Wilkinsons-USA

Coffee. Its arguably the worlds favorite hot beverage. It is also something that we can take for granted if we’re not careful, “fresh” coffee is served everywhere and its all to easy to forget what a facinating drink it really is. So here are a short collections of coffee facts that you may or may not have heard of before.

• How much coffee should you use?  It might suprise you but thats a pretty common request heard in shops selling speciality coffee. The answer is really a matter of personal choice but it might interest you to know that the standard shot of Espresso coffee is made out of about 7grams (about a quarter ounce) of fine ground coffee. So if you figure to use between 5 and 10 grams per 6 fl oz cup of coffee you can be assured your getting the most effcient shot out of your preffered bean.
• Coffee “Beans” are not really beans at all. This is true they are rather the seeds of a kind of fruit described in the industry as a “Cherry” though the flesh of these cherries is a million miles away from the common fruit of the same name! There is an interesting legend how these “fruits” came to be brewed into a drink. If you have not heard of it try reading up here on our sister site in england.
• Caffeine removed from coffee is added to soft drinks Its true the coffee producers use a natural water process to literally “wash out” the caffein from the green bean. This results in gallons of Caffein impregnated water. With a bit of further processing it goes into the various brands of cola and similar drinks There is really no such thing as de-caffeinated soft drinks, very very few of them have any other ingrediant in them that has naturelly occuring caffein it all gets added in often from this by product of the coffee industries desire to give you a good decaf.
• Is dark roasted coffee stronger than medium roasted? It depends what you mean. Stronger tastesing? Certainly! But if you meant stronger caffeine wise then nothing could be further from the truth. Caffeine in addition to being water soluble is a volatile oil. Heat it up for longer or higher temperatures and the more of it will literally boil away in the roaster. The taste does get stronger which is why the early coffee roasters – especially in Europe did it to make their rare and expensive beans go further- but now a days that is no longer an issue. Truth is its easy to over roast beans, but its harder to medium roast them to the point where you retain all the beans subtle flavours and get the strength of a good roast. This is Wilkinson’s Speciality area.