Coffee Grounds
How Often, Where And Why Do You Buy Coffee?
COFFEE is a world drink, grown in a number of countries and prepared and drunk in a number of different ways. Buying coffee is a ‘ritual’ performed daily at coffee stores all round the world. In the western world many of us buy at least one take out coffee a day. Perhaps as many consume a coffee in a coffee store. In many parts of the world, coffee is taken in or on the street. If we want to buy coffee we are spoiled for choice.
In this article, I talk about buying coffee so that you can make a good cup of coffee at home. On what grounds (pun intended) do we buy coffee? It does not matter whether you will make Greek or Turkish style coffee, Italian or French style coffee, or good ol’ American style coffee, a good cup of coffee requires good raw material, that is, fresh roast beans or fresh roast and ground coffee.
This photograph was taken in the corner of our kitchen and shows (left to right), an Alessi macchinetta, a Bodum Granos espresso machine, a Bodum French press and a Bodum insulated dual-walled French press.
When?
In choosing how often to buy your coffee, the rule is little and often, because once roasted, and certainly once ground, coffee deteriorates from its peak taste and potency. So buy your coffee daily or weekly, not monthly. When you get your coffee home, put it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Where?
Where you buy your coffee is related to how often you buy your coffee. Of course, you will buy your coffee because you like its flavor. If you buy from a local coffee store where they blend and roast themselves, be sure they have good sales volume so you can be assured of freshness when you buy. If you like local or imported coffees which are sold vacuum packed, volume of sales will tend to ensure you get the freshest possible product. Look at the sell-by dates. See if your taste buds can be matched to a high-volume selling brand. You may visit our online store to browse a wide range of coffees.
Why?
As to why you buy coffee, the answer is all about taste. No instant coffee comes near real coffee, however you might care to make it. Your taste in coffee may be independently formed or acquired as part of you family “baggage”. In my family, a mixture of Italian, English, and Irish, we generally drink Lavazza qualita oro which we buy ready-ground. We have settled on this brand because we like the flavour and it is very consistent, readily available and sold in high volumes.
When we lived in the city, we were friendly with a family synonymous with coffee through their espresso bars. They had a blend made for them by a coffee importer/roaster. We loved their coffee and bought it ready-ground from them when we could. And when we couldn’t, we bought Lavazza and we’ve done that for about 25 years.
I make coffee at home in three ways – espresso machine, cafetiere/plongeur/plunger/French press, or Italian Bialetti Moka Pot/macchinetta. (You may care to visit our online store to browse an extensive range of French Presses and Stovetop Espresso Pots or Espresso Machines). I find the ground coffee works well with these methods, though I have read that a coarser grind suits the French press better.
So, buy coffee that suits you. Buy a flavour that you like, buy the beans and grind them yourself to suit your chosen method of making coffee, and that’s probably as good as most of us can get. Ready-ground, vacuum-packed coffee is argued to be inferior to beans ground at home as needed. You could test this with ready ground against whole beans from the same blender/roaster and blend. Our friends in the business always bought coffee ready-ground for use in their coffee bars. I decided that if it was good enough for them …
Coffee Facts
- Mocha is named for Mocha on the coast of Yemen which was famous for exporting coffee since the fifteenth century, especially to areas around the Arabian Peninsula.
- Bialetti makes another ‘macchinetta’ called a Mukka which is a pun on mucca, the Italian for cow. This variety of ‘little machine’ can froth milk as well as extract coffee.
- In Italy, a cappuccino is not universally served with a dusting of cocoa or chocolate. A dusting of cinnamon is also popular.
- Finns drink more than twice as much coffee per head as Italians. Italians drink about a third more than Americans.
- Brazil exports most coffee, about three times as much as Columbia or Vietnam, and four times as much as Mexico.
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