Pop Quiz: Can You Get Drunk on Bourbon Pointu Coffee Beans?
You will soon journey with me to the island of Guadeloupe and visit with organic coffee and spice farmer Nora Hazen in my upcoming book,
Reluctant Witness.
In the meantime, here's a pop quiz to test your knowledge of coffee, chocolate, and spices.
True or false:
1. Researchers have determined that bourbon pointu coffee beans cause many motor accidents, due to their high alcohol content.
2. Chocolate comes from cacao beans that grow on forty-foot evergreen trees in moist, tropical climates.
3. Vanilla beans come from vanilla trees. The sap is tapped to produce vanilla extract.
4. Cinnamon flowers are collected, dried and ground up to flavor snickerdoodle cookies, potpourri, and cinnamon buns.
5. Nutmeg trees produce two important spices, nutmeg and mace, used by cooks around the world.
Can you identify the photos of chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and bourbon pointu coffee beans in their raw forms below?
ANSWERS BELOW:
True or false quiz:
1. False -- These are a variety of coffee bean that originated on Île Bourbon (now called Réunion Island) off the coast of Madagascar and are highly prized for their smooth flavor and figgy aroma. They have subtle differences depending on where in the world they are grown. Unless you throw in a shot of your favorite liqueur, they are definitely alcohol-free.
2. True -- The cacao beans are harvested from big pods that grow on the tree, fermented and dried, before being roasted and ground into a paste. From this, we get unsweetened baking chocolate, cocoa, and with some cocoa butter added, the chocolate that becomes candy.
3. False -- Vanilla beans are actually the seed pods of vanilla orchids. There are two popular types of Vanilla planifolia: Bourbon vanilla is prized for its sweet, fruity notes. The Madagascar area is known as the leading producer of this type of vanilla. Mexican vanilla has a spicier, woodier flavor and is rarer.Vanillia tahitiensis, more commonly called Tahitian vanilla, is a floral, sweet type of vanilla bean, with smaller pods. Vanilla extract is made by percolating the vanillin from the cured pod with alcohol and water.
4. False -- Cinnamon comes from the inner bark of Cinnamomum and Cassia trees. The flavor of cinnamon is influenced by tree type and variety. Cinnamon is a spice that has been prized in most parts of the world, enhances a wide variety of foods and beverages, from sweet to savory, and is sometimes used as a food preservative.
5. True -- Nutmeg comes from the seed of the tree, and mace from the red covering of the seed. These two spices are used in a variety of dishes from haggis (Scotland) to pumpkin pie (America) to garam masala (India), and in drinks such as Barbados rum punch. Nutmeg is also used in a variety of products, such as toothpaste, cough syrup, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. But no, mace not used to make chemical mace, the defense spray.
Photos:
A. Bourbon pointu coffee beans
B. Harvested cinnamon tree
C. Vanilla orchid
D. Cacao beans
E. Nutmeg (dark nut is nutmeg, red membrane is dried to produce mace)
True or false:
1. Researchers have determined that bourbon pointu coffee beans cause many motor accidents, due to their high alcohol content.
2. Chocolate comes from cacao beans that grow on forty-foot evergreen trees in moist, tropical climates.
3. Vanilla beans come from vanilla trees. The sap is tapped to produce vanilla extract.
4. Cinnamon flowers are collected, dried and ground up to flavor snickerdoodle cookies, potpourri, and cinnamon buns.
5. Nutmeg trees produce two important spices, nutmeg and mace, used by cooks around the world.
Can you identify the photos of chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and bourbon pointu coffee beans in their raw forms below?
ANSWERS BELOW:
True or false quiz:
1. False -- These are a variety of coffee bean that originated on Île Bourbon (now called Réunion Island) off the coast of Madagascar and are highly prized for their smooth flavor and figgy aroma. They have subtle differences depending on where in the world they are grown. Unless you throw in a shot of your favorite liqueur, they are definitely alcohol-free.
2. True -- The cacao beans are harvested from big pods that grow on the tree, fermented and dried, before being roasted and ground into a paste. From this, we get unsweetened baking chocolate, cocoa, and with some cocoa butter added, the chocolate that becomes candy.
3. False -- Vanilla beans are actually the seed pods of vanilla orchids. There are two popular types of Vanilla planifolia: Bourbon vanilla is prized for its sweet, fruity notes. The Madagascar area is known as the leading producer of this type of vanilla. Mexican vanilla has a spicier, woodier flavor and is rarer.Vanillia tahitiensis, more commonly called Tahitian vanilla, is a floral, sweet type of vanilla bean, with smaller pods. Vanilla extract is made by percolating the vanillin from the cured pod with alcohol and water.
4. False -- Cinnamon comes from the inner bark of Cinnamomum and Cassia trees. The flavor of cinnamon is influenced by tree type and variety. Cinnamon is a spice that has been prized in most parts of the world, enhances a wide variety of foods and beverages, from sweet to savory, and is sometimes used as a food preservative.
5. True -- Nutmeg comes from the seed of the tree, and mace from the red covering of the seed. These two spices are used in a variety of dishes from haggis (Scotland) to pumpkin pie (America) to garam masala (India), and in drinks such as Barbados rum punch. Nutmeg is also used in a variety of products, such as toothpaste, cough syrup, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. But no, mace not used to make chemical mace, the defense spray.
Photos:
A. Bourbon pointu coffee beans
B. Harvested cinnamon tree
C. Vanilla orchid
D. Cacao beans
E. Nutmeg (dark nut is nutmeg, red membrane is dried to produce mace)
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