Posts tagged with "Coffee"

The Current State of Specialty Coffee

We are now roasting new crop Central American coffees, and they taste fantastic. Some of these are used in our House and House Full City blends, which translates to a lot of of fabulous flavors for you to try. Scott is partial to the milder coffees, so new crop Costa Rican or House Blend is what he’d brew if given a choice. Walt is enjoying the fresh crop Centrals, and organic French Roast (for his espressos) – which also has new crop in it.

We always brew the coffees right after roasting and again the next day, but the flavors continue to develop three or four more days. Roasting changes the chemical makeup of the beans. The heat burns the sugars that are inside, and brings the oils that carry much of the flavor to the surface. On close inspection of a roasted bean, you will notice – especially in a dark roast – a speck of oil emerging. That speck will continue to spread, covering the whole bean, and subtly changing the flavor as it goes.

How do cantaloup, hibiscus, or soy sauce grab you as tasting notes in coffee? There is an updated coffee tasting flavor wheel that has some interesting descriptive terms. Though some of the identifiers are a bit outside the pale, we at Coffee Express have picked up and recognized many of these taste notes. See what you think for yourself Coffee Tasters Flavor Wheel.

We hope you enjoy these excellent new crop coffees, and that you’ll have some fun picking up some of the flavors from the wheel!

Microlots

The standard lot of coffee is around 250 bags, or 37,500 lbs. This is also a truckload, or an ocean container full. There are partial lots of more exotic types, but let’s zero in on what are known as microlots. 

You might ask, “What is your favorite coffee?” or, “Which country has the best coffee?” Tough questions with a simple answer. All coffee producing countries can have exquisite growths.

We’ve mentioned in previous posts that using the language of estates and farms is fuzzy business when talking coffee origins. Generally though, a microlot implies a very limited coffee from a single farm. Perhaps they have produced a few thousand pounds -25 bags let’s say- of a coffee they know produces a luxurious cup. On the other hand, maybe it’s from a larger farm, but they have singled out a particularly great bean. Either way, voila , a microlot!

While Coffee Express has always brought in coffees such as Wallenford Estate Jamaican, small-farm Hawaiian Konas, and microlot Cup of Excellence® winners, we have recently decided to expand our offerings. Besides our standard coffees, we keep on hand three to four additional choices. They can represent just about every producing region of the world. Prices vary based on availability, reputation, and other arbitrary influences. We will provide details about the production of the coffee, the farm, farmer, and cup qualities.

What we have on hand changes. If you fall in love with one, you will eventually have to go on to the next! Rest assured though, these are the most special coffees of the specialty coffee industry, and there will always be an exceptional selection from which to choose.

How We Choose Our Coffees

Folks who make coffee their profession understand – there are many steps to a great cup. It starts with green beans, and involves roasting, brewing and serving. The green beans alone require a certain depth of knowledge, including genetics, growing regions, processing techniques, sorting, and shipping. Let’s take a look at how we choose our coffees.

Some of the criteria we use to purchase green coffees are cup quality, seasonal growing cycle, price, and availability. Since we began roasting in 1982, we’ve looked the world over for the best beans each producing country offers. We’ve always maintained a large variety of types from the majority of coffee growers.

It’s important to represent many specialty coffees. When you are asked what the best coffee is, the answer is not set in stone, but comes when you’re able to choose from among the many terrific growths available at any given time.

Each roaster uses various, personalized criteria to buy and evaluate their green purchases. At Coffee Express, we use a number of trusted importers, based on both the east and west coast. We look for a combination of coffees we need, and those that are available for a limited time.

Cup quality is never always 10, on a scale of 1-10. After all, if everything were a 10, you wouldn’t need a scale! So, you try to shoot for that elusive 10 at all times, but you choose from what’s available. I believe everyone has a slightly different bar, and we’ve kept ours very high for going on thirty years. We reject coffee below that bar, no matter how much it’s needed.

Today, our process for choosing coffees has led to nearly three decades of – we hope – some of the best tasting coffee you can find.

We hope you enjoy drinking our coffee as much as we enjoy roasting it for you!

Degrees of Roast

A word on degrees of roasting. The popularity of coffee houses brought with it a taste toward dark roasts. Prior to the 1990s, the preference for dark roast was limited. Espresso brewing changed that, and the Starbucks Phenomenon has popularized even darker roasts.

The success of coffee houses, with their espresso-based drinks, is widespread today. Every city and town sports double and triple the number of shops than even a few years ago. There is a trend, dubbed “third wave”, that is elevating the making and serving of espressos, macchiatos, cappuccinos, and lattes. Whether it involves exacting specs for the coffee blend and roast, having a barista trained in latte art, or the perfectly pulled shot, the strive for excellence at coffee houses is on the rise.

We are seeing a move, however small, to lighter espresso roasts often called “Northern Italian Style”. Probably our best selling coffee is our French Roast, which has always been a “medium dark roast”. There is also a renewed interest in the variety of medium roast coffees used for drip brewing.

We at Coffee Express encourage coffee operations of all types to experiment, educate, and continue in your mission to become THE spot known all around for serving the finest beverages and food items. Use Coffee Express Co. as an important tool as you continue to gather information about trends and techniques that can help you create a better shop. We are at your service.

A History of Coffee, Part II – Coffee in Europe

Coffee In Europe

Coffee first came to Europe through the port of Venice. Because of their vibrant trade with North Africa, it was through these Venetian merchants that coffee was introduced to the rest of Europe. In 1600, Pope Clement VIII, baptized the drink – making it more acceptable to European markets.

The first European coffee houses started opening, circa 1645, in Italy. In 1652, Pasqua Rosee (the proprietor) and Daniel Edwards (a trader in Turkish goods) opened the first reported coffee shop at St Michael’s Alley in Cornhill, England. Coffee became so popular, that within 100 years, at least 3,000 coffee houses were operating in England. In France, coffee became a popular drink for the Parisians by 1670, after being introduced by an ambassador of Mehmed IV. Vienna had its first coffee shop open in 1683. In a short time coffee and coffee houses spread throughout Europe. Coffee had arrived as a popular drink, and a traded commodity.

Coffee Around The World

Coffee’s popularity coincided with the age of exploration. Hence, the rapid spread of the coffee plant throughout the world. The Dutch played a major role in bringing the plant to its trading partners, especially in India and Asia. The French are given credit for first introducing the plant to the Americas, but all of the colonial powers were influential in the spread of the coffee plant.

Today, coffee is grown throughout the world in mountainous regions between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The largest producer is Brazil, though there are many other medium to small regional growers around the world.

Coffee has had a long journey since Kaldi the goat herder first experienced coffee’s wonderful and magical nuances.

A History of Coffee, Part I – The Legend

The Legend

There are several legends concerning the origins of coffee, but they all seem to include Kaffa, an Ethiopian goat herder who was seen in a meadow dancing with his goats by an imam from a nearby monastery. Finding that both Kaffa and the goats had eaten red berries from a small tree, he gathered some of the berries and took them back to the monastery. After some experimentation, parching, and boiling, the imams came up with a palatable drink.

The Early Spread of Coffee

The first recorded mention of coffee comes in the tenth century, from a Persian physician, Razi. Very little more was recorded until the 14th Century when a Kurdish poet, Malaye Jaziri, wrote a book on the history and legal controversies of coffee.

By the fifteen hundreds coffee had spread across the Muslim world. Yemen merchants brought coffee from Ethiopia, grew it themselves, and began exporting their new product northward through the Saudi Peninsula. The first coffee house on record is Istanbul’s Keva Han, in 1471. The spread of this product, however, was not without problems: while it seems the Sufis of earlier times took to this new drink because of its ability to ward off sleep and help in meditation, many imams were concerned about its stimulating effects. Though its acceptance was slow in the Middle East, coffee was to become an important social and economic factor.

Coffee is still widely used in the Middle East, and today there are many different ways to roast and prepare it. Some of the fun of being a roaster is knowing that the coffees we roast come with such a rich and fascinating history, spanning many centuries, and many of the world’s great cultures.

In Part II we will cover the introduction of coffee to Western Europe.