Some good advice about great coffee
From the friendly
Australian ladies at
Wombah Plantation
Great cups of coffee involve processes
not best left to chance. They need the best
coffee beans, picked carefully at the peak of
ripeness, roasted to perfection, ground ever
so fresh and brewed with care. Australian
coffee growers Joan Dibden and Joy Phelps understand all of this and want to share with
you their recipe for success.
Start with only the best coffee beans, roasted to bring out the best those beans can offer.
Use the correct grind to suite the method of brewing. Joy and Joan suggest a fine grind for a plunger, a filter or an espresso machine, while medium grind suits an old style percolator.
One dessertspoon (7 grams) of coffee should be brewed for each breakfast cup.
Water should not be boiled, but must be very hot. It is not necessary to have an expensive designer gadget to make a decent cup of coffee.
You can brew it just as successfully in a teapot or saucepan, exactly the way you make tea. Just give the brew a good stir before allowing it to 'draw'.
When the grounds have settled it is ready to serve.
You might be interested to know that all coffee originated from Africa.
There are three main varieties of coffee tree, with Arabica having the finest taste.
Coffee grown in the fertile valleys of the Clarence, Richmond and Tweed rivers in northern New South Wales is Arabica and, thanks to the mild climate, is naturally low in caffeine.
All coffee sold by Wombah Plantations
is grown with organic fertilisers.
Wombah Coffee Plantation was established on the Clarence
River By Joan and Joy in 1982, rekindling an industry which had
existed here in 1889. Wombah Plantation was created with
seedlings directly descended from original plants imported to
Australia in 1856. There has been plenty of time for these trees to
become acclimatised to the fickle Australian weather. If you are in the neighbourhood,
drop by and visit the coffee shop. It is located just off the Pacific Highway north of the
Clarence River on the way to Iluka.
Wombah coffee is produced from prime, red-ripe berries to eliminate the bitterness which may be caused from under-ripe or over-ripe fruit. Each coffee bean is processed by traditional methods adopted by pioneer Australian growers and is medium roasted to bring out its unusually delicate flavour.
By the same token, this coffee can be brewed strong, without sacrificing flavour or smooth texture. In fact, the stronger you brew it, the more like chocolate it becomes. We're not joking! And, of course, all roasted coffee is vacuum packed to keep it as fresh a possible.
Only plantations of the scale of Wombah can ever hope to achieve this level of quality assurance. In fact, its quality is assured by accreditation of the NSW Coffee Growers' Association.
Wombah Coffee is available in 200 grams, 500 grams or 1kg packets at the cost of $25
(Australian) plus postage. It may be obtained as fine ground, medium ground
or whole bean.
Wombah Plantation sells other products too: coffee beans coated in delicious Belgian
chocolate and coffee-honey - a pleasant mix of concentrated coffee and Australian honey
gleaned from the flowers of the yellow box tree.
You can order through E-mail by clicking on the coffee berries below:
