This article will be the first in a series that will provide
you with a foundation education in the geographic sources of coffee – with the
goal of helping each of you know more about what you drink each day and what
you can gain by exploring new coffees and flavors. The world of coffee today is every bit as
vast as that of wine, cheese or craft beer, but with vastness can come confusion. I’d like to help with that.
I wrote something like this when we started Freeport Coffee
Roasting in 2008, but the coffee market has changed since then. As with many things, the mass market side of
coffee has gotten much worse – and the rise of craft roasting and local cafes
has greatly improved. Read on.
Mega-Blends:
In one of my first posts on this subject, I wrote of going
to our local supermarket and counting an astonishing 288 different types of
whole bean coffee. I observed then that
the majority of these were blends (Sunrise Blend, Darkness Blend, Daybreak
Blend, etc.) with little information on the coffees that comprise these, and a
goal of these roasters of getting you hooked on a marketing identity rather
than a coffee origin. The few coffees
available then that did come from specific countries were limited to Colombia,
Sumatra and maybe Kenya – none with an indication of a farm, cooperative,
region within each country, or other source information.
Today, my opinion is that this situation has gotten far
worse. The options are fewer, and the
mix is slanted much more in the direction of blends rather than coffees from
individual growing countries. The worst
example of this (and a great irony, given its beginnings) is the large international
café chain that replaced brewed origin-specific coffee of any kind with a
single branded blend in 2008.
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, our popular Misty Morning Espresso has coffees
in it that give espresso its wonderful crema and others that add a balance
flavors into the mix.
But, for most large coffee companies, it’s 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 is that large commercial blends are primarily “filler”
coffees that have bland taste and some amount of body – with the taste of the
blend determined by roasting style and the addition of small amounts of better
coffees with unique flavors.
Small Roasters and
Single Origin Coffee:
On the other side of the coin is the great proliferation of
smaller roasters who dedicate themselves almost exclusively to single source
coffees – with local examples here including Matt’s Wood Roasted Organic Coffee
(and his excellent Speckled Ax café), Tandem Coffee (now with two great cafes
in Portland), Bard and our coffee. Each
of these and the many others like them across the country source coffees from
small growing cooperatives and farms within specific regions of growing
countries – and this support motivates farmers to grow better and better
coffee.
So my message here is that if your daily coffee habits
involve blended coffee purchased at the grocery store, I think you’ll be
wonderfully surprised at the world of options that awaits you.
Let’s look at where coffee is grown – and how this relates
to the flavor in your cup:
Central America:
“Centrals” are grown in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Costa
Rica, 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Coffee and Global
Warming:
In my next post, I’ll explain how climate change is
impacting the coffee growers of today – and how it may impact the coffee of
tomorrow. This is important stuff for
you to know.
Thanks for reading.
