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BEER LOVER'S GUIDE TO COFFEE


History

According to legend, coffee was discovered in the Sixth Century by an Ethiopian goat herder who was trying to find food for his goats during an unusually harsh drought. Kaldi led his goats further into the forest until they found these trees with red cherries. The story states that the goats were so happy after eating the cherries (or so high from the caffeine) that they started to dance.

Initially people simply ate the cherry. Later they soaked the cherry's seeds (what we call beans) in water to make a beverage. Then they learned to pound the seeds (what we now call grinding) into a fine powder, which made a better tasting beverage. Even later they learned to cook the beans (what we call roasting) before grinding.
Eventually these coffee trees found only in Ethiopia were smuggled around the world. Coffee now grows in countries located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Taste differences in coffee can be attributed to where the coffee is grown. Coffee is very absorbent. Thus, coffee takes on the taste characteristics of the climate and soil in which it was grown. This is why Kenya coffee tastes oh so much different from a Guatemala coffee.

Specialty Coffee
Basically there are two types of drinkable coffee in the world. Technically these are called arabica and robusta. More commonly they are referred to as gourmet and truck stop. We industry insiders call them specialty coffee and canned. There are several reasons why specialty coffee is more expensive.

Arabica coffee naturally has more flavor than robusta coffee. Surprisingly it also has about one-third less caffeine than it's cheaper cousin. (Yes, that truck stop brew has more caffeine.) Specialty coffee tastes stronger because it has more natural taste not because it has more caffeine. Also, specialty coffee tends to be roasted darker, which adds more flavor to the beans and thus the cup.

Arabica sells for a premium not only because of its taste, but because of how it is grown and processed. Arabica plants take longer to start producing crop, are more susceptible to disease, are grown at higher altitutdes and use much more hand labor, all of which add to production costs.

Bongo Java, like most other reputable specialty roasters, only uses arabica coffee.

Coffee Beans
Coffee beans are actually the seeds inside coffee cherries. These cherries look just like the cherries we're used to. However, they don't taste as good. The cherries grow on trees that are cut to about eight feet to allow for easier picking. The cherries start green and are ripe when they turn red. Each coffee cherry normally holds two beans. Some freak cherries only hold one bean. These are called peaberries and tend to have more intense flavor. Machinery is used to separate the beans from the cherry. The remaining part of the cherry is recycled in the fields as fertilizer. After separation, the beans go through a prepration process that includes soaking, drying and storing periods before being shipped to roasters as so-called "green coffee."

Roasting
Coffee beans have little taste before they're roasted. Unroasted beans (called green beans) have a slight grassy smell and are very hard. Roasting coffee is somewhat like cooking anything else: the cooking process brings out the real taste of the coffee.

The coffee equivalent of a chef or wine maker is called a Roast Master. Our guy is Mark Johnson, a native of Portland, OR who has been in this crazy business for some 20 years (or about 1/2 his life, but we're not going to tell you how old he is). Mark is in charge of selecting our green coffee and then making sure it is roasted to perfection.

We use a relatively small roaster which can produce about 20 pounds of coffee every 20 minutes. When roasted, the beans actually double in size but lose about 15% of their weight. Since coffee is sold by the pound, roasters have an economic incentive to roast coffee light. This is why most cheap, canned coffee has a very light brown color compared to specialty coffee which is roasted much darker. Some shops will even charge more for very dark roasted coffee.

Storing/Freshness
Coffee has a short shelf life. We recommend drinking coffee no more than two weeks after it is roasted. Many roasters suggest that vacuum packaging and proper storing will allow coffee to be consumed without freshness loss for up to six months. However, we feel that coffee loses its flavor much more quickly. Thus, we suggest buying only what you will drink in a week or two. If it is very inconvenient to buy coffee every couple of weeks, then buy a bit extra and store the coffee in a air tight container in the freezer.

How can you tell if a coffee is fresh? First, only buy whole bean coffee. We're happy to grind your coffee. However, we strongly recommend using this ground coffee within three days.

All pre-ground packaged coffee is stale no matter how it is packaged and all ground coffee will be stale within a couple of days. It's that simple. Coffee contains natural gasses. These gasses slowly escape from the beans. Most specialty roasters package beans in bags with one-way valves. This allows the gasses to escape while keeping out the air that would destroy the beans. If fresh coffee were to be put in air tight bags without one-way valves, the escaping gasses would blow the bag or can apart. Grinding coffee removes all the gasses and exposes the beans to lots of air thus making the coffee darn not fresh.

Coffee in bags should be dated. If it doesn't have a "born on date" or an expiration date that comes up within two weeks, then the roaster isn't paying much attention to freshness.

Bulk coffee can also be judged for freshness. Coffee contains natural oils. In dark roasted coffee, these oils come to the surface right away. In lighter roasted coffees, these oils take a few days to appear. Thus, only buy dark-roasted coffee that is oily and light-roasted coffee that is dry.

The Beer Lover's Guide to Coffee grew out of teaching our mostly young workforce about subtle coffee tastes. "A full-bodied Sumatra is like a Guiness whereas a light-bodied Colombian is more like a Budweiser", we tell our employees. Then we explain that Colombian coffee is actually light bodied even though "they" say it's "the richest coffee in the world". This is no different, we say, than hearing that Budweiser is the "King of Beers" and relating that to thinking it is a rich, heavy brew. After similar comparisons, they began to understand what we tried to explain using terms like "an almost buttery finish", "bright and tangy" and "complex, wild and spicy, earthy overtones".

"Order sing Tao , my conservative-eating friend's girlfriend urged him one night". If Tsing Tao ain't Chinese for Budweise, I don't want it", he retorted. Substitute Double-Half-Caf Skinny Mocha-chino for Tsing Tao, trendy coffa Tee bar for the Chinese restaurant and Colombian coffee for Budweiser and the lesson is the same. When you want to play it safe, order a Colombian: light-to medium- bodied with a well-developed taste. Some beers have more taste than others. Michelob is next in a natural progression for the up-and-coming beer drinkers. Moving from Colombian coffee to Costa Rican is a similar step. The progression leads to brews with a bit more body and richer overtones. In our standard coffee brochure, we describe this coffee as having "an unusual pleasant combo of tangy acidity and an elusive chocolate nuance". In this more humble guide, we compare Guate malan to Lowenbrau. Both have a pleasing full taste with a surprising sharpness. This comparison was too obvious for even us to miss. Known for its light body and crisp finish we compare this to Corona . Mexican coffees are generally used in the specialty coffee world in blends. Corona is generally used to blend boys and girls in trendy bars. This light, slightly sweet coffee comes from the highest mountains of Peru. We compare this to Rolling Rock. Both are good substitutes when a full-bodied brew seems like too much. We sampled a lot of beers before settling on one that could be compared to the world's finest coffee. Made by Trappist Monks in Belgium, Chimay (the gold label version) is our definition of the perfect beer: rich, round and oh so smooth. Jamaica Blue Mountain has the perfect balance of acidity (tang), body and flavor. Like anchovy pizza, the best-known African coffee has a uniqueness that people either like or don't. Commonly referred to as a "distinctive winy taste", Kenyan coffees have a sharp "tanginess" and have an intense noticeable finish. A comparable beer would be Red Hook. Known for a flavor that sneaks up on you and has a smooth body, Red Hook is a one-or two-beer beer, meaning after that many you're probably ready for a tamer taste. As a beer comparison we match one of our favorite coffees with one of our favorite micro-brewed beers: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The coffee & the beer both are surprisingly bright and have a clean finish despite being so rich and full-bodied. Typically, coffee cherries hold two beans. Peaberries are "freak" beans that grow solo inside a cherry. This exotic coffee has a very intense flavor, snappy acidity and overall earthiness. Our beer comparison is the Czechoslovakian-made Pilsner Urquell. This unique brew goes down heavy and smooth and then leaves a pleasant tang in the mouth. The flavor "Mocha" got its name from this coffee that actually gets its name from the place "Mocha". We compare the earthy, intense flavor of this coffee that has chocolate undertones with the classic English beer Bass. In the beer world the blend of Guiness and Bass creates the Black and Tan. In the coffee world, we mix Yemen Mocha and Estate Java to create the standard blend Mocha Java. An exceptional coffee that's often overlooked. Sounds like Anchor Steam (San Francisco). Both are full-bodied and cup rich and clean. One of our favorites: an exotic, spicy full-bodied and very low acidic coffee. The beans are left out during the monsoon season, creating a unique taste with a hint of salt from the Indian ocean. The only beer we thought could stand up to this description is Samuel Smith Taddy Porter. Both are rich, syrupy and aren't for everyone. We've always referred to this as a "coffee lover's coffee." This heavy-bodied coffee is smooth and complex like its beer counterpart Beck's . As they say, "Beck's , that's German for beer." As we all say, "Java, that's Indonesian for coffee." An under-discovered classic: a nicely balanced coffee that finishes dry and smooth. We matched this one up with Harp (Ireland), which has more flavor than the typical lager. Either you're a Guiness (Ireland) lover or you're not. Either you like full-bodied, heavy, sipping beers and coffees or you don't. Sumatra has the same concentrated earthiness and boldness. Hey, don't skip this part... Taste Challenge -Send comments to our physical or e-mail address. We like our comparisons. If you convince us that you have a better match (or if you make us laugh), we'll send you a pound of coffee.