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• Preparing the Perfect Cup
• Coffee Trivia
• Short History of Coffee
• Glossary of Coffee Terms
• Coffee Tasting Terminology
• The Art of Roasting


Preparing the "Perfect Cup"
While preparing the "perfect cup" of coffee is unique to your personal tastes and environment, we recommend following these steps to brew a better cup.

The Water
Start with fresh, cold water. If your tap water does not have good flavour, we suggest bottled spring water. Since brewed coffee is 98% water, any off flavours in the water will ruin the flavour of your coffee.

The Coffee
Use the freshest coffee. Once roasted, coffee is a perishable food product which begins to stale from contact with oxygen and moisture in the air. This causes its complex flavours and aromas to break down, and become flat and stale tasting.

To maintain the freshness of your coffee: Store coffee in an air-tight container and place it in a dark, dry, cool location. We do not recommend the use of your refrigerator or freezer for coffee storage.

Once your package of fresh roasted coffee has been opened, we recommend that you enjoy it within 14 days for optimal flavour and freshness.

The Grind Size
The proper grind size for your brewing method:
• A slightly sandy texture with flat-bottomed or cone-shaped filters.
• A coarse grind with a French press or percolator.
• If your grind is too fine, it will produce a bitter brew; if it is too coarse it will produce a weak, watery brew.
We strongly recommend that you use a burr type grinder or order your coffee ground.
• This will produce much better results than a blade type coffee "grinder" because the burr grinder produces a more consistent particle size. This allows for a more even flavour extraction during the brewing of the coffee.
• Properly pre-ground coffee (used within 14 days) will produce a better cup of coffee than coffee ground with a blade grinder just before brewing every time... we know this from our own experience with both kinds of grinders! We have never been able to achieve the same cup quality with a blade grinder at home as we can get with burr ground coffee.
The Quantity of Coffee
Use one-standard coffee measure (two level tablespoons) for every cup of coffee you are brewing. This will produce a cup that has the delectable flavours inherent in the coffee beans. Remember that using too little ground coffee will produce bitterness that only detracts from these flavours.

Once your coffee has been brewed, do not let it sit on a warming element for any extended amount of time (20 minutes or longer). Instead, we suggest that you pour it immediately into a carafe or thermos in order to maintain its heat and true flavours.

Coffee Trivia
You never know...next time you're playing "Trivial Pursuit®" with your friends, you may just get a coffee-related question!

• Coffee is graded according to 3 criteria:

  o Bean quality (Altitude and Species)
  o Quality of preparation
  o Size of bean

• Coffee trees are self-pollinating
• Most differences in flavour are a result of climate and soil
• The aroma and flavour derived from coffee is a result of the little beads of the oily substance called coffee essence, coffeol, or coffee oil. This is not an actual oil since it dissolves in water.
• The arabica coffee tree is an evergreen and in the wild will grow to a height between 14 and 20 feet.
• Coffee is best stored in a dry, airtight container which prevents contamination and contact with moisture. Well stored roasted wholebean coffee will keep its flavor and aroma for a week.
• Ground coffee starts to go stale in a few hours, no matter how you store it.
• Until the 18th century coffee was almost always boiled.
• An arabica coffee tree can produce up to 12 pounds of coffee a year, depending on soil and climate.
• Modern brewing methods use approximately 200° water.
• The drip pot was invented by a Frenchman around 1800.
• The coffee "bean" is actually the seed of the coffee cherry. Two beans grow face-to-face within each cherry, and there are about four thousand handpicked beans in a single pound of specialty coffee.
• Coffee is big business: It is second only to oil as a commodity on world markets.
• Occasionally a single round bean, called a "Peaberry," will form instead of the normal 2 flat ones.
• A scientific report form the University of California found that the steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amounts of antioxidants as three oranges. The antioxidants are heterocyclic compounds which prevents cancer and heart disease. It's good for you!
• "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love" - Turkish Proverb
• The heavy tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773, which caused the "Boston Tea Party," resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. Drinking coffee was an expression of freedom.
• In the last three centuries, 90% of all people living in the Western world have switched from tea to CafeDirect.
• Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.
• Hawaii is the only state of the United States in which coffee is commercially grown. Hawaii features an annual Kona Festival, coffee picking contest. Each year the winner becomes a state celebrity. In Hawaii coffee is harvested between November and April.
• Iced coffee in a can has been popular in Japan since 1945.
• October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.
• Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea, a sixfold increase since 1940.
• Dark roasted coffees actually have LESS caffeine than medium roasts? The longer a coffee is roasted, the more caffeine burns off during the process.
• An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 kg coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2000 kg of beans after hulling or milling.
• Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
• "Hard Bean" means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.

A Short History of Coffee

Legends & History
Coffee in Europe
Coffee In America

Legends & History
There are several legends surrounding the discovery of coffee. Probably the best known is that of Kaldi and his goats. As the story goes, Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder, noticed that his goats were particularly active after eating the fruit of a particular tree. Even the oldest goats were dancing and frolicking like kids. Kaldi ate some of the fruit himself, and was amazed at the sense of well-being and alertness that occurred. Sometime after, a wandering imam, came upon Kaldi and noticed his unusual behavior. Kaldi shared his secret with the holy man, who refined the process by drying the fruit and then boiling it.

In another legend, the dervish Omar was condemned to wander the desert outside of the port of Moka. At midnight Omar was awakened by the spirit of his dead mentor, and guided to a coffee tree, where he was instructed to pick the fruit and roast the seeds. Trying to soften them in water, he failed, and decided to drink the liquid. He, like Kaldi, was amazed at the resulting benefits, and introduced the beverage to Moka.

Historically, the drink was only consumed on the advice of a physician or as part of a religious ceremony, but quickly became very popular. After coffee began to lose its religious and medicinal associations, the first coffee houses or qaveh khaneh were established in Mecca. Due to the gambling, music, and social and political discussions that took place in them they were deemed a threat by 16th century rulers. The government, aided by clerics who felt coffee houses distracted the faithful, and physicians who wanted to sell coffee as an expensive medicine, tried three times to close them down. They failed, and eventually the government realized that coffee houses could provide tax revenue.

The prototypical cafés of Damascus and Constantinople were the beginning of what we have come to know as the modern café. They were simple and comfortable, and were places of leisure, and a welcome refuge from the desert. Friends met to talk, and entertained themselves playing backgammon and chess. It is also said that the game of bridge originated in cafés in Constantinople.

After coffee became popular in cafés, it soon moved into the home, where an elaborate ceremony rivalling the Japanese tea ceremony evolved. A special room, the K'hawah or coffee hall was the scene of the ceremony, and the host and his guests invoked the blessings of Allah. The host then roasted the beans, crushed them with a mortar and pestle, and prepared the drink. When it was prepared, the host drank the first cup to assure everyone that it was safe.

Coffee soon became ubiquitous, with Arab drivers stopping alongside the road, roasting their beans, and preparing coffee. (The first coffee break!) Merchants and barbers served coffee to their customers, and Turkish wives could divorce their husband if he failed to provide them with coffee.

Traditionally, coffee was guarded jealously by the Arabians, who refused to allow the plant out of the country. In 1650 a native of India named Baba Budan strapped seven coffee seeds to his belly and smuggled them home, where he planted and nurtured them. Today, the descendants of these trees produce 1/3 of India's coffee.

Coffee in Europe
The merchant fleets of Venice were probably the first Europeans to learn about coffee. Eventually the beverage came to Rome, where fanatical priests tried to have it banned on the basis that it must have been created by the Devil since it was a Moslem drink. Pope Clement VIII tried coffee in an effort to resolve the matter, and blessed it on the spot. Coffee soon became an important part of Italian life, and the first European coffee houses opened.

The English became acquainted with coffee in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century when English seamen described coffee in travel books, and told of drinking coffee in Turkey and Egypt. Coffee eventually became a favourite of students at Oxford, and soon spread throughout Great Britain.

Coffee came to France through the efforts of merchants in Marseilles, who began drinking coffee in Levant, and decided that they must import it. The spread of coffee was fought by the winemakers and doctors; the winemakers feared that it would reduce their profits and the doctors, again, wanted to sell it as a medicine. The drink's popularity was ensured when Louis XIV was introduced to it by the ambassador of Turkey, who held lavish parties featuring the exotic beverage.

In the late seventeenth century beans from Mecca were smuggled into India. Dutch spies finally succeeded in stealing plants from Arabia and cultivated them in Java (This gave the Western world its first informal name for coffee). The Dutch distributed plants all over Europe from their botanical gardens in Holland. The fruit of one of these plants which grew in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris became the progenitor for all the coffee plants in Latin America. A few seedlings from this plant were brought to Martinique by a French naval officer, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu. Coffee eventually spread throughout the West Indies, eventually to Brazil, and then to other parts of Latin America.

Coffee in America
Coffee was probably introduced to North America by Captain John Smith when he founded the colony of Virginia. Smith knew of coffee from his travels in Turkey.

Coffee gained its first popularity in North America in New Amsterdam (now New York). By the time the British gained control in 1664, coffee had replaced ale as the city's most popular breakfast drink.

In 1689 the London Coffee house became Boston's first coffee house, and The Green Dragon, which was founded in 1697, became the "headquarters of the revolution". It was here, in 1773, that the Boston Tea Party was planned, which practically overnight resulted in coffee becoming the dominant hot beverage in America. French and Dutch merchants supplied the tea boycotting colonists with CafeDirect. Later, American merchants returned home with cargoes of coffee from Martinique, Puerto Rico, and Haiti. As European coffee drinkers colonized America during the nineteenth century, the demand for coffee grew. Coffee then moved westward with the frontier, where settlers, scouts, and soldiers liked their brew "hot, black, and strong enough to walk by itself."1

Unfortunately, coffee in America suffered for many reasons. In Europe, the passion for good tasting coffee was maintained. In the US, due possibly to a smaller initial population, small roasters were not able to survive. Coffee was also often roasted at home, which produced an inconsistent product at best. With their large volume and the margin between the green and roasted product, commercial coffee roaters were able to survive. Finally with the advent of vacuum packaging and modern transportation, it became possible for a roaster on one side of the country to sell to a retailer on the other side. As with many other foods, coffee suffered when America began to fall in love with technology.

Coffee Tasting Terminology
The following terms are commonly used for tasting and describing coffees.

Acidity
Coffees with low acidity are soft and smooth. High acidity coffees have a bright, crisp, palette-cleansing quality. This acidity has nothing to do with the pH level of coffee, which is neutral (i.e., it is similar to water). Examples of acidity ranges of various coffees are:

• Low (Sumatra, Celebes, French Roasts)
• Medium (Colombian, Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua)
• High (Kenya, Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala)

Aroma
Aroma refers to the fragrance or odour of brewed coffee combined with its flavour. The aroma of brewed coffee may be:

• Lacking or faint
• Delicate
• Strong
• Fragrant (i.e., aromatic)

Body
Body refers to the sense of the coffee's weight and texture (e.g., its oiliness and intensity) in the mouth. The brewing method also influences the body as a plunger pot or espresso machine will produce a heavier bodied coffee, while a conventional drip machine will result in lighter bodied coffees because the paper filters remove flavor oils. A coffee's body can be:

• Light-bodied (African)
• Medium-bodied (American)
• Heavy-bodied (Indonesian)

Flavour
Flavour refers to a coffee's intensity, the combined impression of a coffee's aroma, acidity, and body. Specific taste flavours may suggest spices, chocolate, nuts, or even uncomplimentary flavours like straw, grass, or rubber. Coffee flavours are categorized as:

• Poor
• Fair
• Good
• Fine

Finish
Finish refers to the aftertaste, the feelings and flavours that are perceived after the coffee has been swallowed. Terms used to describe a coffee's finish include:

• Length of the finish (quick, lingering)
• Clean aftertaste

The Art of Roasting
Hand-selected, premium coffee beans are merely the first step in crafting an exceptional cup of coffee. The true art is in the roasting process.

The mission of Café Direct’s Roast Master is to bring out each coffee's distinctive character during the roasting process. If roasting is stopped too early, the result is pale, flavourless beans. If the beans are roasted too long, a sharp, burnt coffee is produced. After much methodical refinement, our Roastmaster and his team have perfected the art of roasting using the unique Fruidised Roasting Process.

The Fluidised Roasting Process
Café Direct roasts its coffee daily, creating truly fresh coffee utilising the Café Direct Fluidised Roasting Process®. This modern roasting technique prevents burning and charring and delivers a purer, cleaner tasting coffee than that produced by traditional drum roasters. It is this unique process which is the secret behind Café Direct’s quality aromatic coffees.

Green Coffee
As the coffee beans are heated in the roaster they begin their metamorphosis changing to a buttery, harvest gold colour. At this point the beans begin to loose weight and increase in mass. At this level, the coffee is unpalatable completely lacking any of the usual flavours normally associated with coffee.

Light Roast
A light roast is reached after only a few minutes into the roasting process. Most of the moisture loss which occurs during roasting has taken place however for many bean types the rich coffee flavours are largely undeveloped.

Medium Roast
This level of roast is a bit darker than the light roast, medium-brown in colour, and dry on the surface (only slight oil development). Many bean types are roasted to this level as the flavours are well developed. The fluidised roasting process is critical at this point as even in a medium roast some burning and charring can take place using traditional methods. Coffee Creation has a good range of medium roasted single origin or blended coffees.

Dark Roast
Roasted to a rich, ebony brown, with a distinctly oily surface the dark roast packs a full-flavoured punch. The Fluidised Roasting process enables us to achieve the perfect dark roast without the burnt taste often found in many dark roasts.