Cold Weather Goodies
Posted
Sun, 11/16/03
The rain which fell all day in alternate drizzles and downpours turned to snow just as it began to get dark. I resorted to hot soup for lunch and dinner, serving up Bear Creek's Creamy Wild Rice Soup, along with fresh baguette bread lightly buttered. I also added a can of white-meat chicken to the soup mix once it was boiling. The warmth and the taste of the soup was perfect for today. Wilbert also appreciated the comforting meal after returning from the cold with Foofer in tow, having just completed their daily afternoon walk.
The cold, damp weather also prompts me to go the rounds with my favorite hot beverages. During the course of the winter months, I'll go back and forth between various forms and styles of coffee, savoring every single one of them. In fact, I'd rather have a hot beverage than eat. Regular coffee is a given (liberally dosed with Coffee Mate, of course), but there are other varieties I choose from on a consistent basis. Anything flavored with almond and vanilla gets my attention, along with a chosen few delectable mocha brews.
There are so many different types of coffee. Defining them all would take too much time. However, I've pinched from my book Coffee Talk for the following information:
Types of Coffee
Most commercial coffee companies use Arabica and Robusta in their blends. There are several types of the brew available:
•Regular Roast (American): The coffee beans are medium-roasted, resulting in a brew not too light or too heavy in flavor.
•French Roast: Heavily-roasted beans that are a deep chocolate brown in color, producing a stronger coffee.
•Italian Roast: Used for espresso; glossy, brown-black and strongly-flavored.
•European Roast: The coffee is 2/3 heavy-roast blended with 1/3 regular-roast.
•Viennese Roast: Coffee beans are 2/3 heavy-roast blended with 1/3 regular-roast.
•Instant Coffee: A powder made from the heat-dried freshly brewed coffee.
•Freeze-Dried Coffee: Brewed coffee frozen into "slush" before the water evaporates; more expensive than other "instants" but has a superior flavor.
•Decaffeinated Coffee: The caffeine is removed from the beans before roasting, either using a chemical solvent that disappears when the beans are roasted, or the Swiss "water" method which steams the beans and then scrapes off the caffeine-encrusted outer leaves.
There are also variations of coffee that are popular in coffee bars and the "Java" roadside stands, as well as some definitions of coffee-related terms. I've provided a few of them below:
•Americano: Two shots of espresso poured into a glass filled with hot water.
•Caffe Americano: Espresso cut with very hot water to fill an over-large cup.
•Cappuccino: Drink gets its name from the Italian order of Catholic Capuchin monks whose hooded robes resemble the drink's cap of foam in shape and color. Made from espresso and frothed milk, the proportions for cappuccino are typically 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 frothed milk on top.
•Demitasse: A small cup used for serving espresso (translated from French as "half-cup"
•Espresso: A brewing method which extracts the heart of the coffee bean. It was invented in Italy at the turn of the century, using a pump-driven machine that forces hot water through fine coffee grounds at nine atmospheres of pressure. It takes about twenty seconds to extract a shot of espresso, producing about one ounce of the rich liquid. The taste is sweet, thick and smooth.
•Espresso Macchiato: Simple espresso with a minimal amount of steamed milk on top.
•French Press: A device for brewing coffee whereby the coffee is steeped in water. The grounds are then removed from the coffee liquid by means of a filter plunger, which presses the grounds to the bottom of the pot.
•Froth or Foam: Milk which has been thickened and then made foamy by aeration with hot steam.
•Latte: A shot or two of espresso poured into a cup filled with steamed milk and topped off with a 1/4" of foamed milk.
•Ristretto: The most concentrated of espresso drinks, made with half the amount of water but the same amount of coffee as a regular espresso.
•Solo: A single shot of espresso.
•Varietal: A term used for the coffee that comes from a geographical region.
All delicious and all perfect for the long winter months ahead – depending on where you live, that is.
Tags: Coffee & Tea;
Culinary Collection
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