60% of coffee species threatened with extinction

digitS'

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Oh I like coffee! I think that there is always a way to "make" it better. Grafting the plants of one coffee species onto another shouldn't surprise me since grafting is so common in fruit orchards.

Roasting it, brewing it ... do you have small roasting operations in your area? Have you ever sat outdoors when those kettles are opened and ventilation carries the smell around to where you are? I could just about be one of those cartoon characters, lifted off my feet and carried in the direction, guided by my nose ...

Brewing, I have noticed some problems - any fragrance or flavor in the water. I developed a prejudice against percolating years ago, probably for the extra "cooking," @flowerbug refers to. So, I switched to a glass, drip coffee maker and used one of those for years. Somewhere, betwixt and between, was the last time I tried instant.

That was until @so lucky 's suggestion of Kava, a few years ago. I have no idea if there have been improvements in other instants and actually wonder if my strong aversion to them was because I'd never tried them with soy or almond milk. Of course, back 25 years ago, I'd never tried soy or almond milk.

I was and remain a "cup of black coffee" fan but additions can be good. I'm not drinking instant black. Far from it, having flavor-neutral water at only 50% or lessmust really alter the flavor of the beverage. I can even taste the vanilla that I like to have in the milk. Okay, maybe we shouldn't call these products, milk. Im probably lactose intolerant and just do the best I can ;).

I'd never add so much cow's milk to coffee. Never bothered with cream, except in those dessert-like beverages from the baristas.

Long-ago, sampling Mom's Postum left me cold to roasted grain hot drinks. However, it was recently suggested to me that I try some barley from a beer store, bringing it home to the grinder. I'd need advice from a brewer. Have you experienced the fragrances at a beer supply store? Oh yes, that might lift me off my feet, too!

Other additions were a result of me trying to limit caffeine and not finding suitable decaffeinated coffees. Nope. I couldn't!

Chicory was always okay as an addition. I was surprised and delighted that roasting my own chicory and dandelion roots was okay, also. Yay!

Commercially, roasted figs have been an excellent choice. At 50:50 in the cup it is almost impossible for me to detect some flavor that I wouldn't think of as "coffee." There is sweetness, to be sure, but the combination proved to be a very easy way to decrease caffeine.

By the way, I don't mean equal parts ground coffee to equal parts dry roasted figs (Coffig brand). If you try this, it might be easier to understand the portions to make coffee as usual, then follow the instructions for making the fig drink. Then, pour equal amounts together in the coffee server.

My morning coffee is in the cup!

Steve
revelry
 

flowerbug

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I drink my coffee so slowly that whatever might be left in a press would be tepid.:sick
I like my coffee hot!

i never stop sipping mine as soon as i make it because i hate it tepid too - i never set it down until it is done.

a good insulated carafe takes care of it for the longer term but i've never used one of those. when i make it i just want the one cup and down the hatch it goes.

i have the perfect settings and amounts figured out on the microwave so it isn't so hot that it burns.
 

flowerbug

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@digitS' "Oh I like coffee! ..." i like it too. it's very addictive to me. the various blends and ways to have it, the rituals, and the smells of roasting...

i have not heard of dry roasted figs in it before. not having a fig tree here. i still have never tasted a fresh fig off the tree. some day perhaps.

by the time i am writing here the coffee is long gone. i don't let it sit. steeping was back in the days when i had roasted/grinds of my own. now it is almost always instant here. just because that is what Mom buys for her. the quality of instants has changed a great deal like with the quality of decaf too from all those years ago.
 

digitS'

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Figs have a certain fascination for me. We had a fig tree in southern Oregon when I was growing up. The fascination may have begun at the age of six when I discovered the little tree not far from the backdoor and from our little chicken coop.

Figs taste very different to me, fresh, canned and dry. I like them all.

What is done in roasting the commercial product, I don't know. It may be a very sterile process. I don't remember ever burning fig branches. This talk of toxic leaves and smoke makes me wonder if figs might be pleasant and benign from leaves to fruit to ash ... yes, the leaves are sold as a tea ... & so have more use than just hiding behind.

Steve ;)
 

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it is so hard to sterilize and isolate things when you have workers moving around and coffee is pretty labor intensive from what i have seen.

fungal spores can travel via air currents. just opening a door can be enough, let alone what you are wearing.

good chance they will be able to develop resistant varieties in time. they do have the big $$$ involved i'm sure. like cocoa and bananas they'll keep working on it.

i guess i should update my list as i used to say, "Take care of the earth, it's the only one we know that has chocolate!" we can expand that list to include "coffee, tea, bananas, peas, peanuts, garlic, ginger and beans"...
 

flowerbug

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it is so hard to sterilize and isolate things when you have workers moving around and coffee is pretty labor intensive from what i have seen.

fungal spores can travel via air currents. just opening a door can be enough, let alone what you are wearing.

good chance they will be able to develop resistant varieties in time. they do have the big $$$ involved i'm sure. like cocoa and bananas they'll keep working on it.

i guess i should update my list as i used to say, "Take care of the earth, it's the only one we know that has chocolate!" we can expand that list to include "coffee, tea, bananas, peas, peanuts, garlic, ginger and beans"...

and how could i have missed chili peppers!? arg!
 
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