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Thursday, November 16, 2006
Coffee: Strong and dark is better?
One of the most common complaints I hear is the Barista's lament 'The customer only wants a really large, dark, and bitter cup of coffee they can pour large amounts of cream n' sugar into. Why should I bother?'
The roots of our coffee heritage are strongly rooted in Starbucks and the dark roast mindset. Darker is better. It's more premium. If it's not dark, it's not specialty. Roast it so dark some of the beans explode, that way there's less to grind up! It's not about the coffee, it's about what's added to it that makes it special. That's the state of specialty coffee for most of North America and a lot of marketing money has been spent to make that case.
We've been suckered.
A Northern Italian style roast for espresso.
In Northern Italy (and the Scandanavian countries) they source better grade beans and roast much lighter than we generaly do. (There are a handful of exceptions tho) They historicaly have wealth in Northern Italy and therefore the customers can pay more for better quality. In the South, the roasts are darker because they were economicaly forced to use poorer quality beans and needed to roast over the defects. Hence the Northern Italian(very light) and South Italian(darker) roasts in espresso. The poorer areas roasted the coffee darker because they had to.
Espresso is a brewing method and not a roast or certain coffee.
Early American espresso seems to have adopted the South Italian style simply because of immigrants from Southern Italy and what appeared to be the complete lack of access to good coffees for espresso. Rumor is that certain countries bought all the good coffee while we were still serving cheap coffees with unlimited refills.
What about French roast you say, the French are wealthy and have a culinary focus...
French roast is a very dark roast for a simple reason. Historicaly, the French were colonialists. They only bought coffee from their own colonies, which was a problem because the coffee producing colonies were all low altitude areas that produced very poor grade coffees. They roasted dark and covered all the faults in the beans. All they had to do to compensate for the campfire roast flavor was add a lot of scalded milk and some sugar, and you have your Café au lait!
If you look at the China/Taiwan/Japan tea culture and how black tea came about, they don't drink these black teas. The tea they shipped over to Europe was roasty to preserve them for transport and sold to the Europeans who compensated and doused tea with cream and sugar. The Chinese and Taiwanese focused on holding the best teas for themselves and continue to do so. This is the reason many of us may never have a great green tea.
There are parallels in wine/grappa as well but it might be too much for one article.
It's easy to argue about, but the point is that a rare few of us have had high grade light roasts. Most of us have sampled the grassy under roasted poor grade coffees of companies like Dunkin or the overroasted coffees dressed in nicer bags and must begin to realize, the bean plays as much a part as the roast. Darker, yes, when you have a bad coffee or want a lot of milk and sugar. When it is exceptional coffee, you can and probably should go lighter. Let the coffee speak and enjoy it for what it is and where it came from. There are changes thanks to CoE but it's a long slow process.
Dark roasts have their place but they are about what the roaster has done and not about the unique flavors of a great coffees.
Anybody know what these are?
Aussie Double Roasts
The Mythical Third Crack
One of the most common complaints I hear is the Barista's lament 'The customer only wants a really large, dark, and bitter cup of coffee they can pour large amounts of cream n' sugar into. Why should I bother?'
The roots of our coffee heritage are strongly rooted in Starbucks and the dark roast mindset. Darker is better. It's more premium. If it's not dark, it's not specialty. Roast it so dark some of the beans explode, that way there's less to grind up! It's not about the coffee, it's about what's added to it that makes it special. That's the state of specialty coffee for most of North America and a lot of marketing money has been spent to make that case.
We've been suckered.
A Northern Italian style roast for espresso.
In Northern Italy (and the Scandanavian countries) they source better grade beans and roast much lighter than we generaly do. (There are a handful of exceptions tho) They historicaly have wealth in Northern Italy and therefore the customers can pay more for better quality. In the South, the roasts are darker because they were economicaly forced to use poorer quality beans and needed to roast over the defects. Hence the Northern Italian(very light) and South Italian(darker) roasts in espresso. The poorer areas roasted the coffee darker because they had to.
Espresso is a brewing method and not a roast or certain coffee.
Early American espresso seems to have adopted the South Italian style simply because of immigrants from Southern Italy and what appeared to be the complete lack of access to good coffees for espresso. Rumor is that certain countries bought all the good coffee while we were still serving cheap coffees with unlimited refills.
What about French roast you say, the French are wealthy and have a culinary focus...
French roast is a very dark roast for a simple reason. Historicaly, the French were colonialists. They only bought coffee from their own colonies, which was a problem because the coffee producing colonies were all low altitude areas that produced very poor grade coffees. They roasted dark and covered all the faults in the beans. All they had to do to compensate for the campfire roast flavor was add a lot of scalded milk and some sugar, and you have your Café au lait!
If you look at the China/Taiwan/Japan tea culture and how black tea came about, they don't drink these black teas. The tea they shipped over to Europe was roasty to preserve them for transport and sold to the Europeans who compensated and doused tea with cream and sugar. The Chinese and Taiwanese focused on holding the best teas for themselves and continue to do so. This is the reason many of us may never have a great green tea.
There are parallels in wine/grappa as well but it might be too much for one article.
It's easy to argue about, but the point is that a rare few of us have had high grade light roasts. Most of us have sampled the grassy under roasted poor grade coffees of companies like Dunkin or the overroasted coffees dressed in nicer bags and must begin to realize, the bean plays as much a part as the roast. Darker, yes, when you have a bad coffee or want a lot of milk and sugar. When it is exceptional coffee, you can and probably should go lighter. Let the coffee speak and enjoy it for what it is and where it came from. There are changes thanks to CoE but it's a long slow process.
Dark roasts have their place but they are about what the roaster has done and not about the unique flavors of a great coffees.
Anybody know what these are?
Aussie Double Roasts
The Mythical Third Crack
Labels: article, cup of excellence, dark roast, french roast, starbucks, Strong coffee
¶ Jaime van Schyndel 7:26 PM
Comments:
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Not that this has anything to do with your post, but DD saved my butt when I was living in Sofia, Bulgaria three years ago. There was one DD outpost on Vitosha Blvd. They served an espresso as good as *$$ and they were the only place in Sofia with go-cups. I know that we're all supposed to do ceramic, but when you're in a country w/o any go-cups (or travel mugs for that matter), you quickly appreciate their place and value.
Needless to say, dreck that it may be, growing up in CT and having lived in Quincy, DD will always have a place in my heart.
Sort of like my old Grass Roots LPs.
Needless to say, dreck that it may be, growing up in CT and having lived in Quincy, DD will always have a place in my heart.
Sort of like my old Grass Roots LPs.
I find it hard to believe that anyone requests their coffee bitter. I don't think the mindset is darker = better. It is darker = flavor. The people who request dark roasts are the people who may enjoy a nice natural or semi-pulped coffee roasted lighter but with just as many overt flavor notes. (Not smokey, but berry, not full-bodied because of the roast but because of the process...) Maybe after those folks respond to a Harrar or a Sumatra, the might be ready to try a clean, crisp Central or a Kenya. It takes time to create great coffee drinkers, be careful not to be too dismissive of the dark roast and it's role in great coffee. I don't think many people have been duped or suckered, just not made aware of the potential of coffee. People like what they are used to and they are used to Starbucks. You have to remember that most people are not culinary adventurers; they like Starbucks because it was the first cup of (arguably) well prepared, strongly brewed, and (relatively) fresh coffee they ever experienced. I don't love dark roasted coffees, but American coffee is still typically weakly brewed and low quality - add to that the staggering and depressing amount of independent "Specialty" coffeehouses who simply do not care about coffee, espresso or the craft of the barista and then pile on top of that the unfortunate multitudes of "Specialty" coffeehouses who do care about the right things but still ruin coffee left and right in spite of their best efforts and we have ourselves a tough hill to climb. Alas, it's a good climb though.
Also, out of curiosity, are there any really progressive roasters in Italy that you know of?
Also, out of curiosity, are there any really progressive roasters in Italy that you know of?
Converting people from starbucks is really a different topic.
The fact is, we have largely been marketed that
darker + stronger = better
It's simply not true.
I believe we have to get past this assumption that coffee is supposed to be bitter. Widespread overuse of the term specialty is also common.
While your company roasts a bit darker than my personal taste, I am not addressing them in any way. I realize companies do business and it's not about ideals. There are good times for Darker roasts and times when it should be lightened up which is largely the expression of the roaster. There is a misperception among many in the public that darker is somehow more specialty.
I do think there is room for foodies, chow hounds, and 'culinary adventurers' in the coffee business but we have to give them a reason beyond the average cup to pay more.
I worry that too many people simply look at the roast label and make a knee jerk reaction that dark is XXX and light is YYY with light getting the short stick here.
I will check on the Italian roasters though I am largely curious about the Danes at the moment. I thnk they got something beyond great barista going at the moment. Also very interested in this guy in Taiwan named Simon Hsieh who is OCD about sorting beans.
The fact is, we have largely been marketed that
darker + stronger = better
It's simply not true.
I believe we have to get past this assumption that coffee is supposed to be bitter. Widespread overuse of the term specialty is also common.
While your company roasts a bit darker than my personal taste, I am not addressing them in any way. I realize companies do business and it's not about ideals. There are good times for Darker roasts and times when it should be lightened up which is largely the expression of the roaster. There is a misperception among many in the public that darker is somehow more specialty.
I do think there is room for foodies, chow hounds, and 'culinary adventurers' in the coffee business but we have to give them a reason beyond the average cup to pay more.
I worry that too many people simply look at the roast label and make a knee jerk reaction that dark is XXX and light is YYY with light getting the short stick here.
I will check on the Italian roasters though I am largely curious about the Danes at the moment. I thnk they got something beyond great barista going at the moment. Also very interested in this guy in Taiwan named Simon Hsieh who is OCD about sorting beans.
I wasn't responding in defense of Intelligentsia...I just think, that for whatever reason, people like dark roasts. They may be misled by marketing, but IMHO folks respond to and like dark roasts not because of an association with quality but because of the prevalence of weak and flavorless brewed coffee. (And because that happens to be the way that Starbucks roasts.)
You're absolutely right about the danes, and those Japanese Vac-Pot bars are pretty righteous too.
You're absolutely right about the danes, and those Japanese Vac-Pot bars are pretty righteous too.
irony = ten years ago people complained starbucks was too dark and bitter while today people complain anything not popping twice in the roaster is sour and weak...not 'strong enough.'
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