Cappuccino for breakfast, strong natural espresso before and after dinner, or “Lungo” in the evening.

Life in Italy is closely connected to espresso and its numerous varieties. Due to its special preparation, espresso is stronger than Mocha (Turkish Coffee) or French Press coffee; hot water ranging from 86 to 90 degrees at high pressure passes through the filter of the pressed coffee and is released in a cup.

With proper grinding and pressure, a cup of espresso shouldn’t take more than thirty seconds to make. Espresso made in Italy usually comes in 30-60 ml servings, but it’s a matter of taste.

There are 7 grams of ground coffee in espresso.

One hard thing about preparation is the amount of grinding and coffee you should use. For this reason, coffee makers in Italy introduced coffee pods.

In order for espresso to be of excellent quality, it’s necessary to pick the correct coffee blend. The taste and aroma of coffee depends on the parity of the beans (different grades of Arabica or a mix of Arabica and Robusta coffee) and the roasting degree.

It’s with this that Italian roasters show their skills, but they keep the exact recipe of their coffees a closely guarded secret.

Today, I’ll be giving you a crash course on the coffea plant species from which coffee is harvested from. It may be referred to as a tree because of its height but it physically resembles a large shrub more than it does a tree.

The good news is that there are only three varieties of coffea plants grown on an industrial scale. (There are others but they’re hard to come by. If anyone is interested in learning more about them, please feel free to inquire.)
If you’re drinking coffee, you’re most likely consuming coffee made from the beans of either arabica, robusta, or the liberica coffea plant.They are differentiated by look, taste, and smell.
The beans from Coffea Arabica are long and slender. Their pigmentation is consistent. Coffee made from it has a smooth taste and is mildly acidic. Robusta beans are oval shaped and resemble cashew nuts. After roasting, these beans lose some of their
color. Robusta beans don’t make strong coffee but its taste is slightly bitter. Their aroma is weaker than Coffea Arabica beans but they have more caffeine and carbohydrates than arabica beans. Coffea Liberica beans make for low quality coffee.
They’re only used in low-grade blends, in combination with other types of coffe beans in African and Asian markets.

The amount of carbohydrates in coffee beans play an important role in the taste of coffee but equally important and even more variable is the soil composition of the area where coffee beans are cultivated.

In some areas of the world, the soil available may be very moist from constant rain, but the nutritional content of that soil is low. This is common in the Amazon Forest. Very moist soil doesn’t correlate strongly to a low level of nutrition in the soil especially if soil erosion isn’t occurring. The amount of sunlight an area where coffee beans are cultivated receives also affects the taste of coffee made from the beans.

Regional differences become apparent for someone who travels regularly. Indian coffee is somewhat bitter and has a strong aroma. Coffee from Costa Rica has a sharp taste and is acidic.These differences may be due to environmental factors for the coffea plant that is different from where the coffea plants naturally grown.

Coffee from subtropical African regions such as Africa where the coffea plant naturally grows isattractive to coffee connoisseurs in search of the perfect coffee. As a conniosseur myself, I recommend coffee blends cultivated in Eastern Africa.

Blends, if you’re not familiar, are combinations of different kinds of coffee beans. In the West, blends are usually combinations of arabica and robusta beans. Pure blends, meaning coffee beans sold with one kind of bean present are usually composed of arabica beans because of Arabica’s qualities or rather high quality.

Arabica and Robusta blends are the most common blends–arabica’s smell and robusta’s strength make for a good combination. Robusta and and Liberica beans are never sold as pure blends. Robusta is an acquired taste for some, and liberica is perceived as a low quality. Robusta and liberica are seen as filler for low-quality blends by some coffeemakers.
This concludes our crash course. By now, I hope you should have a working knowledge on the beans used to make coffee.
However, today’s lesson is only the beginning of what you will need to know to become a true coffee connoisseur. To become a true coffee connoisseur, you’ll need to know more about coffee bean blends. I’ll get to that another day.
I’d like to thank you for attending and have a plesent day. I’ll see you next time.

Specialists say that, much like with wines, you have to try as many different brands as possible to find your favorite coffee. Even brand name coffees can differ in quality, since the beans are grown in different plantations in each country. The taste and aroma of the beans depend on the climate as well as the condition of the soil. The only thing left is to look and choose.

People stumbled across the way to make drinks from coffee beans through a long process of trial and error. Now many people in the world wouldn’t be able to imagine their lives without coffee. Coffee was actually discovered by Europeans only in the Seventeenth Century, thanks to Venetian merchants.

How did Europeans keep awake in the morning before that?

There is an article is telling you something about espresso machine boilers that you, probably, didn’t know.

http://www.lattemaestro.com/Academy/Article2.php