Coffee Facts - Fair Trade Coffee

Fair Trade coffee is the first commodity to be set up with an independent monitor. This monitor makes sure the Fair Trade agreement is adhered to, supporting the small farmers growing coffee around the world. The Fair Trade agreement, whether it is for coffee, chocolate, or any other number of items, creates a fair partnership between consumers and the producers of item in question. You may have seen this label on other foods or hand made items at your local store. The Fair Trade movement is to ensure that small farmers and craftsmen get a fair price for their work… whether it is for a crafted item or for a harvest. In the case of Fair Trade coffee, it is the coffee farmers who get a boost from the agreement.
The Fair Trade coffee farmers are grouped into cooperatives around the world. The farmers receive a living wage (they are guaranteed a minimum of $1.26/pound no matter what the market is paying); credit at a fair price; and long lasting relationships with the buyers. Fair Trade payments are invested in education, health care, economic independence and environmental care. Fair Trade certified coffee is the first product to use this independent monitoring system. The system ensures that the coffee was produced under fair labor conditions for the workers. This is very important, as coffee production is very labor intensive work for all concerned.
Why is Fair Trade Certified Coffee so important? More and more people around the world are caring about how their products are produced. Is the product good for the earth? Are the workers treated well and paid sufficiently for their time? As more consumers learn of this trend, they are jumping on the bandwagon to purchase more Fair Trade products.
Over 100 companies have signed on to offer Fair Trade coffee. You may recognize some of their names: Starbucks, Peet’s, Equal Exchange, Tully’s, Green Mountain and Diedrich are but a few. These companies represent over 7,000 retail shops around the world.
The environment needs the support. Small farmers like the ones represented in the Fair Trade coffee farmers’ cooperatives take the best care of the land. Supporting Fair Trade means you are supporting the environment with your purchasing power. Fair Trade coffee farmers are too poor to clear cut the land or buy chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Their coffee is grown in small plots of mixed crops, and is grown organically.
Why can’t the farmers do this by themselves? You’d think with the popularity of gourmet coffee, they’d be doing just fine. The truth is the price of coffee beans is volatile. It rises and falls dramatically on a daily basis. The grower gets only a very small piece of the pie, while the consumer pays a high price at the stores. The grower then is kept in a cycle of poverty and debt, as the grower is often paid less than it costs him and his family to grow and harvest the coffee. Buying Fair Trade coffee will help farmers and their families all around the world to break out of this cycle and live a better life.

The Gourmet Coffee Beans

Because of higher retail prices we now have a wide range of various Types of Gourmet coffee Beans in our every day lives, it can be more and more difficult to discern what you’re buying at the market. And that’s not surprising given the sheer numbers game.
From what we know, there are more than 6,000 variations in the world, with at least 25 major types of gourmet coffee beans underneath that. When it comes down to it, though, the two most commercially important types of beans are Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica Types of Gourmet coffee Beans account for over 60% of gourmet coffee production worldwide. The Arabica plant is a large bush and is very susceptible to frost, disease, and pests. Because of this, its beans are more expensive. Arabica can be used in its pure form or used as the base for gourmet coffee blends with Robusta. Arabica has a delicate flavor and is used to add body to the gourmet coffee when used in blends.
The flavor of Arabica beans varies widely according to the region of the world where they are grown. Indonesian beans produce the richest, most full-bodied cup of gourmet coffee. Hailing from Java and Sumatra, the brew is a good dessert gourmet coffee and very suitable to flavoring with cream and sugar. Arabica beans grown in Central and South America offer moderate body and aroma. Most breakfast blends are made with American gourmet coffees, as are most flavored gourmet coffees.
By contrast, Robusta gourmet coffee accounts for almost 40% of world production. Robusta differs from Arabica in that it’s much easier to grow and is resistant to disease and weather and is therefore cheaper.
However, this does not necessarily mean that a gourmet coffee blend with Robusta is lower quality than pure Arabica - gourmet coffee blends are designed to bring out the best in different flavors. Robusta has a strong flavor and is used to give 'kick' to gourmet coffee. Robusta doesn’t vary in flavor as widely as Arabica does. It was first discovered growing naturally in the area now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Growers in Africa produce a gourmet coffee of medium aroma and body. If you like very flavorful gourmet coffees, you will like those from Kenya and Tanzania. Now that you understand the basics of Gourmet coffee Beans, the question turns to which Types of Gourmet coffee Beans are right for you. It really depends on with what you’re planning to serve the gourmet coffee. If you’re serving with breakfast or a dessert of fruit and sorbet, beans from East Africa (particularly Kenya and Ethiopia) or Mexico will best complement the food.
If you’re going to offer your guests light desserts like cakes, cookies, or pie, the beans of Guatemala and Colombia will warm up the food with their slight acidic tendency. With rich desserts like truffles, trifles, and tiramisu, Indonesian Gourmet coffee Beans are full-bodied and smooth enough to perfectly offset the dessert.
Another key point to consider is how much gourmet coffee you’ll need. These high quality beans shouldn’t be bought in bulk and should instead be purchased so that you have just enough for your immediate need. They should be stored in the refrigerator for no more than a week or in the freezer for up to a month. To discover what beans are best for your daily cup of Joe, conduct a taste test. Brew several types of beans separately. Pour each in its own cup. Pick up each cup individually, smell the gourmet coffee, and then slowly sip and taste the gourmet coffees. Later, take a sip or two when it's cooled, as many gourmet coffees change flavor as they cool.
One type of Arabica mean is a Kona bean, though some people mistakenly call it a third bean. Kona is extremely small commercially compared to Arabica and Robusta, but is extremely expensive and therefore important economically. Kona is really a Arabica bean grown in Hawaii.. Kona offers average bite and body but is in high demand worldwide because of its powerful aroma. These Gourmet coffee Beans are rarely blended with others because of their high desirability in and of themselves

Blue Mountain Jamaican Coffee

Blue Mountain coffee comes from the mountains of Jamaica. Blue Mountain coffee is known for its mildness and a distinct lack of bitterness. Over time, it has become the most expensive coffee in the world, and the most sought after. Besides making incredible brewed coffee, the Blue Mountain coffee bean is used as a base for the famous Tia Maria coffee liqueur.

The Blue Mountains of Jamaica are located between Kingston and Port Maria. Rising to an impressive height of 7,402 feet, the climate is cool and misty, and gets a lot of rainfall. The soil is rich and drains well… an ideal situation in which to grow coffee. Coffee beans were first brought to Jamaica in 1728 by the Governor, Sir Nicholas Lawes.

Once the beans are harvested, they are pulped and washed. The beans are then dried and cured for at least twenty weeks. Next, the beans go through a sorting process. Only a very few countries besides Jamaica allow the coffee beans to age at least six weeks. Aging improves consistency among the beans. Before exporting, the coffee is checked for appearance, and some is taste tested to insure quality.

As with other varieties of coffee around the world, there are several different grades of Blue Mountain coffee. For Grade 1, which is the best quality, 96% of the beans must fit a 17/20 screen size. No more than 2% of the coffee beans can have significant defects.

For Grade 2, 96% of the beans must fit a 16/17 screen size. No more than 2% of the beans may have any significant defects. There is also a Grade 3, a Blue Mountain peaberry, and a Blue Mountain Triage, which is a combination of the top three grades.

There is quite a lot of interesting trivia about Blue Mountain coffee. Many commercial coffee blends add a bit of Blue Mountain coffee to enrich the quality of their blend. Due to the strength of the Blue Mountain coffee beans, more cups of coffee can be made for the money. And even James Bond loves Blue Mountain coffee. The author of the James Bond series, Ian Fleming, lived in Jamaica for a part of every year. In his book, “Live and Let Die,” he has James Bond sitting to breakfast declaring, “Blue Mountain coffee, the most delicious in the world…”

In 1988, Jamaica lost a great deal of its coffee industry, due to damage from Hurricane Gilbert. It is just recently that production has been restored to previous levels for this unique coffee.

Out of all the coffee lovers in the world, Japan
is the largest importer of Blue Mountain coffee. They invest a lot into the coffee industry, and they import approximately 80% of the Blue Mountain coffee crop every year. The rest of the world wrangles over the remainder. And is it worth the fight? Anyone who has tasted it would say yes. Blue Mountain coffee is sweet, smooth and mellow… all in all, an excellent cup of coffee.