Brew with Plunger or French Press

 Coffee character: A rich, medium bodied brew 

Good for: Its simplicity—it’s easy to use and can make up to six cups at a time, so it’s great for when you have people over 

Grind: Coarse 

Brew time: Let it steep for around 4 minutes

People across the country are digging into the back of their abandoned-gadget cupboards and dusting off their plungers. They’re back in vogue, only now we like to refer to them as French presses—it sounds more cosmopolitan, oui? 

Loved for its simple, and forgiving, nature, plunger coffee virtually makes itself. It’s a form of steeping, where water and coffee are in contact throughout brewing, which means all you need to do is bring the two ingredients together. Mix hot water with coffee grounds and leave the pot to sit while you think about whether it’s time to let go of the waffle-maker you also found in the cupboard. After 4 minutes, separate the rich brown brew from the grounds by pressing down the plunger (fitted with mesh). Voila! 

Depending on the size of your pot, you can make many cups at a time. Coupled with the fact that it’s low maintenance to make, it’s a good one to serve to a crowd. 119 The Hario coffee press has two thick glass walls for extra insulation and protection from heat. The removable, olivewood collar aids grip.

To use: 

- Pre-heat coffee press by rinsing it out with hot water. 

- Grind coffee—a coarse grind is best suited. Add around 10–12g (about 2 tablespoons) of coffee to every 100–120g (3.5–4 oz) of water. 

 - Pour 200°F (92°C) water over grounds, providing an even coverage. 

-  After 4 minutes, stir lightly. 

 - Gently plunge.

Brew Style - Ibrik

Coffee character: Rich, dark and intense, since this coffee isn’t filtered, its texture is a bit on the, well, muddy side 

Good for: Going back to the roots of coffee brewing Grind: Very fine and powder-like 

 Brew time: Can take around 10 minutes total

An ibrik (known in Turkey as a cezve) is an ornate little coffee pot with a long handle, the type that you might have been given by your sister that time she went to Istanbul. The coffee is boiled over a flame before being poured straight into a drinking cup. This isn’t exactly specialty coffee territory, but it makes a very distinctive brew with a history as old as coffee itself. And don’t think for a second that ibrik connoisseurs aren’t as serious as espresso or siphon coffee devotees: the World Cezve/Ibrik Championships are held annually in Europe and competition is fierce.

Traditionally, this coffee is drunk on special occasions unsweetened for sad times, such as funerals, and with sugar for happier occasions, such as weddings. It’s also common for brewers to add a pinch of cardamom for a spicy, woody aroma. For ibrik coffee, the beans need to be pulverized until they’re superfine and powdery. Most grinders aren’t capable of that, so get your coffee as fine as possible then grind it further with a mortar and pestle.

To use: 

Pour 90g (3 oz) of cold water into the ibrik. 

 Add 10g (about 2 tablespoons) of superfine coffee. 

 If you’re adding sugar or cardamom, do so now and stir (don’t fill the ibrik more than halfway). 

 Put the ibrik over medium heat. 

 When the coffee starts to boil, lower the heat and let it sit for 1 to 2 minutes. Once the coffee has settled, turn the heat back up and repeat the previous step twice more, turning the heat down as soon as the coffee boils. 

 On the third and final boil, take the ibrik off the heat. Slowly and gently pour the coffee into pre-warmed cups 

Ibrik Coffee

Coffee character: Rich, dark and intense, since this coffee isn’t filtered, its texture is a bit on the, well, muddy side 

 Good for: Going back to the roots of coffee brewing 

Grind: Very fine and powder-like 

Brew time: Can take around 10 minutes total

An ibrik (known in Turkey as a cezve) is an ornate little coffee pot with a long handle, the type that you might have been given by your sister that time she went to Istanbul. The coffee is boiled over a flame before being poured straight into a drinking cup. This isn’t exactly specialty coffee territory, but it makes a very distinctive brew with a history as old as coffee itself. And don’t think for a second that ibrik connoisseurs aren’t as serious as espresso or siphon coffee devotees: the World Cezve/Ibrik Championships are held annually in Europe and competition is fierce.

Traditionally, this coffee is drunk on special occasions—unsweetened for sad times, such as funerals, and with sugar for happier occasions, such as weddings. It’s also common for brewers to add a pinch of cardamom for a spicy, woody aroma. For ibrik coffee, the beans need to be pulverized until they’re superfine and powdery. Most grinders aren’t capable of that, so get your coffee as fine as possible then grind it further with a mortar and pestle

To use: 

 - Pour 90g (3 oz) of cold water into the ibrik. 

- Add 10g (about 2 tablespoons) of superfine coffee. 

- If you’re adding sugar or cardamom, do so now and stir (don’t fill the ibrik more than halfway). 

- Put the ibrik over medium heat. 

- When the coffee starts to boil, lower the heat and let it sit for 1 to 2 minutes. 

- Once the coffee has settled, turn the heat back up and repeat the previous step twice more, turning the heat down as soon as the coffee boils. 

- On the third and final boil, take the ibrik off the heat. 

- Slowly and gently pour the coffee into pre-warmed cups. 

Arabic, Turkish, Cypriot, Greek: for the uninitiated these styles of ibrik coffee may seem exactly the same, but keep that opinion to yourself. Follow the cues your hosts give you, and no matter what you do, never ever call a Greek’s brew “Turkish coffee.”

All in the Timing (and Weight)

 

Coffee brewing is all about the coffee to water ratio. Too much water and the coffee will be weak and flavorless, too little and you get bitterness. You can play around with the ratio until you get the result you want, particularly if you’re using filter or steeping methods of brewing, but if you want to replicate a coffee, you’ll want to be measuring your ratios. 

Just how finicky you are when it comes to your coffee will inform just how careful you should be with your measurements. “Two tablespoons of coffee, with the water poured up to around here” may be all the measurement you need, but if you want more control, weighing your coffee and your water is the best option. Scales are an important tool for specialty coffee baristas, and to ensure accuracy, they tend to measure out both the coffee and water in weight instead of volume. You can get a trendy, programmable, coffee specific digital scale if you want, but your run-of-the-mill kitchen scale should be enough to ensure you get a consistent brew. 

Similarly, whether or not you feel the need to time your coffee brewing down to the second is totally up to you. There are some great smartphone apps, a lot of them free, which can help you with timing and with planning your ratios for various brewing methods. Embrace technology! 

There’s Something in the Water . .

If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, it’s worth investing in a water filter. This is also important if you live in a hard water area, which is high in alkalinity and can neutralize the acids that give coffee its bright and subtle flavors. Also, don’t forget that water can be too hot and scorch the coffee. Most brewing methods are most successful when the water is about 194 to 200°F (90 to 92°C). If you’re fastidious, use a thermometer, but if you can’t be bothered just wait a minute or two after the kettle boils before you start pourin 

The Daily Grind

It takes two machines to make a great coffee: the coffeemaker and the grinder. Despite what the name suggests, the daily grind of coffee is anything but laborious; it’s here that all those special aromas bust out of each bean, leading you by the nose to get some of that good stuff into you. We know that different brewing methods need different grinds, and that all the alchemical elements of coffee beans start to dissipate as soon as they’re ground, so to get the best from the beans (and the best possible cup of coffee) grind them just before brewing. Think of it as part of the coffee-making process. 

Grinders are distinguished by:

- Consistency: The same size particle, every time 

- Granularity: Ranges from fine to coarse 

- Low temperature: Heat alters the flavor and character of coffee. Speed generates heat, so preference low-speed (hand-cranked) grinders or a motorized grinder with reduction gears 

- Low-noise operation: Because if it sounds like there’s a plane landing in your kitchen every time you grind, that just ain’t right

There are two types of grinders: a blade and a burr. 

A blade grinder looks and works like a propeller. It’s fine for all brewing methods, except espresso. Because its characteristic chopping action can lead to inconsistency (which makes it harder to achieve a smooth brew), the bump-and-grind is recommended when using these grinders: interspersing one-second bursts with little bumps to mix through any beans at the top. Repeat for anywhere from eight to twenty seconds—depending on the coarseness of the grind you want to achieve. 

A burr grinder crushes beans between two burrs (often disc-shaped) that are preset by you. They consistently deliver a precise particle size, and can be used for any coffee brewing method, from plunger to espresso. Most serious coffee drinkers swear by the burr. Recommended for medium to coarse grinds, the Hario Skerton Hand Grinder is cheap and portable. The hand-crank means it’s lowspeed (and doesn’t create heat), it has longlasting ceramic burrs, is completely quiet and has a no-slip rubber base 

TOOL UP

 

Automated Roasters 

There are basically two types of automated home roasters around: air roasters and drum roasters. If you want to generalize about flavor, air roasters tend to develop the brightness of a coffee, while drum roasters tend to develop the body. Some brewing methods, such as espresso, might be better suited to coffees with more body than brightness, but feel free to throw the rules out the window and play around. The roaster you choose will depend very much on your budget, space and what’s available where you are

Air 

Air roasters, such as Nesco and FreshRoast machines, work much like popcorn makers (see page 98 on how to repurpose an actual popcorn maker for coffee roasting), blowing hot air onto the beans to cook them. They’re generally quite small, can finish a roast in around ten minutes and are relatively cheap, with low-end models retailing for around $100 to $200. Air roasters tend to be more “set and forget,” so if you want to experiment with temperature adjustments these may not be your best option. Also, keep in mind that an air roaster can be affected by line voltage—if it’s sharing an electrical outlet with other appliances, it may lose power and slow down your roast. They might also roast slower, or faster, depending on the ambient temperature

Drum 

Drum roasters tend to be bigger, can roast larger batches of coffee, and allow for a lot more control than air roasters. Behmor, Hottop and Gene Café are some examples of home drum roasters, but there are a lot out there. They’re generally slower than air roasters, taking around fourteen to twenty minutes, which is a bit closer to the commercial beasts you’ll see at cafés and artisan roasters. This means you have more chances to adjust the temperature and roasting profile. Machines start at around a few hundred dollars and go right up to the thousands. Generally, the higher the price, the more control you’ll have. Drum roasters are also known to be more durable than air roasters

Manual (and DIY) roasting 

There are plenty of good home roasters around, but you don’t want to invest in a top-of-the-line roaster only to find out that you find roasting dull and frustrating. Luckily, hobby roasters have established all sorts of creative ways to roast their coffee without resorting to bulky or pricey roasting machines. You might want to try these methods out first to see if roasting does it for you. Manual roasting can take anywhere between ten and twenty minutes, and tends to result in a more full-bodied flavor, though you’re more likely to be left with an uneven roast, where some beans are darker than others

Oven 

This is perhaps the most accessible of all roasting methods: all you need is a flat, perforated pan—the kind you might use to bake pizza or bread—and a conventional oven with reasonably reliable temperatures. If you don’t have a perforated pan you can always just punch some small holes in a regular baking tray. It’s then just a matter of spreading the beans evenly on the tray and popping them in the oven to go through their six roasting stages.

Pan Roast 

This is old-school roasting. The beans are put into a light skillet, which is covered with a lid or some aluminum foil. Then the work starts: you have to shake the pan constantly without taking it off the heat, tossing the beans and listening out for the first and second cracks. Another option is to use a wok (or even a heavy cast-iron pot) and stir the beans constantly with a wooden spoon. You should use an oven thermometer to keep track of the temperature. These methods are harder than the oven method, but if you can master them you’ll most likely get better results. It’s also a good skill to have in case you’re ever stranded in the forest with just a fire, a skillet and some green coffee beans (with your only alternative an ancient can of instant)

Stovetop Coffee 

Roaster or Popcorn Maker You can get your hands on either of these for as little as $30 or less, and it makes for a much more even roast than the oven or skillet method. Just throw in the beans, put it on the stove and turn the handle as the beans roast. This is much like the wok or skillet method, except that the crank makes for an easier and more thorough stirring of the beans. If you use a thermometer to keep an eye on the heat (just drill a small hole in the top where you can place the thermometer) then you should be able to get a good result. These pots often have flip-up lids so you can peek in and judge the color of your beans. Plus, if you don’t like it as a coffee roaster, it still makes darn good popcorn

Hot-Air Popcorn Maker 

The old popcorn maker strikes again, this time in electric form: it’s basically an imitation air roaster. It takes the same amount of coffee beans as it would popcorn kernels, so you’re looking at very small batches. You should only use models where the hot air goes into the chamber through diagonal slots in the chamber wall. If the hot air comes from the bottom of the chamber then it’s a no-go. As with the stovetop version, if you’re a bit handy you can install a thermometer in your popcorn maker by drilling a hole in the top. The hot air even gets rid of a lot of the chaff, which should come floating out of the chute—though you will still need a colander for cooling. 

Heat Gun 

Also known as the “dog bowl” method, this involves aiming a heat gun at a metal bowl of coffee beans while stirring them with a wooden or metal spoon. A heat gun is essentially a hard-core hairdryer (but don’t use it on your hair, trust us), and is available for less than $100 at a hardware store. This process imitates a drum roast, and the heat of the gun can be adjusted at any time, giving you more control over the temperature. If you want to take this method a step further, you can actually use an old bread maker instead of a metal bowl, which spins the beans around for you: there are lots of online guides on how to do this, but be aware that this kind of repurposing can be a hazardous game, so always put safety first. 

How to Become a Genuine, Certified Roaster!

A GOOD ROASTING 

You don’t have to be a roaster to be a great barista, but knowing a bit about how your coffee is roasted can give you a new understanding of the power of the bean. You’ve probably been to a café where a huge coffee roaster is on display, churning away to its precise instructions (if you haven’t, you should—it’s pretty impressive). 

Like much of the coffee industry, this process was hidden for a long time but is now opening up to professionals and amateurs alike. Raw, green coffee beans, as you’ve probably figured out, aren’t much use (fad diets aside). 

They have to be roasted to make them consumable and to unlock all those delicious coffee flavors. As the roasting temperature increases, raw coffee is transformed (chemically and physiologically) and each tiny adjustment affects the final brew’s flavor. When it comes to specialty coffee, roasters meticulously control the process to tease out a spectrum of flavors— it’s about getting the most you can out of a bean.

Technically, you can become a specialty roaster by just roasting specialty coffee and selling it (a little like being a DJ—it’s impressive and all the cool kids are doing it, but there’s no certification process to go through before you can call yourself one). 

 There’s really no way to know a great roaster from a so-so roaster except by trying some of their coffee and seeing if you like it. That’s not to undermine those really talented roasters—it takes a great palate, a lot of practice, some bang-on intuition and a fair number of scorched batches of coffee to get the knack. 

The Roasters Guild, an official trade guild of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, has established a certification for roasters—both experienced and just starting out. Roasting is considered an art, rather than just an industrial process

The Roasting Process

It’s easier to monitor quality when you’re producing something in smaller batches, and small-scale “artisan” roasters are becoming more and more common, experimenting away in backyards and café storage rooms. 

Rob Forsyth, president of the Australian Specialty Coffee Association, has been in the business for around forty years and says he’s seen the number of cafés roasting their own beans—and offering them for retail sale—at least triple in the past five years, so there must be something in it. The roaster controls the transfer of heat to the beans by adjusting airflow, gas levels, drum speed, charge weight and the biggie, time. 

Each tiny adjustment can make a huge difference to the final flavor. Roasters use sight, sound and smell to judge how the coffee is coming along, watching it change color, listening out for the loud “cracks” (the sound the beans make as the heat causes them to release gases) and inhaling all that lovely (cough) coffee smoke

There are many ways to describe the roasting process, but it goes roughly along these lines: 

Drying: The beans steam, changing from green to a brownish yellow, and might start smelling a bit grassy, or like burlap or bread. 

First development: Beans start to give off that familiar coffee smell, turn light brown and begin to smoke. 

First crack: Beans make a loud crackling sound, the sign that the beans’ fibers are splitting and they’ve started to roast. 

Second development: From here, the beans start to expand and darken as they caramelize. Depending on taste, the roast can be stopped at any time after the first crack reaches its crescendo, and most single-origin roasts are best stopped between this stage and the first few rustles of the second crack. 

Second crack: The second crack is like a last warning, where timing becomes essential. It’s quieter than the first crack, more like the sound of crinkling paper. As the second crack gets louder and smoke fills the air, the beans become very dark. 

No! Stop! Too far!: The beans are burnt. Any coffee made from these will taste a bit like rubbery charcoal.

Pick a Bean, Any Bean

If you’re feeling a bit lost as to where to find your beans, the best place to start is at your favorite café. Ask for advice from your local barista or roaster: 

    they’ll have spent enough time with their beans to be able to give you a few hints, and might even supply you with some for tasting. You can also source your beans, whether roasted or green, from a variety of online stores. 

        Don’t Follow Price While specialty coffee is generally more expensive, and better quality, than commercial coffee, keep in mind that within the category of specialty coffee the pricier doesn’t always mean the better. 

        Island coffees, such as those from Jamaica and Hawaii, are generally more expensive, not because they taste better, but because production costs are higher and there are fewer of these beans available.

ask for advice from your local barista or roaster: they’ll have spent enough time with their beans to be able to give you a few hints

Know What You Want Specialty coffee tends to be sold either as an “espresso” or “filter” roast, so you should know how you’re going to brew your coffee before you pick the beans. Filter roasts are lighter and allow more complex flavors to shine through, perfect for the gentle process of filter brewing. 

Espresso roasts tend to be darker and richer, meaning flavors can survive the highpressure brewing process of an espresso machine. Remember, milk is not a friend of specialty single origins. It can drown out the more subtle flavors in a coffee, so for lattes and cappuccinos you’re better off with a robust blend, or at least a stronger, fuller single origin such as a Brazilian. Keep an Eye on Freshness When buying coffee, look for a roast date on the bag. 

There’s a lot of debate around when coffee is at its best, but the general consensus is that it needs to rest after roasting for anywhere between one and four days, that it reaches its flavor peak between five and ten days after roasting, and that it is okay for up to three weeks from the roast date. But as always, the only way to really know is to try—some coffees might peak earlier or later, so it’s more about the bean and the roast and the way you intend to brew it. 62 Buy Whole Beans Grinding your beans is like putting them into hyper flavor-release mode, which means they will peak and start to go stale extremely quickly— we’re talking a few hours. 

Within a day of grinding, the coffee will have lost much of its complexity; within a week you’ll have a pretty dull flavor. You’re most definitely better off buying a grinder and grinding as much coffee as you need for each cup. Still, if you really, really don’t want to bother with a grinder, just make sure you’re getting the freshest ground coffee possible. 

LOVE YOUR BEANS After going to such lengths to choose the right coffee beans, you really want to take care of them properly. Of course you can buy specialized coffee storage canisters, but it’s not essential, as long as the coffee is protected from air, heat and moisture. Buy only what you’ll use in one to two weeks and, ideally, store in an airtight glass or ceramic container in a dark and cool spot. 

Don’t keep coffee in the fridge or freezer, no matter what anyone says; the beans will absorb the moisture and smells of the fridge, ruining the flavor, and making your double ristretto taste just a bit like last Thursday’s pizza

So Where’s my coffee bean?

Knowing the origin of a coffee gives something of an (albeit, extremely broad) indication of what the flavor will be like, which is why most beans are sold with the beans’ origin written in big letters on the packaging. 

Each coffee-growing region, from Kenya to Colombia, is defined by its climate, the prevalent plant varieties, and the processing methods used—all elements that significantly affect the final flavor. 

Experts mostly agree that basic attributes can be pinned to certain regions, within which there are, of course, innumerable possibilities. So, here is your absolute basic guide to which regions produce which kinds of flavors. Don’t get too attached, though: the more you taste the more you’ll realize that there are plenty of flavor surprises to be found.

Central America 

As a group, Central American coffees are known for balance. Think cocoa flavors, a fruity background and a soft sweetness with varying levels of acidity. This area has been producing commercial coffee crops for a while, and reputations for quality vary from country to country. 

Guatemala: 

Guatemala is renowned for specialty coffee, consistently supplying top-notch beans with a wide range of flavors. Really good Guatemalan coffees have a moderate body and are bright, clean and powerful, with a taste range that includes chocolaty, spicy and smoky as well as delicate, floral and buttery. 

Mexico: 

Mexican coffee is known for being light-bodied and mild; it’s naturally sweet, so good for darker espresso roasts. There isn’t a particularly strong focus on specialty coffee in Mexico yet, so well-processed beans aren’t always easy to find. 

Panama: 

Somewhat ignored for a while, these days Panamanian coffee has a bit of a “next big thing” aura around it, with a lot of attention being given to the intensely floral “Geisha” variety of coffee bean produced there. Specialty coffee farms in Panama are known for having some of the more fair labor laws and wage standards in the region, producing bright coffees with strong fruit and floral notes. these days PanamaNIAN coffee has a bit of a “next big thing” aura around it. 

South America 

Long synonymous with the coffee industry, particularly the big-hitting Brazil, coffees from South America have been more generally described as having a clean mouthfeel and lively acidity, and for being slightly sweet. Though long the home of massive commercial coffee crops, there are plenty of smaller farms in South America shifting the focus to specialty. 

Bolivia: 

Bolivia is producing some wonderful specialty coffee that is often delicate, bright and sweet with subtle fruit flavors. They can also develop more nutty and chocolaty roast flavors. 

Brazil: 

Brazil is the biggest coffee-producing nation in the world, with huge commercial crops as well as some excellent, quality single origins. Top Brazilian beans are known for their power, subtle flavor variations and balance, so they’re great for blending and produce a mild, clear, lowacid coffee, with possible milk chocolate, cherry and sassafras flavors. 

Colombia: 

The Colombian coffee industry has been particularly well run for a long time, with a strong federation of growers (and excellent marketing). Because of this, their coffee is particularly consistent in quality and is, for the most part, very clean tasting, balanced and big-bodied, with a range of flavors that at its finest can be cane-sugar sweet with tropical fruit notes. 

Peru: 

Grown at high altitudes, Peru’s best coffees are notably bright. They’re clean and mostly wet-processed, acidic with touches of fruit or floral. These coffees are often lively and rounded, rather than overpowering. Though recently, some specialty coffee suppliers have struggled to find highquality beans in Peru

Africa and the Arabian Peninsula 

This region is coffee’s natural homeland, and thought to have some of the most exciting specialty coffees around. These distinctive beans have sweet flavors ranging from mellow and wine-like to zesty and citrusy. 

Ethiopia: 

Ethiopia, the home of Coffea arabica, has a special place in the coffee industry. Wet-processed Ethiopian beans tend towards clean, floral flavors, while the dry-processed beans are thicker and have a distinctively rich and complex flavor profile. Ethiopian beans are a particular favorite of many coffee-lovers, and knowing that some of this coffee comes from the oldest coffea trees in the world only adds to this country’s cred. 

Kenya: 

Kenyan coffee, known for its acidity, has an excellent reputation for both its industry practices and quality. At its best it produces a complex coffee that is particularly fruity, with berry tones, a sharp, full body and rich fragrance. Also, some spice, sweetness and wine-like qualities are possible. 

Rwanda: 

Rwanda has long been a large producer of coffee, but these days it’s an interesting case of a specialty coffee industry booming in the wake of huge (and tragic) cultural and industrial shifts. The top specialty coffee in Rwanda is more balanced and less fruity than Kenyan but still has an acidic kick, with floral characteristics and sometimes a tea-like finish. 

Yemen: 

If Ethiopia is the home of the coffee plant, Yemen is the home of the coffee industry. This is the country that brought coffee to the rest of the world, and its current crops are known to have a distinctly rustic, musklike sweetness. Unfortunately there isn’t an enormous amount of care taken in the coffee picking and processing here, so it can be a challenge to find a high-quality cup

Islands 

In the coffee world, the “island” category generally includes Hawaii and the Caribbean. Beans from this area are rich and full-bodied, with nutty and earthy flavors, smooth in acidity with a slightly dry finish. These coffees are often preceded by their reputation as being the best in flavor and quality, however as the coffee-tasting culture shifts towards more experimentation, good Hawaiian and Jamaican beans become just two of a wide range of interesting flavors on offer, rather than crowning the top of the list. 

Hawaii: 

The Kona coffee of Hawaii was just about considered the epitome of “good” coffee—though there’s some argument as to whether this is deserved. Our local brew enjoys excellent conditions—volcanic soil, afternoon shade, light and frequent showers. Beans are mostly mild, clean and balanced, but the really great ones can be rich, fragrant and fruittoned, occasionally with some vanilla flavors. 

Jamaica: 

You may have heard Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee pitched as the world’s best, above even Hawaiian Kona. Unfortunately, what some coffee producers sell as “Jamaican Blue Mountain” isn’t quite that; rather, trading on the trend, it might be just a small amount of Blue Mountain blended with cheaper beans. Jamaican beans are mild and full-bodied, complex but balanced. Considered glorious by some and flat by others, you’ll need to taste some and decide for yourself whether true Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee deserves its reputation—and hefty price tag

Asia and Australia 

As always, it’s hard to generalize about these completely different nations, but Asian coffees—from India to Indonesia—have a reputation for being dense, exotic and a little earthy. 

India: 

India’s first coffee crop came from beans smuggled out of Yemen in the late seventeenth century, and it now exports many wet- and dry processed coffees with a wide variety of flavors. One interesting variety is India’s “monsooned” coffee: the beans are stored in a warehouse open to the monsoonal winds, which causes the beans to double in size and develop a golden color. Known to have a strikingly musty, smoky, low-acid flavor, it’s worth trying if you’re after something quite different. 

Indonesia: 

These beans are known to be dark, rich and savory—almost meaty. They’re full-bodied with a mild acidity, but with long-standing, diverse growing styles used on different islands, flavors can range from fruity, earthy and musty to bright and floral. Here, there is also focus on semi-dried coffee, which makes for a uniquely clean, balanced cup. 

East Timor: 

Timorese coffees have a lot of feel-good benefits to them, since most of the sales directly benefit the organic farmers’ co-ops, rather than exporters. Beans are known to be rich and deep, often featuring notes of leather and tobacco. 

Australia: 

Australian coffee is generally quite mild, has a medium to low acidity and is sweet and chocolaty. Their beans aren’t really big in the specialty market right now and are sometimes accused of having a lack of complexity.

Single Origins & Blends

 

The term “single-origin coffee” might sound self explanatory, but the rules of what exactly defines a “single origin” are hazy and widely debated. Depending on who you’re talking to, it might mean a single farm, a collection of farms in one region, or a whole range of other possibilities. 

 Whatever the case, the idea is that it’s “pure” in that, depending on how it’s been handled, it represents the true terroir of the region from which it’s come. Often beans from several origins are blended, the idea being to combine the characteristics of various coffees to create a well-balanced and complex blending of flavors and body. 

Specialty coffee roasters often blend with a particular brew method in mind to create the ideal final cup flavor. If you’re just starting to become interested in specialty coffee, trying out a few different single origins can be a good way to develop your palate— you may be surprised at the range of flavors you begin to notice

Storing Your Coffee Beans

 

Since coffee is a perishable food item, it is important to store your coffee beans properly before using them, if you want to make the best cup of coffee possible with the beans that you have. 

In order to make the highest-quality cup of coffee, it is best to store your beans whole and grind them at home as you need them. Beans purchased in airtight (or vacuum-packed) bags will last for weeks or even months if unopened and stored at room temperature. Once the beans have been exposed to air, they should ideally be used within two weeks. Therefore, it is a good idea to buy your coffee on a regular basis, only as you need it. 

When a bag of beans has been opened (or if the beans were purchased from an open bin at a specialty coffee shop), it should be stored in the freezer in an airtight container. They will remain fresh for a month or more. You can then take two weeks’ worth of beans out of the freezer as you need them. 

These beans should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature, or at about 60°F. (In warmer climates, they should be stored in the refrigerator.) Ground coffee should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the refrigerator, depending on the climate), and for maximum freshness, it should be consumed within two weeks. 

There are two basic types of coffee that we will be using in this book: brewed coffee and espresso. Brewed coffee generally involves running hot water through coffee grounds, although it can be made using a coldwater process as well. Most brewed coffee is made with light- or medium-roast coffee, or with a dark roast like Viennese or French. 

Espresso coffee describes not only the darkest roast of coffee bean (which is most often used for making espresso), but also the technique for making this type of coffee. Making espresso generally involves running hot water rapidly through finely ground espresso beans. This produces a small cup (or demitasse) of extremely strong-tasting coffee that usually needs to be sweetened with at least a little bit of sugar. 

The Various Coffee Beans You Can Use

Before we start making drinks, we should learn a little bit about the various beans you can use, the type of equipment available for making coffee, and a few other useful tips that will help you do such things as keep your coffee fresh, grind the beans for maximum usability, steam your milk properly for cappuccinos, and prepare your iced coffee the right way. 

Coffee comes from the seed of a coffee plant, which is processed and then roasted according to various specifications. The best coffee in the world comes from the Coffea arabica plant, which grows at high altitudes throughout the equatorial regions of the world. 

Originally discovered growing wild in Ethiopia in ancient times, this plant was taken to Yemen by the Arabs and cultivated there as early as the sixth century. In the early 1700s, the Dutch began cultivating descendants of these original plants in Java, and from that time on, the cultivation of the C. arabica plant spread to many areas of Central America, South America, and Africa. 

Another species of coffee plant, Coffea robusta, is also grown commercially (primarily in Africa), but this plant is used mostly for the lower grades of coffee that are on the market today. Depending on where in the world your coffee is grown—from Indonesia to Central and South America to Africa and the Middle East—it will have its own distinct taste and body. Coffee from Java, for instance, is earthy tasting and full bodied, while beans from Costa Rica produce a lighter, more tangy cup of coffee. 

Columbian and Brazilian coffees are more middle-of-the-road types, providing a mild taste that can easily be blended with other beans. Coffee from Kenya, on the other hand, has a strong, winy taste. Indeed, coffee from various regions of the same country will have its own unique flavor, depending on such factors as altitude, rainfall, and soil quality—and coffee from different plantations within the same region will even taste different from each other. Therefore, today’s specialty coffee wholesalers and retailers send coffee tasters all over the world in search of the best-tasting coffee crop from each region. 

After the green coffee beans are shipped to the United States, they must be roasted. This involves heating the beans at around 400°F for about 5 to 15 minutes (depending on the temperature), while rotating them in large bins. Most beans are light or medium roasted, producing a light- or medium-brown color and mild taste. Viennese or dark-roasted coffee produces a darker brown bean and an almost burnt (yet tangy) taste. The darkest roast (called espresso, Italian, or French) has a dark brown to almost black color and a burnt to charcoaly taste. 

Coffee beans can also be blended to create desired effects. The combination of Mocha (a mild bean from Yemen) and Java, for instance, has become synonymous with the coffee drink itself. Other blends use a variety of different tasting beans from various parts of the world, along with a variety of roasts. Hence, an excellent morning-coffee blend might include a majority of Viennese roasted beans, along with half as much Mocha and a little bit of espresso roast just to spice things up. A good after-dinner blend, on the other hand, might include 50 percent Mocha-Java along with 25 percent each of Colombian and Costa Rican. The proliferation of specialty coffee shops over the last few years has produced another new trend—that of flavored coffee beans. 

Thus, you’ll find names such as Vanilla Nut, Chocolate Almond, and Irish Cream labeling bags of specially weighed and packaged coffees at your local shop. Of course, you can always add flavorings or extracts to regular unflavored coffee after it’s brewed, as the recipes that follow will indicate. 

Conversely, you may wish to use flavored coffees in any of the following recipes, being careful not to mix tastes that don’t go together well. In recent years, the quality of decaffeinated coffee has been rising significantly —at least on the gourmet level. Whereas in the past, lower-quality beans were commonly used for decaffeinated varieties, today there is no reason why you can’t find a good-tasting decaffeinated coffee at a specialty coffee shop or elsewhere. 

There are two basic types of decaffeination processes: one uses a solvent (most commonly methylene chloride) that clings to the caffeine and is then flushed away; another (the Swiss water process) uses repeated flushings of water to wash away the caffeine. The first process is generally acknowledged to produce a better-tasting cup of coffee (with virtually no chemical residue), while the Swiss water process is becoming increasingly popular because it uses no chemicals.

COFFEE ETHICS

America is just one of the countries with an industrialized economy that consumes coffee like . . . well, the delicious drug that it is. In the past ten years, our consumption of coffee has more than doubled. 

But most coffee comes from countries with developing economies in Asia, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. It’s a labor-intensive product produced by smallholder farmers who often don’t break even—thanks, for the most part, to fluctuating world market prices. 

Coffee production for the mass market is associated with exploitative child or forced labor practices. But there is a way to enjoy your coffee without it leaving a bitter taste. 

Ethically produced coffee is guaranteed to have come from farms where workers are paid and treated fairly for their labor. It also refers to coffee that has been produced in a way that’s sensitive to the surroundings, with respect for the local environment. 

There are a number of certification agencies setting basic standards and monitoring the activity of its members, but the nature of specialty coffee almost defines it as being ethically produced. Roasters and buyers partner with farmers to produce a high-quality product that most often only comes about from improved, sustainable farming and processing methods.

Fairtrade 

Fairtrade is a nonprofit commercial trading partnership and certification program established to ensure that growers receive a fair price for their coffee. Fairtrade does this by helping growers form co-operatives that then sell to traders who are certified to pay the Fairtrade Minimum Price—a price set by their co-operatives that covers the cost of sustainable production— or the market price, whichever is higher. 

The system protects individual growers from fluctuations in market prices and establishes growers in a robust supply chain. There’s also the Fairtrade Premium, which is paid above and beyond the coffee price. The grower’s community receives this additional amount to fund better farming and community development programs. 

Direct Trade 

“Direct trade” refers to the relationship between roaster and grower, which is mutually respectful and beneficial without there being any official certification attached. It means roasters scoot off overseas and visit farmers with some regularity. They discuss processes and practices, adjust methods if it’s possible to do things better and pay a fair price. It benefits the quality of the coffee, the environment, the farmer and their employees.  

Rainforest Alliance 

Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and promote the rights and well-being of workers, their families and communities. Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee farms or groups of smallholder farmers are audited annually against comprehensive social, environmental and economic criteria and must commit to a process of continual improvement. Rainforest Alliance certification also promotes decent living and working conditions for farm workers, access to education for their children and gender equity. 

Cause Coffee 

This is when a roasting company and/or retailer establishes a relationship with a particular development project (or cause) to which it gives a percentage of the purchase price. For example, Café Feminino in Vancouver (Fairtrade and organic to boot) promotes autonomy for women in Peru by being a business that’s entirely run by women. 

Organic 

Organic basically means that no chemicals were used in the growing and processing of the coffee. That means no synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. While the certification involved in auditing an operation’s methods to ensure they comply with the guidelines of organic production will differ slightly between agencies, you get the gist: no chemical intervention

Is Specialty Coffee Worth It?

 

Okay, so obviously engaging with the world of specialty coffee takes a bit of extra effort. 

You can’t just pick it up at the supermarket; you have to go to cafés or roasters, and you’re expected to taste and consider the flavors to find what you like. 

So is it worth it? The answer is: it depends on what you want to do with it. 

As specialty coffee tends to be a bit pricier than what you might call “commercial” coffee, if you’re going to splurge and buy a fancy single-origin Kenyan, you want to be brewing it in a way that gets the best from the bean. 

If you’re not interested in this side of coffee drinking then you’re better off going for a more commercial bean, which might be half the price, meaning you can skip straight to the roasting and the brewing and stress less about your beans. 

But as proven by the growing hordes of coffeelovers around the country, if you give the world of specialty coffee a try you might find yourself loving the added awareness it can bring to your brewing

What’s So Special about Specialty Coffee?

 

Specialty coffee is about honoring every one of the many stages coffee goes through, and all the people involved in its production. It’s about finding the very best beans and trying to unleash their full flavor potential at every stage of the process, from planting through to brewing. 

“Specialty” is also much more than just a marketing term. There are organized specialty coffee associations that formally track, test and set world standards. 

Among them are associations of America, Australia, Japan and Europe that hold competitions, certification courses and symposiums to promote and regulate any coffee being called “specialty.” 

By competitions, we’re talking world-class events with specialized categories, like the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship for boozy brews, with fifteen pages of rules and regulations. It’s serious business. Considering the long trip a coffee bean takes, and the many hands that help get it to your kitchen, regulation can take out a lot of guesswork for coffee-makers. 

With specialty coffee, baristas know the origin and quality, so it’s easier to predict the taste. From there they can test, taste and blend away to bring out the most complex flavors.

The Persnickety Process of Specialty Coffee 

Every individual stage of the process of converting fruit to bean can influence the flavor of the roasted and brewed coffee. Suppliers of specialty coffee tightly control every step of the process to ensure theirs is of the highest quality. 

They start by choosing beans by their origin: ensuring they know exactly where and at what altitude the beans were grown, as the particular geography of a place imparts flavor. 

It’s the terroir concept, also used when describing wine or some cheeses: soil and climate in partnership with both the specific cultivar of the plant and the unique farming practices express a particular character of place. 

Specialty coffee is selectively hand-picked so that only ripe cherries are used: these are more fragrant, smooth and mellow. Ripe beans are most often wet processed and sorted by hand. Specialty beans can be sorted two to three times, with any impurities like twigs or hulls removed, and any dud beans ditched

From Cherry to Bean

Beans for Botanists 

Going back to the beginning, coffee beans are actually seeds found inside the bright red, cherry-like fruit of a coffea tree. There are different species of coffea tree, but generally, they grow to around ten feet and flourish in tropical conditions (hot and high), between the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. The coffea tree blooms fragrant, white flowers three times a year and the cherries begin to grow after each bloom, reddening from green as they ripen. 

Each cherry contains two green seeds that, once processed, become what we know as coffee beans. Arabica vs. Robusta Arabica is the species of plant from which all specialty (and also most commercial) beans are currently derived. It’s a princess of plants: fragile, susceptible to attacks by pests and relatively needy—requiring particular degrees of moisture, sun, shade and soil richness to thrive. 

But, it’s also capable of producing a wide taste range. There are a number of varieties, strains and cultivars of arabica. From Cherry to Bean 17 Robusta is the other species that’s commercially farmed. It’s just beginning to emerge onto the specialty coffee market, but is commonly used in instant coffee brands. It’s a hardier plant with a higher yield of beans that are higher in caffeine but have been described as having “a neutral to harsh taste range.” Still, a small number of coffee growers are experimenting with specialist robusta—time will tell if it catches on. 

The Process It takes a lot to turn a cherry into a coffee bean. After it’s picked, often by hand (one cherry at a time), the raw fruit is processed to remove the cherry pulp from the seed (or bean). There are various ways to do this. The most meticulous process, which requires custom equipment, is wet processing (also referred to as washed coffee), where the pulp is allowed to ferment before being washed off, then the bean is dried and hulled to remove the parchment around the seed. 

Another commonly used process is the dry process (also known as natural coffee), where the whole fruit is dried and then hulled, which removes the parchment and pulp in one process. There is a third, in-between process called semi-drying (sometimes called semi-washed, or
wet-hulled) in which the pulp is removed by custom-built machines, before the seeds are stored for a day, washed, then partially dried. Once the bean has been completely separated from the fruit, it’s cleaned and sorted according to its density, size and color, then graded.

Background to the Brew

It’s said that we’re in the third wave of coffee, so what were the first two waves? Well, the first wave didn’t come until the mid-twentieth century, but let’s not ignore the hundreds of years of coffee that came before. 

As far as we know, coffee (the drink) has been around since the fifteenth century, when someone in the south-western highlands of Ethiopia (possibly a goatherd, possibly a starving, exiled saint—nobody seems quite sure) realized that boiling the seeds of the native coffea tree produced a drink that was both flavorsome and gave a pleasant little energy kick to the drinker. 

The drink spread throughout the Middle East, and by the end of the sixteenth century these beans were being traded across Europe, from where they were shipped to growing colonies throughout Asia, the Pacific and America. The next big shift came during World War II, when someone figured out how to freeze-dry their brew and the world was granted the (debatable) joy of instant. It became easy and cheap to take coffee across continents and oceans, later to be brought to life with just a splash of boiling water. This is known as the first wave of coffee, which took the stuff into homes and offices across the developed world.

The second wave was the arabica bean boom—companies like Lavazza and Peet’s started roasting higher-quality arabica to be sold to cafés and supermarkets. This was the era that saw massive coffee chains such as Starbucks taking over entire shopping strips, and good coffee became all about the espresso machine. 

And now for the third wave, where we go back to the bean and all it has to offer. It’s all about seeing the production of coffee as an art—like winemaking or micro-brewing beer. Concerns about exploitation in the coffee industry have led to a new age of transparency, where baristas, roasters, importers and growers are more intent than ever to open up. And the best thing about this is that it’s becoming easier for anyone to learn the ropes, without having to spend thousands of dollars on equipment.