Question: “Hey you said not to buy whole coffee beans from grocery stores but what if they sell starbucks whole coffee beans would that be ok? or should I go to starbucks and buy from them?” - Isaac Shrader

Answer:
This is an excellent question, and as Isaac will attest, it took me a little while to properly answer it.  In fact each time I tried, the scope of answering the question got more and more out of hand.  Like any of us, I used to buy all of my coffee pre-ground from the grocery store.  I’ll answer this question with another question: what makes coffee taste good?

Like anything perishable, coffee tastes best when it’s fresh.  Wherever you buy coffee, it’s at the end of a supply chain that started in a coffee growing country, and ends where you buy it.  The care shown at each stage throughout the supply chain will determine how fresh the coffee, and how good it will taste in your cup.

Before Fire Roasted Coffee Company started selling their coffee through the local grocery chain Loblaws, I would have never suggested that you buy coffee from any grocery store.  Better that you find a local roaster who is roasting small batches and very recently before you buy it – this is as fresh (and delicious) as it gets.  However, by making local supply arrangements, Fire Roasted was able to ensure freshness for customers and the continuation of its strong name and reputation.  They did it by their proximity and agreement with the grocery store.

I took a trip to my own local grocery store to see if whole bean coffee sold there provides any indication of how recently the coffee was roasted.  Starbucks coffee sold in either grocery stores or through their retail outlets does not indicate when exactly it was roasted.  That means you should be able to do better, either by buying from a local roaster or buying coffee from a grocery store where the same care has gone into freshness as Fire Roasted Coffee arranged with its wholesale customer.

This image is of a coffee mass-roasted locally in Portland, Oregon and distributed to grocery stores in the general area.  It’s considered fresh for the same reason that Fire Roasted could ensure the same with Loblaws.  I took this picture in January 2012 and the label indicates that it’s best sold nine months later.  The coffee is vacuum-sealed so I assume it doesn’t get any more stale that it was when sealed, provided you don’t open the packaging and let air in.  I’ve heard some criticism of vacuum-sealing affecting coffee freshness, and you won’t find local roasters sealing their fresh-roasted coffee in any way before it’s sold. 

I found this one even more interesting.  I’m a fan of Peets coffee, and here, they are clearly trying to ensure a quality standard to the coffee they sell in grocery stores.  They want to ensure that coffee is not sold any later than 90 days after it was roasted, but the same label shows it was roasted on September 19, 2011.  I also took this picture in January 2012, past the 90-day mark.  In other words, Peets has set a standard, but its grocery store partner isn’t monitoring or following it!

Isaac, a long-winded answer to your question.  Coffee flavor comes from coffee freshness.  Coffee starts to go stale as soon as it’s been roasted from it’s original green form.  Don’t buy coffee if you don’t know when it was roasted.  And, don’t buy coffee that wasn’t roasted recently.  I wish I could point you to a grocery store that handles coffee properly.  Coffee sold at a Starbucks outlet is a better option than the grocery store because it at least came direct from some centralized Starbucks roasting facility.  But you will find even this is no substitute for coffee purchased from your local roaster, or any other source that can show you that it was recently roasted.

I love Portland, Oregon and I wish I spent more time here.  Any major city can host a festival dedicated solely to craft chocolate, and chocolate education.  But in Oregon, there are so many craft chocolatiers and cacao roasters operating locally, they can fill a convention center.  Dave Cook, owner of the Fire Roasted Coffee Company, and my original coffee roaster of choice when I lived in Canada, was the first to bring to my attention the many similarities between coffee and chocolate.

ChocolateFest is an annual event hosted by the World Forestry Center, and this is its seventh year.  The mission of the WFC is simple: educate and inform people about the world’s forests and trees, and environmental sustainability.  On their campus in Portland’s Washington Park for the first ChocolateFest, they attracted over 1,000 people.  Last year, over 8,000 people.

Even before entering ChocolateFest, guests are provided with education on the cacao tree, fruit, and seed, and its transformation into the chocolate we know and love.Recognized at the Food Network Awards, Portland loves cuisine of any kind, and appreciation of chocolate is no exception. The people came out to sample from local chocolatiers, learn more about chocolate, and buy pounds of it.

Exhibitors used many ways to stand out in the crowd. An exhibitor wouldn’t get by selling chocolate bars alone. It takes a different angle, either a variety of origins, unique packaging, or in this case, something visual. One exhibitor was not providing samples, a huge mistake at this show!
 

A Lesson in Chocolate…

• Types of Beans: Where the beans are grown, as well as how they are formented and roasted, directly affect their quality. Each high-quality variety of cacao beans has its own individual aroma, personality, complexity, subtlety, and character.
• Blending: Some chocolatiers use beans from only one region creating a desirable, distinctive flavor. Others, however, skillfully blend beans which can result in a unique product for their company and an extraordinary taste. Most chocolate today is made from blended cacao beans.
• Cocoa Content: The amount of cocoa in a piece of chocolate candy is one determination of its “quality”. The range is 10-75% with gourmet chocolate hovering around 60% and higher. Dark chocolate has a higher cocoa content and generally tastes more bitter. The remaining percent is sugar. The higher the cocoa rate, the less sweet it is. A typical American milk chocolate candy bar is about 11% cocoa.

The unsung heroes of ChocolateFest. Always smiling...it might be something in the chocolate!

The first person to help me see chocolate in a new light was Dave Cook, owner of the Fire Roasted Coffee Company, and my original coffee roaster of choice when I lived in Canada.

Read Profile: Fire Roasted Coffee Company

Dave had expanded from roasting coffee into also roasting cocoa into chocolate through a new venture, Habitual Chocolate Roasters.  It was a very cool experience for me to learn more about the similarities between coffee and chocolate, the same ideal climate and conditions for growing the coffee cherry as the cocoa bean, and so naturally, the same people bringing this to the world.  With those similarities, also the opportunity for a roaster to differentiate between the commodity chocolate product that we all know and take for granted, and something more akin to gourmet chocolate.

It was Dave who brought to my attention that the Pacific Northwest’s largest chocolate show was in my city of Portland, OR this weekend: ChocolateFest.

The event is hosted by the World Forestry Center, and this will be its seventh year.  The mission of the WFC is simple: educate and inform people about the world’s forests and trees, and environmental sustainability.  On their campus in Portland’s Washington Park for the first ChocolateFest, they attracted over 1,000 people.  Last year, over 8,000 people.  This year, they bring it to their largest venue yet, the Oregon Convention Center.

I’m happy to be there and continue my education in the world of chocolate.  I’ll be looking for similarities with coffee to help me understand the chocolate process better.  And I’ll also eat a stupid amount of chocolate.  If I see the woman from the above picture walking around with that bar, I will probably take it from her.

Read: Cafe Mocha Recipes

Stay tuned!  If you live in the area, check out the show.  Here is some further information:

ChocolateFest 2012
Location: Oregon Convention Center, Exhibit Hall A
777 NE MLK, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97232

Dates: January 20 – 22, 2012

I’m always happy to give coffee advice.  Over the holidays, a friend asked what to buy his mother for a coffee maker.  The guidelines were simple.  It had to be a drip brewer, she wanted something simple as opposed to some of the funkier, more involved methods of making coffee.  And, she would never make more than two mugs at a time (or four metric cups) so it had to be a four-cup.

Read: Better Ways to Brew Coffee (to learn about methods other than drip brewing)

I’ve never purchased or recommended a four-cup drip brewer before, so when in doubt, I buy Cuisinart.  I’ve never been steered wrong by a Cuisinart product.  Certainly, you will find less expensive products out there.  Black and Decker has an equivalent for any Cuisinart appliance, and while it’s made with some quality, I still feel the best value for your dollar is in Cuisinart appliances.

Cuisinart was originally a food processor in the 70s made popular by Julia Child, that has since grown into a line of products recognized for quality across North America.  I don’t think I’m blind in my loyalty to Cuisinart as long as I’m referring to their line of kitchen appliances.  I once overpaid for a collection of Cuisinart pots, and wondered why afterwards.  Another example of a company leveraging their name to sell as many associated products as they can – after all, I rave about Cuisinart’s drip brewer whose quality has nothing to do with how a company builds pots and pans.

Check out: MakeGoodCoffee.com Coffee Maker Report Card

Cuisinart makes a four-cup drip brewer that I recommended to my friend without hesitation.  If there happens to be something wrong with the product, Cuisinart takes care of their warranties.  If there isn’t anything wrong with it, you will be very happy with its performance well past the warranty period.

My father is a modern day Indiana Jones.  He has the travel bug that I am happy to have inherited.  In November of last year, he spent a month traveling between Belize and Guatemala in Central America.  And lucky me, he brought me Guatemalan coffee from the source.

I’ve had many different great coffees, but Guatemalan coffee is one of my consistent favorites.  I had concerns about whether the coffee that my father bought would be up to standard.  Ironically, because of Guatemala’s economy, their best coffee is generally exported.  Imagine, you could have a better cup of Guatemalan coffee at Starbucks than you could in Guatemala.

I am about halfway through the two pounds of this coffee that he brought back, and it’s great.  There’s also a romantic quality to drinking it, since it comes from the source.  My father bought it from Cafe Toliman – don’t try to find information online, I already tried.  Toliman is one of three volcanoes between which Lake Atitlan formed.  Yes, a lake held together by three volcanoes – my father says it’s breathtaking.  The soil is volcanic ash, rich in organic matter, a perfect altitude, climate, and soil for growing coffee.

You don’t need to fly to Guatemala to enjoy their amazing coffee.  Peets sells a special blend from the Guatemalan province of Antigua, its Guatemala San Sebastian.  I have included this variety in every “coffee tour” I’ve bought from Peets – it’s an amazing coffee.  Click here and enter “Guatemala” in the search field to learn more.

Alternatively, your local roaster definitely carries a Guatemalan coffee, and is a great source for fresh coffee.

Happy new year, coffee lovers!  May the year 2012 bring us all more good coffee, and less Mayan apocalypse.

If you follow this blog, then you’ve heard me suggest before the importance of the water that you use when making coffee.

Read: Why Water Is So Important to Coffee

If you follow me on Twitter, then you also know how much horrible hotel room coffee I drink.

Read: The Truth About Hotel Room Coffee
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I was reminded of the importance of water in coffee over New Years Eve.  Our hotel room featured vacuum-sealed Starbucks coffee – an African blend of theirs, so I must admit it was better than the hotel room coffee I’m used to.  The first cup I made was definitely drinkable. 

When I made my second cup, I used bottled water instead of tap water.  I can’t express enough how much of a difference it made.  The second cup was not only drinkable, but an excellent cup of coffee.  The best hotel room coffee I’ve had in almost a year.

I’m not suggesting you use bottled water everytime you make coffee, but apply the same standard to your coffee water as you do to your drinking water.  At the very least, invest $12 in a Brita pitcher, and use only that water if your brewing method doesn’t already involve boiling the water.  Coffee is 99% water.

Many years ago, my brother introduced me to the French Press.  He explained that for many, this was the best way to brew coffee.  At the time, I didn’t have a sophisticated enough taste for coffee for it to make much difference.  I also remember staring at the press pot and thinking about how primitive it looked compared to some of the tricked-out drip brewers that were on the market. 

It would be many years before I would use a French Press again.  I had made plenty of upgrades in my other coffee gear and certainly, the coffee itself that I was buying.  I had finished some reading on making great coffee, and the press pot came up again and again.  I decided to buy one, and alternated between using it and the drip brewer.  As time has gone on, I’ve used the drip brewer predominantly to make a large amount of coffee to be poured into my Thermos, but for smaller amounts, some of the fancier brewing methods.

Read: Buy a Thermos…Make Good Coffee

Last year, two different guests to the website asked me which I thought was the better brewing method between the press pot and the pourover method (the latter also known as the Chemex or Melitta).  Similarly, many people still refer to the press pot as the Bodum, named after the company that made the design popular.  Pourover was new to me, so I actually had to research it.  When I did, it just seemed like a LOT of work compared to the very turnkey way of making coffee by press pot.  With nothing else to go on, I ruled in favor of the press pot.

Read: Melitta vs. French Press…fight!
Read: Pour-over Brewing Method – the Chemex (greatly expanded description of pourover)

I now have a drip brewer, a press pot, and a pourover coffee maker in my coffee bar.  I will say that both the press pot and pourover make a noticeably better coffee than the drip brewer, but then again, both are intended to be improvements on the design of the drip brewer, itself an improvement on the percolator. 

Here is some loose logic for how and when I decide to use each:

- Drip Brewer: For making a lot of coffee at once.  Generally to load into my Thermos for a day of being on the road, or if I am making coffee for a lot of guests.

- Press Pot: Takes the longest to cool down, so for when I have time to sit back by myself, and enjoy it (ie. Sunday afternoon, no hurries).

- Pourover: For some novelty in preparing it – it is definitely the most interesting to watch being prepared.  I do enjoy talking through the process as I prepare it.  Also, the paper filter removes any sediment from the coffee, which I like to provide for coffee drinking guests in my home who may not know to swish their cup before the last swallow, or care to.

So, the drip brewer remains my method for brewing a volume of coffee.  Between the press pot and pourover, I cannot pick a “winner”.  I like them both.  The pourover leaves no sediment in the cup but the coffee cools off quicker.  The press pot leaves sediment in the cup, but it doesn’t bother me as I’m expecting the sediment.  I love having them all in the coffee bar at my disposal.

It’s always fun for me when a bunch of coincidental things happen at once.  Earlier last week, I was e-mailing back and forth with Shreerag Plakazhi of India.  I had misunderstood that he was asking me if I’d ever tried coffees from India.  There is coffee production out of India, most of it from small growers, and responsible for about 5% of the world’s coffee production.  Shreerag was actually referring to a unique coffee brewing method called Indian filter coffee or South Indian coffee.

True Indian filter coffee is made with a unique two-cup metal contraption, and I don’t have one.  It’s also made with a combination of dark-roasted coffee and chicory.  A week later, I received an email from a visitor to the site named Makeda Queen, asking me if I had any advice on adding chicory to coffee.  Last but not least, this week, a new book entitled “The Romance of Indian Coffee” was released, and I knew the stars must be aligned for me to experiment with something new.

• Ask Marc: Got a question about coffee?  Any question?

Here’s the best that I figured I could make my own Indian filter coffee at home:

- It’s made with roughly a 80% / 20% mix of dark-roasted coffee and chicory.
- I don’t have any dark-roasted coffee at home, but I did just receive my home roasting equipment.  If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve been having lots of fun home roasting again.  I took the last of my unroasted Nicaragua Maragogype beans that I bought from Toronto’s Green Beanery and roasted them as dark as I could without burning them, or setting off the fire alarms.
- On my last trip to the grocery store, I bought some chicory from the baking aisle.  I’m not the culinary type, so I confess I don’t quite know what exactly chicory is.
- I’ve decided the method I will use to brew in absence of the true equipment is by Chemex pourover.

• Follow me on Twitter
• Read: Profile – Toronto’s Green Beanery

The magic all happens tomorrow.  I don’t know what to expect, but the only way to truly appreciate the wide world of coffee is to try as much of it as you can.  You don’t need to roast your own beans and buy chicory from the grocery store, but if you love coffee, experiment with it.  Try one you’ve never tried before.  And when you visit your local roaster, take the time (and theirs) to learn what they have to offer that you would enjoy and haven’t tried.

I have friends that just returned from Ecuador.  Like any good friends, they brought me back coffee fresh from the source.  I was excited to get it home and try it, as I’ve never tried coffee from Ecuador.  Coffee is very much like wine, in that it takes a sample of the world’s offering to fully appreciate every flavor and variety.

Coffees of Ecuador

Ecuador is one of the top 20 producers of coffee in the world.  Although the country itself is small, its varied ecology makes it possible to cultivate all of the varieties of coffee within its borders, including premium Arabica beans and less-expensive Robusta beans.

Coffee cultivation and export is a significant portion of the country’s economy.  While they presently export to the US as well as all over the world, it is not very prevalent in the US.  As a result, very little is written about its unique qualities, and to the best of my knowledge, this would be my first cup of coffee from Ecuador.

El Tostador

The packaging of my friends’ coffee is entirely in Spanish and I am definitely not smarter than a fifth grader yet in Spanish.  But, I know key words so I gave “reading” about the coffee my best shot.  Naturally, I could see that it was produced by El Tostador, Cafe Tostado y Molido, where my friends bought it in Ecuador.

The first thing I noticed is that the words Arabica or Robusta were not printed anywhere on the package.  My rule of thumb when I see this is that it is probably cheaper Robusta beans.  After all, you would promote that you are selling Arabica beans, so if nothing is said, I assume it’s Robusta.  However, I was able to identify from the packaging, the region where the coffee was grown…the province of Loja.  The variety of coffee grown in Loja is Arabica – great news. 

The frest-roasted coffee was ground to order for my friends who brought back a pound for themselves, and brought back a pound for me.  It was ground fine, so I’ve been preparing it by pourover moreso than by press pot, since you would generally use a coarse ground coffee in the press pot to avoid overextraction (sludge).

Read: Pour-Over Brewing Method
Read: Fresh Press Brewing Method

In the end, I couldn’t help but take some of the Spanish from the packaging to a translation website, which told me:
“From the quality coffee plantations of the highlands of the province of Loja, a tradition of flavor and natural fragrance is born.”

Challenges

Ecuador has a couple challenges in order to have its coffee included in the list of Specialty Coffee origins.  First, it hasn’t actively promoted itself as a source of fine coffee to the US market, and promotes itself in the European market mainly on price.  The climate of Ecuador is similar in characteristics to other countries who produce well-recognized coffee.  This leads to the second challenge, that the country’s harvesting and processing standards are not as tightly regulated by the state since other exports, such as bananas, have increased in importance.

I was happy for the opportunity to try a new coffee I hadn’t tried before.  The only way to truly appreciate the world of coffee is to try coffees from around the world.

I was watching one of those myth debunking shows, and they were talking about the tryptophan in turkey.  This is the chemical that many blame for how tired we all feel after Thanksgiving dinner.  Coincidentally, at the same time as this show was on, I was on a website warning of the dangers of combining alcohol and coffee.  It made me wonder just how much power that coffee has to save us from the lethargy of Thanksgiving Day!

Here is what truly makes you tired on Thanksgiving Day, and whether coffee has it in its power to save you…

Vacation Day Fatigue: Let’s not kid ourselves.  We all knew we had a vacation day today, so nobody got a reasonable regular Wednesday night sleep last night.  I’m not the only one who fell asleep on the couch in the wee hours watching AMC’s The Walking Dead (am I? anybody?).  Coffee can help.  The caffeine in coffee is a psychoactive with stimulant effects.  It reduces physical fatigue, restores alertness when drowsy, and increases wakefulness.

Alcohol: Many of us will drink more than average today – certainly more than an average Thursday afternoon and evening (and night).  Coffee will not help.  The dangers of mixing alcohol and caffeine refer mainly to the direct combination of the two – energy drinks with alcohol, for instance.  The real question is whether caffeine counterbalances the sedative effects of alcohol, and it does not.  Rather, the two create separate effects.  Remember that before you think a coffee will sober you enough to drive home.

Overeating: The average American will consume 4,500 calories today.  It takes the body alot of energy to process that much.  Coffee will only help a bit.  There are studies on caffeine’s digestive qualities, and it will improve focus.  For many however, it increases heartburn, which will be associated with the big eating of Thanksgiving Day.

Tryptophan: This chemical will cause fatigue, but there are only trace amounts of it in turkey.  It is a myth that the quantity of this chemical in the turkey we eat is the cause of fatigue on Thanksgiving Day.

The Aftermath: Alot of work goes into preparing Thanksgiving dinner, and alot of work goes into cleaning up and returning to normalcy.  Coffee can help.  For all of the stimulant effects mentioned under fatigue, a cup or two of coffee after Thanksgiving dinner will most certainly give you that little more drive and focus that you need to be productive and prepare for a most unproductive evening and night.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy great coffee today.