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May
9,2013

Trip Report: CoffeeCON 2013

Author | Marc Wortman

IMG_1637     CoffeeCON 2013 is in the books, and I was proud to be an Official Media Blogger for the event.

CoffeeCON is a one of a kind show, geared entirely towards the coffee lover, as opposed to people in the coffee industry talking to other people in the coffee industry.  I’ve attended two other coffee shows before this one, and both were geared towards the coffee professional as opposed to the coffee consumer.  And there’s nothing with trade shows, but that’s how CoffeeCON is different – it’s education and fun for the coffee lover.

IMG_1593     The show was started by Kevin Sinnott, renowned coffee expert, author, and creator of the Coffee Brewing Secrets DVD.  Kevin had attended many coffee shows, and saw that what was missing was greater awareness for the everyday consumer, both of quality and of conditions at coffee’s origin.  Kevin did something about it.  He started CoffeeCON, taking place just outside of Chicago.

Stay tuned over the days and weeks to come as I share some of the show’s highlights with you, so that you can start planning your own attendance next year.  Some highlights in a nutshell:

IMG_1600- Amazing presentations to raise awareness of key issues and educate the everyday consumer, including an intense 2.5 hour workshop lead by George Howell, founder of Terroir Coffee.  George covered everything from how to select coffee, to the job of a good roaster, to conditions in the growing countries.  The presentation was broken up at intervals for coffee tastings that brought George’s presentation to life, and made evident just how rich the world of coffee is.  Also stay tuned for my interview with George, obviously a knowledgeable coffee giant, but also a class act to speak with.

- Different brewing workshops, so that attendees could learn about brewing beyond the drip brewer.  Even for attendees like myself who already have a French Press, Aeropress, and Chemex, tips and tricks on using these brewing techniques.

IMG_1619- Specialized workshops such as Olfactory Development, how the sense of smell can be trained to help identify unique traits in coffee.  Coffee on the Road, a great presentation on how to make great coffee even when you’re traveling.  If you follow me on Twitter, then you know how many hotels I stay in, and how personally beneficial this workshop was.

- Exhibitors from across the coffee world, giving an appreciation for all steps in the chain.  These ranged from coffee farmers to coffee roasters to coffee gear manufacturers.  From bean to cup, some of everybody.

IMG_1599- A chance for me to meet greats from the world of coffee blogging.  In this picture, myself and Coffee Nate, a fellow coffee lover and blogger.

Stay tuned!  I have many pages of scribbled notes and countless minutes of audio recordings that I’ll transcribe in the days and weeks to come, to share with you.  I want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin, his wife Pat, and organizer Jennifer Stinnett for including me in this unique, exciting, and informative event.  I have memories and new friends from the weekend that I know will last a lifetime.

Learn more about Kevin Sinnott’s CoffeeCON.

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee,Buying Coffee,Coffee and You,Coffee News,Coffees of the World

April
12,2013

What is Decaf Coffee?

Author | Marc Wortman

decaf     I hear a lot of coffee purists looking down on decaf coffee.  I argue that you must really be a coffee lover if you drink decaf.  After all, if you need a coffee fix so badly but are concerned about it keeping you up late, you must really love the stuff to make a cup of decaf to get you through.

Often, I find myself working late in a hotel room, and it just seems natural to me to have a coffee while I work.  When it happens, I make myself a cup of decaf.  Wow, by my own logic, I must really be a coffee lover if I’m not drinking decaf, but I’m drinking hotel room decaf!

My brother and I were having this conversation, and he asked me how exactly coffee is decaffeinated.  Here is the layman’s explanation…

Caffeine is a stimulant found in the coffee bean itself, the seed of the coffee cherry.  Decaffeination is the “artificial” process of removing that caffeine from the bean.  Caffeine is removed from the coffee before it is roasted, while in its green stage.  In general, a solvent is used while the coffee beans are being steamed or otherwise heated, to remove the caffeine without removing other essential chemicals.  These other chemicals include anything else natural to coffee, that contributes to its taste and aroma.  To wipe all such chemicals from the coffee could potentially produce a flavorless and scentless coffee bean.  This is the heart of decaffeination: removing the caffeine while allowing the rest of the coffee to still be, well, coffee.  The solvent (along with the caffeine) is rinsed from the coffee beans.  When they’re roasted, you get decaffeinated coffee ready to grind and brew.

This process is repeated up to a dozen times before the coffee bean is considered decaffeinated.

Want to learn more?  Trust in good ole Wikipedia to read about the different individual methods of decaffeination.

For the record, it is virtually impossible to remove 100% of caffeine from coffee.  For this reason, the FDA (and international standards) allows the term “decaffeinated” to be used to describe the best effort to remove all caffeine.  The truth is that 1-2% of the caffeine remains in the coffee after the decaffeination process, but this is so negligible as to be unnoticeable and virtually untraceable.

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee,Buying Coffee

April
3,2013

Three Important Tips for Making Good Coffee

Author | Marc Wortman

IMG_1085     As far as I’m concerned, Portland, Oregon is the coffee capitol of North America.  I don’t believe you’ll find more quality coffee roasters per capita anywhere else.

I was fortunate before I moved from Portland to tour the facility of Portland Roasting Coffee, Roast Magazine’s 2012 Macro Roaster of the Year.  PRC’s Andy Davis not only showed me around, but treated me to my first coffee cupping experience, and sat down with me to talk coffee over…well, coffee.

Read: Profile – Portland Roasting Coffee
Read: Profile – Roast Magazine
Read: My First Coffee Cupping

My first question of Andy after we sat down was direct: “How does Andy make good coffee at home?”  I can’t think of better advice for any of us coffee lovers than to hear how coffee professionals make it for themselves.

IMG_1081     Andy’s first tip: Have a good storage system.  Nothing will kill coffee quality and flavor quicker than poor storage.  Airtight, opaque, and away from moisture.  Do not store coffee in your fridge or freezer, as it will absorb from the surrounding odors.  The change in the coffee’s temperature from cold or freezing to room temperature will also sap some of its flavor.  After all, you’ve never seen a roaster pull coffee out of a fridge or freezer before brewing it.

Andy’s second tip: There is no perfect brewing method, and people shouldn’t be misled by those that claim that one is superior to the others.  The one you prefer is the best one.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Rather than swear by a certain method as being better than the rest, try as many as you care to try and decide for yourself if one is superior for your tastes, and superior in all instances.  Peronally, I favor the french press, but I don’t claim it’s superior to other methods, and I don’t always like the sediment that it leaves at the bottom of my cup.  Sometimes, I use my Chemex or Aeropress not only to change things up, but because after a long break from either, it makes a refreshing cup of coffee to return to it.

Andy’s third tip: Buy high-quality coffee.  There is so much human dedication that goes into the growing, processing, roasting, and raising awareness, that it is truly important to (quoting Andy) “buy coffee on quality, not on price”.  This doesn’t mean spending an arm and a leg for your coffee.  You can pay $15 for a pound of amazing coffee that will last you 1-3 weeks, rather than buy the five-pound bag from Costco because you’re saving money to buy in bulk.  Even if that was quality coffee, it will go stale before you get through it, all so you could save a few cents per cup.

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee,Buying Coffee

March
14,2013

My First Coffee Cupping

Author | Marc Wortman

IMG_1080         Last year, I had the opportunity to tour the facility of Roast Magazine‘s 2012 Macro Roaster of the Year, Portland Roasting Coffee.  Andy Davis of PRC not only took me on a great tour of the roastery, but educated me on PRC’s award-winning product and international contributions to coffee growing regions.

Read: Profile – Portland Roasting Coffee
Read: Profile – Roast Magazine

One of the most educational portions of the tour and discussion was the coffee cupping that Andy and I did.

What is coffee cupping?  It’s the process of evaluating the flavor and richness of a coffee.  It can be for evaluating a sample of coffee before the roaster commits to a large order.  Or, it can be used by the roaster to help write an insightful description of the coffee for customers.  Cupping allows an appreciation for fine details.  The short explanation is that it’s the process for sniffing coffee to determine its aroma characteristics, and slurping the coffee so it reaches the back of the tongue, allowing a thorough evaluation of the coffee’s taste.

IMG_1085     Samples of coffee are cupped before PRC commits to importing an entire container of it.  A container of coffee contains thousands of pounds of it, so PRC needs to be sure they are confident of its quality.  Cupping is also used by PRC to spot-check coffee from a full container to ensure consistency throughout the container.


Step #1: The form of evaluation.
PRC adheres to the Specialty Coffee Assocation of America’s standard cupping form.  This allows consistency between cuppers at PRC, as well between the company itself and their peers in the industry, most of whom use the same form.

Step #2: Inspect the coffee
Andy looks for bean damage, such as damage caused by insects.  One bad bean will spoil an entire batch of coffee.

Step #3: Three trials
Andy heats enough water for three glasses of the same coffee to ensure three separate and independent trials.  Aside from ensuring multiple tests of the same batch, it’s also possible that bean damage would be missed if cupping only one or two glasses.

Step #4: Smell the dry grinds
This is our first instance of using the cupping form.  While the water is heating, we smelled the dry grinds in each of the three glasses and made note of any aromatic observations.

IMG_1086Step #5: Brew the coffee
Hot water is added to the three glasses, and each is allowed to brew for a standard four minutes.  As this brewing takes place, the ground coffee rises to the surface, forming a barrier at the top of the glass.

Step #6: Smell the wet grinds
While the coffee is brewing, we smelled the wet grinds.  They will release different aromatic qualities, also to be noted on the cupping form.

Step #7: Break the barrier
At the end of the four minute brewing time, we break the grinds that have formed a solid layer at the top of the glass.  We did this using a spoon, and immediately took in the gasses that are released by the coffee into the nose.  Some powerful indicators of the coffee’s quality and flavor will be evident in those first released gasses, so they can’t be missed right after the barrier is broken.

IMG_1089      Step #8: Slurp the coffee
This was the part of coffee cupping that I had seen before on TV, and that had discouraged me from taking part in it.  Slurping and spitting is definitely not appealing if you don’t understand why it’s being done.  With an explanation from Andy of why exactly this is so important to the process of evaluating coffee, I slurped!

This is done by clearing off the crust of grinds from the glass, and slurping spoonfuls of the coffee.  The slurping ensures the coffee reaches the back of your tongue for a thorough evaluation of its taste.  Separately, you are evaluating aftertaste, flavor, body, and acidity, all of which noted on the cupping form.

This process will allow the evaluator to give the coffee a score out of 100.  I asked Andy how much variance is typical between one evaluator and another, assuming there’s as much art to this as science.  Andy estimated that there could be as much variance as 10 points, but between evaluators accustomed to the same standard, those who cup together often, not nearly as much variance.

It is cool for me to think that it’s possible to have near-objective evaluation of coffee.  As part of my ongoing coffee education, this was a very important and memorable experience for me.  I can’t thank Andy Davis and Portland Roasting Coffee enough!

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee,Coffee and You

October
2,2012

Spend $40, Buy a French Press

Author | Marc Wortman

Bodum 8-c. Chambord Coffee PressQuestion: “Mark – I really enjoy your web site. You don’t start with the premise that “good coffee requires an investment of $10,000″ which makes is really fun to read and relate to!

Question on the French Press, my primary method right now: it seems to me that there’s no real point in “upgrading” a French Press, that they all work pretty much precisely the same. Unlike a drip coffee maker which has so many brands and variations, a french press is a french press – you just press down. Am I missing something? Interested in your perspective. Thanks!!!!

- Monte Mallin

Answer: Monte, I really appreciate the email, and the nice words.

The French Press is my favorite method of brewing coffee, and you hit every reason that I feel that way.  Simple, effective, no need for bells and whistles.  I’ve got good news: you’re not missing anything.  Keep enjoying great coffee!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the French Press, or Bodum, or press pot method of brewing coffee, click to learn more.  To summarize this brewing method, you steep your coarse-ground coffee in hot water for four minutes, and then “press” the ground coffee to the bottom of the pot so that everything above the filter is nothing but great coffee.

 Bodum 12-c. Chambord Coffee PressOf your choices for brewing coffee that require a little more work than the drip brewer, I find the French Press to be the most simple while still producing amazing results.  A great and consistent cup of coffee every time.  The image at the top of this post is the Bodum 8-cup (roughly 4 servings of “mugs” of coffee).  The best price and service that I know for getting this coffee maker online or retail is from Cooking.com at $39.95. 

If you’re used to making full pots of coffee, the image to the left is the Bodum 12-cup, available from Cooking.com for $59.95.  You can click either image for more information, or either of the links below:

 
 
Categorized In | Brewing Coffee

September
10,2012

Making Dunkin Donuts Coffee at Home

Author | Marc Wortman

     Question: “Help. When I buy Dunken Donut beans and use them at home it taste nothing like Dunkin coffee at there store.  What kind of coffee machine do I need?” – Jerry Stevenson

Answer:  Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the question.  Alot of the big coffee chains sell bulk coffee at their stores for you to make at home.  Based on what I hear from comments like yours, it just doesn’t stack up to the coffee that they’re serving at their locations.  If you love their coffee that much, but can’t make it as good as they do, I think I can help in two very key ways to making good coffee.

Grinding: Invest in a grinder and buy your coffee in whole bean rather than pre-ground.  Ground coffee goes stale faster than whole bean coffee, and freshness equals flavor in your coffee.  Right before you brew your coffee, grind what you need.  It’s one more step but if you’re after better tasting coffee, it’s a very overlooked step, especially with how much pre-ground coffee is sold to us for “convenience”.  Learn more about Grinding Coffee.

Brewing: The coffee stores have good machines.  Good gear for brewing coffee is defined by the ideal temperature of the water when it is exposed to the ground coffee, and the amount of time that it’s exposed.  Check out our Coffee Maker Report Card – we reviewed every coffee maker that’s widely available to score them based on what they cost and how good the coffee is that they make.  You’ll find the coffee maker for your budget in our Report Card.

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee,Buying Coffee

September
4,2012

Help, my coffee tastes like rain-soaked cigars!

Author | Marc Wortman

     Question: “Hi Marc, I’m 48 and have never liked coffee, but I’m approaching it with an open mind and learning to love it. Friends and family, all avowed coffee drinkers, tell me it is an acquired taste. We’ll see.

“I carefully researched what I thought might be the best brewing option (your website was a great help) and, on the recent occasion of my 48th birthday, my wife presented me with my very own Bodum French press and a burr mill grinder. I have been grinding my beans to a course grind and preparing my brew according to instructions gleaned here and elsewhere. My difficulty is that I want to learn to love coffee, but it’s difficult. My question is, should my brewed coffee taste like a rain-soaked cigar, or am I doing something wrong? It isn’t particularly bitter, but just doesn’t taste good either. Perhaps this is all normal and I’ll adjust in the fullness of time. Just wondering how normal my experience is. Are there folks who take their first sip of coffee and love it, or is this normally a rocky road?

Thanks, Chris”

Answer: Chris, thanks for the e-mail, and sorry that I laughed out loud when I read the part about your coffee tasting like rain-soaked cigars.  It might be one of the funniest comparisons I’ve ever heard.

I have some suggestions, and they involve easing yourself into enjoying a straight-up cup of black coffee.  Bear in mind that much of coffee’s rise in popularity over time has been through people’s ability to customize it to taste.

- Cream and sugar: I drink my coffee black today, but drank it with two creams and two sugars for most of my life.  Purists would tell me I must not like coffee to add so much to it, but I disagree with that, even today as I only take my coffee black.  Coffee should be enjoyed however its drinker prefers, and people have been adding cream and sugar to coffee for as long as coffee has been popular.  Add sugar to offset the natural bitter of coffee – sweetness and bitterness are two of the four basic tastes.  This may not be the answer for you, as you mention the bitterness is not what is bothering you.  Add cream or milk to make a “creamier” drink of your coffee.  The fattier the dairy, the creamier it will make the coffee; the less fatty the dairy, the less it will really impact and change your impression of the coffee.  In other words, if this improves the flavor for you, I suggest a dollop of cream instead of a lot more skim milk.

     – The Cafe Mocha: The combination of coffee and chocolate is more popular than ever.  If you like chocolate but aren’t catching on to coffee the way you’d like, check out our Cafe Mocha Recipes to learn different ways to make coffee with chocolate.  You would still use your French Press to brew the coffee – as mentioned on that page of the site, the rules of making good coffee shouldn’t change even when making a Cafe Mocha.

- Origin of Coffee: You might just not have found the origin of coffee that you’re looking for.  Try a medium-roasted coffee and experiment with different origins.  Go to your local coffee roaster, and find their signature blend, usually referred to as “House Blend” or some other catchy name containing “Blend”.

Good luck!  I hope this helps, and I hope you make the connection with coffee.  I can tell by your message that you’d like to, and I think these suggestions might help.

 

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee,Serving Coffee

August
25,2012

The Melitta – Simple Pour-Over Coffee

Author | Marc Wortman

     We recently visited the Hawaiian island of Maui, and our first stop even before checking into our condo, was at the MauiGrown Coffee Store.

Read: Maui Origin Trip Report

We let store vice president Jeff Ferguson know where we’d be staying while on the island, and he was happy to let  us know that MauiGrown supplied the coffee that we would find in our condo when we got there.  The good news is that when we arrived, our welcome basket did indeed contain some ground MauiGrown coffee.  The not-so-good news is the “coffee maker” in the kitchen was not even a drip brewer, but rather what you see in the picture above: a percolator.

I hadn’t even seen a percolator since I was a child.  In fact, it occurred to me that I had never made coffee in one before.  I understood the concept, that it would release boiling water onto the ground coffee, which is the reason most people don’t use these anymore: boiled coffee is spoiled coffee.

     The MauiGrown Coffee store to the rescue!  Not even 24 hours after having last been there, we returned for something that was inexpensive, mobile, and that would give our MauiGrown coffee its just brewing.

Me: “Jeff, you were right, there is MauiGrown coffee in the room.  But, the coffee maker is a percolator.”

Jeff: “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Me: “What can I buy today that will make coffee right?”

Jeff: “We sell the Melitta pourover.”

Me: “I’ll take it.  But I have to admit, I used the percolator this morning because I had no choice”

Jeff: “That’s what a junkie has to do.”

     I’ve written alot about the quality of coffee made by pour-over, but mainly in reference to the glass pitcher designed by Chemex.  The Melitta product offers what I needed for this trip – something inexpensive, something I could take home after the trip, and something that would make great coffee while I was there and on future trips away from home.

Essentially, where the drip brewer was an improvement on the percolator that boiled coffee, the pour-over techniques offered by Melitta and Chemex allow you to control the drip of hot water onto ground coffee in steps rather than in a continuous stream as the drip brewer does.  The result?  A better cup of coffee, and only a little more work to make it.  And definitely, far superior flavor over the percolator, which by the way didn’t get used again by us on this trip.

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee

August
22,2012

Ugh! Avoid 10% Hawaiian Coffee

Author | Marc Wortman

     I recently travelled to the Hawaiian island of Maui, both to take (as far as I’m concerned) a much-needed vacation, and to visit farms there.  This would be my third trip to Hawaii, and my first to Maui.  If you are ever visiting a coffee-producing region of the world, I certainly suggest visiting a farm to gain an eye-opening perspective on the origin of coffee, and to pick up coffee as farm-fresh as you’ll ever find it.

Read: Maui Origin Trip Report

After visiting the MauiGrown Coffee company store and visiting their coffee orchard, it was off to Costco to pick up supplies for the week.  We decided to venture down the coffee aisle just for the fun of it.  I shouldn’t be surprised, but shown above is a picture of what we saw…10% Maui Coffee Blend.

I wrote about this recently, in response to the amount of 10% Kona coffee or “Kona blends” that I was seeing in the market.

Read: Don’t Buy 10% Kona Coffee

Here is the jist of it.  Hawaiian coffee is esteemed, and that means that you will need to pay a premium price if you want the real thing.  Different vendors of coffee want to give you the impression that you’re getting this premium coffee, but cannot sell it in a retail environment without charging an amount that a retail customer will not likely pay.  So instead, they blend it with something else, and you believe you’re buying premium coffee for a standard price.

To quote Jeff Ferguson, vice president of MauiGrown’s company store, “When they say 10% Maui (or Kona), what they’re not saying is 90% Mexican.”

If you want the experience of enjoying Hawaiian coffee, be prepared to pay a premium and buy it 100%, and from a source that you know would only sell you fresh coffee, like a local coffee roaster.  And, please check out the link above where I wrote on this same subject with regards to the proliferation of misleading Kona blends.  Hawaiian coffee is excellent coffee, and I suggest enjoying it in full, or at least staying away from a coffee that is barely Hawaiian at all.

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee,Buying Coffee,Coffees of the World

August
9,2012

French Press Tips

Author | Marc Wortman

     My favorite way to brew coffee is by press pot, which also goes by proper names like the French Press, or the Bodum – which is actually the name of the company that made the brewing method famous among coffee drinkers.

I was introduced to the French Press by my brother, who explained to me that it was recognized for superior brewing to the drip brewer.  At the time, I didn’t know enough about coffee to appreciate the quality it produced with just a few extra steps over the drip brewer.  I do now!

If you aren’t familiar with the press pot brewing method, click here to learn more.  If you want to learn more about buying a press pot to make great coffee at home, the most competitive price for a Bodum press pot that we know is at Cooking.com.

If you are familiar with the French Press brewing method, here are some little tips that have made big differences in the coffee that I make.  If you already knew all this, congratulations, you are probably making great coffee at home.

1) Boiled coffee is spoiled coffee.  You probably already knew that, but to be on the safe side, let your water sit for 30-60 seconds before pouring it onto the coffee from the boiling point.  I was simply waiting for the boil to stop before pouring.  This is still hot enough to risk spoiling the coffee, especially when I wait ten minutes before taking my first sip of the scalding hot coffee anyway.  Give it time even after the boil stops before pouring.

2) Let the coffee steep in the hot water for FOUR minutes.  The fact that I was setting my timer for three minutes for so long is just proof that when you do something the same way for so long, you forget to question it.  The proper brewing time for the press pot is four minutes.

3) Stir the hot coffee and water after it has been sitting for a minute.  I used to pour the water and immediately put the plunger over the pot, waiting for the timer to go off.  Again, the water is piping hot, so there’s no hurry to cover the pot with the plunger.  What you see after you pour the water is a very light brown foam that forms over the coffee as it settles at the top of the water.  This is called the “bloom” and is the result of outgassing of CO2 from the coffee – a natural product of brewing coffee.  After a minute of steeping, you ensure a more even brew (and complete outgassing) when you stir the contents of the pot, instead of leaving the coffee to float at the top of the water for the full four minutes.  After this stir, I then put the plunger in place and wait for the timer to go off.

4) When the timer goes off, push the plunger SLOWLY.  I’m as anxious as any caffeine addict for my first cup of the day.  But, use some finesse and push the plunger slowly.  It will ensure no ground coffee slips through the plunger and into your cup.

     The final “advanced” step of French Press coffee is one that I haven’t invested in yet.  If you are not immediately drinking all of the coffee from the press pot at once, the remainder should go into a thermal container rather than sit in the press pot.  Sediment, and possibly even ground coffee, will end up in your second cup if you let it sit in the press pot rather than have it sit in a thermal container until you are ready to drink it.  I should know – that’s what will keep happening to me until I invest in one.  That’s next!

Categorized In | Brewing Coffee
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