Gourmet Coffee Online

Gourmet coffee is the blend of the very best coffee beans, picked at just the right time, and then processed by skilled artisans who roast the beans to perfection and turn them into the various blends and types of high quality coffee that have unsurpassed flavor. It's not your grocery store coffee by a long shot. Here is how gourmet coffee is made:

There are two species of coffee trees from which most coffee is made: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica beans seem to be the most popular these days, and is grown in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The very best Arabica beans used for gourmet coffee is grown at altitudes between 4,000 and 6,000 feet because the cooler temperatures allow the bean to ripen more slowly giving it more flavor and less acidity.

Gourmet coffee needs to be made from beans that have been picked at just the right moment of ripeness. This is quite a demanding process because not all of the beans ripen at the same time, so there is a need for the grower to constantly monitor the coffee crop and pick only the ripe coffee cherries at any given time.

After picking, the coffe beans are processed in one of two ways, either soaking and washing the beans to remove the chaff from the bean itself, or using a more natural dry method. Either method has its own advantages and will produce a fine gourmet coffee if done correctly.

After processing the beans are roasted at very high temparatures and then rapidly cooled to give the coffee it's individual taste. Generally the darker the coffee bean, the longer the roasting process it has been subjected to. Also the darker the bean, the stronger and more full-bodied flavor of the gourmet coffee.

There are some great resources on the internet for gourmet coffee, and we have provided links to each website for your convenience below.

Recommended Gourmet Coffee Resources

Peet's Coffee & Tea - Peet's is well-known for their outstanding selction of gourmet coffees and has been in the business since 1966. Their coffee is hand-roasted and always shipped the same day for maximum freshness.
CoffeeForLess.com - They have a very wide selection of coffees from major brands like Starbucks, Godiva, Millstone, Folgers, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. They also have a great selection of brewing and grinding equipment for personal use.
CoffeeAM.com - This premier site is rated 5 stars by Yahoo, and has over 150,000 customers. They carry a wide range of gourmet coffees, flavored coffees, and coffee equipment at very low prices. If you want it, you can probably find it here.
Spice Of Life Coffee & Tea - They have been in the coffee business over 20 years now and feature gourmet and flavored coffees from all over the world. They also promote coffees that have been grown in an especially envirnonmentally friendly way.
Wide Awake Coffee - They have several major brands of gourmet coffees available like Starbucks, Farmers Bros, and Goodearth as well as other gourmet products including popcorn, hot chocolate, and bagels too. very low shipping rates available.

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