Gourmet Coffee and Gift Mugs
By Sandyspider
Coffee Gift Basket
Hawaiian Travel Gift Coffee Packages
 | Sandy Mertens Hawaii Travel Designs - Hawaiian Collection - Coffee Gift Baskets - Coffee Gift Basket Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
Pop Art Coffee Mugs and Coasters with Coffee
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $44.99 List Price: $54.99 |
Gourmet Coffee and How it All Began
Coffee gift baskets are the perfect item for someone who has everything or a long distance gift. A must have for those die hard; have to have it as soon as I wake up in the morning person. A coffee package complete with a mug and coasters for someone's birthday or holiday gift, is one present that won't be returned.
Coffee is more exciting these days with rich flavors added; like French Vanilla, Kenya AA, Decaf Colombian Supremo, Chocolate and Italian Roast Espresso.
But how did it all begin?
As the story goes, around 850 A.D, a goat herder named Kaldi, noticed his goats were acting more active after chewing on some beans. He chewed on a bean and felt an instant rush. The goat herder took the beans, grounded them up and brewed them in water. He instantly felted a renewed burst of energy.
News of these magical beans spread to a nearby monastery, and they too began consuming the beans that helped them meditate and pray for longer periods of time. This soon spread to other monasteries.
It didn't take long for the powers of the coffee bean spread world wide.
Coffee bean farmers, over the years experimented with the beans to improve on the taste. Different blends of the beans brought more robust flavor. Eventually gourmet coffee was formed.
In 1955, Alfred Peet, a son of a coffee trader, moved from Amsterdam to America. He was used to drinking gourmet coffee and couldn't find any around. At the time United States was selling low grade ground coffee. Often this would sit on supermarket shelves for several months.
Knowing what real gourmet coffee tasted like, Peet opened up a small store in Berkley, California. There he began to sell his dark roasted coffee beans. Three of Alfred Peet's customers decided to open up the same type of store in Seattle, Washington.
The Seattle store that owners Gerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Ziv Siegel opened I 1971 was the first Starbucks store. Waiting for their first roaster, they bought their coffee beans from Alfred Peet. It began as a small store that also sold tourist items. Today, it is still a small store based in Pike’s Market, where a group of specialty shops exist. But now has franchised to thousands of stores, all over the world.
Today different flavors are added to coffee, making it a specialty gourmet drink.
Chocolate Design Coffee Mugs
BP Spills Coffee
No Ordinary Coffee Recipes: For the Gourmet Lover
No Amazon products foundAlexander Espresso
Here is a simple recipe with instant coffee. One of 89 recipes found in No Ordinary Coffee Recipes
Ingredients:
• 1 cup Cold water
• 2 tb Ground espresso coffee
• 1/2 Cinnamon stick (3" long)
• 4 ts Crème de Cacao
• 2 ts Brandy
• 2 tb Whipping cream, chilled
• Grated semisweet chocolate to garnish
How To:
Break out your espresso machine for this one or just make really strong coffee with a small amount of water. Break cinnamon stick into small pieces and add to hot espresso. Allow to cool for 1 minute. Add crème de cacao and brandy, and stir gently. Pour into cute demitasse cups. Whip the cream, and float some cream on top of each cup. For looks, garnish with grated chocolate or fancy chocolate curls. Multiply proportions by six and it's perfect for a party. Serves 2.
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Comments
bgamall, I wouldn't say always cloudy or raining in Seattle. Maybe 85% of the time.
Interesting story :) I love SB and Starbucks
Someone mention coffee, count me in. Wonderful and tasty hub.
Blessings
The packaging looks good, I should try this gourmet coffee.
Excellent, as usual, Sandy. Packed with tons of good information. Keep up the good work!
Wonderful looking gourmet coffee gift baskets, Sandyspider, they would be great gifts.
I raise my cup to all of you. Thanks for the comments.
Sandy, That is a wonderful gift idea. I am also a coffee lover.
Thanks Pamela.
Useful information, Sandy. I wish I can buy this coffee and get the gift mugs freely. Thank you very much. ~prasetio
prasetio30, interesting statement. Why not get it all freely. LOL
Thanks for the Hub Sandy.
Coffee has been like the "5th Food Group" to me for a long time. I went the gourmet route for a while but I've been settled into a favorite brew or two for some time now. These all look like great gifts though.
cfleming1, I thought it was #1 Food Group.
Coffee, Good morning world. My day starts early and coffee black and strong is my stater motor for the day.
I make mine each morning the old fashioned way. Fire, boil water over flames, add coffee let simmer for a few minuets, drop a small green twig into the kettle to settle the grounds, tea spoon of malt sugar and I am set for the day.
You have a good bright happy day.
I love coofee. I've found a specialty coffee isn always a good gift. Thanks.
Killrats and KoffeeKlatch Gals, thanks for the visit.
A good cup of coffee is what I wake up to every single morning. Yum! And besides being good, its good for you. All those great anti-oxidants! Oh, and I just learned that coffee is a brain food as well (caffein). I like your hub and those gift bags are great.
Thanks vocalcoach. I remember when they first said that coffee was bad for you. Now I am glad that it is turned around.
You know, that's one of those things in this world where you think to yourself, "Who on earth thought to take this bean and turn it into something you drink?" Who could have guessed it started with a goat?
Springboad, when you think about it, it does sound funny!
When we're still young, my siblings and I used to harvest ripe coffee beans, dried it and sell it. I like eating the red flesh of the ripe ones, but felt dizzy afterwards. I like roasted coffee to be served as black (no sugar..hehe!) we call it 'barako' means male here in the Philippines. It's a bestseller!!! Let's drink to this hub, Sandy^-^!
Smart and reasonably priced gifts. Loved the coffee history. Bookmarked, voted up, marked useful and shared.
Thanks for voting up and bookmarking this.
I was laughing while watching your BP Spills video. Anyway, this is an informative hub about gourmet coffee. It was well written from its history up to the Alexander Espresso recipe. This is a great gift for Christmas, too. Enjoy your week!
Thanks Tina V. This is one of the best videos I have seen in a long time.
Hey I'm with you Gourmet Coffee and Gift Mugs are the perfect gift sets for travel, mail order and just flat out order to have some on hand for those unexpected gift giving situations that come up.
Katiem2, there always seem to be that one friend who comes over around the Holidays. You don't have a present for them. An extra present like this would be just find.
I love reading the story about how the coffee bean was discovered "goats were acting more active after chewing on some beans". Then, it escalated from there :) I'm a huge coffee fan and wouldn't know how to start my day without it. I'm definitely going to try the Alexander Espresso recipe. Thanks for sharing. Great Hub.
I'm not a coffee drinker personally, but I certainly know a lot of them. I'm not really a tea drinker either but I always get coffee and tea baskets for gifts. They are great for re-gifting! ;) (plus they smell good)
Becky, glad you enjoyed a little history.
mulberry1, re-gifting is always fun.
Great hub on coffee, love how you personalized your hub with your banner. Voted up!
adrienne2, thanks for the comment.
The copyright to this article is owned by Sandy Mertens (sandyspider). Permission to republish this article in print or online must be granted by the author in writing. (You can, however, freely use the opening introduction and photo with a link to the article here on HubPages to read the remainder of the article.)
bgamall 20 months ago
Wow, an invention we could have thought of, a coffee house with gourmet coffee. Of course it is always cloudy in Seattle. So they need a lot of coffee.