How to enjoy coffee - 1989Design

Select high-quality beans. Say goodbye to the big cans and bags of pre-ground coffee that line grocery store shelves. you won’t find quality there. I recommend looking for local independent roasters or searching online if there aren’t any nearby. If you can, try to talk to roasters about their coffee in person, either at their coffee shop or via email. In my experience, the more information they can give you about beans, the more likely your company will value quality and transparency.

An artisan roaster (or the barista serving the coffee) should be able to tell you what country the beans come from, what variety of coffee it is, the name of the producer, how the coffee was processed, and even at what altitude it was grown. knowing this information indicates that care was taken during the production process and that the roaster values its ingredient, both of which are marks of quality. (if the roaster can’t or won’t share this information, then run away fast). many artisan roasters even travel to the origin, where the beans are grown, to sample and select coffees for their clientele.

Reading: Enjoy a cup of coffee

Artisan roasters often sell single-origin coffee (meaning the beans come from a single country) and blends (a mix of beans from more than one country). both can be great, but single-origin beans tend to be of higher quality: they have more potential to be distinct and interesting, with flavors that vary greatly depending on the bean variety, where they were grown, how they were processed, and graded , and more. conversely, blends tend to be developed to have a more consistent flavor, no matter the season, but are cut from lower-quality (but still good) beans for the specific purpose of making them affordable.

It’s always worth spending a little more money, if you can. This is partly due to taste (high-quality coffee is more expensive), but it also means that your coffee is more likely to be produced ethically. Historically, coffee growers have been exploited, and even “fair trade” prices, designed to protect farmers, are often not enough; They have hardly increased in recent decades. That’s why some specialty coffee roasters insist on buying above fair trade prices, which inevitably costs more for consumers. Whenever possible, buy your coffee from roasters that purchase their beans ethically and transparently at a price that reflects the enormous amount of human effort and skill involved in coffee production.

Drink carefully prepared cups. One challenge with great coffee, unlike wine and beer, is that someone must prepare it on the spot before it can be consumed. this throws a lot of variability into the mix. having just two ingredients, coffee and water, may seem simple, but they can be challenging to work with. coffee, like any spice, stays fresh for only so long, and the quality of the water is variable, depending on where you are. In addition to this, the person who prepares the coffee must know how to prepare it correctly or use a machine that is capable of doing so. even the best beans in the world, when brewed incorrectly, can produce a bad cup of coffee.

To enjoy coffee while you’re out and about, I recommend frequenting coffee shops with people (or machines) that brew well. look for places with lots of information about their coffee displayed on signs and/or staff who can answer questions about where it comes from, how it’s made, and what it tastes like. Keep in mind that a great coffee shop doesn’t necessarily need baristas to brew by hand, though many do, because professional-grade machines can be programmed to make very good coffee.

If you’re at home, you’d better learn how to properly brew by hand. this is because most standard home coffee makers are not up to the task. they are typically unable to keep the water at the optimal temperature or achieve optimal brew time (more on that in a bit). All you need to start brewing right at home is a kettle to boil water and one of the dozens of handheld coffee makers available on the market; check out the links and books section below to find out what to try. a kettle that has just boiled reaches the proper brewing temperature, and you can control the brewing time with your device. instant improvement!

Experiment with time. Let’s take a closer look at why time is so important. When you grind coffee and add water, the water acts as a solvent. as the coffee molecules dissolve, the flavor is extracted. but more importantly, these molecules do not all dissolve at the same rate. those that contribute acidity and sweetness tend to be extracted more quickly than those that contribute bitterness. a well-brewed cup has a nice balance of these flavors, so choose the right time.

An under-extracted cup that hasn’t been brewed long enough tends to have an overwhelming number of molecules that contribute to perceived acidity, making the coffee taste too acidic. An over-extracted cup that has been brewed for too long tends to have too many molecules that contribute bitter notes, making the coffee taste too astringent.

The correct time, which can range from less than a minute to eight or more, depends on your device and, to some extent, on the coffee you’re using. (Professionals at top-tier coffee shops are constantly adjusting their time to account for numerous variables to get the best-tasting cups of beans.) It will also depend on the size of your beans: different devices require different grind sizes to achieve beers (see more below).

For beginners, I recommend the classic French press (cafetière) with a very, very coarse grind and a long brew time of eight minutes. For more information about devices and brewing, check out the links and books below, or talk to your coffee vendor.

taste carefully. coffee is complex by nature: a typical roasted coffee bean contains more than 800 different chemical compounds that contribute to flavor and aroma. the broad categories of coffee flavors include fruity, floral, sweet, nutty, cocoa, spice, green/vegetable, sour, fermented, and of course, roasted. within them are dozens of flavor references, like rose and jasmine in the floral category, for example.

These flavors can be subtle and require a developed palate, or they can hit you like a train. If you’ve never tasted a coffee that tastes extremely fruity (usually blueberry), try finding a naturally processed single-origin Ethiopian coffee from an artisan roaster. tell them you’re looking for a flavor bomb or blueberry bomb; they will know what you mean. For many coffee lovers, this type of bean was their ‘a-ha’ moment. the taste of coffee is often more understated than this, but this is a great place to experience the potential of coffee to the extreme.

Although coffee may taste differently, keep in mind that there are no reliable industry standards for how its flavor is described. World Coffee Research is an international organization that has produced a common vocabulary, but it is not widely adopted, at least not in the marketing language coffee roasters use to communicate with customers. instead, you may find flavor notes on the bags that seem oddly specific, things you don’t identify when you taste them, like “toasted marshmallow” or “Turkish delight.” This is because flavor is affected by our own memories and experiences, and the experience a roaster uses to describe flavors may not match yours. at the same time, roasters are trying to make coffee sound tasty, so that can influence the words they choose.

flavor notes (the suggested flavors written on a package or coffee sign) will be subjective until a standardized vocabulary is used (the wine industry has done a better job of this), but that doesn’t mean that be useless. . I tried that coffee with the description turkish delight. to me, it had the odd aroma of grape-flavored cigars, something that brought me back to my days working as a gas station cashier. I’ve never had Turkish delight, and you may not know what a grape-flavored cigar smells like, but they both have common denominators: sweetness, fruitiness, an earthy roast. try to interpret flavor notes that way, based on your own experience, rather than worrying about spotting specific notes written on the package.

The more coffee you taste, the more you will discover general preferences for broad categories of flavors, such as fruit, nuts or spices. You can also try to develop your palate a bit: when you smell and taste new foods, try to register the nuances of the taste. when you try a new coffee, taste it carefully. smell it. keep a sip in your mouth. sip it to splash the coffee on the back of your palate. exhale as you swallow. see if the taste evokes any memories or reminds you of something you’ve tried before. this is one of the joys of high-quality coffee.

Try coffee without added milk or sugar. Finally, keep in mind that many of us add milk and sugar to our coffee out of habit, often to mask bitterness or off-flavors from the coffee. low quality coffee. . But when you enjoy roasted coffee to emphasize the flavors of the bean, you don’t need milk or sugar to make it more flavorful. coffee will always have bitter notes, but you’ll likely find something that’s roasted light, sweet, or bright enough for you without these additions. Also, if your goal is to sample individual flavor notes and experience all that coffee has to offer, you probably won’t be able to do that if you add milk and sugar. From time to time I drink a latte because I appreciate that coffee pairs well with milk, but when I want to appreciate the flavor of the coffee itself, I stick with plain coffee.

Remember, I’m talking about filter coffee here, not espresso. espresso is strong coffee made to be highly concentrated. It can be drunk neat, but is often roasted to play well with milk in drinks like lattes, cortados, and macchiatos. Keep in mind that chains like Starbucks often add so much milk, sugar, and flavoring to signature drinks that the emphasis shifts from espresso and coffee to their additives. These drinks can be tasty, but not for the coffee.