How to enjoy coffee

Highlights

• Smooth like chocolate or fruity like a berry, coffee has as many tastes as wine or beer – you just need to know your beans.

• Coffee – what’s called ‘drip’ or ‘filter’ coffee, not espresso – can taste smooth and sweet like chocolate, or provide a zip on your tongue like a bright Champagne, or taste fruity, just like a blueberry

• All coffee roasters create a roast profile – a manipulation of time and temperature – to achieve flavour in the beans

• Historically, coffee has been roasted for relatively long periods of time at relatively high temperatures

• What to do

• seeking out independent local roasteries, or looking online if there isn’t one nearby

• time, producers all across the ‘Bean Belt’ – the band of coffee-growing countries that fall between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn – are refining their growing and processing techniques, supplying the speciality coffee market with unique, delectable coffee beans.
  • [[Tropic of Cancer]]

• Craft roasters often carry both single-origin coffee (meaning the beans come from only one country) and blends (a mix of beans from more than one country). Both of these can be great, but single-origin beans tend to be of a higher quality – they have more potential to be distinct and interesting, with flavours that vary greatly depending on the variety of bean, where they were grown, how they were processed and sorted, and more

• Select high-quality beans

• roasting at relatively low temperatures for a shorter amount of time tends to accentuate what I call coffee character, the unique flavours inherent in the bean itself and where it was grown – or its terroir, to borrow a term from wine
• Coffee producers have historically been exploited, and even ‘fair trade’ prices – designed to protect farmers – often aren’t enough;

• It’s always worth spending a bit more money, if you can. This is partly because of taste – high-quality coffee is more expensive – but it also means your coffee is more likely to be ethically produced

• Where possible, buy your coffee from roasters who purchase their beans ethically and transparently at a price that reflects the tremendous amount of human effort and skill involved in coffee production.

• One challenge that great coffee has – unlike wine and beer – is that someone must prepare it on the spot before it can be consumed. This throws a lot of variability into the mix. Having just two ingredients – coffee and water – might sound simple, but they can be challenging to work with.

• If you’ve never experienced a coffee that tastes extremely fruity (usually of blueberry), try to find a naturally processed single-origin Ethiopian coffee from a craft roaster.

• Experiment with timing

• Taste thoughtfully. Coffee is complex by nature: a typical roasted coffee bean contains more than 800 different chemical compounds that contribute to flavour and aroma.

• As the coffee molecules dissolve, flavour is extracted. But importantly, these molecules don’t all dissolve at the same rate

• Drink thoughtfully prepared cups.

• Although coffee can taste all these different ways, keep in mind that there are no reliable industry standards about how its flavour is described. World Coffee Research is an international organisation that has produced a common vocabulary, but it’s not widely adopted – at least not in the marketing language that coffee roasters use to communicate with customers.

• Flavour notes – the suggested tastes written on a packet or café sign – will be subjective until a standardised vocabulary is used (the wine industry has done a better job of this), but that doesn’t mean that they’re useless

• The more coffee you taste, the more you’ll discover general preferences for broad categories of flavours, such as fruit, nuts or spices. You can also try to develop your palate a bit: when you smell and taste new foods, try to clock the nuances of flavour. When you try new coffee, taste it thoughtfully. Smell it. Hold a sip in your mouth. Slurp it to splash coffee on the back of your palate. Exhale as you swallow. See if the flavour conjures any memories or reminds you of something you’ve tasted before. This is one of the joys of high-quality coffee.

• Try coffee without adding milk and sugar

• when you enjoy coffee that’s been roasted to emphasise the flavours of the bean, you don’t need milk and sugar to make it more palatable.

• Key points

  • Roasting trends around the world have changed to emphasise the qualities of the bean over the qualities of the roast. One is not inherently better than the other; it’s a matter of preference. But modern roasting techniques have expanded the range of coffee flavour and aroma, and you might be surprised by what you find. Look for coffee from roasters who can tell you exactly what the coffee is, where it came from, who made it, and how much they were paid.

  • Coffee communities have been historically exploited and continue to be. It takes a lot of time and skill to grow and process high-quality coffee (not to mention transporting and roasting it), so craft coffee, rightfully, should not come cheap.

  • Flavour is influenced by sense memories, and roasters tend to label flavour notes based on their individual set of experiences, which might differ from yours. This is also why it’s important to taste widely and thoughtfully to develop your palate. You won’t be able to taste ‘macadamia nut’ if you’ve never eaten one.

  • Milk and sugar are often added to coffee to mask bitterness or off flavours. But with the right coffee – a high-quality one that has been roasted to emphasise the flavour of the bean – you might not need these extras.

  • A well-brewed cup contains the right balance of perceived acidity, sweetness and bitterness. Practise with timings, and different methods, to identify the most enjoyable balance.

My Thoughts

• As an avid coffee drinker (lover?), I found this essay insightful. Like:
  • Brewing time and temperature affects the quality of coffee

    • roasting at relatively low temperatures for a shorter amount of time tends to accentuate what I call coffee character, the unique flavours inherent in the bean itself and where it was grown – or its terroir, to borrow a term from wine

  • There’s a term called “Bean Belt” for the band of coffee-growing countries that fall between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

    • time, producers all across the ‘Bean Belt’ – the band of coffee-growing countries that fall between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn – are refining their growing and processing techniques, supplying the speciality coffee market with unique, delectable coffee beans.

  • Coffee producers have historically been exploited, and even ‘fair trade’ prices – designed to protect farmers – often aren’t enough;

  • Knowing the place of origin of the beans helps you to relate coffee with places.

  • If you want to fully enjoy coffee, go for bare minimum without added ingredients like milk and sugar.

• Taste thoughtfully. Coffee is complex by nature: a typical roasted coffee bean contains more than 800 different chemical compounds that contribute to flavour and aroma.