Costa Rican Organic Coffee
Visitors to San Jose, Costa Rica can find Costa Rican organic coffee at the Café Central Cafeteria in the Mercado Central. Café Terrazú and Tres Rios compete for attention with “Café Organico” shade grown organic coffee at the Café Central Cafeteria display counter. Sit and rest before and after shopping and sample the coffees. Buy a pound of the coffee of your choice for the equivalent of $9 (4,500 colones).
Costa Rice Organic Coffee at Cafe Central, San Jose
Costa Rican Organic Coffee
In the mountainous spine of the country, the Cordillera de Talamanca, the Hacienda Las Mellizas grows healthy organic coffee at 4,600 above sea level. Hacienda Las Mellizas is considered one of the top organic coffee producers in Costa Rica. Here are a few facts about organic coffee, especially the shade grown variety. Shade grown organic coffee is usually grown in a mixed species forest including fruit and hardwood trees as well as other native plants. Traditional, organic coffee plantations have as many as forty different species of trees. A mixture of trees helps maintain soil quality and habitat for smaller plants, animals and birds. The goal of a shade grown organic coffee plantation is to have a mature and self-sustaining ecosystem. Such an ecosystem greatly reduces the need for insecticides as birds and other animals living in the coffee forest eat the pests. A mature ecosystem greatly reduces the use of synthetic fertilizers as the products of natural plant decomposition slowly leach into the soil to fertilize new plants and do not poison water table or downstream water. Shade grown organic coffee like the Costa Rican organic coffee sold at Café Organico Cafeteria is not only great tasting but good for the environment. It is good for you too.
Costa Rica Organic Coffee
The Health Benefits of Costa Rican Organic Coffee
The Australian Food Standards Authority has shown that as many as 133 contaminants may be in a cup of regular commercially available coffee. These contaminants can include aluminum, zinc, pesticide residues, ochratoxin A, acrylamide, furan, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (which have been found to cause cancer). Furans have been associated with skin disorders, liver problems, certain kinds of cancers, impairment to the reproductive, endocrine, and immune system, as well as effects on embryonic development. Drinking healthy organic coffee not only helps you avoid potentially toxic residues in regular coffee but carry direct health benefits as well. Four or more cups of coffee a day has been statistically associated with a fifty percent reduction in the risk of Type II diabetes. Coffee consumption is associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer, prostate cancer, and endometrial cancer as well. Drink healthy Costa Rican organic coffee and skip the impurities in regular coffee and enjoy the health benefits of organic coffee as well, all for only $9 a pound for whole roasted beans at the Café Central Cafeteria in the Mercado Central in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica. Come to San Jose and visit the Mercado Central where you can purchase everything from refrigerator magnets with the Costa Rican slogan, pura vida, on them to fresh cuts of meat and chicken, as well as great Costa Rican organic coffee. If you don’t happen to be in the neighborhood consider contacting us at www.BuyOrganicCoffee.org to place your order through us.
Organic Gifts
People are becoming more aware of the personal health advantages offered by going organic as well as the advantages provided to dear old Mother Earth. People like to share the good news. When a person discovers the huge advantages offered by organic food and other products, they want to give gifts that are organic so that their friends and family can share in those advantages. So, the organic gift market is booming and blooming!
Organic gift baskets are one of the best-selling gift items on the Internet today. There is a large and growing demand for gift baskets that are filled with organically produced fruits, vegetables, meats, flowers, plants, and even packaged foods like coffee and tea. Cookies and cakes made with organically produced ingredients and using recognized organic processing methods are more popular than you can imagine. Organic chocolate is really big!
Organic products are enjoying the very public blessing of the medical community. More and more doctors are recommending organic products to their patients privately, and more doctors are stepping forward and acknowledging the benefits offered by organic foods publicly. This really isn’t a surprise to those of us who have been advocating organic products for years.
As usual, the Internet is way ahead of Main Street on organic gifts, too. Locally, you might have difficulty in finding organic gifts, but there are hundreds (maybe thousands by now) of online sites that offer all kinds of organic gift products, from foods and wines to cosmetics to household and garden items. There are organic gift baskets for every occasion; Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.
You will find organic gift baskets for people of all ages and both sexes. There are gift organic gift baskets for all kinds of special interests like golf and gardening. There are also organic gift baskets to welcome a new baby into the world.
Organic Coffee Growers
The work of organic coffee growers is to produce excellent coffee using sustainable farming practices. The work of organic coffee growers is to bring healthy organic coffee to your table while preserving Mother Earth. Organic coffee growers are commonly certified by the United States Department of Agriculture or one of its affiliates for the USA and by the various certifying agencies for Japan, the European Union, or specific coffee chains. Organic coffee certification guarantees that coffee is grown, picked, processed, stored, shipped, and roasted separate from regular coffee. Certification guarantees that organic coffee is grown sufficiently far from regular coffee so that herbicides, pesticides, and other substances sprayed on regular coffee do not drift onto the organic area. The work of organic coffee growers results in a product free of the more than 100 impurities found in regular coffee and still full of antioxidants that can improve and prolong life.
Growing Coffee and Preserving the Earth
Farmers work with a limited amount of land and limited resources. They need to keep costs down and produce a product that sells for enough to pay the bills and generate a profit. Unfortunately, this often means using various chemicals to enhance plant growth and retard or kill pests and plant disease. These substances often remain in the soil, remain in the food, and help create new and stronger pests and diseases through survival of the fittest (bugs and diseases). Organic coffee growers seek to avoid the need for synthetic treatment of their crops. They do this by spacing coffee plants normally and not crowding them. They seek to grow coffee in shaded locations which is where coffee normally grows. By using organic fertilizers such as green mulch and manure organic coffee growers maintain a normal balance of nature in their fields and still produce an excellent product.
Certification
How do you, the consumer, know that what you are getting is organically grown, processed, stored, and roasted? Although the US Department of Agriculture and similar agencies in other nations take responsibility for certifying organic coffee and other organic foods, they commonly delegate the job to those on the spot. For example in Latin America Bio Latina organic coffee certification is common. This organization is based in Lima, Peru and sends its representatives over the length and breadth of Latin America in order to guarantee that organic coffee growers are adhering to the required stands in producing their product.
Making Something That Is Good for You
A distinct advantage to drinking organic coffee is that the organic process avoids contamination of coffee by unnecessary impurities. Then the consumer can enjoy the benefits of organic coffee antioxidants that help reduce the incidence of Type II diabetes, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and endometrial cancer. There are a large number of scientific studies showing the benefits of regular coffee consumption. The nice part of drinking coffee from organic coffee growers is that one gets the antioxidants and their health effects without adding a lot of unnecessary impurities to the diet.
Organic Gardening
Most people think that “organic gardening” means only the artificial pesticides and fertilizers are not used on the plants. That is, of course, true, but that is not quite all that there is to organic gardening.
Organic gardening is more like playing one instrument in an orchestra rather than giving a solo performance. A true organic gardener knows that his garden must get in harmony and stay in harmony with all of nature. It isn’t so much what an organic gardener does NOT do (use artificial pesticides and fertilizers) but more what an organic gardener DOES do that makes him an organic gardener.
All gardens start basically with the same thing – soil. Those who do not practice organic gardening simply go down to the local nursery and pick up a few bags of fertilizer, dump it on the ground and spread it around, but the organic gardener uses the things that nature provides as fertilizer.
For example, the grass clipping from mowing the lawn during warm months are fertilizer, and so are the leaves that are raked up in the fall. The vegetable peelings that are produced and called waste in the kitchen are also fertilizer. The organic gardener collect this “waste,” makes it into a compost pile, and as the plant material decays, a very effective, all-natural fertilizer is produced.
Nature also gives the organic gardener natural pest control. The organic gardener encourages ladybugs, frogs, and lizards to live in his garden. The frogs, lizards, and ladybugs are happy and they keep the pests off the plants.
Organic mulches are the best weed control and straw, grass clippings, leaves, and shredded bark nourish the soil as they decompose and keep the weeds out. Hoeing and pulling weed out by their roots are also effective methods for controlling weeds in an organic garden.
Organic Coffee Shop
Where is the easiest place to buy healthy organic coffee? Is there such a thing as an organic coffee shop? Your local coffee roaster or corner coffee shop may well be an ideal organic coffee shop. However, because of the popularity of coffee in general it is unlikely that you will find a bricks and mortar organic coffee shop solely devoted to organic coffee. If you choose a coffee roaster as your organic coffee shop you will have access to organic whole bean coffee, roasted to your specifications and in the quantities you request. On the other hand if your corner coffee shop is your organic coffee shop, you can drop in any time during business hours and get a freshly roasted cup of organic coffee and leave the purchasing, storing, roasting, and brewing to them.
Certified Organic
When you get your coffee from an organic coffee shop you will typically get USDA organic coffee. This is coffee
”produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified, too.”
Look for organic coffee certification at your organic coffee shop and drink coffee that you can trust to be pure and grown under sustainable conditions.
Convenient and Good For You Too
When you find an organic coffee shop you can get your sustainably grown and processed coffee without fuss or bother. Organic coffee is free of the hundred or more impurities that researchers have found in regular coffee. And organic coffee antioxidants are just as good and just the same as antioxidants in regular coffee, giving protection against a wide range of disease including type II diabetes, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and endometrial cancer. Although there are foods with higher concentrations of antioxidants than coffee, the amount of coffee that people regularly drink makes coffee the greatest source of these protective chemicals in our lives. Think in terms of a fifty percent reduction in the risk of getting the most common type of diabetes. Think in terms of the caffeine and antioxidants from your organic coffee shop reducing the chances of several dreaded diseases. And think in terms of some of the best coffee in the world, readily available on a daily basis. For more information about healthy organic coffee, organic coffee certification, coffee house coffee, and wholesale green or roasted coffee beans contact us at Buy Organic Coffee.
Organic Food vs. Childhood Obesity
Eating organic is such a simple concept that it is deceiving. The idea is to eat fruits and vegetables that have been produced without the use of chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides, meat that is from animals that have not been given antibiotics and growth hormones, and food that does not contain chemical flavor enhancers or preservatives. It sounds simple enough, and it is simple – it just isn’t easy to accomplish.
We have an epidemic of childhood obesity in this country. The causes for this epidemic are many, but there are two main causes – lack of exercise, and eating the wrong food.
Food preferences are acquired. Little babies aren’t born into this world loving chocolate and hating broccoli. They don’t have an opinion, but they form opinions based upon their early experiences with food. If they are given chocolate, they will like chocolate. If they are given apples, they will like apples. So the first thing that we can do to stop this epidemic of childhood obesity is to help kids develop food preferences that are healthy and less fattening.
The second thing that we can do is to systematically begin eliminating the additives and preservatives in food that contribute to childhood obesity — and adult obesity as well. Flavor enhancers like MSG actually excite brain cells to the point that they self-destruct. The additive also increases the tendency for obesity. There’s no doubt about it.
There are other food additives that are just as bad. The best policy is to eliminate all prepackaged foods from a child’s diet. The weight loss will begin almost immediately when organic apples are substituted for potato chips.
The toxins that are in food that is produced by conventional means are also contributing to childhood obesity. Organic food can help to cure the childhood obesity epidemic!
Improve Coffee Taste
Tired of the same dull taste of the coffee that you usually buy? How can you improve coffee taste? There are a number of ways to improve coffee taste and gain other benefits of healthy organic coffee as well. Buying organic coffee is a good first step to improve coffee taste. Regular coffee can have as many as 133 unwanted impurities according to published research. Coffee grown under sustainable agricultural practices comes out better. It is free of the many insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, synthetic fertilizers, and other unwanted impurities found on regular coffee plantations. Want to improve coffee taste? Start with certified organic coffee.
Green Coffee Beans Last Longer
A major factor in the taste of coffee is freshness. The organic coffee antioxidants that lend special flavor to organic coffee deteriorate with time. Green coffee beans, after picking and drying and before roasting, are good in the bag for a couple of years. If you have a large supply of coffee you probably want to buy green coffee beans and only roast what you will be drinking in the coming weeks. Roasted coffee beans retain their freshness for up to six months but when you grind roasted coffee beans the clock starts to tick and flavor goes away by the day if not the hour. Improve coffee taste by storing green coffee beans for up to two years and roasted coffee beans for up to months. Avoid buying large amounts of ground coffee.
Which Roast Is Right for You?
Coffee is roasted at temperatures from 240 to 275 degree Celsius (464 to 527 degrees Fahrenheit). The process lasts from three to thirty minutes depending on how caramelized the roaster wants his final product to be. Although coffee beans contain antioxidants before roasting the roasting process produces more antioxidants.
Types of Coffee Roast by Temperature
Cinnamon Roast 195 °C (383 °F)
New England Roast 205 °C (401 °F)
American Roast 210 °C (410 °F)
City Roast 220 °C (428 °F)
Full City Roast 225 °C (437 °F)
Vienna Roast 230 °C (446 °F)
French Roast 240 °C (464 °F)
Italian Roast 245 °C (473 °F)
Spanish Roast 250 °C (482 °F)
Many seek to improve coffee taste with roasting. At lower temperatures the original flavor predominates and with higher temperatures and roasting times the roasting process produces a burnt taste that predominates.
What Do You Put in Your Coffee?
In an old John Travolta movie the actor is explaining life to a baby. He feels that it is important to note that when a New Yorker asks for coffee, regular, he wants regular strength coffee with both cream and sugar. Depending on where you are in the world the amount and types of additives and strength of coffee will vary. Espresso originated in Europe. After the Second World War European coffee houses learned to dilute express with an equal amount of water to make “Americano” to suit the tastes of American GI’s. When a Colombian in Manizales, in the heart of the Cafetero, asks for milk with his coffee he wants latte, equal parts hot milk and coffee with whichever is his favorite of the Colombian coffee organic brands. However, you choose to improve coffee taste we suggest that you start with the organic kind.
Organic Food Stores
All stores that sell organic food and organically produced products are not created equal. There are a couple of things that you need to know before your first shopping trip to a store that advertised organic food and other “green” products.
First, the term “organic” does not mean exactly what you would think that it means. A product that is labeled “organic” may not mean that it is totally organic. Learn to recognize these terms:
- “Certified Organic”: The “certified organic” label means that the product has been produced adhering to the organic standards mandated by the government of the United States.
- “Organic”: The label “organic” means that the product contains at least 95% organic materials. Foods that are imported from abroad, for example, may be labeled “organic” if they meet the organic standards of their country of origin. But that doesn’t mean that those standards are as stringent as the standards of the United States. There is a big variation between organic standards from country to country.
- “100% Organic”: This is a label that is sometimes put on single-ingredient products like apples or oranges. It simply means that the fruit or vegetable was grown without the use of chemicals.
- “Made with organic ingredients”: This term means that 70% of the ingredients are organic. The claim can appear on the front of package but must name the specific ingredients.
- “Contains organic ingredients”: This term means that the product contains less than 70% organic ingredients.
Labels can be deceiving. You have to understand the language and the labeling so that you know exactly what you are buying. There are fines and penalties for mislabeling products as organic when they are in fact not organic.
Find Organic Coffee
For the best tasting coffee with fewer impurities and a lighter environmental footprint many drink healthy organic coffee. If you are not familiar with coffee grown using sustainable agricultural practices where do you find organic coffee? What are the best tasting, least expensive, certified organic coffee brands? To find organic coffee look for it at your grocery store or supermarket for starters. Some stores stock organic coffee next to the regular stuff. You will want to make sure there is proof of organic coffee certification on the bag, however. Organic coffee is different from regular coffee in several ways. The soil in which organic coffee is grown must have been free from prohibited substances for at least three years verified as being so. And there must be clear boundaries between land where organic coffee is grown and land on which pesticides, herbicides, and prohibited chemical fertilizers are used. This is required to guarantee that sprayed substances don’t drift and contaminate organically maintained soil. Organic coffee requires a specific and verifiable plan for all procedures and practices from planting to harvest through final transport. When you find organic coffee you find a product that tastes great, is free from the many impurities that can be found in a cup of regular coffee and is good for the environment.
Find Organic Coffee Online
When you look to find organic coffee online you will see promotional material from coffee roasters, coffee farmers selling wholesale coffee as green coffee beans, and marketers seeking to profit from providing an easy way for you to find organic coffee brands not readily available in your community. As examples, Panama Mountain Grown Organic Coffee is commonly not available at your local market. However, you can obtain coffee from the Isthmus of Panama through this web site. Likewise, Colombian Organic Coffee Brands can be hard to find. It is impossible to mail retail bags of coffee out of Colombia and when you fly out of Colombia they will pin prick your coffee bags so that the really big German Sheppard in the Bogotá airport and the mechanical drug sniffer can check it. Look online to find organic coffee and bypass the hassle to dealing in a foreign language, unless you were born to a Spanish speaking family, and the need to travel to Latin America simply for the coffee.
Find Organic Coffee at Your Favorite Roaster
If you cannot find organic coffee at your coffee roaster ask them to obtain a bag to or two to keep in stock. Green coffee beans, as your roaster knows, last for a couple of years on the shelf so even if you are the only customer they will eventually sell out their supply. More commonly, when they choose to advertise the fact that they carry organic brands of coffee they will probably need to order more before you come back for a refill. The greatest advantage of buying your organic coffee from a local roaster is that you obtain your coffee at the peak of its roasted freshness, after the roasting process has created new organic coffee antioxidants, created the final flavor, and created the antioxidants to beneficial to your health.
Organic Food Online
In many parts of the country, finding organic food is a difficult task. Unfortunately, organic food is not readily available everywhere…yet. In most parts of the country, you can find organically produced foods locally. Farmer’s markets are a good place to start. You can find food that has been grown without the use of chemical fertilizers or toxic pesticides. You should expect to pay a little more for organic food than nonorganic food, but the small added cost is worth it in health benefits to you and your family as well as to Planet Earth.
If you are having difficulty finding organic food locally, go online and look for it. You will be surprised at the options that are available. You can even sign up to receive a basket of organic food on a regular basis at many online sites.
The organic food market is booming. It’s exploding! More and more people are demanding organically grown food, and when demand increases, you can bet that supply will increase as well. It isn’t hard to see why the organic food market is growing at warp speed. All you have to do is pick up today’s newspaper and you are likely to see yet another article about tainted food that has caused sickness or death somewhere in the country.
Here in America, we have always had great confidence that our food supply was safe, but with the huge number of imports now and the great number of problems with those imports, the public’s confidence in the safety of the food supply is weakening. That’s why more and more people are turning to organically produced food.
Food producers are filing the demand for organic food, and these producers are as close as your computer keyboard. You can have safe food shipped directly to your home.