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Each year, the National Coffee Association of the USA publishes their report on National Coffee Drinking Trends. The report has become one of the bibles of the coffee industry. The 2008 report has recently been made available, and the NCAUSA web site gives a brief summary of what the organization has found out about how we Americans like our coffee. Here are some highlights from the 2008 Coffee Drinking Trends report:

• 17% of the adult population consumed a gourmet beverage on a daily basis in 2008 and 14% in 2007.

  Drinking gourmet coffee has become a national pastime. It’s not just the explosion of Starbucks across the nation that’s fueling it, though their marketing has certainly awakened the taste buds of a whole generation. These days, you can buy your gourmet coffee at any number of places. Here are just of the few ‘new’ outlets for gourmet coffee.

  • McDonalds, which started selling Newman’s Own Organic coffee a while back, has started marketing the McDonalds Café concept, with lattes, cappuccinos and McDonalds Gourmet coffee as of January 2008.
  • Burger King’s BKJoe brand is roasted by Douwy Egberts, the second largest coffee roaster in the world, expressly for BK.
  • Target, the national department store chain, packages and distributes its own brand of gourmet and single origin coffees.
  • Store 24, a major East Coast convenience store chain, offers Green Mountain Roasters gourmet coffee in all of their stores.
  • 7-11, national convenience store chain, has made the gourmet coffee bar a central part of their new store design, and offers a wide variety of ready-to-go coffee for consumers on the run.

Another factor in the increase of gourmet coffee drinking is the popularity of single serve coffee systems, which make it easier to have gourmet coffee at home every morning. The Senseo, Tassimo and Keurig systems have all increased sales and feature gourmet coffees in their coffee lines. Here are some more highlights form the report:

• Adults 25-59 led the upswing with 19% of daily gourmet coffee drinkers. This is an increase of six percentage points from 2007.
  • In the young adult demographic, coffee drinking was down last year in that age group; with 44 percent reporting that they drink coffee as opposed to 47 percent the previous year.

  • On the other hand, 18 to 24 year olds are becoming serious coffee drinkers. In 2005, only 26 percent of young adults in that age bracket considered themselves coffee drinkers. By 2007, that figure was up to 37%, making the 18-24 year old coffee market the fastest growing segment of the market. Older adults, in the 40 to 59 year old bracket, are also big coffee drinkers. This age group increased from 59 percent to 61 percent over the previous year, and those age 60 and over report the most coffee consumers – 74 percent of adults in that age bracket reported that they drink coffee every day.

• Consumption of cups per day by consumers age 18-24 continued to trend higher in 2008. Young adults who drank coffee consumed an average of 3.2 cups per day as compared with 3.1 in 2007, a significant increase over 2005′s level of 2.5 cups per day.

  Our generation grew up thinking of coffee as a morning pick-me-up and after dinner drink for adults only. The 18-24 year old group has a different view of coffee, thanks to the coffee shop culture. Where older generations gathered at the local soda shop, these kids made the local coffee shop their afternoon hangout. Starbucks and other local chains improved their coffees with flavors, sugar and many creams. This makes their coffee more appealing to the younger crowd. As those kids graduate from high school and move on to college, they’re finding that their love of coffee moves along with them.

  • Past year consumption of iced and frozen coffee is up significantly from 2007 levels.
    Maybe it’s the heavy marketing? Nothing tastes quite as good on a hot summer afternoon as a tall glass of iced coffee, but until the past few years, who knew? These days you can get your iced coffee fix at your local McDonalds, Burger King or Dunkin Donuts, or you can brew it yourself at home. The most popular frozen and iced coffee drinks include:
  • Dunkin Donuts, who claim that they practically invented iced coffee, has been selling their coffee over ice for years. In the late 90s, they added the Coffee Coolata, which could be topped with whipped cream.

  • Wawa, a popular convenience store located throughout portions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia is a popular location for coffee enthusiasts in these east coast states. They have sold over 195 million cups of their freshly brewed coffee. Wawa uses their own blend of coffee beans and make quality coffee a top priority.

All of these coffee trends show that coffee is a popular drink among many age groups and is part of American culture. Over the years, these trends change while coffee is introduced to new demographics. Overall, Americans enjoy coffee daily and everybody has their favorite location to get their coffee fix.

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Starbucks. When you say the name, it automatically conjures up an image: an upscale coffee bar with light wood, glass and chrome. The invigorating and inviting aroma of brewed coffee and the café atmosphere has made Starbucks the best-known specialty coffee roaster and server in the world. Starbucks has done an excellent job of branding their company – it is the only coffee brand that is on the list of 100 most recognized brands in the world. What makes the Starbucks brand and the Starbucks coffee experience so ubiquitous that it ranks up there alongside Google, McDonalds and Coca Cola in name and brand recognition?

Sheer size and Starbuck’s number of locations has something to do with name recognition and popularity. With over 16,000 shops worldwide, Starbucks is certainly one of the most visible brands in the world. However, this is not a matter of the chicken or the egg – in order to become so visible, Starbucks had to start off with something special in the first place. It is that “something special” that defines the Starbucks coffee experience.

The Third Place

Since the opening of its first stores in Seattle, Starbucks has striven to be more than just a place where you buy coffee. Howard Schultz, company President and CEO, defined the atmosphere that Starbucks attempts to create when he said “We’re in the business of human connection and humanity, creating communities in a third place between home and work.”

The Third Place concept informs the design of Starbucks shops. While coffee takes center stage, the design is meant to make customers comfortable. To further customer comfort and social interaction, most Starbucks stores mix upholstered chairs and sofas with hard-backed chairs around tables. Most Starbucks stores offer free electricity to their customers so that they can plug in their laptops and all U.S. Starbucks offer Wi-Fi access through AT&T. In addition, many Starbucks feature a well-stocked reading and game shelf to encourage customers to settle in and hang out with friends for a while.

The Coffee Experience

More than anything else, of course, Starbucks is about the coffee. The company started out as a premium coffee roaster, and they stayed true to their roots by serving nothing but excellent coffee. As of early July 2008, Starbucks announced that they would be changing the way that coffee is made and served in their stores around the world in an effort to provide the best coffee experience possible. The changes will be rolled in across the U.S. by the end of 2008, and include a commitment to grind and brew many coffee varieties to order, as well as to discard any coffee that has been brewed for more than thirty minutes.

In order to enhance the coffee atmosphere, Starbucks employees are requested to avoid wearing strong perfumes that might interfere with the coffee aroma, and nearly all Starbucks around the world are non-smoking indoors. The preservation of the coffee-centric atmosphere was the reason that Starbucks abandoned its short-lived foray into serving breakfast sandwiches. According to some sources, the smell of the breakfast sandwiches overpowered the coffee aroma, making the coffee cafes smell like diners – an image that the company does not want to present.

All About the Coffee

The Starbucks coffee experience extends to brewing your own Starbucks coffee at home. The coffee roasts that Starbucks have chosen for sale are those that best reflect the rich coffee flavor and aroma of your local Starbucks. Those roasts tend to lean heavily toward darker roasts, because it is easier to maintain consistency of flavor across batches when roasting darker. Darker roasts also tend to be more ‘coffee’ flavored than lighter roasts, which allow the variations of region and season to be more readily apparent.

Since 2000, the Starbucks coffee experience has also included feeling good about your coffee choices. That’s the year that Starbucks started selling its line of Fair Trade Certified coffee. As of 2005, Starbucks was the largest single buyer of Fair Trade certified coffee in the world, buying over 11.5 million pounds of FTC coffee – about 10% of the entire U.S. volume of Fair Trade sales. The amount accounted for about 6% of the company’s total coffee buying for that year. While some activist groups pressure Starbucks to increase the percentage of Fair Trade coffee that it offers for sale, company spokespeople point out that they pay above market price for coffee and that they also deal with many small growers who can’t afford the cost of Fair Trade certification.

The Starbucks Coffee Experience

The Starbucks coffee experience can be summed up in just a few words: great coffee in comfortable surroundings served by an attentive staff and produced by a company that cares about our world. With great tasting drinks and a commitment to creating a fun atmosphere, it is no wonder why Starbucks has become a household name.

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Grassroots Coffee is not just a cup of coffee. We are proud to serve you every day with high quality, small batch roasted coffee, delicious fresh baked goodies and hand-crafted sandwiches. We take pride in our products and it shows. Whether you like your coffee hot or cold, sugary or straight-up, we’re sure we have something on our extensive menu that will have you making Grassroots a part of your daily routine.
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While coffee-based beverages remain as popular as ever, more Americans are looking for a do-it-yourself way to enjoy high-end coffee bar style cappuccino and espresso drinks at home. Fortunately, there are many affordable products on the market to assist the home brewing enthusiast in their quest for the ultimate coffee concoction. Regardless of which product you choose, there are endless recipes and combinations of ingredients to literally spice up your daily infusion.

First you need choose the basis of your beverage: coffee or espresso. Coffee can be drip-brewed, percolated, instant or cold-pressed. Any of these methods are very inexpensive. An espresso-based beverage is more likely to satisfy the sophisticated palette of the coffee connoisseur. To do this at home however, requires more of an investment in the brewing equipment. Real espresso machines cost upwards of $1,000. An affordable and popular alternative are the single-serving type of machines such as the Tassimo, where you invest in the machine and purchase pre-portioned packages of espresso varieties to brew a serving at a time.

Still confused about the difference between coffee and espresso? Espresso is a method, first originated in Italy, of extracting flavor from the heart of the coffee bean. The technique employs a pump-driven machine to force hot water through the ground coffee beans at high pressure in a short time frame — usually between 20 and 35 seconds. The amount of water used is only about ¾ of an ounce, and the resulting taste is described as smooth, thick, rich or sweet. So the obvious differences between coffee and espresso are 1) the amount of water used and 2) brewing or pressing time. Coffee is generally brewed for 4 to 6 minutes depending on the method and individual preferences.

Cappuccino is espresso mixed with equal parts of steamed and frothed milk. If you don’t purchase an espresso machine with milk-steaming capabilities, you will have to steam and froth your milk the old-fashioned way — on a stove. The frothing process involves skimming and stirring the hot milk. To layer the milk and espresso, allow the freshly frothed milk a moment to rest and separate (foam on top and milk on the bottom). Pour the steamed milk into your cup first, then pour in the espresso, and top it with the frothed milk using a spoon.

The creative possibilities go on from there. One of the most popular twists on the cappuccino is adding a sprinkle of powdered cocoa or cinnamon. Other combinations take their inspiration from favorite foods such as traditional desserts or candy bars. Try these super-easy recipes or experiment with making your own!

Milky Way Cappuccino– 2 shots espresso, 1 shot chocolate syrup, 1 shot caramel

Java Chai Espresso — 1 shot espresso, prepared chai concentrate, steamed milk, ½ ounce almond syrup

Cafe Corretto — 2 shots espresso, 1 shot brandy, cognac or flavored liqueur

Cafe Romano– 1 shot espresso, served with a twist of lemon or lemon peel

Rocky Road Cappuccino — 1 serving of your prepared cappuccino, 1 tablespoon hazelnut liqueur, 1 tablespoon chocolate sauce, 1 teaspoon of marshmallow crème and ¼ teaspoon finely chopped nuts

Butterscotch Creme Cafe — 1 serving coffee, 3 tablespoons butterscotch syrup, 2 tablespoons of half-and-half cream

Ginger Spiced Coffee — 1 serving coffee, 1 small piece finely chopped crystallized ginger, 1 cinnamon stick

Cafe Borgia — 1 cup coffee, 1 cup hot chocolate, 1 shot cream, sprinkle of grated orange peels

Chocolate Mint Truffle(for the non-coffee drinker) – 1 cup hot chocolate, 2 chocolate coated mint candies topped with 1 tablespoon whipped topping and 1 fresh mint sprig

Espresso Martini — 1 shot espresso cooled to room temperature, 1 shot premium vodka, 1 splash liqueur in flavor of your choice (try amaretto, Irish creme, Godiva chocolate or any favorite), garnish with 3 whole espresso beans

Mexican Coffee — your favorite brewed coffee, 2 cups whipped topping gently mixed with ¼ teaspoon nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

French Vanilla Coffee– your favorite brewed coffee, equal portion of milk heated to scalding temperature, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cinnamon stick, sweetener to taste

If you are hosting a winter party and feeling a little adventurous, you may want to try a festive twist on the usual coffee and eggnog choices. Try this Betty Crocker recipe for 16 servings of Cappuccino Eggnog:

Ingredients — 6 eggs, slightly beaten; 2/3 cup table sugar; 1/8 teaspoon salt; 5 cups milk; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 cups hot espresso; 1 cup coffee liqueur or brandy; 2 cups heavy whipped cream; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; ground cinnamon

Directions — Stir together eggs, granulated sugar and salt in a Dutch oven pan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over low heat 15 to 20 minutes, stirring constantly, just until mixture coats a metal spoon; remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Stir together coffee and liqueur. Gradually stir coffee mixture into egg mixture; keep warm. Just before serving, beat whipping cream and brown sugar in chilled large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Gently stir 2 cups of the whipped cream into egg mixture. Pour into mugs. Top with dollops of remaining whipped cream. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve immediately!

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DATELINE: BOSTON; BROOKLINE; CAMBRIDGE; JAMAICA PLAIN; NEWTON CENTRE; SOMERVILLE AND WEST ROXBURY, MA…

All of J.P. Licks’ coffee is made from fair-trade and organic beans that they roast at their flagship store in Jamaica Plain.

The Harvard Square store, which opened in June, did a brisk trade this summer and is hoping to continue in the same fashion through the colder months with “warmer” offerings such as coffee. The $1 coffee promotion is meant to create more awareness of the new store itself and all that J.P. Licks has to offer – from special blend coffees to a full Espresso Bar, hot chocolate and fresh baked treats including muffins, breads, scones and cookies.

J.P. Licks is located at 1312 Mass Ave., Cambridge. The store is open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight. For more information, visit jplicks.com.

Best of Boston and Beyond

For more than 25 years, J.P. Licks has been serving homemade ice cream and other specialties in their eight Kosher-certified shops in and around Boston. Locally owned and operated, J.P. Licks has won many awards over the years for their intensely-flavored homemade ice cream and frozen yogurt. Most recently, J.P. Licks was named “Best of Boston” and “Best Location – Jamaica Plain” by Boston Magazine and also made WBZ’s “A-List” for the second year in a row. Known for their high quality, scrumptious treats and their knack for “treating people right”, J.P. Licks was named Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s “Small Business of the Year”.

In addition to their frozen creations, J.P. Licks roasts their own fair trade and organic coffee beans on-site at their Jamaica Plain store, which ensures the best and the freshest, full-bodied cup of coffee around. Decadent hand-packed ice cream cakes as well as breakfast & ice cream sundae catering are also available.

Visit the website at jplicks.com for more information.

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There is more to running a successful coffee shop than deciding what kind of coffee you will serve. Don’t get me wrong, part of your job in running your thriving coffee shop is providing your customers with an all around flavorful experience which includes the coffee, however there is so much more to know. I believe there are three essential steps to take before starting your coffee shop. Let’s explore them together.

Step One – Do the research. Learn all you can about starting a coffee shop. You can do this in a variety of different ways. My personal favorite is going to several other coffee shops, having a cup of coffee and soaking in the experience. In doing this, watch the dynamics of both the social and business environment. Observe how the business treats their customers, what menu items they sell, what kind of equipment they carry and so on. Some people even choose to get a job at an existing coffee shop before starting their own.

The more obvious means of research you can do is reading. You can learn a lot from the materials out there. There are a lot of resources to choose from. When choosing what to read I recommend that you purchase books specifically on coffee shops, not re-released restaurant startup up books. The differences between the two are crucial. I recommend this book.You can also do a lot of good research on the internet. Library research can be sketchy. If you do do research at the library make sure you checkout current books. There is a difference in business dynamics between current and older coffee shops.

Step Two – Put together an effective business plan. Notice that I use the word “effective”; developing a plan that covers every aspect of your business will save you a lot of money and heartache in the future. There are two aspects towards putting that business plan together. The first thing to do is search for coffee shop business plans on the web, and in books in either your library or purchasing books at a place like Amazon.com. While looking at coffee shop business plans try to poke through to find out what made them successful or unsuccessful. Their success, or lack thereof can do a lot to help you plan to make yours a success.

Secondly, I would recommend using a software package like Business Plan Pro. Software packages like business plan pro will ask specific questions relevant to starting your business. Each question asked will help you develop in your mind what your coffee shop will look like and how it will operate. When finished the business plan software will have given you a professional business plan you can bring to your bank and give you something to keep you on target every step of the way.

In actuality you will do well to develop two distinct plans. The first plan will be a basic layout of what you want to do and what steps you plan to take to make you successful (some people call this an action plan). This plan will keep you on track. It should only be a page or two that you can tape up to your office wall that will remind you to stay on task.

The second plan type of plan I mentioned using a software package like Business Plan Pro. You will use this plan for specific long and short range goals and to share with some investors and bankers. Keep in mind that this is a plan that you are going to share with investors so try to keep it positive and realistic. Some people actually develop a third document that they will give to their investors or bankers that will be a summary page with their mission statement and a quick over view of their business plan. If you decide to go this route, give them the short documents on top of the more advanced document.

Step Three – Get Legal. You will save a lot of time later on by getting all of your legal affairs taken care of now. First, you will need to register your name with the state, get sales tax licenses, and possibly set up a corporation. This can be a daunting task. When I first opened up my business, I tried to do it myself. I hate spending extra money. In the end I paid someone to handle the initial forms for me. After the first time I used the service I no longer needed to go back to them because it is pretty simple to keep up with those forms after once you are familiar with the process. You can spend a lot of money on a Lawyer or a CPA, but you could just use a good online service to get things set up instead. In the process don’t just give someone on the internet all of your personal info. Instead, I recommend doing research and using a company like LegalZoom.com. Make sure that you Google the website first to see if they have any complaints against them or check sources like the BBB.

Even though you may not use a lawyer or CPA to help set up your business forms, it is still a good idea to acquaint yourself with a good CPA and Lawyer for tax preparations and potential legal issues that may come up.

Develop a disaster prevention plan. This would be something like a short what if / action plan. Ask yourself what could go wrong and how could I possibly get sued, and then develop strategies to prevent those things. You will also need to get insurance at this step too. Remember the “Hot Coffee Lawsuit” a few years back? There are definite lessons to learn from that.

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As we all try to cut back on expenses, nights out are becoming nights in. For something different, invite your friends over for a dessert bar and coffee. Rent a movie, find one on the TV, play games or work jigsaw puzzles. Bake a few goodies and set them out with plates, napkins, and silverware. Let your guests help themselves. Serve coffee, decaf flavored coffee, and offer hot teas and/or hot chocolate. Ice water is also a good idea. Freeze leftover desserts to use later with family meals. Anything that won’t freeze well, can be divided up and sent home with guests. You will be a hit with your friends! Here are some recipe ideas for your dessert bar. The Macadamia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries are sure to wow your guests. Dont like cranberries? Use blueberries. The Decadent Chocolate Mud Pie will impress any chocolate lovers in the group and Apricot Coffee Cake is perfect with coffee. If there are diabetics in your group, serve our Pecan Tarts (you might want to serve them whether or not there are diabetics in your group! Just change the brown sugar Splenda Blend to 1/3 cup regular brown sugar.)

MACADAMIA BUTTER COOKIES WITH DRIED CRANBERRIES

2/3 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped
1 tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place nuts in a food processor and process until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl once during the process, to make macadamia butter. Combine the macadamia butter, 1/2
cup granulated sugar and the brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat mixture at medium speed until blended. Add the vanilla and egg to the mixture and beat well. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg, whisk to blend well. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the cranberries. Chill dough for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 30 equal pieces and roll into balls. Place the 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar into a small bowl. Lightly press each ball into the sugar then place ball, sugar side up, on a parchment covered baking sheet. Gently press the top of each ball with a fork. Dip the fork in water and gently press each top again to form a criss-cross pattern (like peanut butter cookies). Bake at 375 degrees for 9 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cookies from the cookie sheets and cool on wire racks.

DECADENT LAYERED MUD PIE

3 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted
1/4 cup canned sweetened condensed milk
1 chocolate crumb pie crust
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 cups cold milk
2 pkgs (4-serving size each)Chocolate Instant Pudding and Pie Filling Mix
1 tub (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Mix melted chocolate and sweetened condensed milk until well blended. Pour into crust and sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top. Pour milk into a large mixing bowl and add the pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk for 2 minutes or until well blended. Spoon 1 1/2 cups of the pudding over the pecans in the crust. Add 1/2 of the whipped topping to the remaining pudding and stir with the wire whisk until well blended. Spread over the pudding mix in the crust. Spread the remaining whipped topping over the top of the pie. Chill 3 to 4 hours before serving.

APRICOT COFFEE CAKE

1 box white cake mix
1 pkg instant vanilla pudding mix (4-serving size)
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup apricot preserves
small jar maraschino cherries, chopped

TOPPING:

1 cup sugar
1 tsp cocoa
1 cup chopped pecans or toasted almonds

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, apricot preserves and cherries. Grease and flour a Bundt pan. Pour half the cake mix mixture into the pan. Top with half the topping mixture. Repeat the process with the other halves. Cut a knife through the batter to make a swirl. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Options: Make a simple glaze of powdered sugar and milk mixed together until of drizzle consistency. Drizzle over the top of the cake and top with maraschino cherry halves and chopped nuts, if desired.

PECAN TARTS

1 stick butter

3 oz cream cheese

1 cup flour

1 cup pecans, chopped

1/4 cup + 2 tbsps Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

1 egg

dash of salt

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together butter, cream cheese, and flour. Make 24 equal sized balls out of this dough mixture. Put each ball into a mini-muffin tin cup and press into bottom and onto the sides. Mix together the pecans, brown sugar, egg, salt, and vanilla. Fill dough cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Tags: coffee drinks, good coffee

It was not that long ago that coffee came out of a tin and required nothing but a pot of boiling water to activate its essential properties, but our world has changed and people these days value quality and complex flavors. Today’s consumers want to choose their own brand of coffee beans sourced from exotic places like The Bahamas or Kenya. More than that, today’s coffee enthusiasts want to experience the full measure of creating a perfect cup, from the grinding of our own beans to the heady aroma that comes from a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

There are literally thousands of coffee bars in the world, identifiable by their aroma and the types of coffees that are available. With many beverages such as the extravagant cappuccino or flavored coffees to the no frills, straight up filter coffee. What they all have in common is that each order is freshly brewed.

At Home

It may not be possible to recreate a fully stocked coffee bar in our home, but everyone may agree that a freshly brewed cup of coffee first thing in the morning is not a luxury anymore, for many of us it is essential. Most homes boast a coffee machine designed to brew freshly ground beans. These machines usually work by allowing a slow drip of hot water to pass through ground coffee beans into a pot below. It does not use pressure to force the water through and this often results in the coffee getting cold while we wait for the cycle to finish. Many people find that it is just too time consuming to make a cup of coffee in this manner.

Senseo Innovation

That is why a new breed of coffee making machine is rapidly gaining popularity;

one that uses pressure. Senseo manufactures this coffee machine and it provides much innovation to the market of home coffee brewing machines. The Senseo Gourmet Coffeemaker pushes pressurized water through a pre-packed coffee pod. These coffee pods are packed with just the right amount of coffee, which allows for the best possible result.

Senseo allows you to brew one or two cups of coffee at a time. Brewing your cup of coffee with the Senseo Coffeemaker can be completed in a few simple steps. First, fill the water tank, followed by opening the lid and placing in your coffee pod. The last step is to switch it on and watch how your Senseo Gourmet Coffeemaker allows just the right amount of pressure and just the right amount of water to flow through the pod. In two minutes, you can have a perfectly brewed, hot cup of filtered coffee to kick start your day. However, it gets better: because of the pressurized system that is used by the Senseo Gourmet Coffeemaker; your cup of coffee should have a thick foamy layer on top as well.

The Practicalities

Senseo coffee pods are mess-free and require no expensive filters; they also ensure you are not left with coffee grounds at the bottom of your cup. Whatever your taste in coffee, Senseo coffee pods covers them all. You can choose from mild roast, medium roast, and dark roast, even decaffeinated.

Senseo Gourmet Coffeemakers have a ‘SensAuto-off’ switch, which turns the machine off after an hour, so you do not have to worry about accidently leaving the Senseo on. They are designed with removable parts that are completely safe in the dishwasher. Senseo offer accessories such as replaceable water tanks that make your coffee experience even easier.

Senseo Options

Senseo Gourmet Coffeemakers come in a one-cup option as well as the basic 1-2 cup option, each offer the same incredible basic functions. Senseo has another option available called the Senseo Supreme. The Supreme offers many added features for your convenience.

While still allowing the 1-2 cup option, the Supreme allows more control over how much coffee can be brewed and you can change the amount per cup, great if you have different sized coffee cups, or mugs.

The spout is different too – adjustable so that you can accommodate taller cups. The water tank has increased in size so that you do not have to refill it that often. There is also an LED indicator, which keeps you informed on the water levels.

Another added feature allows you to enjoy frothed milk without all the fuss. The Supreme has an integrated milk container, which includes a feature that froths the milk. This offers luxurious foam on top of your coffee. There is also a cleaning button that is designed to remove all milk residues from the machine.

The Senseo Gourmet coffeemaker is a beautifully apportioned, sleek, and modern coffee machine that can grace any kitchen counter. They are available in different colors to suit most tastes and can become a conversation piece in your home.

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Tags: coffee drinks, good coffee

The coffee break is since always a real blessing for every worker. It helps you to relax, to have a good chat with the colleagues and maybe also to snack.

Coffee is since centuries one of Italians’ most favorite beverages. As tea is considered the typical English people drink, also thanks to the famous teatime, Italians are famous in the world to drink the espresso. Espresso coffee is a concentrated coffee beverage obtained by the roasting and milling of Coffea Arabica and Coffea Robusta seeds, then brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee toward the use of an appropriate machine.

But coffee is not just a plain physical process. Make the coffee is an art and especially a life style. Every country has its own particular way to prepare coffee and each one is convinced that other countries prepare just undrinkable coffees. As for example the American coffee that we Italians consider just as a tasteless slop. There are also many ways to drink the espresso, there are people who just drink the espresso from the bar, who spends many hours a day at the office coffee machine, who prefers just drink the coffee made at home with the coffee pot.

If coffee in general, imported from the South America, was drunk since 16th century, the first European coffee house opened in 1645. Since then the use of this beverage quickly spread first in England, but coffee house very soon became an ideal place for the birth and diffusion of liberal ideas and so they were attended by scholars, politics and philosophers, spreading the use in whole Europe.
Instead the espresso as we know it was developed in Milan in the early 20th century, thanks to the invention of the espresso machine, patented by Mr. Giuseppe Bezzera in 1902. The patent was then bought by Desiderio Pavoni who started, with his own enterprise, La Pavoni, in 1905, the mass production (one a day), in a small machine shop in Pavini street, in Milan. This was the first espresso machine for the coffee house, and it was called Ideale (ideal).

To this first machine, many others followed, from the domestic coffee pot to the coffee vending machines, that today have already become more like hot drinks machines. We can surely say this is a huge marketing development!

Today the global sector market is around 90.000 million dollars. Brazil alone produces almost one third of the whole coffee in the world. At world level, there are a lot of people concerned for what is one of the most traded goods, together with oil and steal. Periodically, the quantities of the harvests are really fluctuating, according to the meteorological condition and the prices fluctuations.
Brazil is the world leader in production of green coffee, followed by Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia. Following there are, with variable order according to the years, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Ethiopia, India.

In any case coffee is always one of the world economy’s most traded and important goods.
Nobody will ever think to renounce to his coffee break, which could be at home, at work or waiting for the train, maybe together with a snack from the food vending machine. In every moment of our life we are grateful of the long road the coffee keeps cover.

This article was written by Martina Meneghetti with support from coffee machine vending . For any information on Adimac, visit cold food vending machine or surfing on-line hot drinks machine .

Technorati Tags: coffee drinks, good coffee

Tags: coffee drinks, good coffee