Page 39 - September 2017

Not all coffee is created equal. be as readily fresh. These days, larger roasting companies that sell to grocery market
Stemming from its roots on the farm, there are a variety of farming practices coffee plants can be subjected to that can positively or negatively affect the end results in the cup. Perhaps none more so than the roast of the bean. This month I’ve chosen to focus the conversation on the consumer’s choice of what kind of roast is best, and perhaps try to change the conversation a little to focus more on flavor rather than roast itself.
Green
The coffee seed (bean) is exported as green commodity at the start. Roasters then receive the green seeds and carefully roast to their own specifications based on the de-
sires of their consumer market. Larger companies will buy huge lots of coffee (as you might imagine), sometimes even sacrificing sustainable growing practices for the bot- tom dollar, because the demand for cheap coffee is so high. On the other side of the scale are craft micro-roasters who pay high dollar for small lots of sustainable coffee which sometimes isn’t certified organic, but often meets or exceeds those standards. Often times, these smaller roasters have direct relationships with the farmers and co-ops who provide them with green coffee, with whom they work together towards a sustain- able future, slowly demanding more money for each cup, resulting in better living con- ditions for the growers, their families and communities, as well as the farms ... but don’t forget, coffee lover, this also ultimately results in a higher quality cup for you!
Dark Roast
Back in the days of yore, coffee was roasted to the darker end of the spectrum because the quality was lower than what can be found these days, and also wasn’t packaged to
shelves and large chain cafes, keep in dark roasting practices to offer a consistent flavor that mass consumers can always depend on. The reality here is that what we’re tasting is in fact just the “roast.” But why settle for less, when we have the opportunity to taste the true flavor of coffee?
Medium Roast
Also known as “profile roasting,” this is where we start to enter a whole world of flavors that are available within these little beans. This is where the world of Specialty Coffee be- gins. Micro-roasters spend countless hours and days trying to find the right roast profile to bring out of beans from all over the world. Once we’re down at this scale, the conversation opens up into actual flavors, not just roast. I’m reminded about my favorite adage about how you’d cook an expensive steak on a grill: prepare and cook it mindfully to bring out the juicy and tender flavors ... but if the steak is cheap to begin with, and quite possibly inhumanely raised, you may wanna toast the sucker because those flavors inside might not be very good to begin with. Dealing with dark roast coffee is not much different.
Light Roast
I know most of that comes across as heavy, but as a realist I do want to paint the prop- er picture ... so lets get a little lighter. I know a handful of people who love light roasted coffee, and those people are fanatical. They enjoy their coffee black, with high acidity, and a broad range of flavors of the rainbow. Most of the organic compounds that exist in coffee beans are left inside the bean for a light or medium roast, so that when you go to brew your coffee, you can bring them out and taste them in your cup. You simply can’t enjoy this option if you have dark roast coffee. It’s a fact that the lighter the roast is, the broader the flavor profile can be, to a degree.
Taster’s Choice
The choice is yours. What do you truly enjoy? Are you willing to expand your palate and try a different roast? There are no wrong answers here, but I would love to encour- age you to support local roasters, cafes and retail craft roasting companies found on market shelves or online. Global trade is crazy these days, but the world of specialty cof- fee is actually quite small, so your educated purchasing decisions actually go a remark- ably long way into the future of sustainability. Happy Sipping!
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