Understanding Coffee Growing Regions

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.

The Blendization of Premium Coffee

When I started roasting coffee about six years ago, one of the things that drew me to this passion was the wonder of single origin coffees.  I began my exploration, as most coffee lovers do, by learning about the main growing regions of the world (Central and South America, Africa and Indonesia), and then, through experimenting with the broad range of coffees offered by the homeroasting suppliers, I dug deeper to learn about coffees from individual countries and the regions within each of these. And there I found an endless journey through flavors and aromas and stories and processing methods that is what motivates my love of coffee today.

To give you a sense of how massive this universe of coffees can be, have a look at today’s offering list from one of the importers I use – featuring 339 different coffees.  Click on the little symbols next to some of these to learn more about where these were grown and their flavor profiles.

When these coffees make their way to roasters, they have one of two destinies.  Some will be used for blends (such as our Indo Limbo French Roast or Espresso Nirvana), while others will be sold as unblended “single origin” coffees.  Our current offerings from Brazil, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Sumatra are examples of these.

In looking around at where coffee is sold, you’ll see that most of what is out there for mass consumption (grocery stores, café chains, donut shops, restaurants, gas stations, etc.) are blends.  These are coffee products where the maker wants you to get used to a brand identity (Sunrise Blend, Dark Magic, Winter Warmer) and be confident that you will always be getting the same product wherever or whenever you buy it. (You are not, by the way, getting the same product.  Blends are one of the dirty little secrets of the coffee world, with large-scale roasters gaming the international markets to find low cost “blender” coffees, then enhancing these with better coffees and roasting styles that give these products their identities.)

Single origin coffees are the realm of smaller roasters.  We buy these great coffees in relatively small quantities, roast and sell them until they are gone, and then move on to another set of offerings.  We take chances to do this.  In a world of blends, the typical consumer doesn’t know much about growing regions, much less about the differences between Ethiopian coffees from the Harrar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe growing regions.

In large grocery chains, you’ll encounter just a few coffees designated by a country of origin (typically Sumatra, Columbia and Brazil), but rarely if ever will you see information about regions within a country or specific farms.  Single origin coffees are more easily found in health food stores, independent cafés, farmers markets or roaster websites. 

I think single origin coffees are a good thing.  They promote knowledge of the sources of coffee, enhance the range of flavors available to the consumer and encourage farmers to grow better coffee.  I wish we as an industry had more ways to sell them, and that more roasters and retailers would make the extra effort to offer them.

Unfortunately, I fear that trends are moving in the opposite direction.  When we travel – and when I go to any store that sells coffee – I look at menus and retail offerings to see what is available.  In doing this, I have always appreciated the commitment of small cafés and roasters to single origin coffees.  These require more consumer education and more dialog with customers about the nuances of specific coffees and how they are different than what someone may have drank the day before.  But this year, for the first time, I have seen significant numbers of small coffee businesses moving away from single origin coffees and into menus comprised of only blends. 

My guess is that these changes are the result of business decisions about what works and what doesn’t work for each of these companies.  Many coffee drinkers care mainly about getting a good, consistent cup at whatever roast level they prefer supplied in a way that is convenient to where they live or work.  To understand and appreciate single origin coffees requires more commitment on the part of all concerned – roasters and retailers need to spend more time on education, and consumers need to spend more time savoring their coffee so that they see a reason to seek out these special beans.

We will keep offering both families of coffee, as our customers break down pretty evenly into blend lovers (Espresso Nirvana, Road Trip! and Indo Limbo French Roast) and those who surf our single origin offerings from Brazil, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Sumatra and others.

To each, his or her own.

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

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.

Buying Coffee at the Grocery Store

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

The Post-Roast Life of Coffee

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

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

Myths and Habits in Coffee

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

Musings on the Economy and Coffee

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

Reply

Forward

Troubleshooting Coffee

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

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

How to Buy Coffee

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