Time for Gardening

I love gardening and as much as I love coffee I have been reading on ways to combine the two. Turns out coffee grounds are really good to use in the garden. So I decided to see what other information I could find on using them for my plants.

The reason coffee grounds are good for the soil is because they are a great source of nitrogen. But you do have to be careful that you don't get too much, so instead of using directly in  your soil, put the coffee grounds into your compost instead. This will keep it from overwhelming your plants with nitrogen. The way you can tell if your plants are getting too much nitrogen is if you have a lot of leaf growth on the plant, but the plant doesn't seem to be very strong. A weak plant will be more susceptible to diseases and insects. If you are growing edible plants, the excess nitrogen will cause the plants to taste differently due to the plants' intake of sugar and vitamins being affected.

Now, this doesn't mean that your coffee can never be used on plants directly, you just have to be careful with it. You can use coffee as a mulch for fast growing vegetables, and even the coffee filters can be used in the mulch.

If you have flowers that the slugs like to eat, you can sprinkle coffee grounds around those plants, slugs avoid coffee it is believed that coffee grounds are poisonous to slugs.

Coffee grounds can act as a great natural insecticide on tomato plants. Make your coffee double strength. Let your coffee cool down to room temperature before spraying on your tomato plants. You can even pour the coffee grounds on the leaves and fruit of the tomatoes.

How do you use coffee grounds in your garden?

Relieving Stress with Tea

I adore coffee, but sometimes I also desire a nice cup of tea in the evening to help me unwind. Tea usually doesn't keep me up at night since the teas that do have caffeine in them tend to not have a lot.

Today I came across a great article on teas that are supposed to help relieve stress. To read the original article visit: http://coffeetea.about.com/od/Coffee-Tea-Health/tp/Teas-For-Stress.htm

The teas that they recommend for stress relief are:
Chamomile Tea
Mint Tea
Catnip Tea
Linden Tea
Valerian Root Tea
Lavender Tea
Ginseng Tea
Kava Tea
Passionflower Tea
Lemon Verbena Tea

Now I haven't tried all of the above teas, but for the ones that I have tried, they do have a relaxing effect on me.

My favorite tea that has Chamomile in it is the Get some Zzz's Tea by The Republic of Tea. This tea also has Passionflower and Valerian Root in it. So 3 teas off of the above list. Hmmm, no wonder I enjoy this tea before bed time.

I also enjoy Ginseng Tea, The Republic of Tea makes a Honey Ginseng Tea that I find to be superb. This is a tea that I fix for myself when I get home after an especially stressful day at work. It doesn't make me sleepy, but it does make me feel less stressed.

So when you aren't drinking coffee, what can be found in your mug?

Brewing and Grinding Coffee, The Different Methods

I've been doing some research on grinding and brewing coffee, I'm thinking about getting away from pre-ground coffee and purchasing whole coffee beans, I hear that the quality of the coffee is much better when you grind your own. So I am going to share what I have learned with you here:

Grinding

There are four methods of grinding coffee beans: burr-grinding, roller grinding, pounding, and chopping. 

1. Burr mills are used to burr-grind beans.  These mills use two revolving abrasive elements, such as wheels or conical grinding elements.  The coffee beans are crushed or torn with little frictional heat between these elements. This process releases the etherical oils that are more easily extracted during the brewing process making the coffee taste richer and smoother. Old time burr coffee grinders are still available to due this process manually. 

2. In a roller grinder, the beans are ground between pairs of corrugated rollers. A roller grinder produces a more even grind size distribution and heats the ground coffee less than any other method.  But this is an extremely expensive piece of equipment and only used commercially. (Boo, I had really hoped to be able to use this method since it produces the least amount of heat. I worry about the heat of grinding altering my coffee flavor and quality).  

3. Pounding coffee requires that the grounds be almost powdery and you can do this with most burr grinders or with a mortar and pestle. (This method is too old school for me, I want something a little simpler, but for some it might be the way to go so I included the info).

4. To chop coffee beans you use blades that rotate at a high speed like a home blender.  The problem with this method is that the grind is not uniform and the coffee is warmed by friction.  They also create coffee dust that clogs up sieves in espresso machines and French presses. 

Brewing

There are four main methods used to brew coffee grounds.  Brewed coffee kept hot will deteriorate rapidly in flavor.  Even at room temperature, deterioration will occur.  Electronic coffee makers boil the water and brew the infusion with little human assistance and sometimes according to a timer.  Some coffee makers even grind the coffee beans before brewing them.

1.      The first ever method for brewing coffee was boiling.  Simply pour boiling water over coffee grounds in a cup.  When the water cools the grounds sink to the bottom.  This is often referred to as “mud coffee.”  This is also sometimes referred to as “cowboy coffee.”  It is obvious that the grounds in the bottom of the cup will ruin the taste of your coffee, so other methods were developed.

2.      Steeping coffee is accomplished using a cafetiere or a French press.  This is a tall narrow cylinder with a plunger that includes a metal or nylon mesh filter.  Coffee or tea is placed in the cylinder and boiling water is poured in. After a few minutes the plunger is pushed down, leaving the filter immediately above the grounds, allowing the coffee or tea to be poured out while the filter retains the grounds.  Just like there are tea bags, coffee bags can be purchased in some stores.  Using these bags will eliminate any need for extra filtering.   You can purchase a French press at coffeemaker-outlet.com.  They have them in two sizes.  They even come with a handle so you can leave the tea or coffee in the cylinder.

3.      Filters are used to “drip brew.”  This is the American method of brewing coffee.  Coffee is placed in a filter, hot water drips through the coffee grounds filter the coffee and leaving only the liquid with no grounds.  There are tons of different types of coffee makers from automated to manual, large to small and everything in between.  There are the old timey percolators that are used on a stove top.  They’re great for camping trips too.  The percolator has a bottom chamber that is filled with water, a middle section and an upside down pot placed on the top.  When the water boils, the coffee maker is flipped over to let the water filter through the coffee grounds.

4.      Pressure is used in making espresso.  Usually the water is 91 degrees Celsius and forced through a lightly packed matrix (called a puck) of finely ground coffee.  Espresso is traditionally served by itself or with dessert.  It is not usually drunk with a meal.

If I decide to go through with my idea and purchase a coffee grinder I will let you know how different the coffee flavor is. Hopefully if I do this, it will be worth it in the long run!

The Making of Coffee leads to Houseplants

I stumbled across a very interesting blog all about how coffee is made. It mostly talks about the coffee plant. After reading this blog I'd love to invest in a coffee plant to grow indoors. It sounds like it'd make a wonderful houseplant.

So of course I went on a google search for coffee houseplants. I came across this blog: http://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/coffee-plant.html

It says that the coffee plant gets to 15 feet high in its natural habitat. Which is a little large for my house, but the coffee plant is easy to care for and can thrive through harsh pruning. (sounds like my kind of plant)

Above is an image of a coffee plant that I found. I love that shade of green leaf, and what a perfect planter it is in. The color of coffee!

Yup, going to invest in one of these. I think a coffee plant would look nice setting on my counter next to the Keurig Brewer.

Sorry for not posting

So I started a blog, and my first post was about my kitty Java. Well Java was ran over a couple days after that post and I just hadn't had the heart to come back on here.

I just decided to buy a new coffee maker after the carafe of my last one was broken. I looked at several Black and Decker coffee makers before deciding to purchase a Keurig brewer instead.

The Keurig is more convenient for me and my busy day. I can just have a cup of coffee almost instantly whenever the whim to drink coffee hits. And I've been loving all the flavors and mixing and matching different flavored creamers with different coffee flavors. Some have been hits others have been, well let's say dumped. Down the sink that is, I don't know why I decided to try to mix a cheap (and past its expiration, gotta check those) vanilla powder creamer with a butter toffee coffee. Although, I will admit, had the vanilla creamer been a good brand and fresh it might have tasted good.

What coffee flavors are you experimenting with at the moment?

How to Replace a Broken Coffee Pot

What a night/morning. I thought I was going to kill Java this morning (java the cat, not java the drink.)
Don’t get me wrong, I love my kitty I do. (look isn’t she so fluffy):

But Java loves, I mean LOVES to jump on my counters.  And last night she thought it would be fun to push my coffee pot (just the carafe part) into the floor. So sweet to know that my misery brings her joy. Ha ha.

Well, let’s just say that tile and glass do not play nice. So I am now on a hunt for a Bunn Replacement Pot.  Luckily for Java I found one and have it ordered.  Even luckier for her, I have an extra coffee maker, its a little older and isn’t necessarily my favorite to use any more.  But it beats not having my  morning cup of joe.  I just hope that the replacement I ordered is the right one.  It should be here in a week, so I’ll let ya’ll know if it works out for me.  But for now I’m going to take a nap to catch up on some sleep.