I usually don’t drink coffee. However, when the holidays are round around the corner, I HAVE to have gourmet coffee. I would appreciate it if you can provide recipes for cappucinos, lattes, espressos, etc.
Also, which gourmet coffee makers and steamers are good? Mr. Coffee? Thank you.

Espresso Pod Holder for Deluxe (HD7820) & Supreme (HD7832) Senseo Gourmet Coffee Machines

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Espresso Pod Holder for Deluxe (HD7810) Senseo Gourmet Coffee Machines

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Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and Tully’s Coffee are United States’ most admired and biggest coffee shops. These three companies rose above the challenge of the ever growing coffee retail industry and made a name esteemed by many coffee enthusiasts.
Let’s take a look at how the top three most famous and biggest coffee shops in the US – Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and Tully’s Coffee – began their journey to the top.
Starbucks
Seattle in Washington was remarkable for its fantastic coffee before World War II broke out. However in the late sixty’s the superiority of its coffee had weakened a great deal that Gordon Bowker, a Seattle magazine writer then, had to travel all the way to Vancouver just to procure his coffee there. He wanted his coffee to be dark and sumptuous, similar to what he tasted in Italy. Shortly Bowker, was making errands for two of his friends, Zev Siegl and Jerry Baldwin. When Seattle magazine closed, Bowker’s friends, Baldwin and Siegl who were both teachers, were searching new businesses too. In 1971, the three partnered together to actually build manually their first coffee shop sited in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Each of these men raised $1,350 respectively and loans added another $5,000. They then chose the name Starbucks for the hard-hitting ’st’ tone and its reference to the coffee aficionado first mate in Moby Dick. After creating a logo with a two-tailed siren, they got started to gain further knowledge about coffee.
From its little coffee house out of Seattle, Starbucks has now 5,647 certified and 7,521 self-operated coffee stores existing, and has branches in 43 nations. As the largest store to shop for great coffee, Starbucks is recognized to be USA’s number one in coffee retailing industry and is one of the major business success stories of our time.
Caribou Coffee
The idea of Caribou Coffee dawned when new couple John and Kimberly Puckett went up the peak of Sable Mountain in Denali National Park in Alaska. The Pucketts came to a decision to develop a company to depict their feat during the mount. When the couple reached the pinnacle, they spotted a herd of caribou. Inspired by the ceaseless movement and splendor of these caribou, the couple thought it would be a suitable name for a company that later would aim for excellence and fast progress. They raised money and started planning to put together a company that would take the summit encounter into the community where clients could discover a nook to unwind each day. And in December 1992, Caribou Coffee was established with the objective of developing a top specialty retailer in the gourmet coffee industry nationwide. The company today offers gourmet coffees and pastries in 464 coffee shops situated in 18 American states. Caribou Coffee indeed has gained the reputation of being the second largest specialty coffee company in the United States.
Tully’s Coffee
In 1991, Tom Tully O’Keefe, the chairman and founder of Tully’s Coffee Corporation started to contemplate about putting up a gourmet coffee store. As the CEO of his own retail estate development company established in 1986, O’Keefe helped facilitate coffee corporations including Starbucks to get hold of business locations for their coffee stores. With his very competitive personality, he dreamt and opted to take the great challenge to compete with the coffee leader, Starbucks. O’Keefe did and he named his new coffee store Tully’s which is his Greek middle name.
Though its coffee stores are fashioned after Starbucks, Tully’s has its unique side for it offered a more temperate interior and aimed for clients who liked to imbibe over their espresso for a longer period of time. As earlier planned, Tully’s put forward to its clients the experience for European café culture. It retails traditional roasted bean coffees, coffee brews as well as pastries. After a few years, some of its branches already included al fresco seats, hearths, shoeshine stalls, outlets to plug PCs, plus business areas with newspapers. Tully’s continues to set itself apart from Starbucks by offering lighter roast coffees and by promoting directly in the neighborhood rather than in costly advertising.
O’Keefe opened his first coffee shop in 1992. Nowadays, Tully’s Coffee has 101 stores in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and the Pacific border. It has not outshined Starbucks, but Tully’s Coffee Corporation takes pride to be America’s third biggest company-owned specialty coffee seller.

Tips for Finding Perfect Premium Coffee…

There is coffee and THERE IS COFFEE! You likely know about the generic quality coffees you find at the supermarket, using the inferior Robusta beans. And, in contrast, there is the alternative: the coffee regularly termed Gourmet Coffee you buy direct from roasters around the country. Popular large volume roasters, like Starbucks as well as most of the the smaller roasters dispersed about town, essentially utilize this far better grade, high altitude, shade grown Arabica bean.

That being said, and broadly known by all nowadays, how can you siphon out the crème de la crème of gourmet coffee beans to purchase?

To begin with, let’s hone in specifically on taste. Nowadays, coffee has become a “drink of experts”…

evolved into an art of reflection! We’ve begun to savor our coffee…flavor identify and define the subtle hints and nuances, as well as the qualities that identify the bean’s continent of origin. You as a coffee drinker, can begin to explore and experience the undertones of your coffee’s region, but better yet, begin to revel in the independently specific flavors of the bean defined by the specific hill and farm where it’s grown. Coffee Cupping: Defining Coffee by its “Underlying Flavors”

There are, nowadays, a limited number of coffee roasters that independently test their coffee beans for taste observations and aromas. These beans are graded and assessed just like fine wine. This activity is called Coffee Cupping or Coffee Tasting. Professionals known as Master Tasters are the assessors. The procedure involves deeply sniffing a cup of brewed coffee, then loudly slurping the coffee so it draws in air, spreads to the back of the tongue, and maximizes flavor.

These Master Tasters, much akin to wine tasters, then attempt to measure in detail, every aspect of the coffee’s taste. This assessment includes measurement of the body (the texture or mouth-feel, such as oiliness), acidity (a sharp and tangy feeling, like when biting into an orange), and balance (the innuendo and the harmony of flavors working together). Since coffee beans embody telltale flavors from their region or continent of their origin, cuppers may also attempt to predict where the coffee was grown.

There is an infinite range of vocabulary that is used to describe the tastes found in coffee. Descriptors range from the familiar (chocolaty, sweet, fruity, woody) to the conceptual (clean, vibrant, sturdy) to the wildly esoteric (summery, racy, gentlemanly).

Following are a few key characteristics as defined by Coffee Geek. (http://coffeegeek.com/guides/beginnercupping/tastenotes) Key Characteristics Acidity: The brightness or sharpness of coffee: It is through the acidity that many of the most intriguing fruit and floral flavors are delivered, and is usually the most scrutinized characteristic of the coffee. Acidity can be intense or mild, round or edgy, elegant or wild, and everything in between. Usually the acidity is best evaluated once the coffee has cooled slightly to a warm/lukewarm temperature. Tasting a coffee from Sumatra next to one from Kenya is a good way to begin to understand acidity. Body:

This is sometimes referred to as “mouthfeel”. The body is the sense of weight or heaviness that the coffee exerts in the mouth, and can be very difficult for beginning cuppers to identify. It is useful to think about the viscosity or thickness of the coffee, and concentrate on degree to which the coffee has a physical presence. Cupping a Sulawesi versus a Mexican coffee can illustrate the range of body quite clearly. Sweetness: One of the most important elements in coffee, sweetness often separates the great from the good. Even the most intensely acidic coffees are lush and refreshing when there is enough sweetness to provide balance and ease the finish. Think of lemonade…starting with just water and lemon juice, one can add sugar until the level of sweetness achieves harmony with the tart citric flavor. It is the same with coffee, the sweetness is critical to allowing the other tastes to flourish and be appreciated. Finish:

While first impressions are powerful, it is often the last impression that has the most impact. With coffee the finish (or aftertaste) is of great importance to the overall quality of the tasting experience, as it will linger long after the coffee has been swallowed. Like a great story, a great cup of coffee needs a purposeful resolution. The ideal finish to me is one that is clean (free of distraction), sweet, and refreshing with enough endurance to carry the flavor for 10-15 seconds after swallowing. A champion finish will affirm with great clarity the principal flavor of the coffee, holding it aloft with grace and confidence like a singer carries the final note of a song and then trailing off into a serene silence. Coffee Buying Caveat

Buying coffee simply by name instead of by taste from your favorite roaster (in other words buying the same Columbian Supreme from the same ”Joe’s Cuppa Joe Roaster”) definitely has its pitfall! According to Coffee Review, “Next year’s Clever-Name-Coffee Company’s house blend may be radically different from this year’s blend, despite bearing the same name and label. The particularly skillful coffee buyer or roaster who helped create the coffee you and I liked so much may have gotten hired elsewhere. Rain may have spoiled the crop of a key coffee in the blend. The exporter or importer of that key coffee may have gone out of business or gotten careless. And even if everyone (plus the weather) did exactly the same thing they (and it) did the year before, the retailer this time around may have spoiled everything by letting the coffee go stale before you got to it. Or you may have messed things up this year by keeping the coffee around too long, brewing it carelessly, or allowing a friend to pour hazelnut syrup into it.”

Your savvy coffee-buying alternative is to look for roasters who buy their beans in Micro-Lots- smaller (sometimes tiny) lots of subtly distinctive specialty coffees. According to Coffee Review, “These coffee buyers buy small quantities of coffee from a single crop and single place, often a single hillside, and are sold not on the basis of consistency or brand, but as an opportunity to experience the flavor associated with a unique moment in time and space and the dedication of a single farmer or group of farmers.” Coffee Review: Coffee Ratings

And finally, look out for the very small community coffee roasters that will submit their coffees to be 3rd-party evaluated by Coffee Review and other competitions for independent analysis and rating. Coffee Review regularly conducts blind, expert cuppings of coffees and then reports the findings in the form of 100-point reviews to coffee buyers. These valuable Overall Ratings can provide you with a summary assessment of the reviewed coffees. They are based on a scale of 50 to 100.

http://www.coffeereview.com/about_us.cfm Bottom line for a certain premium purchase: To find the coffee that will ascertain most flavor satisfaction, seek out beans that been independently reviewed and rated. This approach will, without a doubt offer you the advantage of being able to choose the flavor profile suits you best in a bean. What’s more, it gains you certainty in quality due to its superior rating. The higher the rating, the better the flavor. True premium coffees start from the upper 80’s. By finding a roaster that consistently rates within the 90’s will ultimately buy you the best java for your buck!

Cafe Britt Dark Roast embodies the tradition of gourmet Costa Rican coffee. Aged red wine, figs and dried fruits mellow its robust aroma. Its full-bodied flavor of strong coffee and dark chocolate makes for an intense taste sensation. This classic blend takes its leave with distinction and elegance. Cafe Britt dark roast is 100% SHB (Strictly Hard Bean), all natural gourmet coffee, with the distinctive taste of Costa Rica’s best. Kosher and fair trade certified.

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Experience Tarrazu Montecielo, a blend for the coffee connoisseurs with a penchant for perfection. Grown in the rich volcanic soils of Costa Rica’s famed Tarrazu region, these choice Arabica cherries are ripened evenly at 1,400 to 1,600 meters, hand-picked, sun-dried and dark roasted for a unique taste experience. Cafe Britt Tarrazu will surprise you with a flavor that hints of cacao and grapefruit and an aroma of aged wood and dark chocolate. Its intensity fills the palate, then fades cheerfully. 100% SHB (Strictly Hard Bean). All natural gourmet coffee. Kosher and fair trade certified.

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Share our passion for coffee! Cafe Britt 100% gourmet Costa Rican coffee beans are delicately dipped in creamy dark chocolate. Our coffee (more…)

These chocolate covered coffee beans are the perfect blend of crunchiness, chocolate and coffee flavor. These medium roasted whole gourmet coffee beans covered in chocolate make a delicious snack and ideal gift.
These coffee beans are hand picked and selected from BOSQUE LYA´S Coffee Plantation, winner of the 1st place CUP OF EXCELLENCE AWARD for Salvadoran coffee. The combination of chocolate with coffee makes an uplifting experience any time of the day.

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