Over the past two years, I have grown to love and appreciate coffee. Coffee is a hobby and a blessing for me. It's simply awesome to have the opportunity to taste the outcome of a lot of hard work, skill, and care of a very complex culinary beverage.
There are a lot of factors that go into making your cup of coffee and I don't think a lot of people take the time to consider them, or perhaps just don't know. From my experience and from what I have learned, I just wanted to share a few of them all in hopes that maybe you can take your own adventure in coffee (and for you who already do love coffee, perhaps get to know a few other things you may have not yet known) - it's an experience where you end up tasting things you may have never tasted before, or tastes that would have never thought coffee could produce.
There's amazing potential in the tastes coffee can produce, and I think everybody should have the opportunity to try for themselves just what makes coffee so special.
At the fundamental level, to my understanding there are different species of coffee - Arabica (the most known), Liberica, and Robusta. In addition, there are different "sub-species" (known as "varietals") - this actually came as a result of the different locations coffee became grown in. A coffee can be Arabica, but grown in different places usually springs different varietals such as Bourbon, Catuai, etc. (You can also grow these different varietals in different places, too...)
From there, a certain type of coffee is affected by the location that coffee is grown in... things such as weather, soil nutrients, elevation, humidity, sun conditions... all affect the growth of the coffee and in the end, essentially the taste.
Once the coffee is grown, it is processed as a fruit into green coffee ("unroasted coffee") by different methods - such as natural "sun dried" process, wet-process, a combination of the two called "honey" process, and all shades of grey in between natural and wet process!
After that is perhaps the most overlooked part of the process in the final product that you taste: the roaster of the green coffee.
Each roaster brings their own unique experience and expertise in the roasting of the coffee they receive. Many roasters can get coffee from the same exact place on the earth, and by their roasting, a completely different taste can come about in the end product for each roaster. Generally, there is a spectrum of roasting coffee from light roasting to dark roasting.
Lastly, the way you brew the coffee (this, and the type of roaster you bought the coffee from is perhaps the parts of the process you have the most control over) effects the taste you end up tasting as well. Such methods to brew coffee include espresso, drip, french press-pot, Chemex, V60, etc.
In my opinion, to expand your range of tastes, a very dedicated roaster will let you know everything about the coffee they roast - from its location, lot, varietal,... to its growing conditions. All to let you know what exactly goes into your cup of coffee to enhance the taste knowledge and experience.
It's really exciting to venture into the subtle (but not actually subtle) aspects of the coffee you end up buying, such as varietal type, who roasts it, and what method you brew the coffee by. All of these things end up effecting the way your end coffee product tastes.
A lot of people miss out on what coffee could actually taste like; I encourage you, if it is within your means and ability, to try and look into these aspects of the coffee process and begin your own adventure into coffee - in effect, opening up your experiences in tasting to aromas and flavors you may have never tasted before.
I regularly use a press-pot with a burr grinder, and in my opinion, this by far is my favorite and best way to brew coffee. To my surprise, I learned that although there is a general consensus on how to operate the french press, there are specific things some press-pot brewers recommend to do that other brewers don't do (e.g. Peet's coffee stresses a technique called the "partial-press", some roasters stress that you should pre-soak the course ground beans to let the bloom subside before total immersion..etc). I encourage you all who use a french press to find the method that works best to you, but I do want to stress one essential aspect to the french press; besides the correct grind size (course), the water temperature is extremely important and must not be overlooked (195-205 F)!
There are a lot of factors that go into making your cup of coffee and I don't think a lot of people take the time to consider them, or perhaps just don't know. From my experience and from what I have learned, I just wanted to share a few of them all in hopes that maybe you can take your own adventure in coffee (and for you who already do love coffee, perhaps get to know a few other things you may have not yet known) - it's an experience where you end up tasting things you may have never tasted before, or tastes that would have never thought coffee could produce.
There's amazing potential in the tastes coffee can produce, and I think everybody should have the opportunity to try for themselves just what makes coffee so special.
At the fundamental level, to my understanding there are different species of coffee - Arabica (the most known), Liberica, and Robusta. In addition, there are different "sub-species" (known as "varietals") - this actually came as a result of the different locations coffee became grown in. A coffee can be Arabica, but grown in different places usually springs different varietals such as Bourbon, Catuai, etc. (You can also grow these different varietals in different places, too...)
From there, a certain type of coffee is affected by the location that coffee is grown in... things such as weather, soil nutrients, elevation, humidity, sun conditions... all affect the growth of the coffee and in the end, essentially the taste.
Once the coffee is grown, it is processed as a fruit into green coffee ("unroasted coffee") by different methods - such as natural "sun dried" process, wet-process, a combination of the two called "honey" process, and all shades of grey in between natural and wet process!
After that is perhaps the most overlooked part of the process in the final product that you taste: the roaster of the green coffee.
Each roaster brings their own unique experience and expertise in the roasting of the coffee they receive. Many roasters can get coffee from the same exact place on the earth, and by their roasting, a completely different taste can come about in the end product for each roaster. Generally, there is a spectrum of roasting coffee from light roasting to dark roasting.
Lastly, the way you brew the coffee (this, and the type of roaster you bought the coffee from is perhaps the parts of the process you have the most control over) effects the taste you end up tasting as well. Such methods to brew coffee include espresso, drip, french press-pot, Chemex, V60, etc.
In my opinion, to expand your range of tastes, a very dedicated roaster will let you know everything about the coffee they roast - from its location, lot, varietal,... to its growing conditions. All to let you know what exactly goes into your cup of coffee to enhance the taste knowledge and experience.
It's really exciting to venture into the subtle (but not actually subtle) aspects of the coffee you end up buying, such as varietal type, who roasts it, and what method you brew the coffee by. All of these things end up effecting the way your end coffee product tastes.
A lot of people miss out on what coffee could actually taste like; I encourage you, if it is within your means and ability, to try and look into these aspects of the coffee process and begin your own adventure into coffee - in effect, opening up your experiences in tasting to aromas and flavors you may have never tasted before.
I regularly use a press-pot with a burr grinder, and in my opinion, this by far is my favorite and best way to brew coffee. To my surprise, I learned that although there is a general consensus on how to operate the french press, there are specific things some press-pot brewers recommend to do that other brewers don't do (e.g. Peet's coffee stresses a technique called the "partial-press", some roasters stress that you should pre-soak the course ground beans to let the bloom subside before total immersion..etc). I encourage you all who use a french press to find the method that works best to you, but I do want to stress one essential aspect to the french press; besides the correct grind size (course), the water temperature is extremely important and must not be overlooked (195-205 F)!
