Coffee Peep Show

Somewhere back in the 70s or 80s, grocery store shoppers were introduced to the wonderful world of bulk products. These grand rows of foods ranging from candy to flour to beans and cereal were displayed in large, “fancy” plexiglas containers, inviting the shopper to overindulge in goodies and staples at prices that couldn’t be resisted. All the while the shopper felt so victorious thinking of all the money she was saving by choosing products sans packaging, regardless of the fact that she bought lentils, which she never eats. The grocer looked like a hero to the shopper, showing a generous tolerance to shoplifters of 1-2 gummy bears, or that old lady who always used her hands to dig out a few more dried apricots. It certainly paved the way for today’s bulk food and junque giant, Costco.

Although these bins are less common in grocery stores now, they still hang on in patchouli scented health food stores, and in nearly every grocery store I’ve seen for the display and dispensation of coffee. If you buy your coffee at the grocery store, I know you know exactly what I’m talking about. There, shining in the distance is a shelving display stacked 6 across and down filled with what you believe to be fresh coffee. You get closer, and notice that almost every container’s front surfaces is a greasy brown textured mess as the beans have created etched in goober streaks as a few ounces of coffee are emptied out into your awaiting paper-ish bag. Usually accompanying this display is a grinder that lets you destroy your coffee even further as you select a grind from “drip” to “ Turkish” at the turn of the dial. How convenient. You scamper off happy with your fresh, bulk food purchase.

Let me tell you what you’ve just paid $11.95 for…

Let’s just back up to the facts about proper coffee storage. Coffee’s mortal enemies are light, air, and moisture. To properly store coffee, it must be in an airtight, opaque container at room, or slightly below, temperature. These bins have everything going wrong for them. They’re not airtight, opaque or moisture barriers (that being the least of the possible problems in this storage situation…but we’ll skip that tangent). The worst of the situation is that they’re almost NEVER clean. That chunky brown greasy front is the coffee’s oils building up on the surface as week after week, the beans are left to grow old and stale. There are 2 reasons that coffee oils are on the surface of the bean. Reason 1- the coffee was roasted very dark, and the oils emerged from inside the bean to the surface. Reason 2- the coffee is old, because as any degree of roast ages, the oils migrate to the surface.

Caked on coffee oils and residue. Yuck!

This Grocery store bin display actually has an OPEN 5 lb bag of beans sitting atop the display itself.

I can almost promise you that it’s likely that you’re not in the presence of freshly roasted dark, oily beans when staring into the tempting little box of coffee in a miniature peep-show of sorts. The reality is that it’s more likely that those coffees are weeks or months old. They arrived from the roaster in a bulk 5 pound bag, and the grocery store stock boy poured the next “fresh” batch onto the remnants of the last order. I’m merely guessing here, and I don’t know what the grocery store protocol is to clean those bins, but the reality is that there’s usually so much gunk built up inside those little boxes that you can see it from isle 4. What’s the problem with coffee oil? When coffee oil comes in contact with oxygen, the process of rancidification begins within 45 minutes. Once rancid, oils boast unpleasant noxious odors and flavors. Ever had rancid butter? I rest my case.

The only time I’d buy coffee out of an open bin or container is if I visited the roaster’s shop, and that morning’s coffees were displayed for sale just like a baker has today’s fresh breads out. You ask for your fresh beans, and get a 12 oz bag that you’ll immediately place in your countertop airtight canister when you arrive home..just like you’d put the ice cream into the freezer when you arrive home (read carefully here…Ice cream in freezer, Coffee at room temperature). At the store, you’re much better off buying something that’s sold in an airtight bag, as long as you can figure out how old it is. Don’t waste your money on anything that you can’t finish up within 2 weeks of the roasting date. Buying anything other than that? You’re just spending your money on “day olds” so to speak. The bummer is the store isn’t giving you the “day old” price.

Dispenser loaded with rancid oils and caked on gunk—Stay away!

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.�