Coffe

Coffee

• See the main Coffee article for more information on coffee.

Coffee is prepared by roasting and then grinding up the ingredients, or sometimes by decoction. It is normally stored as a powder or as granules. This is dropped directly into the hot water. Some preparations dissolve completely, while others remain partly solid, giving the drink a gritty texture.

Where the coffee remains gritty, it must be left to infuse before drinking. To avoid the gritty texture, a machine such as a coffee percolator or French press may be used.

Generic Western Coffee is the roasted seeds of either Coffea arabica or Coffea canephora. Its properties are similar to the generic tea plant Camelia Sinensis, but it has about twice as much caffeine, a richer, mellower taste, and different additives. The roasting process eliminates caffeine, and (like tea) the darker the coffee, the less caffeine it contains. When coffee is scarce, people often drink coffee substitutes.

Herbal teas include many of the coffee substitutes, and others; but they are used here for a wide range of properties, rather than merely to simulate the taste of coffee.