Tag: Distinct Flavor

Coffee Lovers Dream Discover Costa Rica Coffee

If it’s been a while since you tried Costa Rica coffee, you may want to try it again. Changes in coffee production and an attempt to keep up with the growing market for coffee and gourmet coffee has caused some changes in the coffee coming out of this region. The growing trend of small coffee mills also gives coffees from this region an even larger variety of flavors and qualities, so it might be time to revisit this coffee.

If you already love Costa Rica coffee, no doubt it’s for the extremely mild, some say perfect, coffee flavor. Very mild with no bitterness, a very balanced flavor that’s worst criticism has always been its steadiness. Some have long considered coffee from this region to be fairly bland or boring. And some of the huge coffee-producing farms and mills did make an effort to produce a coffee that would please almost every coffee drinker.

These coffees were typically made from your average Arabica beans and produced on a mass scale. Today, smaller mills are becoming more and more popular in the region. The Costa Rica coffee produced on these smaller farms are carefully controlled by the mill owner and blended to produce a distinct flavor to set it apart from the other coffee in the area. Even on a small farm, different lots of coffee depending on soil drainage, elevation and other factors are found to have subtle taste differences. Combine that with different roasting temperatures and times, and the range of flavors can be huge.

How the coffee is processed has much to do with the quality and flavor, and each mill uses its own signature process or a combination to create different micro-brands of Costa Rica coffee. The region has been producing coffee since the late 18th century, with the first type of coffee grown there having come from Saudi ArabiaArabica coffee. It wasn’t long before coffee became Costa Rica’s largest exported crop, outselling even tobacco, sugar and cacao.

The Costa Rica coffee designed to remain in the country rather than be exported is tinted to distinguish it, and falls under government price regulations so that it’s much cheaper than the coffee that’s exported to the rest of the world. Workers are typically immigrants from nearby countries like Nicaragua, and the best workers still only make between $12 and $18 per day, depending on how many baskets they pick. Given the other wages in the area and that the wages are governmentally set, in Costa Rica, a seasonal worker actually makes a decent living, comparable to other agricultural workers in the area.

Costa Rica coffee is still a valuable export crop the world over, especially now that the production has become refined and the variety of different types and flavors of coffee coming from the region is so vast. If you’re a big fan of Arabica and Arabica blends, you might find that your new favorite type of mild and well-balanced coffee is indeed Costa Rica coffee.

Outdoor Grilling Methods

More To The Grill

Before anything else, you should be aware that your outdoor grill is not limited only to direct grilling. Your outdoor grill can do so much more than just that, it could even be more versatile than your kitchen. While the classic method of direct grilling can already please most of us, just think about the other things that it could do. Other outdoor grilling techniques include searing, indirect grilling and smoking which turns ordinary meat into a tasting pleasure with a distinct flavor.

Different outdoor grilling techniques are to be used depending on what types of items you are to grill, for example; direct grilling is best for large cuts of beef and sausages, smoking on the other hand is best for whole fish and meats too. With experience, you will later develop a taste of what goes where in the grill enabling you to be an expert on it.

Have A Clean Grill

Even before starting out, you have to be sure that your grill is clean. The worst thing that could happen in a grill is to have a beautiful slice of prime rib and to later have it taste like grilled salmon. In cleaning the grill, make sure that you do it right after cooking and while the grill is still hot. In doing this, use a wire brush and scrub off all remaining residue that is left on the grill, these residue are what causes unpleasant flavoring if you dont clean your grill well.

More to that, these residues can also fall into the grill and can later cause a flare-up, this of which we would like to avoid. While your grill is clean, you would also want to prevent residue from sticking to it as much as possible. To do this, spray the surface of your grill with vegetable oil every time before you grill. This is even more important if you are using sugar based sauces like the common ones people use to coat ribs and barbecue.

Get Your Grill Hot

When grilling, it is also very important that your grill is hot before you place the items on top of it. For most of us especially for those who own gas-powered grills, we put the items in right after we start the fire. This is wrong as we have to wait around 15-30 minutes of having the fire turned on before putting the items to be grilled in while having all the items and cooking tools you will be needing standing by.

Also be aware that the surface of your grill is not equally hot on all sides. There are some sides that are hotter than others and some that are a bit cooler than others. Being good on the grill, you should know where these sides are and use them to your advantage. The most common grilling technique used here is indirect grilling of which you would need to know where the cooler side is.

Having Ingredients Ready

Even before you start grilling; it is very important that your ingredients are already prepared and ready to be tossed on top of the grill. For steaks, you might want to cut of excess fat and have it seasoned with some salt and pepper. As for chicken, since it is quite difficult to have it grilled, you can pre-cook it in the microwave oven. This will lessen cooking time and as well as make it easier for you to have your chicken brown.

Vegetables on the other hand should already be cleaned and cut for the grill. After all these, you are ready to get grilling.