Disposable Coffee Cup

Disposable Coffee Cup

When your traveling it’s always a good feeling when you can stop the car to stretch your legs and buy yourself a hot drink like a coffee in a disposable coffee cup. Disposable coffee cups are so convenient if you drink slowly or you’re on a tight schedule.

Drinking from a disposable coffee cup is not glamorous but who’s complaining when you’re craving for a coffee. With a disposable lid attached to the cup it avoids those nasty spills in the car. Even if you’re traveling a short distance to a hotel, back packers or lodge it’s nice to know your well deserved coffee will be intact when you reach your destination.

The plastic lids are great because they avoid spills and trap the heat to keep your coffee piping hot and your hands super warm on cold days. Just remember disposable coffee cups can become quite hot because they’re not insulated so be careful you don’t burn yourself.

If you like your coffee a little cooler just remove the lid from the disposable coffee cup and let it sit for a few minutes. This will help your coffee to breathe and if you want to cool it down faster just use the plastic stirrer to whiz the coffee around. While the coffee is cooling you might want a small snack or something substantial to eat to revitalize your body.

Drinking takeaway coffee from a disposable coffee cup might not be glamorous or taste like prize winning coffee but at least it’s coffee that you can take away with you.

* Image is Public Domain coffee cup clip art

Vanilla Coffee

Vanilla Coffee

A vanilla coffee dream that will deliver an exotic explosion that is pure and spicy to your taste buds.

Ingredients for Vanilla Coffee Recipe

Vanilla Coffee Serves: 3
3 cups of water
1/4 cup of instant coffee
2 Tablespoons of packed brown sugar
1/2  Tablespoon imitation vanilla or few drops of pure vanilla extract

Vanilla Flavored Coffee Preparation

To make vanilla coffee the old fashioned way we will be making it on the stove top. Start by measuring out three cups of water into the saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons of packed brown sugar to the water followed by  a 1/4 cup of instant coffee.

Place on the stove top and begin to heat the ingredients. A good tasting cup of vanilla coffee should reach an optimum brewing temperature around 200 F. An electronic thermometer is a handy little device to have in the kitchen. If you don’t have a thermometer just remove the saucepan from the heat before the coffee reaches boiling point.

Add a 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla to the coffee and stir it thoroughly so ingredients combine to make vanilla coffee. Pour the coffee into 3 cups, serve and enjoy your vanilla coffee made the old fashioned way.

* If you’re using pure vanilla extract in your vanilla coffee it’s always a good idea to add one drop of vanilla at a time, stir and taste until you’ve reached the desired flavor.

History of Coffee

Coffee is derived from the seed of the fruit of the coffee tree, usually from C. arabica or C. robusta which generally only grow in the tropics, an the best beans are from trees located above 3000ft.

Originally cultivated in East Africa, the coffee bean was first roasted in Ethiopia and quickly spread to Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of East Africa at the end of the first millennium.

Owing to their close proximity with the Muslim world, ports in Yemen were the first to introduce coffee to the Middle Eastern lands, from where it spread throughout the Muslim world, but not reaching most of Europe until hundreds of years later.

Ethiopian style coffee is thick and syrupy and served in a small bowl, whereas Middle Eastern coffee is served in a small glass or cup. Western styles of coffee tend to be less syrupy.

By the early 1600s coffee had reached Europe thru the trading connection between Venice and North Africa. The very first coffee house in Europe was opened in 1645 in Venice.

Historians are divided on when coffee reached England, France, and the other Western European nations but it is known that in 1675 there were over 3000 coffee houses in England.

European sensibilities were averse to being too closely linked with the Arab Muslim economies and in the late 1600s Dutch adventurers managed to succeed in getting live plants back to Amsterdam. Large greenhouses were established and seeds distributed to Dutch colonies in the tropics.

By the early 1700s Dutch coffee growers and roasters dominated coffee production and controlled the lion’s share of sales in Europe.

In the Americas coffee was being grown in the Dutch and French colonies but it wasn’t long until coffee plants had reached Brazil and other parts of South America.

By the 1800s Brazil was the leading supplier of coffee world wide, a position never challenged since, although Vietanm is close second in the 21st century followed more distantly by Colombia.

Colombian coffee is probably better known than Brazilian and Vietnamese beans although by the time most wholesalers have mixed and roasted their beans it is difficult to tell where the beans have originated.