Have you ever woken up to a blue morning and simply did not want to go out and do anything, and then all of a sudden,  as you near your kitchen, you take a whiff of the most aromatic and inviting smell; and it simply spirits you away to serenity and contentment. That is the effect of coffee.

Whether you are a coffee buff or a-cup-a-day-coffee person, no one can deny that coffee has made one of the greatest impact and influence in our society from business to religion. Coffee is the second leading consumer product in the world, second only to petroleum. In 2010 alone, we consumed seven million metric tons of coffee beans and it is one of the most traded commodities in the world.

All these traffic for coffee is because most of us cannot get enough of the energizing effect that it brings in our lives. From increased attention, better memory performance, and overall improvement on physical ability, coffee has brought us a new and flavorful way of honing our potentials. It has helped us go through the cramming school days; coffee made it easier for us to focus our attention in critical and late work hours, making sure that we are able to submit papers and projects on time and with greater accuracy. All these effects are only half of what we enjoy from our cup of coffee, the other half is the aroma and exquisite taste if brings to our senses.

Coffee has evolved to cater to the taste and need of each person. There are at least 50 varieties of coffees and a hundred ways to take them, from black to americano and myriads more. However, despite the overwhelming number of kinds and how to take them, each of us has his own brand and style, some like to have milk on it or a creamer, others wants it plain black and strong, while others prefers the more bitter taste from the beans themselves.

With our developed taste for coffee, we all need wholesale coffee to be available and affordable. Wholesale’s allure has always been about getting the products we want in bulk and with better prices. What better way to procure our most loved drink than thru wholesale coffee. Buying coffee wholesale means you have to know your stuff and your terms, like Swiss Water process or the process of removing caffeine from coffee; Past Crop the selling of old crops or coffee that were harvested last season, something that needs to be avoided; etc…

The ultimate goal here is to just make sure that we get the kind and style of coffee we want every time and in the most cost effective way possible.  Coffee anyone?

According to SCAA or the Specialty Coffee Association of America, specialty coffee, more commonly known as ‘gourmet’ or ‘premium’ coffee is a type of coffee that scores 80 points or more on a 100-point scale.

Specialty coffee beans are grown in ideal climates and are considered ‘special’ because of their distinctive full cup taste. The special characteristics are a direct result of soil composition and climate in which they are grown.

The term specialty coffee was first used in 1974 by Erna Knutsen. She used this to describe the best-flavored beans which were produced in special microclimates.
In the last 25 years, the market share for specialty coffee has increased from 1% to 20%, and is the most rapidly growing portion of the coffee industry.

According to the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe, specialty coffee is a crafted quality coffee beverage which is offered in a limited market place to be judged by consumers. It must have a distinct taste and personality from common coffee beverages offered. The superior quality comes from beans grown in an accurately defined area. This allows the highest standards for green coffee and its roasting, storage and brewing.

It’s all about the taste. While few people truly understand the difference between ordinary coffee and specialty coffee, you’ll understand once you’ve tasted the difference.

Many have a deep appreciation for coffee and shops all around the world serve different blends. Starbucks is one of the most popular coffee shops with franchises worldwide.

Coffee grown in altitudes of around 3000 feet is said to produce more complex and elegant flavors. The cherries which contain the bean must be picked from the trees by hand.

The beans are usually pale green and dark yellow in their raw state after being cleaned, dried, and inspected. They are then roasted, blended and grinded.

Types of coffee:

Regular roast: also known as American roast which is medium roasted. The result is not too light and not too heavy in flavor.

Italian roast: used mainly for espresso, strong flavored with glossy, brown-black beans

French roast: produces stronger coffee from deep brown, heavily-roasted beans

Viennese roast: a mix of two-thirds regular roast and one-third heavy roast

European roast: a blend of one-third regular-roast and two-thirds heavy roast

If you’re a coffee lover, regardless of what type you prefer, chances are you’ve tasted them all before.

Instant coffee is made from freshly brewed coffee which has been heat-dried to produce powder. In contrast, freeze-dried coffee is frozen to slush, after which the water is evaporated to produce a superior tasting coffee than instants.

Imagine how the world would be today without coffee? It has become a regular part of people’s lives around the world from the time they wake up to the time they take their evening dinner’s dessert and a lot of times in between.

Thanks to the Ethiopians in Africa for discovering this wonderful coffee berries which according to legend began with a goat herder and his “hyper active” goats. Noticing the unusual behavior of his goats, he began to trace the cause from the red berries they were munching on having gotten tired of the grass.

Curious, the goat herder ate the wild berries too and felt greatly energized after the day’s tiring work. As the story is told, he then took some berry fruits to his monk friend who consequently boiled them. The monk testified that drinking the berry beverage has kept him alive and awake through the monastery’s prayer vigils.

From Ethiopia, the use of these stimulating red berries spread out throughout the African continent. Being considered as fresh fruits, these berries were usually eaten raw together with the seeds -the coffee bean. They were later used as energy food sources for long travels by land in lump forms with the ground berries and seeds mixed with the fat of animals.

Thanks to the Arabs who first invented the way on consuming the coffee beans without the berry fruits during the 1300s. They started calling it “qawah” as they learned to crush the beans, boil them in water and drink, not just the stimulating beverage, but also the crushed beans.

It still took maybe a century more before the coffee beverage was drunk by itself without having to also consume the ground roasted coffee beans. By the start of the 1500s, the trading of roasted coffee beans was prevalent in the Middle East and getting ready to cross international boundaries.

By the end of the 1600s, the coffee trading reached Europe which was readily grabbed by the more powerful British, French and Dutch people for world trade. The revitalizing coffee became quite popular in the western world that the Arabs sought to protect their blooming coffee trade industry to keep it from being “stolen” by the Europeans.

The great powers of the west later took steps to smuggle the coffee bushes into Europe which they soon discovered were not capable to grow in their temperate climates. The more persistent Dutch traders later found a way to bring the coffee plants to their colony in the Indonesian archipelago where the coffee growing industry started to flourish for the Dutch which later influenced the British and the French to grow coffee in their Asian colonies.

Having known the coffee bean story, you now could better appreciate and enjoy the stimulating exotic taste of this all time famous global drink.