Freshness is important when making good-quality coffee. Fresh ground coffee beans will give you the best tasting cup of coffee. Fresh coffee beans last longer than ground coffee. All you have to do is store them in a dry area and only use enough beans for each day. Fresh roasted coffee is richer and has a fuller taste and a better aroma like we have at Coffee Guru. Coffee experts agree that coffee flavor peaks right after roasting and soon starts deteriorating.

Fresh breezes carry the rain forest’s earthy aroma and gently stir perfect humidity and temperature against the bean’s exterior. From the rich rain forest floor percolate flavors that define the bean’s origin and gourmet heritage. Fresh gourmet coffee should be ground
just before brewing. You need a coffee grinder in your home if you want to the best tasting coffee possible. Fresh coffee beans are our mission!

Coffee Beans Galore!

When selecting a place online to get your coffee bean direct, make sure that they are located close to you. My favorite online coffee bean source is located only one day away via UPS. That means if I place and order for my favorite coffee on Monday, I will have the coffee on Tuesday. Nothing beats quick service, and if you love your coffee as much as I do, you’ll do anything to get those coffee beans in your coffee mug as soon as possible. It is a bad idea to select a coffee roaster that is located far from you unless you like paying tons of overnight shipping charges. There are exceptions to this rule, however. I get peaberry coffee from Hawaii every month and it is worth every penny to have it FedEx’ed to me.

Anyway, buying coffee online has many advantages. The most obvious of these advantages is having your coffee freshly roasted for you and getting coffee at a discount. Expect to pay about half of what you do at the supermarket unless you are buying coffee that tastes more like tree bark than gourmet coffee beans. Another advantage to buying coffee directly from a coffee roaster is selection. You can get regular coffee, gourmet coffee, Costa Rican coffee, Brazillian coffee, dark Sumatran coffee, there’s lots to choose from. So, as you can plainly see, you can’t go wrong when you get your coffee bean direct from a reputable coffee roaster.

Should you buy organic coffee beans? Well, there are many reasons for buying organic products and coffee is no exception. Organic growers are the future of agriculture in my opinion. Sustainable farming methods without the use of harmful pesticides, chemical fertilizers and other potentially carcinogenic materials should be supported whenever possible. Coffee grown organically for sale in the USA must undergo a rigorous certification by an agency accredited by the US Department of Agriculture. Some of the requirements of organic coffee growing include a minimum 3 year growing without synthetic pesticides and other prohibited chemicals as well as a crop rotation plan that is sustainable and prevents soil depletion and erosion and controls pests.

As anyone will tell you, organic products can be found more and more on your supermarket shelves, and in other places. Organic milk products, organic meats and eggs, etc. should all be a part of your diet. Anything you can do to lower your intake of chemicals and pesticides should be considered. Organic coffee beans should also play a part in your organic lifestyle. If you think that going organic will be expensive, guess what, you would be wrong. There are many places online that sell organic coffee for about the same price as coffee grown with pesticides and other chemicals. Some growers go the extra mile and their coffees are grown under rainforest-preserving shade trees and are hosts to diverse bird life.

Even if you don’t care about rainforests, endangered birds, fragile ecosystems, etc., you should still consider buying organic coffee beans because they are good for you and taste great. After all, most companies don’t charge a premium and the coffee is not overly expensive anyway. There are plenty of exotic coffees which are much more expensive. Contamination of the planet and destruction of our fragile ecosystems is something that we should discourage. The fact that it won’t cost us an arm and a leg is only one more reason to do so. Make sure that the company you get the coffee from is certified organic by a third party certification company.

There are all kinds of coffee drinkers out there from the average coffee lover to the person who pays over a hundred dollars for exotic coffee and flies it to their door for instant gratification. There is only one coffee that I will fly to my door and that is Kona Peaberry coffee. Once you taste it, you’ll never go back. Unfortunately, my friends have tasted it and as a result, I must abstain from this wonderful coffee or go broke because of the moochers. Anyway, once you have assessed your coffee mania level, you can decide which coffee delivery services are right for you. Many people love surprises. I don’t. If you love to be surprised, you can choose to have a random selection of coffee shipped to you on a schedule, usually monthly.

Whatever type of coffee you have delivered to you, remember that a true coffee drinker always has coffee beans shipped to them. Please invest in a proper coffee grinder. Blade coffee grinders simply shred the coffee and are all but useless when trying to get uniform flavor from your bean. Use a burr grinder, they are only slightly more expensive and entirely worth the added cost. Make sure your coffee delivery service is located close to you. Order today, grind tomorrow, savor the flavor. Everybody say ahhh… It is best to grind only the coffee that you’ll need right away. The thinking here is that the wonderful aroma you smell escaping from the grinder will also take the flavor with it if it sits outside too long after grinding. Ever wonder why supermarket coffee tastes so bad? It tastes that way because they use low quality coffee beans and they were ground months ago.

Well, now the “health police” tide has turned toward a positive direction for coffee drinkers. Experts have determined that coffee can be actually healthy for you if taken in moderation. Below are the top 10 health benefits of coffee:

1. Antioxidant Rich - due to its high caffeine content, coffee is a great source of antioxidants. Antioxidants are cancer preventative and help fight the negative affects of aging.
2. Magnesium Rich - studies have proven that many American’s are magnesium deficient, a mineral necessary to many of the enzymes in your body in order to catalyze reactions. Coffee can easily make up any deficiencies in this important mineral.
3. Anti Bacterial and Anti Adhesive Qualities - believe it or not, Italian researchers discovered this interesting little tidbit as they were conducting experiments regarding their favorite national drink that was getting a bad rep by health researchers. Practically speaking, this means that coffee is proven to prevent cavities (provided you don’t dump a ton of sugar into your drink).
4. Promotes Digestion - because coffee is a diuretic, it generally speaking, sends people straight to the bathroom. While some doctors may claim that coffee may irritate the stomach, other doctors recommended it as one of the natural tricks to “help move things along” and prescribed drinking a cup or two a day.
5. Improves Athletic Endurance and Performance - Believe it or not, coffee has recently been labeled a “controlled” substance for athletes participating in the Olympic Games. Coffee has proven to increase athletic endurance as well as general coordination and performing abilities.
6. Decreases Depression - studies conducted on school age children in Brazil demonstrated that children who drank a cup of coffee before going to school had a much lower instance of depression later in life than those who didn’t drink coffee.
7. Decreases Chances of Developing Parkinson’s Disease - 6 separate studies conducted by researchers have proven that people who drink large amounts of coffee on a regular basis are 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease then those that don’t.
8. Decreases Your Risk of Developing Colon Cancer - studies have shown that people who drink 2 cups of coffee on a regular basis have a 25% reduced risk of developing colon cancer.
9. Treats Asthma and Headaches - asthma and headache medicines contain large doses of caffeine in them due to the substance’s ability to treat their symptoms. The caffeine found in coffee, although present in smaller amounts, has proven to have the same positive affects on alleviating headaches and treating asthma.
10. Reduces Your Risk of Liver Disease - studies have shown that people who drink 2 cups of coffee on a daily basis have an 80% reduced risk rate of developing liver cirrhosis

What kind of coffee drinker are you? Do you drink more than one coffee each day? Do you get your coffee on the run to work? Do you get your coffee at the office? These questions will all point to the coffee services you might be interested in. As an example, I have a Braun Tassimo coffee maker. It is one of those instant coffee makers which can make a latte in no time flat. My wife loves them but as a true coffee drinker, I will not part with my coffee press. Anyway, we get a box of Tassimo coffee cartridges delivered to the house each and every month. They are, of course, cappuccino coffees.

One of my favorites is the office coffee services package that some companies offer. I highly urge you to get your boss into one of their office packages. Basically, they give you a free coffee machine, much like the Braun or Keurig instant coffee machines and each and every month, you get your choice of regular, hazelnut, vanilla, and other gourmet coffee flavors. It is up to you when delivery takes place and you can select the volume of coffee shipped. Bigger offices, will have need of much more coffee, but any office that has me in it will have to have large volume and great selection. If you are your own boss, you will be stuck with the bill, but on the bright side, you won’t have to share! Oh, and as always, a good company will have free shipping to their customers who buy monthly supplies.

Kona coffee

If you are going to go through the expense of having Kona coffee delivered to you, you might as well do it right. First off, buy the beans, don’t buy the coffee already ground. Grind only as much coffee as you will consume in a day. I have measured how much it takes to fill my coffee press and I only grind one press full at a time. Oh, by the way, I don’t use a coffee maker. I use a coffee press. Basically, a coffee press is a glass jar with a top piece that is attached to a plunger with a screen attached to it. You put the coffee in the bottom, pour hot water into the jar, let it brew for at least 4 minutes and then push down on the plunger which strains the coffee and keeps the coffee grounds on the bottom. This method of making coffee blows away my $200 Capresso coffee maker. Really, this $30 device makes the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.

Enough with the coffee brewing lesson already. If you buy Kona coffee, make sure it is 100% Kona coffee. Do not buy a blend. Usually blends will have as much as 90% cheap coffee mixed in and you should not pay a premium for that. I would recommend you try the smallest size available, usually an 8oz. bag of coffee to start. If you like it, by all means, save money by ordering several pounds of coffee beans at a time. Personally, I like to buy my coffee beans fresh every month despite the higher cost. For me, freshness is the top consideration.

OK, if you thought that there would be a shortage of flavors, you would be wrong. One of my favorite online stores has the following flavors: almond, amaretto, butter cream, butter rum, butter scotch cream, cherry bomb, cherry cobbler, chocolate almond, chocolate cherry, chocolate, chocolate Irish cream, chocolate marshmallow, chocolate mint, chocolate raspberry, cinnamon hazelnut, orange, pumpkin spice, vanilla almond, vanilla nut, and on and on. A good gourmet flavored coffee starts with a solid base like Colombian Supremo, carefully selected and then pure flavorings are added without sugars or any other chemical additives. The result is an extremely flavorful coffee experience. Flavored coffees can be addictive and there are so many to choose from. Personally, I go from loving added flavors to just savoring the coffee without any added flavorings.

Any type of coffee you choose will taste better if you take the time to prepare it correctly. Always keep your coffee press, coffee maker, etc. as clean as you can. Residues left from coffees, especially flavored ones can make the next batch taste a little off. I always clean everything every time I make coffee immediately after making the coffee. This may seem a little obsessive, but when I go somewhere and see a brown glass carafe, I know I shouldn’t be drinking coffee there, especially if it’s gourmet flavored coffee. Water is important too, so always use cold, filtered water so that your water does not add any of its own flavor to the final product. I also recommend that you buy your coffee in bean form rather than already ground. It will last longer and the flavor will remain more consistent. Measure out just the right amount of coffee and grind only what you need. Freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee is simply out of this world.

Cut out the middleman, buy coffee direct. Do your research, try out a million types of coffee to see what you like. Dark coffee, light coffee, coffee blends, all types of coffees are available online. There are so many coffee distributors, it is hard to choose. First, search by your favorite coffee. Do you like Kona coffee? Do a search on Kona coffee. Find the closest distributor to you so you won’t have to wait to savor that coffee goodness. Keep in mind that there will always be coffee that you must fly in to get the best flavor possible. My favorite comes from Hawaii, so until I move there, I have to fly that Java in overnight.

Did I mention price? Maybe I forgot, but you can buy coffee direct and save big bucks. Imagine paying less than supermarket prices for gourmet coffee. Yes, that’s right, you can save big if you buy big. Usually, you need to buy 10 to 25 pounds of coffee to see significant discounts. If you are like me, this is no problem. I drink at least 4 cups of coffee each and every day. I just love it. No, I don’t understand tea people. Coffee is for me, and coffee loves me. Of course, I don’t have proof of this as coffee doesn’t talk to me (if you find someone who’s coffee talks to them, here’s a hint: don’t drink anything while you are in their house).

I am an avid coffee lover. What better way to enjoy coffee than by getting a coffee espresso machine? There are so many to choose from, the choice is bewildering. We can separate the various espresso machines into three categories. The first category is what I like to call fully automatic. The fully automatic machine does everything for you. You load it with coffee, water, etc. and just push the button. The second category is partly automatic. This requires your intervention and some of the process is automated. The benefit to these type of machines is that they allow you to have more control over how you want the coffee extraction to go. Last, but not least is the manual machine. This is my favorite. I don’t need any automation, just give me a machine with a handle press and I’m ready to go!

Who makes a good coffee espresso machine? There are many specialty manufacturers and the price can go into the thousands of dollars. Even the mainstream coffee machine manufacturers have offerings that are reasonable. Krups, Bosch, Capresso and others make great coffee machines. What are the features to look for? If we are talking fully automatic, it should have an integrated burr grinder, high-capacity bean hopper, high-wattage heater, high-pressure pump and automated cleaning cycles. It should also have an integrated frother for lattes. If we are looking at the semi-automatic models, then look for high-quality components, large boilers, stainless steel components, high-quality portafilters, etc. The manual models are my favorite for many reasons. I like simplicity and quality. Choose a model with stainless steel or chrome plated parts for maximum durability and minimal interaction with the coffee and water. I simply do not like any plastic components coming in contact with very hot water and/or the coffee. Plastic parts should be avoided if you are an avid espresso coffee fan.

If you are an avid coffee consumer and only the very best will do, then do yourself a favor and get the best coffee espresso machine that you can afford. The investment will be well worth it as you’ll enjoy the very best espresso coffee for years to come.