It all starts with you.  Are you ready to really enjoy that coffee?  Are you willing to spend a few minutes to taste the complexity of the espresso and enjoy the silky, smooth nature of the milk?  If you are, then read on and I’ll explain a bit about what we at Casa Java do to make your coffee arguably the best on the Coast.

First, find a café where you feel relaxed so you can forget the world and concentrate on the experience.  Casa Java is that place for you.

The coffee bean; this is the seed of the fruit of the coffee plant.  There are several types of coffee plants.  Supreme Fair Trade Organic (or FTO) is derived predominantly from beans from the Coffea Arabica plant from Ethiopia and Venezuela.  FTO means that the farmers of the coffee plants receive a guaranteed price for their product in an attempt to prevent exploitation of third world resources and people.

The beans are harvested and then roasted.  Red berries are ripe and are the best for good coffee.  The berry has the pulp removed leaving the seed or bean.  This is then either washed and dried out (the wet method) or just dried in the sun (dry method).  The dry method takes longer, but of course does not require a lot of water and is the traditional way of preparing the bean.  The beans must be dry to prevent spoilage during storage.

These green beans are then roasted to give you the coffee beans your barista grinds to make your favourite coffee.  The beans are heated (190-280 degrees Celsius) and they double in size, changing flavour and darkening in colour the longer they are roasted.  Unroasted beans boast all of coffee’s acids, protein, and caffeine – but none of its taste. It takes heat to spark the chemical reactions that turn carbohydrates and fats into aromatic oils, burn off moisture and carbon dioxide, and alternately break down and build up acids, unlocking the characteristic coffee flavor.  Once roasted, beans should be used in 1–2 weeks.

We receive our coffee beans every week from the roastary in Wellington.  The skill of our barista's then creates your coffee experience.  The beans are ground and water, at 90 degrees Celsius, is forced through the packed grind.  This ‘extracts’ the flavours from the coffee.  The combination of the fineness of the grind, how hard it is packed and the amount of water that is forced through the ground coffee, are all very important in gaining a lovely smooth espresso with a thick crema – reddish brown foam that floats on top of the espresso.  Over extracted coffee has a bitter taste on the back of your tongue and is often referred to as burnt coffee.

If you are drinking a latte, cappuccino or flat white, then steamed milk is added to your espresso.  The milk is ‘stretched’ – that is to heat it by passing steam through the milk to 65 degrees Celsius.  The banging you may hear after this is removing any large bubbles from the milk.  Any foam with large bubbles is scooped off the top and then the ‘stretched’ milk is poured over your espresso.  You are now ready to experience great coffee.  Take the time to appreciate it and let it work its magic on you.

• Casa Java Village Profile
• Casa Java Website