Today is one of those holidays that make me smile. It's National Coffee Day. Today we celebrate that wonderful drink that starts our day, relaxes us, keeps us awake when we need it, and provides all around joy - coffee.
Thank you to the roasters who do fine work. Thank you to the baristas who make terrific drinks. Thanks to coffee house owners who provide warm, inviting atmospheres where we coffee lovers can gather. Thank you CoffeeCon for giving the public a chance to get their coffee geek on. Thank you farmers for all the hard work you do. You may not always get the appreciation you deserve, but know what you produce is loved and we respect you.
There are coffee deals out there today....heck even Dunkin Donuts has some free coffee(for those who have to have it). I encourage you to go local and visit your neighborhood coffee house today.
Charlie
Monday, September 29, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
A Bit Steamed
Sorry it's been a bit of time since I last posted. Sometimes the world gets in the way. ...
I am a bit steamed as I write this. This morning I read this article....
http://dailycoffeenews.com/2014/09/24/polo-ralph-lauren-unveils-the-ralph-coffee-brand-at-new-york-flagship/
So Ralph Lauren is getting into the coffee business? What on Earth for? Is the fashion world that boring, that you have to sell overpriced coffee, with Polo label on it?
Perhaps I'm being uncharitable? Maybe the coffee is outstanding, and I need to be quiet? Nope. Sorry. There are too many smaller independent roasters out there who have a hard enough time fighting the good fight, and creating good coffee.
I know there are specialty roasters in New York, but let me ponder what it means at home in Indy. Let's sat Sir Ralph gets it in his Polo-head that he needs to expand. I'd like to think the good people of Indianapolis would be happy they have Bee Coffee Roasters, Kaffeine Coffee Co., Hubbard and Cravens or Mile Square Coffee.
Scratch that, I can see the denizens of some the finer areas trotting out to the Fashion Mall and clamoring for a preppy cup of coffee. They'd fork over $5 for the Polo cup alone.
Again, maybe I'm ranting for no good reason, but it seems to me there are artisans out there who deserve your love. Ralph Lauren doesn't.
Charlie
I am a bit steamed as I write this. This morning I read this article....
http://dailycoffeenews.com/2014/09/24/polo-ralph-lauren-unveils-the-ralph-coffee-brand-at-new-york-flagship/
So Ralph Lauren is getting into the coffee business? What on Earth for? Is the fashion world that boring, that you have to sell overpriced coffee, with Polo label on it?
Perhaps I'm being uncharitable? Maybe the coffee is outstanding, and I need to be quiet? Nope. Sorry. There are too many smaller independent roasters out there who have a hard enough time fighting the good fight, and creating good coffee.
I know there are specialty roasters in New York, but let me ponder what it means at home in Indy. Let's sat Sir Ralph gets it in his Polo-head that he needs to expand. I'd like to think the good people of Indianapolis would be happy they have Bee Coffee Roasters, Kaffeine Coffee Co., Hubbard and Cravens or Mile Square Coffee.
Scratch that, I can see the denizens of some the finer areas trotting out to the Fashion Mall and clamoring for a preppy cup of coffee. They'd fork over $5 for the Polo cup alone.
Again, maybe I'm ranting for no good reason, but it seems to me there are artisans out there who deserve your love. Ralph Lauren doesn't.
Charlie
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Instant Coffee
In the 1960s and 70s you saw a lot of ads for instant coffee. Usually one of the selling points was the sparkly crystals in some of the instant coffees. In other ads, love was usually the result of sharing a cup of instant. These days you don't see a lot mentioned about instant coffee. It's out there though. While sales have gone down over the years in the U.S., instant coffee if popular in other countries. Last year instant coffee sales totaled over $35 billion.
Who's drinking the beverage? China. Chinese are one of the largest consumers of instant coffee. India is a close second. The ease of instant coffee makes it a big seller in these countries. No need to brew. Just add hot water and drink.
What is instant coffee? It is coffee. In fact it's brewed coffee which has been freeze dried or gone through a spray drying process. Freeze drying is the most popular method.
Look through this narrative from Nestle, the world's leader in instant coffee.....
HOW COFFEE IS MADE
Turning green coffee beans into high quality soluble coffee products requires a great deal of expertise and technical know-how...
Blending
The character of coffee beans varies naturally from region to region, from season to season, and by variety. Arabica beans produce a rich, smooth, aromatic coffee flavour, while Robusta coffee has a strong, harsher flavour with more body. There is great skill involved in tasting samples of the various beans and selecting the right blend to produce a high quality, distinctive soluble coffee.
Roasting
The flavour and aroma of coffee beans are brought to life by the roasting process. Temperature and time are carefully controlled to develop the coffee's flavour to the full. In general, a light roast gives a mild taste, a medium roast produces a well-rounded, rich flavour and aroma, and a high roast gives a strong, distinctive flavour.
Grinding
The roasted coffee beans are then ground into a coarse powder. This is the same as ‘Roast & Ground’ coffee which you might buy in your local supermarket or coffee shop.
Extraction
The roast and ground coffee is put into a series of extraction cells. These do the same job as a domestic coffee percolator or filter coffee maker - extracting the coffee flavour, aroma and colour from the coffee grounds into hot water. A series of cells is used producing stronger and stronger coffee, until the coffee consists of a highly concentrated liquor.
Drying
Soluble coffee is produced by drying the liquor in one of two ways. In spray drying, the liquor is sprayed into a stream of hot air at the top of a tall cylindrical tower. As the droplets fall, they dry, falling to the bottom of the cylinder as a fine powder. In freeze-drying, the liquor is frozen to about -40°C to form a thin layer. This is broken into tiny pieces, and then subjected to a vacuum. The vacuum lowers the boiling point of the water sufficiently so that it evaporates even at these very low temperatures, helping to preserve the coffee flavour, and leaving behind the solid soluble coffee.
Spray-drying is used for most soluble coffees, whereas freeze-drying is used for the more expensive, higher quality coffees.
Agglomeration
Soluble coffee granules are produced from the powder produced by spray-drying by a process called agglomeration. The powder is wetted slightly so that the particles stick together, and then the resulting granules are sieved so that only particles of the same size are filled into jars.
Aromatisation
In the NESCAFÉ range, the beautiful aroma of freshly ground coffee is captured during the grinding process, and added back to the coffee just before it is filled into jars.
Filling
The soluble coffee powder or granules are filled into glass jars or sachets. Filling is carried out in an inert gas atmosphere, to prevent any deterioration of the flavour or aroma of the coffee during storage.
One thing which kind of disturbed me was the fact they put aroma back into the jars. Do I want to know how that's done?
In Europe I've had instant coffee. It's in hotels, hostels, B and B's. You can't avoid it. It isn't bad, but give me a cup of fresh coffee, and I think that's heaven.
Charile
Who's drinking the beverage? China. Chinese are one of the largest consumers of instant coffee. India is a close second. The ease of instant coffee makes it a big seller in these countries. No need to brew. Just add hot water and drink.
What is instant coffee? It is coffee. In fact it's brewed coffee which has been freeze dried or gone through a spray drying process. Freeze drying is the most popular method.
Look through this narrative from Nestle, the world's leader in instant coffee.....
HOW COFFEE IS MADE
Turning green coffee beans into high quality soluble coffee products requires a great deal of expertise and technical know-how...
Blending
The character of coffee beans varies naturally from region to region, from season to season, and by variety. Arabica beans produce a rich, smooth, aromatic coffee flavour, while Robusta coffee has a strong, harsher flavour with more body. There is great skill involved in tasting samples of the various beans and selecting the right blend to produce a high quality, distinctive soluble coffee.
Roasting
The flavour and aroma of coffee beans are brought to life by the roasting process. Temperature and time are carefully controlled to develop the coffee's flavour to the full. In general, a light roast gives a mild taste, a medium roast produces a well-rounded, rich flavour and aroma, and a high roast gives a strong, distinctive flavour.
Grinding
The roasted coffee beans are then ground into a coarse powder. This is the same as ‘Roast & Ground’ coffee which you might buy in your local supermarket or coffee shop.
Extraction
The roast and ground coffee is put into a series of extraction cells. These do the same job as a domestic coffee percolator or filter coffee maker - extracting the coffee flavour, aroma and colour from the coffee grounds into hot water. A series of cells is used producing stronger and stronger coffee, until the coffee consists of a highly concentrated liquor.
Drying
Soluble coffee is produced by drying the liquor in one of two ways. In spray drying, the liquor is sprayed into a stream of hot air at the top of a tall cylindrical tower. As the droplets fall, they dry, falling to the bottom of the cylinder as a fine powder. In freeze-drying, the liquor is frozen to about -40°C to form a thin layer. This is broken into tiny pieces, and then subjected to a vacuum. The vacuum lowers the boiling point of the water sufficiently so that it evaporates even at these very low temperatures, helping to preserve the coffee flavour, and leaving behind the solid soluble coffee.
Spray-drying is used for most soluble coffees, whereas freeze-drying is used for the more expensive, higher quality coffees.
Agglomeration
Soluble coffee granules are produced from the powder produced by spray-drying by a process called agglomeration. The powder is wetted slightly so that the particles stick together, and then the resulting granules are sieved so that only particles of the same size are filled into jars.
Aromatisation
In the NESCAFÉ range, the beautiful aroma of freshly ground coffee is captured during the grinding process, and added back to the coffee just before it is filled into jars.
Filling
The soluble coffee powder or granules are filled into glass jars or sachets. Filling is carried out in an inert gas atmosphere, to prevent any deterioration of the flavour or aroma of the coffee during storage.
One thing which kind of disturbed me was the fact they put aroma back into the jars. Do I want to know how that's done?
In Europe I've had instant coffee. It's in hotels, hostels, B and B's. You can't avoid it. It isn't bad, but give me a cup of fresh coffee, and I think that's heaven.
Charile
Friday, September 12, 2014
ACK!
Sometimes we all experience a bad cup of coffee. This happened to me this afternoon. I bought some from a local grocery store(budgetary reasons). When I ground it, it smelled nice. Somehow adding hot water to it made it taste like Satan made it, drank it and spit it out, because even HE hated it.
I would almost drink Dunkin Donuts Coffee for a week over this.
Brand and type of coffee withheld to protect the innocent.
Charlie
I would almost drink Dunkin Donuts Coffee for a week over this.
Brand and type of coffee withheld to protect the innocent.
Charlie
Coffee Review: Hubbard and Cravens Komodo Decaf
My quest for decaf which tastes like coffee continues. For the last week I've been sipping Hubbard and Cravens Komodo Decaf. This is an Indonesian decaf, which on first taste has a lot of nice chocolate notes to it. The problem with most decafs is in the decaf process, it tastes like they suck all the coffee taste out of it. Sometimes you are left with a burn taste.
In addition to the chocolate, there is a spicy kick to this decaf. More importantly, does it taste like coffee? This comes close. This and their House Blend Decaf are pretty good at having the coffee flavor in the cup. This is a darker roast, and the good news is the burnt taste is nowhere to be found. This is a nice decaf, and for people like me who have to limit their coffee consumption, this is an excellent choice.
Charlie
In addition to the chocolate, there is a spicy kick to this decaf. More importantly, does it taste like coffee? This comes close. This and their House Blend Decaf are pretty good at having the coffee flavor in the cup. This is a darker roast, and the good news is the burnt taste is nowhere to be found. This is a nice decaf, and for people like me who have to limit their coffee consumption, this is an excellent choice.
Charlie
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Coffee Review: Darrin's Coffee Co. Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
This is going to be a different review, so I hope you will bear with me. I don't often review coffee houses. Pretty much I stick to the coffee, but I wanted to do a twofer in this review. Last week I was contacted by Darrin of Darrin's Coffee Co. in Zionsville, IN. If you haven't been to Zionsville, you are missing out on a unique experience. It's a lovely village, very quaint. Darrin wanted me to try some of his coffee. Who am I to pass up a chance to give a new coffee house(new to me) a try.After my run yesterday, I headed over to Zionsville and went into Darrin's Coffee Co.. Located on Main St., the coffee house is one of many charming storefronts in the town. I went through a mesh curtain to go in(which I thought was cool), and inside was a fairly compact cafe. Really nice atmosphere. My only "complaint" was the folks working there weren't sure what coffee they were serving. It took a few moments for them to figure it out.
Turns out I had a cup of the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. According to Darrin's website:
The sweet flavors and aromas of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee are its strongest asset along with a medium to light body. Light fruit like a melon upfront, floral with hints of lemon grass and a nice chocolate undertone would be a great description of this coffee.
I got something a little different. I got a spicy chocolate. You know how some people put cinnamon in coffee? This was similar to that. I don't believe any was added to my coffee though. :-) This is a nice cup of coffee. As I continued to drink it, I thought it mellowed. Typically Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is more tea like. This wasn't, and I liked that about it. On our Cher Scale of Strength, this is a 7. I would liken this to Cher giving a tough talk to her son in "Mask". It wakes you up, but it's not slapping you awake.
Darrin Marion is the owner, and it's clear he has embraced his passion of roasting coffee. He loves talking coffee, roasting coffee, sharing coffee, cooking with coffee, in short he loves coffee - period. He has several blends I'm interested in trying. I may tackle his Mandingo Warrior or Moor next.
www.darrinscoffee.com
Charlie
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