Coffee artist from all around are being featured in galleries and on TV, making appearances on shows like Martha stewart, and even sponsored by big names like Nescafe.

Paintings by these artists go for hundreds of dollars and are the focus of a lot of international attention. Though there are many people who encounter coffee painting and think that it is nice but dismiss it as a passing fad, painting with coffee is more than just a novelty, to many people it is a genuine art form.

So if you are intrigued by this branch of coffee culture and are aching to give it a try, it is simple and easy to do at home. Coffee paint is created simply by adding coffee (usually instant) to water and varying the strength to get different tones. Some even boil the coffee to get the darkest colors possible. From that point all you need is a bit of talent and some watercolor paper to create your own aromatic works of art.

Coffee From Around the World

Looking for coffee from around the world?

Explorer’s Bounty, marketer and manufacturer of premium certified organic food products offers coffees Africa, South America or Asia. Explorer’s Bounty single-origin varietals include:

• Expedition El Dorado from Colombia


• Expedition Blue Nile from Ethiopia


• Expedition Inca from Peru


• Expedition Silk Road and Expedition Adventure from Sumatra


• Expedition Grano de Oro from Costa Rica
  

Ground and whole bean varieties are available and are USDA certified organic.

Explorer’s Bounty also employs fair trade practices by partnering with non-profit organizations throughout the world in an effort to promote a higher quality of life and sustain the earth’s resources.

Visit Explorer’s Bounty to go shopping or to learn more about coffee from around the world.

Another Great Reason to Visit Hawaii

37th Annual Kona Coffeee Cultural Festival

Coffee has been cultivated in the rich Kona volcanic soil of Hawaii’s Big Island since the first half of the 19th century. So it’s only fitting that the state’s oldest food festival is the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival. The 37 Annual Festival will be held November 2-11, at various sites on the island.

The mission of the Festival is to promote Kona coffee and the multi-cultural heritage of the Kona coffee pioneers. Festival visitors can enjoy nearly 50 Festival events, such as contests, coffee tastings, seminars, ethnic foods, two parades, the Miss Kona Scholarship Pageant, Living History Farm Tours, art exhibits and an outdoor concert.

This year’s festival has added a barista training workshop in which participants will learn how to taste and prepare espresso and other specialty drinks using Kona coffee. Instructors will work individually with participants from entry level to experienced professionals.

Also new this year is a free Japanese edition of the Kona Coffee Driving Tour Brochure. The brochures, both English and Japanese, provide a map of Kona Coffee Country and locates nearly 60 Kona coffee farms that offer tours, tastings and retail outlets. The brochure also provides background information on Kona coffee heritage.

For more information visit http://www.konacoffeefest.com/.

Add a Little Spice to Your Coffee

There are lots of ways to improve on basic cup of coffee. A few cloves, a pinch of cinnamon or even some whole fennel seeds can really create a whole new cup of coffee. Adding whole spices before you brew is a good way to do this.

Here are a few recipes for spiced coffee. These are all for coffee served hot... mmmmm!

Fragrant Spiced Coffee

3 cups brewed coffee
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Blend together brown sugar, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon (use ground spices, not whole). Mix coffee and cream together with the spice mixture. Serve hot. Serves 4.

Mediterranean Coffee

3 tbs ground coffee (coarse)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp anise seed (whole)
Pinch of dried orange peel pieces

Combine all the ingredients, and brew by your favorite method. Using a french press or a plunger pot is the traditional brewing style for this particular coffee recipe. Makes 1-2 cups of coffee.

Sweet Fennel Coffee

3 tbs ground coffee
2 cinnamon sticks, broken
6 whole fennel seeds, crushed
1 tbs brown sugar

Mix coffee and spices, and brew by your preferred method. Add the sugar to your finished cup for that sweet touch. Also makes 1-2 cups.

Enjoy!!!

Fun Facts About Coffee

Botanically speaking coffee beans are not really beans at all, but berries.

It takes between 4000-5000 coffee cherries to produce a single kilogram of freshly roasted coffee.

Coffee is grown in over 50 countries of the world but is not grown anywhere on the mainland United States.

Coffee is one of the most heavily traded products in the world, second only to oil.

A coffee tree has a life expectancy of 70 years and it takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity.

Contrary to popular belief, darkly roasted coffees contain less caffeine than lightly roasted blends. Caffeine is burnt off during the roasting process, so consequently the longer roasted dark blends have less caffeine.

When serving coffee to guests, it is the custom that the oldest person sitting around a table is served first in Turkey and Greece.

Rather unusually, the terms ‘supremo’ and ‘excelso’ are used to indicate the large physical size of the coffee bean and not its quality as one might expect.

The human body will only be affected by caffeine up to a certain level when coffee is drunk. This level depends upon the individual. After a certain number of cups of coffee have been drunk (typically 4 in quick succession), consuming further cups will provide no further stimulation as the rest is not absorbed.

Coffee is the most popular beverage in the world apart from water and has been consumed for over a thousand years.

Soluble instant coffee was invented in 1906 by an Englishman, living in Guatemala who later moved to the USA. Interestingly his name was George Washington.

People from different parts of the world traditionally add different ingredients to enjoy their favorite drink. The Ethiopians add a pinch of salt, Moroccans’ add peppercorns, while the Mexicans add cinnamon. Drinkers in the Middle East enjoy the addition of cardamom and spices, whilst Austrians add whipped cream. Egyptian coffee drinkers like it strong and dark and rarely add cream or sugar.

Grow Your Own Coffee Beans

For the True Coffee Lover...

You can enjoy your own coffee, as well as the glossy dark green leaves and fragrant white flowers of this easy-to-grow, unique plant.

In 3-4 years your plant will bear fruit which will ripen to red in the fall, with a sweet pulp surrounding each bean. Simply harvest the desired amount of beans, roast in an oven or roaster and cool completely. You’re now ready to grind and brew your own homegrown coffee!

It can be moved outdoors in the summer for pollination.

What an ideal gift for any coffee-lover who has a green thumb!

Coffee Beans from Animal Droppings???

Yes, you read the title correctly...

Kopi Luwak coffee beans have actually been eaten by a small animal before being collected and roasted.

Animalcoffee is the original source of authentic kopi luwak on the internet.

Based in Indonesia Animalcoffee has been supplying genuine wild collected kopi luwak from Sumatra, Java and Bali since 2002. The kopi luwak is sourced directly from coffee plantations as luwak scats (droppings) so there is no ambiguity regarding the authenticity of the coffee beans.

Animalcoffee is apparently the ONLY source of natural, unprocessed kopi luwak.

Surprise someone with a gift box of the rarest coffee there is. It's also the strangest in my opinion!

How Well Do You Know Your Coffee?

Many people grind their beans themselves, to ensure a fresh and flavorful cup of coffee. But not as many people roast their own. Whether you are a home-roaster or not, knowing the different roast levels and their taste characteristics can be helpful when purchasing coffee.

As beans are roasted, the sugars, fats and starches that are within the bean are emulsified, caramelized and released. This creates the delicate coffee oil. This oil is what gives coffee its distinctive aroma and taste.

In general, lighter roasts are sharper and more acidic than the darker roasts. Darker roasts have a fuller flavor. Beans that have been over-roasted will take on a burned, smoky or charcoal flavor. Also, there is less caffeine in the darker roasted coffees than in the lighter ones.

The roast alone doesn't determine the resulting coffee taste or quality. The origin of the beans makes a big difference.

Here are the basic roast types. Many are used interchangeably, so be careful.

Light Cinnamon
The lightest roast for coffee. Beans are a pale cinnamon brown and dry with no oil on the surface of the bean. The flavors of the coffee are barely developed, and the brew has a bready, baked taste (also sometimes known as a ‘pale roast’).

Cinnamon Roast
The color is pale orangey brown and dry with no oil on the surface of the bean. The flavor is a bit more polished than a light cinnamon, slightly grainy in taste.

New England Roast
A light roast popular on the Northeast coast. The flavor is light and slightly acidic with a hint of sourness.

American Roast
The color of American roast is a medium brown with no oily patches on the beans. It delivers a light tasting cup of coffee with no sour notes, but less coffee flavor than slightly darker roasts. It’s considered an optimal roast for coffees that are brewed from a single type of coffee bean because it lets the flavor of the bean come through without imposing the flavors of the roasting method.

City Roast
At this roast, the coffee beans are a medium brown with darker brown marbling or cracking lines showing distinctly. The flavor is rich and full-bodied, with the individual flavor of the coffee variety still very much in evidence.

Full City Roast
Slightly darker than City roast, the Full City is a uniform brown, with a strong coffee aroma and no burnt or caramelized flavor to the coffee.

Light French (Viennese) Roast
A deep, rich brown roast with slight patches of oil on the bean surface. This roast is rich and full-bodied, and is generally considered to be the point where the flavor of the roasting process begins to eclipse the unique flavors of the coffee’s origin. For many, this is the darkest roast that should be used for making espresso.

French Roast
The beans are so dark that they appear nearly black, and the entire surface of the bean is oily. French roast coffee has a sharp, bright flavor to it with a light acidic overtone. Most French Roast coffees will have more in common flavorwise with other French Roast coffees than they do with lighter roasts of the same type of coffee bean.

Italian (Dark French) Roast
Italian roast beans are fully caramelized, black in color and very oily. They can make very burnt tasting coffee, depending on how fast they reached the dark roast stage and how well controlled the process was. It is the roast most favored on the Southern Italian peninsula.

Did You Know?

If you are a coffee/tea lover, there is perhaps nothing better than one of these delicious beverages sometime during the day. For those who are avid coffee/tea lovers, these types of drinks don't even have to be consumed during the morning hours as coffee/tea beverages are good all day long.

Here is some helpful information that all lovers of coffee and tea should be aware of. Some of this information will already be known by those who appreciate the bean or the tea leaf whereas other information might be new insight.

Keep the Coffee Tea Products Fresh
One of the best tips to keep in mind when it comes to coffee/tea items is to keep the beans and tea bags/leaves as fresh as possible. In order to promote the freshest condition, coffee tea items should be stored in airtight containers. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a wise idea to store your coffee tea ingredients in the refrigerator. By keeping your coffee tea items fresh, you will find that the end result will be the highest quality of coffee tea drinks possible.

Buy Beans Whole & Grind Them
It is also a wise idea for coffee drinkers to buy whole coffee beans and then grind the beans right before brewing coffee. This will keep the flavor inside the bean intact as long as possible and make the final product an extremely tasty cup of coffee simply bursting with flavor. Although ground coffee beans are good as well, the freshest coffee comes from newly ground beans.

Green Tea Has Wonderful Health Qualities
Some may already know about the wonderful health qualities associated with green tea. The main healthy quality pertains to the antioxidants present within the tea leaves. Although black tea contains such antioxidants as well, green tea tends to have a higher concentration of these healthy items. Therefore, when you are sipping on your hot cup of green tea or green tea latte, it is good to know that you are getting health-related benefits to boot.

The Type of Coffee Bean May Dictate How Good the Coffee Is
Like wine and beer, coffee also comes in a large variety of styles and flavors. Coffee beans come in many different styles whereas some are stronger than others may be. If you are a frequent coffee drinker and you like to sample different types of coffee beans, you may already know which variety you prefer. As coffee beans have distinct tastes, some cups of coffee may yield different results with regard to favoritism. Therefore, what type of bean you choose may dictate how good the coffee is to you.

Coffee & Tea Offer a Wide Array of Beverages
If you drank coffee in the past and were not crazy about it, don't give up completely on the coffee bean. There are many different beverages which coffee beans can be turned into… espresso, cappuccino, lattes, breves, ice coffee and even more. A coffee/tea lover doesn't necessarily prefer every type of coffee/tea beverage as there are some lovers of coffee and tea who like lattes and cappuccino yet do not like espresso or hot coffee. Therefore, if you have tried different types of coffee/tea options in the past and not been successful in choosing one you like, you might want to try some of the other types. You may just find one you really love.