[oclug] [OT] Re: Coffee

[Fred Williams]

On Sun, 2006-20-08 at 15:37 -0400, Croombe F. Pensom wrote:

> Perhaps in may ways we lost the art of making good coffee when we
> abandoned the percolator a few decades ago..... I'm only speculating
> here.

	My father always said it was after the war, (WWII), that coffee started
to taste bad and he could never get a good cup of coffee since then.  He
passed away in 1997.  Shortly thereafter I read that sometime around the
end of WWII coffee companies started mass roasting coffee and this
changed the flavour.  It was *about* this time also that they began
changing the way coffee was grown.
	Originally there was a small coffee bush that grew in the shade of the
jungle.  Large coffee plantations wanted more production per acre and
hybridized the plant.  They started growing larger plants in the full
sunshine which weakened the plant.  More fertilizers were needed to help
the plant grow and pesticides to protect the weakened plants from
predators.  Coffee is now the most heavily sprayed food crop in the
world.
	Most fair trade coffee is also organic.  Switching to organic coffee
can cut your intake of fertilizer and chemical residues in half if
you're drinking about 4 cups a day.
	Most supermarket coffees are also made with a large percentage of
Robusta beans.  They lack the flavour of the larger Arabica beans and
while they can give off a good aroma when you open the tin, the flavour
in the cup, once it is made usually fails to live up to the smell.
	Look for coffee that is organic and 100% Arabica beans and roasted in
small batches by speciality roasters who know what they are doing.  Yes
it may be better if one uses water just off the boil, but if you start
with the right coffee and clean water, the brewing method is secondary,
unless you do something unusual.  Just Us coffee, that I used to sell,
is all these things and Fair Trade to boot.  Naturally, I liked the
"Radical Blend" best.  
	Most of the "buzz" that people get from regular coffee comes from the
chemicals added, and only part of it comes from the caffeine.  If you're
filtering, use the unbleached filters, (the yellowish brown ones),
because there will be less dioxins in the paper to get into what you're
drinking.
	I've successfully de-caffeinated myself over the past few days, at
least the fatigue and the headaches have stopped, and it may be some
time before I go back to drinking coffee again.  In the long run I think
it might be better for me.

-- 
Regards,
Fred Williams
unclefred at fredwilliams.ca