That Coffee Roasters: African Coffee: A Whole New World

viernes, 27 de abril de 2018

African Coffee: A Whole New World

This is where coffee was first discovered

It is said that Africa is the cradle of every civilization, and what civilization would be complete without coffee?

Africa is a huge continent, that’s quite obvious. It's over 30 million kilometers; that's bigger than the United States, China and India combined. So when That Coffee Roasters says “coffee from Africa” let's remember that we're talking about many different regions.

In fact, while Ethiopia and Kenya are well-known as coffee producers, countries like Angola, Burundi, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo are amongst some of Africa's many producers.

In general, African coffees are known for being fruity, sweet and floral. This means that from African coffee, you might get all kinds of notes from blueberries to citrus. These are the kind of coffees that make you think, “can coffee taste like this?” Some people like to refer to it as the special “sparkle” that you taste in these coffees.

Ethiopia: The Cradle of Coffee

The coffee plant, Coffea arabica, originates in Ethiopia. According to the legend, the 9th-century goat herder Kaldi discovered the coffee plant after noticing the energizing effect the plant had on his flock, but the story didn’t appear in writing until 1671 and is probably apocryphal.

Ethiopia is the world's seventh largest producer of coffee, and Africa's top producer, with 260.000 metric tonnes per year for the last decade. Half of the coffee is consumed by Ethiopians themselves (known as “local consuming”), and the country leads the continent in domestic consumption. The most prominent markets for Ethiopian coffee are the EU (about half of exports), East Asia (about a quarter) and North America. The total area used for coffee cultivation is estimated to be about 4000 km2, the size is currently unknown due to the fragmented nature of the coffee farms. The way of production has not changed much, with nearly all work, cultivating and drying, still done by hand.

Being the birthplace of coffee, it's no surprise that Ethiopia has a strong culture of both coffee production and consumption. There are over 1000 heirloom varieties in Ethiopia. As always, processing changes the flavor, and because Ethiopia produces both natural and wet method coffee (being partial to sun drying due to climatic conditions), the flavor profiles can be different.

Washed coffees are a bit lighter, with more floral notes, like jasmine, while the natural (or dry processed) ones tend to be a bit heavier, fruitier and syrupy, with tastes like blueberry.

Black Insomnia: African Coffee that Breaks Records

Breaking news for the world of coffee! A new coffee from South Africa has been called the strongest in the world and has now gone on sale in the United States.

The beans can be purchased online in the US, but those willing to try this intensely strong coffee should thoroughly consider the amount of caffeine they are about to put in their bodies. Although interestingly and ironically, since going on sale, the beans are now labeled “unavailable”.

A cup of the appropriately named “Black Insomnia” contains 351 mg of Caffeine. To put this into perspective, a regular single shot of espresso contains from 50 to 90 mg caffeine. Now, that’s a lot of caffeine.

Other brands have made similar claims as being the strongest coffee in the world, so the makers of Black Insomnia sent samples of their beans and others for scientific testing at a Swiss-based laboratory, to prove that their coffee is the strongest. These tests, done via liquid chromatography, found that the former strongest coffee named “Death Wish” contains 13.2 grams of Caffeine per kilogram, and its predecessor “WodFee” coffee, which up till now had also been a contender for the strongest coffee title, contains 13.8 grams per kilogram. Black Insomnia, however, was found to contain 17.5 grams per kilogram, beating the two other brands.

It’s official, That Coffee Roasters confirms it, Black Insomnia is the strongest coffee in the whole world. What do you think? Follow us on our social networks and talk about it in the comment section, we love to read and know all your different opinions.