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I used to drink a lot of coffee and try to drink less nowadays.

There is a lot to know about coffee. Which I found in the following post by someone else somewhere else and thought it was interesting:

"Now that is something I happen to know a couple of things about, having been involved first hand in the production and trade of coffee products for an Italian company which produces about 1 million Kg's a year of the stuff.

No, Starbucks has not educated the consumer but just created the awareness for Arabica coffee thus equating the WRONG market perception that Arabica means good, as opposed to Robusta which consequently means bad. (Incidentally, where did you get the information that Robusta is chemically altered? )

It is a wrong perception based on a wrong assumption.

The assumption is that Arabica coffee is more expensive and therefore better than Robusta. Well, I can tell you that you have good and bad in both Robusta and Arabica, cheap and expensive too!

But the point is that they have a different function.

It is silly thinking that all Arabicas are good (just because they came from that variety) just as it is silly to think that all Robustas are bad.

(By the way pay the outmost attention to how your decaffeinated coffe has been decaffeinated! That has more impact on the enviroment, health and taste than anything else in the coffee world, Most decaffeinated coffee is seriously chemically altered....you want to find out about this!)

First of all not all coffee brews are the same, so what is good for one style of coffee might not suit the other. In other words the typical American brew won't benefit from the same blend you use for espresso because they share the same beans but everything else is different.

All the Milk containing coffee products work again in a different way.

Espresso and Moka (moka is the name of the Italian stove-top " espresso" machine) blends might be the same but they are not the same grind. Grinding coffe fine (er) or coarse(er) can have a deep impact on the brewing process and taste.


Many companies roast much darker than they should (the worst style is the American " French" roast which is frankly speaking, burnt coffe ) because they try to compesate with darkness what they miss in " robustness" of taste.

Arabicas and Robustas are very different within themselves but in general:

Arabica account for more aromatic coffee in their volatile (in the chemical sense of the word meaning readily evaporating) components, in other words it is smell over taste. Arabicas smell better but tend to lack depth and richness. Some Arabica's (like Ethiopia or Guatemala) are very fresh smelling almost like grass (the stuff rabbits eat not the stuff you smoke ).
Cheap Arabicas tend to be sour (not everyone agrees with what sour means I've tasted sour coffee which other people called sweet...). Better qualities have tempered sourness and are in fact pretty sweet (my favourite being Ethiopia). Arabica produces little and not persistent " crema" in espesso. It doesn't bind well to Cappuccino or (caffè)Latte or Macchiato. It has less oils which makes ideal for long brewing processes. In general the longer you brew the more oils and caffeine pass into the coffee.


Robusta has a...... robust taste , it tends to taste of chocolate, have more caffeine and being more oily, it makes a good espresso because these oils (due to the fast brewing) are a big part of the " crema" (the layer of nut-colour froth any good espresso has) which is largely an emulsion but are not fully estracted from the coffee otherwise they become difficult to digest.

In Italy you have different styles of coffee making, espresso being the best known, In the south of the country, people prefer blend with a good content of Robusta (generally Indian with accents of Congo or Camerun) and Brazilian (santos) Arabica dark roasted, sometimes they are 100% (good) robusta. In the north it is mostlly Arabica and very little robusta if at all, medium-dark roast.


Please, bear in mind that I don't mean to lecture (too much ) anybody on how to drink or prepare or roast coffee , coffee people are even more sensitive than saxophone people and temper can run pretty hot (it's all the caffeine you see...) when stating things agaist someone else's opinion take it as a partisan's report by some guy who knows how things are done by most pro's.....but it doesn't mean you have to believe me! Suit yourself any other way!

Having said that, I like to brush against what Saintsday is quoting in his post about consuming freshly roasted coffee.

I strongly disagree with the statement that coffee should be drank or ground quickly after roasting. This, I am afraid, if you don't mind me saying so, is a very common myth among amateur roasters propagated by some small scale roasters which want to " impress" their customers with the idea that the fresh coffee roasted then and there is the best in terms of quality.


Coffee oils have to be allowed to surface after roasting in order to be able to grind the coffe well this insures also a fairly long shelf life, by the way. It tipically takes from 3 days to a week between roasting and grinding, in that time humidity and oils surface (from inside to outside the coffee bean) and lots of gas comes out too (coffee beans release gasses all the time, the one-way valve on the package is not there to allow you to smell the coffee it is there to prevent the package to explode which will happen if nothing allows the gas to go out, brands who do not use the one-way valve are piercing the package ,look for very small pin-holes 2 or 3 in a pack, in order to allow gas to get out), also, after grinding the coffee, this has to de-gas for a couple of days before you can put it in a vacuum package.


In any case very fresh coffee makes lots (too much) " crema" when you make espresso.

It is true that coffee can become stale quickly so never keep too much coffee in a warm and humid enviroment and grind only what you need to use. Coffee pads (like espresso pads like e.s.e. easy serving espresso system) are a great way to drink coffee for those who do not drink any great amounts but want a "fresh" cup of espresso at home.


One of the reason that some coffee brands might become staler quickly is a process called water quenching. After roasting, coffee needs to be cooled and quickly. Some roaster use a water quenching process, this cools the coffee (takes away essential chemicals too ) and adds " back" water to the beans which, loose 20% of their weight in the roasting process, do you see where this is going? If you quench with water the weight goes back in, but the coffee has a reduced shelf life , it will be prone to became mouldy....but weighs more...weight is money.

The best quenching is an air quenching process.

Old open gas roasting machines can be very good for relatively small amounts of coffee but you need to improve on those machines especially the part that cools down, quickly the coffe.

Control on those machines is all down to experience and the master roaster needs to have great eye for colour. Sometimes they get it wrong, **** happens.

Modern roasting machines use computer roasting curves and color meters. They never get it wrong!

Coffee is a natural product, like wine will vary in quality from one year to another and if you change supplier ( for the raw beans) often it will vary even more. How do you get the blend right? This is the most important thing, like with Whisky or Champagne you need a master blender who combines different coffees to re-create the taste of that particular blend, every time, again and again.
It is incredible but they do exactly that, this isn't an exact science and until now, nobody has ever invented a machine that is better than a good palate!


Grinding is also such a thing. Grinding at an industrial facility is done according to the type of machine (and the type of coffee brew) you intend to prepare your coffee in. Espesso grinding is different from filter coffee grinding, and so on.

When you freshly grind in a bar you need to realize that this changes everyday, namely because of the humidity ratio, this is also something that takes great experience.

Grinding is always done after blending, so, no it doesn't depend upon the types of coffee which you use but upon the type of brew you want"

By some Italian guy now living in Holland.

Sarcasm without a real word

There are many things that i didnt understand but thanks for letting me know its not an easy job!!!

Do you have any suggestions on where I can find a proffessional coffee shop in dubai?