How the most expensive coffee is extracted

Coffee berries are considered as a civet’s primary food. In the civet’s digestive tract, the proteolytic enzymes seep into the coffee beans. Shorter peptides and more free amino acids are manufactured from the proteolytic enzymes. This entire process makes the coffee beans decaffeinated. The enzymes ferment the coffee bean, giving it that distinct taste and aroma. As the beans pass through the civet’s digestive system, it still retains its shape but with more intense aromatic flavor and less bitterness. Not until the civet excretes the coffee bean, it just remains as an ordinary bean. The coffee beans are then washed thoroughly and sun dried.

Harvesting the coffee bean is quite a tedious process. In some places, they have the civets caged, so there would be easier access to the animal’s poop. But in other farms, they let the civets roam around freely. This means you have to tromp around the farm floors to get the coffee berries in the civet’s poop

This unusual process yields the best tasting coffee and quite expensive too. Prices could range as high as 160 dollars per pound. That could cost as much as 100 dollars per cup of invigorating civet coffee. In some countries, civet coffee is also known as alamid coffee. Who could tell that extracting beans from a cat’s poop is a very lucrative business!

More than just the antioxidant 

The primary antioxidant in coffee is known as polyphenols.  It is somewhat similar to the antioxidants found in green tea. One can increase the antioxidant level in coffee by roasting the coffee beans first.  Coffee also has high levels of magnesium and tocopherols, which aid the body in the manufacturing of insulin. This aspect might help those who have diabetes. Coffee also has antibacterial properties that prevent the formation of dental carries.

The more coffee, the better?

As with any other nutrients, it has always to be taken in moderation. Although coffee is a very rich source of polyphenols, excessive intakes of coffee could also hamper your health. A compound that is high in antioxidant doesn’t mean that once you ingest it, you’d be able to get all the antioxidant goodness. It always depends on the body’s absorption. To make sure our body is absorbing most of the good stuff, it has to be taken in moderation. A sensible diet and regular exercise also improves our body’s absorption level.

Coffee need not be your only source of antioxidants. You still have to consume vegetables, fruits and whole grains to achieve optimum health. Several fruits like dates, blueberries and grapes are also packed with the healthy goodness. In reality, almost all foods that we eat that are not processed contain antioxidants up to some level.

Just as a cup of coffee is addicting, every bite of a coffee dessert will surely leave you craving for more.  It could be attributed to the bittersweet taste that coffee gives once it mixes with all the other sweet ingredients of a dessert. It adds rather a different type of kick or snap to any recipe.

The whole beans

If you want to have a blast of full coffee flavor, try using whole beans. It gives the most intense coffee goodness. It has more flavor than the one, which is already grounded. As the grounded coffee often lose some of its flavor and aroma in the process. To get the most out of the intense flavor, you can extract it from the beans by first roasting them in an oven. Crush the beans in your food processor and steep them into liquid and you are all set for your newest ingredient in cakes and pies.

 Instant coffee

If you are not much up to the steeping process, you can make use of instant coffee and espresso to give you that instant bittersweet flavor. You can control the intensity of the flavor, by making the instant coffee concoction with a stronger flavor or with just the moderate bitterness.

Brewed coffee

Brewed coffee acts as a reinforcement to the other types of coffee used in every recipe. It is somehow bland in itself, but if you mix it with all the other coffee ingredients, it bolts up that flavor.

You can also add almonds to the coffee dessert. It is the best way to compliment coffee recipes.

Caffeine is the primary compound that makes coffee addicting. As with nicotine to cigarettes, caffeine acts as the magic in coffee that lures coffee addicts in. but there is more to it than the caffeine. Coffee addiction could somehow be attributed to psychological, physiological and social factors.

Psychological factors

Whenever you drink coffee, you feel energized, you do not feel a single bored moment. With a few cups of coffee you were able to spend overtimes hours on work without feeling tired. You feel like you are superman and can do any amount of work. Who would not want to be a superhero for a day?

Physiological factors

The truth to it is that coffee triggers our stress hormones in our central nervous system. That is the main reason for feeling unnaturally alert. But you have to remember that our body is designed to get ample rest to maintain its functions. If you are going to alter the body’s normal response and mechanism, a plethora of disorders await you.

Social factors

Most of us associate coffee with friendships and the good old banding time. That is the main reason why coffee shops have been sprouting like mushrooms. When you are to meet a friend, you must have coffee. When you are to break some good new to your relatives, you must have coffee. And list goes on and on. Coffee shops have also made coffee more inviting to someone who used to be a non-coffee lover. With the different concoction of coffee drinks that are sweet to the taste that would be able to resist one.

The bottom line is coffee is not at all a villain, for as long as you take it in moderation. And by saying in moderation, that should be a maximum of 2 cups a day.

The coveted coffee spa treatment

Coffee is now widely used in spa treatments. Its antioxidant properties neutralize the free radicals in the skin, resulting to a natural glow. Coffee has also been found to improve blood circulation. When blood circulation is improved, it would pave the way for a rosy and natural glow. Coffee grounds are the ones that should be used for coffee spa treatments. The coffee grounds also exfoliate dead skin cells. To make your own concoction at home, simply add coffee grounds with a little olive oil and turbinado sugar. If your skin is of the oily type, add yogurt instead to the coffee grounds. This concoction of coffee grounds tightens and lightens the skin, therefore reducing pigmentation.

The coffee hair care concoction

Not only does coffee give us smooth, glowing skin, it also does wonders to the hair. To give your hair that shine and luster, bathe your hair in espresso for 20 minutes. This concoction though is not recommended for processed and colored hair.

A natural replacement for your deodorant

You can ditch your regular deo that is full of chemicals and switch to a natural deodorizer. You can fill a muslin ground with coffee beans and use this as a deodorizer after your bath. It can also be used as a mouth freshener. Just simply suck on a coffee ground and the coffee beans will surely absorb any bad odor.

You can ditch your regular spa and beauty treatments, which are mainly made up of harmful chemicals and go au naturelle with coffee. Nature really has ways of surprising us!

The so-called slimming effect of coffee

The content of coffee that has major contribution to its weight loss effect is caffeine.  Caffeine may increase one’s metabolic rate by 10 percent, which may be round 200 to 300 calories. But in order to take the full advantage of coffee as a slimming agent, a minimum of 5 cups of coffee should be taken a day. That would be black coffee, no sugar, creamer or any additional flavor. So how could you decide if coffee diet is right for you?

The negative face of the coffee diet

The caffeine content could be harmful for some individuals. The stimulant action of the coffee keeps you wide-awake and gives you jolts of energy. But for some, this could pose a health risk to your heart. In the times that you should be calm, the coffee increases your heart rate, therefore overworking the heart. It might also cause dehydration, because coffee is considered as diuretic. An excessive intake of it not only washes away the water, but also some of the nutrients like magnesium and potassium.

If you are to consider coffee as a major agent in your weigh loss program, remember that adequate exercise and proper diet should also be practiced. It does not have a snowball effect. Weigh first all the pros and cons before venturing into a coffee diet. Surely, coffee is rich in antioxidant, but too much of a good thing can still be bad for your health.