Welcome to the Celtnet Spice Guide. As this site has grown and many more recipes have been added it's become evident that a guide to the various herbs available to the cook is necessary. With spices becoming more commonly available and more exotic spices becoming available from all over the world it has become evident that some kind of guide or introduction to spices is necessary. These pages are an attempt at bringing all the various culinary spices together into one place so that you can see what's available and perhaps find something new to use in your own cooking. To use this Spice Guide simply click on the first letter of the herb name above or below. Alternativey why not just browse through the guide. All the spices given here, whether common or rare, can be obtained via your local supermarket (or more often via your local Asian supermarket) or via a specialist spice distributor.

This is the description page for Coffee (Coffea arabica) and includes a description as well as an image, if available and a selection of recipes from this site that relates to the herb: Coffee.

Coffee are the roast seeds of the coffee plant; a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae (the madder or coffee family). Coffee plants are shrubs or small trees native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia (though now naturalized to much of the tropics). In the tropics coffee plants grow as a vigorous bush that can attain a height of 3.5m and bushes grow best at high elevations that are frost free. There are several species of Coffea that may be grown for the beans, but Coffea arabica is considered to have the best quality. The other species (especially Coffea canephora [robusta]) are typically grown on land unsuitable for Coffea arabica. The coffee tree itself produces red or purple fruit (drupes) generally known as 'coffee berries', which typically contain two seeds — known in the trade as 'coffee beans'. Typically, however, in abut 8% of any coffe crop the fruit will contain only a single bean, which are known as 'peaberries' which alsoo possess a significantly different flavour profile to the normal crop. Often these are discarded, but sometimes they are sold as a separate product, such as 'Kenyan Peaberry' and 'New Guinea Peaberry'.

After picking, the coffee beans are pulped (usually using a mechanical pulper) to remove the bulk of the soft flesh, and then the beans are fermented (by one of several means, most often wet fermentation in water for 10 to 36 hours), then washed (to remove the last of the sticky mucilage not removed by fermentation) and dried (usually in the sun). This results in what are known as 'milled beans'. Coffee is generally exported in this form and when they arrive at their destination they are roasted, which darkens their colour and alters the internal chemistry of the bean. Blending can occur before or after roasting and is often performed to ensure a consistent flavour. Once the beans are roasted, they become much more perishable and need to be quickly packaged before marketing.

Coffee probably originated in the Kingdom of Kaffa (now part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region of Ethiopia) — though there is some controversy concerning the plant's origins, with Yemen also suggested as an area of origin. One apocryphal tale claims that an Ethiopian goat-herder noticed his goats prancing about energetically, and found they were eating coffee berries, and tried some himself. The crop first became popular in Arabia around the 13th century, and Islam's prohibition against alcoholic beverages probably enhanced its popularity. Before 1600, coffee production was a jealously guarded secret, and fertile beans were not found outside Arabia. Many consider the German botanist Leonhard Rauwolf to have first described coffee in a book published in 1583. Sometime after 1600, coffee trees were grown in India, possibly due to smuggling of fertile beans. Around 1650, coffee importation into England began and coffeehouses opened in Oxford and London. Coffee planting began in the British colonies, but soon after a disease wiped out the plantations, leading the British to re-plant with tea instead.

As a seed, coffee can effectively be considered to be a spice, though it is not generally considered in this respect as its predominant use is in the form of a beverage, created by infusing ground coffee beans in water. However, coffee is used as a flavouring in some cakes as well as in Italian tiramisu. Coffee beans can also eaten whole, covered in chocolate.