History UsefulNotes / Coffee

* Direct infusion: This is used with Turkish, er, [[InsistentTerminology Greek]], um, [[OverlyLongGag Armenian]]-- screw it. For simplicity's sake, let's just call it Near Eastern Coffee, as well as what's commonly known as "cowboy coffee". This coffee is brewed in a pot directly over the heat; Middle Eastern Coffee is ground to a powder, often with spices (cardamom is a favorite and practically universal in Arab countries, although cinnamon and a few others also show up) and prepared quickly and usually sweetened (drink this coffee without any sugar and people look at you funny), while "cowboy coffee" uses a coarse grind (presumably to avoid overextracting the flavors and burning the coffee while it sits by the fire). The Near Eastern variant is almost certainly the original way to make coffee, as it doesn't rely on specialized equipment and is traditional in the earliest countries to get coffee. Ironically, Turkey, the contentious namesake, is one of the highest consumers of ''tea'' in the world.

Fair trade coffee refers to coffee purchased outside the commodity market at a higher price in order to subsidize higher wages for the growers and plantation workers. While it's fair to say these are admirable goals, they don't have any direct bearing on the quality of the product; fortunately, this will not usually be a problem, as people paying more for these coffees are still expecting to get their money's worth. As well, while Fair Trade coffee has a price markup, a large portion of this markup goes to the Fair Trade managers in North America and Europe, as opposed to the farmers. A 2011 study found that Fair Trade coffee farmers ended up poorer. One of the reasons is that farmers have to pay fir the Fair Trade certification, so Western certifiers fly in to do the assessment. [[note]]https://financialpost.com/opinion/lawrence-solomon-fair-trade-coffee-producers-often-end-up-poorer[[/note]]

Coffee, like a lot of tropical agricultural products, is often a rather exploitative business, both towards the environment and to frequently underpaid workers. Several terms are common in the coffee trade business to denote production with a mind towards ethics; organic coffee is, like any other organic product, grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Shade-grown coffee refers to coffee grown in semi-wild tree groves that double as preserves for birds and other canopy wildlife (coffee sometimes grows better with some shade anyway, making it a good deal for all involved). Fair trade coffee refers to coffee purchased outside the commodity market at a higher price in order to subsidize higher wages for the growers and plantation workers. While it's fair to say these are admirable goals, they don't have any direct bearing on the quality of the product; fortunately, this will not usually be a problem, as people paying more for these coffees are still expecting to get their money's worth. As well, while Fair Trade coffee has a price markup, a large portion of this markup goes to the Fair Trade managers in North America and Europe, as opposed to the farmers. It's worth noting that in some very poor coffee-growing areas, some of the coffee in fact fits the organic and shade-grown profiles as a general matter of practicality; however, because organic certifications and the like cost some serious money, they aren't allowed to use those terms. Coffee has even been used as part of efforts to rebuild broken states; a large part of Rwanda's coffee output, for example, comes from efforts to use coffee to help finance rebuilding the country after the bloody civil wars of the 1990s.

* Direct infusion: This is used with Turkish, er, [[InsistentTerminology Greek]], um, [[OverlyLongGag Armenian]]-- screw it. For simplicity's sake, let's just call it Near Eastern Coffee, as well as what's commonly known as cowboy coffee. This coffee is brewed in a pot directly over the heat; Middle Eastern Coffee is ground to a powder, often with spices (cardamom is a favorite and practically universal in Arab countries, although cinnamon and a few others also show up) and prepared quickly and usually sweetened (drink this coffee without any sugar and people look at you funny), while cowboy coffee uses a coarse grind (presumably to avoid overextracting the flavors and burning the coffee while it sits by the fire). The Near Eastern variant is almost certainly the original way to make coffee, as it doesn't rely on specialized equipment and is traditional in the earliest countries to get coffee. Ironically, Turkey, the contentious namesake, is one of the highest consumers of ''tea'' in the world.

** Israelis, being an odd sort, skip all the effort used in making the coffee palatable and just spoon some of the near-eastern grounds into a mug before pouring in some hot water. The legend goes that it was invented by [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles IDF soldiers]] on alert who didn't have time to brew up a proper cup. The name for this drink translates fairly directly to "[[BadToTheLastDrop mud coffee]]."

* Filtered coffee: The hot water is poured through the coffee grounds and the brewed coffee passes through a filter (usually a paper or metal mesh cone) into a carafe. The usual way of doing this is with a funnel with a filter in it, with the water coming from either a kettle or a dedicated coffee machine. Automatic drip filters, by far the most widely used, scale particularly well, and range in size from small home units of 3-12 cup capacity to massive urns found in diners and office break rooms, some of which seem large enough for a child (or a [[Literature/{{Illuminatus}} midget]]) to hide in. The manual method is also referred to as "pour-over" and it's SeriousBusiness for pour-over fans.

* Percolator: An older method, once ubiquitous but now largely abandoned, a percolator is a pot in which heated water is pushed up through a pipe by the bubbles formed as the water is boiled; the water then splashes through the end of the pipe to land on a filter containing the grounds, dripping ('percolating') through the filter bed before returning to the boiling chamber below ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9avjD9ugXc this video]] from WebVideo/TechnologyConnections gives a detailed explanation of how they work and why they're not that great). While this makes a very nice room freshener, it also causes the brewed coffee to reboil several times over, and for the most part coffee fans don't like the result. In the US specifically, percolators were nearly universal in the early 20th century, due to their convenience and low cost; however, they rapidly vanished once inexpensive drip-filtered coffee machines (specifically the iconic Mr Coffee[[TradeSnark ™]] and its work-alikes) came on the market in the early 1970s.

Flavored coffees are popular too -- hazelnut, vanilla, and almond are among the most common, but there are many, many others. Dismiss them as hot milkshakes if you wish, but they're immensely popular. (Incidentally, when you hear someone complaining about a four-dollar coffee, they're most likely talking about some elaborate espresso or frozen drink, seldom just a plain cup of coffee or espresso, which is what a lot of such statements seem to imply. Common misconception.)

Coffee, like a lot of tropical agricultural products, is often a rather exploitative business, both towards the environment and to frequently underpaid workers. Several terms are common in the coffee trade business to denote production with a mind towards ethics; organic coffee is, like any other organic product, grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Shade-grown coffee refers to coffee grown in semi-wild tree groves that double as preserves for birds and other canopy wildlife (coffee sometimes grows better with some shade anyway, making it a good deal for all involved). Fair trade coffee refers to coffee purchased outside the commodity market at a higher price in order to subsidize higher wages for the growers and plantation workers. While it's fair to say these are admirable goals, they don't have any direct bearing on the quality of the product; fortunately, this will not usually be a problem, as people paying more for these coffees are still expecting to get their money's worth. (It's worth noting that in some very poor coffee-growing areas, some of the coffee in fact fits the organic and shade-grown profiles as a general matter of practicality; however, because organic certifications and the like cost some serious money, they aren't allowed to use those terms.) Coffee's even been used as part of efforts to rebuild broken states; a large part of Rwanda's coffee output, for example, comes from efforts to use coffee to help finance rebuilding the country after the bloody civil wars of the 1990s.

* French Press: Coffee brewed in a cylindrical pot (often glass, though stainless steel in becoming common) fitted with a plunger that draws a mesh filter down through the cylinder. Hot water and coffee grounds are infused in the pot and allowed to soak for 3-5 minutes, then the plunger forces the ground down to the bottom of the pot, leaving the clean coffee liquid above the mesh. It tends to have a more intense flavor than equivalent filter coffee, but can leave a sludge of fine coffee particles at the bottom of one's cup if the coffee was ground too fine.

-->-- Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of '''[[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coffee coffee]]'''

* Direct infusion: This is used with Turkish, er, [[InsistentTerminology Greek]], um, [[OverlyLongGag Armenian]]-- screw it. For simplicity's sake, let's just call it Near Eastern Coffee, as well as what's commonly known as cowboy coffee. This coffee is brewed in a pot directly over the heat; Middle Eastern Coffee is ground to a powder, often with spices (cardamom is a favorite and practically universal in Arab countries, although cinnamon and a few others also show up) and prepared quickly and usually sweetened (drink this coffee without any sugar and people look at you funny), while cowboy coffee uses a coarse grind (presumably to avoid overextracting the flavors and burning the coffee while it sits by the fire). The Near Eastern variant is almost certainly the original way to make coffee, as it doesn't rely on specialized equipment and is traditional in the earliest countries to get coffee.