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Fact:  Coffee is consumed more than any beverage, anywhere in the world.

What made coffee the coveted drink that it is today? And where, or rather what ancient land, first figured out that coffee was such a great thing?  Who were the original coffee geeks? Who made the first great cup of coffee? When and where did the first coffee shop open its doors?

Let me rain on your parade immediately: No one knows the a lot of the facts, exactly but we have a pretty good idea. However, that original fact holds true:  Coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world.

The First Coffee Geeks: Humble Beginnings

Coffee popped in traces and some evidence in Abyssinia and the Red Sea area around 700 A.D. Some African people were also using the coffee berry (bean) pulp very early in history for native rituals and constitution.  (That’s health if you have never played Dungeons and Dragons.)

Then something great happened for coffee.  People of the Arabian peninsula started cultivate it around 1100 A.D.  Boom!  Coffee’s popularity explosion takes root! How did it get there in the first place?  Ships probably…who the hell really knows.  Why does it matter?  It got there, didn’t it?

Arabs began to brew a drink that they called “gawha”–again, it doesn’t matter–which was used to fight drowsiness by roasting and boiling the bean. The first caffeine rush! It became the Arabian signature drink of the native peoples.  It’s a great thing we’re experiencing here.

Around 1200 A.D. someone figured out you could make a delicious drink out of the beans.  Instead of being used for rituals and medicine it started to become a leisure beverage. And coffee’s popularity grew and grew and grew.

Arabs started to travel with the drink and it caught on almost everywhere it went. It eventually ended up in India, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and around 1400 A.D. Yemen began to heavily cultivate it. However, the Arabs didn’t want another people to cultivate the bean because they saw the lucrative possibilities in this new drink. But, c’mon, you can’t keep a bean hostage forever.

Eventually, the beans were smuggled out by some keen ploy.  Yuck…wonder where they hid them?

Ancient Coffee Shops Sprout Up

Constantinople, 1475 A.D.-The first coffee shop, which we know was called “Kiv Han”.  Then in 1554 A.D. two more pop up in Turkey. It worked out well.  People started to gather in these places to chill out with each other, listen to music, play games and drink the coffee!

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It seems so basic doesn’t it?  You’ve been making coffee for how many years?  It’s almost automatic.  It is for me anyway.  When you walk into your favorite coffee shop do you ever wonder if they have  a secret brewing method? Maybe you’re on of the very, very few who has never made coffee before and you’re looking for a “How to” on the basics.

Well, here is that very basic coffee brewing article to get you started.  Soon…you’ll be a coffee geek just like us!  If you have questions afterward, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments section.  Happy brewing!

Grind

For most purposes (ie. NOT espresso), a cylindrical chopping style electric grinder is ideal for home or office use. Inexpensive at under $25, it will accomodate a wide range of grinds. Grinding your beans to the optimum level is important to the quality of the cup, for the wrong contact level between the ground coffee and the brewing resultant will produce either a bitter or weak cup of coffee. Brewing time will also affect this element of a good cup of coffee. A good guide for Grinds, Brewing Time, and Grinding Time each as functions of Brewing Methods is as follows:

Water

Use fresh water for brewing that is taste-free and odor-free; if necessary use a carbon filter to produce quality water for brewing. In some areas tap water may be excessively hard, in which case bottled water may be required. Since water constitutes most of the brewed cup of coffee, it is important to use fresh, oxygen-rich water that has been heated to between 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit to extrude the maximum flavor from ground coffee beans.

Proportions

The proper equation for better brewing using standard Drip brewers = two heaping tablespoons of ground coffee + six ounces hot water (195-205 degrees F) + brew time of 4-6 minutes. From this starting point a cup of coffee which is too “strong” may be diluted with hot water. It is important to start with enough ground coffee so that it is not “overextruded,” in which case the result will taste extremely bitter. This can also happen if the coffee is brewed too long or “cooked” on a warming plate for too long after brewing.

Holding Time

For peak flavor drip coffee brewed with a filter should be held at 185 -190 degrees Fahrenheit. At this rate it may be kept on a warming plate or burner for approximately 20 minutes, with transfer to a thermos doubling or tripling the life of the coffee’s peak flavor. After this point chemical reactions in the coffee will cause a dramatic decline in its flavor, and notably an increase in bitterness.

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My Coffee Tastes Have Evolved

I think I can remember drinking coffee with milk when I was real young.  It’s the only way I knew how to do it.  As a Coffee Geek in training I was still impressionable.  I would take any old sludge and relish it.  Hey, I was young and allowed to have coffee so I just took it.

Now, I enjoy a vanilla latte every once in a while.  I’ll even partake in a really sweet tiny cappuccino every now and then after dinner at a restaurant.  The point I’m trying to make is that coffee for us is a bunch of different brews, concoctions, and mixtures.  What is one coffee geek’s grounds of paradise is another geek’s sludge.

Coffee For Us Is The Bee’s Knees

What kind of coffee do you like?  There’s a bunch of stuff that goes into that question.  I like it really sweet, large and creamy-but never extra cream.  That’s the reason I had to leave that house I woke up in this morning and get the heck to a Dunkin’ Donuts.  It didn’t necessarily have to be a Dunkin, but it is my coffee on the go choice.

Walk down the aisle of the coffee section in your supermarket and you’ll find all types of coffee, right?  Yet, just like smokers are loyal to a specific brand most of their smoking lives (which is significantly, reduced) most people will stay loyal to a coffee brand and type as well.

Speaking of which…how about cigarettes and coffee?  Anyone?

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How much do I love it?

I love coffee so much that I buy decaf and regular each time I shop.

I know that at night I’m gonna’ want a cup and but not wanna’ stay up all night.  The more I drink, the more I want.  My uncle can drink a pot at night and sleep like a baby.  I can’t do it.  I get amped still.  Maybe one day when I’m an older coffee geek I’ll be able to do the same.

I Love Coffee So Much I’ve Turned My Parrot Into A Coffee Geek!

When I come home with my Dunkin Donuts extra large, cream and sugar my quaker parrot goes crazy.  I let him have some by licking at the little opening in the lid.    Caffeine isn’t the best thing for bird…they’re jittery enough as it is.  I once walked out of the kitchen and found him standing on the rim of a coffee mug with his face buried in it and going crazy!

I Love Coffee So Much That I’m A Cry Baby About it.

I prefer Dunkin Donuts over a lot of the other chains.  I do love a grande vanilla latte from Starbucks, though.  So, when I go someplace and they can’t get it right…well, I get upset.  I don’t get pissed and start throwing stuff around but I definitely “react”.  I take off the lid and taste, if it’s right I say “ooh, yeah baby.  that’s the ticket.”   When it doesn’t have enough cream…or just the right amount of sugar, or (the worst)…when it isn’t hot it ruins my morning and day.

I Love Coffee So Much That I Started A Blog And An Online Coffee Shop!

I always said that I’d own a coffee shop one day and call it “A Kick In the Beans” but I never though that it would be an online coffee shop.  I never knew that my obsession with coffee that started all those years ago with my grandparents would ever turn into a blog.

How much do you love coffee?  Let us know!

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What Does Coffee Do For Us?

I mean, our mind, dig dude?  How coffee affects us psychologically, man?  Coffee for us is a part of life.  Let’s talk about it and I’ll put on a pot.

• Caffeine

Caffeine is the active-ingredient of course.  The drug.  The goods.  It makes us alert, perky and bearable for a day.  Or, at least a few hours.  It keeps the metabolism popping and the blood pumping.  Even in the face of such a primal need for sleep, caffeine laughs in the face of fatigue.  HA HA HA!

• The Aroma of Coffee

Walk into any coffee shop or house that has fresh coffee brewing and your mind awakens, your eyes start to dart, and you start breathing heavier.  The rich, heavy smell of coffee can effects similar to that of caffeine actually being in the body.  Do you know why?  Processing centers in the brain for smell and taste are almost on top of each other.  That’s why sometimes when you smell something you can “almost taste it”.  When that happens the chemicals in the body start kicking (wicked technical lingo should follow but I’m not that kind of blogger…just take wicked technical’ stuff and roll with it).

• The Feel of Coffee

It takes a lot for me to have an ice coffee and lots of other heavy coffee geeks are the same way. It doesn’t matter is 2 degrees or 92 degress, I prefer my coffee hot.  It isn’t just about delivering the caffeine for us.  It’s about snuggling up with some coffee.  To feel the hot steam with the heavy scent hitting our nose.  We hold it so close that the steam collects on our nose and upper lip.  The feel of coffee is just as important as anything.

That’s What is So Good About Coffee, My Friends

So the next time you see someone scrunch up their face at the smell of coffee or the fact that your drinking it, show your true coffee geek nature and them a quick lesson.  Show them that passion.

By the way, next time it’s your turn to me the coffee for us…just saying.

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I’m not that old, so this isn’t going to be a post about the old 1932 diesel powered percolator or how I had to crank a handle until all the coffee beans were fine enough to be brewed.  Rather, this is a post…an entire site actually, dedicated to the way coffee has made me feel my entire life since those early days.  Has it developed into a caffeine addiction?  I guess it probably has.  It goes deeper than that I think, though.

Coffee, to me, has turned into a security blanket.  Okay, yes, I need coffee first thing in the morning to get going.  Yet, I don’t drink it impatiently waiting for that chemical reaction to take place and the caffeine to kick me into gear.  I can still sip my coffee.  I feel more comfortable with a coffee cup in my hand then without one.  As a military trainer, I feel more comfortable walking around the classroom with a styrofoam coffee cup in my hand with the rich scent wafting around me.

So, I started a blog about it.  I invite you to stay for a bit, pour yourself a cup and read some articles.  There will be a lot here in a few weeks so don’t forget to follow us by RSS feed to stay tuned in.  Until then, I hope you’ll try to be a coffee geek here with me and that it gives you the same nice  feelings and memories of the past it does me.  I’ll be back in a bit, I’m gonna’ go make some coffee for us.

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