Coffee House Gatherings Coffee has always been a social drink. People love to get together while they enjoy their cup o’ Joe with some nice conversation. Everywhere in the world large and small politics are being discussed in coffee houses. Or people play games like chess or backgammon, enjoy something small to eat or just read [...]

[/caption] Initially the roasted coffee bean seeds were ground by hand or in a mill. Later coffee grinders were invented so that factories could not only roast the beans but also grind them. Some people prefer to grind their own coffee beans, which made way for [...]

In the early days green coffee beans were roasted in frying pans. As often the outside was burnt while the inside was still raw, the next innovation was to roast them in little cylinders that could be turned around by a crank; just like the lotto machine. This way the beans could be roasted evenly.

Coffee is made from the beans (seeds) from the red coffee berry of the coffee plant. These plants grow within a 1000 miles range from the equator, with prominent producers like Brazil, Columbia, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. Most coffee is consumed in areas where the coffee trees don’t grow, such as [...]

Many farms use chemical fertilizers and pesticides to control their insects and increase their yield. This not only gets into the coffee beans, but also in the soil and the ground water. Fair Trade coffee is all about organic coffee growing by promoting things like composted coffee pulp and animal manure as an environmentally friendly alternative [...]

[/caption] The Fair Trade organization was started to provide a fair alternative for small farmers by offering them a fair price for their products. It provides a partnership with individual farmers and cooperatives that is aimed at greater equality in international trade. Often these farmers are connected to co-operations so [...]

Coffea Arabica and Coffea Robusta There are about 60 different types (species) of coffee plants. The most well-known are the worlds most “popular” tree Coffea Arabica (80% of our coffee comes from this tree) and Coffea Robusta. Coffea Arabica is also known as Coffea Canephora. The Arabica plant originated in Ethiopia, and is still grown in [...]