Coffee of Africa

Introduced to the world in the 17th century, African coffees offer some of the most distinctive coffee varieties available. Most African coffee is grown in the Eastern and Southern parts of the continent. The high altitude of the old volcanic mountains, the shortage of water, and the dry environment contribute to the major characteristics of African coffees. The high quality Arabica beans are characterized by a hard beans type of coffee, with sharp acidity, and floral fruit notes that offer an intense flavor. Most African coffees are roasted light to medium for exceptional flavor. Certain coffees, however, excel in darker roasts. The coffee trees discovered in African regions, were growing wild on the high plains of Yemen and Ethiopia which are neighbor yet each country is located on the edges of different continents, the first is located in Asia while the second is located in Africa. The magical ripe red berries on its small branches gave early consumers a feeling of invincibility. After boiling these berries and drinking that mystical drink, they felt that they would never be tired again (until the effects of the caffeine wore off). Soon thereafter and during the early days of the Ottoman Empire that the seeds were removed from the cherries, and new ways to prepare them were invented through roasting and brewing for ingestion and human consumption. the seeds are called coffee beans, and named after the Arabic word”Kahwah”. Kahwah is the name for the drink and the name “Bunn” for the coffee bean. The Turkish Ottoman government kept close security on this coffee commodity, not allowing any fertile plant to leave the country's borders. Needless to say their efforts failed, and we now have coffee growing all over the globe. The Port of ”Mokha" or Mocha in Yemen where the coffee plants were first smuggled and transported by Spanish and portuguese traders over the narrow passage of the Red Sea of Arabia to their colonies in Central and South America . Currently, coffee in Ethiopia is grown on plantations such as, Harrar, Yirgacheffe and Djimmah. Yemen Coffee, however, is higher in quality but lower in quantity which considered rare and sold exclusively in the oil rich Saudi Arabia and the other Arabian Gulf States such as Emirates, Kuwait , Qatar and others. Ethiopian Harrar is cultivated on very high altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. The naturally processed, sun dried beans of Harrar produce the most winey flavored cup in the world. They don't look too appealing because of the way they are processed, but the most unusual and mysterious coffees come from the motherland. Indeed, one cannot claim to be a well rounded coffee connoisseur until he or she have experienced the wildness of Ethiopian coffee. Only a few hundred miles south of Ethiopia and Yemen, Kenya grows coffea Arabica on 5,000 ft. above sea level in the foothills of Mount Kenya. Beans are washed and sorted with a precision matched only in a few other government supported countries. Kenyan coffee is of the finest available. Beans are ranked by size using a scale of ten grades. The best grade you will readily find is AA. While there are two grades higher than AA, they are so rare you never see them. Kenyan coffee shares the winey aftertaste of Ethiopia, but it is not as intense. It carries a fuller body than both Ethiopia and Yemen. Malawi is the smallest African country to grow coffee. Even though coffee has been produced for over a century, these varietals are fairly new to U.S. markets. The majority is exported to Britain. Malawi Mapanga is processed and graded meticulously and the production is limited. It is wonderfully fragrant with mellow body and crisp acidity. It is one of the world's most exotic coffees. Most Tanzanian coffees are Arabica type and are grown near the Kenyan border on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru. Evidently they share the characteristically sharp, winey acidity with other African and Arabian coffees. Tanzania is known for its abundance of peaberries. A peaberry is a single round bean within the coffee fruit rather than the normal adjacent halves. Sometimes you will see "caracole" on a label. This is another word for peaberry. There are diversified opinions about peaberries. Some say they taste better, others say not. You will have to try it for yourself. Coffee arrived in Zambia from Kenya and Tanzania in the early 20th Century. It is similar although lighter than Kenyan coffee. On the other hand, Zimbabwe which is formerly known as Rhodesia, exports a superb coffee to the U.S. market resembling the Kenyan washed coffee that portrays an acidic, winey tone. In fact, the coffee of Zimbabwe is comparable to the finest Kenyan coffee. The beans are grown on plantations and washed. There is a variety of African roasted coffee and African green coffee available from www.mitalenacoffee.com

Mitalena Coffee: Coffee of Africa

With Coffee, the Price of Individualism Can Be High

Mitalena Coffee offers high quality coffee for affordable prices. The article below explains how expensive convenience can be.

With Coffee, the Price of Individualism Can Be High
By OLIVER STRAND

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/dining/single-serve-coffee-brewers-make-convenience-costly.html?_r=1

SOMETIMES it’s hard
to tell how much coffee
costs, even if you know what you spent. At least that’s the case with many of
the single-serve brewing machines that are soaring in popularity.
For example, the
Nespresso Arpeggio costs $5.70 for 10 espresso capsules, while the Folgers Black
Silk blend for a K-Cup brewed-coffee machine is $10.69 for 12 pods. But that Nespresso capsule
contains 5 grams of coffee, so it costs about $51 a pound. And the Folgers, with
8 grams per capsule, works out to more than $50 a pound.
That’s even more
expensive than all but the priciest coffees sold by artisanal roasters, the
stuff of coffee snobs.
An exclusive
single-origin espresso like the Ethiopia, Gedeo Single Origin Espresso from
Sightglass Coffee costs $19 for a 12-ounce bag, or about $25 a pound. La Cima
beans for brewed coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a Grand Cru selection
grown at Finca el Injerto, a renowned farm in Guatemala, is $28.50 for a
12-ounce bag, or $38 a pound.
In fact, most
high-end coffees cost less than $20 a pound, and the coffees you find on
supermarket shelves are substantially cheaper. A bag of Dark Espresso Roast
beans at Starbucks is $12.95 a pound, and a bag of Eight O’Clock beans for
brewed coffee at the Food Emporium is $10.72 a pound.
How much of that
coffee goes into a cup varies according to who (or what) controls the machine.
For instance, a Lavazza Gran Crema espresso capsule has 7 grams of coffee, the
standard for most chain coffee stores. But independent coffee shops regularly
pack 14 to 22 grams into an espresso shot.
When it comes to
single-serve systems, you’re not just paying for coffee, you’re paying for
convenience and the technology that makes it possible to brew a single cup in
seconds. Pop in the pod, push the button: it’s a sure thing every time.
Supermarkets and specialty stores are filled with items that make it easier on
you, and it’s up to the shopper to determine if it’s worth it.
Some decisions are
easy (rendered pork fat, fresh pasta); others are a toss-up depending on who’s
in the kitchen (chicken stock, salad
dressing). Where single-serve coffee falls on that spectrum depends on whether
you regard coffee as something you make or something you drink.
“Americans under the
age of 40 are thinking about coffee pricing in cups,” said Ric Rhinehart,
executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. “If you
asked my mother how much coffee cost, she would have told you that the red can
was $5.25 a pound and the blue can was $4.25. If you ask people in their 20s and
30s, they’ll say coffee is $1.75 to $3.75 a cup.”
This generational
shift helps explain why single-serve coffee is the fastest-growing sector of the
home market. According to a study from the National Coffee
Association, single-serve coffee is now the second most popular method of
preparation after conventional drip brewers, by far the dominant method. In
2011, 7 percent of the cups of coffee consumed in the United States were made
with a single-serve brewer, up from 4 percent in 2010.
The premium that
single-serve coffee commands makes it especially lucrative. Julian Liew, a
spokesman for Nespresso, said single-serve coffee is 8 percent of the global
market, but accounts for 25 percent of its value. It’s likely that the number
will continue to climb.
According to Keurig,
4 million of the company’s K-Cup brewers, for regular drip coffee, were sold in
the 13-week run-up to Christmas 2011. During that same period, Green Mountain
Coffee Roasters sold more than $715 million in K-Cup packs. The pods and brewers
are now front and center at stores like Bed Bath & Beyond and Staples.
Keurig licenses its technology to other companies, and last year, Dunkin’ Donuts
and Starbucks started making K-Cup pods. Keurig even sells a refillable filter
that you can pack with your own coffee.
Nespresso has sold
more than 27 billion capsules worldwide since it was introduced in 1986. Later
this year Ethical Coffee Company plans to sell Nespresso-compatible capsules for
around 20 percent less on Amazon.com. So the United States might see
something novel for single-serve coffee: a price war.

You may never look at a CUP OF COFFEE the same way again.

You may never look at a CUP OF COFFEE the same way again.



A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see." "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?" Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity--boiling water--but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting.
However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile.
Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you can get better and change the situation around you with God's help. How do you handle adversity? When the hours are the darkest and the trials are their greatest, do you ask God to elevate you to another level? When adversity strikes, ask yourself...ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?