The year 2009 brings two thoughts to mind, going green and recession. Combining those two things Americans have become more resourceful in recycling everyday items to save money and reduce their carbon footprint.  Being that more than 330 million cups of coffee are consumed daily…take that number in for a moment, 330 million…CoffeeAM thought it was best we discover all the ways we can recycle coffee grounds!

Brewing beauty tips

Coffee grounds make an excellent body scrub because they are abrasive and because they contain caffeine, which increases circulation and facilitates the breakdown of fat under your skin.  You got it…cellulite! Try a recipes of 2 cups ground coffee, ½ cup brown sugar and 3 tablespoons olive oil.  Rub vigorously especially in fatty areas and leave on while you shower.  Rinse, pat dry and make sure to drink lots of water the rest of the day.

Brunettes, you’re in luck! Between shampoo and conditioner, add coffee grounds to your hair and rub in well to bring softness, shine and gorgeous natural brown highlights to your hair! Think how much money that will save you at the salon!

Don’t forget the pooch!  Rub coffee grounds into fur after shampoo, but before the final rinse to add shine and help repel fleas.

In the yard

Sprinkle coffee grounds throughout the yard to repel ants, slugs, snails and cutworms.  Mixed with hot water, coffee grounds poured on anthills should have them packing real quick!

Enrich your acidic loving indoor-outdoor plants and gardens by adding coffee grounds to the soil. Carrots and radishes will do especially well.  Mix coffee grounds and orange peels to naturally and organically keep pesky cats out of your garden. Add coffee grounds to compost, worm farms or bait.

Get crafty!

Coffee grounds make a great dye for paper, to give it that old-world look, to Easter eggs or use it for tie-dye! Simply rub petroleum jelly on areas you do not want dyed and soak the rest in a coffee ground bath.  Let dry and wash separate for the first 2 washings.

Touch up scratches on furniture with coffee grounds (remember it can/will dye fabric!) or use as an organic abrasive cleaner on stubborn stains on your kitchen pots.

Clean it up!

Flush coffee grounds down the drain to naturally yet abrasively clean your pipes.

Pour ½ cup grounds and 5 cups of very hot water into the sink to kill orders.

Place a bowl of your morning coffee grounds in the fridge or freezer to deodorize while you are at work all day.

Sprinkle wet grounds onto fireplace ashes to keep the ashes from creating dust when you try to remove them.

Dry grounds and fill old nylons with them to act as an odor absorber in the closets.

Hopefully our gourmet coffee company has given you some new ideas on ways to reuse your coffee grounds instead of just throwing them away. With a few changes here and there we can all save money and make the world a latte better!

Everything tastes better fresh.  Some canned or frozen foods don’t even resemble the real deal, and it is no different with your everyday  coffee.  Let me tell you what you didn’t know about fresh roasting, and why it matters!

Unroasted green coffee beans carry all of the components needed for coffee, but lack taste. Much like a kernel or a bean, aromas and flavors are only released after roasting. Roasting the raw beans dries up moisture, and the bean begins to expand and change in color. As the beans transform, they begin to change not only in color, but also in taste and they become physically lighter.  The roasting process brings forth the gift of oils from inside the protective shell.  Those precious oils are what carry the aroma, the characteristics and the flavor of that particular bean. CoffeeAM not only knows this, but respects this.

Obviously the longer a coffee can sit on a shelf, the better that would be for commercial sellers, but certainly not for you.  Mass market companies have tried everything to extend the shelf life and nothing works better then the CoffeeAM way of bringing it back to basics by simply shipping fresh.  Take for example that brick of coffee you find in the stores, the ones that look like they sucked all the air out of it to keep it fresh, well part of that statement is true at least, but the other part is pretty surprising!  When coffee beans are freshly roasted, they omit carbon dioxide.  If they had been immediately vacuumed packed into a bag, or placed into a can and sealed with a metal lid for “freshness,” like we are sort of lead to believe… they would have created a high pressure time bomb strong enough to have distorted the metal can and possibly even blown it up.  So how did they do it?  After roasting, they allowed the beans to sit and de-gas for several days before they were sealed!  Sure, maybe they were still reasonably fresh when they were sealed, but remember they haven’t even been shipped to the grocery or sat on the shelves yet!

At CoffeeAM, we are hoping that after several days post-roasting you are half way through the gourmet coffee bag we have already delivered our to you.  Now that is fresh!

How do we do it?  CoffeeAM takes the green, or raw, bean and roasts it to perfection. We do not fill our bags with gases to try to extend the freshness, we do not freeze dry, and we do not let them hang out for days and de-gas.  Immediately after cooling, the beans are placed into a foil-lined bag with a one-way pressure release valve. Because green beans are more stable than roasted beans, we really move quickly once the beans are roasted.  We know, and you should too, that peak freshness is 1 day after roasting…one day!

We can be straight-forward with you.  There is no other way to get coffee this fresh from a grocer that has their coffee brought in on a truck.  It could be days, weeks, even months past it’s roasting date by the time you take it home.  CoffeeAM would like you to experience coffee the way it is supposed to be.  Don’t sell yourself short…freshly roasted, shipped to you and in your cup …quick! Mmm, now that is good coffee!

You love coffee, but maybe you feel a bit overwhelmed with the whole espresso, latte, cappuccino lingo?  Come with me for a walk through Espresso elementary and learn everything there is to know to get you in and out of that coffee shop without feeling like your going to embarrassing yourself and learn how to make delicious espresso drinks at home! 

Espresso (pronounced eSpresso, never eXpresso) is a coffee, so the question isn’t “what” as much as it is “how.”  How is espresso made?  Well, expertly, I might say.  The quality of espresso severely depends on the way it is made.  Start out with a coffee that is medium to dark roasted and push near boiling water through about 7 grams of compressed very fine coffee grounds.  Using an espresso machine of course.  You pull the shot (meaning remove the espresso) in less than 30 seconds and then proceed to study the espresso you just made.  Yes… actually look into the coffee and take note, because this is going to tell you whether or not you actually want to drink it!  What you are looking at on top of the espresso is called crema.  Crema is the tell all of the quality of the cup.  Here is what you need to look for (even when it is made by an expert in a coffeehouse) to ensure an outstanding quality espresso. 

• Tiny speckles
• A golden red color
• An overwhelmingly fragrant aroma. 

Before we get into the nitty gritty of the different espresso beverages you will enjoy, lets clear up some misconceptions.  Espresso has the same caffeine as an 8oz cup of regular.  It is a more concentrated volume, so you have to drink less if you are looking for that quick pick-me-up.  Espresso beans and coffee beans come from the same plant.  Though some beans from certain regions or variants make better espresso, they all come from coffee plants.  Baristas and coffee houses each choose which beans they prefer for their espresso so you may like it at one coffee house, but not at another down the street.  Aside from saving money, this is another reason you should start making espresso at home! 

Espresso is enjoyed across the globe all by itself, but it’s popularity also has a lot to do with it’s usefulness as a base in countless other coffee beverages.  Espresso can be an acquired taste and a lot of what is offered on the menu at your local coffee is a variation of espresso to please those who are looking for more milk, sweetener, chocolate, spices, etc.  Let’s take a look at how espresso plays a part in the menu at your coffee house. 

Americano- is an espresso shot (remember that is about 1 1/4oz espresso) diluted with water.  Perfect if you are new to espresso.

 Cappuccino-  1/3 espresso, 1/3 milk, 1/3 milk foam.  Cappuccino cuts the acidity of espresso and adds creamy velvet like mouthfeel to it.

 Latte- Shots of espresso added to steamed milk.  Latte is cousin to the Café au Lait which is ½ espresso, ½ steamed milk. 

The list of options goes on and on.  If adding chocolate, you want to throw in the word Mocha, add the word Frappe and you just made your drink cold, latte and you’ve now added milk or a milk substitute.  It is easy as that!  Once you have cracked the lingo code, you are well on your way to ordering an espresso beverage at your local coffee house or making a signature espresso beverage right in your own kitchen.

 I sure hope this helps you understand the world of espresso better, and I can’t wait for you to start to making some of these great drinks at home.  Quick and easy, you’ll be amazed at how enjoyable it is to start you day with such an exciting beverage!

 Make sure to hit the comment button and share your favorite espresso recipes with the rest of us!

White chocolate mousse, double-dutch chocolate, and wild raspberry make for a delicious Baked Alaska. The juicy, sweet citrus taste of orange essence and nutty coconut flavoring are found in the exotic Orange coconut, and… An exotic blend of Hazelnut, Vanilla, Almond and Macadamia Nut give Rainforest crunch its charm.  What am I talking about?  CoffeeAM Flavored gourmet coffee of course!

The Arabs in Yemen, who would drop spices into their coffee as it was brewing to add flavor, were actually the first to flavor coffee.  Today, we make it much more simple by adding natural and natural identical flavorings to freshly roasted premium Arabica beans to create undeniably delicious gourmet flavored coffee.We take great measures to produce flavored coffee that represents our pride and passion of creating the perfect brew.

From silky pies that evoke memories of the aroma at Grandma’s house, to tantalizing dessert flavors that you can savor without all the calories, to festive delights that put you into the holiday mood.  Nuts, berries, candies, desserts and the essence of liquor, we have a gourmet flavored coffee flavor for everyone!

At the present time we have an enormous assortment of 118 prized flavors…which one is your favorite and why?  What delicious flavor would you like to see added to the list? We are listening!  Go ahead and leave a comment, we just may add your flavored coffee next!

You may not have given where your coffee came from much thought, but after you read this you will!  I don’t mean are you drinking a Colombian or a Kona origin coffee…I mean whose plantation did your coffee come from?  What is their life, and the life of their employees, their children and their community like?   Did you know that you could make a difference in each of their lives by the coffee you chose?  Well, You can!

CoffeeAM has several certifications and affiliations so that Your coffeeAM purchase can help make the world a better place… simple as that!  Everyone knows that you can buy organic coffee, and yes we sell that, but did you also know that we belong to The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Commission?  This center encourages the production of shade grown coffee and the conservation of migratory birds.  We are also Fair-Trade certified.  This empowers the farmers and workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their communities.  CoffeeAM is Rainforest alliance certified.  RFA invites farmers to meet rigorous social and environmental standards and they provide the farmers with incentives that make improvements on the farms and encourage sustainability.

Our newest addition is the Coffee Kids, Grounds for Hope program.  This incredible program allows us to improve the lives of coffee plantation farmers and their community.  Through generous donations, Coffee Kids partners with local organizations to create micro enterprises, healthcare and education programs for communities in poverty struck areas…where there are no such programs! 

These awesome programs are  just the tip of the iceberg.  You need to know… you should know… that where you purchase your coffee matters!  CoffeeAM.com  wants to partner with you in our efforts to make the world a better place. When you purchase from us, you give something back to a farming community that desperately needs your support, and we are incredibly proud of that.  Now, before you go to www.coffeeam.com and start shopping,  tell me your thoughts about this valuable information I just shared with you!

We all know that gourmet coffee from www.CoffeeAM.com is exceptional because of the freshness, but did you know that you could be saving money by drinking gourmet coffee?  Do the math…we did!  Remember that coffeeAM bags are one FULL pound, not like the 12oz bags you find in the grocery store.  Also, take into consideration the fact that we almost always offer a free 1/2lb at checkout.  Right out of the gate you are almost always getting 24oz of coffee instead of 12oz so you would think you’d be paying twice as much, right?  Guess again.  Buy a 5lb bag of your favorite gourmet coffee and save even more!  Luxurious coffee without the luxury price!

Let’s not forget that we are talking freshly roasted here, not some name brand that has been sitting on the shelf for possibly months after being roasted…months?  If you love coffee, that is simply not an option.  Would you drink a soda left open for days?  It is no different. 

You tell me…What is it that CoffeeAM does that keeps you coming back for more?  Hit the comment button, we want to know!

 

Welcome to our CoffeeAM coffee Blog!

There is an incredible amount of energy here at www.CoffeeAM.com this month.  We have walls coming down, both literally and figuratively, with fresh ideas and fresh coffee rolling in!  Lots of new and exciting changes happening here at the home office, on the web site and in lots of little areas that will make the whole CoffeeAM ship sail smoother. 

One place you will not see change is in the Roast Masters space.  It took many years and a large team of coffee experts to get our well-earned reputation…we don’t plan on changing a good thing!  We have a team working right now on bringing in new single origin coffees and discovering new blends.  Certainly, our iconic moment was earlier this spring when we developed our Cuvee collection. Have you tried it???  Our goal is to keep setting the bar higher and higher, bringing you new delicious and adventurous gourmet coffee.  Keep checking back for more new info!

 Thanks for visiting our blog!