Recipes India - Coffee

Coffee
 
Coffee is one of the commercial spices of India even though Brazil is the top exporter of coffee globally. A mineral-rich volcanic soil, suitable altitudes, good rainfall and temperature variations make for the growth of best coffee cherry which is richer in taste and higher in sugar content.

Roasted coffee is the most preferred state of coffee and the roasting process involves a considerable degree of influence on the taste of the final product. It requires lot of processing and human labour. Coffee berries must be picked, defruited, dried, sorted, and aged.

The raw coffee beans have coffee acids, protein, and caffeine but none of its taste. It requires heat to spark the chemical reactions that turn carbohydrates and fats into aromatic oils, burn off moisture and carbon dioxide, and alternately break down and build up acids, unlocking the characteristic coffee flavor.

Being the most popular drink, coffee can be presented in many ways with sugar, with milk or cream, and hot or cold. Even instant coffee is available and it has been dried into soluble powder or freeze dried into granules, which can be quickly dissolved in hot water for consumption. There is also canned coffee which is a beverage that has been popular in Asian countries for many years, particularly in Japan and South Korea.

Many vending machines typically sell a number of varieties of canned coffee, available both hot and cold. Liquid coffee concentrate is used in large institutional situations where coffee needs to be produced for thousands of people at the same time.