If you are a farmer or simply want to start becoming more self-sufficient and growing your own produce, you might be interested in growing the ingredients that you need for caffeinated drinks, such as tea and coffee plants. Doing this is not always as big of a chore as you might originally think it is, and it is possible to create high-quality ingredients for these drinks. This can allow you to enjoy tea or coffee whenever you want to, and if this appeals to you, this guide is here to help you succeed with it.
How can you effectively make your own caffeinated drinks?
Once you have grown your ingredients (which we will explain shortly), it is then important to know how to turn these into caffeinated drinks.
Harvesting
In terms of coffee, once you have grown your coffee cherries, you need to harvest them, which includes getting the beans from inside these fruits. After this, you can dry out your beans and roast and grind them as usual before adding hot water and milk to make a drink to your preference.
When it comes to tea, you need to harvest the leaves, heat and dry them and put them in a teabag, which you can then add boiling water to and leave to brew. Although this can be time-consuming, it is incredibly rewarding (and cheaper) to make your own tea, and you will soon be able to taste the difference between it and shop-bought products.
Get help from blogs
If you are struggling to make the best tea or coffee, you should look around for blogs that might be able to help you out with the process. There are many blogs around that can give you information on the best types of beans or leaves to purchase, as well as the equipment that you need to make your coffee perfect. They can also give you specialist tips and recipes for the coffee or tea that you have produced.
This can ensure that you can try out new techniques and that you constantly get new inspiration. Not only this, but these can be helpful to those who have never made tea or coffee from scratch before. To immerse yourself in the world of coffee, you should look out for blogs such as Coffee Bros. They will be able to give you all the information that you need to know about coffee and rarely go off-subject, meaning that you can always find the knowledge that you need from an experienced barista.
Practice
Making the best-caffeinated drinks relies on your ability as a home-taught barista, and not everyone will have a natural flair for it. If you practice your skills, though, and even take courses or decide to become a part-time barista in a shop, you will soon be able to make excellent coffee and tea that stays on the tongue long after you have made it. This will help you to make the best out of the coffee and tea leaves that you have grown.
How can you grow the right ingredients?
You need to follow the below steps to grow your ingredients:
The right environment
The first factor you need to consider when you want to grow your coffee or tea plant is whether you have the right environment available to do so. Coffee plants usually grow in tropical environments with nutritious soil, whereas tea plants require a warm climate with great rainfall each year. If you do not have these conditions available to you, you may be able to replicate these conditions within your home or in a greenhouse, where both your coffee and your tea plant may begin to thrive.
Plant care
You should think about how much care each of these plants will need. For instance, you will need to mist the leaves of a coffee plant often and keep them humid by placing and leaving them in water. You might also need to give them liquid food and rainwater. In terms of tea plants, they need fertilizer as well as mulch that contains decaying leaves, and you should always try to swap out tap water for rainwater to ensure that you are able to mirror exterior conditions as much as possible. Knowing how to look after each plant and caring for them will prevent them from drooping and starting to drop leaves.
Seeds vs. saplings
You should also think about whether you want to grow your plant from seed or whether you want to start with a small sapling. Saplings are stronger and easier for first-time growers, especially since many coffee and tea plants do not grow out of their seeds, especially if the soil conditions are not right, like if a tea plant’s soil is not acidic enough.
Before planting a coffee plant, you should make sure that you soak the seeds and that you plant them in soil that is not too dry. Luckily, there are many websites online from which you may be able to find a tea or coffee plant to suit your needs and from which you might be able to achieve a great crop.
Find the right plant
It is important that you invest in the right type of coffee or tea plant, though, as there are many different strains for you to choose from. To do this, you should make sure that you carry out extensive research into your chosen coffee or tea type before you purchase the plant, and you should even speak to knowledgeable experts about the best tea or coffee plants to use in your drinks.
This will ensure that you do not spend ages growing your coffee or tea plants only to find that your drinks have been sorely let down by the type of beans or leaves that you have chosen to grow.
Stay attentive
Anyone can grow a tea or coffee plant as both are easy to grow, especially if you plan to make these plants house or indoor plants and grow them in a pot. However, you must remain attentive, and you should make sure that you have basic skills, such as repotting plants so that they will not die or be in danger before they become mature plants.