water. Water isn’t what most
people think of when it comes to
making coffee, but it is critically
important in my opinion. Bad
quality water can alter the taste of
an otherwise good coffee. Filtered
or distilled water is the best. The
coffee beans hold the rest of the
power over the final product.
The variety of coffee bean makes
a difference in taste and is simple
to keep track of since there are
only two main varieties, Arabica
and Robusta. Arabica makes up
most of the coffee we drink here
in the States and is generally the
better of the two because it has a
smooth, balanced flavor. Robusta
is much cheaper and is used as a
filler in budget coffees. Robusta
has a bitter flavor. I’ve even had
some that tasted remarkably like
I imagine burnt rubber would
taste. Truly it did. Robusta also
has more caffeine than Aribica,
which can be a good thing if you
need some extra kick in your
step. While Robusta is generally
not as good, there are some good
Robusta roasts out there.
The next key to good flavor is
where the coffee originated and
how it was grown. Not all places
are equal and not all farming
practices carry the same results.
For example, some farmers will
harvest coffee early in order to get
a better price. The obvious result
is a coffee that isn’t as good. Many
other things are out of the control
of the farmer, such as weather
and soil conditions. That’s why
some places produce consistently
good coffee and others are hit and
miss depending on drought and
changing temperatures.
Depending on your taste, you
may like coffee from one place
while someone else really likes
coffee from another place. It’s
subjective, so it’s best to try a
few different origins and find out
what you like for yourself.
I personally really enjoy coffee
from Kenya and Ethiopia.
As consumers, it can be hard to
know how to get the best coffee
sometimes, and the simplest
solution is finding someone who
can buy coffee from a good source
and roast it for you. Freshly
roasted coffee is quite good. After
a week, most grounds lose a lot
of flavor and can become stale
so having your coffee freshly
roasted allows you to get all the
best flavor.
To keep coffee from tasting too
stale, or to avoid the flavor that
goes along with poor quality
beans, large roasting companies
often over-roast the beans. Overroasting gives a uniform flavor,
but it also burns out many of the
oils, which keeps the coffee from
being really good. Now that I
know this I can’t help spying out
the coffee beans in coffee shops
to see if they are over-roasted.
When the beans look oily, it’s a
dead giveaway that the coffee sat
in the roaster a little too long.
Most of us enjoy coffee but can
be baffled by coffee culture. Yes,
there is such a thing as coffee
culture. My first experience with
this was at a Starbucks on a
cold winter day. I wanted
a hot cup of coffee and
had heard that Starbucks
was practically heaven
for anything of the sort. I
gave it a try. Pretty much
everything went wrong.
I had no idea what the
menu said. Every word
seemed to end in an “e”
or an “o”. All the talls
were really just smalls
and there was enough
sweetener to make dessert
feel bland. The greatest
cause for wonder was that
Americans in America
were ordering a drink
called Caffé Americano.
I was greatly humored
when I found out it was
just the Italian way of
saying American coffee.
Unbeknownst to me at the time,
coffee plays a major role in Italy
and so it tends to define coffee
culture all over the place; this
stands to reason since we owe
our espressos to the Italians.
After all, they did invent the
espresso maker. Many of the
names Starbucks uses that caused
me so much confusion really
stem from Ital