The gourmet beans are shipped from around the world and
arrive vacuum-packed at the recipient's door. Choose from 1
bag to 3 bags per month and choose your roast: French
roast, Colombian, hazelnut, and other delicious blends. You
can join for 1 to 12 months Great for corporate gifts,
friends, gourmet bean lovers, and that picky, hard to
please cousin. Sounds like an awesome gift.
And it is a wonderful gift, but there are a lot of
decisions. First off - do you make it a social pleasing
gourmet coffee? Do you go Fair Trade or not Fair Trade? Do
you go Song Bird Certified and Ran Forest Aliance or not?
Do you go Organic or Not? And now a few gourmet coffees
even support this charity or that - some even help homeless
children. So where do you start? It seems like it's a great
gift and why not help someone too.
So let's start with Fair Trade. I highly recommend Fair
Trade but let's be very careful and choose the right Fair
Trade. To be Fair Trade all a company has to do is pay over
$1.50 per pound for the coffee. Amazing how many US
companies are Fair Trade but actually only pay a higher
price for bad coffee and then use the Fair Trade Logo to
charge consumers a higher price. So please check out the
Fair Trade Company - over 85% are bogus. Look at their web
site and find their Fair Trade program. Most won't have one
documented so don't buy from them. They should have direct
documentation of helping a single farmer. And if you don't
feel good that it is a true Fair Trade then go to the
"charity supported" coffee. They in general will be doing a
lot more for a lot more people and are much more trust
worthy.
The Song Bird or Tree Shade Certification is even more
bogus. Look at the companies that have this certification.
The thing is most are importers and not the coffee farmer
so they have no control over if a tree is cut down or not.
Even worse there is no administration or watch dog. So you
could be Song Bird certified today and cut all your trees
down tomorrow for lumber and still have your Song Bird
certification intact. Again it's just a bad marketing ploy
to help people feel good about their coffee.
So you picked the charity coffee helping homeless children
now what? It's time to pick the roast i.e. picks the flavor
you think will appeal most to your gift recipient. Roasting
brings out the aroma and flavor that is locked inside the
green coffee beans. A green bean has none of the
characteristics of a roasted bean. It is soft and spongy
to the bite and smells green, almost 'grassy.' Roasting
causes numerous chemical changes to take place as the beans
are rapidly brought to very high temperatures. When they
reach the peak of perfection, they are quickly cooled to
stop the process. Roasted beans smell like coffee, and
weigh less because the moisture has been roasted out. They
are crunchy to the bite, ready to be ground and brewed.
Within the four color categories, you are likely to find
common roasts as listed below. But it is a good idea to
ask before you buy. There can be a world of difference
between roast types, But there are four main roast types:
Light, mild, medium and dark roast. The longer it roast the
darker the color, the darker the color the more flavor but
also as it gets too dark, bitterness starts showing up too.
Summary: Light
Roasts -- light brown in color. This roast is generally
preferred for milder coffee varieties. There will be no oil
on the surface of these beans, because they are not roasted
long enough for the oils to break through the surface.
Other names of Light are Half; Half Light or Light City the
Mild/ Medium Roasts -- medium brown in color with a
stronger flavor, and a non-oily surface. This roast is
often referred to as the American roast because it is
generally preferred in the USA. Another common name is
Breakfast Blend.
The Medium Roasts -- rich, darker color with some oil on
the surface and with a slight bittersweet aftertaste.
Sometimes they are also called a House roast or a Signature
Roast. Dark Roasts -- shiny black beans with an oily
surface and a pronounced bitterness. The darker the roast,
the less acidity will be found in the coffee beverage.
Dark roast coffees run from slightly dark to char and the
names are often used interchangeably which can be very
confusing. Be sure to check your beans before you buy
them! Varieties of the dark are called Italian, Espresso,
New Orleans, Continental, High, European, Vienna, Viennese,
French, or Dark Negro. These are full bodied full flavor
coffee.
Now all you have to do is choose which country of coffee
you want. And since this is a gift I recommend you go with
a consistent and flavorful but smooth coffee. I urge you to
choose either a Columbian or Costa Rican or Brazilian
gourmet coffee. All are very rich with no aftertaste or
bitterness. Any other country will work but you never know
which flavor you are getting and the consistency is less
than desired.
So the monthly delivery or coffee club is an outstanding
gift and gives you many options to choose from. Hopefully
you can use these choices to make a nice gift and to help
mankind too.
----------------------------------------------------
George "Boake" Moore is an IT Sales engineer by trade and
founded a non profit company called Mission Grounds Gourmet
Coffee
http://www.missiongrounds.com - It donates all its profits
to helping orphans and homeless children. We currently are
building schools in rural China, orphanages in South
America; and supporting orphans in Russia and Africa. Lets
make the world better -George "Boake" Moore and Mission
Grounds Gourmet Coffee
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