I recently read this really great book about coffee: Coffee Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide, and learned a heck of a lot about coffee. I realized I didn't know much about it. For example, French roast does not come from France, and Italian roast does not come from Italy. It actually describes how long the coffee beans are roasted. Who knew? Ok, maybe you guys did. I guess I never thought about it because when it says "French Roast" it usually also says "Dark" so I suspected that they had to do with two different things. Not so.
Anyway, I also learned that coffee beans come from several different regions of the world, are shipped here green, go to the roasters and then to the stores or people. Different green beans from different climates and elevations have different characteristics. A lot of the mass market coffee we find in the store is "Robusta" from the lower elevations, "Arabica" is grown in higher elevations. There are "specialty coffees" pulled from single origin plantations and roasted to their perfect level (each has a different ideal level) or to the level you desire, if you go through a roaster. I was intrigued to hear that coffees from different regions taste very different from each other, and I was excited to start trying them all.
I looked online at all the different roasters out there and picked a few that carried the coffee I first wanted to try, which is Yemen Mocha Matari. I ordered from a place in Atlanta: Martinez Fine Coffees- a Yemen Matari and a Puerto Rican something or other. The Yemen Matari was very good, the Puerto Rican was ok.
Next I was looking for a place that sold the Sulawesi (from Indonesia) at a decent price, and Martinez didn't have it, so I went with Storehouse Coffee Company out of Hendersonville, NC which is a 20 minute drive from where I was stationed this winter. Who knew? I ordered a Sulawesi and one from the Congo. With my receipt in the package was a hand written note thanking me for my order. This is a nice touch hat I've seen some companies do (I order a lot through the mail since I live in the middle of nowhere). The thing I dig the most about this place is that they roast it to order (you choose the level of roast for each coffee that you buy) and they write the date it was roasted on the bag. I just got 3 more pounds and they were roasted on 10/22. Today is 10/25. I like this place. On the receipt was another note:
Hi Ms. Bowers, Thank you for the follow-up order! Another great selection, and I hope you enjoy them. All the best, and some signature I can't read.
Ok, I'm sold. There's something to be said about the little things you do for your customers. I know, it only took a second to write that, but they took the time. Selling ploy? Maybe, who cares? I dig it. So here's what I got (since I obviously have fabulous taste in coffee).
Mocha Java, which is a blend. The mocha is probably misleading. No, it is not chocolate and Java is not just coffee. Mocha is the area in Yemen that the coffee comes from and has somewhat of a chocolate taste to it, but does not actually have chocolate in it like a Mocha you would order at Starbucks. Java is a coffee from Indonesia. The Mocha Java is supposed to be a pretty awesome blend (not single origin) so I wanted to try that.
Kenya French Mission AA- a very highly rated coffee and supposedly very flavorful. Single origin from a single estate in Kenya.
Papua New Guinea- This is an interesting coffee. Years ago, the most prestigious coffee you could by was Jamaican Blue. Apparently due to short cuts in growing and processing, it's no longer worth the $25-$50 per pound that it sells for, but people are buying th reputation, so it continues to work. The coffee in Papua New Guinea started from seeds from Jamaica... and continued. So coffee from Papua New Guinea is the same coffee as the prestigious Jamiacan from years ago...except grown in a different place. So this coffee is supposed to give me a taste of what the Jamaican Blue used to be all about.
They're all very exciting and I can't wait to taste them. There is a such thing as coffee tastings but I don't think there's any around here.
The book is fascinating and I use it for reference all the time. It was a truly enjoyable read, and it wasn't too long either. It goes through the history of coffee, regional flavors, how it's grown, how it's processed, the really cool roasting process and how to choose a supplier. Again the book is Coffee Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide by Kevin Knox and Julie Sheldon Huffaker.
Click HERE to visit my new found coffee roaster!
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