Excellent coffee is made up of three essential components:
- 25 per cent Equipment
- 25 per cent Beans
- 50 per cent - the person (barista) making it!
- Café Art - this is the “theatre” attached to coffee making performed by the barista.
- Café society is extending into the office and home and increasingly sophisticated ways of serving coffee are taking place in cafes around the world.
- At the office, tins of instant coffee are being replaced by small individual plungers which sit on the desktop.
- In the home, roasting and grinding coffee beans of choice is beginning to take off.
- From green bean to cup: in cafes, fresh beans are now being roasted in boutique roasting machines alongside the espresso machine. Many cafes have begun installing Green Bean Coffee Roasters to ensure they are serving the freshest coffee on the market.
- Around the world with coffee: many cafes now offer several different grinds and blends along with daily specials (eg. Kenyan, Sumatran, Guatemalan, Ethiopian, Costa Rican).

Australians consume approximately 2.4 kilograms of coffee per person per annum -and that’s nearly 1 kg more than the amount of coffee each of us drank in 1979!

Percentage breakdown of coffee consumed in cafes nationally:

- Cappuccino 50 per cent (men and women almost equal)
- Café latte 12 per cent
- Flat white 18 per cent
- Espresso 9 per cent (men consume ten per cent more than women)
Long Black 11 per cent (men consume 12 per cent more than women)
Cappuccino represents 21 per cent of all coffee sales to 25 - 44 year olds.
Seventy one per cent of all sales (in cafes) are milk-based with males   being the highest consumers.

Espresso sales are higher in 25 - 34 year old males. (Source BIS Shrapnel Out of home sales 2001)

Total value of the roasted coffee category is $68.2 million, which is increasing annually.

The top three brands in Australia are Vittoria, Lavazza and Harris followed by Robert Timms, Aurora, Melitta, Moccona, Andronicus, Bushells and Brothers.

76,000 foodservice outlets (approx 60,000 commercial and 16,000 institutional) serve roasted coffee with Victoria and NSW accounting for 60 per cent of total outlets.

Even the weather was festive - the sun was out, the sky clear and blue,Through it all wafted the irresistible smell of freshly made coffee. Spirits were high.   And why wouldn’t they be?
After all this was a coffee fest and most people - after a cup or two of coffee - were on a natural high. Coffee contains caffeine, a mild central nervous stimulant (CNS) which is rapidly absorbed by the body when taken in beverage form. As you’ve probably noticed, it makes you feel brighter and more alert within a few minutes and can help postpone feelings of fatigue for up to four hours. The fourth Aroma Coffee Festival held at The Rocks in Sydney is indicative of the explosive interest in coffee which has taken place over the past five years in Australia. This year over 100,000 people swarmed to the Harbour foreshores to taste coffee from all over the world  - well over double the numbers who attended the first Aroma Festival four years ago. They had come not just to taste various blends and brews but to learn more about the finer aspects of roasting,
grinding  and  making  the  perfect  cup  at  home.  Nineteen  gourmet coffee  roasters  were  present  and  thousands  of  cups  of  coffee were sold.

According to Gary Trye, one of the organisers, the Aroma Festival is the largest coffee festival in the world and the only one of its kind nationally. “The heart and soul of the festival is the boutique roaster,” he said.“They’ve been springing up all over the place over the past few years as have single origin or estate roasters. They’re very passionate about their craft and have definite ideas about what they consider to be the best roast and the best blend.” Toby’s Estate Coffee, Forsyth Coffee & Tea, Karmee, Café Hernandez and  Caffe  Bianchi  were  just  some  of  the  boutique  roasters  who participated.    Major  players  like  Andronicus (who  sponsored  the event), Segafredo and Vittoria were also present.

Café culture has become very much part of the modern Australian lifestyle. Our cities and suburbs are spilling over with cafes on virtually every  street  corner.  Coffee  has  become  a  gourmet  product  and  a fashion statement and like wine, discerning consumers now want to know where the coffee they drink has come from, what blend of beans is being used and how they were roasted and ground. However, there are still many people paying a lot of money for poor quality brews made from low-grade coffee beans. According  to  Les  Schirato,  managing  director  of  Vittoria  Coffee, the importance of good quality coffee is still vastly underestimated. “Taste, quality and freshness of the beans should guide consumers in their choice of coffee,” he said.  “While this is a very individual thing,in general good coffee should have a strong rich taste and should never be bitter or leave a stale aftertaste.” You can rest assured that little or no evidence of a stale aftertaste could be detected at this year’s Aroma Coffee Festival.

Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot of bloggers are attracted to the medium of logging in the first place is that they enjoy being able to make frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors up to speed with current situations. Mobile blogs, or "moblogs," take this to the extreme by allowing users to post things literally as they happen. This new wave of moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date with good and bad events of importance as they occur all over the world, helping to make international communication faster and more accurate.

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox

When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

This a few tips to make a Good Cup of Coffee :

Use Only Fresh and Pure Water

Good coffee starts with good water. You can use water from your tap but it should be filtered toEnjoying Gourmet Coffee take out the chlorine and other tastes. Run your faucet for a few seconds to clear out some of the water that has been sitting in the pipes before filling your coffee maker.

Only Use Whole Beans

Whole beans maintain the flavor and richness of coffee longer. Forget about ground coffee. Coffee Gourmet Coffee Beansbegins to deteriorate from the moment coffee is ground. Coffee on grocery and retailer shelves are often stale and lacking flavor but still rate fresh according to their standards. Premium coffee from gourmet coffee retailers like Volcanica Coffee only ship coffee that is freshly roasted.

Store Beans Properly

Always store your premium coffee in an airtight opaque container such as Tupperware, away from heat, moisture and light. If you don’t have an airtight container the next best thing is to seal it in an airtight zip lock bag in the freezer.

Grind to Perfection

Only grind what you will be using immediately. If you use a blade-type grinder, while grinding hold the lid down with one hand and shake it upBurr Coffee Bean Grinder and down. This will yield a more even grind and reduce the amount of powdery grounds which can make coffee bitter. Better yet, invest in a good quality burr-type grinder, available at better kitchenware stores. Gaining in popularity are the new coffee makers that grind your beans automatically then brews your coffee. You'll taste the difference. Visit our this link for more information on grinding coffee beans.

Keep it fresh

Remember, glass carafes and other containers should never be left on the burner for more than 10 minutes. An airtight thermos-type container is the preferred hot storage container and will keep hot coffee fresh considerably longer.

Best Way to Serve Coffee

Everyone has their preference but we have found the best way to enjoy exotic coffee, if you do not enjoy it black, is by adding half & half and raw sugar. If you are watching your calories use Splenda. Sweet & Low and Equal add bitterness which takes away from the rich Volcanica flavor. In place of half & half you may also lighten it up with steamed or warmed whole milk which will add a distinct natural sweetness.

Many of us rely of coffee to help us do exactly that. Coffee trees grow to heights of 20 feet and are often pruned to 8 to 10 feet to simplify harvesting. Since the cherries ripen at different times, they are mostly picked by hand. One pound of roasted coffee requires about 2,000 cherries, and since each cherry contains two beans, it takes 4,000 beans to produce that one pound. The average coffee tree only produces one to two pounds of roasted coffee per year, and takes four to five years to produce its first crop.

Three Species of Coffee Trees

Robusta beans are resistant to disease and come from a high yield plant that does best at lower elevations. Unfortunately it has harsh flavors and is used for the lower grades of coffee that are sold in markets. Not generally found in gourmet shops, they are often used for “instant” coffees and popular commercial blends.

Arabica beans do best at altitudes of 3,000 to 6,500 feet and have a much more refined flavor. This is the coffee that specialty roasters search for. It is susceptible to disease, frost, and drought however, and requires careful cultivation and just the right climate and conditions.

Liberica is the third recognized commercial variety, hardy and low-altitude. It's a minor crop of coffee from Africa and is similar to robusta.

After harvesting, the cherries are transported for processing. The fruit is then removed from the seed by one of two methods. In the natural or dry process, the cherries are dried in the sun or in dryers, and the fruit is then separated from the bean by processing them through a mechanical husker. In the wet process, a superior soaking method produces beans which are referred to as washed coffees. The beans are then dried, sized, sorted, graded and selected, usually all by hand. After the beans are bagged they are shipped to local roasters around the world. In terms of human effort, few products require so much attention and detail.

According to the Coffee Research Organization, coffee roasting is a chemical process by which aromatics, acids, and other flavor components are either created, balanced, or altered in a way that should augment the flavor, acidity, aftertaste and body of the coffee as desired by the roaster. This is accomplished in several steps:

Roasting Coffee Beans

When the roaster receives them, the green beans are slowly dried to become a yellow color and the beans begin to smell like toast or popcorn.

The second step, often called the first crack, occurs as the temperature rises. The bean doubles in size and becomes a light brown color.

As the temperature continues to rise the color changes from light brown to medium brown.

Soon, the second crack occurs. At this stage the color is defined as medium-dark brown. The second pop is much quicker sounding and the beans take on an oily sheen.

Most roasters will remove the beans during the second crack. Coffees from famous regions like Java, Kenya, Hawaiian Kona, and Jamaican Blue Mountain are usually roasted lightly so their signature characteristics dominate the taste.   Otherwise the “roast” will obscure the unique qualities of these flavorful beans