Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series for the caffeine-addicted.

I know you thought we were through with the genus-species-kingdom stuff after high-school biology, but did you know there are two different species of coffee plant? Well, there are: Arabica, or high-altitude grown gourmet coffee, and Robusta, or the more environmentally tolerant (and much cheaper) sort of coffee often found in instant crystals and behind bodega counters around the world.

But is the latter really more "robust" than the haute Arabica? Find out after the jump.

Heirloom beans. Photo: Brent Ridge, Beekman 1802.

Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell are the farmers and innovators behind Beekman 1802, a 200-year-old estate and farm in upstate New York. We'll be running recipes, gorgeous photos and tales from the farm as their crops come into season.

Native daughter Rachael Ray has a profound appreciation for the farmlands of upstate New York, and just paid a visit to Beekman 1802 to learn more about our farm-to-table project with The American Hotel.

What does one make when Rachael Ray comes to dinner? We knew it had to be 1) delicious, 2) simple, and 3) easy. So we traipsed out to the garden for inspiration and found a few tender new green beans just ready for the picking. These are sometimes referred to by their French name, haricot vert, which translates to, you guessed it, "green bean."

Our "yummo" recipe and a bit about our hills of heirloom beans, after the jump.

With Southern chefs sourcing everything from trout to tempeh locally, it seems almost impossible they'd overlook something as basic as beans. But Appalachian food advocates say the region's leading kitchens have inadvertently snubbed one of the mountains' most distinctive crops.

"People who like to eat out should see more beans with local history," asserts Peter Marks of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Program, who's urging western North Carolina produce distributors to help wean local chefs off the standard Florida snap beans they now use for their soups, casseroles and oh-so-fancy green bean almandines.

Marks' organization is championing the neglected greasy bean as an alternative to the ubiquitous (and often flavorless) bush bean, with its puny beans and limp, stringless pod. Greasys are the beans mountaineers have been eating since European settlers first poked their wagons over the Blue Ridge, and -- depending on which scholar you trust -- possibly for many years before that.

"It's a muscular bean," says Ron Caylor, who annually plants four or five rows of greasys on his farm in Jonesborough, Tenn. "When they're ripe, they just burst with delicious vibes."

More greasy goodness after the jump.

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but that doesn't mean we typically plan for it. No, we often find ourselves staring vacantly into the refrigerator musing how we're not really in the mood for this and that is going to go bad soon and wasn't this good but too bad there's so little left of it and, gee, I totally forgot about that.

Some of the best breakfasts I've made have been thrown-together affairs, mixing random leftovers with eggs to unexpectedly delicious result.

Such is this breakfast recipe, which tosses together Mexican/Caribbean odds and ends dug out of the refrigerator. Recipe for my surprisingly tasty Tropicana Breakfast --so dubbed because it was invented one fine Sunday off of Tropicana Aveneue--follows after the jump.

Yesterday, I posted about curing the recession blues by daydreaming of sumptuous feasts à la Alice B. Toklas. As I wrote, I was reminded of an old southern joke my father told me years ago that is now among my favorites. So, if fantasy isn't your bag, how about a little humor to lighten the mood? The joke goes something like this:

Old Man Clackett was getting pretty long in the tooth. Sensing that his dying day was near, he figured it was time to confess his wrongdoings to those he'd sinned against.

"Maw Clackett, you come on in here," he called to his beloved wife of 61 years. "I got to talk to you."

Maw Clackett wheeled into the room. "What are you carrying on about, Paw?" she asked.

"It's time I told you about my old pebble jar, Maw. You see, every time I was unfaithful to you I put a pebble in this here jar." He showed her the jar, which held three pebbles.

"Well, old man, I reckon that ain't too bad. To tell the truth, I got a jar of my own. Every time I stepped out on you, I dropped a bean down in it." She wheeled over to her dresser, opened the top drawer, and pulled a jar out from under the clothes.

Old Man Clackett winced. He hadn't expected this. "Well then, let's see it, woman."

Punchline after the jump...

• How does your favorite cafe roast their beans? What beans go best with which roasting methods? (article complete with eerily magnified photo of coffee bean that looks more like...well, you figure it out)
• Grandpa's Dribble Cake is no easy task: two layers of cake and two kinds of frosting make this a daunting - but rewarding - task
• In the Boston area? In the mood for some ripe, juicy strawberries? Here's where to find 'em
• Forget vanchocstraw - instead, get a load of these Cook Farm family ice cream recipes: apple-blueberry crisp; coconut with chocolate and almonds; and - why not? - asparagus
• Organic spirits continue to gain popularity, so you can drink with a clear conscience
  
• Want to teach your old dog new tricks? Try one with homemade sauerkraut, or even pineapple
• A father, his road to chef-dom, and a really awesome recipe for fig, pear, caramelized onion and blue cheese pizza

Hungry, but down to the last quarters in your laundry money jar? Head to The Culinary Review, a consumer guide to food costs, to figure out just how much grub that last $.75 will get you.

The Culinary Review has broken down the costs of various common meals, some of which make a McDonald's Egg McMuffin look like caviar on toast. Make yourself a fruit yogurt smoothie, hard-boiled egg and toast for a mere $1.11 or a cup of black bean soup for $.80.

They also give the prices of a number of Food Network chef-prepared meals. Some are surprisingly expensive - Tyler Florence's mozzarella grilled cheese is $5.59 a serving, certainly pricier than at many diners, while others are grad student-cheap - Alton Brown's baked mac and cheese is a mere $0.96 a serving. Serve that with some sauteed greens or cabbage slaw and you've got lunch for less than the price of a cup of coffee. Also check out the handy tips for saving money in the kitchen (don't buy pre-cut meat) and a list of where to splurge (olive oil, canned tuna) and where to save (canned veggies, cured meats).

Unlike some states, there is no state food of Indiana, but if you want to inject something from the state into your SuperBowl menu, there are lots of foods that originated in or are otherwise associated with the crossroads of America. For example, Van Camp's Beans was established in Indianapolis in 1861 as a result of the popularity of pork and bean dishes with the early residents. Clabber Girl baking powder, Wonderbread, Gatorade and Endangered Species Chocolate all originated in the state as well, and there have been many noted Indiana fans who also got into the food business, like Orville Reddenbacher.

So, an Indy-oriented menu will have baked goods (made with baking powder), pork and beans, chocolate and popcorn. If you can find some at the market, you could add deep fried strawberries in for dessert, or opt for other fair foods, like corn on the cob dipped in butter. But according to the Indy Star, the one food that really says Indiana is a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich (Hoosier rib-eye sandwich is a close second). You can find a recipe for this (semi) regional treat here.

Starbucks, contrary to popular belief, does not pays less for their coffee than other coffee buyers, using their size to bully their suppliers into meeting extremely low prices (like one here-unnamed major retailer does). In the past year, Starbucks paid about 36% more than the average price per pound of coffee beans, shelling out $1.42 for every pound of beans they bought.

Does this definitively prove that Starbucks is making the world a better place for all coffee growers and that there will be no starving farmers working coffee plantations in the world? Of course not. The latter problem can't be helped because that low average price means that there are companies paying far, far less for their products. What this does mean is that Starbucks is making positive policies that will benefit growers in the long run, setting a higher standard that other buyers will, hopefully, meet at some point.

Red beans and rice doesn't sound like a very exciting dish, but the staple of Louisiana cuisine can actually be elegant as well as delicious, as long as you put as much care into making yours as BWJones did with his version of the dish. His recipe calls for rice, red beans, onion and a lot of spices, including sage, thyme, bay leaf, cayenne pepper, garlic, paprika and chipotle. His is topped off with crawfish, seasoned generously with Old Bay (not to be confused with Old Spice), although some would say that sausage (andouille, in particular) or ham sets the standard for the dish. The meat can be left off entirely for a less expensive or vegetarian version of the dish.

This is an easy recipe to master and an extremely versatile one. Not only can you play around with the spices, increasing and decreasing the heat, but it can work both as a side dish and as a main course.

Bada Beans are a new specialty product designed to make your coffee more flavorful. I use the phrase "specialty product" here because I haven't really seen anything like them before. The beans are small, sugar-free tablets that are flavored and are meant to be stirred into a cup of coffee for instant flavor, a portable alternative to the flavored syrups they offer at coffee shops. Immediately, I loved the idea because I often take my coffee on-the-go with me. I tried all three of their flavors: McCoy's Dream Vanilla Bean, Hazel's Nutty Hazelnut and Crazy Carl's Caramel Fudge.

The little tablets all smelled great in their little tins and dissolved easily in the hot liquid. Unfortunately, and this could be partially do to the fact that I like my coffee on the strong side, the flavor from the Bada Beans was not particularly strong. The chocolate had some caramel notes, but the hazelnut and vanilla had only a slight presence. Adding a second bean improved the flavor somewhat, but I also had to add milk at that point to take the edge of the sweetener. Not ready to give up what I still thought was a good idea, however, I tried adding the beans to tea and the difference was amazing. I could much more easily taste the flavors of the beans and they added a mild sweetness to the tea that was just right. The vanilla went particularly well with chai/spiced teas.

All in all, the Bada Beans weren't perfect, but I would definitely use them in teas and would consider carrying them along on trips, where you are more likely than usual to encounter coffee that could use a little boost of flavor, no matter how subtle a boost it is.

Coffee lovers know that the most important ingredient in an excellent cup of coffee is the beans. Not only should they be high quality, but they need to be freshly roasted. The easiest way to get freshly roasted beans is to find a reliable nearby roastery and buy theirs, but there are methods for roasting green beans at home, as well. The iRoast 2 is easier than both of these methods. The small appliance, upgrade from the original machine, safely and accurately roasts coffee beans to perfection in the comfort of your own home.

With a built-in timer and thermometer, the iRoast 2 uses hot air to roast beans evenly and quickly. It has programmable roast profiles that let you choose light, dark or in-between roasts from pre-set temperature options, simplifying the process of getting the perfect result by taking out the guess work. This is especially useful for someone new to home-roasting, as well as for anyone looking for consistency, which other home-roasting methods aren't able to provide without hours upon hours of experience.

A blade coffee grinder, which is the standard for most home coffee drinkers, has a food processor-like blade that swings around and chops up coffee beans. The grinders are usually fairly inexpensive and do the job of grinding up beans faster than you could do it with a hammer, but they are not necessarily very efficient, nor do they come close to getting the coffee beans evenly ground. Burr grinders, which are more expensive but crush the beans instead of chopping them up, produce even grounds and will generate the most consistent flavor in coffee - not to mention that they offer a range of sizes (from powdery fine to coarse) that work with different types of coffee makers, including espresso machines and french presses.

The Wall Street Journal's catalog critic sat down and tested a number of burr grinders to see which ones performed the best. The less-than-satisfactory grinders included the Capresso Infinity burr grinder, The Krups Burr Coffee Mill and the Cuisinart Automatic Burr grinder. The top performer was the KitchenAid Proline Grinder ($200), which produced grounds to exacting specifications and stored them in a nice glass container before use to eliminate the possibility of static charge making grounds adhere to the side of the container, as they sometimes did with plastic container models. The model given the "best value" designation was the Solis Maestro Burr Grinder ($115), which performed perfectly, but had a plastic grounds container that could have a minim static charge. In fact, it is the grinder that I use and it always does an excellent job - even with dark-roasted, oily beans that can jam up some other grinders. The KitchenAid would make a great Christmas gift "for coffee geeks," but the Solis is probably the way to go in terms of both price and performance.

When brewing coffee, there are two factors that play a huge part in the final flavor. The water-to-bean ratio is important, but first you should have fresh beans and they should be ground as soon before brewing as possible. Fresh grounds will have the natural oils of the bean still in them, which will give you the fullest flavor, eliminating much of that flat and bitter aftertaste that can come from stale grounds - and ground coffee can stale very, very quickly. This is why, if you brew coffee at home, it's a good idea to buy a grinder and grind your own beans. Since that's another step between you and coffee in the morning, however, many opt for preground. The all-in-one coffee makers, which have built in grinders, are a good option for anyone who wants to get the best cup of coffee with the least amount of work.

The machines are programmed in advance and they heat water, grind beans and brew your coffee all with the touch of a button. A recent test showed good results from each of three machines. The Melitta preformed well, but had no insulated carafe, which keeps the coffee from becoming burned or overly strong sitting on a heating pad. The Cuisinart made a slightly better cup of coffee than the Melitta, but the Capresso, with a burr grinder to ensure even grounds and smooth flavor, won the test.

All in all, you can't really go wrong with any of the machines from the sound of it, but if you already have a machine you like, look into getting a grinder instead of a whole new machine to really improve the quality of your morning brew.

I'm a big Jelly Belly fan, but aside from the usual 49-flavor blend, there aren't that many opportunities to try some of their other flavors. Every once in a while, though, I spot a more unusual bland and snap them up. This week, I saw the "Soda Pop Shoppe" and "Smoothie Blend" mixes.

I was particularly interested in trying the soda ones after reading a review on the Candyblog and they did not disappoint. The flavors included are the A&W Root Beer, Dr. Pepper and Cream Soda from the classic blend and three new flavors, Grape Crush, Orange Crush and 7-Up. All the flavors had a slight zing to them that did remind me of soda, and the three new flavors bear an uncanny resemblance to their namesakes. Orange Crush, in particular, is outstanding.

The Smoothie mix was released earlier this year and contains a number of unconventional flavors including Mandarin Orange Mango, Cherry Passion Fruit, Pineapple Pear, Strawberry Banana and Mixed Berry. The cherry and mixed berry flavors seemed common, much like cherry and grape flavors in other types of candy. Strawberry Banana jumps out as the most easy to recognize flavor and the Pineapple Pear was pleasant, but the Mandarin Orange Mango was my favorite from this batch - vibrant and fruity.

All in all, both mixes were good and worth buying again, although I'll have to replenish my supply of the Soda Pop Shoppe beans, since I have already run out.