The coffee aroma

To those coffee addicts out there, u may have had your cuppa dripped, percolated or French pressed. U may have tried all beans, just name it- Arabica? Ethiopian? Jamaican? Or U may prefer the beans roughly ground that one could mistake them for gravel.

Perhaps U have tried everything on a menu board of Coffee Bean, Starbucks, Old Town White Coffee and other local coffee houses.

Delving into the types of coffee, there are espresso, cappucino, frappucino, macchiato (Maya's front-runner), affogato (adri's all-time fav) and other words-that-end-with-o's.

And those who are not coffee lover might drop their jaws upon hearing that U can enjoy ur caffeine with sugar, brown sugar, honey, two-percent milk, non-fat milk, cream, double cream, half and half, and black. My goodness! What a variant! Whereas we might have simply grabbed a cup of our favorite over-caffinated, over-sweetened, and over-priced coffee withour knowing the difference.

Last holiday, before we left BM, Abah brought us to the old coffee factory in Berapit. Actually, I had to buy some for K.Nor, as she likes the coffee I made when she came to my house that day.

From the outside view, I could hardly tell that's a factory- it's just like any other old shop lots by the roadside. But mind u, it has been operating since decades (almost Abah's age!).

So, I got off the car to snap some pix. I was told that the beans were from Indonesia. Hmm.. what happened to the Arabica, Jamaican, etc?



The roasted coffee.


Finely ground into powder.


...before they are packed into plastic bags (or big tins as I purchased).


It was nice to see the friendly Chinese towkay who even jumped in joy and stood next to Abah, when I wanted to take his pix. No discrimination, no racist issues, etc. Unlike some Malays, Chinese and Indians nowadays.

Well, back to coffee, the aroma is the most important attribute to specialty coffee. Even instant coffee has the components responsible for stimulation of our taste buds.

Sipping coffee to send a wake-up call to the brain? Or just smell its rich, warm aroma? A research found that coffee aroma orchestrates the expression of more than a dozen genes and some changes in protein expressions, in ways that help reduce the stress of sleep deprivation. Uh-oh! This is a bit scientific (I don't wanna open my Master's books just to explain on this).

Ahh... I remember my undergrad days, when I had to stay up so late, that I'd go for strong coffee shots. It worked sometimes, but there were times when I just dozed off. Apparently, nothing could cure the exhaustion, but closing the eyes and start dreaming.

And if u ask me... I prefer tea. Coffee smells better than it tastes!

Oh yea..BTW, I managed to capture this pix (thanks to FE320 for the multiple snaps at once).

Everytime we passed by this shop (which is near the coffee factory), we'll laugh bcoz of the long name of Mr Nasry's father. Hj Mahmud Pembekal Dan Pengedar :P


Aiyaa... bisnes dah bagus masa musim raya pun, takkan takde duit nak letak full stop kat signboard tu...