COFFEE PREFERENCING IN SAINT LOUIS

As we continue to increase the quality and awareness of our drip coffee, we also have to receive feedback from our customers to get an idea where we stand versus our competitors. Last week we had the opportunity to conduct a preferencing test with competitor brands in our Brentwood cafe. It was a great opportunity for our customers to experience this and create an awareness of our passion for coffee.

Below are some pics and you can see Brad Smith, our roastmaster from Distant Lands coffee.

WHAT IS COFFEEHOUSE CULTURE?

The customs of coffeehouse and café appear to be intimately connected to the effect of coffee and caffeine on mind and body. Coffee stimulates conscious mental associations, whereas alcohol, for instance, provokes instinctual responses. In other words, alcohol typically makes us want to eat, fight, make love, dance, and sleep, whereas coffee encourages us to think, talk, read, write, or work. Wine is consumed to relax, and coffee to drive home. For the Moslems, the world's first coffee drinkers, coffee was the "wine of Apollo," the beverage of thought, dream, and dialectic, "the milk of thinkers and chess players." For the faithful Moslem it was the answer to the Christian and pagan wine of Dionysus and ecstasy.

From the inception of the coffeehouse in Mecca to the present, customers in cafés tend to talk and read rather than dance, play chess rather than gamble, and listen contemplatively to music rather than sing. The café usually opens to the street and sun, unlike bars or saloons, whose dark interiors protect the drinker from the encroachment of the sober, workaday world. The coffee drinker wants not a subterranean refuge but a comfortable corner in which to read a newspaper and observe the world as it slips by, just beyond the edge of the table.

The café is connected with work (the truck stop, the coffee break) and with a special brand of informal study. A customer buried in reading matter is a common sight in even the most lowbrow café. The Turks called their cafés "schools of the wise." In seventeenth-century England, coffeehouses were often called "penny universities." For the price of entry-one penny; coffee cost two, which included newspapers-one could participate in a floating seminar that might include such notables as Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele.

As a matter of fact, aside from the Romanticists, who temporarily switched to plein-air, it is hard to find too many European or American intellectuals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who did not spend the better part of their days in cafés or coffeehouses. Recall that the Enlightenment not only gave Europe a new world view, but coffee and tea as well. It must have been considerably easier revolutionizing Western thought after morning coffee than after the typical medieval breakfast of beer and herring.
The tradition of the coffeehouse has spread worldwide. Australia is paved with Italian-style caffes and Japan has evolved its kisatens, an elegant interpretation of American 1950s-style coffee shops and coffeehouses. In Great Britain, the espresso-bar craze of the 1950s came and went, but shows vigorous signs of a Starbucks-style comeback. Other parts of Europe and the Middle East have their own ongoing traditions. In Vienna, the home of the first European coffeehouses, the café tradition has undergone a renaissance.

In the United States, the 1930s and 1940s brought the classic diner, and the 1950s and 1960s the vinyl-boothed coffee shop, together with the coffeehouse -- haunt of rebels, poets, beboppers, and beatniks. All of these incarnations are still with us. The classic diner is enjoying a revival, coffee shops still minister to the bottomless cup, and in American cities hundreds of new coffeehouses cater to a fresh generation of rebels, complete with funky furniture, radical posters, jazz, and folksingers.

But the 1970s and 1980s appear to have produced still another North American café tradition. Classic Italian-American caffes of the 1950s, like Caffè Reggio in Manhattan and Caffè Trieste in San Francisco, appear to have influenced the development of a style of café or caffe that takes as its starting point an immigrant's nostalgic vision of the lost and gracious caffes of prewar Italy. From that vision come the light and spacious interiors of the new North American urban café, together with the open seating, the simple and straightforward furnishing, and an atmosphere formal enough to discourage customers from swaggering around and putting their feet on chairs, yet informal enough to mix students doing homework and executives having business meetings. Add an espresso machine and some light new American cuisine, and the latest version of the American café is defined.

COFFEE LANGUAGE-Roast Names

Given a good-quality bean, roasting is probably the single most important factor influencing the flavor of coffee. The most significant variable is degree, or darkness, of roast. The longer the coffee is held in the roaster and/or the higher the roasting temperature, the darker the bean. The darker the bean, the more tangy and bittersweet the flavor.

Returning to terminology, coffee drinkers are so habitual that entire nations march from coffee initiation to grave knowing only one style of roast. This uniformity accounts for the popular terminology for describing roasts: French roast, usually the darkest; Italian roast, a little less dark; and Viennese or light French, only slightly darker than the traditional American norm.

This assigning of national names to coffee roasts is a bit arbitrary, but has some basis in fact. French roasters, particularly those in parts of Northern France, do roast coffee very darkly, justifying the epithet French for the very darkest roast style. And, very generally, southern Europeans roast their coffee darker than northern Europeans. I will leave the question of whether darkness of roast correlates to the relative intensity of nocturnal habits among the various nations of coffee drinkers to those who may want to consider the issue over their second cup of dark-roast coffee.

However, the "standard" roast against which the French and Italian roasts of America are implicitly measured varies both by region and by roaster. Berkeley-based Peet's Coffee & Tea, which initiated the current American fashion for very dark roasting, brings all of its coffee to an extremely dark degree of roast. Consequently, the "regular" Peet's roast is far darker than many other roasters' French roasts. Traditionally, the American West Coast prefers a darker roast standard than the East Coast, with the Midwest appropriately somewhere between. Some of the darkest roasting in the world goes on in the American Southwest.

The success of Starbucks with its darker roast style has, in part, altered this regional pattern. Many newer roasting companies, regardless of region, are now attempting to imitate the original Starbucks dark-roasting style. Unfortunately, many of these newcomers tend to be clumsy in their imitation, resulting in dried-out, burned coffees. Meanwhile, Starbucks itself has pulled back from its original dark-roasting position. And, being Starbucks, has come up with its own copyrighted terms for various degrees of roast as they interact with the coffees being roasted. In Starbucks-speak, 2000 edition, a traditional American medium roast is Milder Dimensions; a slightly darker roast Lively Impressions; a moderately dark roast Rich Traditions, and a dark roast Bold Expressions.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has gone in the opposite naming direction from the fanciful route taken by the Starbucks' publicists. The SCAA has promulgated a straightforward, no-nonsense set of terminology for roast and related that terminology to objective, instrument-determined criteria for degree of roast. The SCAA terminology, which is as practical as a Volvo station wagon (and about as exciting), runs from Light Brown for the lightest roast, through Medium Brown for the middle of the range, to Very Dark Brown for the darkest, with various intermediate stages defined by inspiring terms like Light-Medium Brown and Moderately Dark Brown. Despite its blunt simplicity, the SCAA system probably gives the specialty coffee buyer the clearest available set of guidelines for describing roast.

The only way to really understand roast is to associate flavor with the color and appearance of the bean rather than with name alone.

THIS GUY LIKES HIS INSTANT COFFEE-BLAH!

THE 5 STEP PROGRAM TO SERVING THE BEST COFFEE

NUMERO UNO-Water, Water, Water!

Water is approximately 98.5% of a coffee brew! So first and foremost, check your cafes filtration system.
( between 100 and 200 ppm dissolved minerals, for you scientific managers).

Good water is the start of good coffee.
A cup of coffee brewed from coffee beans that are fresh-roasted, ground just before brewing and brewed at the right temperature with the correct amount of clean, filtered water. That's what makes a great coffee that smells so good, and has a complex, mouth-filling aftertaste.

KEEP IT REAL-Storage!

Protect those beans from their worst enemies: moisture, heat, and oxygen! Packages simply need a cool, dry place. The dry storage area in most of the cafes is the perfect place for this. Read these three important steps!
1. Don't let coffee beans come into contact with oxygen. Oxidation in coffee beans is the number one factor in causing coffee to go stale.
2. Don't let coffee beans come into contact with moisture, either in the liquid or vapor forms. Water vapor will condense when cooled down to form liquid water. Just remember that the water vapor contained in air at room temperature will condense into the liquid form when the air is cooled down to a certain temperature, referred to as the "dew point". The exact dew point depends on the amount of water vapor (relative humidity) contained in a given quantity of air at room temperature. Rest assured that your refrigerator, and certainly your freezer, will produce the condensation of water from room temperature air. Water greatly increases the oxidation within coffee beans, and the presence of water in coffee beans leaves them in a very unstable condition.
3. Don't let coffee beans come into contact with light. Aside from raising the temperature of the beans, light will dramatically increase the chemical activity on the surface of the beans.

NOT TOO COURSE, OR NOT TOO FINE!

GRIND (PARTICLE) SIZE
The purpose of grinding coffee beans is to enable the water to remove (extract) the solubles (flavor compounds, oils, and solids) that create the flavor and body in coffee. The grind, or particle size must be matched to the brewing method, and the particle size must be as consistent as possible. The particle size (aggregate size) is extremely important to successful brewing. Don't be mislead by the popular belief that a finer grind will give you more flavor. The finer you grind coffee, the more particle surface area in relation to particle mass is being exposed to the hot water. The finer the grind, the more rapid the extraction. Over-extraction means you get too much, both what you want and what you don't want! The aggregate size must be matched to the brewing method being used, and the brewing time must be correct. Using an "espresso grind" for a drip brewer will slow the flow of water through the aggregate, and would result in a badly over-extracted and bitter infusion. If the grind is too coarse, the water flows too rapidly, and the resulting infusion will be under extracted and watery

MEASURE IT RIGHT!

Experts, including our coffee nerds, believe that perfect flavor is achieved when a brew has 1.1 to 1.4 percent solids in solution.
The proper way to measure coffee is by weight. If you are really serious about coffee, then you should invest in a scale that can weigh small portions of coffee accurately. A good scale is indispensable when blending your own coffee in small amounts, unless you want to spend a lot of time counting coffee beans. You can measure coffee by volume, but you lose a lot of accuracy because of varying bean densities and having to rely on visual estimation. The proportion of ground coffee used in relation to the amount of water used, constitutes the brewing ratio. After the coffee has been brewed, the amount of solubles that have been extracted in relation to the amount of water, constitutes the drinking ratio. The brewing ratio usually determines the drinking ratio, but it doesn't have to. Hot water can be added to the infusion after brewing to reduce the concentration and flavor intensity of the brew, thus changing the drinking ratio


THE SERVE
The brewing temperature of the water used is very important. It should be between 195 F (91 C) and 205 F (96 C). The closer to 205 F (96 C) the better. Boiling water (212 F - 100 C) should never be used, as it will burn the coffee. Water that is less than 195 F (91 C) will not extract properly
High quality coffee should be 140 F (60 C) and no more than 160 F (71 C) when consumed. Hotter coffee will diminish the ability of the taste receptor cells to sense properly. The sensory capacity decreases rapidly with the rise in temperature of the infusion. One of the main reasons Americans have developed the habit of drinking coffee so hot is the poor quality of coffee that has been sold in the past. Hot coffee can't be tasted very well, and if the coffee doesn't taste good to start with, the solution is obvious. How common it has been in the past to hear someone complain that their coffee has cooled down and that it tastes horrible. They were right!
The brewing time must be controlled exactly. Improper brewing time is one of the main reasons that people get different results when preparing coffee

EVER WONDER WHAT CUPPING IS?

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The cupping process was conceived as a means for evaluating and comparing different coffees on a level playing field. Because the differences between great coffees can be very delicate, observations about the characteristics of those coffees (flavor, body, finish…) can be easily influenced by small variations that occur as part of most brewing methods. By eliminating some of these variables, a carefully prepared cupping allows the coffees being tasted to compete on the basis of their own intrinsic merits.

Some degree of scientific rigor is key to conducting a fair cupping. Measurements of water and coffee grounds should be precise, any grinding equipment should be flushed between cups to prevent cross-contamination, and the pouring of hot water should be done with great consistency. Time is also a factor; once the grounds are wet the steeping process is underway, and the coffee will undergo many changes in chemistry and flavor over the next 20 minutes.

It is very important to evaluate each coffee from the start of this cycle to the finish, so most cuppers have developed a protocol for managing this sequence of events to ensure that every coffee on the table gets equal treatment.

For casual cupping at home the protocols need not be so rigid, as the stakes are quite different. Cupping coffee at home can open you up to a whole new world of what makes coffee the special thing it is to many of us. You’ll discover flavors and nuances you never thought existed in a cuppa joe. You’ll learn to evaluate and categorize coffees that would do well in your own custom blends, if you’re a home roaster, or even if you’re buying a variety of single origin beans, and post blending them at home.

Cupping is also very much a social thing. While one can cup alone, cupping is best done in a group, where you can compare and contrast notes, opinions and thoughts on what you are sampling. For many beginning cuppers, evaluating coffee with others will open your eyes and your tastebuds to nuances in a coffee you might have otherwise missed - your cupping partners will point something out and you will revisit the sample and possibly discover it yourself.

Cupping at home doesn’t have to be rigid - in fact, it shouldn’t have the rigid and complex rules and rituals that professional cupping often has. If you’re cupping at home, you’re most likely doing it for the love of coffee, the sense of adventure from trying and discovering some new things, and you’re doing it to have fun! However, if the goal is to really compare the coffees to one another, it is a good idea to strive for maximum consistency in the set-up.

In the next sections, we’ll give you a step by step guide for how to get underway. Use this as your baseline, but remember it’s okay to be flexible. It’s even okay if you omit things or make mistakes. You’re about to embark on one of the true yet little-known joys of the coffee world - evaluating coffee like you never thought possible!