COFFEE JARGON

Anhydride: gas contained in coffee beans, which is released during roasting due to heat and increases the size of the coffee bean

Arabica: also called Coffea Arabica Linne', this type of coffee is most widely cutivated in the world. There are 200 different varieties including the famous Bourbon or Moka.

Arabusta: a hybrid coffee plant still being experimented. A cross between Arabica and Robusta tested by the French Institute of Coffee and Cocoa.

Aromas: complex and numerous (Arabica contains more than 700 identified volatile elements), coffee aromas are only released when heat is present. They are extremely volatile, and are affected by air and light.

Atomized: for soluble coffee when it is dehydrated using the spray-process technique (evaporation using hot air at 250 degrees Celsius)

Body: this indicates the consistency and thickness of this beverage

Coffee: It is the shrub of the Rubiacee family. Up to now, 73 different species of coffee have been identified. Each plant provides, on average, 2.5 Kg fruit a year (900g green coffee). It has a different name depending on the country:

• Kaffee (Germany)
• Qahwa (Arabia)
• Kai-fey (China)
• Kaffe (Denmark, Sweden)
• Café (Spain, France, Portugal)
• Bunna (Ethiopia)
• Kahvi (Finland)
• Kafes or Kafoe (Greece)
• Kave (Hungary)
• Caffe (Italy)
• Keni (Japan)
• Bun (Kenya)
• Coffee (Anglo-Saxon countries)
• Koffie (the Low Countries)
• Qehve (Persia)
• Kawa (Poland)
• Cafea (Rumania)
• Kofe (Russia)
• Kahveh (Turkey)

Caffeine: a chemical substance that is naturally present in coffee in varying amounts (from 0.8 to 4%). Robusta contains twice as much as Arabica.

Coffeemancy: the prophetic art practiced by reading the marks left by coffee dregs inside cups.

Coffee Maker: a manual or electric appliance used to prepare coffee. It is made of china, metal, glass or earthenware, adapting to the chosen method (decoction, infusion, filter, pressure)

Caracolito: a single coffee bean contained in a fruit (where there are usually two)

Coffee Bean: the name used for the coffee seed

Coffee Plantation: coffee plant cultivation. In Brazil, it is called a "fazenda"

Crema: the Espresso surface, nutty brown in color with red streaks.

Decaffeinated: coffee that has had caffeine removed (less than 0.1%)

Decoction: an ancient technique of boiling coffee in water. Ignored by experts, this method is used to prepare Turkish-style coffee.

De-Pulping: an essential step that is required to separate the drupe pulp from the coffee beans.

Dose: an amount of ground coffee, which varies according to the type of coffee required, the amount of water and the coffee maker used (7g for a 25-30 ml Espresso).

Drupe: the fruit of the coffee plant. It is similar to a cherry in color and shape, containing two furrowed and semi-oval seeds, wrapped in a sliver film, and rich in alkaloids (caffeine and theophylline).

Endocarp: a membrane covering the coffee bean (parchment layer)

Epicarp: the drupe skin

Espresso: a quick method of making coffee at high pressure (less than 30 seconds), tested by the Italians at the end of the 19th century.

Freeze-Dried: a second drying procedure for making soluble coffee. First used in 1965, it involves freezing to -40 degrees Celsius. The result is better coffee than coffee obtained by atomization.

Green Coffee: "natural" coffee beans extracted from the fruits after harvesting. The name comes from its golden-green hues. This green coffee is used for roasting.

Ground Coffee: roasted coffee reduced to small or very small particles depending on the type of preparation it is to be used.

Hand-Picking: picking coffee manually

Infusion: this involves pouring hot water on coffee that been put into a filter.

Instant: soluble coffee

Light Roast: a type of lightly roasted weak clear coffee, appreciated in Northern Europe, the opposite of full roast, which is dense and dark.

Match-Like Stem: a coffee piñata, which looks like a thin stem with a swollen seed at the top (6-8 weeks germination).

Maillard (Reaction): a chemical reaction during roasting, in which coffee beans are caramelized and released their aromas.

Melior: a French coffee maker invented in 1947, based on an infusion process using a filtering piston.

Membrane: the thin silver covering the coffee beans. It is also called silver-skin.

Mild: sweet and washed Arabica.

Moka: the ancient port and city in Yemen, which supplied Europe with coffee from the 16th to the 18th century. It is the name given to a prestigious variety of Arabica coming from Ethiopia. It is also the name of the Italian coffee maker (pressure-filtering).

Monsonato: a procedure used in India, which involves directly and intentionally exposing green coffee to air saturated with humidity during the monsoon period to give it a special aroma.

Natural: the opposite of "washed" coffee. It is used for coffee beans treated with the dry method: the pulp is naturally dried in the sun.

Orange Rust: a terrible disease that affects coffee plants, especially Arabica plants. Orange rust, whose scientific name is Hemileia Vastatrix, is a fungal parasite that appeared in the 19th century. At that time, it destroyed nearly all the plantations in south-east Asia, particularly in Reunion (at one time the island of Bourbon) and in Ceylon, where all coffee plants disappeared.

Percolator: the name for any coffee maker that uses a filtering process (percolate is from Latin = filter). It is especially used for the Italian steam pressure coffee maker, the predecessor of the Espresso machine.

Picking: a picking process for coffee, fruit is picked by hand and only when it is ripe.

Pulp: the flesh of the fruit, which includes the mucilage and comprises 70% water. It is also called mesocarp.

Quality: coffee connected to land. There are over 400 worldwide. Among the most prestigious are Blue Mountain in Jamaica, Lucie Royale in Zimbabwe and Kona in Hawaii.

Roasting: cooking green coffee. The traditional method lasts 15-23 minutes and is carried out at a temperature of 230 degrees Celsius.

Robusta: one of the 5o varieties of the Coffea Canephora species. It is grown particularly in Africa, Brazil, and south-east Asia. Robusta is more resistant to diseases, giving a stronger and bitterer coffee than Arabica.

Rubiacee: the family of plants that coffee belongs to, including china root and jasmine.

Saio: the brown color of the coffee bean, obtained after medium roasting (between light and dark)

Salty: a feature of some dark bitter Brazilian coffees with a salty taste, which are full of iodine due to lengthy storage on benches by the sea in Rio De Janeiro.

Single Origin: one type of quality coming from a single area.

Soluble: a dehydrated coffee in powder from or granules, which is reconstituted when you pour on hot water. It is obtained by atomization or freeze-drying.

Stripping: it is the quickest and most widespread picking method, which gives, however, low quality results: all drupes are picked in one action, by hand or by machine whether ripe or not.

Strecker (Reaction): the chemical reaction during roasting, when coffee beans change color (from green to golden, then brown and finally black).

Vacuum-Packed: packaging without surrounding air to prevent coffee from oxidizing. It comes in a soft or hard pack with vacuum valve 8, allowing the gas released by the coffee to escape.

Washed: used for coffee subject to humidity treatment to separate the coffee beans from the coffee beans from the pulp.

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COFFEE JARGON

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