Have you seen the one cup coffee maker? You may wonder what’s so great about them. Why use them to make only one cup of coffee when you can get a cheaper coffee maker that makes up to 12 cups at a time?

First of all with the 12 cup coffee maker you may use it to make enough for six cups but end up drinking only two cups. The rest is poured down the drain. Then you have to dump out the grinds and if you aren’t careful it can be a real mess.

With a one cup coffee maker, you don’t need to mess around with coffee grinds. These machines take a sealed cartridge containing pre-measured coffee and a special built in filter. Hot pressurized water is injected into these cartridges and out the other end comes the coffee. After the cup of coffee is made, the cartridge is removed and dumped without the need to clean up anything.

Regular coffee makers may take up to five minutes or more to brew a pot of coffee. For the one cup coffee maker, a hot cup of coffee is brewed in less than a minute.

Unlike using a regular coffee pot were you can only make one flavor at a time, these cartridges or pods come in a variety of coffee flavors so drinkers have more choices They can drink a cup of one flavor and maybe one hour later, try a totally different flavor.

So these one cup coffee makers standout when compared to regular coffee makers because they are easy to use and maintain plus they give coffee drinkers a variety of flavors to choose from.

India produces two fine coffees, but even among coffee devotees – at least in America – they remain relatively unknown and un-drunk. That’s too bad. They deserve to be extolled for the romance attached to them, if nothing else; happily, they also taste pretty good as well.

According to legend, coffee was discovered in Ethiopia. The first big coffee craze, though, occurred in Arabia, where by the 13th century Muslims were brewing and drinking huge quantities of it. Travelers from Arabia took the beans with them wherever they went – beans deliberately made infertile, allegedly, by parching or boiling. Because of this strict export control policy, it is claimed that no coffee seed sprouted outside Africa or Arabia until the 17th century.

Enter (or exit, as the case may be) one Baba Budan – one of the great heroes in the history of coffee, in my opinion. Wrapping up a pilgrimage to Arabia from his native land of India, Budan left Mecca with several fertile coffee beans strapped to his belly. From those beans sprouted the first coffee trees to be grown in India, as well as an agricultural industry that could no longer be contained to one small part of the world.

For romance, though, nothing in the world of coffee, to my mind, beats the story of Monsooned Malabar, one of the two coffees for which India is known today.

The British began the modern commercial cultivation of coffee on the hills of southern India, along the Malabar coast, a century-and-a-half ago. The coffee grown there was packed raw into the holds of wooden ships and sent on a six-month trip, around the Cape of Good Hope, to the coffee houses and shops of Europe. On such a long journey, and in such vessels, the beans inevitably became exposed to almost constant humidity. That humidity turned the beans pale gold and leached them of their acidity. When the coffee finally reached its destination it had been considerably mellowed – and Europeans loved it.

Progress eventually intervened, though, to temporarily deny the coffee drinkers of Europe their beloved aged Indian bean. The opening of the Suez Canal made the trip from the Malabar Coast much shorter. And, the coffee began to be shipped in modern steel vessels. These developments conspired to deprive the coffee beans of the prolonged exposure to humidity which had been responsible for their distinctive flavor.

To meet the demand for the old style of coffee from Malabar, some growers hit on a simple but ingenious solution. They would duplicate the moist conditions of the old sea voyage by exposing their beans to the Indian monsoon. Thus, Monsooned Malabar.

The monsooning process is a long one – and actually fairly labor intensive. First, the coffee to be monsooned is stored in a special warehouse to await the monsoon season. When the time comes, the sides of the warehouse are opened, allowing the wet monsoon winds to circulate around the beans. The beans may also be raked or hand-turned on the floor of the warehouse to assist in the process. Monsooning takes 12 to 16 weeks. During this time the beans swell to twice their picked size and turn that signature pale golden color.

The taste of Monsooned Malabar coffee is usually described in terms such as musty, earthy, corky and woody. Some writers have called it “mellow” yet “aggressive” at the same time! All agree that it has a polarizing quality – you’ll either adore it or detest it. Maybe I just haven’t had enough cups yet to really judge, but in my opinion the taste is not as idiosyncratic as all that. Musty, maybe, put not off-puttingly so. I think that many people would enjoy it, not just those of us who enjoy seeking out the more unusual offerings of the coffee world. And again, for my part, the fascinating story behind this particular coffee makes up for any deficiency in the cup.

Unfortunately, you still can’t find Monsooned Malabar just anywhere. Ordering it by mail is still the best bet for most of us. Oddly enough, until very recently it was easier to acquire green (unroasted) Malabar coffee beans than roasted ones. My first cup came from beans that I roasted at home, myself, in a popcorn popper. There are many resources on the Web for anyone interested in getting into home coffee roasting, an enjoyable hobby in its own right.

There are a few coffee sellers on the Web now who offer roasted Monsooned Malabar and similarly exotic or hard-to-find beans. In the case of Malabar (as opposed, say, to geunine Kona or Jamaican Blue Mountain), the price actually compares quite favorably with more mundane or “normal” coffees. If you like traveling the world in a coffee cup – and especially if you’d like to drink something with a bit of romance to it – you owe it to yourself to get your hands on some Monsooned Malabar. By the way, if you drink a lot of espresso, you might have had some Malabar coffee without knowing; some expresso producers include it in their so-called exotic blends.

India’s other major coffee variety comes from the Mysore region (now the state of Karnakata). Called Indian Mysore, Mysore Nuggets, Mysore Straight, or simply Mysore, it makes a rich and spicy cup of coffee that at its best may be termed “sweet” — a word you would never hear applied to Monsooned Malabar. Interestingly enough, though, Mysore coffee also gets its unique taste from being exposed to the monsoon wind and rain, which pump up the beans with moisture and smooth out their flavor. The difference may be simply that in the case of the Malabar, the monsoon exposure is purposely carried to an extreme.

Mysore coffee is also becoming easier to find in the United States, although most people will still have to seek out a reliable seller on the Web. It’s definitely worth finding and trying some. According to some connoisseurs, Indian Mysore at its best is among the finest coffees produced anywhere.

Are you like many people who need that cup of coffee to boost your energy before you rush to work? If yes, then automatic coffee makers are definitely the choice for you.

With our current hectic lifestyle, it is very common to find people scrambling around the first thing in the morning trying to kick start their day by making their coffee. And in the process, many people feels very hurried as they tried to wash up, shower and yet keep a close watch on their coffee machines.

That’s why automatic coffee makers come in handy.

These types of coffee machines can help to ease the frustration of many people by automating the process of coffee making. All you need to do is to set the timer and add everything the previous night before. With such a coffee maker, you no longer need to wake up earlier and struggle with your old manual coffee maker.

And if you want to have a freshly aromatic coffee, you can choose those automatic coffee makers that come with a grind and brew feature. These type of models can pound the coffee beans just the way you wanted.

Another type of automatic coffee maker you can take a closer look is the thermal carafe. A thermal carafe coffee machine can retain the warmth and heat for a longer time than traditional coffee makers. Hence, you can rest assured that the coffee remains hot and sizzling enough for you even after a few hours.

If you are looking for a family oriented coffee maker, I would strongly recommend you to choose automatic coffee brewers that come with automatic hot water feature.

Such type of coffee pots can deliver fresh hot water in a few mere minutes.

The convenience of such coffee makers means that you can do away with the filter, and all the work need from you is to activate the button for the hot pot of coffee to appear before you and your family.

Besides the above, there are many other functions and models of coffee makers from you to choose from. You can try espresso, steam milk or even cappuccino style coffee brewers. Whatever choices you make, take note that the prices of these machines can vary according to the functions and features you choose.

For most people who are looking for an affordable automatic coffee makers, you can find cheap and inexpensive ones for as little as below $50. For those that has more features such as grind and brew, able to make cappuccino and so on, expect to pay as much as twenty times above that. (that is $1000 and above).

Remember, choosing the coffee machine is an important decision that requires much research and homework. Think of it as an investment and not as a cost. By choosing the right coffee makers, you will find the payback extremely rewarding when you savor the taste of the coffee before you start the day each morning.

COFFEE SPECIES – TYPES
While there are about 25 major species within the Genis “Coffea” there are only two main species that are cultivated for commercial coffee consumption; Coffea Arabica (Arabica), pronounced either a-rã-bik-a or ar-a-bë-ka and Coffea canephora (refered to as Robusta). Via a process of grafting, many cultivars have been developed from these species in an effort to boost production volumes, increase disease resistance or improve cup quality.

Arabica
ARABICA was first found growing naturally on the Arabian Peninsula in the country of Ethiopia (previously Abyssinia) in 1753. It was the earliest cultivated species of coffee tree (in Yemen) and is still the most common coffee species that is grown for commercial purposes.

It contributes about 70% of today’s coffee bean market and is considered dramatically superior in cup quality to other species, including Coffea Canephora (Robusta). All fine, specialty, and fancy grade coffees come from the Coffea Arabica species.

There are many cultivars of the Coffea Arabica tree but the two most prominent ones are Typica and Bourbon with Typica being the oldest Arabica. Historically, Typica was cultivated in Latin America and Asia, whereas bourbon arrived in South America and, later, East Africa via the French colony of Bourbon (Reunion).

Robusta
ROBUSTA was discovered growing wild in the Belgian Congo (Zaire or Republic of Congo) in 1898. The name Robusta was originally the trade name of a Belgian horticultural house who marketed the species early in the 20th century after the Frenchman Emil Laurent had brought it to their attention.

The name is said to reflect the more robust nature of the taste and kick that it is noted for delivering. It is the second most widely cultivated coffee tree currently producing about 25-30% of the world’s coffee beans.

Generally recognised as having a lower quality taste than the Arabica bean which is why typically it is found in jars of instant coffee and supermarket cans of coffee. However, astute coffee roasters will add between 5-15% quality Robustas to a fine espresso blend to help give the coffee taste that morning ‘boost’.

Liberica
LIBERICA – is another commercial coffee species but it represents less than 2% of the world’s production volumes. It is comparable to Coffee Robusta and originates from the low altitude growing areas of West African.

It grows as a large strong tree, up to 18 metres in height, with large leathery leaves. The fruits and seeds (beans) are also large and more ‘boat’ shaped than the oval and round Arabica and Robusta respectively. Liberica coffee is grown primarily in Malaysia and in West Africa, but only very small quantities are traded as demand for its flavour characteristics are low.

For more on this topic see the link below.