Coffee
from Italian Traditional Food

All about coffee

Coffee is a matter of taste. Everyone wants it fresh and fragrant, but after that personal choice takes over.

One person may like a full-flavoured, mellow coffee, another will prefer a bland thinner flavour, while others demand something with bite and sharpness, particularly after a strong tasting meal.

These variations depend on the kind of coffee used, the strength of the roast, and on the proportion of coffee to water.

Coffee starts, of course, with coffee beans which are picked from the tree after six or seven months' growth, cured and soaked to remove the outer skins, tested for taste and then sent for roasting to the wholesaler or coffee merchant.

Roasting

Roasting starts the releasing of the beans' aromatic oils, a process that is continued in the grinding and brewing. The darker the roast the sharper the flavour, and it is important that the coffee is freshly roasted just before sale or vacuum packing. The coffee quickly loses its flavour if it isn't kept in an airtight container.

Blending

Coffee is sold loose in beans, ground to taste (coarse, medium or fine) and vacuum packed in cans or plastic packs. Coffees from different countries may be blended together or sold separately. A number of supermarkets now have grinders and will blend and grind coffee to the customer's taste.

Grinding

Coffee should be ground to suit the method of making. Finely ground coffee gives flavour more quickly than coarsely ground coffee, and should be used in equipment where the contact with water is quite short.

Jug or saucepan: use a medium grind.

Drip or filter: with a centre basket strainer, use a coarse grind; with filter bags it should be finely ground.

Espresso and vacuum: use a medium grind.

Percolator: use a medium grind.

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