The specialty coffee industry is continuing to grow at a very rapid pace. There are so many people around the world that are literally addicted to coffee that this comes as no surprise! When it comes to metropolitan areas, you can find gourmet coffee shops on nearly every street corner. This is one of the fastest growing food industries out there, and coffee is being exported from many different countries throughout the world.There are so many...more
Reggies Roast Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is known for being the best gourmet coffee around. The company brings the best coffee beans from Jamaica to the United States where their coffee roasters are located in Linden, New Jersey. Reggie Chungloy grew up in Jamaica and wanted to bring the best coffee beans from Jamaican Blue Mountains to where he resides now, the United States. This was the beginning of Reggies Roast. Like everything else,...more
The Tarrazu region in Costa Rica, or Dota Tarrazu, as we like to call it in Down to Earth, is Costa Rica's premiere coffee producing region. Considered one of the top three regions of the world for the production of coffee along with Kona from Hawaii and Blue Mountain from Jamaica, Dota Tarrazu produces very distinctive coffee with a set of characteristics of aroma and flavor that make it unique.-- Why do we add Dota to the Tarrazu name in Down to Earth? Well, to start, our farm is located in the town of Providencia, in the Dota county. Also, it is not only a matter of pride in our harvest but also a definite issue of quality. The Dota county occupies the highest part of the Tarrazu region, with an average of 900 feet (300 meters) higher altitude over the rest. This creates a smoother, more balanced coffee than the norm of the Tarrazu region. But don't get me wrong, we are happy to be part of Tarrazu; aside from true connoisseurs that know and ponder the virtues of the Dota coffee, Tarrazu is the recognized name in the industry and like it or not, there are benefits to market our coffee under this umbrella.Rather than getting into the characteristics of the coffee, I want to lay...more
Eleven years ago, when I started producing coffee in the Dota mountains of the Tarrazu region in Costa Rica, I did not do the roasting personally, I used to take it to a roaster and even though I was there all the time and got involved in the process, the roasting was somebody else's craft.A few years later I decided that to master my product...more
I have a few selected places in San Jose, Costa Rica where i can go have a cup of coffee in a time of need, they are commercial venues that can serve a decent cup of coffee before i get home.But about three months ago I had a surprise. The cappuccino i ordered from one of these places tasted really bad, my feeling that it was not done properly so i...more
Coffee marketers are clever, they use the altitude claim over and over, but without really committing to a range. And that is actually the most important issue in coffee quality.That is why, the next time you see a bag or an ad promoting HIGHLAND coffee or MOUNTAIN GROWN coffee, please ask how tall the mountain was. Why? Because it makes all the difference in the world. Coffee quality is classified according to altitude ranges, being the highest and best the SHB, or Strictly Hard Bean.SHB is coffee that grows between 4,900 and 6,000 feet. Above that, coffee quality and productivity starts to dwindle and below that you get an array of lower quality beans without a well defined personality that are mostly good for fillers, specially in the 2,400 feet altitude range.So why is coffee better in the SHB range? Because at that altitude, the temperature at night goes very low, around 45 F to 50 F, and that slows down the metabolism of the tree which then produces a smaller, denser bean that concentrates aroma and flavor. The size of the true SHB beans is much smaller than the regular coffee beans and can be recognized because they have a corrugated surface.In the SHB range, the growth...more
In different places everywhere, people love taking coffee. In fact drinking coffee has developed into trend which everybody is happy to follow. Those who love coffee have different advantages for doing so. For lots of people, the sweet aroma of your...more
Colombian coffee continues to be one of the most popular types of coffee. Even though coffee has its origins in Africa, Colombia has become one of the best locations for the planting and harvesting of coffee. As a matter of fact, over 12% of the...more
There's nothing like the smell of coffee in the morning. It's one of the first things most people do when they get up in the morning: turn on the coffee brewer. And there's nothing like taking that first, delicious sip. It wakes you up, makes you...more
African coffee is widely regarded as some of the highest quality coffee worldwide. There are multiple regions of this country that produce quality coffee beans. As a matter of fact, in some areas of Africa you will find coffee growing in the...more
It used to be that Honduras coffee was not necessarily that popular in the specialty coffee market. However, that seems to be quickly changing. The thing is that Honduras has all of the environmental factors that come together to make great coffee....more
Peru coffee is becoming more and more popular in the specialty coffee market. As a matter of fact, Peru is one of the largest producers of coffee worldwide. You won't commonly see this kind of coffee at your local grocery store, at least not with a...more