Most people concentrate on food, and more specifically meat, when it comes to grilling and barbecue. And while your main meats are absolutely important, you can’t neglect the overall experience either. Everything from side dishes to appetizers plays and important role, and this goes for beverages as well. A true barbecue experience is complete from top to bottom, and you can’t just concentrate on the middle part. You can really top things off with an awesome dessert and a perfectly brewed cup of coffee.

It’s important to remember the role that coffee plays in the eating experience and why it’s so popular in the first place. It’s not just about making a cup from instant powder or grinds. True coffee has its own personality and brings something completely new to each meal. When experience properly, it’s hard to consider a dinner complete without it. It has just as much character and uniqueness has BBQ food which is why the two make such a great fit. It’s also important to remember there are various forms of coffee, and being able to offer variety is key.

With modern technology these days, it’s easier than ever to prepare an expertly brewed cup of coffee. You can even set up a station next to your portable outdoor BBQ where people can help themselves. It’s the perfect place for a cappuccino machine complete with steam attachment and milk. This way people can use the station anytime they like even before dessert. You can also explore delicious options such as iced coffee, which can be a popular treat for kids of all ages. And when it’s finally time to unveil your surprise dessert, nothing will complement it better than a rich cup of coffee. It’s the perfect way to end off a hearty meal of BBQ food and great family fun. More info on the world of BBQ can be found by visiting http://gasgrillsandbbq.com/

• Starting with quality is always a good idea.  This means good quality coffee beans as well as a decent quality coffee maker.  No matter how you like to prepare your coffee, there is just some equipment that is better than the rest.  Spend a few extra dollars to get a good brand name coffee maker, and don’t always go for the cheapest coffee that you can find.
• Keep things clean.  No matter whether it is your coffee maker, or even the cup you use to drink coffee, make sure that you give it a thorough cleaning once in a while.  Old coffee remnants will foul the taste of even the best coffee.
• Try different brewing techniques.  Most people today drink a lot of automatic drip coffee.  The way you brew your coffee can make a big difference in how the finished product tastes.  Try something different like how to make French press coffee.  You might find that you really like it.

These are just a few simple ideas, but they can make a big difference in the coffee you end up drinking.  Most people never really learn how to make coffee that tastes great.  They follow the instructions on the back of the coffee can and never try anything different.  Experiment with your coffee a little bit.  What have you got to lose?

But the first consideration is the quality of the coffee that a stove top percolator brews. In short it is a rich and bold cup of coffee. While a good percolator coffee machine can be bought for under $25, the coffee grinder that produces the ground coffee that goes in the percolator can be quite expensive. And that’s where I invested my coffee making dollars. I have a $200 burr coffee grinder that produces an even ground. When you use a coffee percolator you should use a coarser grind so the water can continue to pull out the flavor as it repeatedly perks through the coffee grounds.

It is also wonderful not to be at the mercy of Mother Nature. When the power goes out I can use my gas stove or burning fireplace to make coffee in my percolator. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the video below to see how to make percolator in very primitive conditions.

Join me on a tea tasting session. Just as with wine, a professional tea tasting session follows a specific set of steps.  The goal is to be able to compare different teas and identify the good and bad points of each.  Here’s what the process involves (adapted from the Australian tea lounge tea site):

The first step is to spread a sample of the dried tea leaf over a white sheet of paper or a small plate so that this can be examined. You can learn quite a lot from dried tea leaves. The taster will check for consistency, determining whether the shape and size of the leaves is the same throughout the sample. You also check the freshness and of course smell the bouquet.

Next for each tea sample the tasting cup is filled with 3 1/2 ounces of water. The water is carefully controlled so that it is the correct temperature for the tea being tested. The water is added to the tea and a lid is placed over the cup for the brew.  The brewing time is normally longer than for normal so that all of the characteristics of the tea are drawn out.  

Once the brew has completed, the tea is decanted into another bowl. The wet tea leaves are kept in the original cup so that they can later be examined.

Before the tea is tasted, the infusion is examined. The tester will check to see whether the liquid is clear or murky.  Then, when tasting the tea, the taster will be looking for 5 different qualities: saltiness, sweetness, sourness, bitterness and umami. The last characteristic is the least familiar to the western palate. The easiest way to describe it is perhaps a savory quality.  The second component of the flavor is determined via the aroma.

We often underestimate how powerful our sense of smell is. But consider this for a moment: We have around 100 million nerve cells in our olfactory system. That’s far more than the 1 million cells that produce our sight or the 100,000 that we use for hearing or the 10,000 that we use when we taste.

But when tasting the tea the taster will not only check for flavors and aromas but also try to determine the effect of the tea on the palate. For example does the tea have a creamy texture? Does it have a mouth filling quality?

Following these steps will allow a taster to control as many factors as possible in the infusion so that he or she can determine the quality of the teas being tasted.