Hi,

Basically torrefacto refers to a roasting process incorporating ten percent sugar. You can find Costa Rican blends that are processed that way.... the following link is an example of a company that offers it. http://www.rfmeseta.com/company.htm

You might try their offering and find it's almost identical to the Spanish offerings.

But taking it one step further, you can read about, and order CAFÉS Otero, online, at this link. http://businesses.msn.com/spanishcoffee/

It gives you info about the blending process... at least the percentages used... to make the coffee you want, at home.

Hope this helps! Everyone's taste is a bit different, and I like to add about 10 to 20% French roast to the mix to add body to the flavor... Also, I start from roasted beans, grinding them myself, in blended quantities.

Hope this helps gang! Make up your own brew, and claim it for yourself.

Wolf

MM no problema on the Java, I'll bring some back for ya. I've learned more with this board no need to trade. What type do you like and how much?

Ice Pick

Wow! Thanks, IcePick! You can view a photo of my preferred brand/style of coffee, La Estrella: Mezcla Exprés, Mitad Natural, Mitad Torrefacto HERE . It's pretty cheap, I think, and in a 250g brick. If you could get 5-6 bricks that would last me a few months. Email me when you get back. Thanks!

Saludos, MadridMan

Wow, coffee drinkers after my own heart! Wolfgang, your coffee making routine sounds a lot like my husband's!

Have you found that the milk matters? I wonder if the stuff in boxes that they use makes a difference in the flavor. I've tried the Spanish coffee tienda.com sells and I grind the beans fresh for every cup and use filtered water and a world class machine, but the taste is STILL not right! I was thinking about bringing some of that back with me to see if that is the secret. Is boxed milk considered contraband?

I also loooove Spanish coffee. One thing to keep in mind though, jeffperez62 is that it isn't like a big starbucks cup of plain black coffee. The coffe is sort of...dense, like a shot glass worth with foam milk on top. It can be similar to Italian coffees. There might be spots in the larger cities to find more Americanized types of coffee. To be honest, I am not sure though. When I was there, I came to love the Spanish coffee so much that I never bothered to look for anything else..

MM consider it done. As Long as I don't get horned by the bulls I'll be able to bring it back. I'm not leaving till July, so I'm sure I'll be pestering the board with questions.

IcePick

PS: Looks like Robin is hooking me up.

MM consider it done. As Long as I don't get horned by the bulls I'll be able to bring it back. I'm not leaving till July, so I'm sure I'll be pestering the board with questions.

IcePick

PS: Looks like Robin is hooking me up.

la maestra,

Actually there is a point to the milk. Milk in Spain is "ultra high temperature pasteurization" whereas we rely on pasteurization. The difference is in the temperature at which it is pasteurized. Pasteurization is at roughly 62 or 63 degrees centigrade,for about 15 seconds, whereas ultra high temperature pasteurization is done at around 150 degrees centigrade. The increased temperature in the pasteurization process allows milk to be hermetically sealed in containers, where it will actually remain fresh for months.

To match the milk taste in Spain, you can heat the milk to a point where it begins to boil, maintain that temperature, and the result will molecularly change the milk enough to make it taste more like the milk we get in Spain.

According to someone in the industry, whom I talked to years ago, the basic reason we don't use high temperature pasteurization here is because the milk loses some of its flavor. Then... off the record... he told me that we don't use it basically because it would reduce the amount of milk we use, and it would force the government to give subsidies to dairy farmers, since we wouldn't throw away the millions of gallons we do now.

We always heat the milk we use prior to using it. Another way is by steaming it, but that isn't really totally necessary unless you're doing a coffee drink that requires steaming.

Yes! I love my coffee! We also only buy short quantities of beans, and never grind them before using them. We also never stock more than a ten day supply of beans, because they begin to lose their flavor as soon as they are roasted. We constantly have shipments coming in by FedEx. But it's worth it. Everyone comes to our house for coffee... Now I just have to figure out how to get them to help pay for the coffee

Bet'cha didn't think I knew this much about coffee, did'ja?

Wolf

la maestra, I don't know about Arizona, but here in Pennsylvania you can buy boxed milk (Parmalat, a popular brand in Spain!) right here in the supermarkets. So I don't think you'll need to resort to smuggling milk into the country! It's really handy to have - I usually keep a brik in the cabinet for those mornings when the "fresh" milk is suddenly gone before eveyone had breakfast. It's UHT and tastes the same as in Spain.

Wolf, you really sound more like my husband with every coffee post! We used to have our coffee shipped in too! Now we have a local source that we think is pretty good...though we always experiment with new blends just to be thorough! Our new espresso machine steams the milk nicely and has some temperature control so that the coffee is made with a consistent temperature.

We think making coffee is an art and appreciate good baristas when we run across them!

Diana, thanks for the tip on Parmalat, though I can't say that I've ever seen it here! Do they keep it on the shelf with the non-dairy creamers and dried milk or is it under gourmet and specialty?