Is it Coffee Yet? Part One

We take it for granted as we sip our cups of coffee, but there is actually a long process to get from seed to cup. It's easy to say the farmer grows and harvests the coffee, then someone buys it, and it gets roasted and sold to you in some form. It's just a bit more than that. the next few posts will serve as a primer/reminder on how coffee becomes coffee. Today I talk about the first three steps.

1) Planting - Coffee is originally Coffee Cherry seeds. Ironically, it's the seed which can be processed and roasted to become a cup of coffee, or it can be developed as a seed to plant and cultivate more coffee.

2) Harvesting - You don't just plant a seed, and boom - COFFEE! It can take 3-4 years for the coffee plants to be mature and ready to harvest. In the time the farmer is caring and making sure all goes with the cultivation of the plants. Harvesting is a labor intensive process. Pickers grow through very narrow rows of trees, in highly mountainous areas, looking for ripe cherries to pick.

There are two ways to pick cherries: a) strip picked, where all the cherries are taken, and the riper ones can be selected later, or b) selectively picked, where only the ripe cherries are being picked. It's the latter which is more labor intensive, and usually done by hand. The former could be done by machine.

3) Processing the Cherries - There are two ways to process coffee cherries. The first is the dry method. Cherries are laid out in the sun, and are periodically raked and turned over to prevent spoilage. This reduces the moisture content to 10% or 11%.

With the wet method, the pulp is removed from the cherries and the beans are dried wit ha bit of parchment still on them. The beans go through a machine which removes the pulp, the lighter beans float to the top of the machine, while the heavier ones are below. They next get separated by size. From there, they are put in large fermentation tanks. In these tanks the parchment is naturally removed. This can take between 12-48 hours.

Next - drying and milling.

Charlie

Coffee House Architecture: Cafe Central, Vienna

Years ago my friend Teresa and I went to Vienna, Austria on a vacation. One of the places we went was to the Cafe Central. Founded in 1876, this cafe has been known as a literary meeting place, but more to the point it is one of the most elegant cafes you can visit.

Standing outside, you feel there is something worldly going on inside, and you want to be part of it. You read that this is where men like Sigmund Freud and Leo Trotski would gather, you want to rub elbows with them. You can as there is a life like statue of Freud at one of the tables.

Inside there is a golden glow to the room. The tables are marble, and the chairs have a crimson upholstery. All of this encourages the feel you are at the turn of the last century. I loved the look of this cafe. It was the first time I began to take notice of what cafes and coffee houses look like,

and what kind of atmosphere they want to promote. For Cafe Central, the feel is elegance. You feel it from outside, inside, and all through your experience.

The cafe was the original location of the Vienna Stock Exchange. The Austrian-Hungarian National Bank was headquartered in the building as well.

The building was designed by Heinrich Von Ferstal. Von Ferstal used a combination of Venetian and Florentine influences. Having been to both Venice and Florence, I can see both in this amazing cafe.

This is a must see if you are ever in Vienna.  If memory serves I ate a wonderful goulash and had some amazing Viennese coffee.

Charlie

Coffee Review: Starbucks Tribute Blend

Starbucks does a pretty bad job at describing their coffees. Most of the time that's ok, because their coffees aren't always that interesting. Then there's a coffee that you enjoy, and they write the following:

Tasting Notes: Spicy and full-bodied with berry and dark cherry notes

Enjoy with:Outrageous Oatmeal Cookies and a long-time friend.

OriginMulti Region Blend

WTH(eck)?

Let's start with the fact I am drinking Starbucks' Tribute Blend. This was originally created for their 40th anniversary, and now is an annual special blend. The coffee comes from Papua New Guinea, Sumatra, Ethiopia and Colombia. 

It's a medium roast, but this IS Starbucks, so it's actually a light dark roast. The beans inside the bag were too glossy and oily looking for a medium. 

As for their tasting notes...you get the spicy part at the start of the sip. Dark cherry? Well....not so much, but you do get a roasty berry like sensation while drinking it. My guess it it's a bit heavier on the Sumatra side as this does have an earthy quality to it.

As I have said previously I usually like Starbucks seasonal blends. They are limited. I assume they are fresher than the horrible Pike Roast they try to sell. This is a great French Press coffee as it is on the dark side, so it lends itself better to this process than a Chemex. 

It's a fairly strong coffee. It's a 7 out of 10. On our Cher scale....this would be like Cher having a fight with Greg Allman, and they're both drunk, and they get a slap in there during a fight. You know it happened. 

Get some of this before Starbucks runs out. 

www.starbucks.com

Charlie

Coffee and Oxygen

Yesterday I was at my local Fresh Market, and I needed some coffee to tide us over. The Stone Creek sadly is gone, and we needed something this morning. Fresh Market put coffee beans in a bin with a plastic lid on top. I know, not the best way to store beans. I saw one bin open. The issue I have is how long had that bin been open?

Let's assume for one moment those beans were freshly roasted(they aren't, but play along). That open bin means oxygen is now getting to those beans. Oxygen is the arch-enemy of coffee. Coffee desorbs CO2(my mom would be so happy I'm spouting science). As long as it's doing that, oxygen can't be absorbed. The problem is all of the CO2 is desorbed in about 10 days, and coffee begins to get stale.

At the Fresh Market, that bin has been opened many times. The coffee(assuming it is freshly roasted), is now rapidly becoming stale. Stale coffee is a bitter coffee. Now who wants that? Coffee has a limited fresh life.

(Graph from Kafexpress)

Make sure your coffee is sealed and has limited exposure to oxygen.

Charlie

Sharing a Love

When I was young, I noticed my mom read a lot of cookbooks and cooking books. One of her favorite authors was M.F.K. Fisher. If you don't know who she is, here is a starting point - http://mfkfisher.com

I didn't probe too much as to why my mom collected cookbooks and read them so much. I was fascinated by this fact. I figured there was a secret reason. It sure as hell wasn't because my mom was a bad cook. To this day, I say her food is the best I ever ate. She did love to collect recipes. Some she made. Some she just liked having in her binder notebook.

As you can tell, this post has nothing to do with coffee, but I felt this was a good place to talk about my inherited love of reading cookbooks. This includes books about coffee.

My mom had M.F.K Fisher. I have two people I love to read whatever they put out - Mark Bittman and David Lebovitz. Mark Bittman writes for the NY Times. I own three of his books. Lebovitz lives the dream I dream - living in Paris, and writing about cooking and living in France. Today I'm going to focus on Lebovitz.

David Lebovitz formerly worked at Chez Panisse in the Berkley, CA.  He left his job in 1999, and is living and writing in Paris. I have read: "The Sweet Life in Paris," "Ready for Dessert" and am currently reading his most recent, "My Paris Kitchen. " I follow his blog www.davidlebovtiz.com .

Lebovitz finds a way to weave the art of living and cooking/baking into something which his so easy to understand, and enjoy. My lifelong dream has been to live in Paris. Lebovitz in all his writings makes it clear, living in Paris is frustrating at times, but most of the time, a most wonderful experience.

I am in the third chapter of his new book, and I love it. I especially love how he talks about not always adhering to the recipe but cooking by the senses. I'm not even close to doing that, but would aspire to cook that way.

If you haven't read his work....DO IT! Go the local bookstore, head to Amazon, put in on your Kindle, whatever you need to do. He is a great writer, and a lot of fun.

Not sure if my mom would like him, but I do think she would get a kick out our shared love of cooking reading.

Charlie

From the Chemex: a Difference

Earlier this week I wrote about Stone Creek Coffee's Rwandan coffee. Typically these days I am using the French Press. This afternoon, I tried the Chemex, and not too surprisingly, there are taste differences between the press and the Chemex.

You got a lighter taste, even more tea-like with the Chemex. The Tangerine and Currant notes tend to come through more. Would be curious what the folks at Stone Creek think, and does this match up with what they have discovered.

I already like this coffee quite a bit, but I think it kicks up a notch when using the Chemex.

Charlie

Odd...

The other day I was in a Starbucks, and I told a barista what I thought of the Brezza. I told her, much as I did here, that the coffee must be better iced than hot. She agreed. I asked if they used it for the iced. She told me they use another coffee.

Now I have to admit I found this a bit odd. If you are going to promote a coffee as a great iced coffee product, why not serve it in your stores iced. The barista went on to tell me they weren't allowed to. Now that I don't believe. Starbucks is usually pretty willing to try things with their customers.

Can someone who may know more about Starbucks than I explain why they wouldn't serve the Brezza iced?

Charlie