beingthebrowns

One of our great loves in life is coffee. And no, we are not talking about anything that comes in a can, Starbucks (it amazes, and saddens, me that such a successful coffee company could have such terrible coffee), French Vanilla flavored stuff, (for our Canadian friends) Tim Horton’s, or anything with the word “instant” in its labeling. To us, these things are not coffee. At least they are not good coffee. Call us snobs or whatever, we welcome the compliment.

This page is dedicated to our philosophy of coffee and to providing a few links to important coffee related websites. So here are some basics about coffee purchasing, storing, and brewing.

PURCHASING

When purchasing coffee, you should always (if at all possible) purchase your coffee from a local roaster or from a coffee shop that sales/uses coffee from a local roaster. It is tempting to purchase the most inexpensive coffee available, but here are two reasons against doing this. First, there is a good chance that this coffee is cheap because it is so in flavor and quality. Second, if you really enjoy coffee then you should support those who seek to provide the highest quality product to you in your neighborhood, namely a local roaster/provider. Many local coffee roasters do not have a surplus of cash, and need all the support they can get. Good things in life (e.g. fine dining, beer, wine) are always worth their price. Paying for better coffee will also mean having better coffee to drink. There is also a socio-economic aspect to purchasing from smaller roasters as well. There are many efforts being made to make the coffee industry more just and fair. It is debated whether these attempts are actually helping anyone or whether they are marketing strategies in social justice garb, but even still they are good to be aware of. Check out these sites:

• Fair trade coffee (wikipedia article): Fair Trade Certified.
• Shade grown coffee: Northwest shade coffee campaign.
• Coffee kids.

As far as choosing a particular bean (or blend), you basically need to figure out what you like based on trial and error. To get down some of the terminology (e.g. “full city roast,” “acidity,” etc.), check out this link. Also, lighter roasts have more caffeine whereas darker roasts have less. For the purist, pure roasts from specific countries are to be preferred over blends of multiple beans since blends often make use of cheaper beans as “fillers.” Moreover, a single bean will can be appreciated more for its unique flavor and characteristics.

STORING

Once you’ve purchased your beans, you’ll obviously need to store them. When choosing a storage container and location, it needs to be remembered that once coffee beans are roasted, they have a shelf-life of 2-3 weeks maximum (some say 1-2 weeks). So if your coffee beans have been sitting around for any length of time beyond a few weeks you ought to be ashamed of yourself…and don’t you dare serve that stuff to a family member or friend! As far as the actual container goes, you’re aiming for something airtight and/or ceramic. For more info, follow this link.

BREWING

When it comes to brewing, there are basically two ways to go: the drip pot and the French Press. We prefer the latter. With the drip pot method (and really with all coffee brewing), the key is cleanliness. You don’t want to end up with remnants of coffee from the previous day (or from even earlier) in your freshly brewed coffee. So purchase a coffee brush and use it in your grinder daily. Always use fresh, cold water (and filtered if you can swing it). Water plays a much greater role in the quality of each cup of coffee than most people would ever expect. For grinding your coffee, maker sure to grind your coffee only right before (thus you should always buy whole bean) brewing it and in a clean coffee grinder. A typical “blade” grinder will do just fine, but for those who want a more consistent grind you can get a Burr grinder (here is mine), which has preset grinding levels (good for switching back and forth between, say, an espresso grind and a French Press grind). Also, give coffee “cupping” or home roasting a try.

Here are a couple of links to our favorite coffee roasters:

• Stumptown
• Backporch
• Sweet Marias – Everything you need to know about home roasting
• Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters – Based in Chicago, but soon appearing in Los Angeles

And here are a few coffee related Youtube clips:

Coffee coming out of an old Probat roaster. What a beautiful site.

Propaganda for choosing the French Press over faster methods…with a little humor

This is in case you have not yet been introduced to the world of latte art. They have whole competitions for this. Honestly.