Monday, May 4, 2009

Wholesale Gourmet Coffee

By Matt Hellstrom

Essentially coffee is a commodity which is grown in many countries throughout the world. The reason why this tiny bean is considered to be a commodity is because there are so many coffee lovers all over the world and to them it is worth its weight in gold. Wholesale gourmet coffee acquired from all these different regions have to go through a similar process before it is exported and lands up in your home espresso machine.

What really makes a difference to the flavor of gourmet coffee is the climate it is grown in, the elevation, the cultivar and even the pesticides used to protect the coffee crop. Then of course there is the roasting process, this is an integral part of creating a true gourmet coffee, and there is nothing quite as good as freshly roasted and ground coffee.

While it is difficult for the average person to roast their own coffee beans, unless they are a master coffee roaster! It is simple to purchase wholesale gourmet coffee beans from a roaster who knows what they are doing. There is an art to roasting coffee beans and anyone undertaking this should be trained. You can't just set them in the oven and hope for the best!

One of the most sought after types of gourmet coffee bean in the world is the "Jamaican Blue Mountain", it is difficult to get hold of because of the hurricane season typically experienced in the Gulf of Mexico. This makes this particular cultivar, supposedly the best in the world, incredibly expensive and hard to come by.

It has become more difficult to decide which wholesale gourmet coffee beans to buy, and this is because there are such a wide range of coffee varieties available. As far as we know, there are over 6 000 coffee variations known throughout the world. These are all blended from a pool of 25 different varieties of coffee bean with the most commercially imported types being Robusta and Arabica.

Arabica coffee beans are responsible for as much as 60% of world-wide gourmet coffee production. But as the Arabica plant is susceptible to pests, disease and frost the beans are expensive. It is able to be roasted and used alone or blended with other coffee and forms a perfect base for blends as it has a delicate flavor which adds body to the blend.

The Robust coffee plant is far more hardy, and therefore the beans are cheaper, accounting for 40% of the worlds coffee production. The flavor varies depending where in the world it is grown and the Robusta beans from Indonesia (Java & Sumatra) produce the most full bodied coffee and are therefore more sought after.

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