"Is This Coffee Good?" A Simple Guide to Discern Good Coffee

"Is This Coffee Good?"

I constantly second guess myself whether some coffee I drink is "meh," "ok," or "good."  Excellent coffee is easy to differentiate when the first sip hits the tongue, and you recognize the myriad of dynamic, interesting flavors indicating its freshness and the skill of the barista brewing it.  But, other coffees that are less impressive can be hard to grade.

This guide posits three simple questions to consider when drinking a coffee of unknown quality.


1.  When was it brewed?

Coffee brewed to order will always be fresher and more flavorful than coffee sitting in a glass container on a burning plate (Think 7-11 or a diner).  If the coffee has already been brewed, but in a larger thermos-like container, its a step up.  If you don't know, ask!  The workers may fudge the answer, but at least you will get a ball park answer.  Anything over an hour or two, will be a strike against the coffee.  If it was brewed in the morning, and it is now the afternoon that is not good.


2.  How was it brewed?

A contributing factor to an overall "goodness" of coffee is how it's brewed.  French press and pour over methods are one of the best ways to get quality coffee.  Drip machines, the ones you see at most coffee shops and restaurants, vary in quality.  As noted above, coffee sitting in a glass container over a heating plate actively ruins coffee flavor over time.  Once the coffee is brewed, the container should attempt to contain the heat from the brewing process, not add more heat.  If the coffee is in a thermos, good.  The coffee will stay fresher than in a glass pot.  Also, some places have the time written on the container when the coffee was brewed.

3.  What kind of coffee is it?

This is tough.  Many factors contribute to quality coffee beans, principally when it was roasted and ground.  Was it ground when you ordered it?  If not, mark it down.  Pre-ground coffee is less fresh.  Does it anywhere on the packaging or menu say "Gourmet Coffee"?  As in the words of fellow coffee blogger Coffee Nate, "Gourmet coffee means garbage coffee."  Look for single origin coffees from Latin America, Africa, or Indonesia, which means that the coffee is not a blend.  Single origin coffees tend to be fresher as the coffee retailer is marketing towards coffee lover people, not Folgers coffee people.  Generally, coffee blends hide bad coffee by mixing it with marginally better coffee.  If you have no idea where the coffee came from, either who sells it or where it was grown, the chances of it being "meh" are greater.


Conclusion:  These three questions help guide you in ascertaining good coffee.  My elaborations are not answers, but some suggestions to consider.  There are exceptions.  For example, specialty coffee shops can purvey an image of having quality coffee, but brew average or bad coffee.  Watch out for trendy imagery and marketing.  Its about taste.  Coffee should not be exceedingly bitter, ashy, or burnt.  Good coffee can be black without evoking a "sour face." Good coffee has unique flavor profiles like spicy, chocolatey, earthy, or piquant.  "Ok" coffee isn't bitter or ashy, but doesn't necessarily have anything going for it either.

Coffee Guide and Tutorial: Roasting Green Coffee in an Oven

All roads of coffee love lead to roasting. Coffee love typically starts with a french press, spreads with the burr grinder and espresso maker, and becomes terminal when roasting coffee begins. I and many others have reached this stage. In this post, I want to tell Metro Espresso readers on how to roast green coffee in a typical kitchen oven.

What are the benefits from roasting your coffee rather than buying it at the store?
1. The freshest, most flavorful coffee possible.
2. It is cheaper! 1lb of unroasted coffee is ~6 to 7 dollars.
3. Begin a fun hobby that most everyone can relate to. (Roasting coffee is more socially acceptable than making boats out of soap. Less creepy too!)

What you will need:
1. One pound of green coffee. Green coffee simply denotes that it is unroasted.
2. One medium-sized baking sheet. I use one that is 10 3/4 in x 17 in.
3. Tin foil
4. Two metal colanders preferably, though only one is needed.
5. Wooden spoon or plastic spatula
6. Oven mitt
7. Stop watch
8. A sense of adventure!

Directions:
1. Assemble your materials and preheat the oven to 460-500 degrees. I prefer around 465, as it is a slower roast and lets you judge when you want the beans out of the oven. At a higher temperature, the roasting happens too quite quickly for me.

Wrap tin foil around the baking sheet. This allows for quick clean up and a visual contrast to let you see the browning of the bean. Also, be sure to have your two colanders handy. Place one in a dry sink, this will allow you to dump the roasted beans quickly without fearing a small mess. Preparation is key when roasting coffee. A well laid out workstation aids quality roasting, tools within reach, and a quick transfer from the oven to the outside.

2. Place approximately .5 lbs of the green beans onto the sheet. Spread them evenly so it is one bean thickness.3. Place the sheet in the oven and start a stopwatch. Roasting coffee in an oven takes from 9 to 12 minutes. Every 3 minutes or so, stir the beans quickly using your spatula or wooden spoon to ensure a relatively even roast. The oven is not heated uniformly. I find that initially I can wait 4 or so minutes before I stir, but in the 6th minute onwards I stir every 2 minutes. Do no worry so much about timing, but what you see in the oven. It's about feel!

When one roasts coffee, there is what is called the "first crack" and the "second crack." The first crack occurs 6-7 minutes with an audible popping noise. This is a light medium roast, also known as a City roast. After the popping has stopped, you may pull out the beans at any time. They have sufficiently roasted. The second crack is a darker roast, where the beans make a quicker, but softer popping noise similar to a crackle. Roasting beyond this point makes it a Vienna roast, which is quite dark. It depends on the coffee bean you are roasting, but I recommend pulling out the beans somewhere at or between the two cracks.

(Above: Roasting ~3 minutes: Notice the slight brown)

(~8-9 minutes: Quite brown. Beyond the first crack. This has roasted past a "City roast.")

4. When the beans have roasted to the desirable level, pull the sheet out as quickly, but safely, as possible. Dump the beans into the colander in the sink, and rush outside to cool the beans. Despite you taking them out of the oven, the beans are still roasting internally. Taking the second colander, you can pass the beans between the two allowing the cool air to stop the beans from roasting any further, and allow all the coffee chaff to blow away. Coffee chaff are small papery husks on the coffee beans that are shed during the roasting process. Continue to swap the coffee between the colanders for a minute.
5. Put into an air tight container, but do not clamp it shut. Freshly roasted coffee emits CO2 for a day and must be allowed to escape. After 24 hours, close the container and the coffee will be ready for brewing in another 8-10 hours. It is best to wait a day or two as the flavors of the coffee bean mature. The optimum time frame for the roasted coffee to consume is 3-12 days after roasting Afterward, the coffee begins to lose flavor and complexity.

Pictured above is the finished product. A wonderful roast of an Ethiopian blend from Sweet Maria coffee retailers.

Precautions:
1. Open up windows and doors to the outside, have the stove fans on, and make sure the smoke detector is shielded. No matter what, smoke and barley smell accompany the roasting process. Having a well ventilated area helps in keeping the area less smelly and smoky.

2. Do not roast too darkly! Remember, roasting past a French roast, the darkest possible, can catch the coffee beans on fire. If you want to know what a French roast looks like, Bing it!

3. If a fire does occur, opening the oven door allows fresh air into the oven feeding the fire. It is best, to my limited knowledge, to turn off the oven and let it burn itself out. If you follow my tips and pull out the beans at or before the second crack, this should never be a problem.


If I have missed a point, failed to elucidate a technique, or you simply have a wonderful comment or question, please leave a message below. I am learning how to roast, and would love to hear from all the readers of Metro Espresso.

Moka Pot: A Few Questions

During this week, I made a concerted effort to only use my Moka pot (generically known as a percolator) because in the past, I have often brewed rancid and bitter tasting coffee from it. Rejecting systemic defeat due to my own deficiencies, I researched, read some guides, watched Coffee Nate's Moka pot video, and did some tinkering.

This is not a step-by-step guide, you can find plenty of them around. Instead I posted a few questions or problems that I wanted to pose/expose hindering good moka coffee.

1. Pertaining to aluminum moka pots, people say that the aluminum imparts unwanted tastes giving a "metalliky" taste to the coffee. They recommend having a coffee film from previous brewings to accumulate. Is this film visible, dark like such:

Or would it be better to leave a thinner film that removes the thick coffee coating leaving the oils in place but a cleaner look?

2. A corollary to the first, how long does the coating last before it turns rancid?

3. The rubber O-Ring, pictured below, does it trap any unwarranted tastes that affect the coffee? If so, is there any specific way to clean it?

4. Finally, the bottom half that holds the water. I have noticed some coffee staining from coffee that hasn't percolated. Does this impart any taste, and is there a way to remove this, if it is necessary?

Conclusion: One concrete finding that supports many of the guides around the internet, is that through multiple brews the acrid, bitter taste goes away because of the coffee film building up. Today, I drank a lovely, full bodied brew with little bitterness. Yet, brewing everyday in the moka pot is: A. Gets boring B. Quite selfish of the moka pot.

The answers to these questions point to keeping the moka pot ready for the first brew without priming it. Is that possible?

The Wall of Coffee: Navigating Superstore Coffee Selection

Is this a familiar view? The "Wall of Coffee" is intimidating with the many brands, varieties, ground, whole bean, cans, vacuum bags, plastic dispensers, varying sizes...etc.

It can overwhelm any person new to coffee, wondering how something so simple as coffee can be so confusing. In this post, I want to guide Metro Espresso readers through navigating the superstore selection of coffee.

Pictured left is the coffee selection at the Arlington Whole Foods. They offer a better selection of coffee than Safeway, Giant, and Shoppers.

Tip 1: To get better supermarket coffee, go to Whole Foods or Harris Teeter, they will offer better coffee and a likelihood of semi-local coffee. Giant and Safeway tend to offer Starbucks, Peets...while o.k., we coffee lovers demand better.

Tip 2: While tempting, skip the plastic dispensers full of coffee. (Pictured top left) You don't

know how long those coffee beans have been sitting there interacting with the oxygen muting the coffee's wonderful flavors.

Tip 3: Buy whole bean coffee, on the bag it should say whole bean or ground, but it is quicker to feel the bag. Whole bean is fresher, and if you are reading this blog and haven't bought a burr grinder. What's stopping you? This is the single most important thing to buy if you want fresh coffee.

Tip 4: Look to see if the coffee has a roast date on it. If it does, that means the roaster takes pride in its freshness. Out of all the coffee at Whole Foods, only one had a roast date on it. If it does, its most likely a keeper.

Tip 5: Look for local or semi-local roasters, they may not have a roast date on them, but will probably be fresher than DD, Starbucks, and Peets. M.E. Swings is a local roaster in DC, while it didn't have a roast date on it, its probably better than the national brands.

Tip 6: Most vacuum bags have a small valve. To get a sense of the aroma and the bean, one can squeeze bag while smelling near the valve. This lets you preview the goods without buying it! I often do this, while the Girlfriend shops for groceries.

Tip 7: Grab from the back, the stackers put the new products in the back behind the old stuff first. For example, the coffee I bought with the roast date on it 7-15 was behind the coffee with roast date 6-30.

Using these few tips, one should be able to navigate the "Wall of Coffee" and get decent coffee. One shouldn't really have to pay over ~$10-11 unless it has a roast date on it or its a 1 lb of coffee rather than 12 oz.

Turkish Coffee: A Guide

Following up on my previous post about Turkish coffee, I wanted to write a semi-detailed guide on how to make Turkish coffee. Granted, I am a beginner to this method, but more ink spilled about it will spur interest in this neglected method.

First: Grind coffee beans at the finest setting possible. There are specific grinders for Turkish coffee, but they run about 60-70 dollars. If you have a quality burr grinder, it should work. The grind should be dust-like or close to it. Also, buying pre-ground Turkish coffee works.

Second: Fill up ibrik to desired level with water. I found that about 6-7 oz works out well, creating enough froth, but not overfilling my specific ibrik.

Third: Add ground coffee, for ~3oz add 1 heaping tablespoon. For my 7oz cup, I use 2 1/2 spoons worth. One should add sugar at this point if you want. Remember, one shouldn't add sugar at the end of brewing because that would stir up the grounds spreading them throughout the cup. Sugar must be added now or never.

Fourth: Stir vigorously with plastic or wooden spoon. Avoid metal, this adds unnecessary scraping with the sides with the tin sidewalls. If you have a stainless steel ibrik, it probably wont matter too much.

Fifth: Place over low heat. I use a gas stove, and keep the flame from touching the ibrik itself. After a minute, I stir again making sure everything is mixed well. Continuing to stir after this will prevent a nice foam/froth/crust from forming. This is one of the best parts of Turkish coffee, and recommend to all readers not to stir anymore. (Though only a recommendation)

Sixth: Right before it boils, the thick crust will creep up on the walls (~5 minutes into brewing), pay attention! This creeping means that a lot of froth will be made, but also will be followed by uncontrollable boiling. It is important to take the ibrik off before it boils but after it froths. This may take a few times to figure out. Spoon out of the froth into the cup or cups.

Seventh (optional): Place it over the flame one more time, and let it boil for a quick second.

Eighth: Pour coffee into cups trying to share as much froth as possible, if other people are partaking. If not, be greedy and take it all!

Caution: Be sure to not pour out all the liquid in the ibrik, as towards the bottom it will contain a lot of sludge. Better to let some go to waste, than ruin your cup. Don't worry there will be plenty of slurry at the bottom of your cup anyways.

Here are a few pictures to document my first attempts:

I am off to New York City for the weekend, and will be MIA until Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully I will be able to find some good coffee shops, if you have any recomendations comment below or tweet me.