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It’s Top of the Town voting time again for the Denver metro area – we’ve added a banner to our home page so if you like our coffee, please sign up for the email ballot and nominate all of your local favorites.

Also, we need your reviews and want some constructive feedback! Please take a few minutes and share your thoughts at:

Google maps and search for Unseen Bean.

We’re also on Yelp! Please give us a review here.

Happy Friday!

Good morning from your roaster Gerry and Happy 2010 to all.

It’s time again to start ordering green coffee for the year, and as usual it is difficult to find the large buyers when searching for Certified Organic Coffee.

What is this stuff?

And how is it different than just organic coffee?

When a farm grows organic coffee (or anything organic for that matter), they must grow without prohibited synthetic substances and encompass “proper use of the land”. Anyone who produces or processes a product must meet the Federal rules and needs to be certified if they use the term “organic”. And a certificate from the farmer is not enough. In a document that spans about 140 pages, you must not only apply but you have to demonstrate that you have an organic plan.

Certification

For the consumer, certification means that the products purchased have been grown, handled and processed without any synthetic chemicals and are in compliance with earth-friendly standards. (Earth-friendly here can be defined as organic practices that take into account the long-term sustainable resources . . . like land and water.)

Here’s a little more detail on what it takes to earn the organic seal according to the USDA to become certified a coffee farm. The following requirements must be met:

• No synthetic pesticides or prohibited substances can be used for the past 3 years.
• Have a sustainable crop rotation plan to prevent erosion and the loss of nutrients in the soil.
• If any pest prevention is required, the farm must have a plan to do so naturally.
• The coffee must pass an inspection and testing before being allowed into the country and sold as organic.

When these conditions are met and documented, the coffee can be sold with certification to the green coffee brokers and end roasters.

Impact on the Environment

The planet benefits in numerous ways by growing organically. Fewer chemicals are injected into the soil, there’s a reduction in deforestation because the organic grower prefers the shade of trees . . . which ultimately adds up to less impact on natural wildlife of the area. The lack of harsh chemicals goes on in a continued chain of benefit to you, the consumer – by ingesting less chemicals in your finished, brewed product.

Arabica vs. Robusta – what’s the difference in these 2 species of coffee bean? Here are some great articles that compare the growing, climate, taste, uses and cost of these types of beans and clearly define what sets these two apart.

WholeLatteLove.com

The Atlantic

Talk About Coffee

WeeklyRoast.com

photo credit: INeedCoffee / CoffeeHero

At the Unseen Bean, we use all Arabica beans for the highest quality roasts and blends and buy organic and free trade whenever possible.

The holidays are here! The new website is up and running with new offerings of t-shirts, mugs – and special holiday gift combinations are now available but don’t wait too long!

If you’re shipping Christmas presents and mailing cards, keep an eye on the calendar. Time is running out for guaranteed arrival.

photo credit: foilman

Here are the mailing/shipping deadlines to be aware of for 2009:

– United States Postal Service (USPS) –

Parcel Post : December 16

First Class Letters and Cards: December 21

Express Mail: December 23

Priority Mail: December 21

– Fed Ex –

Home or Ground Delivery: December 17

Express Saver: December 19

2 Day: December 20

Overnight : December 22

Same Day: December 25

– United Parcel Service (UPS) –

Standard: December 15

3 Day: December 20

Expedited: December 21

Express:December 23

Outside the United States Shipping Deadlines

– United States Postal Service (USPS) –

Military Destinations: APO/FPO Addresses

First Class or Priority: December 11th (except 093)

Express: December 19 (except 093)

Special Military:

Iraq or Afghanistan: Dec. 4

Parcel Post (military mail): Nov 13

All Other Destinations:

Air Mail: December 11 (except Africa & Central/South America)

Priority: December 13

Africa: December 6

Central/South America- December 4

Express: December 15

Canada: December 16

Africa, Central / South America: December 11

Express Guaranteed: December 19

Canada: December 20

You’ve all heard the local coffee shop offering the the brew of the day is a dark roast . . . or light or medium roast. From talking to several people, I’ve realized that the perception of these roasts is fairly standard but more than likely, wrong!

The misconception is this: a dark roast is the strongest coffee and when pressed for further elaboration, also has the most caffeine. Seems a deep thick steaming cup is viewed as the most bitter and gives the strongest jolt. The level of acidity is also assumed to be the highest but this point is the most uncertain of them all.

photo credit: WmJR

In reality: the darkest roasts have less caffeine and less acid than their light and medium roast counterparts. The bitterness comes from the type of bean, not the level of roast. As Gerry says, it’s like meat – the longer you cook it, the more you cook out of it (meaning flavor and tenderness in this case).

For more info on this, here’s a great article that goes more in depth: Do Light Roasts or Dark Roasts Have More Caffeine?

If you have stomach problems from brewed coffee, as many do, check out the previous post on Going Green and Cutting Acidity for info on cold brewing that greatly reduces the acid.

So take a new look at different beans, experiment and add some new tastes to your palette!

We at the Bean are hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! The day has changed a great deal from the first day the Pilgrims celebrated with their meager provisions. Even with the challenging economy we are a country with much to be thankful for.

photo credit: tkksummers

For all of us here, we are thankful for our jobs and the beautiful city of Boulder we live in. I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re extremely thankful to be able to create a unique high quality product that we’re proud of and that can enhance the mornings of hard-working and contributing people all over the world.

Because we are always interested in making a better product and easier process, we’ve got a few new additions that I’d like to announce.

First off, some of you that ordered recently may have noticed a stamp-on date added to your label. Because freshness is of utmost importance to get the best tasting coffee from quality beans, we’ve always packaged in foil bags with CO₂ valves and now we’ve added the roast date so you can always be assured of the freshest beans.

Secondly, as the name suggests, The Unseen Bean is indicative of our owner and blind Master Roaster. As making our website accessible is highly important, we’ve done a complete redesign leaving the current look in place but upping the performance in as many other ways as possible.

On the new site, you’ll notice additions like Gifts which include holiday gifts and well as good items for yourself or a friend year round. Who doesn’t like coffee? Also, there’s a page for documenting Gerry’s trail In the Press. We’ll continue to update and make adjustments to the site as necessary so if you have any suggestions for find problems areas, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Also, some great news from the company that came up with our design and created our coffee bag labels . . . We have been featured as one of 30 amazing packaging designs! Check us out on www.designer-daily.com! We came in at lucky number 13!

If you’re like the many who love, love coffee, gotta-have-it but don’t really know all that much about it, you probably buy a big bag of coffee since it lasts longer and is less expensive and then store it in the refrigerator or freezer. Sound familiar? (I know because I was the same way! I had no clue.) What are the three most important keys to the best coffee?? Location, loca . . . oh, wait . . . Freshness, freshness, freshness. Below are coffee storage tips so that your coffee stays the freshest AND tastes the best – really though, those two are so intertwined that using them in conjunctive form is nothing less than highly redundant. Anyway, it’s simple! Coffee that is stored properly and used up daily tastes the best. Can’t even imagine it? Well then, you are in for a treat, my friend.

photo credit: gesika22

DID YOU KNOW? Coffee in grocery stores is generally at least 6 months old – yep, 6! And coffee is considered fresh after roasting for only about 15 days, give or take for the variable conditions. Feel like this is a quiz and you’re failing?? No worries, we’ll get you on the right path soon! Many coffees will actually have coffee scents added so that you get that blast of rich aroma and think you’re getting fresh stuff. If you notice the smell is gone after opening the container a couple times, that’s probably due to an added scent.

Let me start by telling you how we store coffee fresh from the roaster. It’s cooled to room temperature and then goes into dark colored, airtight bins with lids. None of it ever touches a refrigerator or freezer. I’m sure you can make the leap here – the best way for you to store it is also, tightly sealed, in a cool, dry place out of the light.

Since exposure to oxygen is one of the staling factors, we highly recommend you buy only whole bean and grind what you need just before brewing. The beans will emit CO₂ (carbon dioxide) right after roasting which helps to repel the oxygen. If you’ve noticed those little valves on some bags, those are CO₂ valves which help to vent as that builds up but don’t let oxygen back in.

The beans themselves hold the flavorful oils that give you that “Mmmmmm” response. Once ground, these oils start to evaporate and stale the coffee much more quickly. According to coffee fanatics, the best way to store ground coffee is in the trash can.

photo credit: Nick Bastian Tempe, AZ

So dump that old coffee from the freezer (or give it away to annoying adversaries), get some fresh beans from your local roaster and up the ante for your tastebuds.