Green Coffee Facts

Green Coffee Facts

Green coffee refers to harvested coffee beans that have not yet been roasted. Most people buy roasted coffee, either whole bean or ground. Some folks only buy green coffee beans and roast enough for what they will brew each day. There are benefits that come with buying green coffee and potential drawbacks. There are even direct uses for unroasted green coffee which has different properties than when it has been roasted. Here are a few green coffee facts to help you understand the differences.

How Is Green Coffee Different From Roasted Coffee?

The flavor of unroasted green coffee is lighter and milder than when it has been roasted. It also has a slight flavor similar to grass if one were to put that into a drink. Chlorogenic acid is present in higher levels in unroasted coffee beans. Health experts sometimes say that this antioxidant in sufficient amounts can help control blood sugar levels and assist in losing weight. Green coffee retains its freshness longer than roasted coffee when stored properly. This ensures, for most consumers, that their roasted coffee will be fresher as well.

Coffee Ceans Before and After Removal of Husk
Green Coffee Beans Before and After Removal of Husk

How Long Can You Store Green Coffee?

A good rule of thumb is that green coffee will retain its freshness and antioxidant levels for up to three years when stored in a cool and dry location away from direct sunlight. By comparison, roasted whole coffee beans can retain their freshness for up to six months with similar correct storage. The issue with green coffee for the consumer is how long that green coffee beans spent in storage either in the country where they were grown or in the destination country before they were purchased by the end user or by a coffee roaster. The issue for roasted coffee is typically how long it sat on the grocery store shelf before you purchased it. The issue with ground roasted coffee is that it loses its freshness within days of being exposed to the air.

Are There Health Benefits from Drinking Green Coffee?

This issue has not been extensively studied. What small studies have been done indicate that people may lose three to five pounds more than otherwise in a diet if they add green coffee consumption. The assumption, unproven, is that green coffee blocks fat buildup and lowering blood sugar levels. In regard to blood pressure, there has been one small study in which people who consumed green coffee lowered their blood pressure more than a control group did. In neither case did the studies determine a standard dose or course of treatment.

Drawbacks to Consuming Green Coffee

Like roasted coffee, green coffee contains coffee. So, if you consume too much you will get an upset stomach, feel jittery, or even drive your blood pressure higher. If you have consumed large daily amounts of green coffee and then suddenly quit you will very likely get caffeine withdrawal headaches just like with regular coffee consumption and cessation. Otherwise, there are no know specific problems with consuming green coffee.

Green Coffee Versus Roasted Coffee Health Benefits

Regular coffee has a whole host of known health benefits from reduction of type II diabetes, reduction of risk of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, to reduction of risks of various types of cancer. Green coffee has nowhere near the amount of research conducted regarding its effects and benefits. This is primarily because drinking coffee is common worldwide and drinking or otherwise consuming green coffee is rather rare. It may well be that green coffee confers the same benefits as drinking roasted coffee. But, until someone includes green coffee consumption in long term follow-up questionnaires and twenty years pass, we will not know.


Is It the Roast or the Coffee That Is Bad?

Is It the Roast or the Coffee That Is Bad?

Here at Buy Organic Coffee we typically write about how to find, make, and enjoy the best coffee in the world. However, for far too many coffee lovers the issue is not great coffee but rather bad coffee. Problems with your cup of java start with the type of coffee you are buying and extend through how long it has been stored before it got roasted. Then the issue is how long it was on the shelf before you bought it and then how long stored it and how well you stored it before grinding the beans and brewing your coffee. Along the way the degree and quality of roasting comes into play. Very often the basic question is whether it is the roast of the coffee that is bad.

What Is the Best Coffee?

For folks who simply want a lot of caffeine in their cup to wake up in the morning and keep going all day, robusta coffee is the best choice. It has much more caffeine than arabica coffee. You are giving away the promise of better flavor and aroma but you are getting the “kick” that you want from your coffee. The bulk of this kind of coffee comes from Vietnam and Brazil. For most folks who love a great cup of coffee with excellent aroma and taste, arabica coffee is preferable. The best arabica is grown at higher altitudes in volcanic soil. There are lots of great coffees in the world that fit this criteria. However, the largest area with the greatest production of uniformly great arabica coffee is in the west of Colombia on the western slopes of the western most ridgeline of the Andes mountains. At the center of this area is the coffee triangle comprised of the departments of Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío. However, the rich coffee growing area includes the department of Antioquia around Medellin to the north and the departments of Huila and Tolima to the south. However, Brazil produces lots of arabica as do Honduras, Mexico and other central American countries. The easiest way to make sure you are getting high quality Arabica coffee is to look for Juan Valez on the package which means the coffee is 100% Colombian.

Buy Arabica Coffee Directly from Colombia
Roasting Coffee

How Long Was It Since Your Coffee Was Picked?

Coffee is freshest when it is picked and after it has been dried, processed to remove the cherry and husk and made ready for roasting. Colombia has a major harvest and a minor harvest season. Your best coffee is that which moves quickly from the mountain side to local processing to shipping to a roaster or green coffee seller near you. To avoid getting coffee that has languished in the supply chain for months or years we offer direct shipping from the Colombian coffee triangle to you. Just contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org. Doing this you will avoid getting coffee that sat for months or years in storage as green coffee in the USA before being roasted and then sitting on the grocery store shelf for months before you purchase it.

How Was Your Coffee Roasted?

Roasting coffee produces and/or converts antioxidants and, on the extreme end, caramelizes the coffee. Some different flavors are produced with light to moderate roasting and many are lost. On the extreme end, most of the original flavors and aroma are lost. The problem with routinely getting a dark roast coffee is that all too often you are getting an inferior coffee bean or a stale coffee bean and cannot tell the difference because the original flavor and aroma is gone. So, one of the reasons for bad coffee is that it was roasted to within an inch of its flavor and aroma life!

Did They Ruin a Good Coffee or Disguise a Bad Coffee With Their Roasting?

You see a lot of articles today promoting a dark roast as healthier because, they claim, that a dark roast has more antioxidants. This remains to be proven. What is true is that using an excessive dark roast is a common way to disguise bad coffee that came from inferior beans, was stored too long, or processed incorrectly. To the extent that you are getting high quality coffee from places like Colombia, we suggest a light to medium roast first of all and progression to a darker roast for comparison thereafter.

Why Drink Flavored Coffee?

Why Drink Flavored Coffee?

Good coffee is like good wine. It has subtle flavors and aromas that vary with the type of coffee, the soil in which it was grown and the care given in its cultivation. Despite the very good reasons for drinking coffee black, many people drink flavored coffee. Why drink flavored coffee that commonly masks the native flavor of your cup of java? One common reason for going the flavored coffee route is that you are providing flavor where there is none such as with very old, stale, low quality coffee.

Use Flavoring to Hide the Fact That Coffee Is Poor Quality

Being students of history here at Buy Organic Coffee, we are reminded of the story of how spices from the orient made their way into Europe in the Middle Ages. Prior to the Crusades (1096-1300) only the wealthy could afford spices like saffron, mace, ginger, nutmeg, or black pepper. In fact, these items were so valuable that they were used as replacements for money. For example, it took seven fat oxen to pay for a pound of nutmeg or a horse to pay for a pound of saffron. Prices went down and common folks were able to afford spices when trade increased from the orient. At this time the main reason for using spices was to disguise offensive odors and flavors because this was not the age of refrigeration. The point of this little tour of history is that routinely using flavorings is a way of masking bad coffee!

Why Drink Flavored Coffee?
Nutmeg for Extra Flavor with Your Coffee

Why Using Flavorings At Starbucks?

Starbucks, like the vast majority of coffee shops, serves good coffee. They store their coffee as green beans, only roast enough to use for the day and buy high quality beans sourced from all over the world. Thus, the odds are that a cup of black coffee at Starbucks will have great flavor and aroma. If you need to add a little sugar that will generally not affect the flavor and if you need a little milk or cream to make the coffee gentler for your stomach, that makes sense. However, if you are adding any of the 87,000 different flavor combinations that Starbucks offers, we wonder why you are bothering with a more expensive and high quality coffee when you could just as easily use cheap, stale coffee that does not have any flavor to mask. The business model that Starbucks uses may need to change because it is interfering with their service and losing them customers but the fact remains that even with just a few flavors folks will be negating the great coffee they are getting by covering up all of its good qualities.

Are There Flavorings That Work With Coffee’s Natural Flavor and Aroma?

The good news is that there are a handful of flavoring that can be used with coffee that enhance coffee’s natural qualities instead of covering them up. These include nutmeg, clove, and cardamon. In each case it is important to use the flavoring in moderation. Nevertheless, each of these can be counted on to improve your coffee drinking experience and not negate the presence of a really good coffee that you are starting with.

What Are the Best Flavored Coffees?

What Are the Best Flavored Coffees?

Research into coffee drinking habits tells us that only eighteen percent of coffee drinkers take their java black without sweeteners, cream or milk, or other flavoring. Assuming that you would like something a bit more than a sweetener, milk or cream with your coffee, what are the best flavored coffees? Another issue is this. Does adding a flavor to your coffee overpower coffee’s natural flavor and aroma? Or are there flavorings that enhance the natural flavor and aroma of your coffee?

Most Common Coffee Flavors

The most commonly used coffee flavorings include amaretto, French vanilla, hazelnut, caramel, mocha, peppermint, cinnamon, maple, butterscotch, and pumpkin spice. Some flavorings and coffee drinks are seasonal like eggnog coffee or Irish coffee. As noted in a recent article in The New York Times, an article about complicated coffee orders explained how often times less is more and better in the coffee world.

Thomas Edison and the Flavor of Your Coffee

When the inventor of the electric lightbulb, movie camera, and phonograph hired a new young scientist he always invited them to eat dinner at his home. One promising young scientist with impeccable credentials was not offered a job. When asked why Edison said that the young person lacked curiosity. They salted their steak before tasting it. In regard to coffee flavorings and your coffee, we suggest that you taste your coffee before adding hazelnut, mocha, or pumpkin spice. Maybe you will decide that you don’t need so much, or any flavoring, after all.

Making the Best of Average Coffee

Not everyone can afford to buy gourmet coffee, whole beans, imported directly from Colombia. Even though you can find excellent coffee at great prices in Colombia, the cost of shipping small quantities may be prohibitive for someone living on a budget. Thus, one may find themself looking for ways to improve flavor or mask bitterness of the coffee they are buying at the store. Here is where adding a tasty flavoring like hazelnut, mocha, or cinnamon may be a good idea. As a rule you do not need to use excessive amounts of flavorings to accomplish this task.

What Are the Best Flavored Coffees?

Cloves, Nutmeg, or Cardamon to Augment the Flavor of Your Coffee

Flavors not commonly used with coffee are clove, cardamon, or nutmeg. However, each of these can be used in moderation to enhance the natural flavor of your coffee. Clove is very aromatic. When used with a wood-toned coffee like one from Colombia it can enhance the normal flavor of a great coffee. Nutmeg can be used with stronger and spicier coffees to add more depth to natural spicy and nutty flavors. When used with an earthy Indonesian coffee, cardamon adds more of a hint of spice and earthy tones.

Taste Test Before Deciding on a Coffee Flavor for Your Life

We humans are creatures of habit. When we get into the habit of drinking a given flavored coffee, we may end up missing out on a whole world of coffee flavorings or excellent coffee without added flavoring. We strongly suggest that coffee lovers who crave something extra try out several different flavoring and even follow the advice of Mr. Edison to taste their coffee (steak) before adding flavoring (salt)! You may find that the high quality Colombian coffee you are drinking has more than enough flavor and aroma without adding anything else.

Who Grows High Altitude Coffee?

Who Grows High Altitude Coffee?

Coffee only grows in the tropics, in the so-called coffee belt. That is because coffee is a perennial that does survive a frost. Although disease resistance can be high with strains like robusta, high quality coffee like arabica does not do well at extremely low altitudes because of excessive heat, humidity, and presence of fungi and other coffee pests. Thus coffee is generally grown at around three thousand feet but can also be grown at much higher altitudes such as in Ethiopia, Colombia, Bolivia, or Honduras, where coffee is grown as high as 7,000 feet above sea level and occasionally even higher.

How Does Altitude Affect Coffee?

As a rule, high quality coffee grown in the 3,000 foot range has nutty and chocolate flavors while coffee grown closer to 7,000 feet has more floral and fruity aromas and flavors. The best coffee grows slowly and ripens slowly. This is what happens at higher altitudes in countries like Colombia, Ethiopia, Honduras, and Bolivia at the highest altitudes. A problem today that plagues coffee production is coffee leaf rust which kills entire coffee crops. This fungal coffee plague is more prevalent at lower to medium altitudes and less of a problem at altitudes above 6,000 or 7,000 feet. As earth’s temperatures and humidity steadily increase there will be a need to plant coffee at higher and higher altitudes to stay ahead of leaf rust infestations. Meanwhile, coffee growers are trying to cross breed arabica strains with resistant East Indian strains to increase disease resistance while retaining arabica flavor and aroma.

Buy Arabica Coffee Directly from Colombia
Arabica Coffee in Colombia at Low, Medium, and High Altitudes

Science, Altitude, and Coffee Characteristics

Higher altitude coffee means slower growth in cooler temperatures. Slower growth results in higher sugar content which, in turn, results in more complex flavors. Coffee at lower altitudes grows faster and produces more coffee but of noticeably lower quality. Higher altitudes tend to have better drainage for coffee with reduces water saturation of coffee beans and further increases sugar concentration and flavor complexity.

Coffee Quality By Altitude

As a general rule, here are the coffee qualities that relate to altitude of production. Above 5,000 feet like in Colombia or Ethiopia coffee has greater complexity, is fruitier, spicier and has aromas that are more floral.

Coffee grown in the 4,000 feet range like in Mexico, Costa Rica and lower elevations in Colombia tends to be more earthy with notes of nut, chocolate, citrus, and vanilla.

Coffee that grows around 3,000 feet such as the lowest Colombian production areas or in Brazil tends to be sweet and smooth.

And coffee grown as low as the 2,500 foot range such as in Hawaii tends to be mild, not very complex, and not acidic.

Altitude Requirements for Arabica Versus Robusta

Robusta is a hardier coffee plant than arabica. Thus it can be grown at lower altitudes where temperatures are higher. Arabica requires not only higher altitude with lower temperatures but also more shade, stable temperatures, and plentiful rainfall. We have written about how both in Colombia and other countries of Latin America and in the East Indies coffee growers are attempting to cross breed robusta and arabica with the hope of obtaining a coffee with the best features of both, namely a hardy coffee with high production that retains arabica’s exceptional qualities. Until that ideal is obtained, we can expect to see the best coffees grown at the highest altitudes in places like the departments of Caldas, Quindío, and Risaralda in Colombia.

Growing Coffee in Your Greenhouse

Growing Coffee in Your Greenhouse

Coffee plants grow naturally in the tropics in what is referred to as the coffee belt. If you are fortunate enough to live in a place like the Colombian Eje Cafetero you can grow your own coffee. Of course you will need land for growing your coffee crop but the environmental conditions will be ideal for producing great coffee. If you live outside of the coffee belt you will not be able to grow coffee out of doors. However, growing coffee in your greenhouse is a possibility. What you need to do is to create an indoor, year round environment similar to where coffee grows naturally.

Coffee Growing Environment

Coffee plants are perennial but do not survive a frost. Thus anyone living outside of the tropics needs a protected environment for coffee plants to survive winter. The average temperature where the bulk of coffee is grown in Colombia ranges from a nighttime low of 57 degrees Fahrenheit to a daytime high of 73 degrees Fahrenheit or 13 to 22 degrees Celsius. Days are generally overcast with some rain most days. Coffee grows on slopes where it never stands in water and grows in naturally fertile volcanic soil. For growing coffee in your greenhouse you will need to mimic these conditions.

Growing Coffee in a Greenhouse

Although folks in places like Colombia, Brazil, or Vietnam are experts at growing coffee they do not necessarily know much about growing coffee in a greenhouse. However, folks in the far north, like at the University of North Dakota have experience doing just that. Courtesy of NDSU in Fargo, ND, here is some useful information about growing coffee in greenhouses. Start by choosing the right coffee to grow, using the right nutrients, and then maintaining the right indoor environment for growing coffee.

Growing Coffee in Your Greenhouse

Growing High Quality Coffee in a Greenhouse

You have two basic choices for greenhouse coffee. Robusta coffee is hardy, produces well, and has a high caffeine content. It also does not have the best flavor or aroma. Arabica coffee, on the other hand, can be more fragile and prone to plant diseases, has a lower yield than robusta, and a lower caffeine content. However, the excellent flavor and aroma of arabica makes the effort of growing it worthwhile. As a rule we would suggest that if you are going to the trouble of growing coffee in your greenhouse that you grow a superior coffee variety.

Nutrients for Greenhouse Coffee

Coffee grows best in loamy soil that is well drained so that is what you will want to recreate in your greenhouse. Plan to provide extra phosphorus to younger plants up to the third year. For mature plants use a 10-5-20 fertilizer mix at one thousand five hundred pounds per acre per year. A mix of magnesium, zinc, and iron is also necessary. All of these are natural ingredients of volcanic soil.

Greenhouse Conditions for Growing Coffee

For best results greenhouse conditions for growing coffee should mimic those in the premier growing areas. Air for nighttime lows of sixty degrees and daytime highs of seventy degrees. Rainfall (misting) should be six inches a month on average with a yearly high and low. Plants grow in the peak wet season but require a dry season for cherries to ripen before the harvest. Your greenhouse should have adequate airflow and plants should be spaced sufficiently that the leaves and stems remain reasonably dry. Try to recreate a mountain mist, diffuse lighting and little direct sunlight.

Where Can You Get Coffee Plants for Your Greenhouse?

Fortunately, you do not need to send to Colombia, Brazil, or Vietnam to get seedlings for your greenhouse coffee plants. Many commercial nurseries either have them in stock or can refer you to someone who does. If you have access to fresh coffee cherries or seeds you can plant your own coffee. The cherry is ready when you can rub away the flesh. Set the seeds aside for a few weeks on a plate lined with a paper towel. Then soak the beans in water for a day before planting in four inch pots filled with a commercial potting soil. Plant the seeds just a quarter of an inch deep. Keep in a warm location without direct sunlight. Seeds will germinate in about a month and a half to two months. As plants grow you can replant into larger containers.

How Long Do Coffee Taste and Aroma Last?

How Long Do Coffee Taste and Aroma Last?

Some folks just drink coffee for the caffeine, to wake up in the morning, keep going in the afternoon, or work all night. However, most of us choose coffee that has the aroma and taste that we like. Unfortunately, taste and aroma of coffee to not last forever in the face of oxidation, namely exposure to oxygen in the air. How long do coffee taste and aroma last? It depends on if you are talking about green coffee beans, roasted whole bean coffee, or roasted and ground coffee. And it depends on the time since the coffee was packaged and also the time since the container was opened.

How Does Coffee Lose Its Freshness?

Over time and with exposure to oxygen in the air the natural compounds and oils in coffee break down. This results in loss of antioxidant properties as well as aroma and flavor. Coffee does not come with an expiration date as even stale, old coffee is safe to consume and retains its caffeine content. When coffee remains in the original package it is not exposed to air and thus does not undergo oxidation. When the container is opened that all changes. As a general rule, once you open a container of roasted and ground coffee you will want to brew all of that coffee within two weeks unless you do not mind drinking stale coffee.

How Long Does Roasted Coffee Retain Its Freshness?

Because most folks buy roasted coffee instead of roasting their own, we will start with how long roasted coffee retains its flavor and aroma. The roasted coffee that you purchase at the grocery store will retain the greatest majority of its freshness for up to a year after it was roasted and packaged. But it is totally possible that the bag of coffee you bought at the grocery store was on the shelf for a year before you bought it. That means you are buying stale coffee. But when your store has a fast turnover of its coffee, you can generally expect at least a few months of freshness left in the bag when you buy it.

How Long Do Coffee Taste and Aroma Last?

Whole Bean Versus Ground Coffee and Retention of Freshness

Many people buy ground coffee because it is more convenient than having to grind beans every morning. Unfortunately, the air gets into every grain of ground coffee and the process of becoming state is immediate. When you have whole coffee beans only the outer surface of the coffee beans starts to oxidize and lose flavor and aroma. The interior of the coffee bean will keep its properties for weeks or even months. Think of this as preserving half of your coffee freshness for months instead of days when you buy whole bean roasted coffee and not ground roasted coffee beans.

How Long Do Green Coffee Beans Retain Freshness

If you want optimal freshness for your coffee, consider buying green coffee beans and roasting just enough each day for the coffee you plan to drink. Green coffee beans that are properly stored in a cool, dry location out of the sun can retain their freshness for up to three years! Once you roast your coffee beans and grind them the same rules apply as to coffee that you buy at your local grocery store. A problem with green coffee is that is may be older than you think it is. We wrote an article years ago about how the government of Brazil was paying coffee farmers to store their coffee and not flood the market and drive down prices during a bumper crop year. Some of that coffee did not go onto the market for as long as eight years! As we noted in our article, that ended up being motel and airplane coffee devoid of flavor and aroma but retaining its caffeine content.

Fresh Coffee from Colombia

If you want to avoid buying coffee that has been on the shelf in the grocery store for months or years or green coffee that was part of a government program to support prices, consider buying your green or roasted coffee from Colombia. Contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org for help.

Tricks for Baking With Coffee

Tricks for Baking With Coffee

We recently published an article about adding coffee to enhance the flavor of baked beans. This brought to mind the whole issue of which herbs, spices, and other ingredients to add to recipes to get optimal results. In regard to using our favorite beverage when preparing dishes in the kitchen, there are a few tricks to baking with coffee that are useful to know. It turns out that it does make a difference which method you use to brew coffee and what kind of coffee you use based on what dishes you are going to add it to.

What Kinds of Coffee Can You Bake With?

In our baked beans recipe we used brewed coffee. However, you can use brewed coffee from a French press for optimal fats and oils, a cold brew coffee, or a percolator with a paper filter to reduce fats and oils. When you cook with brewed coffee you are commonly using coffee to replace water, milk or other wet ingredients as well as using its flavor. When adding coffee to bread recipes it is usually wise to use a dark roast as it goes well with a well-baked crust. No matter whether you use a light or dark roast for your coffee when adding to bread dough for doughnuts, bread, or cinnamon rolls, the acid in the coffee commonly makes the dough easier to work with and results in better rising and bitter notes to a nicely browned crust. For recipes for brownies replace a forth or half of the water with brewed coffee and your coffee with enhance the chocolate while the chocolate and sweetness with bring out subtle coffee flavors.

Tricks for Baking with Coffee

Using Instant Coffee When You Bake

When you want the taste, aroma, and subtle notes of coffee but not any moisture, try using instant coffee. Espresso powder, instant coffee, or very finely ground roasted coffee beans all work for adding coffee flavor without extra water to a recipe. Rather than adding a dusting of coffee, add your espresso powder or instant coffee to a liqueur or vanilla extract. Use this trick for frostings or for adding to dough. As an example, shortbreads get their moisture from butter and do not need extra water. Adding coffee via a liqueur route is an ideal solution.

Coffee Flavor in Your Banking Without the Beans

A way to get coffee flavor without adding to your recipe is to steep the beans in your liquid of choice along with sugar and other flavorings. This works well for flan, ice cream, or panna cotta. Add roasted beans to cold milk or cream and allow to set in the refrigerator overnight. Your cream or milk to have a coffee flavor but no coffee color. Do this with a thick sugar solution for a coffee-flavored glaze for your favorite cake.

What Flavor to Pair Coffee With

Folks are generally familiar with how red wine goes best with meats while white wines go best with poultry or sea food. The same principles of food pairing work with coffee as well. The bitterness and floral aromas of coffee go well with chocolate, savory herb rubs, crust treatments for baked bread, warming spices, and sugary treats. As a note of caution, coffee can also overpower other flavors so there are times when coffee is best used in moderation when baking. Coffee is commonly added to chocolate but you can use it to enhance caraway, cumin, fennel, cardamon or something citrus like an orange zest.

Coffee Baked Beans Recipe

Coffee Baked Beans Recipe

For most folks the first thing that comes to mind when you mention a coffee recipe is coffee cake. What is funny is that coffee cake is something that you have when drinking coffee but does not contain any coffee. There are, however, recipes for things that actually contain coffee. The point of adding coffee to other foods is to increase flavor more so than add caffeine to your food. As such we offer our readers a coffee baked beans recipe.

Why Do We Add Spices to Our Food?

Back in the Middle Ages the European nobility paid princely sums for spices like peppercorns imported from the orient. They did this as much to disguise the fact that food was often spoiled as to improve the flavor. But today we add spices to our food to enhance the flavor and aroma. In the case of coffee, adding a bit of brewed coffee to your cooking provides an earthy, deep, and rich flavor.

Adding Coffee to Baked Beans

You can make this recipe with canned baking beans or with dry beans that you need to soak first. If you are soaking the beans add just a fourth cup of brewed coffee, preferably arabica and ideally from Colombia. If you are using a can of beans add your coffee and allow to sit for an hour before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. A good recipe is as follows:

  • Four slices of bacon, diced
  • One sweet onion chopped up
  • 28 ounce can or dry bean equivalent of baked beans
  • One fourth cup of bar-b-que sauce
  • One tablespoonful of brown sugar
  • One tablespoonful of apple cider vinegar
  • One teaspoonful of Dijon mustard
  • One fourth cup of brewed coffee

Brew your coffee and use to soak the dry beans or simply set aside for mixing with everything before cooking.

Fry the bacon and save the grease

Fry the onions in the bacon grease until caramelized

Mix the ingredients well and add to a baking dish. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 degrees Celsius. Bake of an hour and a half and then check every 15 minutes. The beans will be done at around two hours. Make sure to remove if they start to burn on the edges.

Allow the dish to set five to ten minutes outside of the oven before serving.

This dish serves six to eight people.

Coffee Baked Beans Recipe

Image Courtesy of Just a Pinch

Baking With Coffee

Coffee is a good flavor enhancer to use when baking numerous foods. Recipes including chocolate are almost always improved with the addition of coffee. Coffee and citrus go well together when making ice cream. Coffee can also be added when making rye bread! If you like beef, try a coffee-rubbed steak of coffee mixed into your beef stew. For a great dessert try coffee crème caramel.

For Coffee Baking Success Use Coffee With Great Flavor

The point of adding coffee when baking is not to provide coffee’s wake-me-up effect. It is a lot easier to get that simply by brewing a cup of coffee. Rather you are looking to enhance the flavor of your dish. So, make sure you use coffee that has the best flavor and aroma which means you should use arabica coffee, fresh, and ideally gourmet quality. Fortunately, you do not need to pay exorbitant prices for high quality coffee if you buy coffee from Colombia. For help getting great Colombian coffee, contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org.

Organic Coffee Scams

Organic Coffee Scams

Organic coffee is great coffee. It is almost always arabica and free of more than a hundred potential contaminants that can be found in non-organic coffees. As a rule the best way to know that your coffee is organic is to look for the USDA Organic label on the package. However, there are organic coffee scams and other false representations in the organic food and beverage world. The USDA has a long list of fraudulent organic certificates that it regularly updates. The image accompanying this article is one of them from a few years ago.

What Is USDA Certification?

In order to be certified as organic coffee by the USDA, a coffee farm or production facility needs to be inspected and then routinely reinspected in order to obtain and maintain certification. Crop standard for USDA certification include the following:

  • Three years of having no prohibited substances applied to it.
  • Maintenance of soil fertility and crop nutrition via crop rotations, cultivation practices, tillage, cover crop and crop or animal waste materials with only allowed synthetic materials.
  • Management of diseases, pests, and weed via biological, mechanical, and physical controls instead of chemicals whenever possible. When necessary synthetic, botanical, and biological methods are allowed but only from a list provided by the USDA.
  • Planting stock must be organic and any use of ionizing radiation, genetic engineering, or sewage sludge is prohibited.

Why Is Honest Organic Coffee Certification Important?

There are three issues here. If you want organic coffee you not only want great coffee taste and aroma but you want it without a long list of potential impurities that can be found in regular coffee. And organic coffee drinkers typically want the coffee they drink to have been produced without damaging the environment, water table, bird life, or the lives and safety of those working on coffee farms. Thus the two first issues are coffee quality and environmental concerns. The third is the cost of the coffee. Organic coffee is more expensive than other coffee. It costs more to produce all the way from the coffee farm through processing, storage, and shipping. Organic coffee is similar to gourmet coffee in this regard. Because of the cost and trouble of growing and processing organic coffee nobody bothers with low quality coffee. Thus, organic coffee drinkers are getting better coffee that is environmentally friendly and ultra-pure. Nobody wants to be paying organic prices and then getting an inferior product that ends up hurting the environment.

Fraudulent Organic Certifications

Despite all of the effort put into certifying organic foods and beverages, including organic coffee, there are fraudulent organic certifications that amount to organic coffee scams. The image below of a fraudulent certificate from a few years ago is just one example published by the USDA.

Organic Coffee Scams

If you wonder about whether the USDA certification of your organic coffee is valid you can check with the USDA. You can also rely on established coffee suppliers such as those who have sold coffee from Colombia with the Juan Valdez trademark as well. For quality coffee from Colombia, organic or not, contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org today.