Blog Posts

11/27/2019 1 Comment

Why Grind Fresh?

You may have heard before that you should grind your coffee fresh, which is totally true. You can retain a LOT more flavor if you grind right before use. However, it left me wondering what happens if you wait, and what specific things you lose when waiting for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or even an hour after grinding. So, we conducted a pseudo-scientific test on our most popular coffee; Brazil.
Feel free to try this at home, this is what you need:

5 equal size small cups
A few soup spoons
Timer
Scale
Filtered Water
Kettle
Fresh Coffee
Grinder

The coffee we used was 5 days off roast. We measured out 12g of coffee, ground it at a medium-coarse grind every 15 minutes, and laid it out in trays. After the full hour, we smelled each coffee to analyze the fragrance; the smell of coffee before adding water. We started by smelling the coffee ground an hour earlier, and made our way up to the freshest. The freshest was more pronounced; smelling of cocoa, peanuts, and apples. We felt as though the older coffees lost some of the more delicate notes and settled more into the cocoa region.

Without waiting too long, we added 185g of 203° water to each cup using two gooseneck kettles to ensure the coffee was saturated all at the same time. Of course, using two kettles aren’t necessary, but it does look a lot cooler. Keep that in mind.

We waited for 5 minutes before we realized that our plan was to stop brewing after 4...then we broke the crust that formed at the top, now analyzing the aroma. At this point, it was still on par with what we found in the fragrance. We then cleared off the remaining foam into a separate cup, and waited an additional 10 minutes before we started to taste. This gave us time to prepare our minds to be blown…also for the coffee to cool down and for the grounds to sink to the bottom.

We started tasting oldest to freshest, building our way up. In order to truly tell the nuances of flavor, I drank some mineral water before and after each cup...or maybe I just really like Topo-Chico. Either way, the main thing I noticed was that the biggest transition in flavor was between fresh ground and 15 minutes. While the fresh option was juicy and balanced, the 15 minute option tasted dry, bitter, and the acidity tasted sharper, and less specific. Each cup after that just tasted more and more like a cuppa from your local Motel 8.

Now, it’s not like it was terrible. I started off with good, fresh coffee. This test might have been even more evident with 2 week old coffee; which has more time to fully degass. Keep this in mind when grinding your coffee! Or, try this at home, and let us know what you found.

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11/2/2019 2 Comments

Coffee Processing Methods

After the coffee cherry is picked, it needs to be processed before we receive it at our roastery. There are a few different ways of doing this, and they each can impact the flavor of the coffee.

Washed - The most common processing method. Once the coffee is picked at it's peak of ripeness, they are sorted and de-pulped, taking off the majority of the fruit around the coffee seeds (beans). From there, they sit fermenting in large tubs for 24-48 hours. This allows natural bacteria to eat off any remaining fruit on the seeds. Then, the coffee is soaked in water for 8-10 hours. This allows the unripe seeds to rise to the top, while the good ones sink to the bottom. The farmers are able to skim off the bad ones as a level of quality control. The seeds are then dried, typically on raised beds for a couple weeks until they get to a moisture level of around 11% before they are bagged and shipped. Washed coffee typically leaves the coffee with a clean taste, and is a great representation of the seed’s flavor. This is most common in the Americas.

Natural - Using no water, the coffee cherries are picked and then laid out on raised beds under the sun. There, they shrivel like raisins and the seeds absorb a lot of the fruitiness of the cherry. Unfortunately, since there isn't that level of quality control that the washed process has, some crops can taste almost dirty if not picked carefully. The cherry is then removed, bagged, and shipped. This is the oldest way of processing coffee, and it is more common in Africa.

Honey - The hybrid process. This method takes the best aspects of washed and natural and combine them to create a delightfully complex coffee. Like the washed processed, the fruit is de-pulped, but there is no fermentation, so there is still a lot of mucilage left on the bean. This way, during the sun-drying process, some fruit is absorbed in the seed, but still is very clean in taste. There are different levels of Honey Processing, including Yellow Honey, Red Honey, and Black Honey; indicating the amount of mucilage left on the bean.

These are other methods, such as Pulped Natural and Semi-Washed, but Washed, Natural, and Honey are the most common. DISCLAIMER: Each farm does it their own way, so these descriptions are general. Don't get caught up in the details.

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