How Many Types of Coffee Bean Are There?

If you have shopped in a supermarket then you would be exposed to the coffee bean types that are showcased on its shelving. Based on that, there are easily 20-30 varieties of it.
So, you must be thinking if I would have the space to squeeze all those information into this article. Well, the fact is I would probably need only a few paragraphs to share with you on the types of beans available.
This is because there are only 2 varieties of the beans, the rest are more of the grading and brands of it. And if you are a coffee drinker, chances are you would have heard of these two names before.
The first name that I am highlighting make up 70% of the world consumption and its scientific name is Coffea Arabica and between the two types of coffee beans, this is the one that is highly favored.
It is also much more costly than the other one due to its unique growing conditions. For these plants to thrive, you would need at altitude of at least a thousand meter and the temperature cannot go beyond 20 degree Celsius.
In comparison, the second type of coffee that makes up the 30% of the coffee consumption can be grown in temperature as high as 27 degree Celsius and on almost any grounds. It is very hardy but coffee drinkers do not like the bitterness that is associated with this type of beans.
Its scientific name is Coffea Canephora and most of us know it by the name Robusta. This is considered to be inferior to Arabica and is seldom sold by itself. The only genre of products that has these beans by itself is processed or canned coffee that does not has a strong focus on the flavor of the beans.
The other uses for these beans are fillers for Arabica beans, which because of its higher pricing would usually be packed with a generous dose of Robusta to make it affordable to consumers.
If you read the labels in the supermarket, you would always see a brand name followed by the blend and the roasting method. Very rarely, you would see either type of beans by itself.
Then what about the Blue Mountains, Kenya AA or the Kona coffee? The fact is, all these are Arabica beans, but they are prized for the locality which they are being grown in. It is more of a brand rather than a type.
Take for example, the Jamaican Blue Mountains that is known for its mild flavor that has no bitter taste. This is possible because of the cool and misty climate that is exclusive to the blue mountain area.
So, folks looking for this particular taste would look for this range of beans. Similarly, Kenya coffee would have a different taste and so would the beans that are grown in other parts of the world.
Now you know that if you are talking about types of coffee beans, there are only two. But, if you are looking for brands of beans that come with its unique taste profile, there are many and it would take more than an article to categorize them.
Author Bio:
Ebenezer Heng, the owner of On Coffee makers does the research for on any machines related to coffee. As long as you are looking for a machines to better your coffee experience, chances are you can find it at http://www.oncoffeemakers.com and read more about coffee bean types
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Many-Types-of-Coffee-Bean-Are-There?&id=1793160

Fundraising Ideas - Learn Profitable Fundraisng Programs to Support Your Nonprofit Idea

Supporting a cause that is close to your heart is one of life's greatest pleasures. Most of us stumble into supporting a fundraising program either through a close relationship with a family member or someone in your town gave you a ring. Once you get involved you then need to make sure your nonprofit idea is properly supported to make your beneficiaries happy. What we list here are a few low cost ways to raise funds to support your nonprofit.
Learn how to run an online auction. eBay, the well known autioneer has something called eBay Giving Works - it works because people like to help and the fun of an auction helps them get into the giving mode. So if you have a cause - go find something worthwhile and start your fundrasing auction.
You can run your own "A-Thon" by going to choose-a-thon? If you and your team like to do participatory activities this website can help you perform the organizing and collections work. This way you can focus your energy on the fun part. Does not matter if it's a march-a-thon, a bowl-a-thon, a bike-a-thon, a read-a-thon, a walk-a-thon or life-a-thon. This website group has no up-front fees and they'll collect your donations for you too. This makes fundraising a lot easier for sure.
Do you like to shop? Why not try my shopping mall website? Websites like this provide a cash-back reward for using the site to shop at over hundreds of stores including some national chain stores and the more local mom and pop stores. You can build your own mall and then you get your folks to support your mall. They teach you how to promote it and provide extensive instructions and support.
Then there is a site dedicated purely to fundraising and its a beginner site so it goes by the name of fundraising101. here you can search for goods and services on fund raising, seek fund raising ideas, seek out church fund raising and develop your fund raising program from scratch and more. Actions on this site are easy to learn as there are categories to select from like Photography and Video Services, Aerial Photography, Tailor and Alteration Services, Immigration Services, Financial Counseling Services, Architecture Services, Railings, or Business Services for example. Needless to say this site has a lot to offer.
Lastly seek out websites willing to give discounts to nonprofits for promoting their products. The discounts can be substantial. That's right, TechOSS allows you to sell internet service as a fundraiser. Your group should have an internet connection to really realize the benefits of it and the price really can't be beat since it is truly reduced. You only have to promote your website.
There are many ways to raise funds and these are just a few.
Need help with your nonprofit situation? Go to a TechOSS Nonprofit Support and get solutions and coaching on your situation now.
Gregory L Burrus - scours the web and build your internet business using reliable, repeatable and proven money making systems. Click to learn how to Get Your Business Profitable On The Web
Article Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Fundraising-Ideas---Learn-Profitable-Fundraisng-Programs-to-Support-Your-Nonprofit-Idea&id=1570363

Gourmet Coffee Blends

Coffee blends are made by combining different types of coffee beans. They are usually made with Arabica coffee beans which produce the good coffee flavor and aroma coffee lovers love. A coffee blend can become a special coffee brand used by cafes, roasters, and growers to attract repeat customers. These coffee brands can have a unique coffee flavor that can't be found anywhere else.
Signature Blends: Signature blends are used by stores, cafes, and coffee sellers to encourage customers to continue to buy their brand or visit their cafe. The goal of signature blending is to produce a unique flavor that consumers can only find at one place. Most signature blend "recipes" are highly guarded secrets.
Consistency Blends: Consistency blends usually contain a large number of bean varieties in order to maintain a consistent flavor should one or more of those varieties become unavailable. Using more beans makes it easier to preserve the coffee's characteristics if one of the beans is unavailable. This type of blend is typically used by the producers of mass-produced and commercial coffees.
Single-Origin Blends: Single-origin blends are made by using coffee beans from the same geographic growing location which may be as specific as an individual estate or a co-op of farmers in small neighborhoods. This virtually guarantees an unmistakable regional identity in the final cup.
The goal of blending coffees is to create a resulting coffee flavor that is greater than the sum of its component coffees. A good example of this Mocha Java. This blend is a mix of Yemen Mocha beans and Java Arabica beans. Both coffees can stand alone, but each lack different qualities. Yemen Mocha has great acidity and medium body; Java has great body, but low acidity. Blending these coffees in the proper ratio produces a more well-rounded coffee.
Author Bio:
Diena Zavetsky has been a coffee gourmet for over 15 years. She is the owner of Hot Gourmet Coffee, a subsidiary of dmskye. She believes that whole bean coffee should be ground just before brewing to get a fresh coffee flavor.
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Gourmet-Coffee-Blends&id=1711650

Church Fundraising Ideas Can Be a Blessing

Although quite a daunting task, organizing church fundraisers is still a fulfilling experience especially since it is a good avenue to show support to your religion and community.
More than showing support to the community, church fundraisers are a good opportunity to bring people closer through teamwork and socialization, and probably even a good way to tap into each member's skills and talents that are beneficial to the fundraising event.
There are a lot of church fundraising ideas to choose from. Picking the right one will all depend on what the organizers and the community is willing and able to do.
Below are some of the most common yet effective church fundraisers:
Fundraiser Letters
One of the most reliable ways to seek help in raising funds for the church is by writing fundraiser letters. This has been proven an effective way to communicate to the congregation when informing about needing help in covering expenses for church-related repairs or coming up with payment for a building.
There are different techniques in writing fundraiser letters for the church. What is important is that the message is communicated clearly. It doesn't have to be too commercial as the congregation expects that such letters of request be honest and direct to the point.
Aside from being concise, fundraiser requests to the congregation should also have the following elements: 1) The method or means on how people or the other members of the congregation can send their donations (bank account details, physical address etc.), 2)Self-addressed envelope, 3) Other details discussing the current status of the request (example: remaining balance of the loan, etc.), 4) A line that will call the reader to action - something like "Your help is needed."
Gift Trees
A gift tree is also one of the greatest church fundraising ideas. They usually come as a tree sculpture adorned with metal leaves that are hanging from a wood structure which is mounted on the wall.
Gift trees involve donation from church members. The whole concept of the gift tree is to have each metal leaf engraved with the name of the donor. As a result, the gift tree becomes a work of art and each leaf is a remembrance of the donors who showed support to the church.
Portrait Day
Taking a picture of someone who is willing to pay for a small fee is a good fundraising idea for the church. Organizers of the church can set different fees depending on the picture that needs to be taken - Say, $10 for a solo portrait and $15 for a family portrait.
If you want to be creative you can also have some costumes rented for a fee and offer customers to have their family portrait taken on a different setting.
Since cameras nowadays are mostly digital, the setup cost is low, allowing a higher profit for the fundraising event.
Auction for Charity
Charity auctions are also a good church fundraising idea. It pretty much needs low to no capital at all. More often than not, you will just need to seek the help of supportive members in the community and ask them for item donations which they are willing to include in the auction. Items can be as simple as old furniture, or lawn services, or gift certificates.
Author Bio:
For more great church fundraising ideas, please be sure to visit http://www.greatfundraiserideas.com
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Church-Fundraising-Ideas-Can-Be-a-Blessing&id=4539978&opt=print

Bali - Coffee on Island of the Gods

Bali is known by many names to those who have visited the island. Many Indonesians refer to this slice of paradise as "Pulau Dewa" or "Island of the gods". Since October 2002 the island has seen a marked downturn in the number of foreign tourists arriving to enjoy the scenic, cultural and religious diversity found here. Hopefully with a peaceful election campaign behind us, Bali will again see tourists returning in numbers.
Our visit to Bali in March was not a holiday, but rather a visit to look at the cooperative growing system for Arabica found in the highland areas of central Bali. Traditionally Balinese coffee was of the robusta variety. This is the coffee that many tourists visiting the island experience and love. The origins of Robusta here can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century or earlier. Commercial Colonial plantations never made an impact in Bali because the Dutch did not get any degree of control over the island until the 1900's. By this time the big plantations in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi were already well established. The Robusta in Bali most likely came via traders from Ampenan in Lombok. The growing conditions in Bali are ideal for coffee trees, and small-scale production quickly spread in the cooler, higher altitude areas of the Island.
In recent times, with Robusta prices falling, Arabica has been planted in several areas of the Island. Some of these plantings are in commercial plantations, however the bulk are beans grown by small-holders in a number of villages saddling the volcanic peaks. Our visit was to examine the drying and processing facilities for this mountain grown Bali Arabica.
As in the rest of the coffee world, the small-holders make up the bulk of the growers, but receive little real financial reward for their efforts. Our concern is always to look for a way in which to help these small growers to improve their picking, drying and sorting processes in order for them to be able to market their coffee to the specialty coffee market outside of Indonesia. In most cases the growers are more than happy to listen to ideas on how to improve the finished quality of their product. In Bali the yields from the trees in raw cherries is very good. Most coop growers are uncertified organic- the costs of pesticides against the price for the finished bean do not make sense. The small holders almost universally follow the dry method of processing the beans. This involves laying the fruit out under the sun in large, flat concrete drying pens. The coffee is raked regularly to ensure the drying proceeds at a constant pace. Prior to drying the cooperative removes poor quality cherries- usually berries that are not ripe, have evidence of surface fungal diseases or berries that have been damaged by birds or other pests. After drying and removal of the remaining mucilage, the beans are again sorted. This time beans are sorted based on whether there is evidence of damage by borer, discoloration, black beans or split and broken beans. This is the extent of sorting- there is no screen sizing done by the cooperatives at origin, as normally the beans are on-sold to big producers who then sort further.
We like the early season greens that we saw in the highlands of Bali. The colours and firmness of the bean are good, as was the general quality. Test roasting resulted in us deciding that the dry-processed bean had some characteristics reminiscent of the lower altitude Java Arabica beans. A very mellow, slightly honey-dew taste.....We are looking forward to later in the year when we will be in Bali for the harvest of the bulk of the 2004 crop.
Author Bio:
Alun Evans is a New Zealander living and working in sepcialty coffee in Indonesia. He has lived here since 1998 and is working towards a goal of promoting and devloping sustainable coffee in Indonesia.
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Bali---Coffee-on-Island-of-the-Gods&id=80040

Supplies Needed for a Successful Car Wash Fundraiser

As a parent you will obviously be asked to help out with your offspring's fundraising activities and one of those activities will be a car wash fundraiser. As a good parent having read this article you will know exactly what is needed and with a little help from other parents will be able to prevent a disastrous event. There are certain supplies that are needed for a car wash fundraiser; for instance:
SUPPLIES
Soap
Sponges (2)
Towels
Buckets (3)
Garden Hoses
Window Cleaner
Clothesline
Coffee Can Collection Box
Clip Boards (2)
Whistle with Strings (2)
Stop Watch
Squeegees (3)
Chamois (2)
Your soap buckets should be five gallon buckets. You don't have to buy them. Go to the local McDonald's and ask the manager for a pickle bucket. They are green but who cares. They are free. McDonald's will also give you a giant water dispenser full of fruit punch to borrow for the day of the event if you want. Tell the management in advance that you will need these items. Also ask them for coupons to hand out at your fundraiser. It will help their business and you should return the favor.
Your sponges shouldn't be real sponges but lamb's wool squares. They look like car wash mitts except they are square and about a foot on each side. You can buy them at Pep Boys, Trac Auto or any large auto parts store. You will need four or five of them.
You will need about 150 feet of garden hose. Put the longest section on last. Hopefully it will be 75 feet in length. People drive over the hose ends and ruin them because they smash the brass fittings. The ends will leak and lower your hose pressure. If you plan on having lots of cars at your event, you may want to buy a 'y' garden hose fitting at the hardware store (under $3.00) and then get 300 feet of hose and run two hoses each 150 feet long. Don't use a plastic hose reel. It gets in the way and gets damaged easily. You don't want to have to give back a damaged hose reel to the lender especially since it's someone in your group and it probably came from their front yard.
Have each washer bring three towels. Make sure they are towels that they do not need back. They should be garage sale quality. Don't use nice bath towels from bathrooms. Custom/expensive towels will get ripped or ruined. Plus, most people use fabric softener when washing these types of towels. Fabric softener streaks windows and slows down the drying process. Use the worst towels to dry rims all day. Nicer towels for chrome, windows and body. When the towels get too wet hang them on your clothesline between two trees.
Don't buy window cleaner. Buy one pint of rubbing alcohol. Use your squirt bottles. Add fifteen to twenty percent alcohol and fill the rest of the bottle with distilled or reverse osmosis water and put on squirt heads. Buy three squirt bottles. You will only use two at a time but squirt heads are unreliable and you might run over the bottles. You should have two people in charge of windows and chrome. Assign them squirt bottles with window cleaner and one squeegee each. No car leaves without perfect windows and mirrors. Tell them they are in charge and remember mirrors are considered windows. This will increase your 'tipage' by ten to twenty percent. Even if the cars are not perfect, if the windows are, it's a good car wash.
You should time the average wash and average dry. If you are washing faster than drying, take away a wash mitt from the bucket and you will find that extra person moving to another assignment. If cars are drying faster than washing, hand a soap mitt to the average dryer (not the fastest or the slowest). Ask them "We're getting behind in the washing. Can you go help speed them up?"
Give a chamois to a supervisor in the dry area for dark colored and very expensive cars. He should have a spare chamois for your best worker to use to help with special cars that come through. This extra special treatment should cost more so have the donation can person stand by while you work. Without asking for an extra tip you will increase your chance of getting a large tip by fifty percent, money your group needs and deserves. Before the event copy this list above and then check off each item as you get it and have it all ready to go the morning of the event, you will be glad you did, because you are a great parent and you care. Think on this.
Author Bio:
"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Supplies-Needed-for-a-Successful-Car-Wash-Fundraiser&id=41540

fundraising,funds,money

Coffee Drinking in Italy

If ever given the chance to travel to Italy, there will be much more for you to enjoy about it than the overwhelming amounts of culture and art. You will also experience the dedication to perfect coffee and espresso. Italy has contributed much to espresso and espresso fans over the years. In fact, the espresso machine inventor, La Pavoni, was an Italian!
While you're in Rome, if you want a coffee, you should order it as a "caffe". Likewise, if you'd like a shot of espresso. This is a small and strong shot of espresso, which is normally the term that you would use to order a coffee. Italians don't order a shot of espresso by saying "un espresso", but they will instead say "un caffe". If you would like two shots of espresso within one cup, that is called a "caffe doppio", which is the term for a double espresso.
If you're not a fan of strong, bold espresso, order the "un caffe lungo" - the term used for adding two times the amount of water to the espresso. This will give you a similar consistency to an American cup of coffee or Americanos style of espresso. You may already be quite familiar with a cappuccino, which is made with a shot of espresso and foamed milk. The barista will froth the milk for the cappuccino by infusing air bubbles into the milk, which will give it texture and a velvety foam. A cappuccino is made of one third parts espresso, steamed milk, and foam. Using the proper ratio of foam is important when the barista is steaming the milk to create the perfect consistency of cappuccino every time. What many people don't realize is that a cappuccino is actually one of the hardest espresso beverages to capture and make properly, although you may be pleasantly surprised to find artistic shapes atop your cappuccino in the form of cappuccino art.
The word cappuccino was actually derived from the Cappucin friars in Italy, and it may refer to the dark color of their robes in contrast to their white heads, which was often surrounded by a ring of their brown hair. In Italy, it is customary to drink cappuccino before 11 am only, since it's considered to be mainly just a morning beverage. As a tourist, however, you can do whatever you want!
For another authentic treat, you may want to try the macchiato, which is named after the Italian word for "stained". In actuality, this drink is made from a shot of espresso that is stained with a few drops of steamed milk.
Overall, it is best to enjoy your cappuccino with a pastry treat for breakfast, and it is important to understand that you may pay significantly more for your espresso beverage if you are in a tourist location. Many times, you can find a wonderful hidden gem in Italy of a café; off of the beaten path that will serve you fresh and authentic espresso at an affordable price! When in Rome...
Author Bio:
Mark Ramos is a coffee geek. For a great selection in all things coffee, espresso machines and BUNN coffee makers, check out The Coffee Bump.
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Coffee-Drinking-in-Italy&id=4337814