Every bag of coffee has a roast name on the bag. The name should inform the buyer what to expect when she opens the bag. Unfortunately, while there are some standard terms for coffee roast levels the terms are interpreted differently by each roaster. The standard terms are light, medium, medium-dark and dark. But one roaster’s medium-dark can be another roaster’s medium or even dark. It gets even …
My Coffee Pot Died!
For a few years, I have been making a cup of coffee every morning with a Hario Coffee King. I bought it because it pulses water into a V60 dripper, so I am getting a pour over cup without having to do a manual pour over. Lately, however the coffee seems thin and watery. I checked and the brew water is 180F. I asked Laura to double check, and she agreed. I checked Hario sites, and they are not …
Time for a Brewing Checkup
January is a good time to review your brewing to see if you are losing out on flavor. It is not uncommon for coffee lovers to ignore slight changes in flavor that multiple over time. We often get complaints about out medium roast coffees from customers who have been drinking dark roast coffees. When they switch to medium roasts, they can taste the off flavors in their brewing that they were …
Kona Coffee is Changing
When we started farming in Kona we were struck by two things 1) buyers who said that Kona Coffee was overrated and overpriced and 2) Kona Coffee farmers who said Kona Coffee was the best in the world and it didn't need to improve. We heard these two statements or variations of them, over and over. Neither statement made any sense to us. Anything overvalued or overpriced gets pushed out of the …
Laboratory Created Coffee
Consumers are being bombarded by scientific news releases claiming breakthroughs in lab produced food like beef, kangaroo, chicken, honey, horse, shrimp, cheese, foie gras and mouse (cats only). Almost a hundred years ago, “Brave New World” and “1984” predicted a society, in which, the government controls food production through lab-based substitutes. In the 1973 movie “Soylent Green (soy …
Brewing a Better Pod
A few years ago, we bought a pod machine and started offering Hula Daddy pods. The experiment lasted about two months. We realized that the ground coffee in the pods went stale very quickly. We don’t offer Hula Daddy pods for that reason. The use by date on coffee pods on supermarket shelves is 6 to 12 months. Long before the use by date the coffee has gone stale. It doesn’t taste bad; it just …
Espresso Yourself!
Espresso is an Italian word describing a coffee drink in which a small amount of nearly boiling water is forced under pressure through finely ground coffee. The word espresso is said to convey several meanings beyond the name of the drink as in, expressing the flavor from the coffee beans, or creating an express (fast) cup of coffee or making one cup expressly for an individual. In many …
Is It Really Kona?
A current class action lawsuit claims that 20 million pounds of coffee fake labeled “Kona'' is being sold on the world market. In a David v. Goliath clash five small Kona Coffee farmers, Bruce Corker, Colehour Bondera, Melanie Bondera, Robert Smith and Cecelia Smith, have sued Costco, Amazon, Hawaiian Isles, Cost Plus, Boyer’s, L & K Coffee, Copper Moon, Cameron’s, Gold Coffee, Coffee Inc,, …
Salty Coffee!
An old trick to improve coffee flavor is to add salt to the coffee either before or after brewing. It was popular when roasted beans staled in open bins and paper bags. It was also popular for low grade, high acid coffees. In the United States salting coffee has been replaced by sugar. However, it is still popular in some European countries. Salt like sugar dulls the palate so that bitterness …
A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Coffee Go Down!
Coffee is naturally sweet. Ripe coffee fruit has about the same amount of sugar as a wine grape. When coffee fruit is processed well, the green bean maintains its sugar until it is roasted and the sugar is caramelized. However, the average roasted coffee is bitter. The result is that consumers add sugar, honey, brown sugar or low calorie sweeteners to their coffee. For many consumers the …
