Wake up and smell the coffee!

For some, the smell alone will bowl them over, for others it's certainly the taste. It's coffee and I know you smell it. OK maybe it's a whiff coming from my boss's cup, but you know what I mean.

Jamaica's Blue Mountain variety, ranked among the world's best, took centre stage in a coffee seminar last Friday, hosted by one of the sponsors of The Gleaner-sponsored Restaurant Week, Café Blue. Jason Sharp, part owner of the coffee-shop chain and its parent company Coffee Traders Limited, which produces and trades Blue Mountain Coffee delved into the intricacies of coffee and the process which gives some cues as to why their variety is top-notch.

Sharp displayed Café Blue's house variety of packaged coffee which is currently available inside their shops. Vacuum sealed and in a resealable pouch, the coffee will be launched in supermarkets in December.

So here are some interesting facts and, of course, useful tips about coffee:

Blue Mountain is the quintessential sweet cup of coffee.

Coffee often gets a bad name for its perceived high levels of caffeine, but black tea has more caffeine than coffee.

When tasting coffee, check the aroma. If the aroma is not good, more than likely the coffee isn't good.

Use filtered water instead of tap water to brew a great-tasting cup of coffee.

Purchase coffee beans within the first six months of the product's best-before date. It ensures a fresher product.

If your coffee bag is not resealable, put the remaining product into a resealable bag in the refrigerator, to retain freshness.

Don't buy too large a package, it will lose its freshness before you can consume it all.

When persons come in to Café Blue to order a speciality coffee beverage, they're often not sure of the distinctions. For example:

An espresso is a 2ozs. beverage produced under pressure, it comes from 7 grams of coffee.

Latte: shots of espresso with steamed milk.

Cappuccino - ¹/³ espresso, ¹/³ steamed milk, ¹/³ foam.