☕️ Specialty Coffee 101 ☕️
Ever walk into a cool hipstery cafe and not understand their menu? Here's some tips: Evolution of the Coffee Industry As science develops, quality control has increased down the line from growing to processing to roasting to brewing. New tools have been introduced over the years that allows us to optimize the flavors of each seed! Third-Wave Coffee vs. First and Second Wave First Wave coffee is what brought coffee into peoples' homes. It was mass produced, pre-roasted, pre-ground, and ready to consume. Second Wave coffee introduced different roast styles. It also introduced different preparations such as the french press, espresso, etc. This wave produced many of the big coffee chains we know today like Starbucks. For these mass produced coffees, the only way to get a uniform flavor from the bulk of beans is to roast them dark, eliminating the nuances of flavor and leaving a burnt, bitter taste. Third Wave coffee focuses on the coffee "from crop to cup" and relies on knowledge of the farming and growing conditions to extract the best flavors from each seed. (By the way: coffee is a seed, not a bean.) Origin stories became an important part of the way we buy and consume coffee, as coffee has more than twice the number of tasting notes as there are in wine and dozens of ways to brew. Because of this extra attention to the flavors of each coffee, it is sort of offensive to dump cream and sugar into your coffee without at least tasting it first. A Standard Menu A standard cafe menu will be broken down into batch brewed coffee (made with a drip maker, usually with size options although many shops have a "regular" or "large" with no medium as standard sizes are 12 oz for a regular drink), and an espresso + milk menu. Some shops will offer a manual brew, slow bar or pourover menu. THIS IS TIME CONSUMING AND SHOULD NOT BE ORDERED WHEN A SHOP IS BUSY AND LOW STAFFED as they take 5 minutes to prepare and need to be watched the entire time. The Espresso + Milk menu is what most people think of when they think of a cafe drink. Here's a quick breakdown of common beverages and what they consist of: Espresso: a double-shot of espresso (35-40 g.) Americano: a double-shot of espresso with hot water. (10-12 oz.) Macchiato: a double-shot of espresso with a dab of milk foam on top. (3 oz.) Note: The Starbucks version of this drink is NOT what you will find on a traditional cafe menu and is more similar to an iced latte. Cortado: a double-shot of espresso with an equal ratio of micro-foamed steamed milk. (5-7 oz.) Cappuccino: a double-shot of espresso with micro-foamed steamed milk. (8-10 oz.) Note: Dry, airy foam is a second-wave concept stemming from Italian espresso preparation and is no longer an industry standard, as micro-foam provides a better drink experience. Please do not demand a dry cappuccino from a specialty cafe. Cafe Latte: a double-shot of espresso with a lot of micro-foamed steamed milk. (12 oz.) Note: If a cafe offers a large sized latte, they may automatically prepare it with 4 shots of espresso. This is because... it tastes better. Otherwise you're getting a ton of hot milk with a very small amount of coffee. Mocha: a double-shot of espresso with chocolate and micro-foamed steamed milk. (12 oz.) Note: If you order a hot chocolate with a shot of espresso added, this is likely what you mean. Tea/Chai Latte: tea concentrate with micro-foamed steamed milk. Note: "Chai" translates to tea and does not always refer to a latte, which suggests steamed milk. Please clarify your order or you might just get a cup of spiced tea! Like the texture and natural sweetness of steamed milk but don't want the concentration of espresso? Order a Cafe Au Lait (French for "coffee with milk") and get regular coffee with steamed milk. This is a great option for people who like a lot of milk in their coffee! Choosing Coffee Beans The things I recommend people new to coffee look for when choosing their beans are the roast and the process. Once you have a better understanding of how roast and processing affect coffee, you can start to narrow it down to variables like elevation levels and country of origin. I personally tend to enjoy a lot of natural processed, light to medium roasted African coffees, with my favorite coffees stemming from Ethiopia and Kenya. Light Roasts are typically very high-quality coffees. The better the quality of the coffee, the less roasters are inclined to burn the natural flavors away through the roasting process. Little time is spend on development. Light roasts will have a lighter body to them. Medium Roasts are likely ideal for a casual coffee drinker. A bit more time is spent in the “development” part of the roasting process to help coax out some flavors that might not be highlighted in a light roast for certain coffees. Dark Roasts are the enemy of specialty coffee. A dark roast is a burnt coffee. In previous waves of coffee, roasts like “French” or “Italian” were introduced, with Italian being the darkest that a coffee can be roasted before it essentially crumbles to ash. When you dark roast a coffee, you lose a great deal of mass and this has led some people in the coffee community to believe there’s a significant loss in caffeine content when a coffee is roasted dark. In truth, caffeine levels remain fairly stable during the roasting process, but don’t believe that a fuller-bodied, bitter cup of coffee is more caffeinated just because the flavor is stronger! These coffees tend to be familiar to folks who have been coffee drinkers for a long time, and are popular with people who believe coffee needs a ton of milk to taste good. Natural (Dry) Process means the coffee bean (which is the seed or pit of a fruit) is sun-dried with the cherry still on the bean while it dries out. This causes the coffee to absorb a lot of those naturally nuanced fruity flavors, which translate into interesting complex flavors in the cup. They tend to be heavier bodied with strong flavor. Washed (Wet) Process is exactly what it sounds like: the fruit is washed off of the bean before it's dried. These coffees tend to have more clarity, they showcase more of the natural flavors in the seed itself and tend to have more floral notes and pronounced acidity. In the cup, they tend to have a lighter tea-like body. Honey (Dry Pulped) Process is a newer style of processing where the fruit is taken off of the seed but not washed before drying. This leaves some of the natural fruit flavors with the coffee, but not as much as a fully dried process. This translates to natural sweetness and a creamier body than a natural process and less acidity than a washed process when brewed. When in doubt, talk to your barista! Baristas are trained, typically by the roasters their cafe partners with if they don't roast their own beans, so they should be knowledgable about their products! We love helping people find the right coffee for them -- for me, it's the second-best part of my job (next to actually preparing a drink!) The barista industry was created by Espresso machine manufacturers who needed trained professionals to know how to operate their equipment and their job is truly to be the step between the roasters and the consusmers. We are here to educate! When the consumer culture around coffee grows, it helps our entire industry to improve. * I'm planning on making my next post about sourcing and why "Certified Fair Trade" and small-batch roasteries are not always indicators that a company's coffee is sourced ethically or sustainably!
