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HIGHLIGHTING COFFEE & COMMUNITY,
LOCALLY & ABROAD

Salt in Coffee; Creative or Nonsense?

16/3/2021

1 Comment

 
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So, at the meeting place, we have this drink: "A Salted Caramello".
It's an "espresso" beverage with espresso (optional) chocolate, caramel syrup, and a pinch of salt.
Although, this is a popular beverage, some people are still curious / concerned about putting salt in their coffee.


So, let's learn more about why adding salt to your coffee can actually be a creative and healthy way to alter the taste and experience of your coffee.


1. The first thing that happens when you put salt in your coffee is, it neutralizes the bitterness by blocking the taste buds responsible for tasting it.
2. This will also add thickness to the beverage, by making the water denser.

3. Adding just a pinch of salt will also help enhance the flavor of the espresso.
4. Adding s
alt also helps replenish some of the sodium that your body loses from drinking caffeine.
5. Salt in a coffee with milk helps break down some of the fats, and enzymes in the milk; for a more enjoyable after-taste / drinking experience.

Along with improving the flavours, salt can have many health benefits to you favorite coffee beverage, but, we recommend experimenting for yourself, as this process is not for all taste-buds.
So, if you're ever curious about adding salt to you coffee, come by the meeting place, and try our salted caramello (with espresso) to see if this is something for you!
We hope to see you soon!

Blessings,
​TMPC

1 Comment

4 things you (probably) didn't know about caffeine...

2/2/2021

2 Comments

 
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So, you're probably wondering what more you need to know about caffeine; it wakes you up and keeps you alert, right? What else do I need to know?
Well, let me just give you some fun facts that I think you'll find pretty interesting...


1. there is no ideal time to drink coffee
Some people say that the ideal time to drink coffee is between 9am and 10am because that's when you get the maximum impact of caffeine in terms of the functional benefits. But, there’s also other research out there showing that the impact of caffeine varies based on when you regularly consume caffeine. However, ultimately, everybody is different, so there’s no one perfect time of day to drink coffee that will be ideal for everyone.

2. decaf contains caffeine
it’s very hard to remove all of the caffeine from coffee, even with very selective and specific extraction processes.
That said, most decaf coffees contain about between about 1% and 10% of the residual caffeine, inside the coffee, depending on the method.
That’s still a lot less caffeine that’s available in coffee beforehand, and actually it’s about the same amount as in as in a hot chocolate. So clearly, it’s unlikely to affect you as much as a regular caffeinated coffee or tea.

3. filter coffee has more caffeine 
While espresso has a higher concentration of coffee, per serving, filter coffee (eg French press, drip filter, etc) typically has more caffeine per cup.
The main reason is because you typically drink more filter coffee per cup than a standard espresso
a double shot of espresso averages about 80 mg of caffeine v.s. around 125 milligrams in a 240ml (8oz) filter coffee.

4. dark roast does not have more caffeine
People often say because dark roasted coffee tastes stronger, it has more caffeine.
I’ve also heard the opposite: that because it’s been roasted darker, some of the caffeine has been ‘roasted off’.
The first statement is false.. Dark roasted coffee does taste stronger; it has been roasted longer.
So, it is stronger, but not in caffeine.

So, now that you know more about caffeine, and know what you're drinking, we'll be waiting to make you that amazing cup of coffee.

Blessings,
TMPC
2 Comments

Let's Talk Coffee Roasting!

16/10/2020

3 Comments

 
Dear readers, this week we would like talk a little bit about coffee roasting! As some of you know, the coffee cherry is picked and then roasted before it actually makes it to the bags of coffee that you purchase from the shops. Coffee beans can be roasted in different ways such as light, medium, and dark, and the flavour of your coffee largely depends on the roasting process. “it is for the home brewer, perhaps the most important stage of the entire chain of events that takes us from farm to cup” “roasting the coffee beans.. this keenly observed and succinct process that gracefully traverses the line between science and art..” As you may be thinking, this is a very complex process that requires skill and diligence. After the coffee is picked from the farm, the roasters will buy it. Many roasters, but not all, will take into consideration the sustainability and ethics of the farm. Roasting coffee requires much skill and can very easily be messed up, this is why the roaster needs to be someone who possesses a great deal of skill. “..a bad roaster or an average roaster… can very easily corrupt even the finest specialty beans” The method of roasting a bean can change and manipulate the flavor dramatically which is why roasters will go through years of roasting and experimenting and trying different methods and styles until they come up with something that they like! “…the growing realization that coffee is enormously complex has only really cemented a feeling of acceptance as to how powerless we are to truly affect and select its attributes on a molecular scale.”  Coffee roasting can take anywhere from 7-20 minutes generally speaking, and the main idea is to generate a flavor through applying heat to the beans. The water contained in the beans will slowly start to evaporate, this is the drying process. Then the beans will become so dry that they go through a stage called first crack. Think of a snail that has become too large for its shell that it pops off! The coffee can actually be consumed at this point but depending on the roast style, the process can be continued and roasted more. The longer you leave the coffee in the roaster, the more nutty, charred, and smokey the flavor becomes. The darker roasts are often used for espresso. There is so much more to this process, but hopefully this was a helpful intro into the coffee roasting process. We hope that you feel inspired to do more research and to learn a little bit more about all that goes in to the process of having a delicious cup of coffee! 
Have a blessed weekend!
TMPC


​information sourced from The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee by Tristan Stephenson. Published in 2019 by Cindy Richards.
Picture
image from: https://www.sabores.co.za/2019/08/13/different-coffee-roast-types/  
3 Comments

Coffee bean grinding for all the beginners

13/6/2018

0 Comments

 
As a 'barista in training' when it comes to making coffee there is a lot of new words, smells, flavours, ideas and concepts that I suddenly need to understand."The slowest part of coffee extraction is not the rate at which compounds dissolve from the particulate surface. Rather, it’s the speed at which coffee flavor moves through the solid particle to the water-coffee interface, and this speed is increased with temperature." 
Uhm what..? I'm always looking for inspiration and information as to how I can make good coffee without fully understanding the whole science behind it. And today I was stumbling over this little chart that just makes the coffee aspect of my life a little bit easier. Not only because we need to understand the difference between coarse and fine coffee grinds for different brewing methods, but because it compares the size of the grinds with something that we actually understand - like salt. So here it is. Hopefully making your coffee tasting better at home!
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(Chart found on en.ilovecoffee.jp)
0 Comments

Science-y but Simple: What's in your coffee?

10/5/2018

 

Each month we scour the web for interesting coffee finds to share with you. This month, we came across this simple but interesting infographic about what's going on in your cup of coffee! Topics of address include the health benefits of drinking coffee, chemicals to be aware of, and why caffeine might be better for you, to name a few.
What we like about this infographic is that there is a little more of a scientific focus and minimalist organization of information. Take a look!

What is in your coffee? Health benefits of coffee. Chemicals to be aware of in your coffee...
The link to the picture itself can be found here: thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/whats-in-your-coffee_5171880e92f67.png and the website that held the original link can be found here: paul-murray.org/infografical/infographical-digest-26-april-2013/

A Collection of Coffee Blogs

26/4/2018

1 Comment

 

I'm relatively new to the culture of coffee. I've loved it for a long time - I even pretended to love it before I actually did, because it made me feel mature and better equipped to produce something brilliant - but I had no idea how much there was to KNOW about coffee. For most of my life I was thoroughly content to toss some cheap-bought grounds into a filtered-coffee machine and drink down whatever came out. I had no idea there could be so many complexities.

I joined on with The Meeting Place Cafe just a few months ago, and as I began my (intensive) barista training, I realized that coffee is actually a multi-faceted, thickly layered, science-laden PROCESS. From growth to roast to brew, there are a myriad of things you can or can't, should or shouldn't, do... A thousand variations to be found, a hundred mistakes to be unknowingly made!

But in my endeavor to understand more about coffee, the sprawling World Wide Web has come through for me. (Doesn't it always?)
This is an entirely opinion-based blog post - without a really regimented or specific list of criteria, I'm simply sharing the sites that did the best at both capturing my attention and educating me a bit more on the ins and outs of this very particular culture. I hope you're able to find the following collection of blogs and blog posts interesting, helpful, educational, or some combination of the three. Or some other positive, unlisted adjective.

So here's a glimpse of my maiden voyage to greater coffee education, via the wild internet. Happy exploring!

List of educational and beautiful coffee blogs
The Blog List:
  1. Five Senses Coffee (www.fivesenses.com.au/blog/)
  2. Sprudge (www.sprudge.com/)
  3. The Coffee Compass (www.thecoffeecompass.com/)
  4. The Way to Coffee (www.thewaytocoffee.com/)
  5. The Coffeetographer (thecoffeetographer.com/)​

1 Comment

An Insightful Infographic: How Your Coffee's Hometown Effects Its Flavor

10/4/2018

0 Comments

 

This week, as we were tilling the web to discover what we wanted to share on the blog this week, we found this clean + simple, informative + helpful infographic depicting how each coffee-growing country's coffee beans differ in taste.

Coffee is, through and through, a science. But the science doesn't just pick up when you're trying to steam your milk at the perfect temperature for the perfect amount of time, when you're trying to factor in how the weather and the present season will flavor your shot... The science of good coffee starts with the homebase of the trees producing the coffee cherries that eventually become your coffee beans!

Climate, altitude, and soil are just a few of the factors that impact the growth of coffee cherries, all of which change with each unique country that has a hand in contributing to the world's production of coffee.

Here, we wanted to share with you an overview of an assortment of coffee-producing countries and what flavors can be tasted in their coffee. Take a look!

An infographic of single origin coffees, featured on The Meeting Place Cafe's blog
We found this infographic on www.coffeemuseum.com/blog/2016/10/05/coffee-origins-bean-belt-explained/ and originally came from the website https://www.adamsandrussell.co.uk/wholesale/
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The Health Benefits of Coffee: A Visual Representation

14/3/2018

65 Comments

 
Apparently, coffee's not just good for the soul - that creamy cup of caffeine actually has a couple of health benefits in tow, too!
​
We aren't nutritionists, but we did a little bit of research concerning the benefits of a cup of coffee (we've got the citations listed below) and put together a visual representation of some of the things we discovered:
A visual representation of the health benefits from drinking a cup of coffee
There are several proven and theorized benefits of drinking a cup of coffee, but a few that we found most relevant and dependable include:
  • Coffee can help stimulate mental activity
  • Coffee can benefit workouts, because it helps release fatty acids and increases adrenaline levels
  • Coffee has antioxidants in it, which protect your cells from the negative effects of free radicals
  • Coffee has been linked to protection against, or prevention of, a handful of diseases which include: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, dementia, and type II diabetes
You can read more by referencing some of our sources, which are listed below.

Of course, it's important to note that there can be negative side effects to too many cups of caffeine; we recommend enjoying coffee within the bounds of what's best for your body. But it's encouraging to know there are some positive side effects to that magic cuppa joe, don't ya think?!



Citations:
  • 13 Health Benefits of Coffee, Based on Science. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-13-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coffee#section2
  • Nordqvist, J. (2017, December 14). Coffee: Benefits, nutrition, and risks. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270202.php
  • 5 Reasons to Drink Coffee Before Your Workout. (2014, June 19). Retrieved March 13, 2018, from http://www.health.com/nutrition/5-reasons-to-drink-coffee-before-your-workout
  • ​Health.com. (2018). 6 Healthy Reasons to Keep Loving Coffee. [online] Available at: http://www.health.com/food/6-healthy-reasons-to-keep-loving-coffee [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].
65 Comments

A Fantastic Infographic: The Process of Coffee

7/3/2018

3 Comments

 
Part of what we will be sharing on our blog includes coffee brilliance found elsewhere - whether it's technical roasting knowledge, or poetic insights on caffeine. These will be sourced primarily from the sites of other coffee enthusiasts and experts, to share the wealth of knowledge (and beautiful infographics!) available out there.

Below is an incredibly well done scrolling infographic, explaining the process of coffee from bean to cup. Found on thebeanstalker.com, the infographic was originally produced and found on bizbrain.org. Take a look!
​Brought to you by:BizBrain.org | Open in a New Window
3 Comments

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