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Organic coffee: Why Latin America's farmers are abandoning it [lib suicide watch ]
Seattle Times ^ | 3/6/2010 | Ezra Fieser

Posted on 03/07/2010 7:16:48 PM PST by Moe Tzadik

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To: exDemMom; Sharrukin

Maybe the caffeine isn’t roasted out, but I can’t stand the burned flavor at Starbucks, even if you can bring your guns. Remember that the French roasted cork to produce ersatz coffee in WWII; when your roast is THAT dark, you’re basically percolating charcoal briquettes...

I heard that some people roast their own beans at home. Maybe that would solve everybody’s problem, from Mrs. Olsen to poor Organic Juan Valdez down there.

P.S. Folgers will do, but I like Farmer Brothers...


61 posted on 03/07/2010 9:11:21 PM PST by mrreaganaut (What did the Buddha say to the hot-dog vendor? "Make me One with everything.")
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To: mrreaganaut

I imagine it isn’t all roasted out, but there is less caffeine in dark roasted beans than lighter roast.


62 posted on 03/07/2010 9:14:30 PM PST by Sharrukin
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To: mrreaganaut

I love Starbucks, and any other coffee shop that can give me something close to the coffee I remember in Europe, especially France.

I wouldn’t go so far as to try to roast my own beans; my oven probably doesn’t have the fine temperature control needed. But I buy the darkest roasts I can, with beans so dark they look like dark chocolate.

I can’t tolerate most coffee that comes in cans.


63 posted on 03/07/2010 9:37:31 PM PST by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: thecodont

“I’ll stick with my Folgers.”

I’ll stick with my YUletide BANquet.

It’s cheap and gets the job done.

I like Costco’s Seattle Mountain Roast Columbia Supremo.

64 posted on 03/07/2010 9:50:13 PM PST by Tramonto (Live Free or Die)
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To: mrreaganaut

I use a popcorn maker to roast coffee. It usually turns out quite good but its too smoky to roast inside and doesn’t work in cold weather.


65 posted on 03/07/2010 9:54:01 PM PST by Tramonto (Live Free or Die)
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To: exDemMom

Ah, so you have happy memories of le cafe de la belle france... That explains a lot!

Actually, I was thinking of a counter-top device that I’m sure I’ve seen advertised - “perfect roast every time” or some such, enough for a cup at a time, or maybe a pot. But since you like Starbucks, you can always find your blend.

My problem is that I’m in the same boat as the libs on whom so many posters are dumping their Folgers: I like the expensive stuff, but hate paying for it!


66 posted on 03/07/2010 10:01:44 PM PST by mrreaganaut (What did the Buddha say to the hot-dog vendor? "Make me One with everything.")
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To: Moe Tzadik
The writer of the article made a glaring mistake in his opening sentence.

132 lb. bags

Guatemalan coffee is NOT bagged in 132 lb. bags.

It is measured by the POUND, not the Kilo. Period. Dot.
150 lb. bags, 250 of which make one trading unit = 37,500 lbs., which is about as much as can be loaded into a truck without exceeding 80,000 lb gross vehicle weight limits...

Other localities bag their green coffee differently. Colombia bags in 70 Kilo increments (154-155+ lb.s depending upon the leakage through the weave, by the time it leaves a U.S. shipper's dock).

Most Asian coffees are bagged in 60 Kilo (132+lb.) bags.

Sumatra, Java, New Guinea, Sulawesi, Flores, etc., all bag in 60 Kilo, along with every African coffee I've dealt with.

Hmmm, I'm thinking Colombia is the only with 70 Kilo. Even Panama (if memory serves) bags in 150 lb. Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, & Brazil , all bag 150 lb. NOT "Kilos".

Obviously, the news writer doesn't know beans.

67 posted on 03/07/2010 10:34:59 PM PST by BlueDragon (there is no such thing as a "true" compass, all are subject to both variation & deviation)
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To: Moe Tzadik
ANOTHER THING.

The real "high grown" coffee from whichever nation, doesn't even much need the 'organic' labeling.

If it is truly high grown, the pests typical to coffees in lower elevations are generally not present, hence the lack of pesticide use for those locales.

In the high altitudes, non-organic fertilizers are pretty much unheard of, too.

The 'organic' labeling for such coffees is superfluous, not to mention expensive to get, and at least used to have such stipulations that the ripe cherry couldn't be gathered into 5 gallon plastic buckets, but had to be put into baskets made of 'native orgainic materials', preferably woven indigenously...

Which has nothing to do with being "organic" unless one is a Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange sycophant.

68 posted on 03/07/2010 10:49:32 PM PST by BlueDragon (there is no such thing as a "true" compass, all are subject to both variation & deviation)
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To: dalereed
I've seen too many films of their produce fertilized with honey buckets!

Ever smell a Korean kimchee field? In the hot sun? Only shade the shadow of the cloud...of flies?

I only want U.S.A. raised 'regular' produce, and only buy what I can't grow.

At least we have COR labeling now, so we can make a real choice.

69 posted on 03/07/2010 11:52:50 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (God wants a Liberal or RINO hanging from every tree. Tar & feathers optional extras.)
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To: Moe Tzadik

$1.50 -$2/pound for raw beans?

For the difference in prices at the store for roasted beans, I could use one of those 132# bags, and do my own roasting...

What did he say his phone number was?


70 posted on 03/07/2010 11:53:01 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (God wants a Liberal or RINO hanging from every tree. Tar & feathers optional extras.)
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To: Graybeard58

Community Coffee here in La. Folgers??


71 posted on 03/08/2010 1:04:17 AM PST by Atchafalaya (Atchafalaya Basin; when you're there , thats the best)
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To: dalereed

I just launched a mouth full of store brand coffee at my screen... Thanks for the chuckle...

I am a little more serious about my beer...


72 posted on 03/08/2010 2:17:41 AM PST by CenTex (What one man can do... THANKS MR. BROWN... SIR!!!)
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To: CenTex
I am a little more serious about my beer...

Cheers!

73 posted on 03/08/2010 3:47:47 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: bigredkitty1

When i was in college back in the late 70s, i did an exchange program in Colombia. I have NEVER had coffee as good as what i had there. They supposedly export all of their best beans but even 100% colombian coffee beans, hand ground etc, here, NEVER taste as good as the coffee did there. We toured coffee plantations, coffee processing plants etc.


74 posted on 03/08/2010 3:53:25 AM PST by xsmommy
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To: Moe Tzadik

Organic coffee does taste better but.....This seems like a supply and demand problem. High demand from US and Euro greenie types resulted in huge acreage of organic coffee trees. Probably during the bubble years

Now there is an oversupply so if you make the extra effort to go& grow organic there is no reward


75 posted on 03/08/2010 4:35:04 AM PST by dennisw (It all comes 'round again --Fairport)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Liberals WANT to be made to behave (after all, they can’t control themselves), as well, they want the rest of us to be made to “behave” according to their mandates for the environment, etc. It’s working.


76 posted on 03/08/2010 5:18:16 AM PST by hulagirl (Mother Theresa was right)
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To: 31R1O

I will have to try an Ethiopian coffee the next time I order coffee. Taste is the primary reason I make my own at home. For around $11/lb, I have enough good quality coffee to last at least two weeks.


77 posted on 03/08/2010 5:21:07 AM PST by bigredkitty1 (March 5,2010. I will miss you, Big Red.)
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To: Free Vulcan

Greetings from North Texas.


78 posted on 03/08/2010 5:28:36 AM PST by bigredkitty1 (March 5,2010. I will miss you, Big Red.)
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To: xsmommy; BlueDragon

I’m going to make a wild guess, you currently live near sea level, and were at altitude in Columbia.

(nully testing a theory)


79 posted on 03/08/2010 5:59:25 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 410 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: Moe Tzadik
I roast my own coffee (as well as make my own beer and have become a bit of a wine connoisseur). There is a huge difference between what you buy at the grocery store and what you can get by roasting yourself.

First off, all grocery coffee is stale. Roasted coffee stales in about three to five days after roasting. There is a point between twelve hours and three days that the coffee is typically at it's peak flavor.

Second, many store-bought coffees are not all Arabica beans, which is the most flavorful type. Many grocery brands are cut with Robusta beans, which boosts caffeine and can be grown at lower altitudes and better harvested with machinery.

Organic or not, the best coffees can be found at small coffee farms, where attention to detail both in cultivation and cherry selection. Most of what I buy comes from a lefty group known as Sweet Marias (www.sweetmarias.com). I don't question their politics - I just enjoy some of the best coffees the world has to offer. You would be very surprised at the variety of tastes and flavors you can find between different origins and farms.

This is my roaster:

It's a nice hobby, and the best thing is - like beer brewing - you have something very good that not many store brands can duplicate.

80 posted on 03/08/2010 6:07:53 AM PST by Magnatron
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