The Coffee Bean: Gourmet Style

The roasting process is the most vital part one should consider if he wishes to enhance or even totally alter the flavor of the desired coffee. The focal point of the gourmet coffee roasting one must consider is the bean itself. No matter what type of flavor one chooses to add during roasting, if he started in the first place with an inferior quality of bean then he can only expect to get an inferior type of coffee.  Among the different varieties of coffee beans in the whole world, only two are at able to reach certain gourmet standards, these are the Arabica and Robusta beans.

The Arabica is utilized in more than half of the entire gourmet coffee production around the world. This type of bean is however very delicate and very prone to having disease caused mainly by pest and undesirable weather conditions. Growing this type of bean makes it a high-maintenance and high budget bean. The Arabica is being utilized as both gourmet coffee and as a starting base for other gourmet flavored coffees. The taste however is heavily dependent on where it has been planted and grown.

On the other hand, the robust bean has been accounted for the rest of the 40% coffee bean usage around the world. These beans are proven and tested to be easier to grow, thus making them a whole less expensive than their Arabica counterpart. But this doesn’t mean that they taste any less compared to the Arabica. Robusta, from the root word robust, is known to have a stronger and darker flavor than the Arabica and provides that little bit of punch some people tend to find and expect from their coffee.

While some people used them separately, a few gourmet makers use Arabica and Robusta in conjunction to each other. Then once in the roasting process enhancements such as syrups or caramels are added to flavor the coffee. These substances are created and added to mimic certain taste not naturally found in coffee beans. Coffees that are gourmet flavored tend to brag a robust as well as a subtle taste to it.

No longer an elitist’s commodity, anyone can buy these gourmet flavored coffee beans in local groceries or coffee shops in anyone’s locale.