On a recent tour of the Fire Roasted Coffee Company (FRCC) in London, Canada, owner David Cook set up me up with a half-pound of Papua New Guinea coffee and a half-pound of Ethiopian Harrar coffee.  As I was preparing this morning for my first formal coffee tasting experience, to be hosted by the FRCC, I went with the Ethiopian coffee in my cupboard over the Peets Blend 101.  I figured for consistency, if I was going to drink FRCC-roasted coffee all morning, I should stick with this roaster’s product from my first cup of the day.

Coffee Tasting

These tastings are done 4-6 times a year by the FRCC.  As roaster Patrick Dunham explained to me, it isn’t to provide a lesson in tasting as if you were on a winery tour and learning to properly pick up accents in sips of wine.  Rather, the tasting is for the FRCC to profile their more exotic coffee offerings – and often, some new shipments.  The FRCC serves a high-end local coffee market that wants to try new varieties and knows they can count on the FRCC to research and source everything the world of coffee has to offer.

Here’s what I tried…

Kopi Luwak Civet Vietnamese Coffee – the “cat’s ass” of coffee

If the word “civet” caught your eye and you remember it from the movie Bucket List, I won’t sugar-coat it for you.  This feline loves to eat the coffee cherry but its system only partially digests the seed (the coffee bean itself).  What’s more is that its digestive system “processes” the bean in such a way that it gives it a flavor coveted by many coffee drinkers.  Yes, the civet’s poop is collected, roasted as a coffee bean, and ground and brewed just like regular coffee.

Some of you know that Vietnam’s entry into the coffee growing market going back some 15 years has been mainly the cheaper robusta coffee.  But this is the higher-quality arabica species of coffee.  How high-quality?  Retail price is $240/lb versus conventional $15/lb.  And FRCC has no doubt they will move all of the Kopi Luwak coffee that they recently ordered in.

Hawaii Kauai Estate Reserve

This was a great reminder of the Kauai coffee I was drinking on a recent trip to Hawaii.  Not to be overshadowed by its neighboring Kona coffee, Kauai coffee is a more reasonably-priced well-balanced coffee.

Hawaii 100% Kona

Also nostalgic of my recent trip to a plantation in Kona, Hawaii, FRCC sources their Kona coffee from the Greenwell Farms.  I certainly recognized the Greenwell name from my trip.  FRCC sells this coffee for $40/lb so not quite three times as expensive as your “regular” coffee.  While American wages and other associated costs drive up the retail price of Kona coffee, it is not without its merit for fetching a premium among coffees.  A nice acidity and unique flavor.

Jamaican Blue Mountain

Along with Kona coffee, Jamaican Blue Mountain is the other “mainstream-popular” coffee that fetches a premium over other specialty coffees.  Of the handful of plantations there, this particular bean is one of the lower-grown and that means FRCC can sell a pound of it for $30, rather than the typical retail price of $60/lb.

But as far as whether the low-grown nature affected flavor, this was one of my favorites of the day, simply because it had the most distinct flavor in my humble opinion.  Without a very sophisticated sense of taste, I had David explain to me what makes this one different.  David explained that basically, there are three stages to experiencing coffee flavor: the first that it touches the taste buds, the main taste recognition of flavor that follows, and finally, the after-taste.  The Blue Mountain coffee in the middle main phase offers sweeter tones than most.  This was probably my pick of the day.

Bolivian Peaberry

My first peaberry coffee was from Kauai.  The peaberry is a “coffee aberration” in that the two parts of the seed within the coffee cherry are not separate as is normally the case but rather grow together as a single rounded oval “coffee bean”.  It isn’t necessarily a better coffee, but a different coffee with its own flavor characteristics.  The medium-roasted Kauai peaberry coffee I’d tried while in Hawaii was a big favorite of mine…this Bolivian coffee didn’t quite knock my socks off as much.

But having said that, I didn’t have a single bad coffee today.  They were all great and unique in different ways.  The coffee tasting itself was a great experience, and I thank David and Patrick for spending as much time with me as they did to answer my million questions and make me that much coffee-smarter.  Check out the website for the Fire Roasted Coffee Company.

Last week, Dr. Dave Reay, senior lecturer in carbon management at Edinburgh University, issued a study where he calculates that ’standard’ drip-brewed coffee is responsible for 50 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than its less expensive instant equivalent.

He writes that the average cup of standard coffee is responsible for 125 grams of carbon emissions, but that of an average cup of instant coffee is around 80 grams.  His reasoning?  First, instant coffee is less bulky, requiring less energy to transport over long distances.  Second, the cultivating and roasting of regular coffee creates a higher level of emission than the production of instant coffee.  In the most shocking revelation, Dr. Reay stated that a person who consumes six cups a day accumulates 175 kg of carbon dioxide a year, or the equivalent of a flight from London to Rome.

This conflicts with the “green” image that major coffee chains are touting. “As part of Starbucks Shared Planet, we are continuing our ten-year partnership with Conservation International, a non-profit environmental organization that aims to protect life on earth.”

Now, I’m no scientist.  So I don’t have an intelligent opinion on this subject.  But, I do have an opinion.  I’m not switching to instant coffee to reduce my carbon footprint.

It’s not that I don’t want to do my part and protect the environment, only that I won’t do so on the weight of a single report.  It isn’t a strong argument until you’ve heard from the other side and while I commend Dr. Reay for taking on this task, I doubt it will get enough mainstream attention to prompt a response.  Until it does, I live my life as I did before the report, as interesting as it was to read.

I understand the idea that a little litter is not the problem, it’s the accumulation of litter and I can take steps to reduce my footprint.  However, could even the world’s entire coffee drinking people make that much impact by switching to instant coffee?  You might say yes, by a third since each cup is only producing 80 grams.  But whether right or wrong, I was once told that the international meat industry is responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.  Something tells me I could reduce my meat intake by a third and have a much more profound effect.  That’s the problem with these single-study reports, they put the likes of Starbucks in the corner to account for their harmful impact on the environment, but it’s taken out of the context of bigger priorities.

I like how Starbucks handled it.  A single statement to acknowledge that the report was read and to reiterate their commitment to green and fair trade practices.  I think the report is interesting, even if it doesn’t impact my coffee drinking.

Happy new year, everybody!

Here is my last of the posts about coffee this Christmas.  I mentioned “stealing” a pound of Kenyan coffee from my parents’ Peetniks coffee of the month membership. It wasn’t the only pound I rerouted and had shipped to my address instead of theirs.  But where I might have stolen that pound of coffee, it was only after I realized I’d be hosting them this Christmas that I had the following pound in their plan delivered to my house as well.  It arrived as they did…and lucky for me, it was Peets Major Dickason Blend.

This blend is the pride of Peets.  In their words, “Combines the best coffees from the world’s premier coffee-growing regions. Very full-bodied, complex, rich, and smooth.”  The blend is named after a retired army officer of the same name who was a regular customer at Peet’s original retail location.  Together with the founder of Peets, they sampled coffees from all over the world before settling on the blend recipe that today bears his name.

The most interesting part is that with many customers associating this very blend with Peets, they treat it as their “11 herbs and spices” so I can’t tell you much about the origin of the coffees making up the blend.  I will tell you that you have to try a pound of it, it’s that good.  It is heavy-bodied which I don’t mind in a coffee, and a middle of the road acidity that many coffee drinkers will appreciate.

This Christmas, we went through more of this than of any other coffee.  A shame for me, it means I’ll have to buy more…or steal another pound of it from my parents .

Hosting family at Christmas can sometimes mean getting pre-occupied with all the activity.  Family members know better than to get in my coffee bar when I’m present and able to prepare it for them.  It’s not even that they think they can’t make a cup of coffee as well as me, but that they know I WILL chase them out.  This Christmas, a family member who will remain unnamed became tired of waiting on me to prepare a pot of coffee as requested.  This person helped themselves to my coffee bar until I did indeed chase them out.  And now, here are the things they did wrong.

Tap water.  Coffee is 99% water.  With an entire industry built around purified water, you’d think that same consideration would extend to the water being used to brew coffee.  Water is not boiled in a drip brewer, merely heated to an optimal temperature.  So, the water you use DOES make a difference.  There’s a Brita water purifier in the fridge.  Use it.

Full pot.  This one is more forgivable, but I won’t normally take advantage of the carafe’s full capacity.  In a 12-cup carafe, I still won’t normally brew more than eight cups at a time.  My reasoning for this is that the coffee drip-brewed at the beginning of the cycle is stronger than the coffee at the end of the cycle – which is why I hate the interrupt-brew feature of today’s machines.  When my pot of coffee is ready, I swish it around before I pour from it to ensure a consistent strength of coffee throughout.  When you fill the carafe to capacity, you can’t swish… not to mention it’s more likely you spill.

Coffee to water ratio.  This one is very forgivable, but I like my coffee strong.  I suggest a regular coffee scoop of ground coffee per mug of coffee being brewed.  But there is more empty air between big round beans than there is between small grinds of coffee.  For that reason, my scoop of coffee beans per mug is very generous rather than a level scoop of coffee beans.

Hey it’s Christmas, a time to forgive .

In the true spirit of Christmas (well, the Grinch story at least), I stole from my parents and then gave back to them.  Let me explain.  My parents are lucky members of the Peets Coffee of the Month Club, courtesy of yours truly as a recurring Christmas gift each year.  I set the frequency of delivery at one pound delivered to their door every four weeks and for the most part, that has been almost perfect timing so that they always have fresh coffee in the house that doesn’t sit too long.  It came to my attention this past November that their coffee stock was building up so as a “favor”, I rerouted their next pound of coffee to my address.  This past December, I “forgot” to let Peets know to return to sending the coffee to my parents’ address, so I ended up with a pound of my second favorite coffee in the world, Kenya Auction Lot.

When Kenya gained independence from Britain, the government developed a sophisticated and systematic process for getting their coffee grown and exported to the world.  Every week, the government of Kenya organizes an auction, and each lot of unroasted green coffee is sold to the highest bidder.  Licensed exporters are allowed to sample the lots in advance, and apparently, there are no inside deals.  There are three designations of coffee set by the government itself: AA, A, and B.  If you’re buying your Kenyan coffee from a grocery store, don’t take anything for granted.  When I buy it from Peets, they don’t even need to tell me it’s AA-coffee I’m getting.  For flavor, Kenyan coffee is generally complex and acidic, featuring wine-toned and fruity notes, a medium body thickness, and a consistent lack of “dirty” tones that you might find in an Ethiopian coffee.  The state-run process definitely contributes to a consistent and flavorful coffee.

Hey, my parents got to enjoy it after all so while I might have stolen this pound from them, I grinded it, brewed it, and served it to them.

My coffee bar features a total of ten flavors that can be added to any coffee.  The most popular is Hazelnut.  I also have favorites like Irish Cream, Caramel, and Toasted Walnut.  If it’s a good flavor complement to coffee, I have it.  They are mostly Torani syrups, but there are some Starbucks flavor syrups in there as well.  I don’t normally add these flavors to my coffee so they sit on the counter unused.  They came in handy while family was visiting this Christmas because where a good quality gourmet coffee is best enjoyed on its own, the flavor syrups can really dress up a cappuccino.

I don’t normally make cappuccinos, I will admit they are a lot of work.  When a person earns the title of coffee barista, this isn’t somebody that operates a drip brewer.  The true barista is a wizard with the espresso machine that makes lattes and cappuccinos, and I was scrambling to remember how it’s done right.  My machine is actually a Mr. Coffee espresso maker.  This is a private-labelled machine and I’d love to know who made it for Mr. Coffee because it’s a great machine.  Even though I loved using it years ago, something still felt wrong about using a Mr. Coffee machine to make a classy drink like an espresso or cappuccino.  So, I bought a Delonghi machine from Italy and if you’ve ever heard horror stories about their support and customer service, you heard right.  That machine sits in a box in my basement and I’m back on the Mr. Coffee.

I made a menu for my family because of all the different options.  I listed the ten flavors they could enjoy, as well as sprinkled cocoa, cinnamon, and even a cinnamon stick for stirring – cinnamon sticks do double duty at Christmas time with hot apple cider and whiskey, email me for the recipe.  Hats off to my brother, who like me, took his cappuccino straight up without flavors.  I could have even drank it like an espresso shot but thought I would enjoy my first cappuccino in a long time.

Only one embarrasing thing happened.  From disuse, the machine’s milk frother wasn’t working.  I assume there’s something clogging it and it forced the steam out through breaks in the “airtight” lid since it couldn’t get through the frother.  To keep my machine from blowing up from the pressure, I served these cappuccinos with whipped cream.  It was either that or a very milky espresso mix.

You can’t imagine how much I struggled to come up with 12 things to tell you about coffee this Christmas…would have sounded alot cooler than 5 things, but oh well, better to keep it concise and with impact.  Hosted family this year so I was busy in the coffee bar of my kitchen serving up some great coffee and cappuccinos.  With that, I have five great things to share and will endeavor to get them up over these next five days.

The first is about Starbucks’ Christmas Blend Coffee.  This limited edition blend is released in late November or early December and I scoop it up every year.  Starbucks has been releasing this special unique blend once a year for 25 years.  It’s a more complex blend, which I like.  It combines spicy notes with a higher than average acidity and nice pop in the flavor from their choice of Latin American beans.  And mellowed with a smooth but consistent-body flavor from their choice of Pacific beans.  The key ingredient is their choice of aged Sumatran beans.  Sumatran coffee on its own is definitely in my list of top ten coffees.  Alot of the spicy tones of the Christmas Blend come from the aged Sumatran beans.  It also has a full consistency without being “thick” and an acidity that doesn’t shock the palate.

There may still be time for you to pick up a pound of the Christmas Blend before you have to wait another year.  I would but as you’ll read in the next four posts, my coffee stock is on the heavy side right now so I have work to do.  I was working through the last of this pound of Christmas Blend as family arrived, so they managed to get a cup or two of it before it was gone.

See post below.  This is an often-asked question.

Question: “What’s the water oz to coffee oz ratio for a cup of coffee?” – Steve King

Answer: In the post below, I spell it out in terms of how many scoops of coffee beans to how many cups you’re making.  One cup of water : two tablespoons of coffee.  If you’d like it in ounces, there is one fluid ounce to two tablespoons, which means one ounce of coffee for each cup you’re brewing.  There are 8 fluid ounces to a metric cup, or 16 oz to a mug of coffee.  Your ratio of coffee to water…16:1.  I can’t wait for people for disagree with me on that…it even seems too diluted to me to say it that way, so I’d rather say one coffee scoop per mug of water or per two metric cups.

When it comes to fully appreciating something like a nice coffee, sometimes it’s worth taking a step back in quality. Then you’re reminded how good you have it. This week in a moment full of panic, I woke up to find I was out of coffee beans. I had to drink my coffee out of a cafeteria that day.

I used to drink cafeteria coffee all the time. I can’t say I ever noticed a difference between the blends they advertised, but it was drinkable with enough cream and sugar. And a Hazelnut flavored coffee should be hard even for a cafeteria to screw up. As time’s gone on, my standards have increased but gradually. Only this year did I stop putting cream and sugar in my coffee. I drink coffee every day several times a day, so it’s easy to take the quality for granted. It wasn’t until I was forced to drink cafeteria coffee that I realized just how good my own coffee is.

There, a silver lining.

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve who has to wait until the next day for the big show. Grown up, I don’t usually wait for anything I want, but tonight, I picked up a fresh pound of coffee and if I crack it now, it will be an all-nighter for me.

I’ve tried Peet’s Coffee before. Based out of California and at it for over 40 years now, they know coffee. Check out the Report Card for more information on Peets. I bought one of their coffee tours for family that simply can’t keep up with the pound of coffee they’re sending every month. So, this month, I had it sent to me instead.

It’s a pound of Guatemalan Antigua coffee. It’s amazing to me how differences in climates in coffee-growing regions produce for the coffee lover a wide range of flavors. Coffee from the province of Antigua in Guatemala is my favorite coffee in the world. San Sebastian is the name of a farm that sells to Peets for consumption across North America. They meet Peets’ standard, so I can’t wait to compare this to the Antigua coffee I normally buy retail from Starbucks.

This is the first time a pound of Peets coffee is delivered to my door so I’m excited for my first cup tomorrow. I picked it up at the post office and probably looked like my lab retriever smelling the box all over. Not because I was so anxious to smell it, but because I wanted to make sure I couldn’t smell anything. If the packaging is airtight, I shouldn’t smell any coffee and that means it’s fresh. The bag is stamped with the Roast Date, or day the green beans imported from Guatemala were roasted to fill my order. I usually buy retail from Starbucks and I have to say you just don’t know when it was roasted although if the coffee wasn’t fresh, I’d know. Until tomorrow. Even I think it’s weird if I end up dreaming about my first cup tonight.