Good morning, everyone,
I am now back from the road, and the roasting schedule should be back to normal for a while. I'll be roasting this Sunday (August 16) and shipping and delivering on Monday. Please send your orders by the end of the day Saturday. We also have a few bags from this week's roasting if anyone needs coffee before Monday. Have a look at the website to see what is available this week (www.freeportcoffee.com).
Someone I work with asked me yesterday if I had enjoyed a relaxing two week vacation. Not really, I replied - I am not a relaxing vacation kind of guy. Tanji and I covered over a thousand miles in New Brunswick and Quebec (yes, with some R&R along the way) and my annual mountain bike trip with one of my sons took me through all the states of New England.
When I travel, I always have an eye on coffee. Are there small cafes that serve well-prepared drip coffee and espresso drinks? Are there regional roasters? What is available in the grocery stores? And what is the coffee experience of those who live in a place?
My wish for the world is that there would be more knowledge of good coffee - leading to a better coffee experience for those who drink it and more demand for the coffees grown by small farmers outside the commodity markets. But this is hard in the heartland, where coffee is one of many product offerings in stores and an important profit center in restaurants. And this trip was no exception. We saw just one local roasting business (La Brûlerie du quai in Carlton, Quebec), some grocery store offerings from the larger Van Houtte roaster and a smattering of espresso drinks on cafe menus.
Long drives offer one more opportunities to think than usual, and in the endless forests of northern Maine and New Brunswick, I considered some ideas of how to gently increase the knowledge of coffee and therefore the experience of the coffee drinker.
Coffee education comes in several forms; one is to know more about where these beans come from (and the differences in taste between different origins), how they are processed and the best ways of preparing coffee. But another is unlearning some misinformation and habits that are relics of our parent's generation. I'd like to share some perspectives on these.
Myths
Coffee is "fresh" if it is in packaging: False. Good quality packaging (we use a three layer bag) and nitrogen flushing will delay staling, but it doesn't stop it. And older coffee in the best package will go stale very quickly once the bag is open. Try to purchase coffee that is within one month of roasting.
Dark roast has more caffeine: Yes and no. Coffee swells a lot when it is roasted dark (that's why the bags of dark are so big), so if you measure your coffee by volume (as most people would at home) and use the same amount as you would for a lighter roast, then your cup will have relatively less caffeine. If you measure by weight, you'll likely have more.
Oily beans are better: Almost always false. All coffee beans have oil in them and when your beans are shiny, it just means the oil has come to the surface. Oil emerges when coffee is roasted dark - and also as coffee ages. And, when the oil comes to the outside of the bean, it goes rancid faster (the smell you associate with stale coffee). Especially beware very oily beans sold in bulk in a store with low turnover.
Espresso is a type of bean: False. Coffee comes from countries, not from "espresso." When you buy a shot of espresso or a drink made with espresso, the coffee is usually a blend that has been developed to work well when prepared in an espresso machine.
Espresso is a roast level: Again, false. There is out there in coffee land beans sold as "espresso roast," and sadly this often means a very dark roast level. This is done in large part so that the coffee taste can be detected when it is drowned in large quantities of milk. (Our Giddy Goats is roasted medium, and you won't see any oil on it unless it gets old.)
If it comes out of an espresso machine and it is brown, it is good espresso: Don't get me started on this one. Far and away the greatest misuse of coffee is the business that jams out its espresso in five second shots, adds a bunch of oversteamed milk and then charges the big bucks for a "cappuccino" or "latte." I see this happen far too often on $10,000 espresso machines and I want to cry. A good shot of espresso takes 25-30 seconds.
Decaf has no caffeine: False. By standard, decaf can have 3% caffeine. And in practice, it seems to sometimes have more than that.
It is too expensive to change the way I am doing things: False. I can improve your coffee experience for far under $10 (write me back if you want specifics). If you spend too much time on CoffeeGeek and other websites (as I have), you can believe that you need the swanky gear to make good coffee. What you really need, more than anything else, is a desire to make good coffee.
Caffeine is bad for you: I would never tell you this, but then I am not a doctor. Here's some more information for you: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20187977/ns/today_health/
Habits
At some point, I talk with almost everyone I encounter about coffee - and the habits of coffee consumption repeat themselves with amazing regularity. I'd swear there was an addiction at play here! :)
Drinking the same coffee: I hear this one expressed as "we always buy . . .". I'd guess this has a lot to do with a confidence in a certain brand, origin or roast style - perhaps with some bad experiences that made someone regret experimentation. Here, I'd say if you feel the urge to tiptoe beyond your comfort zone, stay in reach of what you are used to; try a less dark roast, another coffee from the same part of the world or coffee from another origin that is roasted the same way as what you usually drink. I'll be happy to offer some suggestions or send some samples with your next order if you'd like to give this a try.
Brewing the same way: This is the most common habit of all, and the brewer of choice is usually an automatic drip coffee maker. If that coffee tastes great to you, then by no means change it. But, if you have a feeling something isn't right, then try some experiments. Use more coffee. Use less coffee. Grind finer or more coarse. Take the coffee off the burner when the brewing is done and put it in a thermos or carafe. Taste the water you are using to brew - does it taste funny in the same way the coffee does? Change the water source or filter it. Change brewing methods.
Storing the same way: Try to get a sense of what stale coffee smells like, and then pay some attention to how you store your coffee - including what you use to store it, how tightly you seal the bag or vessel, whether it is kept at room temperature and if you are storing it around other foods with strong smells. There's an article in the preparation section of our site with some more suggestions.
Grinding the same way: Yes, the grinder police are back - but just for a moment. Make sure you match your grind size to the brewing method you are using. Use a coarser grind when the coffee will be in contact with water for a long time (as with a French press) and a finer grind when the contact is shorter (as in espresso).
Accepting office coffee: Coffee fuels the productivity of the modern worker. Feed the worker bad coffee, get bad work. Good coffee equals good work. If your workplace still has one of those dreaded machines where someone makes coffee first thing in the morning and others reluctantly drink the increasingly concentrated dregs throughout the day, fight back! Start an office coffee club. Make your own. Go out on strike unless they buy you all a Keurig. Go to the Royal Bean before and during work.
Obsessing over coffee quality while traveling: I had a conversation with some people about this one yesterday, and I realized that I had only snapped out of this habit less than a year ago. Here, you end up in a hotel somewhere and the only available coffee is awful. You then get up earlier than you should and drive or walk endlessly looking for a great cafe that isn't there, then settle for Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or something worse. I did this for so long, and some of the successful adventures were awesome. But too many were not. My solution was to get a funky little camping grinder and tea infuser and make my own. But don't give up on the searching; doing some research in advance of your trip can help you know whether the killer cafe pulling SO shots of DP Ethiopian Ademe Bedane on a vintage manual piston La Marzocco is there to be found.
Thanks as always for your support, folks. Enjoy the dog days of summer!
Kent
