A Taste of Joe

A few weeks ago, we had our first tasting event at Bushel and Pecks': Johnson Brothers Coffee. Johnson Brothers is a coffee roaster specializing in organic, free-trade beans and owned by Michael Johnson, who was in the store with Alex Butler for the tasting. Through these tastings, they educate coffee-drinkers about bean flavors, the effects of roasting and demonstrate the subtle difference between different brews. It was fascinating business and I learned equally about difference between Salvadoran and Ethiopian beans, as well as how firmly entrenched people's coffee preferences are.

We started with their standard dark roast Sumatran coffee--smoky, rich, familiar. Many tasters stopped there, insisting that they "only drank dark roast" and didn't want to go any further. But, when we did, we moved onto medium-roasted Guatemalan Maya Ixil Quiche (what I drink at home) and Pacamara Tierra Fertil from El Salvador. What a difference! The Sumatran tasted burnt in comparison, while the Central American brews were much clearer and, in the case of the Pacamara had almost honey undertones.

We continued with a Nicaraguan, that was included to demonstrate "baggy" flavor; i.e. the beans had sat around in burlap bags for too long and had started to pick up the flavor. It was hard to describe, other than it was sort of unpleasant compared to the others. We finished with a Ethiopian Yirgacheffe that, to my mouth, almost had a green tea flavor. It was startling when compared to the more familiar coffees, but began to grow on me.

I love a hot cuppa first thing in the morning, usually with a splash of cream. Michael and Alex were very forgiving of those of us who tend to doctor coffee, as they noted how much of drinking coffee is about the experience itself--sitting a cafe, reading a favorite book, lazily waking up at the breakfast table. But they want us also to consider coffee as a fine beverage, like wine, appreciating the subtleties of flavor and choosing a brew according to our moods and tastes, instead of just as a vehicle for caffeine (which, btw, is actually weaker in dark roasts because it gets "burnt" out).

So it was certainly an eye-opener (in many ways...it was alotta coffee for the afternoon), and I look forward to repeating the exercise later in the fall. Medium-roast, who knew?!?