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Why Cooking Food Outdoors is Great
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 20 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Coffee, Food And Beverage, SpotaJava Coffee, Coffee Tips, Gourmet Coffee Snob Sez
Food simply tastes better outdoors. And if you’re camping, appetites are bigger and everything feels so much fresher. Chances are that you’re cooking food that you’ve carried with you - but you’ve probably also added any herbs or berries that you found by the wayside on your travels.
Cooking food isn’t the easiest or most appealing part of camping. We’ve all experienced trying to light the stove in the rain, running out of water just when you need to thin the soup or discovering that you’re missing a vital ingredient - like salt.
As a teenager, I went hiking with a friend in the Lake District. Because we had to carry everything on our backs, we decided that we would only carry lightweight food - and our solution was to pack lots of packets of dried soup. By day three, not only were we sick of soup, we were experiencing some weird side effects from all the e-numbers in the mixtures. I can remember my ears were burning hot all the time, so much so that they glowed red. But we didn’t have any other food to cook.
The key to cooking food on a camping holiday is planning.
Carry a good lighter, a good stove such as a Trankia and some lightweight cooking pots and pans, and cooking food in the great outdoors doesn’t look so daunting. Remembering to bring the right cooking equipment and utensils is one thing. You'll be cooking food though. And carrying all that food can be the problem.
While I still carry packets of dried food - because they are so light to carry and take up such little space - I steer clear of anything that contains a lot of e-numbers. There's plenty of room left for fresh food. Cooking food in the great outdoors is most fun if you use fresh food. And the best fresh food is the berries that you pick while you walk, or the fish that you catch in the river or lake that you pass.
Yes, it sounds a bit too good to be true. But the kind of routes I plan are guaranteed to take me past a supermarket or two. There, the berries are easier to find and the fish easier to catch. The principle is still the same: it helps to make cooking food one of the best parts of your camping holiday.
Gift Baskets For Any Occasion
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 20 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Coffee, Food And Beverage, SpotaJava Coffee, Coffee Tips, Gourmet Coffee Snob Sez
Wine is essential to have around for any celebration or a special moment in life. Parties and celebrations are thought of as being incomplete unless there is wine present, which makes it an ideal gift for virtually any occasion. Wine and cheese gift baskets is a great gift, they are very affordable, and perfect for nearly any occasion - such as birthdays, weddings, festivals, parties, or anniversaries.
In terms of price and taste - wine gift baskets are popular and very trendy gifts. Along with the bottles of wine, wine gift baskets also contain various accessories as well, such as wine glasses and corkscrews. With most wine baskets, fruit and chocolate is included as well. You can also find cheese in some baskets, which most consider to go perfect with fine wine.
Depending on the occasion, there are suitable kosher gift baskets to choose from. When you select a basket, there are several factors that you’ll need to consider in order to make the basket a truly special gift. If you are giving a basket as a wedding present, then you’ll obviously want to choose a different basket than one you would give to a friend at a party. There are wine baskets out there that are cheap in price - to those that are more expensive and more suitable for a wedding gift.
If you are buying a wine gift basket for a beginning enthusiast, you may want to include a book on wine that will help them learn more about wine in general. If you are giving the basket to a wine enthusiast with a lot of experience, you may want to include a stopper. No matter who you are giving the basket to, a wine gift basket with an assortment of fine wine is a great gift that can bring joy to anyone.
For wine lovers, you can find gift baskets that include fruity red wine, tangy white wine, full bodied wine, dry wine, sparkling wine, and even sweet wine. Red wine is ideal for main course meals such as meats, while white wine is ideal for seafood and white meat. Sparkling wine on the other hand, is ideal for special occasions. If you are giving the gift basket as a wedding present, sparkling wine is a choice that you can’t go wrong with.One of the most popular is sparking wine which makes it perfect for anniversaries and weddings.
If you have a bit of difficulty choosing a wine gift basket, you can’t go wrong with mixed baskets that offer a mixture of wines. You can find these types of baskets in local stores or on the Internet. They are affordable, starting around $20.00 and going up from there.Fine wine baskets are normally more expensive.
Tips on Buying a Home Bread Making Machine
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 18 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Coffee, Food And Beverage, SpotaJava Coffee, Coffee Tips, Gourmet Coffee Snob Sez
One of the most comforting memories of childhood has to be the smell of homemade bread baking in the oven. What better way to begin the day than with the delicious taste of hot freshly baked bread with butter melting on top. However, in our fast paced world of today, the art of home bread baking appears have been lost in favor of mass produced sliced bread which is not very healthy for anybody.
If you are into baking, or maybe want to start baking more often, you may want to learn how to make home made bread, so that you can prepare this baked goodness for your family in a variety of ways. These days, there is no need to do the whole dough making and kneading process manually because there are a number of automatic bread makers available which, are not only easier to use, but also do most of the work for you. What used to be a time-consuming, messy procedure is now a snap. Simply measure out the ingredients, press a few buttons and a few hours later, you will experience the unforgettable smell and taste of home-baked bread.
The Breadman bread maker is a popular machine that can be found in many cookware and electrical stores. You can create breakfast bread, with your own unique mix of dried fruit or nuts, or your own version of garlic bread, an Italian delicacy that will go well with any pasta dish you prepare. You can also program the machine to mix cake batter. The Breadman comes with upwards of three hundred different program combinations which means you will never be lost for recipe ideas to select from. This is especially beneficial for those people who have to stick to a gluten free or low carb diet. The Breadman convection bread machine can also make pasta, bagel or pizza doughs as well as health aware dessert alternatives such as sweet bread.
The Panasonic SD YD250 automatic bread maker is another good option if you are just learning the ropes of home bread baking. You have the choice of three different sizes of loaf when you are preparing the ingredients for the dough. The machine will then mix the ingredients, knead the dough and let it rise for a predetermined period of time. Finally, it will bake the bread up to two and a half pounds at a time. The Panasonic comes complete with an instruction booklet that is full of recipes, baking tips and suggestions, allowing you to try all manner of fun bread baking ideas.
Zojirushi is another best-selling brand of bread making machine that comes highly recommended. The machines are more like a self-contained home bakery instead of just a bread maker. Because of that, you can try your hand at all manner of imaginative and unique recipes right in your own kitchen. You will also get tips on how to package and store your bread, so you can bake in bulk for the week.
Which ever bread maker you decide to buy, you should acquaint yourself with the operation of the machine before purchasing the ingredients to bake your first loaf. Become familiar with the features of the machine, and try a couple of of the recommended recipes so that you can experience the machine at its best.
It’s Sometimes Hard to Swallow Healthy Eating Advice
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 18 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Coffee, Food And Beverage, SpotaJava Coffee, Coffee Tips, Gourmet Coffee Snob Sez
The healthy eating advice we hear all the time is ‘eat a balanced diet’. Simple as that. Or is it?
I’ve been thinking about my diet a lot recently. I’m training for a marathon. And if you start looking for healthy eating advice, you'll find it - in an amazing variety of shapes and forms. And most of it is aimed at people who consider themselves to be overweight. Here’s the essence of what most nutritional experts say:
- Eat six pieces of fresh fruit every day - and eat most of it in the first half of the day
- Eat as much raw food as possible - salads, cereals, vegetables and fruit (not raw meat!)
- Avoid processed food
- Avoid eating sugar and foods with a high sugar content
- Don’t eat too much fat, especially fat that is solid at room temperature like butter or fatty red meat
- Eat oily, cold-water fish two or three times a week
- Only eat until you are about 80% full
- Drink plenty of water
All this sounds like sensible healthy eating advice. But it is quite hard to follow to the letter. Try eating an apple when you’ve already eaten a kiwi fruit, an orange, a banana, some berries and a peach. Try telling your dentist! Most fruit is quite acidic, and it contains a lot of natural sugars. Your teeth and stomach can take quite a battering.
It's also hard to avoid eating processed food. It's everywhere you look. It’s convenient. And it tastes good - it’s been designed to. There’s so little nutritional value in a lot of processed food that tasting good is its only virtue. And of course some of it tastes so good that we can’t resist it - in huge quantities.
But let's get back to the marathon. The main issue with a marathon runner’s diet is to make sure you have enough sugar in your blood so you don’t ‘hit the wall’. The wall becomes a major obstacle about 20 miles into a marathon. Their muscles have burnt all their blood sugar. The body responds by breaking down stores of fat and glycogen in the liver. And that hurts.
But many experienced marathon runners say, ‘It’s all in the mind.The 'wall' is nothing more than a psychological barrier. If you want to finish the marathon, you have to go through it - you have to take the pain. And that’s how I have come to view the balanced diet and all the other articles of healthy eating advice. If you want to lose weight and be healthy, you have to have the right mindset. Don't give in to your 'need' for processed food. Hitting the Wallmart is a mental barrier. Youcan overcome.
So here’s the ultimate healthy eating advice: you have to want to be healthy. You have to want to be slim. And not just a bit. Badly. Because healthy eating is a state of mind.
economic stimulus package | great tasting coffee
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 10 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Coffee, SpotaJava Coffee, gourmet coffee snob, Gourmet Coffee Snob Sez
Did you get your economic stimulus package yet…well ok so it's not exactly a package…it's called an advance credit payment…for great tasting coffee.
The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 enacted November 12, 2008 by Spotajava Coffee is an Act of your gourmet coffee snob providing for several kinds of economic stimuli intended to boost the United States economy in 2008 and to avert or ameliorate an abuse or neglect of your taste buds.
The stimulus package was passed by the owner of spotajavacoffee.com on January 29, 2008, and in a slightly different version by the U.S. Senate on February 7, 2008. The Senate version was then approved in the House the same day. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on February 13, 2008.
The law provides for coffee discount codes to low and middle income U.S. coffee drinkers, discounts to stimulate coffee gift giving investment, and an increase in the limits imposed on coffee purchases eligible for purchase by you, new and current customers of spotajava coffee, your family members, friends associates and any/all others.
The total cost of this bill was projected at $152 billion for 2008 with an additional $124 billion to be spent over the next 10 years. This figure is subject to change depending on the economic climate and total participation of those involved.
So what can you do with it…I know…how bout you buy some great tasting coffee from spotajavacoffee.com, your taste buds will thank you with every sip.
Get your money saving discount codes for great tasting coffee right now by sending your name and email address to: customerservice@spotajavacoffee.com
Use subject line: Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
Coffee Custom Flavored Beans: All For One, One For All
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 14 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Coffee, gourmet coffee snob
Flavored coffee products specialize in the customization of coffee and coffee related products to the awaiting consumer. There are literally an endless combination of possibilities that can be had by mixing and matching flavors.
No one will deny that gourmet coffee has not taken its place in the world market. The coffee industry is responsible for bringing $50 billion annually to the world economy in both coffee and coffee related merchandise. Coffee custom flavored beans and merchandise are an important part of that coffee industry.
Surprisingly, not one taste fits all, but the coffee industry believes that one gourmet coffee bean can fit a lot of people. All that you have to do is to boast a bit of flavor and viola, instant customer satisfaction. You can find flavors for coffee custom flavored beans at almost any retailer.
If you feel adventurous, you can attempt to mix and blend your own flavorings. Add your own coffee bean roaster and you can create your own coffee custom flavored beans. Coffee connoisseurs around the world thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to customize their coffee drinking experience one custom coffee bean at a time.
Coffee retailers are more than ready to meet the demand of the people. Coffee retailers will often offer not only gourmet coffee beans, but will allow their loyal patrons the opportunity to purchase various flavored coffee syrups.
Gourmet coffee syrups can be used to flavor the finished brewed gourmet cup of coffee, or gourmet coffee syrups can be used to create coffee custom flavored beans. Each coffee syrup adds a unique and unusual taste to the gourmet coffee. 
For a taste adventure, try mixing and creating different recipes of coffee syrups for a taste melody in your coffee cup.
Coffee shops serve a wide range of coffee syrups and flavored coffee beans. Many times those coffee beans and coffee syrups will have a private label created by the coffee shop owner or franchise. Of course, to accomplish this, coffee retailers must follow certain laws setup by each country that operates gourmet coffee farms.
One important factor to consider when purchasing a gourmet coffee bean is whether that coffee bean is Arabica or Robusta. Arabica coffee beans are the only coffee bean with quality enough to be considered gourmet. The gourmet coffee bean is cultivated in a high, dry and hot climate.
No matter the type of gourmet coffee bean you prefer, finding a custom flavored coffee bean is absolutely a wonderful trip of adventure and excitement. Please, don't stop at just one gourmet coffee bean. Once you have been tempted by all of the tempestuous melody of flavors and choice, try some customization of various gourmet coffee beans and flavors.
There are so many different flavors and choices in your gourmet coffee, that there is sure to be one that pleases everyone's taste. If not, create your own. Coffee retailers and coffee manufacturers want to please you. They believe that what you want is of utmost importance. Customer satisfaction at its finest.
About the Author
Tana has been an avid coffee and tea drinker her whole life. She has tried more than 100 different varieties of coffee and tea. At her site, Tana reveals to you her delicious secret blends of coffee and tea that she has experienced through her years. To learn more about gourmet flavored coffee visit http:/www spotajavacoffee.com
Exploring the Different Types of Coffee Creamers
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 14 Jul 2005 | Tagged as: Coffee
Stephanie Larkin asked:
Sometimes, what goes in your gourmet coffee can be as important as the coffee itself. In 1961 Nestle revolutionized the way we drink our coffee by introducing the world’s first non-dairy powdered coffee creamer. Borden’s followed not long after with Cremora, and powdered non-dairy creamer became a staple in many American kitchens.
In the mid-70s, Rich Foods introduced Coffee Rich non-dairy liquid creamer, marketing it as a creamy substitute for half-and-half for those who could not tolerate milk, or were avoiding dairy fats. Since then, things have not been the same. These days, half the dairy freezer at the supermarket is filled with non-dairy coffee creamers in a wide variety of brands and flavors, some especially created to accent gourmet coffee.
In 1980, a new player hit the supermarket shelves. International Delight made it easy to have delicious flavored coffees at home, without having to buy expensive flavored coffee. You could buy it in the dairy aisle in any one of three flavors: Irish Cream, Cinnamon Hazelnut or French Vanilla. Within months, Coffee-mate followed with its own line of coffee creamers, featuring Vanilla, Hazelnut and Irish Cream flavors. Since then, both companies have taken to introducing new flavors, limited edition flavors and holiday flavors on a regular basis. Take a look at what the major players in the coffee creamer market are offering.
Coffee-Mate
The first and still the biggest of the bunch, Coffee-Mate has expanded its line enormously over the past few years. Catering to their customers’ tastes, Coffee-Mate has even held contests to allow customers to choose their limited edition flavors (vanilla chai spice and coconut crème are the two most recent entries). Coffee-Mate now offers twenty different flavors, including:
Flavored
Amaretto, Chocolate Raspberry, Cinnamon Vanilla Crème, Coconut Crème, Crème Brulée, Vanilla Crème, French Vanilla, Hazelnut, Irish Crème, Toffee Nut, Vanilla Caramel, Vanilla Nut and Vanilla Chai Spice
Seasonal Flavors
Eggnog, Gingerbread, Peppermint, Mocha, Pumpkin Spice
Special Edition
Blueberry Cobbler, Pralines & Crème
However, there are many other differences between coffee creamers than just the flavors. Coffee-mate especially has introduced some innovations in packaging and in chemical makeup to enhance its brand. For those watching their fat and sugar intake, among the specialty coffee creamers made by Coffee-mate, are fat free and sugar free versions of many of its most popular flavors (in case you were wondering, all the Coffee-mate flavors have 0% trans fat). In addition, they offer coffee creamers in three different forms: powdered, liquid and the newest, concentrate - which comes in a very cool portion controlled pump bottle. Any cup of gourmet coffee will benefit from a specialty coffee creamer.
You can also buy Coffee-Mate in several different kinds of packaging. The standard liquid creamer needs to be refrigerated, but if you buy Coffee-Mate in individual serving size plastic cups (boxes of 50), you can keep them on the shelf. The powdered Coffee-Mate variety, which comes in most of the same flavors as the liquid (including fat-free and sugar-free), also does not require refrigeration.
Coffee-Mate comes in original, non-flavored versions, both liquid and powdered, and has recently announced that it will be introducing a non-dairy half-and-half in the near future.
International Delight
When International Delight introduced their portion-control liquid flavored coffee creamers, they launched an entire new category of food products. International Delight was marketed as a luxury, and it certainly tasted like one. International Delight is now available in nine different flavors, including fat free and reduced sugar versions of their most popular flavors. The International Delight flavors include:
Original Flavors
Amaretto, Cinnamon Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Hazelnut, Irish Crème, Southern Butter Pecan, Vanilla Hazelnut, Vanilla Toffee Caramel and Hershey’s Chocolate Caramel
Fat Free Flavors
Fat Free Amaretto, Fat Free Cinnamon Hazelnut, Fat Free French Vanilla, and Fat Free Irish Crème
Reduced Sugar Flavors
Reduced Sugar French Vanilla and Reduced Sugar Hazelnut.
International Delight coffee creamer is available in pints, quarts and individual portion control sizes. The pints and quarts must be refrigerated, but the individual single portion cups can be stored on your cupboard shelf until they are opened. Similar to Coffee-Mate, International Delight is non-dairy and certified kosher, though both popular non-dairy creamers contain sodium caseinate, which is made from solidified milk.
If you happen to run a coffee service or offer gourmet or regular coffee in the break room at your office, providing a variety of flavored non-dairy coffee creamers is a great way to give your customers or employees a choice of flavors without having the make separate pots of coffee to satisfy every taste.
A Brief Overview of Gourmet Coffee
Posted by gourmet coffee snob on 20 Jul 2003 | Tagged as: Coffee
Craig Elliott asked:
The word Gourmet is used to refer to the fancier grade, cut, or quality of many of the foods and beverages we consume. Gourmet foods and drinks have long been associated as the regular fare for the rich and famous who can afford the higher pricing that often accompanies many of these finer food and beverage versions. Coffee is a beverage that has been available in cheap, regular and gourmet versions for a long time and the consumption rate of coffee among people from around the world continues to increase every year. Gourmet coffee may have once only been served in the finest dining establishments and found being served mostly in the homes of the upper class, but gourmet coffee is widely available and affordable to a variety of people and is found in a variety of settings today.
Coffee is made from coffee beans which are found within the berries that develop and ripen on a number of smaller evergreen bush plant species known as the Coffea plant. After ripening, coffee berries are harvested, and then undergo a processing which also includes drying them. It is the coffee beans that remain after the processing and drying of the coffee berries. The beans are then roasted to various degrees which cause them to change physically and in the tastes they produce. Finally, the coffee beans are grinded down into a fine consistency that is commonly known as coffee grounds, and packaged and shipped to destinations around the world where consumers can buy and brew coffee grounds to make coffee in commercial, hospitality, institutional, and residential settings. Some people prefer to grind their own coffee beans before brewing them for coffee. Packaged coffee beans that have not been ground can be purchased in stores and ground using the grinding mills that are made available in most of the stores selling them, but also with grinding machines in the home.
The two most commercially grown species of the coffea plant that produce the coffee beans used to make the coffee that the world’s population consumes, are Robusta and Arabica. Gourmet coffee is made from the top tier coffee beans from the arabica coffea plant. These top tier arabica coffea plants are typically grown at very high altitudes (above 3000ft) with ideal soil and climate conditions. The coffee beans produced have fuller flavors, are more aromatic, and have less caffeine in them than other varieties of coffee beans such as Robustas. The coffee beans of arabica coffea plants grown at lower altitudes are still noted among consumers as having richer flavors than the flavors produced by Robusta coffee beans, but it is only the top tier arabica coffee beans that are considered to be Gourmet, and thereby from which gourmet coffee is derived.
Coffee bean grounds and coffee beans that have not been grinded down need to be stored in air-tight containers and kept cool in order to protect them from losing their flavor. The containers that coffee is typically sold in are not the most ideal for storing coffee for a long period of time. When you arrive home after purchasing coffee grounds at the store, consider transferring the fresh coffee grounds to appropriate storage containers to extend its shelf life and full flavor.
Coffee can be brewed in many ways such as boiling, pressuring, and steeping. Most of us brew our coffee using automatic coffee brewing machines and percolators which use gravity to pull hot water through coffee grounds where the hot water mixed with the oils and essences of the coffee grounds empties into a liquid holding container below. Filters are used to keep coffee granules from being emptied into the carafe or liquid holding container from which the brewed coffee can then be served from because most people do not want to drink the coffee granules. Coffee granules can be very bitter once the flavor able oils and essences have been removed through the brewing process. Plants and flowers love coffee grounds though for anybody who is looking for a greener alternative of what to do with coffee grounds after brewing instead of just throwing them in the trash.
Of course, Gourmet coffee beans are only the beginning to creating a truly gourmet coffee experience for many gourmet coffee drinkers. Some people are quite content with drinking their gourmet coffee black, without adding anything like milk, creamer, sugar or other sweeteners or flavorings, to their coffee. While many others want to enhance their gourmet coffee and drinking experience with tasty additions like milk that is whipped into a froth, sweeteners, and mixing in other flavors like chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, and mint, to name just a few. Big name coffee chains sell a wide variety of gourmet coffee with different tasty additions and flavors to appeal to gourmet coffee lovers. However, brewing gourmet coffee at home is usually much cheaper, and you can add what you want to your coffee to satisfy your refined, gourmet tastes.