Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee: Helping 5000 Homeless Children

Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee helps 5000 homeless children in Atlanta with back to school supplies, free medical healthcare and free dental care.

Kroger and Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee complete a Back 2 School bookbag and school supplies drive from July 4 to August 12th to help over 5000 metro Atlanta’s homeless children. Kroger stores in 19 metro Atlanta counties served as exclusive collection sites for bookbags and other essential school supplies.

Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee, a nonprofit purveyor of gourmet coffee that provides aid to underprivileged children globally, has used all the proceeds it receives from Kroger customers purchasing its product during the drive to buy new school supplies and book bags. On August 17th Mission Grounds handed out book bags filled with school supplies to over 5000 children in 29 shelters across Metro Atlanta.

"This is a wonderful program that offers a variety of ways to give," says Boake Moore, chief executive officer of Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee. "Whether Kroger customers purchase Mission Grounds Coffee or directly donate bookbags and school supplies, they can be sure their donations will reach the children who need them."

Metro Atlantans dropped off bookbags and school supplies at Kroger stores in 13 Metro Atlanta Counties. Currently customers can purchase coffee in 65 Krogers and on line at www.missiongrounds.com On August 17th a huge carnival was held for the children. Doctors gave out free vaccines, updated medical records, completed eye exams and gave out free eyeglasses. Dentist conducted free dental cleanings and barbers gave free haircuts.

According to the United Way, more than 3,500 children will live in a shelter or group home at some point during the 2008-2009 school year. In metro Atlanta, the Children’s Restoration Network estimates approximately 1,900 children are homeless each night. This number does not include children living in cars, with family friends or several families living in hotel rooms together.

"It is astonishing there are so many homeless children in metro Atlanta," says Glynn Jenkins, director of communications for the Atlanta Division of Kroger. "Kroger is dedicated to helping the communities it serves, and the Back 2 School program is an excellent opportunity to engage the community and give disadvantaged children a head start this school year."

"The stress of entering a new grade with unfamiliar teachers and classmates is compounded for disadvantaged children, who don’t have the proper supplies needed to make the most of their educational experience. The Back 2 School program can help alleviate some of this stress," says Cliff Kinsey, chief executive officer of Children’s Restoration Network.

"I’m thrilled to work with Kroger and Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee on this year’s collection," says Kinsey. "Our combined efforts will allow this organization to help more children in their pursuit of an education."

About Kroger
Kroger’s Atlanta Division is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the southeast largest retail grocery chains with over 215 stores covering, Georgia, Eastern Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina. The Company focuses its charitable efforts on hunger relief, K-12 education, women’s health initiatives and local organizations in the communities it serves. For more information about Kroger, please visit www.kroger.com

About Mission Grounds Coffee
Mission Grounds Coffee offers gourmet coffee in simple bags that will make a difference. The company is a non-profit corporation that devotes 100 percent of its profits to support non-profit missions that benefit children. The company was founded by a small group of friends after returning from mission trips where they realized children suffer the most in poor economic conditions. The company helps children in Russia, Indonesia Kenya and South Africa, China and Sudan.

Mission Grounds Gourmet coffee
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Cleaning Coffee Maker with Vinegar

Cleaning your coffee maker will help it brew better and tastier coffee.

For many people, the most used appliances in their kitchen is the coffee maker. Whether you drink coffee or not, you probably use this appliance more than any other in the kitchen. With all this use comes the build up of grit and grime inside the machine that may make it perform at a lesser level than it should.

Even worse not many people know how to clean their coffee maker. They may swish out the pot after use or at least change the filter, but this does not really clean the important parts of the whole machine. To really get a deep clean you need to get inside the coffee maker and flush it out.

To clean your coffee maker you can make a fairly simple home made solution using water and vinegar. The rule of thumb is to use about 2 parts water for every 1 part vinegar. I recommend you do a half vinegar and half water solution.

Pour this mixture into your coffee put, and be sure not to go above the recommended maximum level. Once the solution is in the pot you will then pour it into the water reservoir like you would when brewing coffee naturally. Put the pot back in the housing compartment, and install a filter as if you were about to brew a pot of coffee.

Once you have everything back in place, set and ready you will press the start button. Allow for the entire brew cycle to be completely before doing anything. What this does is dispense the water and vinegar solution through your coffee maker for a thorough rinsing of the inside components.

Once the cycle is fully complete and the solution is back into the pot, let it set for at least 20 minutes, allowing for both the pot to cool and the solution to clean the pot. After a good 20 minutes you can go ahead and pour out the vinegar and water mix.

Now that you have cleaned the inside the inside of your coffee maker you will want to flush it out of all the vinegar that may have been left behind from the cleaning process. In order to do this you need to once again fill up the coffee pot to its maximum point, but this time fill it up with just water.

Pour the water into the water reservoir, this time you do not need a filter, and press start to begin the brew cycle again. This should sufficiently rinse the entire machine and rid it of any left over vinegar. However, if you do continue to smell any hint of vinegar from your machine, you can repeat the rinse cycle as necessary until the smell is gone.

In order to have your coffee maker last as long as possible and work as best as possible you will want to continue this cleaning process on a monthly basis.

This article was provided by the authors at LiveLoveCoffee.com an online coffee shop with articles discussing interesting morning chats and reviews on Best Coffee Makers.

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"Flavor" is an overall perception of a food or beverage in your mouth. When talking about "coffee flavor", there are three components to consider: acidity, aroma, and body.

The acidity in coffee depends on a variety of factors including the bean itself, where the bean is grown, the processing method (wet or dry), the degree of roasting (light, medium, dark), and the brewing method. Coffee beans grown at higher altitudes have higher acidity levels. Coffee beans processed by the "wet" method are higher in acidity than those processed by the "dry" method. Light roasted coffee beans produce a higher acidic flavor than beans roasted to a darker color.

But what does acidity measure in coffee? Well, it is NOT what we learned in science. It really has nothing to do with pH levels.

The acidity of coffee is actually a sensation. It’s felt on the tip of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. A good analogy would be the carbonation in soda. You don’t actually taste carbonation as much as feel it, although it’s very much a part of the soda’s flavor. High acidity would be similar to high carbonation; low acidity would be similar to a "flat" soda.

Some words used to describe a coffee with high acidity are: brisk, snappy, bright, dry, sharp, vibrant, crisp, biting, lively.

Some words used to describe a coffee with low acidity are: smooth, mellow, sweet, soft.

You can’t judge whether you’ll like a coffee just by its level of acidity. Sumatra Mandheling, Ethiopian Harrar, Guatemala Antigua, and Kenya AA have different levels of acidity. I like them all.

Low acidity coffees: Sumatra, India, Java, Celebes

High acidity coffees: Kenya, Guatemala Antigua, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

Acidity is just one of the characteristics in a coffee’s flavor. It’s possible to enjoy both low and high acidity coffees. It’s the combination and balance of all the flavor components of coffee that make drinking it a pleasurable experience.

Author: Diena Zavetsky

Diena Zavetsky became enamored with gourmet coffee during her college years

She is the owner of Hot Gourmet Coffee, where the coffee gourmet can buy coffee online. Coffees are available in whole bean, drip grind, espresso grind, and French press

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diena_Zavetsky

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How To Grow Coffee Beans

Your cup of steaming hot coffee every morning isn’t something as easily prepared as you might think. Creating coffee needs more than just putting hot water and stirring sugar into it. It doesn’t even come in instant granules that we are so used to.

The coffee that we drink actually comes from the coffee plants that are cultivated in various parts of the globe. Brazil is the number one coffee producer in the world with a market share of about 30-35 percent. Most countries that produce coffee are from South and Central America and the Middle East. Some Asian countries like Indonesia and India also have coffee plantations.

Coffee plants are evergreen plants that are grown in specific situations. They need specific amounts of water, air and land in order for the flavor to be achieved. It involves a lot of back-breaking work and is pretty labor-intensive. This is perhaps why it is so hard to grow them.

Plants are sown as seedlings in what coffee-growers call nursery beds. The land needs to be well aerated since it should have a healthy amount of oxygen in the roots in order to grow well. After about 8-12 months, the seedlings are then replanted to the coffee fields where there are wet and fertilized holes.

As mentioned before, specific conditions must be kept true in order to cultivate a good coffee bean. Sunlight shouldn’t shine directly. In fact, diffused light is best. Moisture should also be kept constant with frequent and regular watering. The soil should also be fertilized and kept healthy by removing weeds and protecting them from pests.

When planted, it takes a long time before it can mature. The coffee grower needs to wait for about 5 years before his first crop.

What the trees look like Coffee trees are big and broad with dark green leaves. The flower, which resembles jasmine, is where the coffee granules are gotten. That is why harvest time are timed at the period when these flowers blossom. The fruits are also great sources of the coffee beans. The cherries or the berries will begin to come out about 6-8 months after.

It is a must that these fruits are harvested immediately as they can ripen easily- within 10 – 14 days. Manual harvesting is still preferred even if it takes a longer time. This is because the picker needs to keep the good beans apart from the bad ones.

The long wait is however very profitable for the coffee grower. One tree can produce about two pounds of beans, which is around 2000 coffee beans. After the harvest, the coffee beans are then processed. They are dried and then roasted. These coffee beans are then ready to be sold on the market where they will be grounded before being served.

By: Jennifer Seaton

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To learn about green tea benefits and essiac tea, visit the Types Of Tea website.

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History of Coffee

Be it an espresso or a cappuccino, grab your drink and travel through the past to know some glorious stories about the history of coffee.

Sitting by the window, set amidst a cozy atmosphere, the fresh aroma of coffee stirred some thoughts in my mind. A group of boisterous teens nearby created quite a ruckus and I wondered if it was the result of perhaps, having too much coffee?

Hot and steamy or cold and frothy, I noticed, different people like their coffee’s served in various ways. This led me to think and ponder whether anyone has really wondered what went behind this alluring cup of coffee whilst they sipped the enticing brew?

The appeal of coffee has spanned over various continents but when I really discovered the origins of coffee is as rich as the brew itself, it really propelled me to share some of these fascinating stories with you.

History of Coffee:
There are lots of myths and legends when it comes to the history of coffee. Many thought the cup of coffee to be very mysterious and this stimulating coffee found itself shrouded in mystery in the earlier days. One of the most popular legends is associated with a goatherd named Kaldi. One day, when Kaldi was with his herd of goats he noticed a sudden change in their behavior. The goats turned spirited and that was made Kaldi hunt for the probable reason. That was the time he viewed a wild coffee shrub and it dawned on him that his goats probably had eaten some cherries off this shrub. Curious, it led him to have a taste of the wild cherries himself. Upon feeling energized, he spread the story of these wild cherries in his village. From the local monastery, the tale spread between the monks and even the locals.

The monks found it very useful as it helped them to stay awake for their ceremonies that went through the night. The Arabs were considered to be the first to cultivate coffee. They even began the trade. The first coffee plants are said to have come from the shores of the Red Sea. Coffee beans were actually considered to be a food in the olden days. The cherries were minced together and then mixed into the rest of the food. It was only in the 11th century that coffee first saw itself being developed into a hot drink.

The Venetian merchants imported coffee to Europe and by the 17th century, coffee had made its way not only to Europe, but was gaining popularity across the continent. Initially condemned due to religious reasons, one saw major controversies erupt around this dark beverage. Despite the facts that surrounded it, the mid 17th century saw a number of coffee houses cropping up all over the town. A lot of people gathered here to discuss business and to gossip in general.

The Arabs though were very possessive about the growing popularity of coffee and its spread around the world. The beans were dispatched from the Yemen province of Arabia and were kept a highly guarded secret. It was later thought, that it was either the Dutch or a group of Pilgrims who finally tried to smuggle the plants to India. After a few attempts, coffee finally took root in India. The cultivation then expanded to the islands of Java and Sumatra.

The Dutch brought coffee to France in 1715. Louis XIV of France was presented with a coffee plant and it was then planted in the Royal Botanical Garden. Also known as the Noble Tree, it had the French really hooked on to coffee and the crops really flourished with the plantation of the Noble Tree.

This tree saw itself have roots in various other parts of the world. Francisco de Mello Palheta is known to have brought the coffee into Brazil. He was sent to obtain coffee beans from the French Guinea. The French were known to guard this fiercely and Francisco de Mello Palheta would have actually been unsuccessful, had he not to have a very appealing personality. This resulted in the Governor’s wife presenting him with a huge bouquet of flowers. It was only much later; he made the discovery of the coffee seeds buried deep inside it!

The history of coffee has seen so many travelers, pilgrims and traders go on long voyages carrying these precious coffee seeds all over the world. New plantations meant more business and slowly, coffee plantations and its export, turned into a very profitable industry from the olden days till date.

Many innovations that go into the making of this beverage have seen the coffee really metamorphose over time. So the next time you sip your perfectly blended cup of coffee in a very swanky coffee shop, I hope this captivating history of coffee would linger on in your minds, for a long time to come.

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