Green Coffee

@AffyAvo r I can get different couloured coffees 😮😮😮😮😮😮

@Tinywhisper11 Green coffee beans are raw, they have not been roasted. Seeking this out I also found out about white coffee, where the beans are roasted a little bit.

In both cases, the beans are very hard, so it's difficult to grind them.

@AffyAvo ohh! Interesting🤔 I'm not safe using electric kitchen appliances. So I drink nescafe, that's what my carers make me 😁

Love coffee but have never tried green coffee or seen it on a menu. I’ll look for it. Sounds interesting!

@GlenM I haven't either, otherwise I probably would have tried before ordering the beans! The popular American coffee chain puts some into their cold drinks, I guess I could have asked if they would just serve me a green coffee drink without any of the other stuff, but I suspect it's already in a base of other things.

The beans are often advertised as a way for people to roast their own. I have them soaking now, we'll see if I get something tomorrow that isn't just hot water! I did pop a bean in my mouth, too hard to chew. I could taste something at least and didn't dislike the flavour. It was very minimal though, reminded me a bit of green tea with just a hint of coffee without the bitterness.

@AffyAvo love how you are experimenting. Affy's text kitchen! I'd watch that :)

@GlenM Haha thanks!

It was drinkable (which I cannot say for typical black coffee, when it comes to roasted coffee I pretty much only enjoy it in desserts or in small amounts in drinks where other ingredients provide the majority of the flavour).

With nothing added - I didn't particularly enjoy it. I think boiling it for quite a while brought out a more typical coffee flavour. A roasted coffee drinker probably wouldn't taste it and think of it as coffee though. Adding a bit of sugar made it more enjoyable. I will use a simmer instead of roiling boil next time, might reduce the time and might try a bit of a flavoured syrup.

After boiling the mixture, the beans are easy to break apart. One of the methods for using the beans suggested using a blender instead of a coffee grinder if trying to grind them first. I didn't want to wreck the blades on my blender though, so passed on that. Wondering if now that they are softened if doing that would allow me to get more use out of them, or if that would just result in little more than hot water.

@AffyAvo How are you getting on? I have never heard of green coffee but it makes sense. I do like white tea which is a special kind of tea using just the young white tops of the plant, not just tea with milk. It's it the caffeine you are looking for, or something else?

@MistyMagic I need to dig out my food processor still. I wish it was just the caffeine, I'm a tea drinker, I have black, oolong, white, green, red (rooibos). I actually enjoy so many hot drinks, hot chocolate, hot cranberry juice, apple cider, honey and lemon. Pretty much everything but coffee!

I think the caffeine is a part of the health benefits, but there's stuff specific to coffee that's helpful. I am noticing the stimulant effects from coffee are different than any other caffeinated drinks.

I need to give this a bit more time to see if I can find a bit of routine that works well (even if it is just 3 days a week or something) and then if I feel like I can stick with that - longer to hopefully notice some good changes with health tests.

Food processor was unsuccessful, the blades sank into a few beans and then just spun them around. So soaking whole beans it is for now, might try to order grounds or powder as the next purchase.

@AffyAvo could you crush them mash them first perhaps? Adding some water so they don't burn?

Listening - One Step At A Time!

@MistyMagic We do have a mortar and pestle somewhere. Using it is going to be too difficult for me but maybe my husband would be interested in helping as that was his purchase that is almost never used.

If he doesn't want to help though I'm ok with just doing the soak and boil method.

Increased water:beans, didn't boil as high or as long. That made it much more pleasant.

A splash of caramel syrup made it very delicious! Mortar and pestle have been found, will test out my husband's pestling power to work later! Will see if I can stretch the beans a bit more!

@AffyAvo caramel syrup! 😁

Listening - One Step At A Time!

[Green coffee in a mug]

Some success. The lab value that first alerted me to a problem is lower. My specialist actually told me I would never be able to lower it back into the normal range, that had already happened although for a year it bounced back and forth slightly above and slightly below the upper limit of normal.

It's now back down to close to when it first began creeping up. Not sure if it will ever get down to where it used to be before it started rising, but if it sticks where it is currently I'm happy with that result.