Americans love their coffee, and brewers want to help them make it right at home

Even in this bumpy economy, Americans are holding on tight to their coffee cups.

That's the word from the National Coffee Association, whose latest study finds American coffee consumption holding steady in this recession. One change, though, is that we're making and drinking more joe at home -- in fact, 5 percent more than we did a year prior.

This may spell bad news for cafe owners who could see lighter traffic, but some of America's top specialty coffee purveyors see this as an opportunity to deepen the public's appreciation for good coffee as they teach them how to treat their home beans right.

In recent months, Caffe Pronto Coffee Roastery of Annapolis, Md., has been offering workshops that range from proper coffee brewing to the importance of coffee origin to, most recently, pairing coffee with cheese. A new Web site needcaffeine.com just launched allowing folks to order home machines as well as beans from an array of specialty roasters across the nation. And Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea's Web site (intelligentsiacoffee.com) this month started selling home-brewing kits complete with a certificate for a brewing class.

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