Author: Jean Kokus

Read about Home Coffee Bean Roasting.Coffee. It's a delectable word. It makes you follow the aroma especially with the great tasting roasted coffee beans. Coffee is a popular drink at home, in the office, or just about anywhere.

Tastes may vary depending on how the drinker wants the brew of the coffee and the type of coffee beans. Most drinkers, who are so picky about the flavor of their coffee, would consider home coffee bean roasting. We may think of home coffee bean roasting as a complicated process, but it is not. In fact, it does not require a special machine or equipment and any tools to produce the same professional tasting roasted coffee. What is even marvelous about coffee bean roasting is that you could do that with your popcorn popper or stove top pan, and you still get the same roasted coffee beans. But you could also use the help of coffee roasters.


The Process

The process of home coffee bean roasting may not be that difficult and time consuming. It also does not require expensive equipments. To begin with, you would need green coffee beans. You may try Guatemalan Antigua, Colombian Supremo, or Costa Rican Tarrazu. These are just some of the high quality coffee beans you can use. There are more, but of course, if you want to make the best tasting coffee, you have to make use of the right coffee beans.

The next thing is to roast your coffee beans in the coffee roaster, popcorn popper, or stove top pan, whichever you have at home. You will also need pot holders, a cookie sheet to pour the roasted beans out, and a bowl to catch the chaff. A small scale may be helpful to measure the right amount of coffee beans used in each batch and a digital timer to have the right timing for roasting. You might also want to consider roasting coffee beans outside your home, probably the garage or somewhere else to avoid blowing the chaff inside your home.

The whole process would take about 15 to 20 minutes for a cup of coffee beans. But the time would generally depend on how dark you want your green coffee beans roasted. You then drain the beans and let them cool. After which, you have to shake them to remove the outer skin and sift with the use of a mesh cooking screen. Depending on their preference, some would want freshly roasted beans cooled immediately while others would want to let it cool to release carbon dioxide from 4 to 24 hours to have the best tasting coffee. And that's it for home coffee bean roasting.

The Store

There is an increasing number of consumers who prefer home coffee bean roasting. And for these consumers, there are online stores like The Grape and Granary who specializes on supplies, equipment, and ingredients needed in beer brewing, wine brewing, liquor making, cheese making, or coffee bean roasting. You will be flabbergasted at their long list of available items.

About the Author:
The perfect home coffee bean roasting available only at http://www.thegrape.net/

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Enjoying the Aroma of Homemade Coffee

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Author: Trevor Mayes

Our Reaction to Colour - The Endocrine System.Colour affects us physically and psychologically, directly and indirectly and from a combined psychological, physiological, and spiritual perspective. From both the psychological and physiological perspective colour affects us directly when it enters the eye and is transmitted to the emotional centre of the brain the hypothalamus that in turn affects the pituitary gland the gland that controls the entire endocrine system the network of glands including pituitary gland, thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, adrenal gland, pancreas, ovaries, and testes.

The thymus gland, pineal gland, and kidney are sometimes considered endocrine organs. They all release hormones into our bodies, hormones are protein messengers that help cells talk to each other. The endocrine system can affect moods and could account for Seasonal Affective disorder or S.A.D, it also affects sex drive, energy levels, and weight gain to name a few.

We are indirectly affected by colour as it can penetrate our bodies so that even blind people can benefit from colour therapy. This means that clothing, bed clothing, and diet can affect us the same way as the colours we actually see. It is commonly known that sunlight also has the effect of synthesising vitamin D through ultra violet radiation acting on the skin. However, photosensitive people can react to sunlight and develop a skin rash, but sunlight can be used to treat other skin conditions such as psoriasis.

The existence and purpose of the pineal gland has been a matter of long standing scientific debate. Recent scientific evidence shows that it is another master gland in addition to the pituitary, which acts as the body's light meter receiving light activated information from the hypothalamus. Its activity is activated by light changes and the earth's magnetic field and is part of our biological body clock that adjusts to varying lengths of daylight.

It is now recognised as the regulator of regulators controlling sexual function, growth, and aging, body temperature, blood

pressure, motor activity, sleep by the production of melatonin, tumour growth, and mood. The pineal gland has long been associated with spirituality and described as the third eye through which information to the body's energy centres are passed. When we get an imbalance of coloured light all the above bodily functions and our daily rhythms can be is thrown out of synchronisation with our needs to maintain our mental and physical health.

Warm and Magnetic Colours

Colour is sometimes referred to in terms of temperature, the red longer wavelengths colours are referred to as warm or magnetic colours while the shorter wavelengths towards to blue end on the spectrum are cool or electric colours. From the hottest red which has a lowest and slowest frequency but the most powerful penetrating affect, to orange and then yellow are generally taken to be the three main magnetic colours.

These colours are masculine and linked to action as they supply us with basic life force energies for action, they are warm, stimulating and energising, they are connected to the awareness of self and self-expression, physical and survival instincts, creativity and the mental processes. They are grounding colours that link us to the earth and discharge negativity from our system.

Complimentary Colours

Complimentary colours are colours that are directly across from each other on the colour wheel. They are called "complementary" because, when used together, they become extremely vibrant and have heavy contrast. Complimentary colours are useful when you want to make something stand out, for example, if you use a green background and have a red circle on it, the red will jump off the page and be almost blinding. In colour therapy, complementary colours reinforce each other and can be used in specific rations such as 755 red and 25% of its complimentary colour green.

The Aura

An aura is an envelope of vital energy, which radiates from everything in nature including minerals, plants, animals and humans. The aura is not visible to normal vision, but may be seen by using clairvoyance and specialized photographic equipment. The aura is often described as a multi coloured mist that has an assortment of boundaries and properties and binds our physical bodies to our spirituality; it is not in anyway separate from our physical body but they combine as one unit that makes up the whole person. The aura acts as a prism to divide white light into its component colours that are sent to different coloured layers around our bodies. These auric layers correspond to chakras or energy centres which in turn relate to major organs in our bodies. The aura is the way in which these chakras are energised and are the means by which we communicate with our aura and vice-versa.

This means we need a balance of all the colours in white light to remain healthy, an imbalance can affect our psychological well-being and cause physical illness; it is the task of the colour therapist to correct any imbalance present in the auric layers.

The Seven Main Chakras of the Spiritual Body and Their Respective Colours

Violet - Crown

Indigo - Brow

Blue - Throat

Green - Heart

Yellow - Solar Plexus

Orange - Sacral

Red - Root or Base

© Trevor Mayes 2007

About the Author:

Trevor Mayes is a qualified colour therapist and proprietor of Colour Counselling Therapy Healing which specialises in online diagnostic colour therapy and healing gemstones which is particularly suitable for stress relates issues. His interests are shamanism, the Runes, music, photography, growing vegetables, biking, mountaineering, sailing and canoe surfing.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How Colour Therapy Works

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Author: Shine Music

Why is Music Important for Kids?

This question has been debated for as long as time has existed. Even the great Greek and Roman philosophers approached the question: is music something that should be taught and does it help the development of children?

Plato answered "I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for in the patterns of music and all arts are the keys to learning." And again “what then is the education to be? Perhaps we could hardly find a better than that which the experience of the past has already discovered, which consists, I believe, in gymnastic, for the body, and music for the mind.”


In all cultures of the world music plays an important role. While these roles may change depending on the culture it is impossible to separate music from the life of an individual. While some may argue the role of music in our lives it is impossible to escape it. Even in the popular culture of Australia it is impossible to go shopping without hearing music. Music provides a means of communication and expression of culture and individual identity.

Children are immersed in music from birth and will be for their entire life. If this is the case why teach it? Is not the constant immersion in music enough? To this I say; is the fact that we witness the results of scientific principals on a day to day basis result in the understanding of those scientific principles? No it does not and likewise for music it does not either. The day to day encounters we have with music can move us but the understanding of this music can help us grow as individuals.

In many cultures the family plays the main role in music education. Families are most commonly the ones that teach children the music of their culture. As young children, we are commonly sung nursery rhymes. These provide entertainment for the child and often information in small repeated fashion. Children learn through the repetition and structure that the information was delivered in. many nursery rhymes teach fundamental life lesson and therefore sets music up as a means of educating. Children learn from music from a young age and will continue to for the rest of their lives. In a world where globalization and consumerism are dominating cultural identities are drifting into the background and children are more likely to be sung pop songs as lullaby’s than nursery rhymes. The benefit of nursery rhymes and progressive learning has become an issue. Children are missing out on fundamental learning opportunities.

The Mozart effect which gained a large following in the 1990’s claimed that listening to Mozart as a baby will make a child smarter. While this movement was short lived and there is little proof that it works there has been no denying that children who learn music will achieve higher in other aspects of their academic life. In earning music children learn to express their identities, gain confidence and develop sense of time and space. A research team at the university of Munster in Germany discovered that students who study music have more developed abstract reasoning skills which are closely linked to learning in the areas of science and maths.

I do not believe that there is any argument to this question…music is a vital part of a child’s education and should be taken seriously. Listening to music is not enough! A child must learn to think musically and that is what will help assist the development of the child and their academic development.


written by Gemma Lee from www.shinemusic.com.au teachers of piano, saxophone, violin, singing, drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flute and clarinet

About the Author:
shine music teachers of Piano, saxophone, violin, singing, drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flute and clarinet

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Does Music Help Children?

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