Thursday, May 7, 2015

What is Water Processed Decaf Coffee?

Have you ever been curious about how coffee is decaffeinated? Don't fret, my friend! Today, we explain how some coffee beans get stripped of their caffeine using the world's most abundant resource, water. A natural process that allows you to have your late night coffee and your sleep, too.

Caffeine is water soluble. This is exactly why water goes into the coffee grounds clear and comes up all brown, delicious, and buzzing. See, the soluble material breaks down and dissolves into the coffee at a wonderful rate; the extraction rate of the caffeine is determined by the size of the coffee grounds and the temperature of the water.

As we stated, caffeine can be removed by water, which is the more natural process vs. using chemicals. In this method of removal, the green coffee beans are submerged in heated filtered water. The cleanliness of the filtered water and the heat facilitates the caffeine removal. The water is cycled through carbon, which will separates caffeine from the beans. The beans are then placed in a caffeine-free solution, which allows the beans to reabsorb all the goodness of coffee, minus the caffeine.

Many standards require 99.9% of the caffeine to be removed for the coffee to be labeled as decaf coffee. Other standards allow 97% of the caffeine to be removed. Even at three percent, the remaining caffeine is pretty negligible.

Many brands of decaf K-Cup coffee taste just as good as caffeinated coffee. Coffeevines.com has some delicious tasting water processed decaf coffee available.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

What Is Estate Grown Coffee?

There are several terms in the coffee world that describe different things. Some of the terms are very clear, while others are much more ambiguous. For example, estate grown coffee. That is a fairly easy term to understand, it's grown on an estate but what does it really mean?

Aren't all coffees grown on an estate or farm?

Well, yes, all coffees are grown on a farm. However, coffees that are marked "Estate Grown" feature the cool characteristic that every bean in that bag usually comes from the same farm, or estate.

Estate grown coffee is a specific type of single-origin coffee. The far
ms the coffee comes from are often small to mid-range in size; a few acres all the way to many square miles, sometimes a collection of farms.

The benefit of estate grown coffee is that it often has a special, unique flavor compared to traditional coffee blends. Check out the estate grown coffee blends that Coffeevines has to offer!

Purchase some estate grown coffee K-Cups from Coffeevines and get a special blend of coffee that we know you will be a fan of.

Friday, April 24, 2015

New Coffee Craze to Hit the Market: Nitro Coffee. Heard of It?

A new coffee craze will soon take over the world of coffee: nitro coffee. AC Beverage created a brewing system, the JoeTap system, which creates a new kind of coffee that creates a coffee that generates a quite a buzz.

Nitro coffee is simply that is infused with nitrogen. The JoeTap system makes the coffee with a cold brew method and uses the nitrogen to create a foamy, cascading head (much like Guinness). With the creaminess of the coffee and slightly sweet flavor, the coffee goes down easily. Due to the brewing system, the concentration of caffeine remains very high.

The system adds no cream or sugar into the coffee but it certainly tastes like it has both! A coffee with some sweetness and creaminess, you must try it.

The best coffee craze is arriving since the creation of the coffee K-Cup

Friday, April 17, 2015

5 Myths & Facts About Tea

There are so many things to know about coffee. Sometimes, it can be hard to know which bits of knowledge are real and which ones are fake. We are here to sort that out so you can enjoy your tea with the correct knowledge.

Herbal teas are genuine teas. Sorry my friend, but herbal teas are not real teas. They are actually "tisanes", real teas are green tea, black teas, white teas, and oolong teas. If your tea is made by steeping fresh or dried flowers, herbs, seeds, roots, or plant barks in hot water, then it is a tisane.

Decaf tea has not caffeine in it. Unfortunately, when tea (and coffee) are decaffeinated, there is still a bit of caffeine left in the product. Not much, about 2 to 10 milligrams per cup. Why? Well, it is very difficult to remove 100 percent of the caffeine in these things, so some caffeine is naturally stuck in the tea (and coffee). Lo siento, mi amigos.

Herbal tea is safe to drink during your pregnancy. Many women believe that they need to avoid normal tea during their pregnancy in favor of herbal tea; however, herbal teas are not much safer during a pregnancy. Some herbal teas have ingredients in them that are not known to be safe with a fetus, so speak with a doctor prior to drinking herbal teas during a pregnancy.

Tea is great for more than just sipping. True! Did you know that you can use green tea for things like poaching fish or cooking grains? Next time you're looking for a fun way to use green tea, consider some cool methods like those!

Adding citrus to your tea makes it healthier. Yup! Tea already is very healthy for us, especially due to its flavanoids (little guys that help reduce heart disease). However, adding in a spritz of citrus (lemon, orange, lime, etc) will help preserve the flavanoids and add in nutrients from the citrus.

So next time you go reaching for a "healthy" beverage, consider brewing some K-Cup tea instead and enjoy the health benefits of tea with the fast, easy convenient brewing style of K-Cups

Friday, April 10, 2015

5 Debunked Myths About Coffee


Coffee is a subject of many studies and discussions. Some people it should be prepared one way, while other people believe it should be another way. With so many people talking about it, there are bound to be some myths about coffee that we sometimes mistake as fact.

1. The hotter the coffee, the better it is. Your coffee should not be boiling hot when you are pouring it into your mug. It should be hot but not so hot that you scold yourself on the first sip. If you make your coffee with a kettle, like with a french press, do not wait until the water starts to boil to remove it from the stove. Your coffee should be between 195 and 205 degrees.

2. It's bad for the heart. Unless you are sensitive or allergic to something in coffee, such as the caffeine, then having a cup or two per day can actually be good for your heart, according to the American Heart Association.

3. It dehydrates you. Coffee is commonly blamed for being a beverage that dehydrates people. Yes, caffeine is a diuretic, which pulls water out of your body. However, water is the main ingredient in coffee. According to research in the PLoS ONE journal states that the amount of water in coffee outweighs the diuretic effect of the caffeine.

4. It sobers you up. The classic scene in movies after the characters go drinking is to see them guzzle coffee to sober up. Well, that would be the case if being drunk was merely being severely tired. Unfortunately, alcohol is stubborn and wants to do its thing no matter how much coffee you drink. This came from the fact that you might still feel more alert due to the coffee but yes, you're still drunk.

5. It makes it harder to sleep. This is true for those who have a higher sensitivity to the caffeine and/or those who drink coffee late in the day.

The bottom-line is that you do research about things before believing it. Especially something like coffee.

Craving some java now? Order K-Cup coffee from Coffeevines! We'd love to help you find the coffee blend that mixes well with your lifestyle.

Monday, March 30, 2015

15 Fun Things to Know About Coffee

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, however, much of it still remains a history to much of the world. Where did it come from? Is it healthy? Who discovered it? Etc.

It started with some goats? Word has it that some shepherds in Ethiopia first saw something interesting with the behavior of their goats after eating some berries. Their goats became frisky and were even "dancing" and hopping around.

It was eaten in the beginning. When coffee beans were still relatively new to people, they were originally eaten, not consumed as a beverage. African tribes would mix the coffee berries with some fat to create some energy balls. The caffeine in the berries mixed with the fat would be a sustaining energy source.

Islam was a big part of the rise of coffee. The surge in popularity of Islam was a big contributor to the rise in popularity of coffee. The large reason is because of one big rule within Islam and the time in history. While water is safe to drink in many countries now, in the past, it was not safe to drink for just about anyone (no purification systems). Due to this, alcohol was the preferred beverage of choice (beer, whiskeys, vodkas, etc) because the process to create the alcohol would eliminate contaminants in the water. However, since Islam forbid the consumption of alcohol, Muslims turned to coffee as their beverage of choice.

There's always money in the bean belt. The Bean Belt, the nice name for the section of earth between the Tropics of Cancer & Capricorn, is where all the coffee of the earth is grown. Almost all of the coffee grown in the world is from outside the US, except for Hawaii, the only US soil to produce coffee beans.

Coffee shops, or houses, were once illegal. In the grand year of 1675, the King of England forbid coffee houses from the country. He believed that they were places where people would meet up to plan against him. Of course, this still allowed taverns to be a place to meet, so who knows his logic.

It's quite popular, you know! 70 percent of the world consumes coffee brewed from Arabica beans, which of the two are more aromatic and mild. The remaining 30 percent of the world prefers to drink coffee brewed from Robusta beans. Robusta beans are much more bitter-tasting yet have 50 percent more caffeine than Arabica.

It's not like it grows on trees. No, wait, it does. Coffee berries are from trees, these trees can grow up to 30 feet tall. However, for easier picking, the trees are cultivated around 10 feet tall.

It's from a berry. You may have noticed us saying "coffee berries", why? Well, the coffee bean is actually grown inside of a berry. These berries are bright red and sort of look like cherries. The berries are picked, dried, stripped down to the bean, and then the beans are roasted. The berry bit is used for other things.

It's a big trade item. Coffee beans are the 2nd most traded commodity on the planet. The first is oil. People appear to love dark liquids.

George Washington created instant coffee. No, not the first president of the US. This George Washington was a Begian man living in Guatemala; in 1906, he created the lovable instant coffee, which led the way to K-Cup coffee.

Espresso is a way coffee is prepared. Espresso coffee is the name for a certain way the drink is prepared, not the name of a bean or roast.

American GIs in WWII had a big effect on coffee. When American soldiers were in Italy, they found that the espresso was too strong, so they'd order their espressos with water to dilute it a bit, which created the Americano. In addition to that, the term, "Cup of Joe" was created when people realized that American GIs, or GI Joes, loved coffee.

Did this make you thirsty for a cup of coffee? Then quickly shop on Coffeevines and get your K-Cup coffee shipped to you quickly.