Freeport Coffee Roasting - News and Brews

Blonde Coffee?

2012-01-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

So I was thinking about the new product introduction, "Blonde" coffee, from our favorite national chain, and something just didn't fit. So I went off to my online dictionary to find out exactly what the word meant.

I found two definitions that seem like they could be applied to coffee: 1. Of a flaxen or golden color; and, 2. Light-colored through bleaching.

I will admit that I haven’t been down to their store in our town to buy a bag and see what’s inside, but in my experience, the only time coffee is “of a flaxen or golden color” is when it is not very far into the roast, as in not ready to drink.

But they are a lot bigger than me, so maybe they know something I don’t.

Then there is the possibility of bleaching, I suppose. But gosh, who would do that to coffee?

So since the dictionary doesn’t lie, and since all advertising is true, I figured that somehow the wizards over there must be doing something to turn the coffee a flaxen or golden color. So here is my artist’s rendering of what the stuff must look like.

Nah. No one would buy yellow coffee, would they?

Into the Darkness

2012-01-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

In my fours years as a professional roaster, I have learned that coffee drinkers are creatures of habit. Like robots, we stumble from bed to the stove or the coffeemaker, where we prepare the stimulant that launches our senses and starts our days. For many people, the brand and style of coffee has been the same for years, as has the style of preparation and often the cup in which it is consumed.

Among these habits is for many the standard that all coffee must be dark-roasted. I know this habit all too well, having been nursed with a steady diet of Peets from my teens until I moved east.

But I confess now that when someone tells me they are a “dark roast drinker”, this elicits a feeling somewhat akin to pity. I want to give that person a hug, guide them to a quiet place to rest and listen to their troubles.

But really what I want to do is convert them to all the wonders of coffee that are out there for those who drink their coffee at a lighter roast level. I want them to sit down in my pew, drink my kool-aid and read my little comic books about how repent and change their ways.

Perhaps I need to see someone about this?

Dark roasted coffee is ultimately a food that some prefer cooked more than others. This puts it in the same class with well-done meat, muffin tops, dark beer, caramel, cooked carrots and braised radicchio. It is not bad, just different.

Starbucks has built their whole corporation around dark roasted coffee, but in large part their coffee needs to be roasted this way so that it can be detected when served with large volumes of milk. I was amused recently to see that they just introduced Starbucks Blonde, in recognition of the (by their count) more than 40% of coffee drinkers that prefer a lighter roast. The company was founded in 1971, so it is funny that it took over forty years to come to this realization. Let me see, 40 years times $12 billion (annual sales) times 40% (amount of lost revenue due to dissing light roast drinkers) equals roughly $192 BILLION dollars in lost money due to an obsession with dark roasted coffee.

Is it worth it, I ask you?

What is Dark Roasted Coffee?

In my roaster, there is a probe (metal rod) that extends into the swirling bed of roasting beans that gives me a digital readout of the current temperature of the coffee as it progresses through the roasting process. I use this information, along with a visual inspection of the coffee, to evaluate the coffee as it roasts and the point at which stop the process and drop the coffee into the cooling bin. My choices of these temperatures (and visual state of the coffee) determine the “degree of roast” of the coffee in a spectrum from light to dark.

For those who know our coffees, here are examples of the numbers I see on this readout:

* 425: The preheated roaster before I put any coffee into it.

* 200: The lowest number I see during the roast process when the temperature of the room temperature coffee I added to the roaster equalizes with the heat of the roaster.

* 375: The start of the “first crack” (an expansion of the bean caused by the release of steam and CO2)

* 412: Stopping point for a light roasted coffee such as an Ethiopia Sidamo

* 418: Stopping point for medium-roasted coffees like our Honduras or Guatemala

* 428: Stopping point for our current espresso blend; “second crack” starts here (a fracturing of the cell wall of the coffee beans)

* 440: Stopping point for our Indo-Limbo French Roast

Sweet Marias provides an excellent visual guide to the roasting progression here.

The flavor dynamic dark roast lovers enjoy is that of caramelized sugar brought on by darker roast levels. These tastes are very much analogous to those of caramel candy, which begins as white sugar and then attains a darker color as these chemical changes occur, or dark beer, where barley (or other grains) are taken to darker levels in the malting process.

The dark roasting progression also introduces mild to severe burnt tastes to the coffee, and causes the oils in the bean to rise to the surface (causing it to stale faster, by the way). In addition, dark roasting expands the coffee a lot, so you will note that a pound of our Indo Limbo takes up a lot more space than a pound of our Honduras.

Let there be Peace

You know those Thanksgiving dinners where the turkey comes around the table on a platter, and you take a little white meat and a little dark too? And you enjoy them both?

Well shucks, let’s do the same thing with coffee.

For you lofty light roast drinkers (um . . . myself included), give the dark side a break. Understand that there is good dark roasted coffee to be had out there, and that, done properly, these roast levels can still reflect plenty of origin character and nuances of the coffee. REALLY understand (please) that the term “espresso” is not synonymous with “carbon” and that light or medium roasted espresso can taste really awesome and not burnt at all.

And those from the noir side of the aisle, you aren’t on an island, stuck there in Darkroastlandia with nowhere to turn. There is a world of coffee out there waiting for you, if you would only give it a chance. Don’t start your voyage off the island by drinking a delicate light roast, as you are likely to think of it as weak, tea-like or sour. Seek out coffees with a fuller, bolder taste like a nice medium roasted Sumatra or African, and work your way down from there.

Coffee is too great and too diverse to be polarizing. Enjoy the ride.

What a Long Strange Trip Its Been

2011-10-30T17:35:00.000-07:00

It all came down to two feet of concrete. The length of a simple stride on the sidewalk. The space it takes to toss a free throw. The distance of a good olie on a skateboard or that occupied by a newspaper rack.

The long and short of it is that the roaster is now safely home. We can now resume the business of roasting you excellent coffee and you can now sheepishly slink back from whatever slipshod brew you have been drinking for the last two weeks.

This adventure began just in August, when Tanji and I went for a walk in a distant part of Freeport that was new to us. We briefly entertained building a house on a lot we liked, then fled from that idea as quickly as it had started for reasons financial and otherwise. But we still liked the neighborhood, and one night we happened on a new listing. We came, we saw and we liked, so we went for it and they accepted our offer.

Oh.

But what about the coffee roaster?

That’s where the lucky two feet came in. There is a basement here, and there is room for the roaster and all the coffee and the grinder and the sealer and the rest of it. Access is good for loading in 130-150 pound bags of coffee (though something akin to a children’s slide – to be built tomorrow – will be necessary), and the big trucks that bring the coffee can turn around down the street. But the long and short of any roaster installation is where the smoke goes. Ideally the vent stack will be not too long and not too bent. It’s a pretty thick pipe, so it needs clearance. It needs to get above the roofline, and its sister pipe (from the cooling bin) needs her own path. It cannot traverse any windows.

We liked the house and the basement worked, but there was exactly, precisely one place and one place only to put the roaster and the stack and it was going to involve some gymnastics.

So here I was, really liking this house but stuck with the questions of how to de-install 2,000 pounds of roaster from our existing basement, slither it through a narrow doorway, move it safely across town, lower it into a below grade basement, poke two thick holes in a thick foundation wall, maneuver two vent pipes up the wall of our new house, while building out the roaster space, installing electrics and gas and dealing with many, many unknowns.

I was faced here with the situation of believing, perhaps foolishly, in the feasibility of all of this, but then being enough of a realist to know better than to be blindly ignorant of all that could go wrong. To make this work, I needed someone with expertise in carpentry, HVAC, propane, rigging, sheet metal, electrics and plumbing. It felt like I was trying to build a highrise.

Enter The Amazing Mike McNeff.

Our friend Mike’s business card says “Integrity Construction,” and when I approached him about this project, I really expected him to say no, that this one was above his pay grade. But Mike is a can-do guy who loves challenges, and much to my delight and relief, he agreed.

He measured angles and distances. He solicited, and immediately discarded the bunch of big guys with a dolly and a truck approach in favor of the overqualified but undoubtedly competent major crane company to lift the beast. He stretched his mind and his patience in coming to grips with the nuances of double wall venting. He learned about the real fun of coring concrete, then patiently spent a day dealing with the geometry of two holes in the wall. He bobbed and wove through a sea of competing trades who all worked like dogs to do their parts of the puzzle on time and on budget.

And as of this morning, when I did my first test roast, I am happy to say that the roaster is home, and that Freeport Coffee Roasting is now ready to rumble for the holidays ahead.

A fond thank you to Mike and Dan and Mac and Jerry and Hannah and Steve and Jim and everyone else who helped to make this work so well so quickly. And especially to Tanji who thankfully loves coffee.

The Extraordinary Service of Chris’ Coffee

2011-08-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I had the extreme good fortune to stumble on a used La Spaziale espresso machine at a very good price, and so I bought this for our home. This is an Italian-made, dual boiler (meaning the coffee and steam water heat independently) machine that is suitable for use in a small commercial operation, and making my daily shots on this every day has been a joy and a privilege.

Until a month ago.

The problem began when the ground fault circuit the machine was plugged into began tripping whenever I turned it on. Like any stupid, willful male, I then used a cheater (which bypasses the ground) to make the machine work. This fix worked just fine until one day I touched a metal surface on the machine while it was on. The resulting ZAP! was painful, and even more painful was the second zap I experienced when I touched it again to make sure.

I was out of tricks at this point, so I called the service department at Chris’ Coffee in Albany, New York. For a machine like this (think complicated and Italian made), local service isn’t an option, and Chris and his team have always had a great reputation for their knowledge, service and parts inventory, so they were my first choice.

In a twenty-minute call, their technician helped me isolate the problem to the heating element in the steam boiler, and they sent me a replacement part. A photo of the old boiler element is shown at left, and if ever a part needed replacement, this was it. Look closely, and you’ll see that the tubing is split throughout its length, exposing the electrical element underneath.

To fast forward a bit here, that part came, I installed it, and then I ran into a succession of problems getting the machine back together and working. These adventures culminated the other day in the snapping off of a very small threaded fitting on a valve, leaving me with a vexing problem that I lacked the tools or knowhow to resolve. The machine is now on its way to Chris’ Coffee for repair of that problem and a general overhaul that will hopefully keep me problem-free for years to come.

My experience with Chris’ over the last two weeks has caused me to reflect on the rarity of great customer service in our world today – and what being good at this will do for Chris’ business, and being bad at it will do for others.

In the last three weeks, I have called the service department there ten times, as they graciously walked me through repairs to my machine. Every person I spoke with was polite, gracious and patient, and clearly the most important thing to each of them in those moments was helping me through my problem. Secondary in those calls was their other work, making commission, their text messages or their personal problems. I, their customer, came first.

In the course of these calls, they sold me three small parts. Not a lot of profit. But they reinforced their steadfast reputation as the provider of the best service in this industry. As a customer, I left these calls absolutely devoted to them, and I will never take my business anywhere else. When someone wants a recommendation as to where to buy an espresso machine or a grinder, that’s where I send them. And when I talk in casual conversation about great customer service, they are one of the two companies (along with Apple Computer), I will use as an example.

So for the owner, Chris Nachtrieb, fostering this commitment to service has the effect of selling more products and services to me (into perpetuity), and enlisting me as an ambassador to promote his business to others. And judging by the literally hundreds of posts in the online coffee forums that sing his praises, this commitment has been longstanding and consistent.

Let’s look at the flipside.

About three months ago, a friend of mine walked into a local bike shop to buy a small part. He knew the owner of the shop and the employee working behind the counter. When the part, which cost less than $10 was rung up on the register, my friend wondered why the price was so high, and why he hadn’t received his typical discount as a member of a local cycling club. The response was that this shop didn’t offer that discount anymore and that the price stuck. This was delivered with a dismissive attitude that said that this single customer wasn’t important and that helping to support the community by offering a very small discount to members of a non-profit trail advocacy organization wasn’t something they wanted to do anymore.

Since my friend’s experience, I’ve heard this incident mentioned by at least ten people, and its been discussed in conversations with large groups, so I know many more have heard the story. The reputation of this shop has plummeted, both in terms of individual customer service, and as a member of our community. They have lost sales and they have lost customers, and instead of having people go through the community raving about them (as I do Chris’ Coffee), the same people scorn them.

I don’t think it;s worth it. If we treat our customers with grace and respect, they’ll come back and they will spread the word. And if we don’t they won’t, and their business will go somewhere else.

Something to think about.

Affogato at The Royal Bean!

2011-08-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

So just imagine . . . a cappucino cup, with a scoop of espresso chip gelato, then topped off with a double shot and served with a spoon. How fun is that? It actually has a name - the Affogato - and you can order yours today with the tasty Gelato Fiasco now available at The Royal Bean. Hurry.

Ask the Roaster: Why Don’t You Have My Favorite Coffee Anymore?

2011-07-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

This question usually comes to me in the form of an email from a confused customer who has gone to our website looking for a specific coffee they remember loving and then found it missing. Why don’t we have it anymore, and when will we have more?

The very short answer is that we bought some of that coffee, roasted and sold what we had and then the next time we bought coffee, we bought something different. Our typical mix of coffees will usually include those from Guatemala, Brazil, Sumatra and Ethiopia (since those are your favorites), but the specific coffees from these countries are likely to change each time I buy coffee, and sometimes (as was the case recently with Sumatra), we simply can’t get a good coffee at a good price from that origin at all.

As an example, take our wonderful Guatemalan from a year ago, with the not so easy to remember name of Huehuetenango Highland Coffee Presidium Slow Food Project. In this description, Huehuetenango is the growing region within Guatemala (famous for a beautiful citrusy flavor profile), Highland Coffee Presidium is a form of cooperative (the group of farmers who grew the coffee and their processing facility) and Slow Food is a 225-chapter global non-profit dedicated to sustainable farming.

We had that coffee. We loved it and you loved it. When it was gone, I went to get more and there wasn’t any available. Then, knowing you really enjoy Guatemalan coffee, I selected another one, then another different one after that. And now, a year or so later, one of our importers now has a new coffee from the Highland Presidium – but I may or not buy it, because though it is from the same source, it is not necessarily the same coffee.

Lets go deeper.

All coffee growing countries have crop cycles, regular times of year when coffee is growing, maturing, picked and shipped, and here is a link to a simple table showing these cycles for the primary coffee origins. Following picking and processing, coffee is rested for several months at origin, and then shipments begin. When the coffee is in transit to the US, it will show up on offering sheets from the importers. This is where roasters see the specific coffees available, how much of it is available, where it is warehoused and a timetable for its arrival in the US. Here are links to the current offer sheets from importers Café Imports, Zephyr Coffee and Royal Coffee New York so you can get a sense of our starting point for buying coffee.

Once the coffee is in the US and in its destination warehouse (importers store coffee in different parts of the country, most often in cities with large ports), the available quantity is drawn down by purchases from roasters until ultimately that lot of coffee is gone.

But what if other coffee comes along from the same source?

There may be more coffee from that specific source that year, but as the “crop year” (the one year window following picking) progresses, the coffee will slowly lose its flavor. So coffee from the same source but not purchased at the same time will be different.

The coffee could be from the same source from the same crop year, but it could be of a different grade (meaning picked earlier or later in the cycle, fewer or greater defects, before or after weather events, etc.) or from a different part of the farm.

There are also other coffees from that growing area, but all coffees are not alike, though those from a large region (such as Central America) will have somewhat similar character – and this will get more nuanced with coffees from specific subregions within a country.

And for everyone involved, these shipments involve business terms. There has to be enough coffee available at the right time and at the right price for a deal to work for a buyer. For us, a small roaster, quantity is not as much of an issue, but time can be (I need it when I need) and price is always a factor. I won’t even sample very low priced coffee (often from a previous crop year or a very low grade), and at the other end of the spectrum, coffee that costs too much (though extraordinary) could mean that I’d have to sell it to you for $20/pound, and I’d rather not do this (nor, I suspect, would you buy much of it).

In writing this article, I thought about why there is the expectation (or hope) that we will always have the same coffees. I think there are very few products in our world like coffee - that are agricultural, seasonal in nature, scarce or plentiful and that can change substantially from year to year. Wine comes to mind, but I can’t think of any others. We are used to consistency in the products we buy, and we expect those we enjoy to be available the next time we go looking for them.

In coffee, the blends that now comprise the majority of coffee available are often available all the time, but recognize that though the label may say “Sunrise Blend” or something like this, the coffees in these bags are changing all the time. Blends are the good friend of those who are in coffee to make money; the names stay the same, the consumer thinks the product is the same, and in the bag the filler coffees that comprise commercial blends will change like the wind (as their roasters seek lower prices and bland, consistent fillers). So don’t be fooled.

So yes, we may not have your favorite from last time – but please know that each time we buy coffee, we are very selective. If you don’t see the one you loved, please try the next one and chances are good that you’ll like that one too. And if you want to try before you buy, drop me a line. I can send you a sample, or better still, get together with you for a cup.

Enjoy the summer.

Steamed Milk and Latte Art

2011-06-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

As you all know, my real passion is the expansive world of single origin coffee, but I can never get too far away from a properly proportioned cappuccino (and occasional latte). If the milk has been steamed properly, and there’s not too much of it, the sweetness of the milk in combination with the texture and body of espresso combines for an amazing and satisfying sensory experience.

Milk is also the root of what I believe to be an ugly side of coffee, that being the serving of “cappuccinos” and “lattes” with far too much milk, and milk that has typically been oversteamed. The result here is a customer who comes to understand these drinks as representative of all caps and lattes, and a business that can use almost anything as the underlying “espresso”, as its flavor is obscured by all the milk.

Before I send you off to some links and videos, let me set the record straight on what these drinks should be.

The SCAA's definition of a traditional cappuccino is a single shot of espresso with 'equal amounts of foam and milk' served in a 6oz ceramic cup, and the consensus among the definitions for latte I found is a ratio of one part espresso to three parts steamed milk. The mathematicians among you would observe that this would mean that there should be 5 ounces (four shots) of espresso in a Starbucks “Vente” latte, but in reality, there are two (meaning that you are paying a LOT of money for a cup of hot milk). And in Italy, if you order a traditional latte, you’d be served a cup of heated (not steamed) milk, with coffee from a moka pot (aka the stovetop espresso brewer) rather than an espresso machine.

So I offer what follows in the dual spirit of inspiring you to try it at home (if you are so equipped) and to know more about it so you can be informed on how to select a café and order drinks away from home.

First, I’d like to strongly recommend the amazing Frothing Guide from Coffee Geek. This takes you from the composition and science of milk, through steaming techniques and then to latte art. There is a lot to read here, and it is an impressive and easy to use resource.

Then, here are a set of YouTube videos, showing closeups of the pouring of latte art in the shape of a rosetta, a phoenix, a swan, a cartoon man (Pilsbury Doughboy?) and a complex five-heart tulip. Then, once you’ve mastered these, you can pull out some chocolate syrup and a toothpick and try your hand at etching.

And finally, I found a link online today to the 2007 World Barista Championship Judges Manual. This is interesting reading, if you have an interest in seeing how ace baristas are evaluated across a number of techniques in the finals of the amazing global competition.

Craft Beer Festival, Boston Coffee Scene and the 2011 World Barista Champion

2011-06-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

Tanji and I had a nice mini vacation to Boston this last weekend, the highlight of which was the American Craft Brew Festival on Saturday at the World Trade Center. Though it was at times a challenge to pick through the 510 available beers in the 3.5 hours allotted, we practiced moderation and tasted just 56 selections. As those of you helping me through the Uprising program at Novare Res know, the definition of "beer" is growing in every imaginable direction, and the Festival was a great excuse to taste offerings from the best small breweries in the country (110 of them, to be specific). My favorite beers were from the hometown boys at Allagash, but I loved getting to taste the offerings from Notch, a Massachusetts-based brewery dedicated to a wide range of "Session" beers with alcohol not exceeding 4.0 ABV. While I love strong beer, there are times when I don't need the alcohol. Hopefully, they will be distributing in Maine soon.

Here's a snap of me having a brewski with the Smuttynose guy:

Thankfully, we had gone to the afternoon session of the Festival, so getting out of bed the next day was easy.

Sunday, we had a nice visit to Thinking Cup, a great cafe on the Common that is presently the only place in Boston to get Stumptown Coffee. Our friend Phil, the barista, made us some nice pourover Ethiopia and Sumatra, along with some tasty shots from their La Marzocco. A wonderful place to hang, and I highly recommend it when you are in town.

I've really been enjoying James Hoffman's coffee blog since discovering it a month or so ago. James is a former World Barista Champion and the owner of London's Square Mile Coffee Roasters. James is engaging and a good writer, and he challenges any and all preconceptions about coffee preparation.

This morning, James posted an excellent video of this year's WBC Champion, whose presentation was incredibly passionate and unique to these competitions.

The Lifecycle of Roasted Coffee

2011-05-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hi All . . .

Gosh, was that sixty degree day yesterday NICE or what? I went out on the bike at lunch and damn near never came back. During my travels, I hung out on the bench in front of Derosiers for a bit eating some pizza (they have an excellent beer selection, by the way), and every person who passed by smiled and told me what a nice day it was for a bike ride. Ahhhhhh . . . I so agree.

This weekend, I’ll be roasting on Sunday sometime, then delivering and shipping on Monday. Please send your orders by 10:00 Sunday morning to be sure of getting your favorites for this week. Coffees for this time around are on the website (www.freeportcoffee.com)

I have some awesome coffees here (Ethiopia, Burundi, Sulawesi, Road Trip and Indo Limbo) if you need something over the weekend.

In this week’s article, I will explore the subject of what happens to coffee after it is roasted, and why freshness, packaging and storage matter in your daily enjoyment of your cup.

If you want some background on all the steps leading up to this, here are some articles on growing and harvesting, processing and the progression of beans during roasting.

But here, we’ll start from the moment I open the door of the roaster and allow the coffee to flow into the cooling bin. A powerful fan sucks the remaining smoke away from the beans and draws room temperature air across them as a stirrer arm agitates the coffee. Several minutes later, I open another door, and the coffee beans trickle down a chute into a bucket. And within five minutes of that event, the coffee is measured into three-ply bags with a one-way valve and heat-sealed.

Resting Coffee

It is a misconception of coffee roasting that this fresh-out-of-the-roaster coffee is the best coffee can be. It’s not, actually. Coffee needs to “rest” after roasting, for at least 24 hours, but ideally for more like three days . . . and some have described resting their espresso blends for as long as ten days.

I liken what happens to the flavors during this time to the process of aging wine – the coffee takes shape, brightness disappears and the coffee mellows. These changes are quite pronounced, and if you are getting coffee from us the day after roasting, taste it that day and each day over the next week – you should see an obvious change as time goes on.

Outgassing

Freshly roasted coffee also powerfully emits CO2 just after roasting, and the one-way valves on good packaging allow this gas to escape. If I sealed just roasted coffee in an airtight bag, it would literally pop several hours later!

But what this means when you DON’T see a valve on a bag of coffee is that either its not a very good bag (meaning that it is not airtight, and the CO2 gets out on its own) or, as is common with most supermarket coffee, the coffee has been “staled” before packing.

Staling

A secondary benefit of this outflow of CO2 is that it protects the coffee from oxygen – and as the outgassing slows, the coffee becomes progressively more vulnerable to becoming stale. In the process of staling, roasted coffee loses moisture, flavor elements break down, and the oils in the coffee become rancid. It is this rancid oil that gives stale coffee its distinctive aroma. Try to get to know this scent – and you can then check the coffee you are about to buy by holding your nose up to the one way valve and squeezing the bag.

Good coffee packaging is designed to ward off the two biggest enemies of coffee, oxygen and light, and flushing the bags with an inert gas (like nitrogen) helps to also protect the delicate beans. See below for more on packaging.

Visible Oil

All coffee beans contain oils, and you will see coffee where the oil has come to the surface, creating a shiny effect. This is common in dark roasts, where the oil comes to the surface either during the roasting process or very soon thereafter, but oil also will rise to the surface as coffee ages. If you store your coffee at room temperature, watch for tiny droplets forming on your beans – and when you see these, it’s a good time to get your coffee into the freezer (or drink it).

When the oil is inside the coffee, it is protected, and when it comes to the surface, the interaction between the oils and air will hasten the staling of coffee. It is for this reason that darker roasted coffees will go stale faster than light roasts.

Ground Coffee

So, oxygen and light are the enemy, right? Imagine now what happens with LOTS MORE oxygen and light. Bad things happen.

To understand the effect of grinding coffee on staling, consider the surface area of a coffee bean. Then grind that bean. The resulting surface area exposed to air and light increases by several orders of magnitude. For those of you who live here where it is cold, its like the difference in going outside in January with no gloves versus being stark naked. You’d be a LOT colder with the increased surface area.

And this is why coffee should be ground just before it is brewed. The shelf life of coffee goes downhill in a hurry once you grind it. (If you need recommendations on a good grinder, write me back?)

Buying Coffee

As you see here, the clock starts ticking as soon as the coffee leaves the roaster – and it begins to go stale almost immediately. Good packaging can delay the staling, but it doesn’t prevent it – and once the bag is opened, even coffee flushed with gas will stale faster than freshly roasted coffee.

This means that you should buy your coffee as near to the roasting date as possible, but unfortunately most roasters won’t tell you when that was! In practicality, they can’t put the roasting dates on the bags of coffee sold in the grocery store, because then everyone would know that most of this coffee is on the older side – sometimes VERY old.

You are, however, offered some clues. My pet peeve among these is the “Best By” date, an arbitrary point at which that roaster would have you believe that the coffee is no longer drinkable. One local roaster sells its GROUND coffee with a “Best By” date as long as two years after roasting, and trust me, that coffee was history a long time before then.

Another device is to use a lengthy code that contains a roasting date in the format of the Julian Calendar. Here’s a way of decoding those, if you are interested.

The best solution is to know the roasting date. We print ours on the bags (on the bottom – where it says “Roasting Date”), and many of the better roasters who sell mail order pledge to ship the coffee on the day it was roasted.

Also, pay attention to how your coffee is packaged. If you buy coffee in bulk (meaning from bins where they scoop your coffee), it will often be packaged in a plain paper bag, or one with a thin poly liner. Here, I strongly recommend you transfer this coffee when you get home to an airtight container, and then store it in a cool, dark place.

If the bag is more substantive, you can store it in these, but wrap the bag tightly after you open it – and maybe add a rubber band to help keep the oxygen out.

If you have chosen a roaster on the basis of their coffee bags being recyclable or compostable, note that these bags typically have very poor barrier properties – be careful of these if you like fresh-tasting coffee.

To Freeze or Not to Freeze

Should you freeze coffee? My standard answer to this question is that, if you have purchased coffee that was just roasted, protect it well and drink it within three weeks, then no. But, if you don’t know when it was roasted – or it will take longer than this to drink, then freezing is the best way to preserve the flavors. Don’t store your coffee in the refrigerator, as the moisture that flushes in and out of your container each time you open it will hasten the staling of your coffee.

If you intend to freeze the coffee, and it was just roasted, let it rest a few days and then freeze it. You’ll want the advantages of the resting period in developing the flavor.

For more on this subject, here’s an intensive test of the flavor impacts of freezing coffee:

My hope in this article is to give you an awareness of this progression of coffee over time that you can use to make better buying decisions. I know (alas) that you can’t always get your coffee from us, and by dialing in these important considerations, you can purchase coffees that are freshly roasted, store them wisely and get the most out of your cup. Oh, and write me back if you need recommendations on a good grinder.

That’s all for now, folks – have a great weekend!

Kent

Fair Trade Demystified

2011-05-22T06:34:00.003-07:00

Hi Folks,

A Happy New Year to you all!

It is a happy coincidence that the new year arrives on a Friday this time around, so my article is reaching you all as you enjoy your very first cuppa of the new year. Perhaps some of you have a new years resolution to drink more coffee than last year, and for those of you planning on drinking a LOT more coffee, you may find a vast panacea of health benefits (according to the Wall Street Journal here).

So, in support of curing all things that may now or in the future ail you, I will be roasting this weekend on Sunday (January 3), then delivering and shipping on Monday. Please send your orders by 10:00 Saturday night to be included in this round, though we'll have some extras on hand if you don't get this until after that. Coffees for this week are detailed on the website.

Hey, if you haven't seen Starbucks' holiday greeting, have a look. Its very inspirational, and I thank them for it.

Today, I'll continue my series on social issues in coffee production, here taking on the complicated task of trying to demystify fair trade coffee.

A few months ago, I wrote about the global coffee market, and how the fortunes of any coffee farmer are tied to the macro scale forces of supply and demand for an agricultural product (including weather, crop cycles, and the actions of major producer countries) and how this in turn drives pricing structures set on one of two large international commodity exchanges. The end result is that farmers and cooperatives that have relatively fixed costs of production can see the revenue side of their business swing wildly, at times at or below their costs. First and foremost, this jeopardizes the livelihood of farmers, their families and their communities; but it also makes those who grow coffee question the value of continuing to grow coffee. It may make more economic sense to move in the direction of alternate crops that offer more diversity or lower risk.

Enter the fair trade system.

What is Fair Trade?

Fair trade is the common name for a set of global trade standards administered by Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), which is both an umbrella organization of 24 regional certification groups and the operator of a large producer certification operation. In the US, certification is done through TransFair USA, a non-profit organization headquartered in Oakland, California. It is the logo of TransFair ("Fair Trade Certified") you see on coffee, tea, chocolate and other fair trade certified products available at your grocery store.

The goal of these standards is to ensure producers of certain agricultural products (in addition to coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, sugar, rice, flowers, honey and vanilla) a fair price and a guarantee of a "social premium" that provides benefits to the community. Specific benefits to coffee farmers include:

> Farmer cooperatives receive a guaranteed minimum price of $1.35/pound, a rate that rises as the benchmark "c price" commodity benchmark increases beyond this level. An additional premium of $.20/pound is paid for coffee also certified as organic.
> Cooperatives also can receive pre-harvest credit, an important method of meeting costs growing, processing and transportation prior to being paid for the final product.
> Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions, and living wages. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited. Since most good coffee is dependent on seasonal workers who hand pick the coffee cherries, this is an important set of guarantees that impacts a far wider range of people than just those categorized as "farmers"
> Importers try to make direct purchase arrangements with grower cooperatives; thus avoiding the markups of middlemen and helping to ensure more transparency in the flow of money.
> Because the mechanism for fair trade business agreements is the cooperative, these groups (or growers) make the decisions on how to channel fair trade premiums back into their communities. Projects with these funds can include, schools, hospitals, water quality or quality improvements in their coffee operations
> The fair trade certification system strictly prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), promotes integrated farm management systems that improve soil fertility, and limits the use of harmful agrochemicals in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers' health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations. (Note that this does not confer organic certification, though some of these are requirements of that system.)

Issues:

The fair trade system is one of several common certification programs at play in the US coffee market, along with organic, shade grown, bird friendly and Rainforest Alliance certifications. Each of these measures growers compliance with a set of standards, then provides some measure of assurance to consumers that they have been met.

The subjects of these standards - fair treatment for growers and workers, natural production methods and forest and habitat protection - are extremely important in the world of coffee, as they sustain the people who grow it, the drive to improve coffee quality and the places in which it is grown. But, I think it is important to view all of these with a measure of balance and understand all sides of a certification like fair trade.

> A System: To receive a certification, a grower cooperative must pay fees to be certified (an additional business expense), and its members must comply with the requirements of the certification. At the end of the day, the price advantage of fair trade (or fair trade organic - "FTO") certifications must make these costs and requirements worthwhile.

> Formulas: There are established prices formulas set for the world under the fair trade system, and in the same way having a single commodity market price for coffee is more or less of an issue for individual regions of the world, the fair trade price structures can be out of balance with the local costs of production. Some have recently suggested that the fair trade rates are far too low, and that a minimum of $2.00/pound is what is needed to provide a truly sustainable income for coffee growers.

> What about non-certified coffees? The fair trade system allows consumers the confidence that certified products have met the standards of this program, but I fear in promoting this system, the impression has been created that everything that is NOT certified is therefore not fair. Though there are certainly plenty of unfair situations out there that would be made better under this system, there are also farmers receiving a more than fair price for their coffee, farmers who are not members of cooperatives (who therefore don't have a mechanism for participating in the fair trade system) and market forces (such as prevailing wages far above the legal minimums) that makes that part of the structure unnecessary.

> Is fair trade (or organic or bird friendly) coffee better coffee? In many cases, the presence of a certification improves conditions on a farm, improving the attention to quality production methods and motivating farmers to produce a better tasting product. But unfortunately, certification systems can also provide a way for low grade coffee that meets a set of business or production standards to come to market bearing a designation that implies quality. Visit WalMart or Trader Joes and you'll see "Fair Trade/Organic" coffee that sells in large packages at prices close to $4.00/pound - I assure you, this is NOT good tasting coffee.

But in the final analysis, I think the fair trade system has been good for coffee, and it has also been the starting point for a number of programs initiated by US roasters that are designed to be more specific to local markets and to have more of an impact on the quality of the coffee itself. These include the Starbucks CAFE Practices program (used n conjunction with dramatic increases in fair trade coffee purchases), the Counter Culture Direct Trade program, Intelligentsia's Direct Trade program and the Green Mountain Farm Identified program. All of these programs use the fair trade system as a starting point, and then layer on additional quality standards and the benefits of direct trading arrangements.

I hope this helps, and please feel free to write back if I can answer any questions. If I can't answer your question directly, I can certainly point you in the right direction.

I wish each of you and your families a happy, healthy and prosperous year ahead.

Kent

How to Buy an Espresso Machine

2011-05-22T06:34:00.001-07:00

Good morning, folks,

To get the business stuff out of the way, we'll be roasting this weekend on Sunday and Monday, with deliveries and shipments on Tuesday. The coffees for this week are shown on the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

We have a new arrival on the site this week, a rich, delicious estate coffee from Java. This one was used in the yummy Mokka Java blend we sold over the holidays, and we're now offering this as a single origin coffee for a few weeks while it lasts.

Have you been down to The Royal Bean yet this winter? Its such a nice place to hang out on cold days, and Jim and his staff of ace baristas are serving up all of our coffees brewed to order by the cup in case you'd like to do some experimenting. The shop also has an expanding calendar of special events, a new painter's art now on exhibit, and as always, plenty of parking and the play area for the kids. For some details or to be added to their mailing list, please click here.

For today's reading, I'd like to send you over to CoffeeGeek to check out Mark Prince's recent update of his excellent guide to buying an espresso machine. An earlier version of the guide has been on their site for years, but he's just gone through and updated the recommendations and prices. Click here to jump straight to the guide. This is an excellent, very comprehensive set of resources, and I think it is of interest even if you aren't in the market for a new machine just for what it teaches you about the craft of espresso.

Wow - we have changes galore coming down the pike, to include some exquisite new coffees, new labeling, new ways of doing things and more articles in development. Stay tuned.

Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Buying Coffee at the Grocery Store

2011-05-22T06:33:00.003-07:00

Good morning, friends,

I’ll be roasting this weekend on Sunday the 24th, then delivering and shipping on Monday. We also have several coffees here for anyone in need before Monday.

The coffees for this week are on the website – and among these, you’ll see an amazing microlot coffee from the Rwabisindu washing station in Rwanda. This is our first experience with a coffee vacuum packed and sealed in mylar bags at origin, and experiments are now showing that this method preserves the original flavors of coffee during shipping far better than traditional jute bags. In the cup, you’ll find a sweet, elegant and complex coffee and a truly special example of this exciting origin.

Those of you who are local will have noticed that our coffee has disappeared from the shelves of local grocery stores. This was a conscious choice on my part, as the more I see of mass market coffee, the more I come to the conclusion that this is just not a good way to sell coffee. I think most grocery store coffee sits there for too long after roasting, and with the way stores work, you’ll never see the actual roasting date unless you are a cryptographer. And since I somehow feel the journey of every bean that leaves our little roastery, I’ve elected to step out of that game.

But, I know that for many of you, this will be the place you’ll buy the majority of your coffee. It takes time and effort to break away and buy specialty products of any kind, be they cheeses from a local shop, fresh produce from a farmers market or fresh coffee from a microroaster. In the cycle of chores we boogie through every week, sometimes the convenience of buying from a grocery store is a necessity.

So, since I still want you all drinking the best, even if it doesn’t come from us, here are some simple tips that should help you navigate the shelves of your local store:

1. Turnover. If the store sells lots of coffee, it will therefore buy newly roasted coffee more often, and your coffee will be fresher, regardless of whether you follow the rest of the advice below or not. See if it looks like they sell a lot of your brand of coffee, and if not, be suspicious. Also, note that the prime shelf space is right there in the middle shelf – and this is where the fast sellers are. Be wary if your favorite coffee is on the bottom shelf.

2. Roasting dates. In a perfect world, all coffee would have a clear roasting date on the bag (like ours), and you would then buy your coffee in the sweet spot of within three weeks of roasting. But, in general, you won’t see these on grocery store coffee – for the simple reason that if they showed them, it would reveal that almost everything on the shelf is past its prime. But, you will often see a coded form of the date that uses the Julian calendar, a sequential rendering of the days of the year. June 1 in this format is 153, while January 1 is 001 and December 31, 365. Dig around a bit on the shelf so you can see how these numbers are used in labeling your favorite coffee.

3. Pick from the back. The stores put the new products in the back so the old ones in front will sell first. Just wait until no one is looking, then reach behind all the bags in front and grab a fresh one from the back. It’s your coffee, and you shouldn’t feel any shame in doing this. Then, with this power, move on to the dairy case, the meat counter and the produce bins – all homes to this strategy from the stores.

4. Is there a valve? Those funny little plastic fittings on the front of our coffee bags are one-way valves that allow the coffee to be packaged just after roasting. Coffee “outgases” CO2 for several days after roasting, and without this valve, well packaged coffee bags would literally pop! What this means is that, if there is no valve, the roaster will have “pre-staled” the coffee by letting it sit for a half day or so before packaging it. This saves them a whopping nickel or so on each bag, so boo hiss on those who do this.

5. Smell the valve. I know, this sounds funny, but the cool thing about these valves is that they let you sample the smell of what’s inside. Put the bag up to your nose and squeeze it – and if what comes out smells funky, you may want to move on to another bag (or roaster).
(I pause for a moment to apologize if I have now turned you into a lurking, bag sniffing, from the back grabbing coffee snob. It’s worth it, though.)

6. Learn what stale coffee smells like. I think coffee is fascinating, because it goes through so many chemical changes as it ages. Very freshly roasted coffee doesn’t have a lot of smell. Several days later, it smells amazing (as it “rests”), and it stays in this place for ten days or so – and then it starts to begin a decline to staleness. The smells between the peak of good flavor and staleness can still be good smells, but with some practice you’ll learn to spot coffee on its way down and can use this skill in combination with the valve sniffing to inform your purchases.

7. Buy local. According to Google Maps, it is 515 miles between here and York, Pennsylvania, which is the location of Starbucks’ nearest roasting plant. Pownal (home of Matt’s Coffee) is right next door. Coffee by Design is in Portland and Wicked Joe is in Brunswick. Look for locally roasted coffee and you’ll almost always find a product that turns over faster and that uses more unique, smaller lot coffees. If you aren’t local to Maine, do a Google search on the name of your town and “coffee roaster” to find my brethren near you.

8. Buy whole bean coffee. Do this simple experiment. Take a coffee bean and measure the surface area. Write this down. Then grind it. Measure the surface area of the particles and write this down. Compare the massive number from the second measurement to the small one from the first. That is the difference in how much of your coffee is being exposed to air, which is the enemy of coffee. This is why I obsess over grinding your coffee fresh – it really matters. And OK, I lied – that wasn’t a simple experiment.

I hope this helps you all enjoy a better morning cuppa. Oh, and what I really meant by all of this is that you should buy your coffee from us. In the interest of full disclosure and all.
Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Supporting Local Business

2011-05-22T06:33:00.001-07:00

Hi Folks,

Happy midwinter to you all! I'll be roasting coffee this Sunday (February 7), then delivering and shipping on Monday. Please send us your orders by 10:00 Sunday - though we'll run some extras and we also have several coffees here now if you need something before then.

This week is the realization of a packaging change we've been working on for the last few months, and can get a look at the new bag on our website. This has been a group effort, and I'd like to extend my thanks to those who've made this work.

First, a shout out to Charlie Pollock at Pennisi Lamare in Portland for his conversion of our logo into the simple yet elegant woodblock design. I've loved working with these people over the years because of their efficiency and amazing ability to translate words and emotions into art.

Getting the new design onto the bags was no small feat, and after being told over and over that it wasn't possible, Scott at Freeport's Ascensius Press rolled up his sleeves and worked hard to make the vision of this project a reality. With all the chatter over the last few weeks about the iPad and what this will mean for the book and the printed page, I think it is important to recognize a true artisan in the field of traditional book printing.

And last but not least, a thanks to my son Conor for a nice job setting up and photographing the new package for our website.

Which brings me to today's rant/discourse about local business.

The project to change our packaging gave me a nice reminder about what local businesses are in our world. Here in Freeport, we have a long strip of chain outlet stores that are physically and functionally identical to every other version of that chain in the country. They are devoid of originality, local character, craftsmanship and enduring customer relationships. At 6:00 each day, most of them close, leaving a main street in our town that is as stale and bland as a slice of American cheese on Wonder Bread. And this makes me sad.

The character of great towns and cities is to me defined by their small businesses. Family owned businesses that have been handed down over generations. Great recipes unchanged with time. Craftsmanship. Originality. Color. Relationships. THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT.

OMG, what are we doing??? Why are there eight damn gazillion Dunkin Donuts out there? Why must the main streets of so many towns look the same now? Who invented the MALL, for gods sake?

Next month, Tanji and I will go to New York City on vacation, and so much of our time there will be dedicated to the simple bliss of walking streets filled with original, personal, wonderful small businesses. New York is the temple of small businesses, and I am so very thankful that we still have a place like that to go.

As we all work to make smarter decisions with our money in these times of economic hardship, I'd like to throw out a reminder about small businesses - simply that whether these little enterprises fly or fail depends on the outcome of choices made by people. Do I buy my cheese at Shaws where I can get it on sale, or do I take the time go to the local cheese shop where I will pay a bit more? I am hungry - do I drive through McDonalds and enjoy the fruits of the dollar menu, or do I park, go into the local sandwich shop and wait while they make me a handcrafted sandwich? Do I take the easy way out and order a book from Amazon, or do I go to a local bookseller?

Buying local is harder. It takes more time. It can cost more. It may require work or travel to find a local outlet for the things you need. But damn it, we are all worth it. We can't let this country disintegrate into a land of chain stores, malls and strip shopping centers. Local character is fun, but if we don't support it, in too many places it is not long for this world. And I know how much we'll miss it if it goes.

Thanks for listening - have an awesome weekend.

Kent

10 Tips for Improving Your Coffee at Home

2011-05-22T06:32:00.002-07:00

Good morning, friends,

A funny morning here in Maine. We often have “snow days” in winter, where the schools are closed because of too much snow, but this morning we are having a flood day. A night of pounding rain and howling winds has left trees down, roads washed out and creeks high enough to cover roads. Mother Nature reminding us of who is in charge again.

I’ll be roasting this Sunday (February 28), then delivering and shipping on Monday. The coffees this week are on the website.

A reminder for those of you who live locally – I’ll deliver at no charge to your house (in Freeport or Yarmouth) if you order two pounds or more. Pick the Local’s Club option on the website when you order, or just send me an email.

Oh, and would you like your coffee free? Here’s how . . .

Go collect orders for five pounds from your friends and neighbors, and you are now a Coffee Czar! Then, send us an order for six pounds or more (to one address, please) and as the Czar, you’ll get your pound for free! Enter the coupon code CoffeeCzar at checkout.

This morning, I’d like to share ten quick tips on how to improve your daily coffee experience:

1. Grind your coffee just before brewing (yes, we know it is convenient to do it the night before, but the coffee will really taste better this way).

2. Use good water . . . if the water from your tap tastes funky, no amount of good coffee will make that taste go away.

3. If you use a brewing method with paper filters, rinse the filters first – makes your coffee taste like coffee rather than paper!

4. Be courteous to the one who follows. If you make the coffee first in your house at say, 5:30 and the next coffee drinker gets up at 7:00, do them a favor and throw out all the remaining coffee after you drink yours so they can make a freshy. Coffee is at its best in the ten minutes after brewing. The one exception here is if you use a thermal carafe . . . these help a lot.

5. Don’t use boiling water. 212F is a bit too hot for brewing, and it can overextract the coffee. Either let the water boil and then rest for a minute, or take the water off the stove when it starts to make some noise just before boiling. Ideally you’d like the water coming off the stove to be about 208.

6. If your brewing method allows it, stir the coffee as you add water to it (as in French Press or pourover methods). This ensures that all the grounds are wet and the agitation helps with the extraction.

7. Buy a good grinder. Buy a good grinder. Buy a good grinder. (Remember the concept of “subliminal seduction,” where it was said that theatre owners inserted individual frames into films that said “Eat tasty popcorn”?) Buy a good grinder.

8. Don’t ever store your coffee in the fridge. If you get your coffee from us and it was just roasted (the date is on the bottom of the bag), and you will drink your pound in a week, its OK to wrap the bag up tightly and leave it on the counter. If it will take you longer than this, leave the bag out for a few days (the coffee will improve in taste up to about the fourth day after roasting) and then freeze it. Going in and out of the fridge causes a lot of moisture to flush into your bag every time you open it, and this will make your coffee go stale sooner. Buy a good grinder.

9. At the store (if you are one of the very few readers here who don’t get their coffee from us – hint hint), pick your coffee from the back so you get the freshest roasted beans.

10. And last, if you buy espresso-based drinks from cafes, try to watch them make your drink, and get a sense if they are doing it properly. The shots themselves should take about 25 seconds to come out of the machine, and the milk should be gently and controllably frothed to about 150-160F. If you see a milk pitcher exploding with foam in the manner of a Mentos-Coke science class experiment, they have burned and overstretched your milk. Good espresso-based drinks are worth double what you paid and bad ones are just a rip off. The Royal Bean has an awesome espresso bar set up so you can watch your drink being prepared, and their friendly staff will happy to explain what they are doing to you.

In closing, I have a bonus suggestion, applicable to any brewing method or setting. Take a moment to taste your coffee and savor the experience. Close your eyes. Smell it. Wrap your hands around the warmth of the cup. Taste a little, then some more. What does it remind you of? Is it too hot, too cold, too milky or too sweet? Is it perfect?

Its funny as I move around the neighborhood in the mornings how much coffee is being consumed on auto-pilot as cars go by, as though it was an IV of caffeine rather than a food product.
Taking that special moment for the coffee is both an opportunity to taste the coffee and an opportunity for you to just relax in the simplicity of the moment.

Thanks for your support folks – enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Finding Good Coffee on the Road

2011-05-22T06:32:00.001-07:00

We travel a lot, and in our travels, we are often reminded of the comical intersection of two quotes: Life is too short to drink bad coffee - and - A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

The world of hotels, airports and major highways is not the place to experience great craft-roasted coffees and the deft hand of a well-trained barista. At best, we have national chains that offer reasonable coffees and a long menu of espresso drinks, and at worst, gas stations serve hours-old sludge sitting in a pyrex pot on a warmer.

So, what’s a traveler to do, especially one who knows their way around coffee? I have often felt like a spy or a bank robber, slinking around the counter to check the technique of a barista, grilling a cashier about the brewing time of the coffee in an airpot or turning up my nose at the misuse of the words espresso, cappuccino or latte. So, I’ve tried to get better at my investigation – and to tread lightly among those who haven’t yet learned about great coffee.

What follows is a set of tips you can apply to your own travels – bon voyage!

When Was it Brewed?: Regardless of your taste in coffee, you will always find that fresher is better. In most locations serving drip coffee, the coffee will be served in “airpots” (those big black urns with the lever on the top), and often there will be several choices. Ask someone who works there which are the freshest – you’ll notice a big difference.

Also, look for little digital timers hanging off the front of the brewing machines behind the counter (one national chain has these everywhere). Often, the shop will have a standard of not letting coffee be served after a certain amount of time after brewing. Ask them about this – and often they will offer to brew a fresh batch if the coffee is getting close to the expiration time.

Beware the Warmer: As airpots become more common, the old fashioned method of brewing the coffee into a glass pot that sits on a warmer is fading away, but you will still find these in high volume restaurants that go through a lot of coffee. It really is the most efficient way for them to prepare the coffee and take it around the shop to refill customer’s cups. But, the warmer is a terrible environment for coffee, and minutes after brewing the freshness begins to deteriorate. Try to get your coffee right after it is brewed. A good approach for this is to ask them to pour your coffee out of the full pot on the bottom warmer (meaning it was recently brewed) rather than the half-empty one on the top.

Freshly-Ground Coffee, Frac Pacs and Pods: Coffee is a very profitable menu item to restaurants, in large part because it is inexpensive and easy to make. Pay attention next time you are in your favorite diner, and you’ll probably see that new pots of coffee are made by opening a pre-measured plastic “frac pac” coming from a large box of these under the counter somewhere. These are usually very, very low-grade coffees, roasted to a light color (quicker, and less moisture loss) and pre-ground to save time. New pods and other single serving formats are variations on the theme, though the coffee quality can be much higher. If you have a choice, seek out coffee that has been ground just before it was brewed. Ideally, you are looking for whole bean coffee that was taken out of the package that day. Be careful of low volume cafes that let the whole beans sit in large hoppers exposed to the air – this coffee will often be very stale.

Faux Espresso: In recent years, the terms “espresso,” “latte” and “cappuccino” have become the most misused expressions in all of coffee – being applied to everything from instant, add-water beverages to flowery favored drinks being served by large donut chains. In many of these cases, these words are nothing more than marketing messages – and you should not be deceived by them.

We offer here a definition from coffee sage Kenneth Davids: Espresso is used to describe . . . a method of brewing in which hot water is forced under pressure through a compressed bed of finely ground coffee. In the largest sense, an entire approach to coffee cuisine, involving a traditional menu of drinks, many combining brewed espresso coffee with steam-heated, steam-frothed milk.

Take the time to find an independent coffee shop that makes espresso in the right way, and you will never turn back. And, if you see the word spelled as “expresso,” don’t even stop the car.

Independent Roasters and Cafes: If we go back in time about 15 years, most parts of the country didn’t have access to anything resembling a well-made espresso drink, and though whole bean coffee was in vogue, it was usually dispensed in serve-yourself bins that caused the coffee to stale quickly. We can credit one very large national coffee chain for introducing the United States to espresso and to the concept of drinking single origin coffees (those from a single source rather than blended).

But time passed, and the chains expanded – and with that expansion came the need to roast larger and larger batches of coffee, and a progression of stores that lost their local charm. And as a cruel consequence, small, dedicated roasters and cafes came marching in to serve to now elevated coffee tastes of the masses.

And now, with a little homework, you can turn your road trips into a wonderful exploration of these new pioneers – and experience delicious, craft-roasted coffee, creative and inviting cafés and the pleasures of handmade espressos and cups of coffee. Rather than have the extraction time of your espresso determined by a machine setting, you’ll see what it means to be served by a barista who “dials in” their grinding and extraction time every morning. Rather than coffee brewed in large batches and left to rot in an airpot, you’ll have coffee made for you – in a French press or individual pourover cup. And, instead of sitting on one of thousands of identical couches listening to canned music, you’ll settle into a lovely, custom-designed environment that reflects the best in local art, architecture and design.

Pretty good, huh?

So, how do you find these local nirvanas?

A great resource is to browse the postings in the “World Regional” section of the CoffeeGeek forums. Here, you’ll see the writings of people like you who are looking for great local coffee experiences, answered by both locals and travelers like you.

A fun thing to do is to identify wherever you are staying on a Google map, then use the “Find Businesses” link to search on the word “coffee.” This then pinpoints on the map all the local businesses with “Coffee” in the name, and once you sift through the usual suspects, there can be some great surprises to be found here. A tip, though – call ahead before you head out, as we’ve found some of the suggestions from this method to have disappeared.

And last, do a Google search on the expressions “best of” and “coffee.” In many towns, this will lead you to the results of polls done of the readers of local independent newspapers – and some really good suggestions.

Espresso: Espresso drinks are ubiquitous now, and new “super automatic” machines make it possible for any café to serve cappuccinos and lattes. But, the joy of good, well-prepared espresso drinks is the pinnacle of handmade coffee drinks, and it is well worth trying to find cafes that make them correctly.

First, look for the combination of a busy shop and manual grinding and brewing methods. The busy part ensures that your coffee is “ground to order” just before your drink is prepared, and a well-trained barista will know the right way of grinding, tamping and brewing your coffee.
Watch the barista work, and look for care and attention to detail. If the coffee comes out of a plastic container rather than being ground before your “shots” are prepared, the coffee is likely to be stale, as the finely ground particles of espresso are exposed to the air. Watch to see that they pay attention to the steaming of your milk, rather than putting the steam wand in the pitcher and walking away. And, most good baristas now know how to pour the milk into the cup as “latte art,” which you will notice as a pattern looking like a flower or heart on the surface of your drink.

I find that some of the worst espresso out there comes from cafes that have expensive manual machines and poorly trained operators. In hands of someone who doesn’t know their way around espresso, a nice machine can deliver thin, watery coffee that has not been properly ground or tamped.

Finally, if you are a decaf drinker, see if the café has a special grinder just for you. Decaf isn’t a big seller, and some cafes treat this like a poor stepchild, keeping finely ground coffee in a plastic container under the counter. You might want to consider a good herb tea instead.

Happy trails!

The New York Coffee Scene

2011-05-22T06:31:00.002-07:00

Hi Friends,

Greetings from New York! Today’s missive comes to you from the lounge of the funky, inexpensive and charming Colonial House Inn in New York’s Chelsea district. We return home Saturday, and I’ll be roasting coffee again on Sunday (March 28), then delivering and shipping the next day. Please send your orders for this week by Sunday morning (though we have a few pounds on hand if you need something Saturday). The coffees for this week are shown on the site.

This location has had the great benefit of being right in the middle of a cluster of cafes that offer coffees from the most famed roasters in the U.S., among them Terroir, Inteligentsia, Stumptown, 49th Parallel, Counter Culture and Ecco, and we’ve centered the mornings on this trip on sampling them all and getting to know the upper echelon of the New York coffee scene. The common denominator for these shops is a fanatic devotion to quality coffee preparation, dedicated staffs who know their coffee and their craft, and the great advantage of being situated in a city with so many people that they can focus their businesses almost exclusively on coffee and not much else.

We first visited 9th Street Espresso’s stand in the Chelsea Marketplace, a renovated former 1890 New York Biscuit Company bakery that now houses a rabbit’s warren of gourmet food shops (they also have two cafes in the East Village). 9th Street takes its espresso very seriously, offering a menu of seven standard espresso drinks (featuring its proprietary Alphabet City blend roasted by Intelligentsia), a drip coffee of the day, and coffee by the pound. No mints, blender drinks, smoothies, commuter mugs or finger food, and straight shots of espresso are available only in ceramic cups (no paper!). The two busy La Marzocco machines, which would have been the showpieces of any other cafes, had their names blacked out, in the manner of a top-secret experimental car. And of course, the espresso was sublime.

The next morning, I ducked out early to pick up some coffees for us at Joe the Art of Coffee, around the corner from our hotel. Joe, with coffees from Santa Rosa, CA’s Ecco Café, operates five comfortable shops around the city, and at it’s Joe University, they offer a nice selection of classes in coffee basics, espresso techniques, cupping and brewing fundamentals. Such a great service. Our neighborhood Joe offered a standard coffee of the day, espresso drinks, tea and a few baked goods. After noon each day, they expand the menu to include a selection of pourover brews (by the cup), but in the mornings, their volume is too great to allow the time to prepare coffee this way. We talked for a bit, and they kindly offered to make me some individual cups of their Ethiopia Sidamo and Papua New Guinea. We enjoyed these a lot.

And for a second cup that morning, we walked ten blocks or so to the almost too cool for its own good Ace Hotel to visit the New York outpost of Stumptown Coffee, best known for ruling the Portland Oregon coffee scene. Stumptown has just started east coast operations in a new roastery in Red Hook, and the Ace location is its first dedicated retail presence in the city. Both Ace and the Stumptown shop have an old American ambiance to them, with the shop’s bartistas nattily outfitted in fedoras, skinny ties and striped shirts. Two busy La Marzocco Mistrals (SO nice!) handle the espresso traffic, and a drip coffee of the day is made in large press pots and then transferred to airpots. A small selection of baked goods is available, but the emphasis is clearly on the coffee. Long lines ran out the door of the café and into the hotel lobby both times we were there.

My explorations the next morning took me a few blocks from our hotel to the quiet, unobtrusive Café Grumpy. This small neighborhood storefront, one of three Grumpy shops in the city, is identified only with a round, rusted iron grumpy face over the door, and it would be easy to miss it if you didn’t know it was there. But here again, it is all about the coffee. Along with its signature Heartbreaker Espresso, a short menu of three daily coffees is prepared on two Clover machines. The Sumatra Lintong Nihuta and Colombia Monserrate were the standout drip coffees of the trip, and I really loved the intimacy of this small shop.

We also made several stops at Think Coffee’s wonderful NYU location, a few blocks from the always-entertaining Washington Square. In the way the other cafes we visited meld so well with their environments (busy marketplace, neighborhoods, bustling downtown), Think is at its heart a college town café. Two large seating areas packed with students socializing, reading and surfing the Internet. A nice menu of espresso drinks and a rotating selection of single origin coffees prepared in press pots. Beer and wine and nice food. And a friendly and welcoming staff. And the energy that comes only with a college coffee scene. Cafes like this are my favorite hangouts in the world, and I wished I lived down the street from this one.

I had met Think’s owner Jason Scher in a class a few years ago, and we had a nice meeting with he and his colleague Matt Fury to talk about the world of coffee and coffee education. And at the end, they did us the great honor of ordering some of our humble coffee to be served in their shop starting next week. It is very rewarding to know that we will share the grinder with coffees from 49th Parallel and Terroir.

There are still way too many Starbucks in New York (though it feels like there are fewer now than a few years ago), and their direction in coffee these days is sad to me. From the door of each of their shops screams a large sign: Bold! Pike’s Place Roast. $1.50.
I have been no big fan of Starbucks heavy handed expansion strategy in recent years, and to my taste, their coffee is roasted far too dark, but I have felt gratitude toward the company for its role in the last twenty years in spreading awareness of specialty coffee in our country. With its network of stores and advertising, Starbucks had a major role in helping people know more about espresso and espresso drinks, and its promotion of coffee origins greatly expanded public knowledge about the linage of the coffees they drank each day.

But this course has now given way to one based on profit. By focusing less on coffees from individual origins and more on a single house blend (with a base of commodity coffees) our industry has lost the benefit of having a ubiquitous player in the market help with educating the public. Sigh.

Stay tuned in the next week for details on a string of new coffees coming over the next month, among them new offerings from Burundi, Rwanda, Sumatra, Brazil, Costa Rica and Ethiopia. There are some truly special coffees coming in this round, and I’ll be sharing the backgrounds on these with you in the weeks ahead.

Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Freezing Coffee

2011-05-22T06:31:00.001-07:00

Hi All,

A short one this week . . . roasting on Monday (April 19) and delivering and shipping Tuesday. The coffees for this week are shown on the website.

Included there are some nice new offerings from Papua New Guinea and Burundi - both very accessible coffees that are nice to drink all day.

Several of you have asked recently about whether (and when) it is OK to freeze coffee. My short answer is yes, if it will take you longer than a week to consume coffee after you open it. Freezing will stop the staling process, and if you keep it in a tightly closed container, and maintain it frozen, you won't see much loss in flavor. I don't recommend freezing coffee you get from us that was just roasted - leave it at room temperature for a few days to rest (the flavor improves a lot in this process) and then freeze it if you need to. I don't like refrigerating coffee.

Here's a nice article from Home Barista on the subject if you'd like to explore this further:

Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Rising Coffee Prices Explained

2011-05-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I’ll be roasting this week on Thursday (the 16th), then delivering and shipping the next day.

We have some new coffees now, including a nice new Ethiopia Sidamo from the Oromia Cooperative (their leader was featured in the film “Black Gold” if you’ve seen it), a jammy Sumatra Gayo Linge and a floral and lemony Guatemala Hue Hue from the Rio Azul Coop. Coffees for this week are listed on the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

Many of you have noticed that we are not in Kansas anymore with coffee prices - with much being reported in the last week about a spike last Thursday in the leading index price of an astonishing 44% over this June and over 60% since last year’s close. The result will be higher prices for coffee by the cup and by the bag - and serious crossed fingers across the industry that things don’t get worse when the harvest numbers start coming in for Central and South America this fall.

I wanted to shed some light on all of this for you, and tell you what this all means for customers of Freeport Coffee Roasting and those few of you who drink coffee from other roasters.

I wrote about a year ago about the relationship between coffee and global commodities markets, and the section that follows here is a slice of that article. I share this as a way of re-grounding you in the way coffee as a commodity can influence the rest of us.

To show you just how wrong predictions can be, I have left intact the section relaying a prediction that the “C” index price for this year would be $1.10 (this index closed at $1.98 last Thursday and it is at $1.95 today when I send this). After the excerpt, read on to see what this all means.

Excerpt from My October 9, 2009 Newsletter . . .

Most people reading this article are average Americans. We have mortgages or rent, healthcare costs, insurance bills, groceries to buy and the need to clothe and shelter our families. Hopefully, we all still have jobs, and in our jobs, we receive a salary or hourly wage that we expect to be consistent. And each month, we count on there being at the least some predictability in an amount of income, an amount of bills and ideally something left over at the end of all that.

The farmers we know locally have things hard enough, with the ways in which weather patterns (especially this year!), insects and shifting food preferences impact their financial equilibrium, and coffee farmers have all these same adventures. But unlike local farmers, who can sell their crops locally or regionally, the output of coffee farmers is almost always heading away from the countries in which it is grown and into the turbulence of global commodities markets.

Here's what I found when I looked up "Commodity" in Wikipedia:

A commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it, such as petroleum, notebook paper, or milk. In other words, copper is copper. The price of copper is universal, and fluctuates daily based on global supply and demand. Stereos, on the other hand, have many levels of quality. And, the better a stereo is [perceived to be], the more it will cost.

One of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole. Well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot and derivative markets. Generally, these are basic resources and agricultural products such as iron ore, crude oil, coal, ethanol, salt, sugar, coffee beans, soybeans, aluminum, copper, rice, wheat, gold, silver and platinum.

Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, often by the diffusion of the intellectual capital necessary to acquire or produce it efficiently. As such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities, such as generic pharmaceuticals and silicon chips.

Yuck. Do we all consider coffee to be "the same no matter who produces it"? Of course we don't, but on a very important level, the market does - and this is the awful, awful paradox of coffee. A few weeks from now, after the polite grounding, I am going to indulge in a mega rant about the way I think this should be - but not yet.

The "C" Market:

As with the other globally-traded commodities mentioned above, benchmark coffee prices are set by large trading exchanges, here with one for Arabica coffee (most specialty coffee) based in New York, and the other for Robusta coffee, based in London.

The current "C" futures rate is set based on the forecasts of future forces that shape the supply and demand of coffee - to include weather, crop cycles, demand trends, crop yields and business conditions. And this rate is then used as an index against which coffee transactions at every step of the market, from grower to roaster, are priced. Transactions are based on differentials - either a premium or a discount - relative to the "C" price.

In my short time as a commercial roaster, I have seen the C price reach a high in mid-2008 of $1.65, then drop to its current rate of $1.35 (a 20% decline). I read today that the rate for the start of 2010 is predicted to be $1.10 (a 33% drop), based on the bumper crop coming out of Brazil this growing season.

The Big Players:

The output of the world's three largest producers, Brazil, Vietnam and Columbia, has a significant impact on the C price, as they collectively produce nearly 60% of the world's coffee. The forces of nature, such as this year's record rains in Columbia, can drive shifts in the C rate, as can diseases, pests or frosts. Government actions, like Vietnam's surge in Robusta production over the last 20 years, moves the C rate, and can work to the benefit of farmers (when cropland is converted to coffee production) or to traders (as they selectively hold and release coffee to the markets).

The Farmer:

So now back to our farmer. The reason all this matters at the level of an individual grower is that, with very few exceptions, the rates received by growers are also indexed to the C price. And unfortunately, the C price doesn't care about the costs of production in individual countries or regions. It doesn't care about wages, fertilizer, equipment maintenance, the cost of getting to market or the risks of local weather patterns. And when the markets dip, as they have now, farmers with relatively fixed production costs can suddenly find their revenue falling below their cost of growing coffee.

The strategies farmers use to respond to these crises include crop substitutions (growing more profitable crops on the same land), cutting production costs, increasing yields, increasing coffee quality (which can improve the grading of their coffee and increase the price) and conversions to organic growing methods or other growing schemes.

But these strategies take time. They incur costs that may not be possible for farmers of limited means. They carry risks. And they are simply not attainable for everyone. In Costa Rica this spring, we met some entrepreneurial farmers who had invested in micromills for their farms - a strategy that allows much greater control over coffee quality and the elimination of the costs or lower prices resulting from processing coffee at a large, centralized mill. But I remember asking our host about the kind of farmer who can make a micromill work, and he explained that these are people with a unique combination of farmer skills, business savy, daring and mechanical aptitude. And not every farmer is suited for such an investment.

My Concern

I feel like coffee is at a crossroads right now. In the past ten years, a "third wave" of coffee culture has developed in the U.S., Europe and Japan, with amazing improvements in coffee sourcing, roasting techniques, brewing and consumer appreciation of new and different coffees. And with a healthy economy (and a strong coffee market), the incentives were plentiful for coffee growers to push the envelope. Old, lower yielding strains of coffee were replanted. Micromills were installed, allowing special coffees from single plots of land to be isolated, tested and improved to the point of magic. Innovative sorting methods allowed improvements in the processing of coffee, resulting in cleaner, fresher tastes. Environmentally sensitive growing methods improved water quality, reduced water usage and allowed coffees to be grown with fewer chemical inputs.

But every one of these improvements requires the assumption of risk and investment. And if, at the end of the day, the price to be gotten for a pound of green coffee isn't high enough, these investments won't be made, and the great juggernaut of quality will slow or even stop. When our own economy goes south, people here look for ways to save, and the price they are willing to pay for a pound or a cup of coffee goes down. And the traders in New York and London see this trend and lower the C rate. And this then trickles all the way back to the mountains of Guatemala and Sumatra and Ethiopia and the others.

End of Excerpt

What just happened to change things?

Quite a lot of this increase is based on simple supply and demand. The output of Brazil in Columbia is down this year (based on weather and replanting cycles, among other factors), and stockpiles of coffee maintained by large players for their use in playing the market are also down. With less coffee on the market, prices rise. Then, add into the mix the commodity traders who see a ripe set of circumstances for increasing futures prices, and away we go.

And on the horizon, long range weather forecasts for Central and South America suggest a wetter than usual year, and the big coffee countries (who love money as much as the next guy) are threatening to hoard supplies to play the market of climbing costs.

What does this mean for the rest of us?

Its interesting that a year ago, I was talking about what happens when coffee prices go too low, but now here I am on the flip side. What happens everywhere when they go too high?

To put this all in context, I’ll start with the illustration of a family and its groceries.

Consider a household with $100 a week to spend on groceries. Fuel prices go up. Grain shortages cause all things made with corn to go up. Some early winter weather kills some crops and vegetable prices go up. And overall, economists hypothesize that “food prices have risen 15%.” So does our family struggle to come up with an extra $15 a week? I learned a few years ago that in large part, the answer to this question is no. They keep spending their $100, and they shift their buying decisions away from the patterns of before to new choices that cost less (often opting for bulk over nutrition).

So here in the world of gourmet coffee, what we all worry about as roasters and providers of coffee is that as the price of great coffee goes higher, coffee drinkers will shift their allegiances from, for example, a Starbucks latte to McDonalds, or from a pound of Peets Major Dickensons to a can of Chock Full O’ Nuts).

So roasters try, try, try to stave off price increases. Large roasters hedge their bets by themselves playing the commodity markets to lock in future purchases at favorable prices. They dispatch traders to foreign lands to hopscotch over importer and middleman markups. Roasters of all sizes shop around for the best deals.

So you will likely see coffee prices rise, though my understanding is that most chains are planning only for increases of 10%. Large roasters will also make up the difference by using lower grade coffees in their blends (which, in contrast to coffees from single countries or sources, make up the majority of their business).

In our case, I have just raised the price of our coffee from $12.50/pound to $12.99, an increase of under 5%, and because I feel very strongly that I don’t want to pierce the $13 per pound ceiling, that is as far as I am going for now. My own coffee costs have gone up an average of 20% as a result of some advance buying I did, but I know better than to pass this along (and have you all switch to Chock Full O’ Nuts). So, just please buy more coffee from us (thanks).

This circumstance is likely to have a detrimental impact on small roaster-retailers - with their costs of goods going crazy and a finite limit on how much they can charge for their products. If you are out there in the heartland and your local shop tells you they need to bump their prices, please know that the NEED to bump their prices. I hope you will continue to support them.

What does this mean for coffee growers? Going back to my explanation above of how commodity markets impact what farmers receive for their coffee, you can see that a market shift like this can be a very good thing, resulting in a rare boom time for many growers. But increased prices also mean more selective buyers, and the big roasters that drive much of coffee demand will be working hard to stabilize their costs, and that can mean large shifts in purchases from one country to another in search of cheaper blending coffees.

Where do we go from here? Part of the answer lies with nature, and the output from the next crop cycles of the major producing countries (Brazil, Vietnam and Columbia). There is a true supply and demand component to coffee prices and the size of the fall harvest in Columbia and Central America will itself exert an impact on the index prices.

Yikes! What should we do now, Batman?

I don’t think you should change anything now, since great coffee is still an affordable indulgence, even if the price goes up by 10%. But I did want to share this update with you so when you see price and product changes as you go through your day, you will know what is happening.

One thing you will certainly see is more blended coffee at retail. Have a look at the coffee aisle the next time you go to the grocery store, and most of what you see there will be blends, with a few bags from Columbia, Sumatra and Costa Rica. Blends are the great equalizer for large roasters, since no one but them know what is inside, and driving down the cost of “filler” coffees helps to smooth market fluctuations.

So if you want good coffee, buy local. Know your roaster and when your coffee was roasted. Store and brew your coffee with the respect it deserves, and if your local roaster or your local cafe needs to raise their prices a bit to keep offering you the best, support them (and the farmers).

Enough for now - stay tuned for updates as they occur.

Enjoy the weekend!

Kent

All About Flavored Coffee

2011-05-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

This week, I’ll roast over the weekend and deliver and ship on Monday the 18th. Please send your orders by Saturday night to be sure of getting your favorites. Coffees for this week are shown on the website (www.freeportcoffee.com). We also have a few bags here if you need something before then.

Shown below is a very cool café menu my friend Bob just sent from his trip to Japan. There are no more fanatical coffee drinkers in the world than in Japan, and if you look closely at the small English printing on the menu, you’ll see some pretty awesome origins among their offerings. Thanks, Bob for sharing!

BTW, if you see any cool stuff like this when you travel and want to send it to us, I’ll be sure your contribution is given a place of honor on the wall of roastery. And speaking of the roastery, let Tanji or I know if you’d like a tour sometime – this is a fun thing to see if you’ve never had a look at how coffee is roasted.

Last week, I asked you all to send your “ask the roaster questions”, and I’ve picked one of these to write on this time. The question comes from James in Portland.

“Why don’t you roast flavored coffee?”

I thought I’d use this occasion to unravel the mysteries of flavored coffee, and its less evil twin, coffee with flavor in it.

First, let me correct the unintended misnomer in the way the question was asked. No one actually roasts flavored coffee, or adds flavor during the roasting process. For what we know as “flavored coffee”, the flavors are added after roasting (and usually after cooling) the beans.

So the better way to ask this is, “Kent, why don’t you flavor your roasted coffee?”

Snarl.

Never, never, never, never in a million years will I flavor the divine beverage that is good coffee. The coffees of the world on their own right present a spectrum of flavors ranging from wine to citrus fruit to lush ripe berries to every variety of chocolate to nuts to broth to flowers and on and on . . .

But I also think that, for those who want or need to add flavors other than milk and sugar to their coffee, “flavoring” the beans is the wrong way to go about it. I’ll tell you a better way at the end of this newsletter.

To illustrate, imagine the tastes of the following . . .

The romantic’s favorite, the chocolate-dipped strawberry.

From your youth (or shhhhh, even now), the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The complex wonder of chicken molé.

Those who “flavor” coffee might prefer a different arrangement. Chocolate flavored strawberries. Jelly flavored peanut butter. Molé flavored chickens!

I wouldn’t be surprised, as flavored coffee producers have no shame. In a quick Google search for this article, I found a site (http://www.coffeeam.com/flavoredcoffee.html) with an astonishing 123 DIFFERENT flavors of coffee, to include everyone’s favorites, Auld Lang Syne (which translates as “old long since”, by the way), Caramel Pecan Roll, Country Christmas (perhaps including Stuffing flavor?), Daffy Taffy, Jack Frost, King Cake, Kozy Fire (watch for splinters!), Mistletoe Joe (Wikipedia: “the common name for a group of hemi-parasitic plants in the order Santalales that grow attached to and within the branches of a tree or shrub”) and Cupid’s Kiss.

So, how is coffee “flavored”?

Most “flavored” coffee you will encounter uses a base of flavoring oils that have been compounded by professional flavor chemists using both natural and artificial ingredients (watch for my favorite, 2,5-Dimethylpyrazine, which lends a nutlike flavor . . . artificially, of course).

As one website I researched stated: “Marketers have found that consumers prefer coffee flavors with sweet creamy notes. The ideal flavor should mask some of the harsh notes of the coffee yet not interfere with its aromatic characteristics.”

(This appears to be code for “we are trying to hide the flavor of the coffee.”)

These oils are highly concentrated, and to get them to the strength needed for blending with the coffee beans, they are mixed with solvents that include water, alcohol, propylene glycol, and fractionated vegetable oils.

You can therefore settle down to your morning New York Times with a cup of Peanut Surprise coffee that includes both the delicious 2,5-Dimethylpyrazine AND traces of propylene glycol (aka the active ingredient in antifreeze).

Once diluted, this tasty stew is blended with the roasted coffee in an isolated room (lest the concentrated nastiness pollute the smell of the real coffee in the other room) using a large rotating drum that looks like a big plastic cement mixer.

Oh. And because, as we learned above, these flavors are scientifically designed to hide some of the flavors of the coffee, any and all coffee can be used as the base for a “flavored” coffee. This includes old coffee, low-grade coffee, extra coffee, etc. Don’t look for Panama Hacienda Esmerelda in your next cup of Cupid’s Kiss.

But as you might imagine, these flavoring oils, solvents and fancy mixers are beyond the reach of smaller roasters, so there is another tool at their disposal.

Kettle drums rumble . . .

POWERBEAN!

I agree, it sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon character . . . an animated pinto bean with a big “P” on his chest who fights crime and rescues damsels and so forth. But no, the POWERBEAN is a hyperconcentrated (again, not such high quality) coffee bean that has been soooooooooooooopersaturated with FLAVOR! The roaster keeps a supply of these in his or her quiver, then combines them in a ratio of 1:8 with regular coffee, stirs gently, then grinds the resulting blend and sends it off to the customer.

Intrigued? Read more here.

Some among you who enjoy flavored coffee may be getting the sense that I am picking on you. I’m not – I am more explaining why I will don’t want to get involved with the conventional ways of adding flavor to coffee.

If you DO like to add flavor to your coffee, I’d recommend instead you use flavor syrups or sauces such as those made by Monin, Torani or DaVinci. You see these a lot in cafes, and they are often used to flavor Café Mocha, seasonal milk drinks and the many summer variations of iced or blended coffee drinks. Some flavors are also available in the supermarket, and you can order them online from Amazon or other sources. Offerings include many flavors, organics and sugar-free variations.

With these syrups and sauces, you get much more pure flavors (in “flavored” coffees, the effect is more of an aromatic than a taste), and you get to pick the coffee! You can add your flavors to light roasted, dark roasted or decaf coffees, and if you want to name a flavor combination after a sports hero, lover or niche holiday, its all up to you.

But, please somewhere along the way give the coffee a chance all by itself, with no flavoring, no milk and no sugar. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for all your support, folks – enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Coffee Snobs – The Sequel

2011-05-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everyone,

Greetings from the now somewhat more balmy Maine. With daily highs now in the twenties, it is t-shirt weather and we are getting the kayaks ready. Or not. Soon.

I’ll be roasting this weekend on Sunday the 30th, then delivering and shipping on Monday. Please send your orders by Saturday night to be sure of getting your favorites – though we have a good selection from earlier this week if you need something sooner.

We’ve been working our way through a bunch of samples over the last few days in anticipation of our next coffee order in a few weeks. Stay tuned for more details on an awesome and very different selection this time around – to include an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, a Sulawesi microlot, a delicious FTO Bolivia and another amazing coffee from the Rwanda COOPAC cooperative. And more.

Last week, I sent you all a link to the Coffee Snob video from YouTube (shown here in case you missed it). By an amazing coincidence, that was actually shot in an office in YARMOUTH. What a small world.

Anyway, that pair of coffee lovers has made another appearance . . . this time discussing their favorite places to hang out and drink coffee. Watch here for their take on the local café scene.

Through the magic of technology, we now have the power to influence their discussions. What would you like to hear them talk about? Send your suggestions to me, and if I pick yours, I’ll give you a free pound of coffee of your choice – and even ship it if you are from away.

Oh, and they need names. What should we call them?

Have a great weekend!

Kent

Coffee Snobs Episode 3

2011-05-22T06:26:00.001-07:00

Hi Friends,

Love that snow, eh? The twin pillars at the end of our driveway have now reached 7 feet and the yard is a sea of deep, white fluff. Fun! Sort of.

I’ll be roasting this week on Sunday, February 6, and shipping and delivering Monday. Please place your orders by Saturday evening to be sure of getting your favorites. Selections this week are shown on the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

I have just two pounds of Brazil if someone needs something before then. We’ll let these go to the highest bidder who responds before midnight Friday (delivery not included).

The big truck pulls in next week with new coffees from Burundi, Ethiopia, Sulawesi, Brazil, Congo and Panama. I'll tell you more about these next week.

Episode 3 of The Office Coffee Lovers is now available here. Do you think it means anything that he is picking up coffee for her? Or is he just a nice guy? Tune in next week to see.

In the manner of a determined mountain climber, global commodity coffee prices continue to march steadily higher, but I am happy to say that we are holding the line for now (thanks to our very helpful importers). This is the result of a complex and interesting set of circumstances, and this article does a nice job of summarizing them, if you’d like to read more.

Thanks for the support, folks. Have a great weekend.

Kent

Degrees of Roast and Rube Goldberg Roasting Contraptions

2011-05-22T06:25:00.002-07:00

Good day to you all . . .

I'll be roasting next this coming Monday (President's Day for those who want to raise a glass to Abe and George), then delivering and shipping on Tuesday the 22nd. Please send us your orders by Sunday night to be sure of getting your favorites for this week. Coffee selections for this time around are on the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

We've also got a few bags from Monday's roasting (specifically Sulawesi, Road Trip, Brazil, Guat and a tasty SWP Brazil decaf) if you need something before then.

I was surfing around the vast coffee library at Sweet Maria's (always a nice source of inspiration when I am looking for something new to tell you all about coffee), and I came across Tom's excellent update on the transformation of coffee from green beans to different degrees of roast. I think this is really useful in understanding what it means when you consider whether to drink a light or medium or dark roasted coffee:

But what I was really looking for was this awesome collection of homemade roasting apparatuses. Its completely possible to spend next to nothing on a "roaster" and get excellent coffee from it (I bought my Westbend Poppery 2 at a garage sale for a quarter), but you have to one who likes to experiment. Check these out and see what the inventive among us have done with dog bowls, shop vacs, backyard grills, electric fans, colanders, frying pans, old tin cans, window fans, odds and ends and bric a brac.

Then go raid the attic and see what you can come up with. To make it easy on you, if you'd like to try your hand at home roasting, let me know the next time you order, and I'll throw in some green coffee for you.

Oh, and I also have a bunch of jute and burlap coffee bags - let me know if you'd like a few (or if you'd like them all).

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Kent

Coffee Farming in Maine

2011-05-22T06:25:00.001-07:00

Hi All,

I'll be roasting this weekend in the wee hours of Monday morning, and then shipping and delivering later that day. Please send your orders by Sunday evening to be sure of getting your favorites for this week.

The delicious coffee selection for the week is on the website (www.freeportcoffee.com) and we have a nice selection here if you need anything before Monday.

As improbable as it may sound, right here in Maine, alongside potatoes, Maple syrup, pine trees and lobster, grows coffee!

Well, sort of.

Attached is a photo of our fledgling coffee farm (um . . . in our dining room). She has just survived another winter by the window, so we are justifiably proud of her.

You will however, note a distinct lack of the all-important coffee cherry. Meaning that getting coffee from our finca is but a distant fantasy. If it comes, we anticipate a bumper crop of approximately 17 cherries (34 beans!) three years from now, and after individually butchering the cherries to extract the beans and then somehow drying them property, I would roast them (hopefully) in my little sample roaster, then grind them and with great ceremony brew up about a half cup of something that tastes like . . . yuck.

But its a pretty houseplant, none the less . . . and its a way of appreciating that this stuff does actually come from the earth and not from heat sealed bags. You can get these later in the spring at your local greenhouse if you'd like to try your hand at coffee farming. And shucks, if you act now (actually if several of you act now), three years from now, we can pool our coffee and call ourselves a co-op. Nice!

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks for supporting the coffee. Buy some today.

Best regards,

Kent

Jamaica Trip 2011

2011-05-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

Rats! Just when it seemed like summer was kicking in (it being one of those years when we skip spring), there we were right back into the rain. But it’s WARM rain, right? Or warmER, perhaps?

I’ll be roasting this Sunday and/or Monday, then delivering and shipping Monday afternoon. Please send your orders by Saturday night to be sure of getting your favorites for this time - and also be sure to check the site for what’s available. We’re at the end of the last order of coffee, and the next time you hear from me, we will have some great new coffees to talk about.

I have just a few bags here if you need something before then - Ethiopia and Sulawesi, as I recall.

Into the Blues

The hallucinations began in mid-November as they always do when the clocks change and lighting fires becomes a daily ritual. Warm air. Warm water. COLD Red Stripes. Reggae music. Days on end with no fleece. Snow cones rather than snowblowers. Exiting one’s home without shuddering. The absence of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Colors and leaves and sun and . . .

So it is natural that our thoughts turn to tropical vacations. Tanji and I have found that the act of planning vacations extends the vacation itself, and provides a psychological boost that helps to withstand the Maine winter.

This time, the fantasy was Jamaica, and learning that it was just four hours away (less than a bad afternoon commute in Boston), got us thinking about and then acting on the idea of going there.

I’ve wanted to see that place for years. I’m a huge Bob Marley fan, and I’ve long harbored a curiosity about the Rastafarian religion, the Jamaican form of island culture and the roots of James Bond. But more than any other question, I really wanted to understand what the big deal is about Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee.

My adventure of being a professional coffee roaster is now a scant three years old, but during this time, I’ve come to a solid understanding of coffee origins, the vast variety of coffee flavors and the factors that contribute to an amazing cup of coffee. I know that every growing region of the world is capable of growing amazing coffee - and I know that, for $20 a pound or less, it is possible, with a little homework, to find pretty close to spectacular roasted coffee from any of these. Further, I have come to understand that coffee is subject to the tribulations of nature, that one year’s amazing crop does not guarantee that the next will be as good, and that the price of a coffee in the market is typically directly proportional to its quality.

As I learned about different coffee sources, the Jamaican origin stuck in my mind. How was it, I wondered, that coffee from the Blue Mountain region could consistently be priced at an astronomical $40/pound from year to year - particularly in the face of the recent weather cycles that have thrown growing conditions there for a loop? Does Jamaica produce truly amazing coffee? Is it always that amazing? Why, with so many other awesome coffee to choose from, do the devotees of this coffee continue to pay these prices? And why did one of the industry’s great authorities on coffee recently characterize all Blue Mountain coffee he had tasted for the last four years to have “no fragrance, no aroma, nor origin flavors, just roast taste” and to say “There's nothing there to encourage me to offer it, at any price.”

Because Tanji is a kind soul, she agreed to let me devote a link of this vacation to the Blue Mountains and my quest for an answer to these questions. And after a week living in a bamboo hut on a cliff in the northeastern community of Boston Bay (the subject of another story), we tucked into our little rental car and set out for The Blues.

Defining Blue Mountain Coffee

JBM’s reputation as a superior coffee is in large part due to the regulations and marketing initiaitves of the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica. These regulations outline a growing region in a four parish area and in a band of altitude between 3,000 and 5,000 feet, and coffees grown outside these areas must carry other designations (such as Jamaica High Mountain, Jamaica Supreme or Jamaica Low Mountain). Our sense is that counterfeiting (meaning, labeling a less expensive lower grown coffee as JBM) is common, but we also heard that the consequences to those who violate these rules are swift and considerable.

Certified JBM is also rigidly graded by bean size (called “screen size” in the industry) and must be sorted to adhere to a very low defect rate. These requirements are no different than the procedures followed by most growers and producers of good specialty grade coffee.

Getting There

It would deny me the pride I experienced in returning our rental car and getting my ENTIRE deposit back if I didn’t describe the drive from Boston Bay to The Blue Mountains. The obvious and direct route on the map, “Highway” B2 was out as an option because of two landslides, so this dictated that we drive a longer route that would take us through a winding valley, into downtown Kingston, then up, up, up, to our destination in the tiny village of Silver Hill at 6,000 feet. Several thousand twisty curves, approximately 1,000 wandering goats, several dozen spaced Rasta pedestrians, hundreds of impatient (and skilled, I might add) passing Jamaican drivers. As we came around one of the many curves, we suddenly found ourselves at a military checkpoint, where we were required to stop for half an hour while the troops marching in the parade ground beyond finished their drills. The parade ground was actually part of the “Highway”.

The Blues are truly stunning. A dense, layered fog swirls around the mountaintops and through the valleys, giving a magical effect to the lush jungle, and water ran all around us. There were few people and virtually no cars - and after the heat and frenzy of the coast, we felt a wonderful calm settle over us. Our home for these days was the funky Starlight Chalet, a nearly empty inn on a ridgeline above the small town of Silverhill. The inn is surrounded on all sides by mountainsides covered with coffee, bananas and cedar, and it is a magical and tranquil place. After the intensity of the north coast, we needed it.

The Small Farmer

In the Blues, the big coffee estates (Wallenford and Mavis Bank) offer tourist-oriented tours where they explain the history of coffee, walk through the processing steps and the fields and then taste their coffees. I wanted something a little more real, so I had connected with the owner of the much smaller Old Tavern estate and made arrangements to meet him the afternoon of our second day there.

That morning, our friend at the hotel kindly introduced us to her friend Manu Robinson, a longstanding “smallholder” farmer in the village of Silver Hill. I’d been wanting a connection like this for a long time, to the smallest and earliest link in the chain of coffee. I wanted to learn about the lives of very small farmers and get a perspective on a farmer’s relationship with the buyer of his coffee, in this case one of the large estates.

We met Manu sitting on a bridge over the sparkling brook that runs through his town, and liked him instantly. He’d been farming coffee in this valley his whole life, and he had the wonderful and instinctive knowledge of the land, the weather and his crops shared by career farmers everywhere. Manu owns three small farms (about 7 acres each) on the mountains above the town, and he offered to show us one of these and tell us about his experiences as a coffee farmer.

Our climb to the farm took us through the fringes of the village, around the grounds of an abandoned school and then up through a progression of small farms growing coffee, bananas, medicinal plants and vegetables. And after about 1,000 feet of elevation gain, we crested the ridge that defines his farm. The coffee was thick, with mature plants of about 7’ tall (kept at that height to allow hand-picking and defence against the wind) running down both sides of the ridge. The harvest season had just finished, so there were still a few ripe cherries here and there - and alarmingly, a number of plants in bloom, an event that should, in a more predictable climate, still be some months away.

This farm is owned by one of the large estates, and they buy all of the output of the farm and set the price to be received by the farmer. My calculation of what Manu receives for his coffee cherries (he relinquishes them to the processing plant down the valley) equates to about $1.20 per pound of green coffee - exactly the same as the farmers we talked to in the Orosi Valley of Costa Rica a few years ago. The searing inequity in this case was that JBM wholesales for about five times what the coffee in Costa Rica did, and yet the farmers were being paid the same. I asked Manu whether the farmers there had ever tried to organize themselves (potentially to talk about collectively finding a way to get more money), but he said that when they had done this, the discussions broke down right away as a result of squabbling among the farmers and that they had not continued. The payment for this year was also cut in half from last year’s payment (I’d guess because of the sunami in Japan, where half their coffee is sold) without explanation to the farmer.

Manu also talked about the effort it takes to run this farm. The coffee is all picked by hand, and transported down the steep, narrow path we had traveled that morning. Fertilizers and insecticides are also transported manually to the site. (Chemical supports appear to be used on all the farms here - and are necessary for the strength of the plants, to fight infestations and diseases and to maintain crop yields. We did not see any organic coffee farming in Jamaica.) The country has experience two significant hurricanes in the last ten years (an unusual cycle, perhaps another consequence of global warming), which have stripped trees bare of fruit and flowers and decimated the roads and paths needed to run these farms. The effect of these on small farmers in devastating, as they are paid by the estates only after they have delivered their ripe coffee cherries.

I liked his curiosity. It was clear that he had not spent any time with a roaster from outside his country, and we had a great conversation about roasting, brewing methods, methods of processing and fermentation in other countries and the coffee market in general.

After an hour or so at the farm, Manu extended an invitation to come to his home, see his roasting operation and enjoy a cup of his coffee.

As we walked, he spoke with great pride about buying a piece of land in the center of his village some years before and then, with the help of good friends, building his house in a long day of hard work.

The house occupies a nice piece of land above the river, with a yard full of banana and coffee trees. In the back yard sits Manu’s pride and joy, a coffee roaster fashioned from a propane tank, rebar and some strips of metal (see the photo link below). The first batch each day takes about an hour and a half, and those after, about an hour. He can roast twenty pounds at a time, and his wife sells their coffee at a small shop she runs in Kingston.

After sending his son to the store for some sugar, Manu served us each a cup of his coffee. It was roasted slightly dark, sweet from the sugar and with a thick, velvety body. We enjoyed the coffee in the yard of a hard working Jamaican coffee farmer, under a canopy of bananas in a valley thick with coffee trees on all sides, above a beautiful river and under a sunny sky punctuated with the famous mists of The Blue Mountains. It was the best cup of coffee Tanji and I have ever experienced.

The Estate

That afternoon, we went to the home and roastery of Dorothy Twyman, who with her son Alex, owns the Old Tavern Coffee estate, a few miles back down the road toward Kingston. The day was Easter Friday (aka Good Friday to us), and the Twymans were holding a lunch party for their friends in honor of the national holiday. They graciously welcomed us and introduced us to their wonderful social circle.

In contrast to the large Wallenford and Mavis Bank estates, Old Tavern is a self contained operation. The coffee is all grown on a single farm (surrounding the house) managed by Alex. They own a small processing facility where the skin and pulp is stripped from the ripe fruit, and after this step, the wet, green coffee is driven down the mountain to be sun-dried on patios in Kingston (it is too cool in the Blues to do it there) and then brought back to the house to be roasted. Dorothy does all the roasting on a pair of Deidrich 3K roasters, and all of the farm’s output in roasted. Alex has 12 full time employees and brings others (usually family members of his staff) to the farm on a seasonal basis to help with picking and maintenance of the trees. He strikes me as a very caring employer. Old Tavern Estate coffee sells for $30/pound in country and $42/pound by mail (which includes shipping).

After some time at the party, Alex collected all the children (15 or so), and we set off to explore the farm. Our journey took us through terraced hillsides densely planted with coffee that had been strategically pruned to ensure maximum yield and wind protection, and then down through progressively smaller paths, across several creeks to a beautiful jungle waterfall. The kids played in the water, and we talked all things coffee.

And it was a great finish to the day that started with Manu in the mountains high above.

Is it Worth It?

By this point in the trip, I now had enough input to answer my original questions about the coffee and the farming of JBM coffee. We had tasted about ten different variants of the coffee, spoken with cafe owners and farmers, and had an up close look at their growing operations.

Other than our cup at Manu’s farm (embellished certainly by the setting), I was not impressed with any cup of JBM coffee we had on this trip. As is typical of coffee on the road, about half the cups we had were the victim of improper preparation or storage - but the others were just not special. The texture and body were nice, but the coffees themselves were not distinctive, and to my taste, very ordinary tasting. Not a bad cup, but not a great one, and certainly not worth over double what we charge for any of our coffees.

We also met a number of travelers on this trip who swear by this coffee and who believe it is worth the money - and it is, of course, customers like this around the world who keep this coffee alive. My sense is that, for many such people, they see JBM as a consistent single origin - and that they have had little exposure to the amazing (and far lower priced) single source coffees from other countries. They believe (as they Coffee Board would like them to) that this coffee is of the same quality each year (trust me, its not) and their experience is embellished by seeing their coffee shipped in fancy stenciled barrels (another marketing device).

So no, I can’t recommend the coffee. My wish for the farmers of Jamaica is that they be freed of the estate system, and that they had a way to learn about the nuances of coffees from different plant varietals and parts of their farms - and then be paid well to isolate these coffees rather than send them into a pool.

I am encouraged by the news that this year the Wallenford and Mavis Bank estates will transition from government control to private ownership - and I hope that with this change will come some attention to quality.

We’ve posted some pics from the trip here on Flickr if you’d like to have a look.

Thanks for reading and for your support. Have a great weekend!

Kent

Costa Rica Trip 2009

2011-05-22T06:14:00.001-07:00

The decision to travel to Costa Rica was not a hard one. In our home of Freeport, Maine, January can be tough. The temperature wiggles around between zero and slightly more than zero, the ground cover is frequently more ice than snow, and it gets dark early. Costa Rica, on the other hand, has riches including sun, gorgeous, James Bond movie like beaches, the Resplendent Quetzal, volcanoes, tropical fruit, amazing biodiversity, eight gazillion kinds of birds and sun. And coffee. Famous, clean, fresh, vibrant coffees that rank among the world’s finest and that in some regions grow as far as the eye can see.

So, by all means, lets go to Costa Rica. Let’s drink rum drinks and hang from our ankles by ziplines and surf with like minded toney blonde people and run rivers and gawk at birds in organized bus tour groups and stay in fancy hotels and buy trinkets and insult the natives with bad Spanish and invade the rainforests and all that. Or, let’s not. Lets do a different kind of Costa Rican vacation. Yes, let’s do it that way.

Who Needs Signs?

The approach into the Juan Santamaria Airport is breathtaking, to say the least. The plane from Newark approached from the east, flying low through a corridor of high, mist-shrouded peaks, then banked steeply left and dipped to skirt high mountains to the south of the city before landing in the middle of a patchwork of farm fields and small, neat houses.

Rental cars in foreign countries are funny. The particulars about the car we wanted to rent (size and price) took a matter of minutes. The legal disclaimers, daily rates, risks, translations, puzzled looks and initials here and there on a stack of paperwork rivaling only taking out a mortgage from a money grubbing US bank (I’m not bitter), all related to various assumptions of risk, took nearly an hour.

The nice man then highlighted the path we were to take to our first destination in yellow – cut through town on this road, take a left at the park, then just go straight for 45 minutes until you get there. Not said was this – do not, under any circumstances, deviate from this route, or you are toast.

It is a strange characteristic of directions in Costa Rica that one will always be told to simply “turn left” here, or “turn right” there – but yet once the unsuspecting driver gets in the vicinity of this intersection there are many such possible turns, and that only by living there for some years, does one know which is the right one. It was with this newbie ignorance that we missed the left at the park. Our ship then righted itself, but minutes later, we missed another turn, and then we were done for. There are no street signs in all of San Jose. So it was ever so easy to get lost. Add to this the aggressive Costa Rican driving style, myriad one-way streets, throngs of pedestrians, stray animals, an errant ice cream cart (!), honking and annoying motorcyclists, and within moments, my vision of blender drinks and a savage tan gave way to a mission of shear survival.

His name was Alex. We found him at a bus stop. He was lost too, but he had a compass of a sort the allowed him to find his bearings. And after 45 minutes of searching and turning, he found us the right road, hopped out and was on his way. And so it was, that we at last were on the road to Cartago. And yes, this was not the direct 50-minute drive the Hertz guy promised. But, I felt a sort of victory after emerging from the savage San Jose traffic unscathed. And now I could have a blender drink.

Orosi, Sweet Orosi

We approached Orosi in our little Rent-a-Jeep with very high expectations, I must say. Friends from Freeport had stayed there, one of the coffee farms we were going to visit recommended it, and the guidebooks gushed relentlessly about our destination, The Orosi Lodge.

The unveiling of Orosi is very, very cool. From San Jose, we inched through downtown Cartago (a crowded, yet mercilessly brief smaller version of San Jose), then got lost again TWICE (they didn’t have signs either), then made it into Paraiso and at long last found a sign saying “OROSI →” Phew.

A few meandering turns down the road, we crested a small hill, and on the other side, paradise was revealed – the beautiful, lush green Orosi Valley. Far below, a narrow river snaked through fields of coffee. Mountains, curtained by mist, disappeared into the distance. Everywhere, the droopy leaves and vines and flowers of a thick jungle covered the hills along the road. And it was tranquil and non-citylike and we knew where we were and at last we could relax. After the first of what would be many steep, twisty descents to follow, we bottomed out in the valley floor, and there, on either side of the road were magnificent fields of coffee. My serious love affair with coffee is yet three years old, and this was my first trip to a place where coffee was grown. I skidded to a stop and leapt out to hug the trees.

The plants were just beautiful. About six feet high, as thick as a bush can be, the coffee trees on one side of the road carpeted an open river valley and on the other, they lived beneath a thick canopy of shade trees. And, at this low elevation, there was no fruit remaining on the trees, as their picking season had ended for the year. But, by rooting around a little, I found a few scant red “cherries,” as they are called, and Tanji and I each ate one. They were harder than I expected, with a thick skin and thin layer of sticky, very sweet fruity layer covering the pits, which are what we know as coffee beans.

The town of Orosi is small, well kept, and very pretty. It sits at the bottom of a wide, beautiful valley, and a short main street of only 12-15 blocks is home to several “sodas” (the Costa Rican name for small casual lunch counters or cafes), a grocery store and a couple of small restaurants. Beyond the main street, a hill rises and turns before the large coffee mill that is the largest business in the area.

The Orosi Lodge was started eight years ago by a German couple, Andy and Connie, who settled on this town after a lifetime of world travel. As they told us a few days later, this town won out as a place to live – essentially winning a competition in their minds with every other place they had traveled and lived. It was quite an endorsement.

We loved staying there. Our abode (a separate building called the Chalet) sat up behind the lodge on a residential street, and each day the adorable kids from the neighborhood greeted us as we went to and fro. On the second level, we had a sheltered porch that looked out over the mountains behind, the town below and the valley beyond. A constant parade of birds zipped by us, and looking in any direction could result in a zombie-like stupor of discovery, as animals, plants, birds and people emerged from the rich landscape. Mornings began with the squawking of an overanxious rooster from a nearby farm, and in the evenings, we heard the comforting sounds of a small town shutting down for the night. What a nice place.

Madonna, Lankaster and Cristina

From the standpoint of a travel agent, Costa Rica offers impressive-sounding activities including canopy ziplines, “wilderness lodges,” and volcano tours, but we very deliberately steered ourselves away from all that in favor of local color. We began our first full day in Cartago, founded in 1563 by the Spanish colonial governor, and found that our many hours of driving the day before had given us new confidence to drive more in the Costa Rican way (aggressively, without regard for traffic or pedestrians).

Really, we were just glad to be there – so after parking near the famed Los Angeles Basilica we wondered aimlessly among sleepy streets, more or less looking for the big central market in the heart of downtown. My Spanish is only OK, and Tanji speaks French and some Latin, so we were essentially hopeless in communicating with others – but we did a great job pointing at pastries in the many bakeries and paying for them. My failed attempts at asking people where to find the public market led us astray several times, but at last we saw the block-long sea of fresh fruits and vegetables that framed the entrance and ducked inside.

To me, these markets are the best part of traveling, and we stayed there for a long time. Aisle by aisle, we explored the sites and smells and revelations of this important gathering place for the town. Small food counters (sodas), fish and meats, exotic vegetables, toys, shoe repair, pet food, stray dogs, spices and sauces and people shopping for the week formed a delightful maze and gave us a great introduction to the pulse of Costa Rica.

After loading up on fruits and veggies for guacamole, we walked back over to the Basilica, which is home to the revered patron saint of Costa Rica, La Negrita. On this day, the Basilica swarmed with people, as two days earlier a major earthquake had devastated an area just north of Alajuela (west of San Jose), and many had come to pray and pay their respects to those who lost their homes and lives. The soaring, beautiful, wooden interior (rebuilt in 1926 after an earthquake) set off gold adornments, stained glass windows and antique light fixtures – and it was very moving to see the column of several hundred people inching down the aisle on their knees toward the alter. We never found the Madonna Negra, not realizing until much later (um . . . now, in fact) that she is only eight inches tall!

We drove back through Paraiso, had lunch, and then drove a short way up the easterly road toward Turrialba to an afternoon appointment at the Café Cristina coffee farm and mill.

Café Cristina had been recommended to us both by my coffee importer and by a group of friends from Freeport, with whom Ernie and Linda, the owners, had stayed for a time just a few months ago. Cristina is a unique operation for Costa Rica, combining a small organic coffee farm, a micromill and a roastery all in one place – and all the coffee grown there is roasted onsite and sold both inside the country and internationally.

Ernie and Linda were great to us. Ernie took us out into their fields, where the coffee trees drooped with fresh cherries as they awaited the second picking of the season, and patiently told us all about the plants, the work of an organic coffee farmer and the process of picking the fruit each year. We then followed a short set of paths to their micromill, where, on the afternoon of a morning picking, the cherries are mechanically stripped of their skin and sticky mucilage, then laid out to dry on broad patios to dry in the sun. After being dried for 6-8 days (in the sun, and if necessary in a larger mechanical dryer), the coffee is stored “in parchment” (a thin husk, similar in a way to a thin shell of a pistachio nut) until they are ready to roast it (or in the case of other farms, until it is ready for export). Then, the parchment is milled off (to be reused to fuel the large dryer) and the coffee sorted for density – in their case resulting in a small amount of second tier beans that are sold to a broker in San Jose.

Café Cristina is regarded as a pioneer in the development of micromills. Later in the trip, we toured many of these, and in these cases, farms were able to buy off the shelf equipment for all the functions of the mill, but here, Ernie had cobbled together the setup using second hand equipment, ingenuity and parts from other types of farm technology. Linda is one lucky roaster, I would say – spending her time in a nice, high ceiling room with a wall open to the jungle covered only in a coarse mesh. Their beans are roasted light, medium and dark and were available (mostly ground) in markets throughout the area and to international buyers via mail order. Really nice people, and a really nice place. If you go, they offer a variation of our experience as a tour, and this would be a great way for you to see up close the full cycle of coffee from seed to cup.

It was still early, so we headed back up the road to Cartago to the wondrous Lankester Gardens. The Gardens, established in 1917 by an English botanist, display more than 3,000 plant species (including 1,000 varieties of orchid) in a placid setting ranging over 27 acres. We had the place to ourselves that day, and the experience was a very special one. And so, after a day of rich experiences, we retired to Orosi for a dinner of Imperial beer, melt in your mouth pineapple and guacamole, and wondered as we ate how such a day could have felt so very relaxing. Nice.

Nano, Victor and Rudolfo

Gosh, aren’t connections great? So, Tanji used to work with Ruth. Who is married to Kevin, who in turns works for a company that does business in Costa Rica. Through this he knows a guy Horacio, who responded to my note by saying that his girlfriend has a cousin Rudolfo who owns a coffee farm in Orosi, and then sent me his phone number so I called one day and talked to his son (Rudolfo Junior) who asked his dad (who was fishing at the time) whether we might be able to see his farm while we were there and he said yes he would be happy to help us.

We arranged to meet Rudolfo around noontime, so we went down to the desk and asked if they could suggest a nice two-hour hike in the area. Andy whipped out a cryptic map and sent us off into the mountains to find the one they call Nano. We were to climb up, up up, turn right after the last house and pick our way up a steep canyon until the awesome waterfall, then backtrack a bit and continue upwards until we found a small shack. There would be Nano, who would give us a tour of his beautiful coffee farm and then guide us over the mountain and show us how to get back.

So we did all that. The path up took us into lush, wet jungle, where all the leaves got bigger and there were flowers everywhere. The going was slippery en route to the waterfall, but neither of us fell, and Tanji found two fossils. Nano wasn’t home. We met his three dogs, one of whom cowered when I went to pet it (which made me question Nano’s parenting skills), his chickens and a huge moth living near his house – then went to try to figure out how to get out of there.

Instinct alone guided us hither and yon until we emerged on a clear path through a neatly tended and very steep coffee farm. We encountered two pickers who told us this was not Nano’s farm, but that of the Martinez family. We were on the right track and began the very steep descent back into town. Minutes later a very nice man emerged from out of the coffee trees and introduced himself as Victor Martinez – and what followed over the next hour was the wonderful wonderful communication that occurs when a group of people who don’t speak the same language WANT to communicate and make the best of the tools they have, hands and gestures and smiles and the few words they knew.

Victor’s goal was to introduce us to his town, his family and his life. He spoke very little English and we spoke very little Spanish. And we had a nice time with him before saying our goodbyes just feet away from the Lodge at the bottom of the hill. We went down the road to Soda Luz and had a traditional Costa Rican lunch plate called casado, a pretty arrangement of chicken (or meat or fish), rice, beans, salad and fried plantains. On schedule, Rudolfo arrived to pick us up, and along with his daughter and son in law, we drove high into the mountains above Orosi, winding through fields of coffee and tall, stately evergreens.

We parked before a small, very cool house, constructed by Rudolfo of native timber (all milled with a chainsaw!) and bamboo. It was exquisite in its simplicity and its design, and the view of the entire Orosi valley was amazing. He told us that the house served as a retreat for him when he wanted to get away from his day job as a physician in Cartago.

We then went out front to find a large tractor attached to a deep wagon, along with a man introduced as the farm foreman and another worker who helped with the coffee harvest. “Get in,” he said, gesturing to the wagon. Tanji and I gulped, then climbed aboard. The foreman fired up the tractor, and we rumbled off down the mountain . . . and for the next fifteen minutes, we were treated to a trip through the expansive coffee farm from the best possible vantage point. I glanced at Tanji and I knew how special we felt this all was.

We then came upon a group of coffee pickers, each surrounded by an assortment of bulging plastic bags – and the tractor slowed to a halt. The pickers lined up, and one by one, emptied the contents of their bags into a plastic paint bucket, which was passed up to the helper standing in the bed of the wagon. Each bucket was dumped into the wagon, and when it was empty, the helper tossed a yellow poker chip into the bucket.

This continued until that picker had finished his harvest, and the next one began. The poker chips were then exchanged for cash from Rudolfo, who explained that each bucket equated to a standard unit of measure called a cajuela (this is the square box in the photos), and that 40 of these in turn filled a fanega (two of the rectangular boxes).

We were interested in the math here, so I will share it with you. For each bucket/cajuela, the picker is paid a little over $2. There is actually a minimum wage for these in Costa Rica of $1.20, but no one will work for this amount; in the Orosi Valley alone, there are more than 700 coffee farms, and they all need pickers at the same time of year (roughly December-January), so it is a sellers market.

We left behind that group and continued on in the tractor, with Tanji and I standing in what was now a knee-deep sea of sticky, fresh coffee cherries. Soon we came to another group of pickers, clearly a rank below the others – there were a bunch of young teenagers here (who can work as long as they are with a relative), and for the most part, their total wages were less, meaning they picked at a slower pace. But, one very happy picker had achieved 12 cajuelas, which was huge for him, and he was very happy!

We dropped Rudolfo off at his house to pick up his car, and continued down a steep, straight road toward the valley floor. As came into the valley below the farm, we turned off the road at a small building with a trough coming out from the base of it above the road, the foreman backed into the building, and the two farm workers who had ridden down with us set about unloading the cherries from the wagon into a large hopper on the floor of the building.

The name of a large company was stenciled above the loading area, and it dawned on Tanji and I that the farmer was relinquishing his crop at this point – and as we thought further about the number of these buildings we had seen, it was clear that all this coffee, from most of these 700 farms were all being transferred into one very large batch. The coffee then would be sold by the name of the region (Ososi Valley) or by the name of the processor (Orlich), but that any connection to the farm was at this point lost.

I felt sad here, like I was watching a beautiful heirloom tomato be mixed into a can of supermarket tomato sauce – but this is the way most coffee is processed. At the transfer station, the going rate for a hundredweight of coffee (one fanega) was $120, or what works out to about $1.20/pound for dried green beans (like what we use as a starting point for roasting). Of this $120, $80 is paid to the pickers, yielding the farmer $.40/pound for their coffee. Costa Rica is regarded as having one of the highest labor costs in the world for coffee pickers, so it is a bit sobering to imagine what pickers earn in less developed countries.

Rudolfo also told us that the vast majority of coffee picking in Costa Rica is done by locals, with very few workers imported from Panama or Nicaragua. He employs three families of Indians who came in from the reservation that straddles in the Costa Rica/Panama border, and on the way down the mountain, we had passed the converted horse stables they live in. The accommodations weren’t bad, I would say, and he had built a shower/bathroom at the end of the building to support them. Rudolfo’s medical practice needed him, so he took us back to Orosi and made arrangements in route for us to tour the large central beneficio (mill) the next afternoon.

We had passed a very awesome soda perched over the wide Orosi River, and quickly jumped in the Rent-a-Jeep to go back there for a beer. A gregarious new friend, Sergio, rescued us from the local wacko, lectured the proprietor in Spanish about the grease content of the fries we ordered and shared great stories of local color.

Hanging Squash, Jesus, Secret Flowers, Mud and Denial

The next morning, we got up early, enjoyed some of our newly created SumaRica blend (the Sumatra we brought with us mixed with the local coffee, which was a little too light for our tastes) and headed out to play tourist. We drove back up the now-familiar road to Paraiso, hung out at the pullout that overlooks the Orosi Valley with some friendly mountain bikers (which were everywhere!), then began a long eastward loop around the Lake Cachi watershed. From Paraiso, the road twists down a steep but not too steep mountain road through lush jungle before bottoming out in the agricultural hamlet of Ujarras. What a setting for these farms! Amid the encroaching jungle, well tended fields dot the landscape, and one of the most interesting crops to see was the chayote squash, with large tracts of plants suspended six feet from the ground, giving the illusion of floating.

We got lost again, of course, then made our way to the ruins of the Iglesia de Nuestra Senorade la Limpia Concepcion, built in 1693, and best known as the home of a wayward painting of the Virgin that kept returning to same spot – thus forcing the locals to leave the church there in the face of floods that kept destroying the building. Amid an escort of very friendly and likely abandoned dogs (Costa Rica has great abandoned dogs), we walked slowly through the pretty grounds and adjacent farm fields. A nice morning.

We continued around the lake, next stopping at the shop of the wonderful Macedonio Quesada. Macedonio’s shop, built of thin bamboo and playful carved silhouettes, houses his large collection of figurines carved from the roots of coffee trees, all for sale at very low prices. We bought some as gifts, along with a large carved head of either Jesus or Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and continued on our way.

We were rebuffed in our efforts to gain entrance to a large cluster of massive flower greenhouses, and were told later by our hosts that these were supersecret facilities owned by one of the five companies that controls most of the ornamental flowers in the world. Seems as though industrial espionage is big in that business, and competitors have been know to sneak harmful pests into these places under the guise of a tour. Gosh, I thought they were just pretty flowers – I didn’t want to know all that.

Our next stop was the very large, yet mostly inaccessible Tapanti National Park. This massive park (>58,000 hectares) stretches from the Orosi Valley all the way south to Cerro de la Muerte (we’ll be there several days later), but the only public access is via a small trail system just up the road from Orosi. The rest is there simply for the sake of preservation – it is so very cool that Costa Rica does that as a country in so many places. As we climbed, the road went from pavement to dirt, and it was obvious this was a region that gets a LOT of rainfall. The peaks in the park receive well over 300 inches each year. En route, we crossed a bridge over the wide Rio Grande de Orosi, and a great number of very large earthmovers were at work in the middle of the riverbed rechanneling the force of the water, which in years of higher than usual rainfall, threatens the whole valley with flooding. Already, we had seen the remnants of two large bridges that had washed out and numerous mudslides and road repairs.

We went to Tapanti with high hopes of seeing quetzals, jaguars, macaws and other exotic wildlife. In reality, we saw nary a butterfly. We did see a large number of jungle plants and lots of mud. I saw mud from a closer vantage point than Tanji after taking a header coming down a steep slope and sliding a good ways down the mountainside.

On the way back to town, we encountered a very friendly raccoon-like creature in the midst of a deserted stretch of road. It was perhaps too friendly (as in very hungry or even rabid), so we rolled up the windows, took a few snaps and kept going. That afternoon, we had an appointment to visit one of the two large coffee mills that serves the Orosi Valley, but it was not to be. When we arrived at the mill, an office assistant responded to our attempts to ask for our contact with an astonishing display of attitude, rapid-fire Spanish and unhelpfulness. I explained in polite English how I was the senior international buyer for the Starbucks chain and how she had just cost her company a multi-year contract worth approximately $50 million dollars annually, smiled and we left.

The Micromills of Tarrazu After a relaxing final night in Orosi, we again hit the road to go meet our new friend Tim O’Brien in San Jose. Tim first came to the mountains of the Tarrazu region some years ago working for the Peace Corps on a project to improve the prospects for blackberry farmers, fell in love with the town of San Martin, and got into coffee farming. This led to his installation of one of the first micromills in the region, and now he and his partner operate an export company set up to act as a distribution conduit for small mills in Costa Rica and Panama. Through a contact I made via an Internet coffee forum, Tim agreed to show us around the Tarrazu region and give us a look at the micromills.

With grit and determination, we made our way through the heart of San Jose, having predictably missed the turn we were supposed to take that would lead us on the more friendly route around the city. After only getting lost a few times, we found our way to the large, central Sabana Park, hung out for a bit at a great youth recreation center (kids there have it good) and then met up with Tim. We drove from there to his office in nearby Escazu, left our car there and headed for the mountains in Tim’s jeep.

After a nice drive up and out of the Central Valley, we crested a ridge, and there before us were the rolling mountain valleys of Tarrazu. Of the seven distinct coffee-growing regions in Costa Rica, Tarrazu is the most famous, producing high grown coffees of great richness and versatility. Coffee blanketed the mountainsides as far as the eye could see, stretching in a band from the valley floor to just below the peaks (coffee grows as high as 2,000 meters there). Tim pointed out some of the farms we would visit that day and explained how the two main valleys of the Tarrazu region ran from east to west, terminating at the Pacific Ocean.

Over the next two days, we toured nine farms, each with their own micromills, and met the wonderful, impassioned farmers of each. These farmers have invested in their small milling operations to liberate them from the traditional model of small farmers selling coffees to a large central mill, in the process losing any special characteristics of their coffee to the great soup pot of pooled coffee. With a small mill, a farmer can keep extremely small lots (as small as 3-5 commercial bags) distinct, and these can be very, very special coffees that command prices well beyond the standard rates paid to the farmers who supply the larger beneficios. This, in turn, allows roasters to get to know a farm and its coffees, and then forge relationships under which they are able to buy these coffee they know so well each year.

With this arrangement also comes risk. Micromill technology is not inexpensive, and it also doesn’t run itself. Those who adopt these approaches must be as much engineer as farmer in operating their businesses, and they must be entrepreneurial in seeking markets for their coffees – because higher value coffee that doesn’t have a buyer goes right back into the pool and commands the same prices as all the others. Tim is doing a great thing for all the farmers he serves, in trying to pull together container-sized export lots of coffee, open up new markets (like roasters of our scale) and find creating ways of packaging and distributing these coffees.

The passion of these farmers was incredibly energizing. They know the earth and they respect it. They know coffee as a plant, the weather patterns, the needs of the soil and the impacts of the varying terroirs found throughout their farms. They care about environmental issues, such as water usage and quality, waste handling, judicious use of soil treatments and recycling of input and output of the farm. They have totally embraced the opportunities of the micromill system, striving to learn more about how they can impact the taste of their coffees and the rewards this brings them. We saw small roasting machines and cupping (the formal tasting process used by those in the coffee trade) equipment in several mills. Two farmers whose coffee had been a finalist in the Costa Rica “Cup of Excellence” competition last year proudly displayed they bags from this small lot of coffee, and we could see they were working toward being there again.

We saw great creativity at work. On Tim’s own farm, he takes the fermenting mucilage (the sticky layer inside the skin that surrounds the beans) and runs it into “biobags,” which captures the methane gas being generated and sends it off through a very long hose to the house of a nearby farmer, who uses it for cooking fuel. Another farmer takes the pulp (skin) of the coffee cherries and mixes a special food mixture used to feed his cows. All the farmers recycle the parchment waste (the husk that surrounds the beans; this is milled off just before export) to fire the mechanical dryers they use at the end of the drying process to “finish” the coffee. Old roots from coffee plants that no longer produce are used for the same purpose. And, farmer after farmer showed us the steps they take to conserve water – and one drank from his water supply to show us the purity of the water. What an amazing experience for us.

At the end of our first day in Tarrazu, Tim took us to one final micromill, Montes de Oro, where we spent the night with his great friends Emilio, Lara and their kids in a beautiful mountain cottage. There, Emilio had a small home coffee roaster similar to one I used to own, and it was with great honor that I roasted the coffee of a farmer for that farmer to give him some tips on how to use it. It was such a peaceful place to sleep too.

And I have to mention the passion fruit. As we drove along a high ridge through different farm fields, we passed an orchard bearing an unfamiliar fruit. When we asked about it, Tim replied, “that’s a passion fruit – I’ll get you one!” In a trice, he had stopped the car, maneuvered over the barbed wire fence bordering the field (he knew the guy) and handed us each a fruit and passed Tanji a fragrant purple flower from one of the vines.

We looked at the thing with curiosity – do you peel it? Bite into it? Cook it? He laughed, and told us the reason we didn’t know what to do was that they were generally too delicate to export, and that we should just break the thing in half and go for it. So we did, and I have to say they are well named. The fruit in two like an egg, spilling forth a white nectar populated with watermelon-like seeds, and to eat it you basically dive right in.

The Mountain of Death

The next morning, we began with quick visits to three more coffee mills. One of these was the “dry mill” used by Tim’s company. Here, the parchment layer on the outside of the green coffee beans is milled off, then before shipping, the coffee is sorted in various ways to remove defective (low density or off color) beans and ensure uniformity of size (which ensures consistent roasting). Next, we went to drop off a bag of coffee from his trunk at the farm/mill of a guy who is something of a packrat and tinkerer. Amid a patched together micromill setup, he had a beautiful old Italian coal-fired roaster (now converted to gas) and a great collection of reed canastas, the traditional baskets used for collecting coffee cherries. Sadly, the pickers now use baskets made of plastic. I wished the man was home, because he seemed like a lot of fun!

Our last stop of the morning took us out of Tarrazu and into the town of Alajuela, part of the Central Valley coffee region. Here, we visited the farm and mill Brumas del Zurquí, which specializes in “honey coffees,” where the sticky mucilage layer is left on the beans prior to drying rather than being removed in the milling process. When this is done correctly (for it is not an easy process to control), the result is a coffee with greatly increased depth and body – and one that works well in espresso.

The story of the farm is unique in this day and age. On all sides, they are surrounded by the suburbs of Alajiuela, and we were told that it was only because of a true passion for coffee that this farm survives, as they could have sold the land for a great profit to the real estate developers who encroached on their land. Not so lucky was the famed Tres Rios coffee-growing region to the northeast of San Jose. Very little coffee remains there in the face of a housing boom that has sucked up a large majority of the farmland.

We had a nice lunch with Tim at a small organic café on a side street in Escazu, joined he and his partner for a round of cupping the coffees from some of the farms we had visited and then hit the road for a journey up the Mountain of Death. Our destination was a very small town called San Gerardo de Dota, located at over 2,500 meters on the edge of Cerro de la Muerte. San Gerardo had been recommended to us by both Andy and Connie (at the Orosi Lodge) and Tim as being a beautiful place to spend the last two days of the trip – and one that was away from the mainstream tourist scene.

We drove back through Cartago (actually easy to find this time), then headed south on the Interamericano highway (which runs all the way through the core of Central America). Quickly we began climbing, leaving the Central Valley behind and heading into the mountain range on the eastern border of the Tarrazu region. The high clouds turned to dense fog, the road narrowed, and the remnants of many mudslides resulted in a patchwork of road repairs.

Though The Mountain of Death sounds like something from a Tolkien novel and suggests being the namesake of auto accidents on the wet, twisty roads, the name actually refers to the struggles of immigrants making the long journey over the summit from Panama and points southward. It wasn’t a long drive, maybe 50 miles or so, and within a few hours we reached the small turnoff for San Gerardo. Down, down, down, went the steep dirt road, and I was thankful for our little Jeeplet. We descended well over 2,000 feet into a vibrant, lush valley, dripping with small creeks and with trees festooned with passenger plants and vines of all descriptions. As the road began to flatten, we turned into the grounds of the Trogan Lodge (named for a local exotic bird).

The Trogan Lodge is a set of about 15 small bungalows, each with two rooms, rising up the mountainside above a central restaurant and trout pond. The setting was stunning.

In reading the guidebooks about the place, I wish I hadn’t seen the part about this being a popular destination for package tours, but there it was. The “package” quality of the place was reinforced when we checked in, as the desk clerk worked his way through a very long list of amenities offered by the hotel, each with its own price tag. Among these was the “quetzal tour,” for just $25, and he informed us that to do this, we should be downstairs at 6:00 the next morning. We went to get a beer and watched in astonishment as one of the package tourists completely patronized the poor bartender, using a combination of pidgin Spanish, counting on her fingers and pure ugly Americanisms. We beat a quick retreat, returned later for a really bad buffet dinner and called it a night.

The next morning, determined to escape the hotel restaurant, we set off town the road into the valley in search of another option for breakfast. As we were leaving the grounds, the package people came up the road, returning from their morning quetzal tour. They told us that, for a very slight fee, the avocado farmer down the road we take us into his orchard where the quetzals like to dine on the fruit of his trees. For just $2, the farmer’s great daughter took us up the road into the orchard, peered around into the thicket of green before us and pointed out the flurry of color and plumage that is the world’s most beautiful bird. And then, if that weren’t exciting enough, she found us another as we were walking back to the main road – but this time, we were less than 10 feet away. We tiptoed closer and closer, snapping away, in awe that we were several arm lengths away from the creature that is the basis for many peoples decision to vacation in that part of the world.

After getting our fill of cuteness and color, we turned to go and encountered the hilarious sight of at least sixty hushed birdwatchers who had snuck up behind us while we were in our resplendent quetzal stupor. How their megabus made it down that road is beyond me. We continued down the road and found a nice little inn/restaurant, where we had a great meal of fresh peach juice from the valley, fresh fruits and the local breakfast staple, gallo pinto (beans and rice). Just outside the window where we were sitting, a hummingbird feeder attracted a steady parade of exotic little birds, some no bigger than my finger.

After breakfast, we ambled down the road with the destination of a somewhat dangerous waterfall trail the waitress had told us about. I have been aware of the concept of biodiversity for a long time, but our walk that morning made me really understand it. After the turnoff for the restaurant, we dropped further into the valley for another three miles or so, and every inch of that walk was fascinating – we passed hundreds of different plants, fruits, birds and butterflies, and it was just so beautiful. En route, we stopped by a small inn advertising mud baths and made arrangements for later that night.

As the road jogged right, we followed a sign for the waterfall trail and made our way into the thick, verdant jungle along a trail that paralleled the rapidly flowing river. I would by lying if I said that fantasies of being Indiana Jones weren’t running through my head. We descended for an hour or so on a well-maintained path along the river. Vines tumbled from the trees above and wrapped themselves around their trunks. It was hard to tell where one plant ended and another began – with some trees bearing host to dozens of smaller succulents and brambles. A cacophony of birds echoed through the trees, though few of them could be seen. Sounds of rushing water came from all around, with mountainside creeks sometimes drowning out the river.

We came to the Temple of Skulls under a hailstorm of poison darts. I, with my bullwhip in hand, clenched Tanji to my side, whispering that I would protect her at all costs. I deflected the machine gun fire from the dangerous foreign army lurking in the trees, swooped up the fabulous jewel-encrusted talisman that was the object of our Quest, tucked it into my weathered leather jacket, and with a nibble step or two leapt into the awaiting biplane and flew us out of there.

Not really.

But we did cross a bridge high above a beautiful waterfall system and then came upon a long, amazing set of cables and ladders that allowed us to traverse along the steep muddy hillside above the river, and these finally ended at what had been a long suspension bridge. This had washed away during a recent flood and prevented access to a still bigger waterfall downstream.

Happy and now quite tired, we retraced our steps and, six hours after we had left the hotel to have breakfast, we arrived back at our room and laughed at how a simple stroll down the road had turned into a twelve-hour jungle adventure. The magic of Costa Rica.

It’s funny how some of the best experiences in travel come from the simplest of events. That night, we went down the road from our hotel to the small inn and restaurant where we had made the reservation for the mudbath and a dinner to follow. Our exuberant hostess Sirita met us at the door and led us to a large steamroom, now billowing with mint-infused mist. After forty-five minutes of inhaling the delicious heat, she returned with vats of a thin mud and a paintbrush and covered us and herself with a thin coating – she was trying it too because she had just taken the job of manager and wanted to experience the same things her guests would.

After twenty minutes of mud infusion, we rinsed off, showered and followed some long hallways back to the main part of the inn to get ready for dinner. It was so beautiful! Since we arrived, it had gotten dark outside, and all the rooms of the public areas of the lodge were now illuminated with hundreds of candles. A small fire flickered in an old metal fireplace built into a corner of the room. We enjoyed some drinks before the fire, and she then brought us into the dining room, where it soon became clear that we were their only guests that night.

There were three staff on duty, Sirita, their cook Anna and the groundskeeper Geraldo. Since it felt silly just sitting there like that, we suggested that we all eat together, and they agreed. And for the next two hours, we enjoyed a very special meal in very special company.

By the light of all those candles, picking our way through our halting Spanish, Sirita’s translations, Geraldo’s tentative English and Anna’s boisterous Spanish, we all got to know each other, sharing tales of where we lived, where we grew up, our governments and our lives. This night was the high point of our trip.

Dumping the Car

All through our stay, the diatribe about the dangers of driving in Costa Rica from the Hertz guy on the first day had been living in the back of my mind as we navigated through mud, mountainsides, slippery roads, aggressive truck drivers and spaced-out food vendors popping up in the middle of traffic. So, pulling our mud-covered Jeepette into the rental return parking lot was a form of victory for me. We spent our last night just down the road from the airport in a cut-rate hotel called the Millennium II. It was cut rate because the hotel sits directly at the business end of the airport runway, and there’s just something about having a screaming passenger jet go right across the top of your cranium that messes with your sleep. It was a long night.

Looking Back

That was a special vacation on so many levels. We learned a lot. We met lots of friendly, engaging people. We saw unmatched beauty. We relaxed and read and didn’t feel rushed, and didn’t think at all about the US economy. We were reminded of how easy it can be to live simply. And we’ll be back, definitely. That’s all, until next time. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Holiday Coffees and the California Coastal Coffee Scene

2011-05-19T13:45:00.001-07:00

i All,

Gosh, sorry for the radio silence, folks – it has been a long two weeks on the road.

I am back roasting this weekend on Sunday, (November 8), and I’ll deliver and ship on Monday. Please check the website (www.freeportcoffee.com) for the coffees we’ll have available this week.

So, the holidays are coming up – and following are a few highlights of the coffees and special offers we will have available this year:

> If you order by December 1, any five pounds of the same coffee will be just $10/pound. For locals, we’ll deliver to you, and for those from away, shipping will be $4.99 for these orders. Since I can’t figure out how to do this on our website, please email me if you would like to do this, and I can process the order with you that way and arrange payment.

> We won’t do half pounds this year, but I can offer 12-ounce bags for orders of ten or more of the same coffee at a good price. Email me and tell me what coffee you are interested in and I’ll get right back to you with some specifics on pricing.

We’ll have available most of the coffees we have now, and in a few weeks, some great additions:

> A Guatemala from the Huehuetenango region grown in cooperation with Slow Food International by a Presidium (small collective) of 170 small growers from the villages of San Pedro Necta, La Libertad, and Todos Santos Cuchumatán.

> A sweet malty estate coffee from the Tjen Plateau in eastern part of Java.

> Our holiday special for this year, a traditional medium-dark Mokka-Java blend. This is one of the oldest blending recipes in all of coffee, and we’ve been waiting until we had just the right combination of origins to make this available to you. This one comes to you in our holiday packaging, so its perfect for giving. (Last year’s holiday blend was retired for a funny reason that I can’t print here – ask me next time I see you and I will explain.)

For your planning purposes, I would like to get your coffees to you as close to the holidays as possible so they are fresh. I will roast December 12-13 (good if you are mailing your coffee), and December 19-20 (and each week before then).

This was an interesting set of road trips – capped by a 700-mile blitz of college visits in California with one of my sons. I took advantage of the jet lag to do some exploring of the coffee scenes in the towns we visited . . .

> Fresh off the plane, I walked the entire length of the Ojai Valley in near darkness, watching the exquisite desert sunrise and coming upon the only-imagined Ojai Valley Coffee Roasting Company, where I hung with some great locals, enjoyed some shots from their La Marzocco and had a nice cup of Costa Rica.

> Onward to Pismo Beach – perhaps the low point of the trip from a coffee standpoint. The Wild West Cinnamon Roll café had very pedestrian coffee, the Java Shack, though possessed of a nice ambiance, sent me screaming off into the misty coastal morning by offering me a delicious cup of Toasted Marshmallow (coffee), and out of desperation, I ended up at the Targetstorelike vibe of the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for an over-roasted cup from Brazil.

> In Monterey, I got some local recommendations to a nice spot called Plumes in the old wharf part of town and enjoyed several good cups from their pourover station. This place apparently has a lot of trouble keeping their staff – I was thankful for the great baristas at the Royal Bean.

> Next (shudder) we ended up in a motel next to the highway in picturesque Daly City – but the morning walk yielded a really nice experience at a Starbucks. Though I am not so crazy about their coffee, I have to say that they sure employ a lot of nice people.

> And then, a great morning walking the backstreets of Petaluma – and the sad circumstance of Petaluma Coffee and Tea (with two sweet Probat roasters) not opening until later and the Aqus Café being completely inaccessible because of a construction project. Out of sentiment for my upbringing in Berkeley, I hung out at Peets, drank some really dark roasted espresso and watched the chaos of their morning rush. Coming from the languid pace of Maine, its funny to watch the stresses brought on these people by a long morning commute.

And the Bay Bridge was closed most of the time we were there – on the way to the airport, we saw the mother of all traffic jams; at least three hours to go 25 miles.

It’s so nice to be home. I hope all of you are well as winter settles in (our first snow of the year is melting in the yard), and that this finds you well.

All the best,

Kent

Espresso Demystified

2011-05-19T13:44:00.001-07:00

Hi Friends,

Welcome to winter (at least here in Maine)! The thermometer read a bracing THREE this morning (wind chill is -10, if anyone out there in the heartland wants to feel sorry for or envy us).

But it is definitely coffee-drinking weather!

I'll be roasting this weekend on Sunday, and we'll deliver and ship Monday (the 21st). We'll do extra for those needing last minute gifts, and if you need coffee before Monday, we have a good assortment here from last weekend.

For my article this week, I will re-run a piece I wrote last year around this time on the joys of espresso - there's still time to go beg Santa for the sweet new La Marzocco GS3 (available here), or just get inspired to roll down to The Royal Bean and watch them coax a beautiful hand-made shot from the machine.

Oh, and speaking of the Bean, tomorrow morning (Saturday), they are having a holiday soirée from 9-12, and I'll be demonstrating my collection of outlandish brewing devices and making Turkish coffee. Join us?

What is Espresso?

The term “espresso” dates back to Italy in the late 1800s, and it refers to coffee made “expressly” for the customer, one cup at a time. Today, espresso can be defined as a brewing method in which hot water is forced under pressure through a bed of uniformly ground coffee that has been compacted to create resistance to the flow of water and heat. This elixir is a concentrated form of coffee that results from the extraction and emulsification of the oils in the coffee – and it is important to note that this is a different form of extraction than conventional brewing methods that depend on a prolonged exposure to water.

The first attempts at using pressure with steam as a way of quickly brewing coffee failed miserably, as steam (at 212+ degrees) is much hotter than the optimum extraction temperature range of 190-205F. It was quickly replaced by water, and the Pavoni company manufactured the first commercially available espresso machines in 1901. Other significant developments followed over the next decade, among them the piston based method of controlling extraction in the 40s and the now ubiquitous E61 grouphead in the early 1960s. In the links at the bottom of the article, you’ll find a much more detailed history of espresso-brewing equipment.

In Italy, proper espresso preparation is said to depend on the perfect combination of the “four Ms”:

Miscela/Espresso Coffee Blends: When you are served good, true espresso, the coffee is typically a blend of coffees that have been combined to achieve a marriage of body, texture, crema and flavor. While some single origin coffees can be prepared in espresso machines with good results, more often than not, “espresso” is a blend of coffees. Contrary to common usage, there is not a type of coffee called an “espresso bean,” nor is there an accepted roast level called an “espresso roast.”

Macinacaffe/Grinder: More than for any other brewing method, uniform grinding is absolutely critical for the preparation of great espresso. An irregular grind will result in uneven extraction, too fine a grind will clog the filter and too coarse a grind yields insufficient extraction. Pro baristas start their days each day “dialing in” their grinders, working to fine tune the degree of grind so that a perfect 25-30 second shot time is achieved.

If you are considering getting into making great espresso at home, start your journey with getting a good grinder (probably a minimum investment of $125), and then worry about the machine – I think too often, people start with the machine and continue with their older blade grinders, and honestly, this won’t ever give you a good result.

Macchina: The espresso machine itself. The higher end machines you see in cafes that are dedicated to good espresso (such as The Royal Bean) are very precise instruments, typically made in Italy, that allow precision control over water temperature, pressure and extraction time used the brew the espresso shots – and then a separate water boiler to generate steam for the milk (the brewing temperature and steaming temperature are different).

For home use, there are a LOT of options, and if you are wanting to produce good espresso at home, you will want to do some research. The links below will provide you with a huge body of articles, reviews and shopping options – and I’m also happy to help you evaluate ideas/solutions if you want to write back. I don’t think it Is necessary to spend a lot of money to get set up for your own kitchen, but you do need to make good choices.

Mano (“hand” in Italian): Mano here refers to the role of the barista and the training of the barista in producing good espresso. It is the barista who works to optimize the grinding of the coffee and tamping it into the portafilter with just the amount of pressure. The barista will observe the timing of the shot and the development of crema in the cup – and then taste the final result to make sure that all these steps are getting the best possible result in the taste of the espresso. Being a good barista is MUCH more than simply going through the motions of putting coffee in a portafilter, pushing it down and pressing a button.

When a good barista labors over his or her machine and prepares your drink with love and care, that shot, cappuccino or latte is worth every penny you pay for it. And in the hands of an uncaring barista, you are frankly getting ripped off.

I hope this article will help you be able to spot the difference.

Some Brief Editorial Comments

In my conversations with people about coffee, I am sad to report that espresso is very substantially misunderstood . . . and I place the blame for this squarely at the door of those businesses that try to use the good name of espresso for commercial gain without going through the effort to make it properly.

In the US, the experience of most people with espresso is through drinks that have been sold to them under the misused names cappuccino and latte. In the traditional definitions of these words, a cappuccino will be composed of equal thirds espresso, steamed milk and microfoam (the foam that results from the proper steaming of the milk). A latte, by contrast, is one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk.

In both cases, the distinctive wonder of espresso should be discernable.

In practice, however, most of these drinks as sold by donut chains, hamburger chains and even large, mainstream, should-know-better coffee chains have WAY too much milk in them. There is no such thing as a 20 ounce cappuccino!!

And then I’d go on to say that in far too many cases, the coffee base of these drinks is not truly well-prepared espresso (as described above)

So on one hand, we have “espresso drinks” out there with so much milk that whatever the coffee is in the drink, it can’t be tasted . . . and then really badly made espresso (or more often, something that is NOT espresso using its good name) that yields the impression that this is not a divine beverage, but more like something akin to used motor oil.

Bliss

Yes, bliss. In my own humble opinion, a well made espresso is a joy to behold. Watching a good shot of espresso develop in a clear shot glass is poetry in motion (see the videos below). The twin senses of smell and taste of a good shot brings forth a rich, sensuality on the pallet that rivals the pinnacle of any food or beverage experience on earth. And, when combined with the proper ratios of well-steamed milk and/or microfoam, cappuccinos and lattes can be the ultimate comfort food.

Some Visuals . . .

Since you aren’t all sitting in front of me, I thought I’d use YouTube as a way of demonstrating the visual side of making good espresso:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYdqac3qdfg This demonstration, by professional barista Billy Wilson, shows the preparation of espresso from grinding through grooming, tamping and pulling the shots themselves – followed by several examples of latte art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px7NTc9g_ds Here, you’ll see a shot of espresso pulled through a bottomless portafilter so that you can see the extraction of espresso in real time. A “portafilter” is the funnel-like device with a handle that holds the coffee and clamps on to the “group,” where the pressurized water comes out of the machine. With a bottomless portafilter, the lower half of the filter is cut off, providing a view of the underside of the filter basket as the coffee comes through it. Baristas use these to look for consistency in the extraction of espresso. (also in the shot is a view of what this would look like using a conventional portafilter)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp7GMWiDNIs This provides three side views of espresso being brewed into clear shot glasses. Shown are shots that are too fast, too slow and juuuust right. This is a great view of the crema layer of espresso (crema is the thick, aerated foam on the top of the shot).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhxvDusY3jk Mark Prince of CoffeeGeek describes the operation of the popular Rancilio Silvia home espresso machine. Many, many people start their home espresso experience with this one, and the video provides you with a nice look at what you are getting into if you make the commitment to make espresso manually at home.

Further Reading . . .

http://www.home-barista.com/espresso-guide.html This site is dedicated to the large community of home-based espresso fanatics, and the article in the link is a long and very comprehensive review of espresso history and preparation.

http://www.wholelattelove.com/buyingguide.cfm This is the pre-eminent online resource for coffee equipment, and the link brings up a large set of articles on every aspect of espresso preparation and equipment selection.

http://www.coffeegeek.com/guides/howtobuyanespressomachine This article, by CoffeeGeek maestro Mark Prince, steps you through all the considerations in buying a home espresso machine. If you are considering making the investment in a home setup, you might want to then jump over to CoffeeGeek’s Consumer Reviews, where users have taken the time to write well-detailed overviews of the experiences with all different types of espresso and brewing equipment. Here, note that you can bring the reviews up by the scores that other users have given the reviews – and the information here is excellent and unbiased.

So, now that you are all experts, I encourage all of those of you who may have been staying away from espresso to go out into the world (to a place that cares) and try a shot or a cap or a latte. A REALLY FUN thing to do is to chat up your local barista while they make your drink. Have them step you through what you are doing. Have them show you their craft. And then sit down in a comfortable chair, close your eyes and begin.

All the best,

Kent

Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Understanding Global Coffee Markets

2011-05-19T13:43:00.001-07:00

Hi Friends,

This weekend, I will be roasting on Sunday, October 4, then shipping and delivering on Monday.

We have some amazing new coffees this week, a fair trade/organic Ethiopian Sidamo from the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU) and a sweet, rich FTO (fair trade organic) Sumatra Mandheling.

And, for espresso fans, we herald the return of Giddy Goats. We had to put the Goats out to pasture for a few weeks, until we got some more of the coffees that make up this top secret blend, but its time to get Giddy again!

With this article, I begin a series on social issues in coffee. In the coming weeks, I'll take you one by one through the major forms of certification (fair trade, organic, shade grown and bird friendly), and share some thoughts about how current economic and cultural forces in the US are impacting our quest for great coffees. Drop me a line if you have questions on any of these areas.

As a background for these articles to come, I'd like to give you a grounding in the macro level coffee market, and explain the forces that shape coffee supply and demand around the world. Taken together, it is these forces that determine the prices received by the vast majority of coffee farmers - and as you will see, these people have embarked on a wild and unpredictable ride.

Most people reading this article are average Americans. We have mortgages or rent, healthcare costs, insurance bills, groceries to buy and the need to clothe and shelter our families. Hopefully, we all still have jobs, and in our jobs, we receive a salary or hourly wage that we expect to be consistent. And each month, we count on there being at the least some predictability in an amount of income, an amount of bills and ideally something left over at the end of all that.

The farmers we know locally have things hard enough, with the ways in which weather patterns (especially this year!), insects and shifting food preferences impact their financial equilibrium, and coffee farmers have all these same adventures. But unlike local farmers, who can sell their crops locally or regionally, the output of coffee farmers is almost always heading away from the countries in which it is grown and into the turbulence of global commodities markets.

Here's what I found when I looked up "Commodity" in Wikipedia:

A commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it, such as petroleum, notebook paper, or milk. In other words, copper is copper. The price of copper is universal, and fluctuates daily based on global supply and demand. Stereos, on the other hand, have many levels of quality. And, the better a stereo is [perceived to be], the more it will cost.

One of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole. Well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot and derivative markets. Generally, these are basic resources and agricultural products such as iron ore, crude oil, coal, ethanol, salt, sugar, coffee beans, soybeans, aluminum, copper, rice, wheat, gold, silver and platinum.

Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, often by the diffusion of the intellectual capital necessary to acquire or produce it efficiently. As such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities, such as generic pharmaceuticals and silicon chips.

Yuck. Do we all consider coffee to be "the same no matter who produces it"? Of course we don't, but on a very important level, the market does - and this is the awful, awful paradox of coffee. A few weeks from now, after the polite grounding, I am going to indulge in a mega rant about the way I think this should be - but not yet.

The "C" Market:

As with the other globally-traded commodities mentioned above, benchmark coffee prices are set by large trading exchanges, here with one for Arabica coffee (most specialty coffee) based in New York, and the other for Robusta coffee, based in London.

The current "C" futures rate is set based on the forecasts of future forces that shape the supply and demand of coffee - to include weather, crop cycles, demand trends, crop yields and business conditions. And this rate is then used as an index against which coffee transactions at every step of the market, from grower to roaster, are priced. Transactions are based on differentials - either a premium or a discount - relative to the "C" price.

In my short time as a commercial roaster, I have seen the C price reach a high in mid-2008 of $1.65, then drop to its current rate of $1.35 (a 20% decline). I read today that the rate for the start of 2010 is predicted to be $1.10 (a 33% drop), based on the bumper crop coming out of Brazil this growing season.

The Big Players:

The output of the world's three largest producers, Brazil, Vietnam and Columbia, has a significant impact on the C price, as they collectively produce nearly 60% of the world's coffee. The forces of nature, such as this year's record rains in Columbia, can drive shifts in the C rate, as can diseases, pests or frosts. Government actions, like Vietnam's surge in Robusta production over the last 20 years, moves the C rate, and can work to the benefit of farmers (when cropland is converted to coffee production) or to traders (as they selectively hold and release coffee to the markets).

The Farmer:

So now back to our farmer. The reason all this matters at the level of an individual grower is that, with very few exceptions, the rates received by growers are also indexed to the C price. And unfortunately, the C price doesn't care about the costs of production in individual countries or regions. It doesn't care about wages, fertilizer, equipment maintenance, the cost of getting to market or the risks of local weather patterns. And when the markets dip, as they have now, farmers with relatively fixed production costs can suddenly find their revenue falling below their cost of growing coffee.

The strategies farmers use to respond to these crises include crop substitutions (growing more profitable crops on the same land), cutting production costs, increasing yields, increasing coffee quality (which can improve the grading of their coffee and increase the price) and conversions to organic growing methods or other growing schemes.

But these strategies take time. They incur costs that may not be possible for farmers of limited means. They carry risks. And they are simply not attainable for everyone. In Costa Rica this spring, we met some entrepreneurial farmers who had invested in micromills for their farms - a strategy that allows much greater control over coffee quality and the elimination of the costs or lower prices resulting from processing coffee at a large, centralized mill. But I remember asking our host about the kind of farmer who can make a micromill work, and he explained that these are people with a unique combination of farmer skills, business savy, daring and mechanical aptitude. And not every farmer is suited for such an investment.

My Concern

I feel like coffee is at a crossroads right now. In the past ten years, a "third wave" of coffee culture has developed in the U.S., Europe and Japan, with amazing improvements in coffee sourcing, roasting techniques, brewing and consumer appreciation of new and different coffees. And with a healthy economy (and a strong coffee market), the incentives were plentiful for coffee growers to push the envelope. Old, lower yielding strains of coffee were replanted. Micromills were installed, allowing special coffees from single plots of land to be isolated, tested and improved to the point of magic. Innovative sorting methods allowed improvements in the processing of coffee, resulting in cleaner, fresher tastes. Environmentally sensitive growing methods improved water quality, reduced water usage and allowed coffees to be grown with fewer chemical inputs.

But every one of these improvements requires the assumption of risk and investment. And if, at the end of the day, the price to be gotten for a pound of green coffee isn't high enough, these investments won't be made, and the great juggernaut of quality will slow or even stop. When our own economy goes south, people here look for ways to save, and the price they are willing to pay for a pound or a cup of coffee goes down. And the traders in New York and London see this trend and lower the C rate. And this then trickles all the way back to the mountains of Guatemala and Sumatra and Ethiopia and the others.

Enough for now - stay tuned for more.

Enjoy the weekend!

Kent

The Post-Roast Life of Coffee

2011-05-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Good morning, Friends,

This weekend, I will be roasting on Sunday, September 20, then shipping and delivering on Monday. Please have all mail orders, local deliveries and wholesale orders in by 10:00 Sunday. We have a few bags here if anyone is in need before then.

I wanted to write today on what goes on in coffee in the hours and days after it is roasted . . . and what this means for you.

Last weekend, when I was getting ready to roast, I got a panicked call from a wholesale customer saying that they had a larger than usual crowd of espresso drinkers that morning, and had run out of espresso. They asked if I had any extra on hand (sadly the answer was no), and then increased their order for the week ahead.

But this wasn't as simple as getting enough coffee to make it through the remaining hours of the afternoon until I could deliver the next morning - it was a problem that was likely to impact the coffee they served over the next 3-5 days or even a week.

Why?

In the 24-48 hour period after coffee roasts, the newly roasted beans emit a steady flow of "outgassing" carbon dioxide, and the beans go through a series of chemical changes that have a very positive impact on the taste. Thus, we try hard to plan the espresso purchases of the wholesale customers so that their coffee is roasted 3-5 days before it will be used. After "resting" for this period of time, the coffee mellows, much in the way wine does as it ages, and the acidic brightness of the coffee (that can become very pronounced with espresso extraction) fades dramatically.

So for this customer, the question was how to get through not only that day, but the better part of the week ahead.

A comment Tanji and I hear often is "wow, it must be great to be able to always drink all that coffee right after it is roasted." But we also "rest" the coffee we drink, because the differences in taste from day to day over the first week after roasting are noticeable, and I should say, very wonderful.

A lot of you around here get your coffee from us the day after roasting (your roasting date is always stamped on the bottom of the bag), so you can experiment with this phenomenon at home. Try a cup the day you get the coffee, then focus on the taste every day for the next week (or beyond). You should see the progressive mellowing and merging of flavors during the first 3-5 days, and then, if your coffee goes into the second week, you will experience the slight dulling of the tastes of the coffee and maybe even the beginnings of the coffee going stale.

So why does this happen? Much of these changes (especially with espresso) are related to the taste of carbonic acid trapped in the newly roasted beans by the carbon dioxide. When we describe coffee as "acidic," this is one of the acids you taste (and it is present in all coffees at varying degrees). As the CO2 leaves the coffee, it takes some of this acidity with it, and the sharp, piquant taste of newly roasted coffee begins to subside.

This outgassing is responsible for other phenomena too. In the first two days after roasting, coffee brewed by any method will "bloom", or foam, as a result of an intense burst of CO2 being released by the just ground coffee. The valves you see on higher end coffee bags (like ours) are there to allow coffee to be packed just after roasted, then provide a way for the CO2 gas to escape from the bag (otherwise the bags would pop!).

The CO2 also helps to protect the coffee from going stale by forming a cushion of escaping gas around the beans. This gives the beans a temporary break from being assaulted by air (which, along with light and moisture, is a natural enemy of coffee).

A quick word on packaging. The point of a good coffee package (or canister or other sealed storage method) is to guard the coffee from air, light and moisture - thereby keeping it fresher longer. So packaging is an important contributor to the taste of your coffee.

If you buy your coffee by the pound, as most people do, look for a multi-ply bag (that protects the coffee from the air) with a valve (meaning it was packaged right after roasting), and then if you keep your coffee in this bag, roll it up tightly after each use and wrap it with a rubber band. Stay away from coffee sold in bulk bins (a lot of exposure to the air - and is likely to be stale before you buy it) and from simple paper bags or those just lined with wax (almost no protection against the elements). If you need to buy in bulk, buy from a seller that turns over a lot of coffee - and if you used a paper bag with no lining, transfer the coffee into a sealed container when you get home.

Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Roasting Schedule and Random Notes

2011-05-19T13:38:00.001-07:00

Good morning, Friends . . .

This weekend, I’ll be roasting Sunday the 17th, then delivering and shipping the following day. Please send your orders by Sunday morning.

The yummy Burundi is moving fast. Try this out if you’d like to experience a very smooth, rich East African coffee – should only be available for another few weeks.

Congratulations is in order for our friends at The Royal Bean – the one year anniversary of the shop. Jim, Bridgett, Matt, Emily, Kate and the others have brought a great café experience to the people of Yarmouth, and our hats are off to them for their commitment to great coffee, customer service and the community. In the next few week’s I’ll send you information on the month of special events they have planned to celebrate the occasion.

It’s been an interesting week from my place in the coffee world, and I thought I’d just share some happenings and news items with you all . . .

> I get inquires in this business that are just fun – this week to include a small, very coffee conscious art gallery off in the hinterland that wants to try our wares and a nice fellow who is opening a small shop and wants advice on how to do coffee right from the start.

> The Aeropress! Jim and I have both been experimenting a lot with this funny little brewing device, which looks like something that may have been stashed away in a corner in a high school chemistry class. The brewer, by California flying disk maker Aerobie (they make those cool rings that fly a REALLY long way) retails for about $25 and it makes great coffee. The brew is like espresso in its level of concentration, very balanced and very clean. The thing is a snap to clean up and it would be a great toy to take camping or out on the water. With the addition of an inexpensive milk frother, its possible to get a very decent latte like setup for less than $50.

> I took delivery of a few bags of Fair Trade Organic Honduras Marcala the other day, to be used for a benefit by the Freeport Rotary Club in support of their amazing clean water initiative in Honduras. The project will provide nearly 2,000 household water filters throughout northern Honduras, preventing a lot of illness along the way. Have a look at the project here:

> Earlier this week, a very heavy coffee industry consultant came through town and spent some time helping out at The Royal Bean; I’ll be working with him in coming weeks to do some tweaking to our roaster and roast profiles, and you’ll be tasting the results of this effort.

> One of my favorite mindless reads is the Starbucks Gossip website, which gives past and present Starbucks employees a forum in which to dish about the company. Of late, a writer with the nom de plume “Juan Valdez” (a former and perhaps disgruntled store manager) does secret shopper visits to Starbucks stores and then shares the experience. Check it out sometime:

> In what can only be described as a form of war, McDonalds this week began a $100 million (yes, that would be eight zeros) ad campaign for its new “McCafe” offerings. Here, the mentality that brought you $.99 high fat, high sodium, bad for the rainforest, raised on corn nutritionally bankrupt cheeseburgers would like to convince you that their bad coffee in a new cup design is now tastier than ever. And in their crosshairs are yes, Starbucks, and also Dunkin Donuts. Starbucks has recently lowered the quality of their mainstream coffee, Dunkin hasn’t changed theirs and McDonalds may have come up a notch . . . leading to a trifecta of mainstream coffee that more or less tastes the same. Don’t be swayed – stick with cafes that make espresso by hand and coffees from different origins by the cup.

> I learned the other day that the company that makes my coffee roaster was the victim of a brazen theft the other day; the list of missing items includes seven commercial coffee roasters. Not good.

That’s all for today – have a great weekend!

Kent

The Battle for Hot Milk Supremacy

2011-05-19T13:37:00.001-07:00

Good morning, Friends!

I'll be roasting this weekend on Sunday (May 31), then shipping and making local deliveries on Monday, June 1. Please have your orders in by Sunday morning to be included for this week.

The selections for this week are on the website for your browsing pleasure (www.freeportcoffee.com). And alternately, Bow Street Market has a good full selection now (10 different coffees), and you can always find our coffees at The Royal Bean.

Speaking of The Royal Bean, their one-year anniversary is June 20 - a very exciting milestone for Jim and his team of crack baristas. You'll be hearing more about their monthly calendar of special events to mark the ocassion, one of which will be a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony held in their parking lot. Definitely not something that's been done in Yarmouth before.

One of the more amusing phenomena in our culture right now is the knuckles bared battle between Starbucks and McDonalds over the turf of coffee-based beverages. The upstart McDonalds is seizing territory and market share from the Mermaid, which has fought back with's own splashy ad campain touting the perfection and realness of its coffees. Fundmentally, though, it is all about milk, as this comprises the majority of the "lattes" and "cappucinos" that are the subject of this skirmish.

In strict coffee terms, neither company's "lattes" or "cappucinos" adhere to the traditional receipes for making these drinks (a latte being a three to one ratio of steamed milk to espresso, and a cappucino, one-third espresso, one-third milk, and a third foam), but instead are really large cups of too-hot milk and small amounts of automatically-generated espresso. Buyer beware.

I have spoken here before about Ken Davids, one of the true coffee sages. His books on espresso and home roasting are must-haves for any home coffee library, and his Coffee Review site is the best available service and resouce for comprehensive reviews of great coffees. Ken's homepage article this week discusses his semi-scientific reviews of McCafe's new offerings versus those of Starbucks. The article is linked here:

Ken describes the experience of trying to order a shot of straight espresso in a McDonalds. I went through this when I visited a pilot McCafe location about a year ago. The saddest part of my interaction was that the counter person seemed to have no idea what was meant by the word "espresso." Sigh.

A great espresso made by the hands of a trained barista is a joy to behold. You get to watch art in action, as beans are ground to order, the shot tamped and the shot timed to perfection by a person, not a microprocessor. If you are having a cap or a latte, watch the barista draw art with the milk on top of your beverage (rather than the milk glopping out of a machine like a tired soft-serve ice cream machine at the end of a hot summer day). Craddle the well-rounded ceramic cup in your hands and behold the smell and visuals of the rich, red-brown crema. Then sip. Ahhhhhhhhhh. Smile, then repeat. When you have finished your beverage (and just before you order the next), see how the espresso has coated the walls of your cup, a sign that your coffee was made by hand using fresh beans.

And support your local independent cafe. They deserve it, and so do you.

Thanks for your support, folks - enjoy the weekend!

Kent

Royal Bean Anniversary Celebration and the San Francisco Coffee Scene

2011-05-19T13:36:00.001-07:00

Hi Friends,

OK, I am back in town again, and happy to serve your coffee needs this weekend. I’ll be roasting on Sunday the 21st, then shipping and delivering on Monday.

Royal Bean Anniversary Celebration this Saturday

This Saturday, The Royal Bean celebrates a year of bringing great coffee and a great café experience to Yarmouth. Its been fun watching them grow, and we congratulate Jim and his great team of crack baristas on their success.

You are all cordially invited to join the anniversary party this Saturday (June 20) at the café. The festivities kick off at 10:00 with a kid’s art program (crafts and face painting), a customer appreciation cookout at 11:00 and music by Strause and Co. at 1:00. There will be raffles and giveaways all day.

And, Tanji and I will be doing a show and tell featuring our strange collection of brewing devices, a roasting demonstration, a tasting of some really nasty robusta (every coffee drinking has to try this just once) and answers to any and all questions you’d like to throw our way. We’ll be there all morning starting at 9:00.

A Coffee Geek on the Streets of San Francisco

En route to the airport the other day, I decided to check out the explosive San Francisco coffee scene. Some great new cafes had sprung up since I moved from there 12 years ago, and I wanted to experience three of these that are getting a lot of attention for their devotion to quality coffee:

Four Barrel Coffee

Four Barrel, located at one end of Valencia Street in the trying so hard not to be trendy Mission District, exudes warm elegance and a dedication to great coffee and little else. It is nearly a precondition that cool restaurant spaces in San Francisco be old warehouse space, and this is no exception. This deep, wide room, with high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows at the front and back, showcases a roasting operation in the back (a funky old Probat with an afterburner) and the front seating area is comfortable and airy. Over an original shiny concrete floor with worn shades of red paint from the previous tenant, chairs seeming from a Gulag era Soviet gradeschool sit against angular tables of old wood. A low wraparound counter of wide planks houses their two three-group La Marzocco Mistral espresso machines, a cash register and a small pastry counter that offers a choice of two different croissants.

That’s it. No mints. No cookies or preprepared salads. Certainly no blender. I didn’t see decaf. No smoothies, bottled beverages, t-shirts, travel mugs, brewing equipment or cookies. Shelves on a wall offer eight very high-end coffees for sale in austere paper bags, and there is the impression that when those are sold that will be it for the day. Like a bakery in a way.

I said I was from Maine and leaving today so unfortunately I couldn’t come to the cupping event they hold each Wednesday. The awesome counter guy said he used to live in Portland and work for Coffee by Design. I told him I was a roaster and he gave me a shot of espresso gratis. The espresso was very nice. I had some of their Costa Rica, which I felt was a bit on the bright side, but then that’s how Costas are.

Ritual Roasters

I started smiling the moment I entered Ritual. Their shop is deeper still into the Mission, down where the character of the neighborhood is still preserved. Many people on the street speak Spanish, the block is shared with an Indian restaurant, an auto repair place, some mystery storefronts and a used bookstore or two.

Just inside the front door is a long, Last Supper style communal table, some seen better days palm trees and some comfy couches. Suspended from the high painted ceiling are some old fans, diner type lighting fixtures and some cool bare lightbulbs at the end of long black tentacles. Jimi playing Voodoo Chile.

Three espressos are available from the four group Syneso. They have a Clover, the exciting $10K single cup brewing technology whose lifebreath was severed when Starbucks bought it. The Clover just brewed my now cooling cup of Sumatra Sidikalang (Jim, this one is for you).

I am not overwhelmed by this coffee, but it is a nice cup and unique for a Sumatra.

I am enjoying a nice gingerbread from the generous pastry case (note to Four Barrel – man doth not live on coffee alone).

A dog barks outside, wanting its master to stop drinking coffee and come play. Laptops adorn tables. Yet another old Probat lives in the back, ministered to by a tattooed roaster. Hey Joe comes on. Shops like this are so tied to their neighborhoods, they could be set up in the middle of the street and no one would notice.

It makes me happy every time I come back here that it is still possible to find experiences that feel like San Francisco.

Before leaving, I ordered a shot of their Hopscotch espresso. Much more interesting than the Four Barrel shot – better as a single shot and very unique. Long line at the counter now as the city wakes up.

Now heading back to Blue Barrel. I went there earlier, but the person who knows how to run the $20K Japanese four-station siphon brewer wasn’t in yet.

Blue Bottle

I had some trouble finding Blue Bottle the first time through. Its tucked into a short alley behind the old SF mint building on the fringe the South of Market district, and the only marker for the business was an iconic blue bottle on the corner of the building.

The interior is austere – all gray and fifties hospital green and old government building white. And they too are mostly about the coffee. They offer espresso two ways, their house blend in shots and milk drinks via a three group La Marzocco machine, and a single origin espresso of the day pulled on an old Bosco lever machine.

The centerpiece of the operation is a long counter anchored at one end by a tall “Kyoto Style” cold coffee drip brewer, a nearly four foot tall array of beakers that would seem at home in a college chem. lab, and at the other, a five station halogen siphon station.

For food, they offer just a few brioche, and other drinks include some teas, a gourmet hot chocolate, somebody’s signature apple juice and a variety of other coffee preparations. A coffee of the day (in this case a Mesa de los Santos Colombia) is made at a pourover station.

I ordered a small wet process Ethiopia Koratie ($6) from the siphon, and sat sushi bar style on the other side of the glass as the barista prepared my pot. Preheated water is added to a perfectly round flask sitting on a stand above a halogen heating element. The coffee (35g for about ten ounces of coffee) is ground to order, then added to another flask placed above the first, this one with a rubber sealing gasket. As the water boiled, the top flask is snugged onto the lower to seal the connection, then the steam pressure pushes the water up a spout into the top chamber, where it is stirred and left to steep for 30 seconds. The heating element is then turned off and a siphon action pulls the brewed coffee back into the lower chamber. Coffee Theatre at its finest.

The cup was good, but I was paying more for the experience than the coffee. I thought they had used a bit more coffee than necessary and the strength overwhelmed the sweetness of the Ethiopia.

Then to complete my round of intense caffeination, a shot of their espresso. I didn’t care for this one, as the flavor was too far away from what I expect in espresso and there was an almost soapy character at play.

In conclusion, after visiting all these hallowed reputations, the best cup I had was the Sumatra at Ritual, and I liked their espresso best of the bunch too. And really, I like our coffee, and I like the way the prepare coffee at The Royal Bean. This comparison makes me feel like we are doing many things right.

Coffee Cinema

If you have been wondering which is better coffee among Greek, Israeli (with cucumbers!) or made on a cheap plastic espresso machine, you won’t want to miss this short:

http://www.howcast.com/videos/81494-How-To-Brew-the-Best-Coffee

Or not.

See you soon – enjoy your weekend!

Kent

Coffee Brewer Bender

2011-05-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

Well, according to the weather outside, we are now a good six hours into the beautiful Maine summer, and what a summer it is.

Sitting on the veranda, sipping a cold Caipirinha, watching the surfers glide across the waves . . .

Washing off my muddy mountain bike, drying out my winter socks, shivering in front of the fire, bemoaning the rain delays in Sox games . . .

Hard to tell where summer starts and the winter ends this year, but there is of course always good coffee.

This week, I'll be roasting on Sunday, July 12, then delivering and shipping the next day. Send your orders in by noon Saturday to be included in this week's roasts.

Coffees for this week include the following:

> Brazil Mogiana Fazenda Cachoeira
> Burundi Bwayi Lot 8
> El Salvador San Emilio Pulped Natural (espresso fans - try this one as an SO shot; niiiiiiice!)
> Sumatra Gayo Mountain (Fair Trade Organic)
> Giddy Goats Espresso
> Indo Limbo French
> Medianoche Decaf Espresso (Water Process)
> Brazil Mogiana Yellow Bourbon Decaf (Water Process)
> Sumatra Lintong Triple Pick Decaf (Water Process)

I've been on a bit of a bender over the past few months, in a mad rampage of collecting alternative ways of brewing coffee . . .

Last night on eBay, it was a traditional Vietnamese brewer, an odd variation on a tin cup in which a verrrrry slow drip brew comes to rest on a bed of sweetened condensed milk in a clear glass (picture the tequila sunrise effect in sepia tone).

Somewhere en route in the transportation network out there in the hinterland is an antique ibrik like device from the collection of a WWII soldier. I'll be putting some effort into figuring out exactly what to call it - it could be an ibrik, but it could just as easily be a cezve, a briki or a kanaka.

There's the Bonjour Smart Brewer, one of several new drip devices that combine the best of French Press and filter brewing. I'm not satisfied with this one, as it seems inclined to pour coffee all over our counter when I am not looking, so I've also ordered it's kissin' cousin, the Clever Coffee Dripper, from Sweet Maria's. Its a real bargain at $13.50, and you can order one here. Follow the links to see more on how to use this.

The Aerobie Aeropress (ironically made by a Frisbee company), with its hypodermic like operation, gives new meaning to the term "coffee junkie." I like this one because I can prepare an "Aerocano" in under a minute and coffee is really, really good.

We have an ibrik, used for making Turkish style coffee with cardomom and sugar.

And then, the creme de la creme of brewers, the exotic and wonderful two chamber blown glass syphon pot, part theatre, part brewer for a crowd.

To our growing collection of mostly unused moka pots, there's the see-through cheeseball plastic model, which from a distance at the garage sale looked like an awesome find but wasn't, but I bought it anyway (for a quarter) because its a cool way to demonstrate the method.

Sitting there, unused since two days after we brought it back from Costa, Rica is the Chorreador de café, looking something like a gym sock suspended from a tie rack. Here's a nice picture of an old one.

And what coffee geek's collection would be without a set of French Presses - though I confess that the reason we have a "set" is that we break them a lot.

These all compete for space with a pretty blue enameled cowboy coffee pot, several pourover drippers, the strange little infusion thing I take when I travel (now sort of broken), a funky camping mini espresso maker that makes a "serving" of just over two tablespoons at a time, the espresso machine and some grinders.

The real trouble here is that I only can handle 2-3 cups of coffee at a sitting, so I begin each day turning in circles in the kitchen trying to figure out which one to use. Maybe I should just chuck them all - I heard there's this new stuff called "instant coffee" that only needs a teaspoon for brewing.

Or not.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Kent

Myths and Habits in Coffee

2011-05-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

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

The Coffee Sourcing Process

2009-03-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I am back from the road, and the roasting schedule returns to normal. I’ll roast this weekend on Sunday (March 29), and deliver and ship on Monday the 30th. We’ll have some extras over the weekend from last week’s roasting if anyone needs coffee.

Please check the website (www.freeportcoffee.com) before you order, as we’ve run out of a few coffees. One that is out this week is the Sumatra, but happily, I found a source for some of the Lintong Triple Pick we had a few months ago, and this should be in stock for the following week.

It’s an interesting time of the year in the coffee world. Many of the “new crop” coffees will be arriving in the next month, and I feel a bit like a little kid standing on the curb on a summer’s day waiting for the soundtrack of the ice cream truck to come wafting through the neighborhood. Anticipation.

When these arrive, we’ll have lots of new coffees, and I’ll be announcing some tasting events so you all can check these out.

A big announcement this week is that our coffee is now available at Bow Street Market in Freeport. We’ve had requests from people living out that way and in Brunswick, so its great to now give you a convenient way of buying our coffee.

When we show people the roastery, a question that often comes up is “where do you get all this coffee?” I’d like to devote this week’s missive to explaining the process.

In the origin countries (Brazil, Sumatra, Ethiopia, etc.), specialty coffee is packaged in jute bags typically containing 60K (132 pounds) or 70K (154 pounds), depending on the country. The coffee shipped from major ports in increments of full shipping containers, each containing 40,000 pounds of coffee (260-300 bags). (As an aside, for really low grade coffees, they skip the bags and just dump the green coffee into the shipping containers.)

The coffee travels by ship, with the journey taking between 2-4 weeks, depending on the source, and the coffee arrives in the major US ports of New Orleans, New Jersey, Long Beach, Oakland or Seattle. Some of the coffee is warehoused in these locations in either private or importer warehouses, while other containers travel by train to importers located in the central part of the country.

As a roaster, I learn about the coffees available from the three importers I work with via “offer lists” that are published daily or weekly. These lists are organized by country, and they indicate the full pipeline of coffees being offered by a specific importer. I say “pipeline” because there are coffees on the list that have been purchased but that are still en route to the US, along with those warehoused in different parts of the country and committed to by roasters but not yet shipped.

Roasters purchase coffees from importers in increments of the 60K or 70K bags described above. By the way, I usually have plenty of these bags here, and they look great on the wall. If you are interested in one, stop by to see the selection, and I will sell you a bag of your choice in return for a $5 contribution to Bikes to Rwanda.

As of the morning I write this, the largest importer I use has 467 coffees on their offer list – and many of these are now en route from Africa and Central America (corresponding with the cycle of growing, picking and processing in these countries).

The link below shows theses crop cycles, if you are interested:

http://www.hollandcoffee.com/schedule.htm

I select coffees from the lists I’d like to consider for purchase, and the importers send small samples of these (thus contributing to the growing pile of baggies in the corner of our dining room). We roast these on a little sample roaster, “cup” them (usually with the discriminating palate of Jim from the Royal Bean) and then make decisions of which to buy.

I order typically from a single warehouse location, and there up to ten (60-70K) bags are loaded on shipping pallets, and several days later, a large truck maneuvers its way into our neighborhood and the coffee is ours.

The high point of the winter was the subsequent transport of individual bags of coffee to the roastery by sled through a long, luge-like trough running down the hill to the roastery. The life of a New England microroaster in a hard winter.

Enjoy the nice spring weather this weekend (edited now to say “Saturday” as the forecast has changed).

Kent

Supporting the Growing of Higher Quality Coffees

2009-03-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

How are you all?

I’ll roast this weekend on Sunday the 15th and deliver and ship Monday. Please send your orders by Sunday morning, though we’ll have some extras available if you don’t get this until later in the weekend.

I’d like to ask a favor of you. Attached is a new flyer we’ve developed to explain our fundraising coffee program. If you know of a school group or non-profit organization that may be looking for a fun and easy way to raise some money, I would be grateful if you would forward this flyer to them and ask them to give me a call. Thanks in advance for your help with this.

This week, I carefully, carefully raise the lid of the Pandora’s Box of social issues in coffee. This is a broad area that encompasses every side of the human condition, to include economics, health, human rights, markets, education, weather, kindness, misery and every emotion and effect in between. And necessarily I’ll take this in small pieces in the coming weeks and months, because every side of these issues deserves to be told and understood if you drink coffee.

Today, I’d like to share some thoughts on the farmers in the world who are working to elevate the quality of coffee to its highest potential.

The best analogy to coffee quality I can think of is that of wine, perhaps now more so than ever. We know there are gradations of wine quality, starting with the stuff in the really big bottles on the bottom shelf at the store that taste just OK but get the job done, moving up into smaller bottles with marginal improvements in quality that might be in the $5 range, and upward to the $8 - $10 bottles, where we’ll stop for a moment.

These wines, often marketed under a name something like Green/Red/Blue/Orange Turtle/Bicycle/Frog/Frisbee, now seem to have achieved some level of mainstream drinkability, so they have become the “new black” of wine. You see lot of variations of these for sale now in our stores.

Then we journey on to the better wines, bearing the names of wineries and better growing regions and specific vineyards and vintages.

Coffee falls into similar categories. On the bottom shelf (with the big bottles), we have instant coffee and the lowest grades of pre-ground supermarket coffee. Alongside the $5 wine, we might find pre-ground coffee with the name of an origin country (most often Brazil or Colombia) or sometimes a roast level (dark or light). And with the Blue Duck wines are the better grades of mainstream coffees, sold ground or in whole bean form, from fancier roasters or brands and usually with a better pedigree (an origin country, of maybe even a region).

Then on the top shelf in most stores, you’ll find an empty spot next to the best wines – the best coffees out there aren’t found in mainstream stores. And honestly, most of the country hasn’t seen the best the coffee world has to offer because it is slow to arrive in the hinterland. Here, I am talking about coffees traceable back to a single grower or very small groups of growers. These are coffees that have been held apart and processed outside of the large processing plants that dominate every major growing region in the world. And most importantly for this discussion, they are coffees being grown by farmers who are very consciously working to make their coffees taste better.

These are farmers who know what their coffee tastes like (most don’t), and how to evaluate it on a scale of quality that gives them a reference point for moving their quality higher and then ideally garnering the higher prices that come with improved quality.

But here’s where the risk lies.

I have massive respect for anyone who farms for a living and does it well. Weather and bugs and hard work and the vagaries of soil conditions and unforeseen climate changes make the lives of those who grow foods for a living a challenge. Coffee farmers then layer on the gyrations of the global coffee market, where bumper crops in the major producer countries can send prices screaming downward, and in confronting these challenges, there are a number of avenues they can take to elevate the net income of their farms.

This includes steps that can be taken by any food farmer, increasing crop yields, making the farm more efficient, recycling materials from the farm to cut costs and being more careful with labor costs and supplies.

For coffee farmers, the route to a better bottom line can include certifications that translate into higher prices from buyers. You know about these, and they include organics, fair trade, shade grown, bird friendly and a new form of private certification schemes practiced by more socially conscious large roasting companies. I’ll dig into all of these in future articles.

And then there is the quest to elevate the quality of the coffee itself.

Here, I am talking about quality from the standpoint of the farmer and the inherent taste of the coffee. This is not about the quality of the roasting or the freshness of the roasted coffee or the way it is ground or the water that was used for brewing or the amount of the coffee or the brewing method. It’s about the beans.

At the farm level, there are fundamental aspects of quality, like picking the beans at the right time, processing the coffee before it ferments and properly drying the coffee, but then there is another level related to the cultivar (the variety of coffee plant), the terroir in which the coffee is grown (the special combination of geography, weather and soil related to a particular growing site) and the isolation of very special lots of coffee from other coffees grown on the farm.

When a farmer achieves the correct balance of these factors, the result is magical, a beverage on par with the finest foods and wines in the world.

And now with the new “third wave of coffee” (the first two being coffee’s beginnings as a commodity beverage and the second, the surge of awareness and quality that started in the sixties and seventies), growers and roasters are pushing coffee quality higher and higher. At the farm level, the more progressive growers have learned to taste (or “cup”) coffee with an eye to improving the quality in the cup. Small micromills (like those Tanji and I saw in Costa Rica) enable farmers to isolate individual lots of very special coffees that steer clear of the pooling of coffee by the large processors. Roasters have stopped over-roasting coffee and are working at lighter roast levels to bring out the underlying tastes of the coffee. And grinding and brewing to order (as they do at the Royal Bean) avoids the off tastes that come with pre-grinding coffee and using invasive brewing and storing methods.

So, this is a chain of respect, of the growing of the beans, the processing, the transport, the roasting and the serving.

In 2007, a microlot from the Hacienda Esmerelda farm in Panama won the “Best of Panama” competition and in the auction that followed, captured a high bid of $132 a pound (green) from a consortium of three boutique roasters from North America. This is the highest price ever paid for any coffee, but its an example of how far the quest for quality can take a farmer.

Today, nine countries reward their best coffees through “Cup of Excellence” (CoE) competitions that celebrate the very best coffees from those countries in a given year. The competitions entail both cupping (tasting) scores and auctions, and green coffee prices for the winners have ranged in recent years from just under $20 to $50 and beyond (these process go to farmers accustomed to receiving a dollar or less a pound for coffee sold into the pool system).

And perhaps most important of all, these competitions garner a lot of publicity, and raise awareness of coffee quality all over the world.

We often think of coffee in terms of a price per pound, but in actuality these very high end coffees often end up sold by the cup at prices in the $4-$6 range. This is not affordable for one’s daily cup, but I think this is a very reasonable price to pay for a cup of the very best coffee available in the entire world. Splurging on one of these great cups of coffee once a week or so would not be too much of a stretch.

But where this all starts is on the farm, and the farmers do this as their life’s work and need to get paid – and without premium payments for their investments in extra labor and micromills and sample roasting equipment and smaller batches, the whole system breaks down. The motivation goes away and growers return the relatively easier existence of growing commodity coffee.

Somewhere in the marketplace, these extraordinary coffees need to command a higher price. These higher prices empower the roaster to pay more for green coffee purchased from his or her importer, for the importer to pay more to the exporter in the origin country and for the exporter to pay more to the farmer or mill.

In densely populated urban areas and college towns where there is a lot of great coffee available, the awareness of the many facets of coffee is high and it is comparatively easy to sell whole bean coffee for $15-$20/pound and cups for $4 and more. It wasn’t always this way, and we can thank the pioneers like Alfred Peet (Peet’s Coffee) and George Howell (founder of the Coffee Connection chain that thrived in the Boston area before being bought out by Starbucks) for starting the progression of great coffee, education and availability that made this possible.

But get past these major markets, and the tastes of even the most aware of coffee consumers are still evolving.

Without the critical mass of foodie-oriented shopping streets and high population densities, higher grade coffee does not so easily sell itself. Education efforts like my newsletter and similar outreach by thousands of other small and midsized roasters are dedicated to raising awareness of great coffee – and with that, raising demand. And that demand then motivates the farmers in origin countries to try harder still.

And then the coffee gets better and better and we all benefit . . . all the way up the chain.

Starting next month, I will start to receive the new crop coffees for this year, and I’ll have some opportunities to bring you some amazing new flavors. Stay tuned.

And thanks for your support.

Enjoy the sun this weekend. We sure have earned it this winter.

Kent

Musings on the Economy and Coffee

2009-03-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

Good morning, Friends,

We’ll be roasting coffee next on Sunday, March 8, and then delivering and shipping on Monday the 9th. Please send your orders by 8:00 Sunday morning.

Wow. Its quite a ride this country is going through right now, isn’t it? I use the New York Times as my homepage, and its an amazing progression of news I see each day. I know that we as a country are all waiting for something good to happen.

So, since our leaders aren’t coming up with anything in the good category (though I think many of these programs will bear fruit), I wanted to share a trend I am seeing – really in the hope that you will see it too and then spread the word.

My daily travels put me in touch with a lot of people, including the scientists all over the world I ask to help me with my conferences, and the universe of people I connect with at the café and around town in the world of coffee.

And I have noticed something cool of late. People are getting kinder and kinder by the day. When I ask people to help with my research or to speak at a conference, they respond with open arms and a graciousness I have never seen before. And when I meet strangers for the first time at The Royal Bean or around town, I see generosity and compassion and an honest desire to want to know others and to help them.

And yeah, these connections don’t put food on our tables and pay the rent, but there is a way that they are worth much more than money. Are you seeing this too?

You were waiting for me to tie this to coffee somehow, weren’t you?

Last week, I was watching “Lost” on the Internet with Galen, and the show had as its single sponsor the Discover Card. They showed just one ad (over and over), featuring a friendly sort of guy asking the question “Do you know how much you spent on coffee last month?”

Boo hiss, I say to that company. There’s been a lot in the press lately about how fru-fru coffee drinks are the first thing many people cut out in a down economy, but please! Sure, cutting out the ice and the sugar and the flavorings (which can run the price of a drink up to $6 in a downtown chain store) makes sense, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here.

Good coffee made at home will cost you about a dime a cup. A great hand brewed cup at your local café is less than $2, and a handmade cappuccino made with high quality fresh roasted beans is under $3. Maybe you won’t indulge every day, but I submit that great coffee is still a good deal.

Another thing I have been reading about lately is that a certain large national coffee chain is now quietly removing the big comfortable chairs and couches from their stores. The message (and the intent) is that they don’t WANT you to stay there. They don’t want you to get to know other people or read a book or work on your computer. At our local version of this chain, I endeavored during one of our recent power outages to go there and use my computer. No WIFI. I bought my son a fru-fru drink for five bucks and asked if I could use the “free” WIFI. Answer, no. I was told that I needed to go online, sign up for an account, get a special card, then bring it back, buy something and THEN I could have “free” WIFI.

Um . . . go online, where, exactly?

So the message here is not one of compassion and community. The message is come in, spend a lot of money, sit until you are uncomfortable, then leave in a short time so we can do the same thing to someone else.

Your local café will serve you better than this. Way better.

We’ve had a long, hard winter here in Maine, and our house has been without power for eight days of it (three separate power outages). When this happens, most people in our town and the town next door bear the same fate, and many people (like me) who work from home end up in the more generous of local cafes as a place to work for the day.

And I am very grateful we have a place like that to go.

In closing, I’d like to throw out a reminder of the things we are trying to do at Freeport Coffee Roasting to make it possible for all of you to enjoy freshly roasted amazing coffee from around the world during these hard times:

- Want to try a coffee? Samples are free – let me know what you’d like to try. (Shipping for these is not free, however, so this works better for locals)
- Shipping IS free on all orders over $40
- Check out the CuppaJoe Recession Buster Coffee, just $9.99 for a pound

And in general, our coffee is less expensive than the whole bean coffee you buy at the store. In the manner of yogurt, ice cream and tunafish, the once sacred one pound bag of coffee is shrinking. You’ll see that what is offered at the store is typically $9.99 or $10.49 for a 12 ounce bag (the metric pound?). This equates to $13.32/$13.98 a pound, and most of ours are just $12/pound (and ours are absolutely fresher).

Thanks for listening to all this. I guess in general, the message I would like to convey is that I hope you’ll support local businesses through these times. This includes coffee roasters, cafes, local farmers, fishermen, those who make cheeses and keep chickens and the stores that sell these things. Let’s not come out of the recession into a world of chain stores and mass-market foods!

Enjoy the weekend, everyone, and thanks for your continued support.

Kent

Forward

The Strange Tale of Kopi Luwak

2009-02-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

Good morning, everyone,

Since we have a long weekend ahead, I'll be roasting on Monday the 16th and then delivering and shipping on Tuesday the 17th. Please have your direct and wholesale orders in by the end of Sunday night.

I'll run some extras and have them here next week - and there are also a few bags here if anyone needs coffee over the weekend.

This week, I'd like to share what is perhaps the strangest story in all of coffee, that of Kopi Luwak, a coffee roasted from green beans that have (politely speaking) passed through the digestive tract of a cat-like creature living in Indonesia.

I won't take credit for writing what is shown below, and I have attributed the articles and reviews as listed. Also, I have included some links at the very bottom you can use to order your own "poop coffee." Go on, I dare you. In fact, I double dare you. (and if you buy some, can I taste just a teaspoon full so I can say I have tried it?)

If this is not enough adventure for you, I invite you to seek out Kopi Muntjak, coffee extracted from the feces of a "barking deer."

Yuck.

Enjoy your weekend.

Kent

From Wikipedia

Kopi Luwak (pronounced [ˈkopi ˈluwak]) or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid) and in East Timor (locally called kafé-laku). Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called weasel coffee, which is made from coffee berries which have been regurgitated by local weasels. In actuality the "weasel" is just the local version of the Asian Palm Civet.

Origin and production

Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee, and luwak is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet. The raw, red coffee berries are part of its normal diet, along with insects, small mammals, small reptiles, eggs and nestlings of birds, and other fruit. The inner bean of the berry is not digested, but it has been proposed that enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavor by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. The beans are defecated, still covered in some inner layers of the berry. The beans are washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process. Some sources claim that the beans may be regurgitated instead of defecated.

In early days, the beans would be collected in the wild from a "latrine," or a specific place where the civet would defecate as a means to mark its territory, and these latrines would be a predictable place for local gatherers to find the beans. More commonly today, captured civets are fed raw berries, the feces produced are then processed and the coffee beans offered for sale.[citation needed]

Economics

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States. It is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited; only 1,000 pounds (450 kg) at most make it into the world market each year.[1] One small cafe, the Heritage Tea Rooms, in the hills outside Townsville in Queensland, Australia, has Kopi Luwak coffee on the menu at A$50.00 (=US$48.00) per cup, selling approximately four cups a week, which has gained nationwide Australian press.[2] In April 2008, the brasserie of Peter Jones department store in London's Sloane Square started selling a blend of Kopi Luwak and Blue Mountain called Caffe Raro for £50 (=US$99.00) a cup.[3] It has also recently become available at Selfridges, London, as part of their "Edible" range of exotic foods.

A 2004 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) scare led to the extermination of thousands of these civets in China,[4][5] but the demand for the coffee was not affected.

Research

A popular and intuitive hypothesis to justify this coffee's reputation proposes that the beans are of superior quality before they are even ingested.[citation needed] At any given point during a harvest, some coffee berries are not quite ripe or overripe, while others are just right. The palm civet evolved as an omnivore that naturally eats fruit and passes undigested material as a natural link to disperse seeds in a forest ecosystem. Where coffee plants have been introduced into their habitat, civets only forage on the most ripe berries, digest the fleshy outer layer, and later excrete the seeds eventually used for human consumption. Thus, when the fruit is at its peak, the seeds (or beans) within are equally so, with the expectation that this will come through in the taste of a freshly brewed cup. As this may be true for the beans derived from wild-collected civet feces, farm-raised civets are likely fed beans of varying quality and ripeness, so one would expect the taste of farm-raised beans to be less.

Further research by Dr. Massimo Marcone at the University of Guelph (CA) has shown that the digestive juices of the civet actually penetrate the beans and change the proteins, resulting in their unique flavor.

Similar Coffees

Kopi Muncak (also Kopi Muntjak) is a similar type of coffee produced from the feces of several species of barking deer, or Muntjac, that are found throughout Southeast Asia. Unlike civet or "weasel" coffee, this type is usually not produced from captive deer and most commonly collected in the wild, especially in Malaysia and in the Indonesian Archipelago.

Further information is available online by doing a Google search on "cat poop coffee."

Winter Reading List

2009-02-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends!

Brrrrrr . . . it is FOUR outside as I write this today.

We are roasting coffee this weekend on Sunday, February 8 and then delivering locally and shipping on Monday the 9th. Please send in your orders by Sunday morning at 8:00 (though we will roast extras of some coffees and have them available through the week).

I'd like to ask all of you a favor. Tanji and I are always striving to improve this business and to offer coffees and service that are are what you all need. Could you please take just a few minutes and respond to the survey below? This would help us know more about what is going on in your world of coffee, and your input would help us a lot. The survey is complete anonymous, and if you have other coffee lovers you would like to pass this along to, we'd love their feedback too.

Just click this link and the survey should open in a new window.

Special offer! If you live in the Freeport or Yarmouth areas, and you have never purchased coffee from us, we're offering you a single pound of any of our coffees for just $5.00. The small print is that you will need to stop by here at the roastery and pick it up, and this may subject you to my entheusiasm about coffee and a free cuppa or two. Email me back if you'd like to do this (and tell your friends too!).

Giddy Goats Espresso! The alchemists in our espresso lab have emerged with the very amazing Giddy Goats Espresso Blend, and we will be doing our first production run of this one on Sunday if you would like to order some. It is now in the online store and if you are ordering direct, it's $12.50 a pound.

I have a new email address - please change your records to this one. God in a Cup

Since we are now in the depths of winter and are settling in before the fire for another few months, I'd like to share some suggestions with you of some great coffee books. Shown below are some of my favorites, and I have shamelessly borrowed the descriptions here from Amazon. Many of these can be ordered used from them if you'd like to save a few quid (with the couple of exceptions shown).

Enjoy the weekend, everyone! Thanks as always for all your support.

Kent

Books

Uncommon Grounds The History Of Coffee And How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast: Caffeinated beverage enthusiast Pendergrast (For God, Country and Coca-Cola) approaches this history of the green bean with the zeal of an addict. His wide-ranging narrative takes readers from the legends about coffee's discoveryAthe most appealing of which, Pendergast writes, concerns an Ethiopian goatherd who wonders why his goats are dancing on their hind legs and butting one anotherAto the corporatization of the specialty cafe. Pendergrast focuses on the influence of the American coffee trade on the world's economies and cultures, further zeroing in on the political and economic history of Latin America. Coffee advertising, he shows, played a major role in expanding the American market. In 1952, a campaign by the Pan American Coffee Bureau helped institutionalize the coffee break in America. And the invention of the still ubiquitous Juan Valdez in a 1960 ad campaign caused name recognition for Colombian coffee to skyrocket within months of its introduction. The Valdez character romanticizes a very real phenomenonAthe painstaking process of tending and harvesting a coffee crop. Yet the price of a tall latte in America, Pendergrast notes, is a day's wage for many of the people who harvest it on South American hillsides. Pendergrast does not shy away from exploring such issues in his cogent histories of Starbucks and other firms. Throughout the book, asides like the coffee jones of health-food tycoon C.W. PostAwho raged against the evils of coffee and developed Postum as a substitute for regular brewAprovide welcome diversions. Pendergrast's broad vision, meticulous research and colloquial delivery combine aromatically, and he even throws in advice on how to brew the perfect cup. 76 duotones.

God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee by Michaele Weissman: From Ethiopia to Panama to Portland, journalist Weissman shadows today's vanguard coffee guys in their pursuit of the perfect, caffeinated beverage. With increased demand for specialty roasts superior to the mass-marketed offerings at Starbucks, Weissman illustrates how the origin, flavor compounds and socioeconomic impact of a cup of coffee are relevant now more than ever. Alongside industry leaders from some of the U.S.'s top roasters—Counter Culture, Intelligentsia and Stumptown—Weismann treks to the birthplace of coffee, remote plantations, and international competitions where the best coffees in the world are cupped (or tasted), scored and where winners like Panamanian grower Hacienda La Esmeralda's revered Geisha coffee earn $130 per pound. Visiting both ends of the producer-consumer spectrum, she sheds light on the partnership between those who sell premium coffee and the impoverished who farm it—examining how specialty standards enable improved production, exceptional beans, fair prices and fatter pockets across the board. On the imbibing end, Weissman penetrates today's amped-up coffee culture: its sleek coffee bars, tattooed coffee-geeks behind the counters, fiercely competitive roasters working alongside champion baristas. Tagging along behind the main characters in today's specialty coffee scene, Weissman travels from the exotic to the expected to artfully deconstruct the connoisseur's cup of coffee.

Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon: This surprisingly gripping travelogue is filled with tales from the "coffeelands," barely-on-the-map locales in Africa, the Americas, and Asia where coffee farmers struggle to survive. Written with knowledge and good cheer by the founder of Dean's Beans Organic Coffee, the book reads more like a trippy adventure than a business trip, though the issues Cycon raises are vital, prescient and little known ("99 percent of the people involved in coffee... have never been to a coffee village"). While learning first-hand about the hardships involved in growing and selling coffee beans-the world's second most valuable commodity, after oil-the author finds himself in Guatemala praying to an effigy in a Mickey Mouse tie and cowboy boots; eating armadillo leg in Colombia; working to heal landmine victims in Nicaragua and war widows in Sumatra; and meeting with all manner of farmers, bureaucrats and dignitaries. His dispatches are highly enlightening, demonstrating how few national governments provide coffee growers with water, education, health care or even protection from harmful pesticides; further, coffee growers' income is subject to the whims of financial speculators half a world away. Reading this eye-opening book, it's impossible not to reconsider-and feel grateful for-the myriad people behind your morning cup.

The Joy of Coffee: The Essential Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying - Revised and Updated by Corby Kummer: With coffee bars springing up on every urban corner, this engrossing guide couldn't arrive at a better moment. Kummer writes on food for the Atlantic very well, thanks, because he injects his own physical experience with his subjects into the exposition. Here, he takes us through the coffee bean's progress from tree to tummy, eyewitness-style. He tells us what it's like to pick coffee because he went and picked it, what it's like to cup coffee (the method by which roasted beans are qualitatively sorted) because he cupped with the pros, what it's like roasting coffee because he tried it at home as well as scrutinized it being done as a business, etc. He analyzes and advises on grinding and brewing methods; he appreciates espresso and its appurtenances; he describes the coffees of different growing countries; he discusses caffeine and its health effects; and then, he wraps the book up with coffee-complementary dessert recipes and a resource section. Kummer's Baedeker of the exquisitely bitter brew is, as the old slogan says, good to the last drop.

The Professional Barista's Handbook: An Expert Guide to Preparing Espresso, Coffee, and Tea by Scott Rao: FROM THE AUTHOR: When I began in the coffee business fourteen years ago, I read every book I could find about coffee. After reading all of those books, however, I felt as if I hadn t learned much about how to make great coffee. My coffee library was chock-full of colorful descriptions of brewing styles, growing regions, and recipes, with a few almost-unreadable scientific books mixed in. I would have traded in all of those books for one serious, practical book with relevant information about making great coffee in a café. Fourteen years later, I still haven t found that book. I know many other professionals as well as some obsessive nonprofessionals would like to find that same book I ve been looking for. This book is my attempt to give it to them.

Espresso Coffee, Second Edition: The Science of Quality by Rinantonio Viani and Andrea Illy: "Overall this book serves as a complete overview not only of espresso coffee but also of coffee in general. With its comprehensive overview of the parameters important to coffee quality and coffee consumption on human health it becomes a good reference book for both food scientists and nutritionists in the field." - Massimo Marcone, University of Guelph, Canada for FOOD RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL (2005) "A vital resource for anyone wishing to deepen their knowledge of coffee and its production, this book, with its industrial and historical perspectives, manages to combine the delivery of complex scientific data with pure enthusiasm for the product." - CAFE CULTURE (July 2005) ".the book's precision with the details of coffee science is unparalleled. It balances scientific prowess and readability without overwhelming the reader, whether new to the coffee world or a veteran." - FRESH CUP (June 2005) NOTE: This is a very, very scientific book. I feel like there is no more comprehensive tome on coffee anywhere, but it is not for the faint-hearted. It is also priced more like a textbook, so if you are curious about it, I'd recommend trying to get it first on an inter-library loan rather than buying it sight unseen.

Home Coffee Roasting, Revised, Updated Edition: Romance and Revival by Kenneth Davids: In the past decade, coffee roasting has gone from a fringe trend of true believers to an increasingly mainstream audience. Long considered the bible of the home-roasting movement, Home Coffee Roasting has been completely revised throughout with new, up-to-date sections on the latest developments in home-roasting equipment and provides step-by-step guidelines to the coffee-roasting process. The new edition also features: -A much expanded resources section for green beans and home-roasting equipment -The best techniques for storing green coffee beans -The new home roasters: how to evaluate and use them -Tips on perfecting a roast -Information on how to create your own blend. With over a dozen home-roasting machines newly on the market, and an ever-expanding number of stores and internet sites catering to the home coffee-roasting market, now more than ever Home Coffee Roasting is the essential book for every true coffee lover.

Espresso: Ultimate Coffee, Second Edition by Kenneth Davids: "Kenneth Davids writes with authority and panache. There's no one I'd rather read and learn from. He'll turn your kitchen into the espresso bar of your dreams-and the more aspiring baristas who read this book, the safer the country will be for the new world of lattes sweeping the nation." --Corby Kummer, The Atlantic Monthly "Kenneth Davids's new book blends the myths and history with the technology and culture that create this nouveau art form we call 'espresso.' It's the perfect companion while enjoying the pleasures of this magnificent beverage." NOTE: If you buy this one, make sure you are getting the second edition, as the first is quite outdated.

The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop, Revised and Updated Edition by Gregory Dicum and Nina Luttinger: A freshly updated edition of the best introduction to one of the world's most popular products, The Coffee Book is jammed full of facts, figures, cartoons, and commentary covering coffee from its first use in Ethiopia in the sixth century to the rise of Starbucks and the emergence of Fair Trade coffee in the twenty-first. The book explores the process of cultivation, harvesting, and roasting from bean to cup; surveys the social history of café society from the first coffeehouses in Constantinople to beatnik havens in Berkeley and Greenwich Village; and tells the dramatic tale of high-stakes international trade and speculation for a product that can make or break entire national economies. It also examines the industry's major players, revealing how they have systematically reduced the quality of the bean and turned a much-loved product into a commodity and lifestyle accoutrement, ruining the lives of millions of farmers around the world in the process. Finally, The Coffee Book, hailed as a Best Business Book by Library Journal when it was first published, considers the exploitation of labor and damage to the environment that mass cultivation causes, and explores the growing "conscious coffee" market and Fair Trade movement.

And then, here are some links (from our website) of some great online resources and forums:

Coffee Review: This site is the online presence of the wonderful Ken Davids, whose great books gave many people their first look at the depth of the coffee scene. In addition to reviews of the most outstanding coffees available, the site is an extraordinary resource into the growing regions, preparation methods and nomenclature of the industry.

CoffeeGeek: The CoffeeGeek website, now boasting in excess of five million readers a month, is a portal into community-based features including a user-fed library of consumer brewing equipment reviews (the very best place to start if you are considering a purchase) and a seemingly endless online forum with discussions of every topic you can imagine. Use the search feature to drill down and get answers to your questions.

Espresso My Espresso: This is fun site, with the main attraction a 97-chapter personal journal that charts author Randy Glass' journey from newbie to home roaster to espresso aficionado and beyond.

Home Barista: If espresso has seized you and made you want to know more, this is a great place to start. The equipment reviews go well beyond performance characteristics of machines and grinders and help you really understand why good espresso is worth the investment of time and money. This is also a great resource for learning about the techniques you need to master to produce great espresso at home.

SCAA: The Specialty Coffee Association of America. This important trade group represents the growing sector of the coffee industry that roasts, serves and trades the highest quality coffees. The site has some great resource material and outlines the services and events provided by the association.

ICO: The International Coffee Organization (ICO) was originally started by the United Nations as a vehicle for linking coffee producer and consumer countries. Today, the ICO has a membership of 77 member countries (45 coffee exporting and 32 importing), and their site is a nice source of high level statistics and information about the global industry.

Bikes to Rwanda: The website of an amazing program launched by the owner of Portland, Oregon's famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters that spawned a custom-designed affordable bicycle that enables Rwandan coffee growers to dramatically improve their ability to move their coffees from farm to market.

Starbucks Gossip: Imagine an online forum where Starbucks employees from far and wide share their candid thoughts (good and bad) about the company. Its kind of like spying, but there's some fun stuff here to read.

Troubleshooting Coffee

2008-11-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends,

I’ll roast next on Monday, November 10, and any orders received by Sunday night will be delivered and shipped on Tuesday the 4th. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

The holiday season is coming! Next week, I’ll have a full rundown of our new holiday coffees (5-6 of these) and some special offers for you. As a reminder, if you have a large order coming that will need custom labels, please get in touch with me ASAP. I’ll be ordering green coffee and bags in the next few days, and I am trying to line my ducks up so I don’t have to order again before Christmas.

Oh. I have 8 Barack O’Java labels left – and when these are gone, that blend will become the Jamlii Holiday Blend. If you want a souvenir bag of Barack for your shelf (or to drink it in celebration!), order now – first come, first served.

Today, I am writing about troubleshooting coffee. I’d like to share some ideas on things you can do at home to fine tune your brew and to deal with those perky little strange tastes that arise from time to time.

Lets start with a refresher on making coffee. You have a certain coffee, you store it in a particular way and in a particular form (ground or whole bean) and you then measure out an amount of coffee. You get water from somewhere and heat it to a certain temperature and introduce the water into your brewing device. Maybe there are other elements to your brewing device, like a filter. You may brew it into a cup (made of something) or into some kind of holding container, which may be insulated or not and which may or not sit on some kind of a warmer. Maybe you drink it now or drink iater. You put stuff in it (or not). Maybe it stays warm or stays cool.

Then you taste it.

Coffee is a very, very complex substance, and they say there are more than 700 separate chemicals found in coffee – many of which change with time, temperature, moisture and other factors. Some of these changes happen before I ever see the coffee, and many happen after it leaves me and goes to a café or to you. And a lot of these impact flavor.

If something doesn’t seem right about your cuppa, it may be the coffee, but it can also be factors that are under your control . . . and by changing these, you can dial in your own perfect brew.

So, based on the above refresher, here’s a step by step list of some things to consider if you want to make changes at home:

Choice of Coffee: The spectrum of available coffee out there runs from the lighter roasted origins from South and Central America through to French Roasts (and even darker, though not from us), and within this spectrum, you can find rich, fruity, light, sweet, bright and all sorts of other sensations. Changing the beans you buy really can change the whole experience. Write me back if you want some ideas?

Storage: As a rule of thumb, if your coffee is relatively freshly roasted, and you’ll use your bag within a week, seal the bag and leave it at room temperature. If you will use in longer than a week, freeze it (not the fridge)

Ground or Whole Bean: Pre-ground coffee goes stale really fast! If you buy pre-ground, the freezer is your best bet across the board. Love, the Grinder Police.

Amount of Coffee to Use: The rule of thumb here is two level tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 ounces of water. Note that brewers, carafes, etc. will use this amount as a “cup of coffee” measure (as in, this is an “8 Cup Coffee Maker”), but in reality, most of us use cups larger than this. If your coffee taste seems off, you can play with the amount you are using upwards or downwards, and don’t assume if your cup is bitter that you are using too much coffee. You may in fact be using too little.

Water: Our water comes from a well source in Freeport, and we notice a pronounced difference in the taste over the course of a year. A while back, I was getting a funny taste in my coffee, and when I drank a glass of tap water next to the coffee, there was a similarity in the off tastes. If you think your water source is the culprit, try getting some water from somewhere else (I am NOT recommending out of a plastic bottle) and tasting them side by side. There are a lot of ways out there to filter out the bad tastes, and you may want to experiment with using filtered water to brew your coffee.

Water Temperature: If you heat the water on the stove for making coffee, note that the temperature of a rolling boil (212’) is really too hot for coffee. You’d like the ideal temperature to be closer to 200, so maybe get in the habit of boiling the water and letting it sit for a minute or so before you brew – you should notice a big difference.

Brewing Device: I’ll save a discussion of the different ways of brewing coffee for another day, but for here, I’ll just say that results are very different from device to device – and you may find that using a different apparatus gets you closer to the coffee you want. Have a look at this link on the Coffee Review site for an excellent discussion of the methods available: http://www.coffeereview.com/reference.cfm?ID=164.

Other Elements: You might use a paper filter or a gold filter or some kind of metal filter as part of your brewer. Paper filters can leach flavor and should be rinsed before using. Other filter types need regular cleaning to eliminate the tastes of old coffee oils.

Cup: The material your favorite cup is made of makes a difference, and if you use a metal or plastic cup, give it a sniff, and chances are you’ll discover a strong smell you don’t equate with delicious, fresh coffee. Those metal travel mugs a lot of people drink from on the way to work can develop a buildup very quickly, and they are great at holding the scent of teas. It might be necessary to go at this gunk with espresso machine cleaner or cleanser, as these are very tenacious substances.

The Coffee Pot: If you brew into a glass coffee pot that sits on a warmer, you will have trouble if the coffee stays there longer than a few minutes – switch to storing the coffee in some kind of a thermal carafe and you’ll notice a big difference. If you are the person who gets up late in your household and you come downstairs to find something akin to sludge waiting for you in the family pot, treat yourself and brew up your own fresh one. You have rights too!

I hope this helps. I am happy to answer any questions about this, or if you are in Freeport or Yarmouth, I’ll come over and have a look at what you are using if you like.

Enjoy the weekend, and thanks for all your support.

Kent

Coffee Processing Methods

2008-10-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

We are roasting next on Sunday, October 5, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Monday the 6th. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

We have sadly run out of the wonderful organic Honduras, but we have a nice new organic from Costa Rica you might like to try – details are on the store page on the website. Not on the site is the amazing Barack O’Java. You can order this through us or through the Obama headquarters in Yarmouth, Portland, somewhere in Michigan and northern NC. When ordered through us, we donate $1 from each pound to the campaign and orders through their offices get a $5 donation. Go Obama!!!

I am sending these messages now from my home email address, as some of you have spam filters that don’t like hearing from the ISP behind freeportcoffee.com.

As promised, I am writing today about the processing of coffee – taking you all the way from the harvest through to the roaster. Coffee travels a long road to reach your cup, and I think it is interesting to understand the many steps along the way.

What is Coffee?

What we call “coffee beans” are the seeds of a woody perennial evergreen tree grown in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. These seeds are found in a fruit typically referred to as “cherries,” though they aren’t actually related to the more common fruit of the same name.

Usually, these seeds are found in pairs facing each other – you can imagine this pairing by placing the flat surfaces of two beans together. In about 5-10% of the cherries, only one bean is found, and these “peaberries” are more rounded and oval in shape.

Broadly speaking, there are two main species of coffee, formally known by their Latin names, Coffea Arabica (aka “Arabica”) and Coffea Canephora (aka “Robusta”). The specialty coffee we enjoy in the US is virtually all Arabica, and you are unlikely to encounter Robustas unless you drink very inexpensive instant coffees or blends. About 70% of world production is now Arabica, but Robusta, which is cheaper to grow, continues to flourish in commodity markets. I tasted it in its pure form exactly once, and it reminded me of a cross between cough syrup and paint thinner. Yuck.

The cherries are covered in a thick skin, and between the skin and beans is a sticky layer called mucilage. We’ll learn more about these below, as the methods for removing the skin and mucilage have a lot to do with the taste of your coffee.

When we talk about “processing methods,” these describe what happens in the removal of the skin and pulp, the removal of the mucilage and the drying of the bean. The other steps I’ll discuss have a lot to do with product quality, but you aren’t likely to hear about them in the descriptions of coffees; these are more the responsibility of the growers, processors, importers and roasters.

Picking

Coffee cherries grow in tight clusters along the branches of the tree – and an important thing for you to know is that the cherries don’t all ripen at the same time. Green and red cherries can both be found in abundance on the same branch.

The cherries can be picked from the tree selectively by hand (meaning only taking the ripe red fruit), “stripping” the branch (a faster method where all fruit is pulled off a branch at once) or through mechanized methods that shake the trees to loosen the ripe fruit so that it falls into a collector below.

So you can see that in the first method above, the fruit collected is all ripe and is all picked by hand. And, in the other two, some number of unripe cherries ends up in the mix. From here forward, the degree to which the unripe fruit is sorted out has a major impact on coffee quality.

The decision for the farmer on which method to use is based on a tradeoff between his or her cost of production and the likely price to be received when the coffee is sold to a broker or processing facility. In small farms, it is much faster to strip the branches, but the quality (and probably the price) goes down. To pick more selectively, the price needs to justify the longer labor hours (or expense of picking machines).

Processing Methods

The expression “processing method” for coffee refers to one of three techniques used to remove the fruit surrounding the coffee beans (pits of the fruit). The method used is, for the most part, a matter of local convention, though the care taken in executing the method can vary greatly from place to place.

Dry/Natural Processing:

In the oldest method, “dry” or “natural” processing, the just-picked cherries are spread on open terraces or raised “beds” (elevated tables with screened surfaces to allow air to circulate around the coffee) and then dried in the sun. A careful program of monitoring and turning the beans assures they all dry evenly, and at night the beans are stacked and covered to guard against moisture.

When the cherries are dried to a target moisture level, the fruit is stripped away and the beans moved to storage to await milling and shipping.

Dry processing is used in areas with abundant sunshine and low rainfall – and most coffees from Brazil, Ethiopia, Yemen and Indonesia use this method. You’ll find these coffees to be sweet, complex and full bodied. Most espresso blends (ours included) use dry processed Brazils as a “base” coffee to provide these characteristics.

Wet Processing:

“Wet processed,” or “washed” coffees go from the harvest through water-based sorting steps in which unripe and defective cherries are sorted out of the mix via differences in weight and buoyancy. The cherries then pass through a “pulping” machine that removes the skin of the fruit and the pulpy layer beneath. These machines range in size from homemade, hand-cranked apparatus used by small farmers and cooperatives all the way up to the scale of major industrial machinery.

What remains are coffee beans covered in a dense, sticky layer called mucilage. The coffee moves to fermentation tanks where soaking for 16-36 hours softens and loosens this layer so it can be removed. The amount of time the beans remain in each tank varies a great deal from region to region, and new research is coming out shortly that will compare fermentation methods to see which has the greatest impact on cup quality and flavor. I’ll pass this along when I see it.

While passing through the fermentation process, additional sorting of the beans for defect removal and grading can be done based on bean density.

These now clean beans move to a drying step, either outdoors in the sun or using mechanical dryers, with the choice of method based on local weather conditions and access to drying equipment.

Washed coffees are typically “cleaner” tasting, fruity and sweet.

Pulped Natural Method:

This is a hybrid of the two methods above, with the cherries undergoing the pulping step, but then dried without undergoing fermentation. Coffees processed in this way have a nice sweetness and body like those of the natural process, but they retain the citrus-like “acidity” of the washed coffees.

Environmental Issues

The processing of coffee can yield very substantial amounts of waste, including the pulp of the cherries and sugar-infused fermenting water – and in many cases, these have been dumped into local rivers, having a dramatic impact on aquatic ecosystems. The handing of these wastes via composting or reuse is now an important element of more progressive farms and “beneficios” (processing stations).

Milling, Shipping and Distribution

What results from the processing steps is now called “parchment coffee,” or “pergamino.” The coffee beans are covered in a thin yellow hull, and they will be kept in this form until just prior to shipping. By keeping the coffee in this hull, the moisture content of the beans can be maintained in the often very hot conditions of the ports used to transport coffee.

Before shipping, the beans go through a final milling step to remove the parchment layer, are packaged into 60-70K bags and then transported via ship to destination ports around the world. (If you ever need one of these bags for a project or just to hang on your wall, drop me a note and I’ll save you one.)

In the US, coffees enter the country typically via the large west coast ports (Long Beach, Oakland or Seattle), New Orleans (they lost a LOT of coffee during Hurricane Katrina) and New Jersey. Importers take over at this point and become the conduit by which reaches roasters like me.

Defect Evaluation by Importer and/or Roaster

An important part of the purchase decision for a coffee broker making the decision to buy coffee in an origin country or a coffee importer buying from a broker is related to the cleanliness of the coffee. In this case, we’re not talking about a “clean” taste sensation (as in the washed coffees above), but more an assessment of how well the coffee has been sorted to remove defects. In a very low-grade coffee, you would see immature beans, beans damaged by insects and mold, and broken beans. A score based on the number and type of defects found in a sample in part determines the value of the coffee and whether it will achieve “specialty” grade status. All of our coffees (and those of most reputable roaster) are true specialty grade coffees.

That’s all for today. Thanks again for your wonderful support, and feel free to write back with any questions or if I can help in your purchasing or brewing of great coffee.

Kent

Coffee and Disneyland

2008-09-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hello, Friends . . .

We are roasting next on Monday, September 29, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Tuesday the 30th. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

Barack O’Java has now become our best-selling coffee, and we’ll continue to offer this through the November election. We donate $1 of each package sold to the campaign. For the very few of you who have asked, I am sorry but we don’t offer a McPalin coffee.

I write you this week from the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, where I am running a conference. Imagine the strange bedfellows of very small children, frazzled parents and several thousand pharmaceutical scientists, and this is my world for five days. Because of a last minute construction project here at the hotel, we enter our conference through the main entrance of “Goofy’s Kitchen,” weaving our way through an armada of parked strollers and costumed Mickies, Goofies and Daffies (who enable the Disney Corporation to get $30 each for a breakfast buffet). In the morning, the gazillion kids are fired up for a day in the park; in the afternoon, they assume a slumped position as they sleep by the hundreds in their strollers.

Predictably, the coffee here sucks.

I knew before I came on this trip that there would be no hope for coffee at Disneyland, so I came equipped with a small electric teakettle, a hand grinder, a filter brewer and two coffees – a Guat and an El Salvador Peaberry – both roasted the day before I left. They have poured well on this trip. And yes, I am obsessed with good coffee. :)

So, I can’t invoke your pity by complaining that I have to drink the whitebread swill they serve here, but I will take the liberty of using Disneyland as a metaphor for the menace that is generic coffee.

I think now and then about coffee as a food, rather than a beverage unto itself. And when I think about coffee in this way, I consider coffee as it is served at places like Disneyland.

It comes from no place; it is only “coffee.”

It was roasted by no one; it is only “coffee.”

It has no brand; it is only “coffee.”

It was not ground in a grinder you know about, and it was prepared only in a “coffee maker.”

It is not special. In this setting, it is allowed no adjectives.

Would we allow this to happen with any of our other favorite foods?

Would we eat only “Cheese”? “Meat”? “Sauce”, “Juice”, “Sandwiches”, “Bread”?

“Food”?

I come to Disneyland harboring two addictions, caffeine and good coffee. It would be easy enough to bring some No Doz to satisfy the former, but the latter is harder, and it is often a need that is impossible to satisfy on the road. Airports, business hotels, gas stations and roadside diners insist on serving only “coffee.”

In the world of specialty coffee, roasters and cafes think a lot about coffee education. We know that most of the coffee drinkers in our country still drink this very generic brew – and that in many other countries, instant coffee (made largely from cheap, bitter Robusta beans) is still the market leader. Some simple rules about coffee buying and preparation can really change the experience of coffee for people, and even for those who won’t move all the way into the higher end coffees like those we sell, the daily cup will be better.

One of the great joys I have about supplying The Royal Bean cafe is that I get to spend a lot of time hanging out and watching the interactions between the staff and the customers. Quite often, someone who is new to the café will not have had the opportunity to choose from among multiple coffees when they order – and this gives Jim and his staff a great opening to talk about the flavors and textures and smells of different coffee origins in relation to each other. These talks are so cool, because the minute that customer tastes a new coffee, they learn something – and using this learning takes them to a greater appreciation of the value of taking more care in buying and brewing their own coffees.

And inch-by-inch, these folks will go out in the world to places like Disneyland, and ask for something more. And maybe, just maybe, someday, they will make a difference and those who would genericize this wonderful beverage will try a little harder to serve coffees labeled by origin country and roast level.

On our website, at the bottom of the coffee stories blog, there is a long article I wrote about finding good coffee on the road. This quest can be a lot of fun, and I hope you will read this someday and engage in your own explorations when you travel.

I look forward to being back in Maine this weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall days you are having there . . . and as always, thanks for your ongoing support.

Cheers,

Kent

Understanding Coffee Growing Regions

2008-09-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

We are roasting next on Monday, September 15, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Tuesday the 16th. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

We have an interesting special offer this week, a limited run of the Barack O’Java coffee – a premium blend of Central and South American coffees. It’s $12/pound, and $1 of each pound purchased will be donated to the Obama campaign. If you want some through the website, just order any $12/pound coffee and send me an email with your Barak order so I can make the change.

I was going to start writing about specific coffee-growing countries this week, but then I figured this was putting the cart before the horse. I’d like to instead start this lesson today by trying explain the major coffee growing regions of the world and how this ties in to the taste of different coffees, and then with this as a foundation, I’ll talk next week about how coffee is processed (another important thing to know) and then get going on our trip around the world.

Why are the coffee regions such a mystery to people?

To answer this question, I went back to the grocery store and had a look at what’s on the shelf – and what I saw there were mainly blends. Breakfast Blend. Happy Day Blend. Sunrise Blend. Rich Blend. French Roast Blend. Espresso Blend. Gone Fishing Blend. Yuck Blend. This Blend. That Blend.

Its no small wonder the regions are a mystery, because not many people have been exposed to them. You see, blends are there for some interesting reasons. In theory, coffees are blended together to achieve a specific purpose. For example, we combine Indonesian and South American coffees in our Indo-Limbo French Roast to achieve a balance of flavors and to add complexity; and, the very popular Misty Morning Espresso has coffees in it that give espresso its wonderful crema and others that add nice flavors into the mix.

But, for most large coffee companies, its all about marketing and saving money. They think that “Breakfast Blend” will stick with someone more than “Guatemala Atitlan San Pedro La Laguna,” and from a purely marketing standpoint, they are right – get the brand established in the consumer’s head, and they’ll keep buying it (though forsaking experimentation and variety). And, a dirty little secret of the big coffee companies (one of many I will share with you in the weeks to come) is that large commercial blends are primarily “filler” coffees that have bland taste and some amount of body – that when combined taste like . . . coffee.

Generic Single Origins

Moving up the ladder, we come next to what I call “generic” single origin coffees. These are sold with little description other than the name of the growing country. Colombia. Panama. Ethiopia. Jamaica.

In these cases, the coffees ARE from those places, but they are typically “pooled” coffees, meaning that very large exporters, processors or mills lump together many coffees from many, many growers (primarily larger farms) and sell the result onto the open market at a very low cost.

Digging Deeper

Continuing, we then find coffees that have a bit more information, and here’s where your education gets more important. You’ll see the impressive sounding “Colombia Supremo” and “Colombia Excelso,” for sale – but its important to know that “Supremo” means LARGE and “Excelso” means MEDIUM in the grading scheme for these coffees. Kenya AA is the best grade of coffee from Kenya, but its more a descriptor of the size of the beans and the cleanliness of the coffee than of the taste. These are all names based on a grading system and not on a region.

Descriptors like “Costa Rica Tarrazu,” “Ethiopia Harrar” or “Sumatra Lintong” get you better information, as these tell you about specific growing regions within the countries – and here’s where, with a little experimenting, you can start to zero in on the tastes you really like – and then use this information to guide your choices when you purchase coffee.

The Regions

Let’s now look broadly at some general taste characteristics of the main growing regions of the world. Before I launch into these, let me make the point that the best examples of the characteristics I describe will be found at the upper end of the spectrum, meaning that the pooling of coffees (combining the product of many growers into one) will blunt the subtleties of coffees coming from smaller estates or co-ops. Venture into smaller sources, and you’ll find some very special experiences.

Central America:

“Centrals” are grown in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama, and good coffees from this region have a sparkling “acidity” (coffeespeak for a citrus-like effervescence in the cup), medium body and light floral and fruit notes that make these easy, accessible coffees to drink all day. In buying these coffees, look for those grown at higher elevations, and try to zero in on a specific region or cooperative, rather than something labeled “Guatemala,” for example – as many of these countries also produce a lot of bland, commodity coffees grown at lower altitudes.

Be wary of Mexican organics, and be even more diligent in your research about where these are grown (elevation counts). The Mexican coffee industry has pushed hard to increase the production of certified organic coffees to support the demand of large chains in the US (as in the famous hamburger chain now trying to become a coffee expert), and their goals are much more around getting the higher price commanded by these than about quality.

And, check out some of the amazing coffees starting to emerge from Panama. In the last few years, an amazing varietal called Gesha has commanded auction prices of an astounding $130/pound for green coffee beans – and though you aren’t likely to pay this much, this is a very special type of coffee, and there are some good Geshas out there for far lower prices.

South America:

In ranking the world coffee producers, Brazil and Colombia have consistently been numbers one and two respectively – with Colombia only recently eclipsed by the surging Robusta production of Vietnam. As coffee grew in popularity around the world, the favorable climates of Brazil and Colombia allowed these countries to propagate huge coffee plantations and the processing and exporting infrastructure to support them. And so most of us grew up watching our parents drink the bland, homogenous coffees they cranked out onto the world commodity markets – sold in tin cans by the large coffee companies and used for instant (“soluble” in coffeespeak) coffees such as the world leader NesCafe.

All of this isn’t to say that all coffee from South America is bad – but if you stay mired in the generic Colombia and Brazil coffees, you won’t taste the best the region has to offer.

One of the most important contributions to modern specialty coffee are the dry processed coffees of Brazil, which are used as the base of many espresso blends to add body and contribute the distinctive crema of a well-poured shot. These beautiful coffees also work well brewed by themselves, with deep body and rich, even flavors.

A standout in Brazil is Daterra Farms (source of our Brazil decaf), which uses advanced growing and processing methods that designed to greatly reduce defects and improve the consistency of their coffees.

With good Colombian coffees, you won’t find exotic flavors, but you’ll experience mainstream-type tastes at a very high level of quality. If your trying to convert someone who has been drinking supermarket coffees and want to give them the entrée into better tasting coffees, this is a good place to start.

The other big player in South America is Peru, and here you need to be careful. As with Mexico, the industry has pushed into organics with a vengeance, and lower priced single origin organics and organic blends from Peru are like the Cascadian Farms of organic coffee; technically organic, but with little to show for it in quality. But at the other end of the spectrum, good Perus are wonderfully sweet, easy drinking coffees.

Indonesia:

Coffee is grown in a very large region extending from western India through parts of China and down to Australia, but here we’ll talk about origins in the Indonesian archipelago, as these are best known to US coffee consumers. India generates a lot of beautiful coffees, but they don’t get much attention in the US. China is an up and coming producer, but without a lot of volume yet. Vietnam has a massive industry built around commodity Robusta coffee and the other growing countries in the area aren’t that distinctive as specialty grades.

Indonesian coffees fall into two groups – those from Sumatra the largest island in the chain, Sulawesi (just south of the Philippines) and Timor (north of Australia); and another set from Java and Papua New Guinea.

The first group presents rich, syrupy coffees with intense body. These are often roasted dark and they work well in French Roast blends and espressos. There is a lot of pooling here, so you won’t find estate coffees to the extent you might in Africa or Central America, and quality can be quite variable. Unlike the grading scheme used in most of the world, which puts a lot of weight on appearance a lack of physical defects, these coffees are considered more on their taste profiles. The rugged character of the coffees comes through in the cup, and it is these qualities that make them a favorite of those who like big, bold tastes.

The other island coffees of this region have more in common with Central American coffees. They are wet processed (meaning the fruit is stripped from the cherries just after harvesting) and they have a nice acidity and floral/fruit tones.

East Africa:

Look back into the history of coffee, and you’ll find a polite dispute between Yemen and Ethiopia over which country was the true birthplace of coffee. I’ll save the happy goats story for another article – but its easy to find online if you are interested.

But there isn’t much dispute over the fact that this region is where coffee all began – and these origins have the longest standing, richest coffee heritage in the world.

Coffee is grown in a band running from Yemen, through Ethiopia and down to Tanzania and Zambia. The small country of Rwanda is now emerging as a coffee producer, and we’ll be seeing more good coffees coming from Burundi in the years to come.

Writing about coffees from this region makes me smile, because here you’ll find some absolutely mind-blowing coffees. I kid you not, the surprises to be found in the coffees of this part of the world can be so distinctive and startling in the flavors that come out of the cup that you’ll wonder how such a thing is possible. Get down to The Royal Bean this week and try some dry processed Ethiopia Korate to see what I mean.

OK . . . must focus. Must finish this article.

Among the coffees of East Africa, you’ll find a depth of flavor and complexity unlike any other region of the world. These aren’t necessarily for everyone, but for those who like to get a little out there in their tastes for food and beverage, you know who you are and I encourage you to take the leap and experiment.

As with any coffees, there are some stinkers out there too – and many would exploit the good name of some of these countries for marketing purposes. Unpredictability is a hallmark of these coffees, so we recommend finding a way to try before you buy.

If you made it this far, thanks – I didn’t intend for it to run on this long, but as you can see, there’s a lot to be said about the different coffees of the world!

Thanks again for your support – enjoy the weekend.

Kent

All About Grinding

2008-09-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

We are roasting next on Monday, September 8, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Tuesday the 9th. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com ).

We have a tasty new organic Costa Rica, Lomas Al Rio, and if you’d like a small sample thrown in with your order next time, let me know.

This week’s sermon is about the proper grinding of coffee. I spend a lot of time talking to people about how they prepare coffee at home, and this subject comes up more than any other, even those about brewing methods.

I’d like to try and simplify the role of grinding for you, and then offer some suggestions of how to get the most out of the method you use, when to change your grind settings and then (if you are so inclined) how to take the next step and buy an upgraded grinder.

Why Does Proper Grinding Matter?

In every coffee brewing method, the ground coffee is exposed to hot water – and the amount of time it is exposed to water is different, depending on the method you use. At one end of the spectrum is the French Press, where the ground coffee steeps for about four minutes, and at the other is a shot of espresso, where the pressurized water goes through the coffee in around 25 seconds.

All those settings on grinders result in different particle sizes – coarsely ground coffee has large particles, and fine ground coffee has very small particles.

Now, take a single coffee bean and measure the surface area. Write it down (not really, but bear with me). Take an identical coffee bean and grind it coarse. Measure the surface area of all the particles. Write that down. And last, take another identical coffee bean, grind it very fine and then somehow measure the surface area of all THOSE little particles – write that number down.

What you’ll see on your list is a small amount of surface area for the whole bean, a much larger number for the coarse ground coffee, and a really large number for the fine grind.

When you expose ground coffee to water, this surface area is what is exposed. Meaning that, if you dunk a bunch of whole coffee beans in hot water, you’ll be lucky if it turns a little murky in color. There is very little exposed surface area (and the pores aren’t open as they are through grinding). Grind those same beans coarse and expose those to the same amount of hot water and you’ll get something more like coffee. Grind them fine, and you will also get coffee, but since there is WAY more surface area, much more flavor will be extracted from the same amount of coffee.

Still with me?

Matching Degree of Grind to Brewing Method

So, what we are trying to do with grinding is to match the grind setting with the brewing method. The French Press needs a coarse ground coffee for best results. Here, if you grind too fine, you are exposing TOO MUCH surface area, and you’ll end up with a bitter brew.

If you took that same coarse ground coffee and used it for drip (with exposure to the water for 30-60 seconds), you’ll get very weak coffee, and using those grounds in an espresso machine will result in a tea-like shot that pulls very quickly.

Use an espresso grind in a French Press, and you have SO MUCH surface area that the coffee is horribly over-extracted (and it will also clog the screen).

“Dialing In” Your Grind Setting

If you go over to my buddy Jim’s wonderful Royal Bean café (in Yarmouth – the BEST place to hang out and enjoy great coffee) before they open in the morning, you’ll see the staff at their three grinders working hard to adjust their grind settings for the day. They grind, brew a cup, taste, adjust the grind, taste again and do this over and over until each machine has a grind setting that results in the very best taste.

You can do this too. If your coffee is too bitter (and you know you have good, freshly-roasted beans), grind a little coarser and try it again; maybe you were over-extracting the coffee. Too weak? You might not have enough surface area exposed for your brewing method – grind finer.

The Problem with Blade Grinders

The most affordable and therefore most common household grinder is the blade grinder. I spent 25 years using these so I know them well.

Most people use these by adding the coffee beans, holding down the trigger and then keeping it there for an amount of time that varies by day (and by member of the household). This results usually in a lot of powder and some chunks of different sizes. As we’ve learned above, the powder will cause over-extraction of the coffee and the chunks will be under-extracted. In your cup will then be a bad-tasting stew of bitter coffee and weak coffee. Not good.

Burr Grinders

Ideally, what you want in a grinder is a way of adjusting the grind setting so that your particle sizes are consistent. This is best achieved with burr grinders, where two sets of “burrs,” or grinding disks are adjusted at a distance that allows consistent results for each setting. The big grinders at the supermarket, espresso grinders, and good quality home grinders are all based on this technology. Buyer beware – there are “burr grinders” on the market for as little as $25, but these have stamped or molded burrs rather than those machined of steel. They aren’t worth it, as the burrs will go dull very quickly. You’ll need to spend about $100 to get a good one.

Getting Good Results

With a blade grinder (I know some of you well enough to know you’ll never upgrade), PULSE the button rather than hold it down – and be consistent in how the number of pulses every time. Open the chamber and see what the coffee looks like after every few pulses, and work toward particles that are the right size for the brewing method you use.

With burr grinders and grinding at the store, don’t get stuck on one grind setting. Experiment a little, and see how it affects the taste of your coffee. Grind finer, and see if you enjoy the increased strength. Grind a little coarser and see what happens.

Upgrading Your Grinder

As I mentioned above, to get a good grinder with commercial-grade burrs and the range of settings you’ll need, you will need to spend at least $100 – and if you are a gearhead, consider taking the leap to the next step above that (starting at $200-$300), as you’ll probably end up there sooner than later.

I’d recommend starting with the CoffeeGeek consumer reviews (http://www.coffeegeek.com/reviews). Here, you can explore recent, very in-depth commentary from people like you using different equipment. They have a whole section devoted to grinders, and there is a huge amount of very easy to access information there.

Then, find a grinder you like, and alongside the review will be a list of good online discount sources for it. Look at a few sources to make sure you are getting the right price.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I know this was a long one.

Next week, I’ll change gears and talk about a coffee-growing country. Is there one you’d like to hear about?

Thanks again for your support – enjoy the weekend.

Kent

How to Buy Coffee

2008-08-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

We are roasting next on Monday, September 1, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Tuesday the 2nd. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

This week, I’d like to share some thoughts on buying good coffee.

As we get further into this business, I find myself drawn to the coffee aisle of any store I go to – and I spend a lot of time out there looking at how coffee is sold.

This morning, I was down at the supermarket, and I took a few minutes to try to find out WHEN the coffee there had been roasted. At this store (Shaws in Freeport, to be specific), they had coffees from about twenty roasters on the “specialty” side of the aisle, and NOT ONE of these had the date the coffee was roasted. Here’s a sample of what I saw there:

> Major National Chain Famous for Dark Roasting Coffee: No roasting date. No expiration date. No valve. (No valve, by the way, means that they have to “stale” their coffee before they package it, or the bags will pop!)
> Peets: Freshness Pledge: Peet’s Coffee is Within 90 Days of Roasting
> Major Donut Chain: Best by 7/2009 (That would be TEN months from now.)
> Regional Maine Roaster: 4721408 (I personally thought 4621234 was a better year – how about you?)
> Others: Best by Jan/09, Best by 3/14/09, Best by 4/20/09

Interesting, huh? Want to know WHY they won’t tell you this? For the most part, it’s so that the roasters can ship large amounts of coffee to the store and then allow the store to not worry about that coffee expiring (as milk or cheese does). In some cases, there are dates here, but they are in CODE so people like you and I can’t figure them out.

What does this matter? Coffee starts going stale right when it comes out of the roaster – and its best between 2 and 15 days after roasting. A fancy package slows down the process somewhat, but that packaged coffee goes stale MUCH faster after its open.

What do we do differently? Everything, really. We package the coffee within 10 minutes of cooling. We use three ply bags with valves and heat seal them. We deliver or ship ALWAYS within 24 hours of roasting. And our bags show the roasting date (in my own handwriting) on the front of the bag.

So if you don’t buy your coffee from us, this message will give you some food for thought. Look for small roasters who aren’t afraid to tell you when their coffee was roasted. Around here, I’ll throw out a plug for Matt in Pownal who does this. Try really fresh coffee and you’ll notice a difference.

I am taking suggestions for next week’s coffee sermon. Send me your ideas and I’ll give you a pound of coffee if I pick yours.

Thanks again for your support – enjoy the long weekend.

Kent

One Morning in North Beach

2008-05-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Joe G. from San Francisco

I remember my very first real espresso, pulled by the barista and owner of Cafe Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach. I had taken my partner Tanji there on our last morning in town, after a morning walk through Chinatown. Just after that cuppa, we had to bolt back to our hotel and then head to the airport.

Before this trip, I had promised Tanji she would see a real rock star on the streets of SF, boasting that they were "everywhere."

And as we sat enjoying the most perfect ever cappuccino, I reflected that I hadn't made good on this one. Sigh.

We finished that wonderful cup and headed out the door - and right outside, enjoying a morning smoke and some good conversation was Paul Kantner, former leader of the Jefferson Airplane. Just sitting there like a regular guy.

I beamed, then quickly hussled Tanji across the street. "Don't look, don't look," I muttered under my breath.

"What?"

Shhhhh - don't look."

Then safely from the other side of the intersection. "OK, look - know who that is?"

"No, who?"

The movie "Diner" crosses my mind. "Its Paul Kantner - your rock star."

"Wasn't that the BEST coffee? Who's Paul Kantner?"

Sigh. It really was the best coffee.