Fresh Is Best. No matter how many mugs it takes you to wake up in the morning, your personal coffee turnover isn't going to be nearly equal to that of your local coffee shop, which means your beans are probably a bit longer in the tooth than the cafe's are on any given day.
Sesame seeds, despite their tiny size, are a valuable cash crop. They come from the Sesamum Indicum plant, which is native to Africa but is now found mostly throughout Asia, with Myanmar and India the largest producers.
Sesame seeds are tiny, flat oval seeds with a nutty taste and a delicate, almost invisible crunch. They come in a host of different colors, depending upon the variety, including white, yellow, black and red. Sesame seeds are highly valued for their high content of sesame oil, an oil that is very resistant to rancidity. Sesame seeds are the main ingredients in both tahini and the Middle Eastern sweet treat, halvah.