最近，当您光顾咖啡店或在超市购物时，或许会发现很多咖啡产品都被冠以极品咖啡的称号。这一称号的光环吸引着众多咖啡迷争相购买。但是什么样的咖啡才可以称得上是极品咖啡呢？想要回答这一问题还是比较复杂的。
You may have noticed that the last time you were at a coffee shop or at a supermarket that there is a number of coffee products are labeled as gourmet coffee. Considering the excellent connotations that come with the world gourmet, it's not surprising that many coffee lovers are attracted to gourmet. But what exactly is gourmet coffee? The answer is a little bit complicated.

极品咖啡的涵盖面很广，而其相通之处是都能制作出一杯极其美味的咖啡。耕种方式、出产地、种植海拔、土壤情况以及气候条件都对咖啡豆是否能成为极品咖啡起到至关重要的作用。正如不同种类的优质葡萄酒，极品咖啡也包括不同的成熟时间、不同的国家、以及不同的区域。然而，极品咖啡有一个统一的特点，即它是由最顶尖的咖啡原产国用最上乘的咖啡豆制成的。它拥有最严格的制作过程，已确保其最高的品质。极品咖啡豆在其种植地国家要经过仔细的手工挑选、加工处理并把它们分门别类。之后，咖啡豆要在其出口国进行高质量的烘焙。比如瑞士，虽然那里并不产咖啡豆，但那里的咖啡豆烘焙工艺却是世界顶级的。最后，经过精密的制作过程，咖啡迷就可以品尝到极品咖啡了。
Gourmet coffee refers to a number of different things that all result in a delicious cup of coffee. Cultivation practices, growing area, altitude, soil, and climate are just some of the factors that will determine whether a coffee bean is a gourmet coffee. Similar to how a wine is judged as a fine wine or not, gourmet coffees will vary from year to year, country to country, region to region. However, there is one uniform characteristic of gourmet coffee: it is made from the best coffee beans that each coffee producing country is able to offer. Gourmet coffee undergoes a vigorous process to ensure that it has the highest quality. Gourmet coffee beans are carefully handpicked, processed, and sorted in the country where it has been grown. It is then roasted to perfection in the country that it is being exported to. For instance, Switzerland is one of the best country for coffee roasting, but it is not a coffee producing country. The final step in the gourmet coffee process is when the coffee lover gets to enjoy an excellent cup of gourmet joe.

极品咖啡经常被冠以专业咖啡的称号，其中比较普遍的品种包括牙买加蓝山、波多黎各、皇家水晶以及哥伦比亚。此外，它还可以添加一些辅料，制成不同的风味的咖啡饮品。值得注意的是添味咖啡是指把调味添加到热咖啡豆中使其在烘培过后能迅速吸收。极品咖啡源于最好的阿拉比卡咖啡豆。阿拉比卡咖啡树是全世界种植最普遍的一种咖啡树。然而，并不是所有的阿拉比卡咖啡都是极品咖啡。而且，阿拉比卡咖啡树的特殊的生长条件将决定其是否能成为极品咖啡。因此，选购时应当更多地了解、检验其各个方面，已确保质量。
Gourmet coffee is often described as specialty coffee and some examples of the most popular types of gourmet coffee include the Jamaica Blue Mountain, Puerto Rico, San Cristobal and the Colombia. Additionally, flavorings can be added to gourmet coffees to create intoxicating new tastes and these flavored gourmet coffees included such favorite flavored coffee drinks. However, the process involved in flavored coffee with gourmet coffee means that flavorings are added to coffee beans while they are still warm and absorbent immediately after roasting. Gourmet coffee comes from the best coffee beans of coffea arabica. This species of coffee plant known as Arabica coffee is the most commonly grown species of coffee grown throughout the world. As a result, all types of Arabica coffee are not gourmet coffee. Rather, the specific growing conditions of Arabica coffee plants will determine whether they are gourmet or not. To learn more about Arabica coffee, check out the section called Arabica.

正如咖啡迷所知道的，阿拉比卡咖啡树在高海拔地区会长势良好。通常极品咖啡便来源于生长于海拔900米左右，位于北回归线到热带或亚热带之间的地域。阿拉比卡咖啡树长得越高，其出产极品咖啡豆的几率就越高。而咖啡豆的密度越大，其质量也越好。海拔高度与咖啡密度也有直接的关系，海拔越高就意味着密度越高。因此，高海拔地区的阿拉比卡咖啡树更容易出产极品咖啡。
As most coffee lovers know, Arabica coffee plants thrive in high altitudes. Usually gourmet coffee comes from Arabica coffee plants that grow at altitudes of above 3,000 feet between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn in tropical or subtropical conditions. The higher the Arabica coffee plant is, the higher the chance is that it will produce coffee beans that can be classified as gourmet. Coffee beans are graded in terms of its density, with a higher density being preferred. There is a direct correlation between coffee density and the altitude that the coffee plant is growing at, with a higher altitude equaling a higher density. As a result, gourmet coffee usually encompasses coffee beans grown from Arabica coffee plants that are situated at a high altitude.

虽然特殊的外部条件可以帮助其成为极品咖啡，但这并非唯一的条件。更重要的是其长势。随着咖啡贸易对于很多国家变得越来越重要，咖啡种植的过程发生着极大的改变。咖啡的传统种植方法是将其种在树荫下。而现如今，很多种植者则是把咖啡种在了旷野上。这一改变使咖啡豆的产量提升，成本下降，然而对其质量却只有负面影响。
Although the specific conditions in which an Arabica coffee plant is growing will help determine whether the coffee beans it produces can be used for gourmet coffee, it is not the only factor. Arguably more important are the growing conditions of these Arabica coffee plants. As the coffee trade has become increasingly important to many country's economies, there has been some drastic changes in the coffee growth process. While coffee has been traditionally grown under shade trees, many coffee growers have been forced to move away from this process and grow coffee plants in full-sun fields. This change allows coffee growers to produce more coffee beans at a cheaper rate, however this has a negative effect on the quality of the coffee beans.

因此，大多数极品咖啡是有机咖啡。有机咖啡采用的是在树荫下种植出的咖啡豆。虽然在树荫下种植的方法产量不高，但其品质却可达到极品咖啡的水准。这是由于能遮阴的树可以减缓咖啡树的成熟，给予咖啡豆充分的成长，使其含有更多的天然糖份、更上乘的口味与较少的咖啡因。另外，有机咖啡也不使用影响咖啡口味的杀虫剂或其他化学制品。
As a result, most gourmet coffee are grown in an organic fashion. Organic coffee refers to coffee that has been made using coffee beans that have been shade grown. Although the shade grown method of growing coffee results in less coffee bean growth for the grower, it produces a much better tasting coffee that matches the standards of what constitutes a gourmet coffee. This is because the shade trees slow down the maturation of the coffee plant, which allows for the coffee bean to develop: more natural sugar, better flavor, and less caffeine. Additionally, organic coffee is free of pesticides and other chemicals that affect the taste of the coffee.

然而，特殊的生长条件并非是决定是否是极品咖啡的唯一因素。另一项因素是其精确的混合。当阿拉比卡咖啡豆在极好的环境下有机种植一般就会产出极品咖啡。然而咖啡市场的运作并非如此。这是因为很多咖啡公司把高质量的阿拉比卡咖啡豆与次等咖啡豆混合，降低咖啡的质量，以谋求高额利润。一些混合咖啡中罗伯斯特咖啡豆的含量高于阿拉比卡咖啡豆，导致咖啡口感下降，咖啡因浓度增高。也有一些罗伯斯特和阿拉比卡的混合品质量不错，特别是高质量的意式烘培咖啡。当然极品咖啡一般是纯粹的昂贵的阿拉比卡咖啡。
However, it isn't just the specific growing conditions that will determine whether a coffee is gourmet coffee. Rather, another important issue that will determine whether a coffee is gourmet or not is its specific blend. While Arabica coffee beans that have grown in excellent conditions under organic means will generally constitute a gourmet coffee, coffee economics have ensured that this is often not the case. This is because many coffee companies attempt to increase their profit by blending the fine Arabica coffee beans with lesser coffer beans, which dilutes the quality of the coffee. Some coffee blends have more Robusta coffee beans than Arabica coffee beans, which produce a coffee that has less flavor and higher caffeine content. While some Robusta-Arabica coffee blends can be good, particularly high quality Espresso roasted coffee blends; gourmet coffee is usually made up of unblended, high-grown Arabica coffee.

极品咖啡另一个要素就是烘培。烘培过程将影响咖啡的口感，而这一过程并无标准的规则可循。而且，烘培的程度要因咖啡豆的出产国和其特点而定。因此，一种咖啡豆应被烘培成浅棕色以释放其特有的香味，而如果另一种咖啡豆也如法炮制，则也许就是暴殄天物。 当您购买极品咖啡时，向咖啡专家咨询咖啡独特的烘培方式决对是有益无害的。
Another important component of gourmet coffee is its roast. The roasting process will impact the taste of a cup of coffee and there are no standardized rules of coffee roasting. Rather, the degree of roasting needed for a specific coffee bean will depend on the coffee bean's country of origin and its optimal flavor characteristics. As a result, a coffee bean may need to be roasted to a light brown color to release its flavor characteristics that makes it gourmet, while another type of gourmet coffee bean may be ruined by that exact type of roasting. When purchasing gourmet coffee, it never hurts to ask a coffee expert about the specific roasting of that coffee.

最后一项咖啡迷需要留心的是极品咖啡的气味。当咖啡特有的香气被烘培出来时，也是其开始氧化的过程。当咖啡豆被烘培过，其中不稳定的油脂将极易被氧化，并损害到咖啡的质量。极力推荐大家去购买装在抗氧化袋中的极品咖啡，或购买未研磨的极品咖啡豆。
One last thing that gourmet coffee lovers will need to look out for is the freshness of the coffee. While roasting coffee beans is essential to releasing the desired flavor characteristics of the coffee bean, it also begins the stage of oxidizing. Once a coffee bean is roasted, the volatile oils contained within the bean become vulnerable to oxidizing, which will damage the quality of the coffee bean. It is highly recommended that one purchase gourmet coffee in oxygen-proof bags or to try to purchase whole bean gourmet coffee that can be grinded just before being made.

至此您就了解到了所有的衡量标准，以及咖啡豆成为极品咖啡的艰难过程。现在您就可以一边休息一边品尝一杯味道浓郁的极品咖啡。同时您也可以考虑一下到底需要多少劳动才能生产这样一杯完美的咖啡。
Now that you've learnt all of the various degrees of gourmet coffee, you will realize the difficult process that a coffee bean becomes classified as gourmet. With its rich taste, you can now sit back and enjoy a nice cup of gourmet coffee and ponder how much work has been done to create that perfect cup of coffee.