bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 4 (2016), pp. 44–45
For those of you who choose to indulge without the caffeine (though I can’t imagine why you would choose to forego the Elixir of Life), you may be familiar with the term “Swiss Water Decaf”. That’s a company name as well as a process. The Swiss Water Decaffeination Method is a method of extracting the caffeine from coffee using water rather than chemicals that can be used on both conventional and organic beans. And it’s done in Canada! Coffee beans get shipped from abroad to Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company in Burnaby, British Columbia. The beans are processed to remove 99.9% of the caffeine and are then re-shipped.
To get the most out of your bean, I have a few tried and true tips. First, buy and use it as fresh as possible. Obvious, right? Raw (green) coffee beans can remain good for many years, but once you roast it, it has a very limited lifespan. In my experience, it stays fantastically delicious for about a week after roasting, then quickly declines no matter how well you re-package or store it. If you’re lucky enough to be able to get locally roasted coffee, ask when it was roasted.
Then buy whole bean instead of the ground stuff. Ground coffee has an increased surface area, allowing more oxygen contact to make it go stale faster. Grind just what you need, when you need it. Second, don’t put hot coffee into a cold cup: ceramic, metal or otherwise. If you rinse it with hot water first, you’ll avoid the acidity that the hot coffee + cold surface combo causes. Third, don’t drink your coffee piping hot. Let it cool slightly before you enjoy it; I don’t know why it tastes better like that, but it does. Then put your coffee grounds in the green bin or garden to improve the soil and reduce waste. I’ve been told they reduce slugs/snails around the base of plants and increase the acidity of the soil, which tomatoes, blueberries and many other crops like…
Lisa Bitto is a political FS Officer and an avid baker, cook and food geek since her mother first refused to bake her cookies and she took matters into her own hands. She usually chooses her vacation destinations based on the food.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 4 (2016), pp. 44–45. Read the rest of this issue →
