Bloggle

Stephen Leighton (coffee guy, blogger at Hasbean, one of the more permanent fixtures on Bloggle’s list of outbound links) has a featured article in the most recent issue of Barista magazine in which he wonders aloud, “Is this the death of the espresso blend?” In it he notes that James Hoffmann’s World Barista Championship was won with not one, but two single-origin coffees prepared as espresso. That’s a notion that not so long ago would have been unheard of — which has annoyed me for years — but which may be on the naked edge of a trend…

I think those observing the WBC competition this year will have noted that blends have gradually become less complicated and often now have far fewer components than they might have contained in the past. There has been a real movement towards allowing the coffee to do the talking with signature drinks, presentation and blends becoming simpler. This has to be applauded.      

This is me, clapping loudly.

I make no claims to be a purist — a snob, yes, but not a purist — but I’m awfully keen to see more single-origin espressos come to the fore; for their character, their unbridled flavors and aromas, and the sheer adventure of discovering what a given grand cru drip coffee can do in the small cup. I want to see more coffee origins — especially Central and South American origins — experiment with semi-washed and dry process coffees to afford the kind of character that would better complement a single-origin espresso (a stellar example being Erna Knutsen’s Santa Elena Tarrazu Miel from a few years back.)

But mostly I want to see more single-origin espresso coffees as an antidote to the sameness, the blandness, the carefully measured and highly reproducible mediocrity that so very many commercial espresso blends strive for. And if you think I’m calling out Illy and LavAzza and their ilk, well… you just might be right.

Meanwhile, good on you Steve! And you, dear reader, go get yourself a copy of Barista magazine. There’s fine stuff in there. Look for the issue with a very relaxed-looking James Hoffmann on the cover. 

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Folks from all over are commenting on Green Mountain’s Gombe Reserve, a coffee offered in partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute. My own notes were from a pre-production roast and — honestly — were at least as much about the process of producing the coffee and had little to do with the finished product… I haven’t taken the time to capture my own tasting notes of the roasts I have sampled since. But fair’s fair… I’ll present some of the other points of view I’ve seen of late, and then I’ll add my own thoughts to sum things up. (more…)

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All this talk of home-roasters and roasting in one’s very own kitchen has got me waxing nostalgic. And so I dug around the roasting bench in the garage and excavated my very first coffee roaster — the FreshRoast — and after a bit of dusting and inspecting to make sure that all was in apparent working order, I started roasting coffee. The neurotic golden retriever — a creature who’s memory is clearly better than I’ve had any reason to believe — ran for cover. Fortunately (at least so far as the dog is concerned) while I did fill the house with the aroma of roasting coffee, I did not set off the smoke alarms. Honestly, when you’re roasting about 2 ounces of coffee at a time, you’d have to really throw yourself into it and put some serious dark on those beans to create a lot of smoke. (more…)

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The current issue of Roast Magazine features an informative and very well acquainted guide to experiencing the flavors and aromas of coffee, covering matters anatomical, physiological and — for good measure — psychological, too:

“Say you’re having a rotten dayâ€â€?everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, and you need to cup one final batch of samples before you can leave for the day. Well, you might think twice about cupping those samples, because there’s a good chance your mood will alter the way you perceive the coffee. Your senses are all linked together with your brain, which also controls your thoughts and emotions. With all this going on at the same time, it is possible to allow mood to overlap with sensory evaluation, causing a misinterpretation of what you are really experiencing in that cup of coffee.

In order to get a true idea of what you’re tasting, your mind needs to be clear of clutter and stress.”

(more…)

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