Field Notes: Coffee.

Part 1, an ode.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I know more about coffee than just about anything else. I’ve been working in coffee for 16 years now, professionally, and I think about it in some regard for well over half of my days, and even when I’m not focused on it directly for work, it is in the background, part of what I do, what I think about, and even so basic as how I live. My life revolves around it. From waking, to sleep, always in some part of my vein is coffee, literally and figuratively.

And I love it so.

I’d be taking pictures of every cup even if I didn’t work in this field. I’d still roast on my stove for fun. I have just about every conceivable method of making coffee, and think through what I’ll do for my next one while I’m still making the last. And while a person can only drink so much, the same is true for me, but that makes me all the more incentivized to make them the best as possible. From espresso, to French press, stove top moka pots, pour-overs and Aeropress, Chemex, Fellow Stag, and percolator, I love the process of making coffee. Our kitchen is cluttered with methods, and grinders. And I sometimes thank god I work in it professionally because it might be embarrassing otherwise to possess so many coffee things. But I use them all and regularly. Sometimes I weigh and measure, sometimes I definitively do not. I like to know the art of precision as well as the art of imperfection. And to be perfectly clear on my professional assessment, there is no singular better way, except in the sense of what you like better. This is a completely subjective subject matter.

That said, I know what I like at this point, and when I drink coffee I don’t like, I can usually hone in on the details of what I don’t like, why, and how they got to be. I have a knowledge of how the green affects coffee, from origin, varietal, soils, processing, and age. I know the roasting and how it affects it. I’m familiar with most major coffee roasting machines and their differences and potential nuance and character they add. I understand roast level. Roast time. Specific methods of roasting profiles, ie, the temperature curve that a coffee bean goes through. It is not a necessarily a straight linear thing, in fact it almost never is, and coffee roasters pursuing nuance and character make sure it is not. There is a curve. A rapid increasing of temperature that slowly declines until certain points are reached in coffee development. During the process the coffee, going from green to brown, goes through a series of developments, each affecting the eventual flavor, and the evolutions of the smell of the coffee is one of my favorite parts of the entire process. Early on it takes a sort of yeasty smell that evolves eventually to sweet grass and bread, eventually toasted bread and then a smokiness. It’s a wonderful process. And depending on when heat is applied or reduced, the outcome is wildly different. And lastly, I understand the brewing methods and how grind affects flavor. Some brewers perform better with extremely precise ground size while others do not rely so heavily on consistency of the grounds. Age after roasting affects flavor. And brew methods greatly dictate the outcome of how coffee tastes. And that, all depends on what you like. Or me, in my case.

It’s different for everyone.

So as the owner of a coffee company, I am constantly evaluating are coffees, thinking about what I like, why, and how I like to brew it. And brewing. I’m constantly trying all the ways. And while we could never make coffees that everyone loves, we know what we love, and how to get it there, and so we make coffees we love, and over the years have gained a solid following of people that agree with our palettes.

And while drip coffee has always been centrally very important to us, and I’ve always used our brewers at work to test and make sure I like where they are at, I’ve actually never owned a drip brewer at home. I own basically every other method, including espresso, but not drip. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it. But here we are.

So this week I borrowed one from a friend. It’s a Technovorm Moccamaster. We’ve sold these for years. I’ve played with them at work, but never had one to just put on repeat in the comfort of my own kitchen day after day, and now that I’m doing just that, I’m realizing how much more I get to learn about drip.

The thing about brewing coffee is that like most things, repetition is the best way to learn the most about it. And while I know the technical methods involved in making good drip, I tend to think that true mastery of a thing does not require weights and measures, but rather when you can do the thing by feel. I’m excited to gain mastery of this new brewer in my kitchen. And I’ll probably need to just get my own, regardless of not having space for one.

But for me it’s a slippery slope. I see all these brewers and I want to try them all. I love seeing the subtle differences in similar style brewers. Take for example the Hario V60 ceramic pour-over and the Kalita flat bottomed brewer made from stainless steel.

These brewers both fit in the pour-over genre of brewing but make noticeably different coffees. Both use paper filters and require manually pouring hot water over the grinds over the course of several minutes. But both are different shapes, and that difference in shapes leads to very different outcomes in the cup. Neither better or worse objectively. But subjectively in blind tests I’ve chosen one time and time again. My palette prefers one.

So what is the difference in these? The Hario is a V-shaped, and porcelain, while the Kalita is flat bottomed and metal. I’m not sure that the material affects the flavor so much as the shape. When water pours into the V-shaped brewer it passes swiftly through the brewer and out of the filter. However on the flat bottomed brewer the water tends to pool and steep longer. One method is not better, just different. I gravitate towards the latter. Others gravitate towards the former.

And that is the way coffee goes. We all like different things. As someone who buys green, roasts it, and sells it, we know not everyone is going to like every coffee we produce, so we produce a spectrum that appeals to a wide array of drinkers. The best we can do is bring in the best coffees we can find, in an affordable price range, roast them to be as delicious as we think best for that coffee, and present them as such. And while we do not necessarily think of any coffee as singular in intention of brewer, we recognize that some lean in better to some brewers than others. Sometimes we have consensus on this, sometimes we do not. Because that is what coffee is.

So this new drip brewer is exciting for me. I’m getting past weights and measures and just making it a little different every time. I’m playing with grind size. I’m playing with ratios per cup. Sometimes I’m just winging it. And it’s been delicious. It is so different than the other brew methods I have in the house. Espresso makes such a rich concentrate of coffee. Its intensity is there even when you dilute with water. It’s viscous. A French press makes a cup that often has just a little silt in it. Silt is not a bad thing. Overall the cup has more body than most drip cups, because drip machines use paper filters. Any method with a paper filter is going to have a “cleaner” cup. A French press tends to be a little siltier. Drip a little silkier. A stove top percolator is more stout, but a fun process because you can vary it so much from first cup to last cup just by allowing the percolation to continue after you pour the first cup. Then the moka pot…. also a stove top process, but like an espresso, tends to be richer, thicker. More akin to oil than water, sort of.

There are of course innumerable benefits to coffee. Besides being a neuro-stimulant it has great affects on the heart, digestive system, and vascular system. Coffee, if you really want the base of how I think of it, is actually a magical plant. I’ve stood in and wandered around coffee forests around the world, and not a single one has not exhibited a deeper sense of consciousness. I of course feel the same about most wild forests. But coffee forests, regardless of possessing a harvestable commodity, also possesses this presence, and when I roast a batch, grind a portion, or brew a cup, I connect immediately with some deeper part of my consciousness that makes me realize the world is connected and everything will ultimately be ok. And when I drink it, looking out over the day ahead of me, I have a sense I can do whatever I need to not only get through the day, but enjoy it. Coffee has my back. It assures me. It gives me energy and clarity. I can’t thank it enough.

So as I look at this, I think this is just an introduction to coffee here. I think it’s time I write a bit more extensively about the thing that is such a rich part of my tapestry. From here I’ve an obvious pathway, and photos to go along. Down the road in future installments I’ll include origin, where it comes from, how it’s dealt with and how it gets to us. The farming side of coffee is my very favorite part of coffee. I’ve learned more about the final product that is coffee from farming before any other step of the process. Farmers make the coffee. Great farmers, great coffee. Period. Sure, it can be messed up, but that is purely on the people in the latter steps; so long as it’s farmed right, the potential outcome is great. And there are incredible farmers in every coffee region of the world. I’ve met many great ones.

From there is roasting and blending. This for me is largely a musical and cinematic process. I’ll tackle it on it’s own down the road here.

And lastly, brewing. Well, brewing and drinking. There are countless ways to go about this, but in the end, it need not be complex, or a method favored by anyone but yourself. The ultimate is in this is an outcome in which you pause and think, god damn, that is good coffee. In my mind, if this moment can come outside, maybe even with the sun cresting the horizon and hitting your eyes, well then everything is good in the world. It’s an amazing moment.

But right now it’s been a long day, and I have tomorrow to think about. So I’m going to put this aside for the night, find some pictures to insert in the morning, and send this as a first installment. Additionally, when I close this laptop I’m going to go to the kitchen and grind my coffee for morning. The coffee I have is pretty fresh, roasted just a few days ago, and so for my taste still a little too fresh, so I like to grind it the night before to give it better opportunity to off-gas, a process all freshly roasted coffee undergoes and which can be sped up by grinding. And in the morning I’m going to make another drip pot of coffee, and I can’t wait. I’ll probably follow it up with an Americano. I also can’t wait for that. I may add a splash of cream if I’m feeling it. Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not and just want it black. Time will tell. But it’s going to be delicious. And it’s going to set the tone of the whole day. I’m already excited about it.