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  1. m(a)ce

    Fair Trade

    So here we go. I'm gonna be the little devil. Here comes a doozy of a post, but maybe some good discussions will stem from it. I just finished reading the Saveur article on Ethiopian coffee and behold, a post on egullet. Anyway, one of the topics that came to mind while reading the article was the ongoing issue of Fair Trade coffee. On one hand, we all know the one side of the feel good, fuzzy warm Fair Trade argument. But I'm sorry to say that I'm not completely sold. I feel Fair Trade has its heart in the right place, but its crosshairs are not aimed in the right direction. Most of the coffee purchased (remember, coffee is the #2 most traded commodity in the world) is for major companies (think Nestle, etc). They dominate the coffee buying market. They buy whatever is cheap and this represents the lower grade coffee. That's why it tastes so bad. At the lowest graded levels, its not strange to see the processed coffee plagued with defects such as rocks, sticks, pieces of metal. (For those of you not familiar with green bean coffee buying, it is graded based on things such as uniformity, processing, etc. Visit this site to see what the best class entails: SCAA Green Bean Overview). So back to the good stuff. These global companies control the coffee market, demanding prices stay low and that effects a majority of coffee growers in an adverse manner. Unfortunately, Fair Trade has targeted the specialty coffee market which has consistently paid more for coffee than the larger corporations. Your local coffee roaster is not necessarily the boogie man. Good roasters that take their craft seriously buy coffee from the top 3% of graded coffee. They are willing to spend more for their beans because it usually guarantees a higher quality and better tasting product. Furthermore, serious roasters take the time to develop their relationships with either farms directly or brokers; this cultivation creates an expectation that if the farmers produce a better product, they will get more money by weight. The specialty green bean market is competitive and thereby rewards farmers that grow the best product with more demand for their product and in turn, more money. This idea of capitalism has fueled the organic specialty coffee market to go from borderline mediocre to superior than conventional coffee in the last 5 or so years. And that is what Fair Trade misses. By targeting the small roasters and specialty coffee market, they are missing the big picture. The other consequence of Fair Trade is fair tasting coffee. Not exceptionally good or bad. Just fair tasting. I have cupped lots of coffee and I can say that none of the most memorable coffee I've tasted was Fair Trade. Fair Trade farmers are reduced to a socialism model that pools coffee from different farms, farmers or estates. It does guarantee them more money for their product (a good thing) but does not provide an added incentive to farm amazing coffee -- just fair coffee. And not to be too alarmist, but this practice could eliminate the boutique estate varietals that have started to shine (think of it as losing your favorite individual vineyard from Napa and having to drink a generic blend from all the farms). I will give credit to Fair Trade for the beliefs and efforts, but I don't think we should necessarily be selectively guilted into paying more for a lesser quality product just to feel better. Where are those fighting for Fair Trade chocolate or sugar? Or how about sweatshop labor in Asia? How many people out there feel well enough after buying their Fair Trade coffee to go to Walmart and get their products supplied by underpaid overseas labor? Is the current specialty market model perfect? No. It does need reform. It does need to cut out the middlemen or reduce their profit. But I think the biggest changes need to happen with the consumer. Within the US we need to stop expecting to pay so little for things. Oh well, off to my mega strip mall to go to the chain stores and chain restaurants. . .
  2. I finally shattered the roasting chamber on my FreshRoast. Now I'm faced with some indecision: should I pay $20 to replace it, given that I'll likely get a Hearthware I-Roast very soon? What to do? But that's not what I wanted to talk about. Now that my FreshRoast is out of order, I've had the chance to start experimenting with real old-school coffee-roasting. You know, the old fashioned way: in a skillet. I don't have embers of a fire. I did this on the stovetop. I also used a stainless-lined copper skillet rather than the traditional cast-iron. I just put some coffee beans in the skillet, turned on the heat, and shook the beans around once in awhile until they were the right color. I used decaf beans for my first batch, because I didn't want to deal with chaff. I was able to achieve a reasonably accurate level of doneness just by sight, though some of the beans were not uniformly colored. In terms of flavor, the skillet-roasted coffee was not as good as the coffee roasted in the FreshRoast. It may very well be that I simply need to improve my technique -- it wasn't massively inferior; it just wasn't as good. The coffee overall wasn't as extracted and the aromatics were blunted. More to come.
  3. Kenk

    Grow My Own

    I have had a coffee plant for the last 4 years. It started off as a bunch of 4 inch plants. They are now a bunch of 4 foot plants. My first 2 coffee beans are ripening. 2 of my coffee cherries are turning red. Maybe next year I might have enough for 1 cup. Not bad for Ottawa Canada.
  4. I was eating my way through a packet of chocolate-covered coffee beans the other night, and I got to thinking: how many of the beans would I have to eat to get the "lift" I get from one cup of coffee? There were 42 beans in the packet. I estimate that when I brew coffee at home, I grind 55-60 beans for one 12-cup pot. Should this just be simple math, or does the brewing process have an effect on the caffeine itself? Do I have to apply heat and water to the beans in order to get the caffeine to "come out"? Or can I just eat the beans raw and get the same effect?
  5. Thanks to eGullet (and epinions) I decided to order a Solis Maestro Plus to replace my 12-year-old, faithful-but-fading-fast Bosch. I went with Aabree Coffee Company (aabreecoffee.com) because they had the same price as virtually everyone else -- $149 -- but offered free FedEx ground shipping and had a good reputation. The Solis arrived very quickly and in good shape. However, when I unpacked it I found only one of the four rubber feet, and it was in the bottom of the box. I called Aabree immediately. They said that for some reason the manufacturer was shipping the product with the feet uninstalled, and apparently some are getting lost along the way. They were very apologetic about the whole thing. They have a bunch of feet on order from the manufacturer and will send three of them to me as soon as they arrive, probably in about a week. The Solis now is sitting on four hemispherical Sorbothane feet designed for stereo equipment, which makes it look like a robot. If you order a Maestro Plus in the near future, you might want to contact the seller directly and ask them to make sure all four feet are in the box. Oh, yeah -- I really like its performance. It looks way cool, too, and appears to offer a significant improvement over the original Maestro.
  6. I've noticed that in Europe and European influenced locales, the tradition is to serve dessert first and then coffee. I prefer coffee with my dessert - it seems to compliment and cut through the sweetness. Too many times, overseas, I've requested coffee with my dessert only to suffer a raised eyebrow and a "with your desert, sir?" I always respond, "It's OK, I'm an American." (Ugly American??) Otherwise I am reasonably well behaved at the table. Am I committing an unmannerly faux pas in my assault on European coffee sipping traditions?
  7. Just came back from visiting Tampa. While we were there, we ate at the Columbia restaurant in Ybor City. The coffee in the restaurant was excellent. I'm wondering what makes it so good ( apart from the fact that the roaster was across the street.) Can anyone tell me more about it?
  8. According to the journal Geotimes, coffee is essential to the work of geologists, and not just in the way you would think: http://www.geotimes.org/dec03/column.html
  9. I've posted this in the NY forum already, but I thought I might get a different response from my fellow coffee-heads -- perhaps there's an online or mail-order source if not a NY-area source?: Does anyone know where I can get my hands on some Ghirardelli chocolate syrup? Not the powder, not the candies. The syrup. My favorite coffee shop uses it to make the most wonderful mochaccinos I've ever had...I need to get some of this for my own personal stash. It's on the Ghirardelli website here, but says that it's only available to the trade. Any suggestions? Thanks! [edited to add in link that didn't transfer]
  10. Ithaca NY based coffee roasters and masters of the truly amazing espresso shot, Gimme! Coffee, have now opened thir first NYC location. Gimme! Coffee Williamsburg Brooklyn info If you've read discussions here or elswhere about the elusive "godshot" or wondered what the big deal is when people discuss legendary Seattle espresso cafes like Vivace, Vita or Hine Public Coffee..... make a trip to Wiliamsburg. IMHO this is at the moment some of the best espresso on the east coast bar none. Their espresso roast is a bit dark for my taste but they have use "Schomer modified" and PID controlled La Marzocco machines and pay great attention to the imnportant details of process - worth a visit. They also make a great cup of plain old coffee.
  11. According to the American Diabetes Association, a recent study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that people who drink a lot of coffee have a lower incidence of type II diabetes mellitus than those who don't. It is not clear whether coffee itself is responsible or if there are other factors about heavy coffee drinkers that confer protective effects.
  12. All of my friends, colleagues and others I know quickly become aware that I'm a coffee fanatic and espresso hound once they get to know me. I can barely count the number of times that someone has said "Oooh... I have an espreso machine I got as a ________ (insert occasion here) gift. I've never used it. Do you want it? After all.... you're into espresso, right?". We've all seen these - they run anywhere from $30 - $70, utilize simple steam pressure to produce a facsimile of espresso and are way too labor intensive for the average non-coffee fanatic to get involved with using. I'm not referring to the low end espresso machines that have a pump along with a switch for espresso or steam. Machines of that type, usually in the $80 to $100 range, are not great but if used properly they can make a passable cappuccino. Instead, I refer to the devices where one must add water, screw down a pressure cap, wait for steam pressure to build and be very careful about not opening the cap before pressure has gone down. Sooo... how about it.... is this quite possibly the world's most unused gift? I have been offered at least a dozen or so of these in the past few years (slight exaggeration but many) and not one of them had ever been used. I will cross post this in General Food topics due to the chance that there is some non-coffee item which might qualify for this dubious distinction.
  13. MSNBC has an odd little article on coffee. The part that really threw me was Am I reading that right? He wants me to put 20 tablespoons of coffee in the basket for a 10-cup pot? What gives, o' coffee gurus? Chad
  14. Normally I work at home, but one day a week I go to one of my client's office to do some in-house work. Rather than have my own coffee before I go, I have theirs when I get there. Yes, I could buy some on the way, but I'm a cheap bastard. Anyway, they've got one of those newfangled Flavia machines, which if you haven't seen one is supposed to be an 'improvement' over ordinary institutional office coffee by making individual cups of coffee from little packets of instant coffee. Or at least I assume it's instant--it brews too fast for real coffee. It is, as a former boss used to say, not good. One of the worst things (of many) that's bad is that the coffee is very, very weak. But the packets come in all sorts of blends, including tea, 'choco' (hot chocolate, I guess), espresso and even cappucino. So I get a bit bored and think, what the hell, I'll try the espresso. You take the 'espresso blend' packet, put it in the machine, and select 'espresso shot' from the menu. A few selects later you have a cup of dark liquid that tastes, well, dark. Sort of vaguely reminiscent of espresso. It's probably about 3 ounces. No crema or actual coffee taste. Not even bitter, really, just dark. It's not really fair to compare it to real espresso, even not very good but still real espresso. Is it fair to compare it to instant espresso from a jar, such as Medaglia D'oro? Actually, no. It does not even compare to that. I am disappointed, but of course not surprised. I haven't tried the cappucino. The cappucino is made in a two-step process that involves first making a packet of 'creamy topping.' I am afraid of the creamy topping. However, this morning I have my brilliant flash. Will it work to use one of the regular blend packets with the espresso shot setting? Yes! it does! Making the coffee with half the water brings it up almost to the strength of coffee-cart coffee. I can use two packets to make one cup of coffee. Yay! I realize that this does nothing, really, to advance the state of the art in coffee-brewing, but I wanted to share my little victory over office-coffee technology.
  15. While packing for a recent trip to Mexico, my husband, a coffee importer and taster, told me to pack some coffee. I ignored him and boy was I sorry. We got to our hotel that advertised in room coffee makers only to find that they were charging 350 pesos for a small bag, enough to make two cups of coffee. I wasn't interested in making coffee in the room but when I ordered it after dinner I was shocked at the poor quality of the coffee. My husband said that because coffee is such a money making export countries ship the best quality out and keep what is left for consumption in the country. I did order coffee at every different restaurant we went to but it was basically all the same. It was an experience for me to go 10 days coffee free. The first thing I did when we got home was brew and drink an entire pot. Learn from my mistake, bring your own!
  16. Hello everybody, this is my first post on eGullet.com and I am very excited to be here. I work as a barista in Seattle and have decided to work in coffee as a career. Over the last few years I am sure a few of you have heard of the Barista Competitions that take place. They are similiar to that of a cook off or cooking competition. The NorthWest Regional competition will be held in September, and I encourage all of you members residing in Portland to come and check it out. As a barista, I am trying to elevate my craft to the level of culinary excellence you would come to expect at a Michelin restaurant. Hope to see you there.
  17. This cropped up in one of my other coffee forums. Basically this guy Chris Tacy chopped off the bottom part of his portafilter, allowing the espresso to flow directy from the basket. The results (from those who tasted it) were pretty much unanimous - everyone who tatsed the shots from the chopped portafilter pretty much liked it over the ones pulled from a 'crotched' one. Take a look at his blog at http://godshot.blogspot.com/ I'm sure you'll find it interesting. It makes me want to go out and look for a spare portafilter that I can play with for my Gaggia Classic.....
  18. I just stumbled across an interesting article at the Roasters Guild web site (the Roasters Guild is a part of SCAA, the Specialty Coffee Association of America). Coffee and Wine: The Industries and their Common Denominators It's brief but offers good insight. I'm not a drinker of alcoholic beverages and therefore can't speak from the position of a wine enthusiast. I do, however, believe that the conclusions drawn seem valid. The article offers hope that coffee appreciation can continue to be developed and elevated to the point where we can break out of the commodity mentality that has pervaded the industry for so many years (and, tragically, made it difficult for most small growers to earn more than a basic subsistence income). On a related note, the Illy company of Italy has been influential in raising the bar of quality for growers in Brazil, long one of the world's leading producers. By paying a higher price and also establishing an annual competetion with a cash prize, they've encouraged growers to focus on quality rather than quantity. It's a slow process but a technique (paying higher than commodity prices) that has already seen success in the area of food products (e.g. heirloom vegetable varieties, "antique" apples, Niman Ranch pork etc). Here's a piece about the annual competition that Illy sponsors - its a bit of fluff to some extent as this is their own press release but it does offer worthwhile information. Illy's Brasil Prize Competition
  19. This article in today's New Orleans Times-Picayune breaks down some interesting facts and figures in the world of coffee importation. New Orleans has long been the leading coffee port in the world and one of the world's great centers of coffee roasting. While the roasting business is still doing well, New York has supplanted NO as the leader in coffee importation. This is due primarily to shipping rates and duties levied by the ports. New Orleans still roasts more coffee than anyone else, thanks to a couple of huge facilities, Reilly Foods and Folgers being the largest, with a number of smaller roasters making up the rest. We also are the home (all of 5 miles from my house) of the largest coffee handling facility in the world, The Folger's Warehousing Facility-located in St Tammany Parish just off of I-10 near Folsom, LA. This is a good article involving a pretty good description of how the world coffee trade works and I thought that a few of you might find it interesting. It's a shame that the Picayune, along with a number of other papers around the country use this website though, as photos and graphs are difficult to find (if they are available at all) and the articles are usually synopsized (as this one is).
  20. I've been ever experimenting the ways in which to prepare coffee the way my mother makes it at home. I am never tired of it and even though I have a stable version of coffee available, I not completely at home Pleasae give me some way of preparing coffe the way it used to be at home. I think this especially goes for the people of south India. I know many others too have a love of coffee, but nothing beats the home coffee. Please share your tips for ethereal coffee land today...
  21. Whenever I make coffee in my vintage Silex vacuum pot, I swear that I can detect a slight rubbery taste in the coffee. It comes from the rubber gasket, it smells like a new automobile tire whenever the pot is action. Have any of you ever had this experience? Should I wash the gasket thoroughly with anything? Though it is in perfect shape, I know it is quite old (around 30 to 40 years old); I am hesitant to clean it thoroughly because it might crack. Thanks!
  22. Thought I'd venture a thread that is not oft discussed on Coffeegeek and doesn't seem (at least recently) to have been fleshed out here... Yes - I'm perfectionist about many things; I've got my modes of making coffee down. But I ain't getting to roasting (this statement will result in many a good natured flame at CG - and orig post goes OT into waxing poetic about homeroasting); don't have the time, don't have the place - I can't afford to get obsessive about yet another thing. My wife will disown me... So I am willing to pay for good roasting. Good roasting as defined by great bean knowledge, 'crack' precision, accurate dating and the rest of the art that goes into cooking the bean. I've got a pretty good roaster in my little nabe (Montclair, NJ) - and I know that buying local's a good thing 'cause coffee fades quickly. But I get my espresso from... St. Louis. I swear by Barry Jarrett's "Espresso Taliaferro" and at $8.95 - this is worth sending away for. In fact, Barry's quite the roasting maven... http://www.rileys-coffee.com/DarkRoasts.htm Anyone know of other master roasters that make paying the shipping worth it?
  23. This is another interesting topic offered by Nakagawa of Flavor coffee http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/index.html (Japanese only) Nakagawa is sometimes asked by customers to modify and improve their roasters. The Roaster Modification Museum page http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/3f/r-index.html (Japanese only) lists some of the roasters he has modified so far. Among the list is the Alpenrost http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/3f/3f-15.html . Let me translate part of his description of what he did about the roaster. *** Side view With the cover open Perspective view, with the cover open Heater Roasting, with the shutter closed Cooling, with the shutter open The roaster has several disadvantages. First, you cannot visually check the beans to determine when to stop roasting. Secondly, this roaster does not have the concept of murashi* (lit. steaming), resulting in light-taste coffee. I think this is its biggest defect, a fatal one. Air inlet slightly open (roasting phase) Air inlet half open (murashi phase) Close-up of the spoon with a thermometer attached Close-up of the spoon retainer I made three modifications so that the roaster allows the user to: - Vary the exhaust air at will so that the concept of murashi can be applied. I made a hole in the cover so that the amount of exhaust air could be controlled. With the hole in the cover open, the roaster sucks air through the hole, so that the exhaust air from the drum decreases. - Use a spoon to check the beans. For this particular roaster, there is a flow of air inside the cover, so I had to plug the gap between the spoon and the cover. - Check the temperature inside the roaster. I inserted a tempura thermometer into the spoon so that the temperature could be measured except when checking the beans. Results: - The exhaust air-regulating function allows the user to perform "murashi" as with a commercial roaster. By performing "murashi", the user can now prevent the coffee beans from losing flavor. - The user can check the beans with the spoon to determine when to stop roasting. - The thermometer assists in improving reproducibility. *** *Murashi (lit. steaming): With a direct-heat type roaster, it is common practice to restrict the exhaust port for some time after beans are put in and heated, so that the humidity in the roaster increases. This very initial step of the drying phase of the roasting process is called murashi in Japanese. I tried to find an equivalent term in English, but to no avail.
  24. I bought their espresso training video. I think by now you guys/gals know I barely have a clue when it comes to all things espresso. After watching the video, which is all of a bit over 1 hour, I'm not exactly the junior barista I thought I'd be. Actually, I didn't pick up a single bit of useful info. They covered a zillion areas including commercial and home brewing and roasting in like a heartbeat. It's really absurd. I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't cost $59.95 + tax (jeez, they have no stores in NJ) + shipping which translated to $70+. And to think - Owen would've travelled 4 hours each way, given me a day's training and bought me a shot for a lot less loot. :-)
  25. My first attempt to roast coffee beans with a milk powder can Nakagawa, the owner of Flavor coffee http://www.flavorcoffee.co.jp/index.html (Japanese only), is a proponent of roasting coffee beans with a milk powder can. Today, I made my first attempt, but it ended in a failure; the beans didn't crack even after 25-minute roasting. I think that the main reason of my failure was that I did the roasting outside and it was rather windy. More text later.
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