Quick guide to choose its coffee

Well-seasoned, long black, latte ... Coffee is in different forms and for all tastes. When the time comes to choose, the list may seem tedious, so we opted for a safe bet. Here is a quick guide to see more clearly and perhaps dare to a new caffeinated pleasure.

Filter coffee: the most popular cafes, filter coffee is prepared by slowly pouring hot water into a filter containing ground coffee. Originally, a sock was used as a filter!

Expresso: this is a brewed coffee with a small amount of hot water quickly passing through finely ground coffee beans. Espresso was invented in order to get a fresh and tasty coffee in seconds.

Macchiato: macchiato coffee (or Noisette in French) is an espresso lengthened with a little hot water or not, to which is added to the milk foam. Just as strong as espresso, but more creamy in mouth.

American coffee: the American coffee consists simply of an espresso to which is added some hot water. Its origin dates back to World War II. Americans, accustomed to filter coffee, found the European espresso too strong. Their solution diluted with hot water.

Latte: espresso-based (usually elongate), to which is added the same amount of hot milk and a little moss. It is possible to replace the cow's milk with soy or almond milk. (But it's better the classic milk ah ah)

Cappuccino: From Italian origin, cappuccino contains espresso, hot milk and many milk foam. Its taste is generally well-seasoned than the latte because espresso is less diluted. When properly performed, it is for me one of the best type of coffee you can find! (It’s my favourite!)

Mokaccino: perfect for sweet lovers: it simply adds liquid or powdered chocolate into a cappuccino! We generally drink it to replace a dessert or simply to break the morning routine.

This are the main types of coffee you can find in almost all cafes in the world. There are also many other types and variety by country in Europe and in the rest of the world but they are to be discovered locally!

In extra this is an easy cappuccino recipe to make at home:

Preparation time: 5 min

Ingredients

•       Milk
•       1 strong coffee
•       Chocolate powered
•       Small mixer for foam milk

Recipe preparation:

• Prepare a strong coffee or according to your taste
• When the coffee is almost ready, pour in the mug some milk at ambient temperature (very important, because it is too cold the foam doesn’t rise, same if it’s too hot!)
• Do foam the milk with the mixer but be careful, the volume must at least double!
• Pour on it the coffee very carefully. Normally it must remain some foam on the surface.
• Beat again milk in a separate bowl and rectify the foam. Put on the foam some powered chocolate.

And now your cappuccino is ready!

Tip: Add some cinnamon on the foam, it’s delicious!

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To go Further: Coffee Economy

Discovered in the 12th century in Ethiopia, coffee is today a universal drink, grown throughout the tropical belt, between the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. Agricultural commodity traded in the world, and second raw material in value after oil, coffee is now very significant economic stake. Indeed, production sustains some 18 million people, while the import, processing and distribution are living about 100 to 110 million people. Global trade in coffee between producing and importing countries are, depending on the year, between 10 and 15 billion dollars.

The main producers are:

• Brazil with an annual production of around 45 million bags

• Vietnam with annual output of around 15 million bags

• Colombia with an annual production of around 11 million bags

The production is very peasant as family farms (less than 10 hectares) account, by country, from 80 to 100% of production in Africa and Asia and 60 to 80% in Latin America. Consumer side, it is eaten about 1.5 billion cups of coffee every day in the world. In France, the annual per capita consumption is estimated at 5 kg or 2 cups a day.

Coffee and stock exchange

Coffee is traded on the futures markets: London for Robusta and that of New York for Arabica.

The futures markets are speculative instruments attached to an underlying (in this case Arabica coffee in New York and London Robusta coffee). The course of these markets changes according to movements related to speculation. It may at any time buy coffee for an upcoming delivery period. A contract is then established between the parties, who agree to honour their commitments. The seller has an obligation to deliver and the buyer a payment obligation at the current fixed.

The "coffee" trading of the futures market in New York for Arabica and in London for Robusta corresponds to a number of underlying based criteria. The "Arabica" rating in New York is expressed in cents per pound weight Dollar (0,453gr) Departure country (without charges for insurance and transport) for a quality called "ordinary" of various crops and origins.

The quotation "Robusta" London is expressed in dollars per ton from the country of origin (without the cost of insurance and transport) for quality "grade 2" screen 14-16, without specifying the origin. Depending on the origin and the quality of coffee (soil, crop type, number of defects, grain size, crop year ...), a premium or "differential" is applied at the market. According to supply and demand, this premium is negotiated each purchase with the producer or exporter.

International Coffee Agreement

Between 1963 and 1989, an international agreement signed between many producers and consumers has set both a floor and a ceiling price and export quotas. The objective of this agreement was to regulate the futures market to ensure remunerative returns to producer’s countries while ensuring the level of exports to consumer countries. In addition, this agreement allowed the European economy to preserve their former colonies. After numerous disputes between signatory countries, the agreement ended in 1989 giving way to free trade.

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Three things to know about your coffee

Hot drink with stimulating effects, coffee (with caffeine) is increasingly discussed by scientists as a "drug".

Do you read this article a coffee in hand? Across the globe, lovers morning cup know it contains a substance on which they rely heavily: caffeine. It is so effective to boost energy and productivity, that until 2004, the International Olympic Committee in regulated consumption for athletes.

"In many ways, this is the drug of work" slice besides Stephen Braun, author of "Buzz: Science and knowledge of alcohol and caffeine." "When caffeine is arriving for the first time in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century, the owners saw it as a miracle drug that transformed the sleepy employee’s productive cogs in the industrial machine," he illustrates.

While caffeine is known for its ability to keep us awake and alert, several studies also point she can sharpen our performance in a staggering range of tasks. But be careful, because it is easy to abuse and to annul any positive effects. Here is how and when to administer the right dose of coffee stack.

Drink just the right dose

According to a study published in 2014, consuming caffeine can significantly improve long-term memory. To prove it, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore gave multiple images to be stored in guinea pigs who ingested either a placebo pill or a pill with 200 mg of caffeine (approximately the amount in two cups of coffee).

The next day, the researchers tested the ability of guinea pigs to remember images. "We observed that 200 mg of caffeine improves memory over a period of 24 hours," announced Professor Michael Yassa, one of the researchers.

But to take full advantage of this, he suggested to administer caffeine in moderate dose before having to swallow large doses of information. Professor Yassa, however, that caffeine does not produce the same effects as people. So there is no "universal dose."

Drinking a coffee makes lovable

Caffeine it would make people more likely to work? Probably. In a 2009 study, researchers asked their guinea pigs to play a game in which their willingness to cooperate benefited directly to a third party.

The test subjects who consumed 150 mg of caffeine over a cup of coffee have shown much more likely to cooperate than those who drank decaffeinated. More scientists are looking at caffeine, and the more they extract various benefits. "This is a drug with a very broad spectrum," says Stephen Braun.

Caffeine against Alzheimer?

"The effects of other stimulants are more" surgical ". Caffeine works with the adenosine system that is found throughout the brain. It is therefore not surprising that caffeine has effects on things like creativity, writing speed, analysis of information, or the mathematical calculation, "explains Stephen Braun.

According to Professor Yassa, studies indicate that caffeine might be associated with a higher longevity, reduced cognitive decline in humans, mice and even help with Alzheimer's. If these results are confirmed in the future (Professor Yassa and his team are working there), caffeine could one day be prescribed for many other reasons to stay awake and alert.

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