Espresso Confusion

There you are, standing in the grocery store isle about to pick out your next bag of coffee. You say to yourself “self” (‘cause you’re talking to yourself) “find the espresso beans”. You hunt and peck around and find 5 choices at least to tell you you’ve found espresso beans. Yippie for you. You make your selection and would even skip down the isle were it not for the 250 pound cart you’re pushing in front of you loaded with the week’s worth of groceries and 2 bags of dog food. Skipping causes broken ankles anyway.

The next morning you get up to brew your espresso beans because they, of course, are the most flavorful beans ever grown on any coffee shrub, anywhere. Imagining this special shrub and how it looks, you daydream of tiny little demitasses, saucers, and mini spoons hung all about in a sort of cheering section for the fantastic espresso beans as they emerge from tiny little blips to full grown brown beans just ready to be ground and married with hot water to create the miniature delight in your miniature cup.

…….errrrrrrrrrrrrcccccchhhhh. Dream sequence over. Dude, espresso is a drink, not a coffee bean. Let me say that to the other half. Dudette, espresso is a drink, not a coffee bean. It’s not your fault that you believe this either, because the marketing is as confused as Sarah Palin is by Katie Couric’s questions.

Here’s the truth, no matter what the ridiculous marketing on your bag of coffee is telling you: Espresso is a beverage that can be prepared from any coffee bean at all. Yep, that’s what I said. There is no such thing as an “espresso bean”. No, it’s not a smaller bean or something blacker, or something special that only tastes a certain way because of the way it’s grown. It grows as a coffee cherry just like every other coffee bean in the world. It’s nothing but a way to prepare a coffee beverage. And yes, an espresso is a kind of coffee beverage.

How is an espresso coffee made? Espresso coffee is a small 1 oz. shot of pressure-brewed coffee using about 1 Tablespoon (7 oz) of finely ground coffee per serving “shot”. Hot water of about 197-203 degrees Fahrenheit is forced through the beans at about .9-1 bar (or around 130 PSI) of pressure for 20-30 seconds. Properly brewed, an espresso will slowly pour out in a thin ribbon and feature dark syrupy liquid topped by a layer of rich dark golden “crema” on the surface. This beverage can be taken in just like that, with sugar, cream, or both, or topped in various combinations and quantities of foamy milk, whipped cream, or other goopy “toppings” that an American coffee chain has cooked up to add more than your fair share of daily calories in a 16 oz paper cup.

The truth is that yes, any coffee bean can be made into espresso coffee, but not every coffee will taste good made as an espresso coffee. A well created coffee blend that will shine when brewed as espresso is usually a combination of 3, 4, or more coffees from different origins, each roasted individually or blended together before roasting. A coffee suited for making espresso can be roasted to many degrees of brownish. It’s not just a dark black roast as many believe, so don’t be surprised if something called an “espresso roast” isn’t that expected color. Additionally, any blend created with espresso coffee in mind may not taste as good when made with a drip machine or press pot. You need to be the judge and the one who makes the final call next time you’re making a coffee choice.

So, if the bag you’re considering buying says “Espresso Blend”, it’s simply telling you “Hey you” (‘cause the bag is talking now), “I’m a coffee that my roaster thinks tastes best made as an espresso coffee”. Then, make your fantastic espresso coffee from your selected beans, and sit back to enjoy the dream sequence where Sarah gets interviewed by a talking bag of coffee. Fun times.

…….have something to say? We want to hear you! Comment on this post, ask a question or make us laugh.

Strong Coffee

My latest conversation with friends has been about my curiosity to know what flavor qualities people find pleasing in the coffee they choose to drink. Most people don’t call out a brand’s coffee by name, but what I hear a lot, is “I like strong coffee”, or “I don’t like strong coffee”. I’m not sure what people are actually meaning by “strong” when it comes to flavor since strength isn’t a flavor, after all, it’s a level of intensity of the flavors their chosen coffee brings to them. In other words, it’s literally the “strength” that one brews his coffee. i.e., there you are in your undees standing in the kitchen making the morning’s brew, and you pump in 3 Tablespoons of coffee per 6 oz cup instead of the average 2. Therefore, you’ve made strong coffee. You can brew any coffee “strong”, in theory, because you can make it “stronger” than “normal”.

So what is flavor and where does it come from? The bottom line is that coffee is always going to taste coffee-ish. It won’t ever taste like pancakes, a candied apple, or beef jerky. However, coffee can certainly have flavor characteristics like these (ok, yeah, beef jerky is pushing it). Green coffees are graded on a scale. Simply put, there’s a range from bad to good to excellent. Not complicated right? Then, to get even more to the point, within the highest grade, known as Specialty Coffee, exists a sub-range from just ok to top quality. So if you’re following me, you could have “just ok” Specialty Coffee, or you could have “where are my socks because they’ve been knocked off” Specialty Coffee. A coffee is graded first by its physical characteristics, and then judged by what qualities it brings to the cup when drinking it. Considered in the rating of the coffee are flavor, fragrance, aftertaste, acidity, body, sweetness, uniformity, & balance. A good coffee importer goes to origin countries and makes buying selections based on the actual flavor in the cup when tasting the coffee. No kidding—sweet job. Coffees can have any range of ratings of the above categories, with an overall score being given to the complete cup.

Next, the roaster chooses coffees and determines how to roast and perhaps blend the coffees purchased in order to accentuate the flavors that they bring to the cup alone or blended with other coffees. Flavor impressions can run anywhere from blueberry to chocolate, to mango, to smoke, to cherry, to cinnamon, to caramel. The degree of roast then also adds an element of flavor…lighter or darker on the very same coffee will actually taste very different! Some coffees need to be roasted lighter to highlight their best flavors, and some need to be taken darker to do the same. A very dark roast can be tricky because it will completely overpower any of the subtle flavor characteristics and replace them with one flavor-burned campfire logs.

So “strength” isn’t really what people should be looking for when selecting a coffee, and a wide range of people associate “dark roast” with “strong”, and therefore choose that for a lack of a better idea of where to start. To help you decide what you’ll like best, look for:

• Quality of the bean being offered, remembering that Specialty Coffee can range from ok to fantastic.
• Freshness of the roast (even fantastic coffee will not have good flavor once it’s old).
• Flavor characteristics that sound good to you (meaning chocolate, citrus, smoke etc.)

Take the coffee home, and brew it to the strength you enjoy. If you’ve made the right pick for yourself, you’ll get the full on “oh yeah that’s some good stuff” feeling when you sip. If you make your coffee “strong”, but still don’t taste any flavor, you’re probably drinking something stale. If you taste flavor, but just not the flavor you like, pick a different coffee next time. Most websites or store shelves will describe their coffees’ flavor characteristics as well as roast degree to help you make a choice.

And finally, if you are, or you know this person, stage a flavor intervention:
“I really like my coffee to taste painfully nasty because then I feel more manly being able to choke it down….Meaning, I buy crappy, over-roasted, stale coffee, and brew it well above the normal scoop-to-water ratio to accentuate the nastiness even more. I impress my friends by doing this.”

Thanks for a Good Time

Roaster hooked up, website done, space organized, green coffee delivered, espresso machine working, occupancy permit approved. Finally after all this there was only one thing left to do yesterday….. roast coffee! Game on. Right around 9 a.m. I pushed the 3 button startup sequence on my roaster’s system: “drum”, “blower”, “gas”….”gas”…..”gas” ….”gas”….um, yeah, that’s not 3 buttons, that’s 6, and the pilot won’t light! Read the rest of this entry »

89% Guy

I have the keys to the front door of my new space! In the past few days I’ve been busy (with the help of family, friends, and hired hands) prepping the roaster area (which arrives today!), building counters, and re-painting walls….Yes, that’s what I said…re-painting. Read the rest of this entry »