GOOD FORTUNE blend [topic: beans]

Have you ever tasted good fortune? Well let's say I tried my luck! A few months ago I was given a gift brought straight from the far away New Zealand. I was impressed with this package as soon as I laid my eyes on it. It had such a fresh look of something rather classic - coffee, what else?!

I would like to give you some feedback on this blend of coffee which I have just ground and tasted. The beans smelled nice as soon as I opened the package. Once ground, the aroma was obviously more clear and it was very close to the Arabica aroma, but certainly richer - it's Peruvian, Colombian and Ethiopian beans after all.

nicely packed, contemporary blend

Once my coffee was ready it had a rich nutty flavour. It is the type of coffee which I normally suggest after a meal - truly to please yourself as a lucky person stuffed with good food and topped up with good coffee.

I have tried this blend as an espresso and a macchiato. Both were nice enough yet the macchiato was slightly better as it lightened the taste and blended nicely with the creamy taste. I must say, I am indeed fortunate to have tasted the good fortune (sixth sense) blend. Thank you!

Stay tuned! In the mean time, keep spreading the love for the BEAN!

Why use a coffee tamper? [topic: brewing]

One of the tools which is underestimated is the coffee tamper. Among various tools, the coffee tamper helps the coffee brewing process and gives a better quality to the final product. Coffee brewing is not just transferring the aroma and taste of coffee to the water content. Coffee is much more than that especially in the texture that is produced in an espresso.

there are various shapes and sizes, yet one function

The filter basket of a coffee machine is the channel through which water passes through. Being a traditional stove top macchinetta or a pump espresso machine, the filter basket needs to be not only filled with quality ground coffee but also well tampered in order to remove any extra air from coffee granules and force the water to pass through the coffee granules with no extra air pockets that will hold water rather than allow it to pass through.

shake, tamp, brew

First, it is best to firmly shake the group handle and then tamp the coffee lightly, shake the handle again and then tamp the coffee firmly. It is recommended to use a weighted tamper so as to avoid too little or too much pressure which is the problem with light plastic tampers which are often given for free. Please take note of the size of the filter before purchasing a tamper as filter sizes differ.

Try it out and stay tuned! In the mean time, keep spreading the love for the bean.

What to do with used coffee (2) [topic: general]

Let's all go green by using the BEAN! Hi all coffee lovers, today I would like to present to you an argument which is not only good for us but also for the good of humanity at large. Try to imagine how many kilograms of used coffee granules are used across the globe and most of it goes to waste. This is only a continuation of a topic I had already started to discuss in an earlier post for those who have even a small garden or planters in a yard. It would be great to watch plants grow healthy with a product you have produced yourself in-house: - check it out here: https://goo.gl/pqed47

The environment is close to our heart

Since the end of October 2018, Malta started an initiative of collecting all organic waste for electricity generation. It is definitely a great idea to produce such a clean form of energy which makes use of this otherwise useless resource. Turning all organic waste to biogas is an innovative way to electricity production and to get rid of waste instead of disposing of it in landfills. So, if you love coffee, don't let the bean go to waste. Reuse ground coffee as compost or fertiliser or else try and make sure it is thrown in the organic waste bag for a better use.

Stay tuned! In the mean time, keep spreading the love for the bean.