Millions of people around the world prefer to start the day with a refreshing drink. Supermarket shelves are full of packages of coffee. Without knowing how to choose coffee, perhaps, can not do: if the product is of poor quality, it will not help no tricks. On what to pay attention to make the right choice?

The beans soluble, ground

The first choice to be taken beginner Coffeemania - between coffee beans, ground and instant coffee. The latter variety is usually chosen by those who do not drink coffee so much for the taste as for the charge of cheerfulness.

Sometimes called artificial instant coffee, but this is not true: a drink obtained from natural coffee beans, which are subjected to special treatment. The result is a powder or granules with coffee aroma. Enough to pour a spoonful of the powder in a cup and pour hot water - and drink is ready. This coffee - a kind of "first aid" to those who are in urgent need of a dose of caffeine. As for the taste of instant coffee, it is unlikely to be for someone revelation.

Ground coffee - this is a gourmet drink. He did not just become the perfect end to dinner, and fill our lives with new meaning. The ritual of preparing such a coffee at everyone: someone adds a pinch of salt in the coffee machine, someone puts cinnamon or cardamom Cardamom: grains of paradise and the king of spices Someone is not coffee without a drop of brandy. Freshly ground beans is especially fragrant, and the infusion of different deep, multi-faceted taste. The only problem is that the aroma of ground coffee quickly disappears, and a way to keep it for a long time have not yet been found.

For this reason, the true connoisseurs prefer to buy coffee beans and grind them yourself before use. Coffee beans can be stored for about a week, and it does not affect its taste and aroma. However, over the longer term to keep the coffee How to store coffee at home: notes   not recommended - better to buy grain in small portions. Just before serving coffee smalyvaetsya with a hand (selection aesthetes) or electric (for fans of progress) grinder.

Grades

There are only two main types of coffee trees - Arabica and Robusta. Somewhat less known Liberica grade, but it is considered a technical and independently marketed does not arrive. The number of varieties of coffee, meanwhile, comes to two hundred. This is because that the taste and aroma of the coffee beans can vary depending on the climate, soil composition, and even water used for watering of coffee trees. Therefore, depending on the growing location and other parameters of coffees given unique names.

The most intense flavor of coffee has grown in hot climates. Of coffee trees growing in the mountains, the beverage is a more robust, but at the same time slightly sour.

Almost 90% of the world's coffee is made from Arabica beans. Robusta is much less popular. This variety of different rough bitter taste, but the caffeine content Caffeine - enemy or friend?   Robusta beans generally higher than arabica. Therefore, ground and instant coffee is often made from a mixture of two varieties: Arabica gives aroma and flavor, and robusta - a fortress. The ideal formula, of course, does not exist: all varieties of coffee have their fans. Therefore, to find out what kind of a mixture prefer, you can only empirically.

Roasting

The taste of the coffee significantly influences the procedure, which is required to undergo grain - roasting. Often, the taste of the finished beverage depends precisely on it. First of all, we should pay attention to the date of roasting: the beans processed later, the richer the flavor and be more expressive taste of the drink. If after roasting more than three weeks, the taste and aroma of coffee are not expressed.

There are four varieties of roasting:

• Scandinavian. Coffee roasted slightly, it turns out too strong drink, with a delicate, barely perceptible aroma;
• American. More intense roasting, resulting in the taste and smell of coffee are expressed;
• French. Grains undergo more intensive treatment and drink gives a very aromatic, with a distinct bitterness;
• Italian. The maximum degree of roasting, resulting in coffee becomes stronger flavor and bitter-spicy, slightly burnt taste.

Milling

If the coffee beans you can grind yourself to your liking, then when buying ground coffee you need to pay attention to the grind. Which grinding choose depends on the method of preparation of the drink:

• Wholemeal - particles of coffee the size may be 0 to 8 mm. This coffee is ideal for cooking in Cezve or piston coffee machine;
• Middle grind most versatile: it is suitable for almost all brewing methods;
• Fine grinding is suitable for filter coffee. Fine grinding coffee stored the longest because the small particles are flush with each other and not in contact with air;
• Fine grinding of espresso coffee machines used in the type of espresso;
• Ultra slim grinding - coffee turns into the smallest dust. Such grinding is suitable for cooking Turkish coffee.

How not to be mistaken with the purchase?

• It is advisable to buy coffee is not in random places, such as stalls or markets and in specialty stores where you can always get expert advice. In these stores often you can taste one or another type of coffee, which, of course, facilitates the selection;
• It is better to buy small portions of coffee, giving preference to fresh, desirable - fried on the day of purchase;
• High-quality coffee can not be cheap. At the same time, the price is not necessarily talking about the taste quality of the drink: it often depends, for example, how a rare species of coffee offered, or how fruitful was the year;
• Good instant coffee packed in glass or cans. Plastic Packaging - a sign of low-quality product.

Maria Bykov

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