Here’s an oft-asked question, this time from one of our Facebook Fans, author David Mitchell:

David Mitchell Stephan ~ By volume, how many ounces are there in a cup of coffee? Is there a standard size for a cup?

Big City Coffee Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, 6oz was standard…now, it’s more like 4.5-5 oz per “cup”. Beware the markings on various makers’ pots and reservoirs…I love my “8 cup” Rhone French Press, but darned if I can see how they are anything other than demitasse…your results may vary, adjust accordingly…(you must have noticed we don’t include directions with our coffee!)

It’s fun and easy to brew a perfect cup of coffee at home if you start with fresh roasted, whole gourmet organic beans and follow these 10 simple brewing tips. Panamanian coffee beans are especially flavorful because they are shade grown grown in the dark, rich volcanic soil of the Chiriqui highlands, and are handpicked and processed to bring you superb quality from the crop to the cup.

Use High Quality Gourmet Beans

Only Use Fresh Roasted Whole Beans

Grind Just Before Brewing

Match the Grind to the Brew Method

Measure the Right Amount of Ground Coffee

Use Filtered Water

Correct Water Temperature 195-200 degrees F

Use a Fine Metal Mesh Filter Basket or Press

Keep Your Equipment Clean

Immediately Pour the Brewed Coffee Into a Thermal Carafe

Enjoy!

If you’ve ever had coffee in New Orleans, you may find there’s an added, unfamiliar but pleasant zip in that cup. It isn’t the water and it isn’t special beans. More than likely, it is the chicory doing a zydeco dance on your taste buds.

What is Chicory?

Basically, chicory is a type of flowering plant of the Asteraceae family. While there are half a dozen varieties, only two are commercially cultivated for human consumption. Chicory grows very easily in much of the US, sometimes found as a weed called coffeeweed, succory or blue sailors.

Chicory plants are usually bushy with lavender or blue blossoms. While the flowers are beautiful to look at, the roots are actually what is used in the beverage making business. The greens are sold as endive, radicchio, Belgian endive, French endive or witloof in grocery stores. Cultivation is usually done in complete darkness so the greenery of the plant can be harvested and sold as well.

Chicory and Coffee

Dating back for many decades, the root of the chicory plant has been baked, milled and substituted or added to ground coffee to add a spiciness similar to but distinctly different than cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. It is believed that the French started this tradition and influenced cities like New Orleans to do the same. The essence of a coffee drink, when mixed with chicory, is less harsh and has less acid than plain coffee brews.

It’s Good for You

There are dozens of medicinal uses and benefits of including chicory in your cup of coffee. It’s been used for centuries in Germany, Rome and France to treat everything from liver and gallbladder problems to a laxative and dyspepsia.

The most recent discovery is that chicory is high in insulin, containing up to 20% of the blood sugar stabilizing chemical. This is great news for those suffering from Type II diabetes. Taken alone or mixed with coffee from beans, those stricken with diabetes can naturally and holistically stabilize their blood sugar levels and help maintain healthy levels.

While medical professionals will steer you away from treating many internal health problems on your own, you can use a strong pot of chicory coffee, taken throughout the day, to care for a number of ailments. Dyspepsia (chronic upset stomach), loss of appetite caused by nearly anything, liver trouble, gallbladder problems and intestinal worms can all be treated to some extent with chicory root beverage. Chicory is frequently prescribed to cancer patients going through chemotherapy to counter the appetite depleting and constipation often associated with the treatment as well as the disease.

Make a Chicory Coffee

Traditional chicory coffee is made with a French press. Start with about a quarter cup each ground chicory root and ground coffee beans. Both should be the texture of rough sand. Place both the chicory and the coffee beans in the bottom of the French press.

Boil enough water to just about fill the French press. Use filtered water if possible. As the water comes to a boil, pout it into the press. The beans and chicory root will float to the top of the water. Press the French press plunger down just far enough to hold the grounds under the water.

Allow the mixture to steep for about five minutes. Press the plunger in all the way to compact the grounds and release their essence into the water. Pour into cups and sweeten with a cube of sugar or artificial sweetener and milk or cream.

The spent grounds make a great lawn and garden fertilizer. If you compost, adding the grounds will infuse nitrogen into the resulting soil. Worms will swarm to your compost and garden to munch your grounds.

Gourmet Chicory Coffee

If you don’t want to experiment at home, then you can also get New Orleans-style coffee with chicory roasted and ground to order from specialty coffee roasters. Chickadee Brand coffee is a popular organic, Fair Trade coffee roasted by Big City Coffee and available throughout Louisiana and online at http://BigCityCoffee.com

SusieQTPie tries making a espresso latte with just cold water and an AreoPress coffee maker…

I was really excited to win this cool coffee maker! Because it is such a cool coffee gadget, I decided to make my first cup of espresso into a Iced Cafe Latte. Make note that I am not a cold coffee drinker! I had read somewhere that someone used a French Press to make a cold espresso. I gagged thinking about it but decided to try it out…It is best to use a fine-drip grind coffee. I used Cafe Pergolesi Espresso from Big City Coffee. I wanted to make the double espresso so the instructions said to use two AeroPress scoops of grind…

Visit the Scraps of Life blog to read the whole review and the results of the taste-test…http://cafescrapper-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com/2009/09/aeropress-iced-latte.html

Guest Post

Coffee is a universal drink consumed all over the world. There are many whose daily chores always start with a hot cup of coffee. Nowadays, modern cafes have promoted Coffee as an essential element of social networking amongst people of different strata. Apart from homes, even in workplaces and offices, there is always an informal exchange of one’s’ thoughts and feelings around a coffee machine.
In India, people of different regions consume both coffee and tea as their regular daily beverages. Coffee is predominantly consumed in the South India and the North Indians prefer tea. There is a traditional method of preparation of Coffee in the orthodox South Indian homes. This method has been in vogue for centuries and those who are addicted to the “Filtered Coffee”, as it is known, will not accept any other type of coffee including the commercially available “Espresso” in the coffee shops.
The coffee recipe of these particular South Indian homes goes like this – they purchase the coffee beans from the shops, mostly the local variety grown in the ‘Coorg’ district of India. These beans are roasted and ground in small home coffee grinders. Some people also mix a small percentage of what is known as “chickaree” beans, before grinding, to get a specific flavour to the coffee.
The ground coffee powder is stored in the homes and brewed as a ‘decoction’ in small filters with hot water. South Indians prefer the coffee to be quite ‘strong’ and the filtered liquid is mixed with boiled milk and sugar to get the famous “South Indian Filtered Coffee”. The coffee is served in a small stainless steel tumbler. If you happen to visit a typical South Indian home, remember to ask for their special “Filtered Coffee” and you can enjoy the drink with its rich flavour and aroma.

Home Brewed Coffee: Better, Fresher Coffee and Money in Your Pocket

If you’re one of the millions of people who can’t start the day without a cup of coffee, you are probably spending a small fortune on the stuff every year…

High school kids, college students, and adults are stopping at their favorite drive-through coffee shop for their favorite $4 cup of latte.
Let’s say a household of 3 buys their latte a conservative 4 days a week. That adds up to about $50 a week or over $2000 a year!

Instead of depriving ourselves of one of life’s greatest pleasures, we need to find a way to get that cup we deserve.
With today’s tight economy it’s no wonder more and more people are turning to brewing their own coffee at home.
A cup of ‘regular’ coffee averages $1.80 in the US; you can make your own higher-quality, gourmet organic coffee for less than 40 cents!

According to Reuters, coffee consumption has remained the same while more people are brewing at home to cut costs.

Not only can you cut down the cost, you can also have some control over what your teens are drinking as well as the quality and quantity of what is being consumed. With such a great variety of coffee beans now available, we have the luxury of choosing exactly what we buy and how we choose to prepare it to our best benefit. Combine that with buying and roasting your own coffee beans and the savings really add up.
The most common method of brewing coffee in North America is the drip brew method.

Then there are other methods of preparing coffee including;
French Press(Coffee Plunger or the Bodum Press)
Turkish Coffee(or Greek coffee) and
Espresso (or Italian Coffee)
All are very interesting and flavorful in their own way.

There are all sorts of coffee brewing equipment to choose from:
convenient single cup drip brewers and presses, to large capacity commercial coffee machines.
Whatever method you choose, you will enjoy learning what works best for your family’s taste and budget,
while enjoying the great quality and freshness of home brewed coffee.

[Guest Post]

The most popular morning beverage (and actually anytime beverage) in the United States is coffee. Most people will drink two or more coffees a day and many people cannot imagine starting their day without a cup of coffee. Given the popularity of coffee there has also been a drastic increase in the number of options available for consuming coffee. The most popular coffee makers are still the simple drip brewers due to their ease of use. These coffee makers make decent coffee but it is far from a gourmet experience. Given that you are starting your day with coffee you should treat yourself to something a bit better such as a specialty coffee or gourmet coffee made in an espresso machine or other high end machine. These high end machines have the ability to bring out the flavor in a cup of coffee in a way that is simply not possible with drip brewers. In addition these machines provide you with many options for customizing your cup of coffee so it comes out just the way you want it in terms of strength, size, and temperature. While you are at it you should also get a coffee grinder as the freshest coffee will be one made from freshly ground beans.

Guest Post:
Buying Coffee Makers Online

For many people buying a coffee maker is an afterthought. They will simply go to the nearest department store or hop on the Internet and buy the cheapest coffee maker that they can find. This is often the case with buying coffee for them as well and they will often buy it without much thought. Given that most people start their days with coffee though you do not want to start your day with inferior coffee. If you are not careful with the coffee maker purchase though this could be the exact situation you find yourself in. Given this you will want to carefully pick a coffee maker and if you are a big coffee fan you will want to find gourmet coffee or organic coffee that will provide you with a very unique experience. You may have a hard time finding a great coffee maker as they may all look the same to you but this is where the Internet can come in as a great tool. By hopping online you will be able to find many reviews from true coffee lovers to help you with your selection. You can even find reviews by price range to find something that is affordable for you.

Coffee was brought to Cuba in the mid 18th century but it would take 40 years before it became a big part of the economy, by the early 1800’s it became a bigger import than sugar.

Fill the espresso machine with cold water, and add the desired amount of finely ground Cuban coffee. Proceed making espresso as you normally would.

Add about 2 to 3 tsp. of sugar to each metal cup. Cuban coffee should be very rich and sweet, so add more if your sweet tooth desires it.

Pour a small amount of coffee in each metal cup as soon as the coffee begins to percolate. Stir the coffee and sugar together into a thick paste.

Pour the completed coffee slowly into the metal cups and blend it with the paste. A cup of frothy, sweet foam should float to the top.

Here’s a how to make authentic Cafe Cubano video…

Making Cuban Coffee – More DIY How To Projects

Coffee should be brewed for 4 1/2 to 5 minutes using a ratio of 55 grams of ground coffee per liter of filtered water (195-205°F). It is convenient to use 2 tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounces of filtered water.
Filtered water and spring water are recommended.
Tap water can impart off-flavors to the coffee, and some minerals are essential to coffee flavor.
Distilled water is not recommended for brewing coffee as it lacks the minerals to bring out the natural flavors of the coffee.

Fit & Fresh Water Filtration Bottle