As I sit here one deck with my daily morning cup of coffee, I realize… just a few years ago I’d have had a cup of dark strong, stovetop brew with some milk to ease taste. No more!! Now there’s almost every kind of coffee available that you can imagine.

Roasting Coffee at Home

First, we’ll start with fact that you can buy green coffee beans and roast them to your liking right in you own home. One way to roast coffee beans at home is to skillet fry beans until they are brown. They need to be cooked somewhere between 460F degrees and 530F. Beans must be kept moving so it won’t cook them unevenly. The roasting must stop at right time and cooled down quickly. This is old method but definitely won’t taste like today’s methods and needs proper venting.

Another way to roast coffee beans is with a hot-air corn popper. Hot-air poppers roast pretty quickly causing a bright, medium roast and strong flavored dark roasts. Giving a clear-cut taste opposite of beans roasted in a gas oven or in a stovetop popper. This may be a little easier than other methods. There is less to worry about, such as setting temperature just right. Although a great taste, there is a down side to using these poppers. First of all only not all poppers are designed to roast coffee. You should only use ones with proper roasting chambers. This way makes a less amount each time than other methods. Roasting with popper will also cause smoke to be more difficult to vent. Most of these poppers can be used to make French or Espresso coffee, which is darker but are not recommended. This may cause your popper to be over worked and shorten its life.

Roasting beans in a gas oven was also popular. You could roast more at a time and oven did venting for you. Just set ovens temperature like baking. This had to be a much easier way and results were rather good. Don’t forget, timing and cooling process for all roasting is very important and may be different in other blends to achieving goal for a great cup of coffee.

The only way you are going to find out which technique you might enjoy to use is to find a whole bean coffee roasted style that you already like, then try to make it yourself at home. Do a little experimenting!

Brewing Methods

Next let’s move on to many different brewing methods. There are several different ways in which to brew coffee. Before you choose a coffee maker you need to understand first what you demand out of machine. It will be a question only person using it can answer. Let’s examine differences a little closer.

The filter drip is most popular method used to brew coffee because it is easy to operate and consistent. Water is poured in a chamber where it is heated and slowly poured over ground coffee. This can be done two ways. It can be electronically dripped or manually poured over grounds. Some electric machines can be preset to have coffee ready for you when you wake up in morning. Others may prefer taste of hand-brewed coffee for a different flavor.

The name itself refers to wines grown in Rioja region of North Eastern Spain which is near River (or Rio) Oja, hence name. Few other wines get same exposure as Riojas so it is easy to forget number of other great Spanish wines that there are available, which is not surprising really as Spain has highest acreage under vine in world and consequently a number of very different and very interesting wine regions.

One of main selling points of Rioja wines are their consistent high quality. It is probably a testament to Rioja Regulatory Council that quality control is generally so good that people know if they spend $13 or $14 on a bottle that they are pretty much guaranteed a good one.

Rioja wines are made from Tempranillo grape, which is sometimes supplemented with Garnacha, Graciano, or Mazuelo and actual wine is divided into four main categories based on whole long wine is aged for.

After most basic version of wine, simply called Rioja, categories are as follows :