Showing posts with label freshness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freshness. Show all posts

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Coffee And Tea - Caffeine Source Revealed

Caffeine, that magical element in coffee that shakes you up and wakes you up, is present in an even greater amount in a sister beverage known as tea.
We are all busy and a lot of us are overloaded with work. Managing a family and at the same time juggling a packed schedule can prove to be a daunting task. Under such circumstances, a dose of freshly brewed coffee or tea is the best thing that keeps people going.
Tea manages to escape the violence of the blender and gently seeps away into ice water. Coffee goes into the blender instead of the coffee pot, where it is joined by ice cubes and other ingredients to make a cool shake. Come summer and the recipe changes.

Brewing becomes an affair involving steaming cups of coffee and tea being served with wild abandon, not just for the freshness of the drink, but also for the warmth they provide by the additional caffeine supplied energy. During the winter and cooler months, when we wish that everything liquid could pass over our tongues and down our throats, should be warm or perhaps scaling hot. Coffee and tea can be consumed in different ways in different seasons.
While previously, both coffee and tea were available in the state that they were grown. There is a choice available today, in the sense, that you can purchase either of them as caffeine free (decaffeinated) products.
By choosing the decaffeinated option, they can enjoy their coffee and tea more casually. Caffeine is good, but for people with sensitive sleep cycles it can be a craving for coffee and tea at odd times (like just before going to sleep) and a cup that is not decaffeinated can keep these people awake for a long time.
What remains a constant mystery is that downers made out of alcohol are such great party makers, while the brain sharpens and activity enduring caffeine laced beverages like coffee and tea are more associated with comfort.
Most people will usually stick to either coffee or tea as their caffeine beverage of choice. This distinction can get pretty difficult when you consider that there are plenty of people who will drink coffee at certain times and switch to tea at other times, all within a single day.
There are even some places and cultures where the beverage is chosen, not on the basis of the time of the day, but on the gender of the drinker. When you are over there, you will notice that tea is decidedly a ladies' drink (much like gin and tonic) while coffee is bit more like cigars and usually men indulge in it.
However, like everything the beverage culture is also undergoing a change and today the choice of beverage is solely dependent on personal preference.
Magdalena Witkowska is a successful Webmaster and publisher of
http://www.thecaffeinebuzz.com
To find out more about
Coffee And Tea
, please visit her website.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Why Is Coffee Not My Cup Of Tea? Is It Stale?

Most everyone that I have talked to that does not like coffee said that it is the bitter taste they don't like. Fresh coffee is never bitter. In fact, fresh coffee is smooth and tasty even undoctored. So what is giving coffee such a bad rap? After some research it a cured to me that the problem is lack of freshness, and coffee that was brewed hours ago. Stale coffee itself is horrible to drink. Stale coffee can leave a bad taste in your mouth, but if you buy coffee that is guaranteed fresh when you brew it then it will taste smooth and refreshing. How does coffee get to the point of being stale? In many cases it is due to poor packaging, but in most cases it is due to over stocking.
Poor packaging is when the product is not properly sealed from the manufacture, or the seal is broken along the way. Most containers are plastic these days, but many still use the steel cans. The difference is the cost plastic is much cheaper to produce. Plastic is not as durable and sometimes is easily damaged. If the seal is broken then the coffee is exposed to the air, which dries out the coffee. This is the main reason coffee gets to the point of being stale. Another problem is over stocking.
What about coffee that was brewed 4 hours ago? If you were to brew a cup of coffee will be horrible. I have worked for a grocery store before and I have seen products stay on the shelves for months.

Do you see the problem now? It can vary, but the average length is about 6 months. How long can coffee remain fresh in a vacuum-sealed container? The problem is they can sit on that coffee for month, or even years until it is sold.

Many distributors of coffee buy by volume to get the coffee at a cheaper price. When a store over stocks there products the product sits longer on the shelf or in the back and over time the freshness fades away.
How fresh is your coffee? My wife hates coffee because of her first bad experience, and after I roasted her a fresh batch she admitted that it was really good and not bitter. If it is not fresh don't drink it.

The coffee can have a burnt taste that is also bitter. In many cases the coffee appears thicker because the water is vaporized over time.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Green Tea: What a Difference a Date Makes

However did you know that Green Tea has a fairly short shelf life, and to get the greatest benefits it should be drunk as quickly after picking as is possible? The object of consuming Green Tea is to derive the greatest health benefits that the brew has to offer.
The actual shelf life of Green Tea will generally be up to six months after harvesting, when exposed to open air.
Indeed there are certain varieties of Green Tea which will be deemed spoiled after four months from harvesting.
So freshness becomes a problem However with the popularity of Green Tea soaring worldwide it now travels perhaps many thousands of miles from the harvest site before it reaches the customer. Keeping Green Tea fresh for consumption in the countries in which it is harvested, although needing care is fairly simple as there is usually no great time-delay in transportation.
When transporting Green Tea on long journeys most companies, but not all, seal the tea in packages filled with a nitrogen gas, which replaces oxygen and prevents the Green Tea from oxidisation.
When sold in packages the Green Tea should be sealed in a bag from which the oxygen has been removed. The contents of the bag should then be used within two months so as to have the Green Tea at its freshest.
There is much difference between a Green Tea which has been exposed to air for much of its life.
You should always read the packaging before purchase to make sure of the harvest date of the Green Tea: the better providers have no problem in giving this information. Sometimes you take a risk in the purchase of your favourite flavour of Green Tea, in that some degradation has happened prior to your purchase due to the exposure to oxygen.
Remember, by purchasing the freshest you will be getting a greater helping of the wonderful benefits Green Tea has to offer.
Mike Linder is the author of the definitive guide to all green teas and their health benefits.
http://www.benefitsdrinkinggreentea.com

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