Tag: coffee

Whenever I recommend people brew tea and coffee with filtered water most people respond: but the quality of tap water here is excellent.

That may very well be true, but filtering tap water does something else important: it takes out excessive calcium.

Tap water that comes from ground sources (Berlin, for example) contains a large amount of calcium. This is what makes the water “hard”. This is what causes the chunky calcium build up you see on the exterior of faucets and inside water kettles coffee makers (see previous post).

Simple home water filters (Brita) take out the excessive calcium.

But you MUST replace these filters on a regular basis (usually monthly). With regular usage the filtering materials inside absorb less and less calcium and will no longer be effective. There’s nothing worse than opening someone’s refrigerator and having no idea when the filter was last replaced.

Your tea and coffee experience will improve with filtered the water. The brew will feel different on the tongue and you’ll notice greater range in depth in flavor.

Filter you water. You deserve it.

Coffee from India

This is my first post about coffee. When I was in India in May I travelled south to visit the Highfield Tea Estate in the Nilgiri region. While there I realized that India has a noteworthy coffee industry.

One day I accompanied some of the Highfield staff to a market in Coonoor and they helped me pick up some coffee for my coffee loving brother and sister-in-law.

Santha Coffee Works

Tea & Coffee Merchants, Market, Coonoor -2

Arabica coffee, Grade Peaberry

From Coorg Karnataka, Southern India

What does Peaberry mean? In the coffee fruit there are two seeds. As the seeds develop in the cherry one side of each seed will be flat. Most often both seed will develop, but sometimes only one does. That’s the peaberry and it’s typically rounder. It has a higher value amongst coffee lovers due to its rarity and difference in flavors and aromas.

The beans have a matte finish to them, indicating a modest roast. The aroma in the bag is pleasant – purely coffee and nothing addition or distracting from that. Sometimes you smell the inside of a bag of beans and you sense a sharpness, sourness, or plastic.

While I’m very savvy with flavors and differences amongst teas, I’m much less so with coffee. I can say the taste of the brew is satisfying and there was nothing masking a range of flavors I’m used too when tasting coffee.