Interested In A Professional Career In The Coffee Trade?

Coffee is the second most commonly traded commodity in the world, as measured by monetary volume, after crude oil. Coffee, without a doubt, is big business. This is good news for coffee lovers and aficionados who can turn their passion for the brew into a permanent occupation. Coffee demand goes well beyond using beans for hot or cold beverages only. Cooking with coffee is an established trendy culinary practice in many upscale and specialized restaurants. The menus feature dishes with many savory sauces which include coffee as one of the ingredients. Take a quick look at titles of published cook books, recipes, and cuisine news and you will see the use of the brew just about everywhere.

Let's take a look at some of the occupational paths available in the coffee trade.

Coffee Supplier: a middleman between the coffee grower and the bean-buying enterprises. A coffee supplier needs to be an expert in coffee varietals, types of beans, sales and marketing trends, supply and demand conditions for the various types of coffee. Strong business and organizational skills are necessary. Coffee trading includes a complex system of packaging, shipping, export regulation, and transportation coordination. The supplier needs to have great personal skills to communicate with coffee growers on their level and also communicate with coffee buying executives using a very different business language. Foreign language skills are extremely useful, particularly Spanish, since so much coffee is produced in Spanish speaking countries.

Coffee Taster: a very "cool" occupation that requires an extremely advanced sense of taste and smell. Tasters exist for wine, champagne, beer, orange juice and many other consumable products. Coffee tasters are very important in the trade. Professional coffee tasters can distinguish differences between 100 types of coffees. The main purpose of taster is to determine the quality and usability of beans and to develop new blends. The coffee taster does not actually swallow the brew. Instead, the coffee taster sucks it from a spoon to the back of the mouth to sample the flavors with the tongue and then spits out the sample.

Coffee Trader: Arabica coffee futures and options are traded in New York on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE, formerly the New York Board of Trade). Robusta coffee futures are traded in London on Euronext.liffe. There are other international exchanges that trade coffee futures in other foreign locations. Becoming a coffee trader requires knowledge about fluctuation in prices, production and seasonal variations from country to country, keeping up with news about weather, politics and social changes that can impact coffee production. Most of all, a trader needs to have nerves of steel to withstand the emotional and peer pressure that is normal in commodity trading pools where fortunes can be made and lost in a matter of hours or minutes.

Coffee flavorist: this occupation requires an undergraduate degree in either biology or chemistry with specialized food studies at a post graduate level. Most coffee flavorists are passionate about the brew. They are also very curious individuals who love experimentation to find that "next unique flavored brew." The coffee flavorist spends the day mixing and matching specific compounds in order to create unique flavors. Not surprisingly, many flavorists are also very good cooks.

Coffee Inspector: this occupation requires very good knowledge about the beans, ground coffee quality and ingredient testing. Most coffee inspectors work for organizations that are certified to assist with inspection and certification services at docking stations, ports, warehouses and large coffee processing centers. Coffee inspectors inspect bulk shipments and certify quality-control laboratory coffee tasting. The coffee inspector makes sure that bulk coffee buyers receive the correct quantity and quality of beans ordered.

Coffee "Barista:" originally, this term was used in Italy for uniformed bartenders or trained "mixologists" familiar with all types of drink mixtures. Due to the growth in the gourmet coffee industry, the term barista has become synonymous with an expert in producing espresso, espresso-based drinks and many other kinds of coffee beverages. A trained coffee barista knows precisely how much hot water should be forced through the mesh of an espresso machine and for how long in order to create the perfect froth from steamed milk or allow the espresso to form a natural dark. Many baristas also practice "coffee art" and master the art of creating shapes on the brew with milk, cream, coffee flavorings and other ingredients available.

The list continues with many more specialized work opportunities in the trade for coffee lovers. So, what about taking a break and enjoying a delicious cup of White Chocolate flavored coffee or Chocolate Cinnamon Hazelnut flavored coffee?

Timothy ("Tim") S. Collins, the author, is called by those who know him "The Gourmet Coffee Guy."
He is an expert in article writing who has done extensive research online and offline in his area of expertise, coffee marketing, as well as in other areas of personal and professional interest.

Come visit the author's website: http://www.ourgourmetcoffee.com
Also visit: http://www.squidoo.com/coffee-lensography-TheGourmetCoffeeGuy

c Copyright - Timothy S. Collins. All Rights Reserved Worldwide

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Coffee Tasting - An Interesting Career Path

What would you say if your child or young teen wanted to become an official taster of coffee?

Would it be any different from becoming a wine or orange juice taster? What does it take to become an official coffee taster or "cupper"?

Cupping can be a fun occupation and a hobby. Cuppers run in families and it is not unusual for the job to pass from father to son and so on. There are female cuppers but the majority are males.

If your child or teen wants to become a cupper, they can practice at home and look for cupping events through coffee clubs or other groups. Who knows? You could have a cupper in the making right at home!

Cupping is a technique used to evaluate coffee aroma and the flavor profile of a coffee. Cupping is used to taste defective coffee or to evaluate coffee blends.

Learning how to distinguish coffees through cupping takes much practice and a love for coffee. It also requires following certain standards and habits to ensure objectivity and the ability to cup many times throughout the day as a professional cupper

Cupping takes place after the green (un-roasted) beans go through inspection before being graded for sale, especially for export. The professional cupper inspects the beans for color, shape, size, appearance, density and fragility. Next the samples are roasted. The beans are examined again for discoloration, appearance and smell.

What is a coffee cupping session like?

Coffee cupping sessions usually start with the coffee table preparation set up with a cup for each of the 6 to 10 coffees to be sampled.
The cupping session includes several coffees to evaluate.
Throughout the various steps of the session, the coffees are evaluated in a consistent order.
The setting includes a sample of the roasted coffee and a sample of the green coffee.
These samples are covered until the coffee cupping session is completed and the aroma, fragrance and flavor profile of the coffee are documented.
In addition, on the table, there is a cup of water at room temperature and an empty cup with the cupping spoons.
The coffee sample preparation requires placing 2 tablespoons of freshly roasted and freshly ground coffee in an empty cup.
The coffee is ground to a standard fineness and a weight of about 10 grams or equivalent to the weight of a nickel.
Visual verification of roast similarity among the coffees included in each session is common practice.
This requires placing ground samples next to each other on a black sheet of paper.

How does the cupper prepare to taste the fragrance and the aroma of the coffee?

The cupper smells the ground coffee before water is added to evaluate the coffee fragrance.
Next, the cupper adds hot water to each of the cups and to the cup with the cupping spoons so everything is at the same temperature.
The cupper smells each of the cups without disturbing them and writes down observations about the coffee aroma.
After 1 to 2 minutes, the cupper breaks the crust of the coffee using one of the preheated cupping spoons.
The cupper puts his nose directly over the cup and pushes the coffee down.
This is the time to get the best burst of aroma of the coffee during cupping and to write down observations.
Next, the cupper stirs the coffee to make sure it is covered by water and to help the coffee sink to the bottom of the cup.
Again, the cupper writes down additional observations.
The cupper then rinses the spoon with hot water and moves on to the next sample cup until sampling all of them.

When does the cupper slurp coffee?

When the coffee is sufficiently cool, the cupper takes sufficient coffee from a cup into the spoon and slurps the coffee to cover the entire tongue.
Correct aspiration is important because the objective is to cover all the tongue evenly and to allow some drops to go into the throat and the nasal passages. Why? The aromatic compounds in the flavor of coffee are evident when your nose and tongue smell and taste coffee.
The cupper writes down observations about the coffee flavor.
Cuppers testing more than a couple of cups of coffee spit out the coffee to prevent too much caffeine which can impact the cupping ability of the professional doing this job.

Cupping is a very important step in the coffee evaluation process because it helps grade the coffee in terms of fragrance, aroma and flavor. Positive cupping marks mean higher prices for specific beans and branding opportunities for limited editions, selected varietals and other marketing qualifications.

So, ready to enjoy your next cup of coffee?

Timothy ("Tim") S. Collins, the author, is called by those who know him "Gourmet Coffee Guy." He is an expert in article writing who has done extensive research online and offline in his area of expertise, coffee marketing, as well as in other areas of personal and professional interest. Come visit the author's website: http://www.ourgourmetcoffee.com

c Copyright - Timothy S. Collins. All Rights Reserved Worldwide

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.