COFFEE SNOB
So you want to be a coffee snob...
Introduction
I'm a coffee snob, and you can be one too! Truth be told, I'm a wine snob first. Who'd have thunk a blue collar kid like me whose primary interests were watching Star Trek and catching frogs at the neighborhood ditch (still the best frog catcher who never uses a net in Valparaiso, IN!) would someday develop such a discriminating palate? Well, it happened. But that's not so unique these days; so far as snobs go, there are lots of us snobs.
Perhaps my experience with wine snobbery prepared me for my next bit of pretension: coffee. Oh, devil coffee. It's the blood and guts of many a college term paper, and it's a familiar friend in some of the fondest college cafe conversations. But, it's also a very serious substance. After all, it's the second largest import after oil! It can also be quite expensive, ranging anywhere from $10/lb to $60.00/lb!
In order to be a proper coffee snob, let's get the history of this marvelous berry (yes berry!) into perspective.
History
Of all the various species of genus Coffea (family Rublaceae) known to exist, only two species are of any importance to us: Coffea Robusta and Coffea Arabica.
The coffee plant is a small tree, grown in hot, moist climates, principally between latitudes 30 north and 30 south. The richer and more flavorful coffees are grown at elevations between 3,000 and 6,000 feet. These coffees are of the Arabica variety. They constitute only roughly 3% of all coffee beans grown!
A coffee tree starts producing coffee about 5 years after planting, and will only yield around 1 pound of green coffee annually. The lower grown Robusta are harvested all at once mechanically, while the higher grown Arabica are picked by hand as they ripen. This makes the Arabica a cleaner, more flavorful cup of coffee.
After harvesting, the pulp around the bean is removed. This can be done by drying the coffee and removing the pulp; or by using water to wash the pulp off. These are known, respectively, as the dry and wet methods of preparation. Both produce unique and different flavor profiles, and add to the wide variety of coffee available. After the pulp is removed, the coffee is dried, sorted, graded, and bagged according to type and quality. Now it is ready for exporting.
Good gourmet coffee companies pursue beans only in the Arabica family. JL Hufford's coffee companies have buyers who have traveled to many coffee producing countries to personally find and inspect some of the the worlds greatest coffees. They look at all aspects of the processing in the producing countries for adherence to rigid quality control standards. They then conduct multiple tests on the coffee samples they brought back with them. Using state-of-the-art lab equipment and trained coffee cuppers, they analyze many aspects of the beans; a few of which are the moisture percentage, the amount of defects, the bean size, and most importantly, the actual cup quality. In fact, each coffee is rated on over 20 different taste characteristics before JL Hufford purchases a single bean!
Once the coffee shipment arrives, rigid tests are performed on the green coffee to ensure the quality. If the coffee passes these tests, it is ready to roast.
Roasting is the process of heating the beans to draw moisture out and caramelize the natural sugars that gives coffee its flavor. For us coffee snobs, the type of bean and roasting process go hand in hand as the most important bits to making a good cup.
The green coffee bean is made up of fats, proteins, fibers, and miscellaneous chemicals. The coffee we enjoy so much does not actually come to life until it is roasted. The heat of roasting forces the moisture out of the bean, and draws out of the remaining substance various tiny fragrant beads of a volatile oily material. This substance is not actually an oil, since it dissolves in water - but it is the flavor essence which we prize as coffee.
During roasting, the oil gathers in little pockets throughout the heart of the bean. As the beans are roasted for longer periods and more moisture is lost, the oil develops further and begins to rise to the surface of the bean, giving dark roasts their characteristic oily appearance.
As the beans roast for a longer period, it begins to burn, creating the bittersweet flavor that is cherished by lovers of dark-roasted coffee. Dark roasted coffees also contain considerably less acid and caffeine - these are burned off during the roasting process.
Immediately after roasting, the coffee bean is ready to die! The more exposure to oxygen the bean gets, the staler it is. That's why many roasters nitrogen flush their coffee bags (to prevent oxidation).
Now you know how a bean gets done up for a true coffee snob. But, how do you judge the quality of the bean? I remember many wine tasting events which I treated a bit too casually. I'd joke about the insipid hints of tobacco or grass or plumb. Then I'd comment on the very fruit-forward feel, and the gentle nose! Hah! Although I got lots of laughs, because I was making it all up, there is definitely an art to wine tasting. And the same is true, if not more so, of coffee tasting.
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