Travel tip: Explore the world’s most exclusive coffees

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After the Finns, the Americans, Brazilians and Germans are the world leaders in coffee consumption. Compared to other commodities, the coffee trade ranks second in the world, right after oil. Capsules, powders or pads are on the market. Some coffees are as expensive per kilogram as a German monthly salary. But it takes the right preparation to make it your favorite drink and an indispensable "takeoff pilot" at the breakfast table.

Expensive coffees and what's special about them

  • The world's most expensive coffee aroma of Kopi Luwak is first created in the stomachs of Indonesian creeping cats. The harvest is unappetizing, but the taste result is sought after by fragrant lovers. Up to 1.200 euros they pay for a single kilogram of the specialty.
  • The rare Green Tipped Bourbon Arabica coffee bean gives the st. Helena coffee its nutty aroma with hints of chocolate, almond and hot spices. Only on the island of St. Helena the few beans are grown. If you want to indulge in this treat, you'll pay 140 euros for a kilogram.
  • What elephants in Thailand and the Maldives excrete, coffee farmers pick out of their dung. The product is the undigested, stomach enzyme altered coffee beans of Black Ivory Coffee. The high price per kilo of around 850 euros is also due to the growing area. The coffee beans are grown only in northern Thailand and Maldives altitudes of 1.500 meters harvested.
  • Big Island is the fertile volcanic soil on which the beans for the coveted Kona from Hawaii thrive. Ripening conditions are optimal at a steady 29 degrees Celsius. The high price per kilo of 120 euros is maintained by the small family farms because they cultivate only one to three hectares per farm.
  • The fine coffee beans of Jamaica Blue Mountain ripen high in the mountains of the same name. At altitudes of 1.800 meters, there is almost constant fog. This significantly prolongs the ripening process compared to other Arabica beans. Coffee connoisseurs easily pay 150 euros for a kilogram.

Fresh is best: That way, every cup of coffee tastes like it's freshly ground

The aroma of the coffee bean is volatile. Due to the air exchange it exudes within a few hours to days. Against this, the manufacturers of kitchen appliances have come up with a few things. For frequent drinkers, for example, there are fully automatic coffee machines that use whole beans instead of powder. From an aroma-tight storage container, individual portions are ground at the touch of a button directly before brewing.

For normal-sized, very large households or the catering trade, such a fresh-keeping variant is ideal. But there are many coffee lovers who only drink one or two cups of coffee a day. With them, the beans would gradually lose flavor despite aroma closure. For individual portions are therefore coffee pod machines more practical. The ground coffee powder is packed in small pads for this purpose. To brew, insert the pad and start the machine.

Meanwhile, appropriate storage containers for coffee pods preserve the aroma of the powder that is not yet needed. Less environmentally friendly, but also popular for making single servings, are coffee capsule machines. They function similarly to pad machines. However, the coffee portions are not in a fleece, but filled in capsules.

This is how the worldwide epicurean history of coffee began

According to the legend, the discovery of the stimulating effect of coffee is due to a goat herder. His goats ate red coffee cherries and afterwards were much more lively than usual. The coffee plant can be traced back to its origins in Ethiopia. Written down is the discovery from the time around 900 n. Christ. But at first, people only drank a tea in which the leaves and dried cherries were added.

The tradition of roasting and brewing coffee first arose when the plant reached the Orient and especially Turkey via Arab countries. In local coffeehouses, the cup of coffee is still a standard drink at negotiations and entertaining meetings. Tourists first brought this delicacy to Europe in the 17th century. Century. Until today coffee is mainly grown in high altitudes of tropical and subtropical countries.

Ethiopia and Colombia are among the world's major producers. In the meantime, some coffee cherries are treated like the finest grapes during the grape harvest. Thus, the handling of coffee is gradually changing from what was once a commodity for the mass market to a gourmet cult with numerous reinventions in the blending of beans and the preparation of coffee specialties.

Popular coffees according to their preparation

Apart from green coffee, flavored coffee, Turkish mocha or sweet iced coffee, these are the most commonly prepared types of coffee:

  • Classic coffee is brewed with boiling water. This can be done by hand in a porcelain filter or automatically in a fully automatic coffee machine, pad or capsule machine.
  • Cappuccino is popular because of its fine foam and frothed milk (often with chocolate sprinkles or cocoa).
  • Milky coffee is prepared with different proportions of milk for a milder taste. The best-known creations are coffee melange, cafe au lait and coffee upside down.
  • Latte Macchiato is indeed visually spotted milk. The trick is to put coffee and milk foam in a glass in such a way that the two don't mix completely at first.
  • Espresso was developed by the Italians as a particularly strong coffee drink. It is drunk pure, sweetened or refined with grappa to Caffe Coretto.

Conclusion

Coffee beans are now traded worldwide like fine grapes. The most expensive coffees can be over 100 or even 1.000 euros per kilogram. Today's coffee specialties only become an aromatic hot beverage through their respective preparation.