The Best Coffee Guide Videos From Around The Web

If you are a true coffee fan, you need to know about everything related to coffee. Here are some great videos to teach you about the processing, preparation and how to serve your beloved drink.

Coffee is more than just walking into a coffee shop and buying a cup of joe. Before even making it to your coffee shop and supermarket shelves, coffee went through a long process just to get to where it is today. At each step of the way, the coffee was watched to ensure that only the finest beans made it to your mug.

For something that plays such a crucial role in our lives, it would be a shame for coffee to go through that long haul process only to end up on a shelf somewhere where no one knows how it even got there in the first place... Here are some visual videos for a guide as what you need to know about coffee, everything from harvest to brew.

1. “FROM TREE TO CUP” - THIS IS COFFEE

What will you learn?

This nostalgic video will teach you everything about coffee. Beginning with the way that coffee is harvested, how the plant is taken care of to bring that delicious cup into our daily lives. The coffee plant is harvested and each coffee cherry is plucked individually to make sure that it is fully ripe for production. The collected coffee cherries are stored into large bags to help keep count and transfer the cherries to the next phase of production. Once brought back to camp, the cherries are searched through one by one to remove any bad seed from the bunch, or unripe ones that might ruin the rest of the cherries that are around it. The ones that are checked and ripe, are laid out in the sun to dry where they are turned over every couple of hours so that the whole cherry becomes perfectly ripe and ready to brew.

Water, coffee, and time are the three main ingredients that go into every cup of coffee and their production stages to make sure only the best tasting coffee is provided. These three ingredients work together to bring the best cup of coffee to our tables. There are specific measurements for each of the three ingredients depending on the type of coffee you desire. Some require more water to brew, more coffee for the flavor, or even more time to let sit and gather all the tastes.

In some cases the water is poured over the coffee as the coffee seeps through the filter beneath slowly (drip coffee), whereas in others the coffee is poured over the water and is brewed by having the water boil over the coffee grounds (Turkish coffee). Regardless of the method that is used to brew the coffee, every type of coffee needs a specific wait time to get the right taste each time. The water, coffee, and time need to be perfectly calculated and watched so that the taste of the brew is not ruined by having one of the parts more ready than another. “Coffee is the perfect companion” for any time of the day, whether it may be with breakfast, during the afternoon, or even after dinner.

2. HOW IT WORKS - INSTANT COFFEE

What will you learn?

Here at Waka Coffee, we love our quality instant coffee and always happy to teach our customers about the technology behind it. This popular video will have you understand it fast and clearly.

Every packaged product of instant coffee begins with coffee beans arriving at a manufacturer's facility. Yes, real and quality coffee beans (depending on the brand of course). The coffee beans are then roasted in large ovens at a high temperature based on the desired taste. As the coffee beans are in the oven roasting, they are stirred constantly to make sure that each side of the coffee bean is evenly roasted throughout. Once each of the coffee beans are evenly roasted, they fall into a large vat that grinds down each of the coffee beans.

The vat grinds down the coffee beans into a powder-like consistency and transports them down the conveyor belt. Steam and pressure then combine the powder with water to form a liquid paste as it is being heated. The paste is spread out onto a conveyor belt as it moves the coffee to the next stage in its production, known as the freezing wall.

To keep the coffee from losing any of its flavors, the paste needs to be frozen solid. Freeze drying is a process by which water is removed from the coffee extract to produce instant coffee without sacrificing its unique flavor and aroma. First, the coffee extract is frozen at about -50° C, which preserves the coffee’s aroma and depth of flavor. Then, it placed under a vacuum where the frozen liquid sublimates. Sublimation is the process of when the ice immediately changes to steam, without defrosting first. On the contrary, the spray drying method uses hot air to evaporate the water from the beans, which destroys the original flavor and eliminate the coffee’s aroma.

Once completely dry, the coffee crystals are transported into a room temperature location where they are poured into a large tanks. The coffee granules are now ready to be packaged and are poured into air-tight jars and containers, ready to be sent out for you to enjoy your best coffee at home or on the go!

3. “COFFEE LOVERS JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH” - AMAZING COFFEE ART

What will you learn?

Coffee art has brought more and more people to love coffee. People come from all over just to have a cappuccino or a latte with amazing coffee art on it. Some baristas give you that traditional wave of hearts as they steam the milk in a particular way to do so. As for other baristas, they have become the Michaelangelos of the coffee art world. These baristas want to make sure that each cup has an artistic twist to it that goes beyond the hearts and the circles. They have started including whole faces of people on the coffee instead.

The coffee art that is typically found amongst the more advanced artists include people, stories, and even messages all displayed on the foam of the coffee. The baristas take a toothpick and evenly spread out the bubbles of the foam to make the desired pictures.

4. LATTE ART BASICS TUTORIAL - LATTE ART 101

What will you learn?

Espresso extraction 

It is important to have a good pour on your espresso machine to bring out the best of your coffee art.

Even extraction is the goal for the espresso pull. The coffee should not be too fresh nor should it be too old. You want a brew that has been brewed several days before to give you the perfect consistency to make your coffee art. The days old coffee will help you pour your art into an evenly balanced piece of work.

Milk texture 

The milk texture should reach a temperature of 60-65° C.

Textured milk is milk that has been aerated throughout the entire jug. When air is added to the milk it increases the volume of the milk, making the milk fluffy and creamy. Having milk that is evenly aerated (or separated) will bring additional richness to the milk, causing it to take on a velvet-like consistency.

Work as quickly as possible

Pour and start your coffee art as soon as possible since it becomes harder to add art the longer it sits. If the coffee sits for longer, he texture of the milk and coffee pull will begin to separate, making it harder to pour the brew out.

Symmetry 

The goal in coffee art is to make sure that both sides of the cup are identical in their drawings. You need to have one side of the design the same size as the other side, so it would look as aesthetically and pleasing as it should.

How to make sure you achieve symmetry? Pour the milk directly into the center of the cup so both sides can be done at the exact same time. Make sure to maintain that centerness throughout the entire process of your design.

Harmony 

How the pattern harmonizes within the cup = how the pattern sits on the coffee.

It is important to make sure that the design fits for the particular cup you are using, in terms of its size. In addition to the design pattern, you want also to make sure you leave a small brim of coffee around the edges of the cup, so it won't get lost if accidentally combined with the walls of the cup.

Try our quality instant coffee here.