,·1,
ISBN 978-0-646-48632-1
THE
ESPRESSO
QUEST
To Looloo, Ella, Dan, Bonnie and Melchizedek
First Published by Loowedge Publishing in 2008
P.O. Box4178
Copacabana, Australia 2251
Copyright© 2008 lnstaurator
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including
photocopying recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, byway
of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise
circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published and
without a similar condition including this condition being
imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A Catalogue record of this book is available from the
National Library of Australia
ISBN 978-0-646-48632- l
Editors: Laura Everage San Francisco USA and
Emily Oak Sydney Australia
Photography: Adrian Lander
Design: Gentil Eckersley
Printed and bound in China by Hang Tai Printing
www.espressoquest.com
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PART I: THE TASTE
. The Quest Begins: Espresso Exodus
. My First Godin MyE spresCsou pE xperience
. My First Espresso Bar
. Viva the EspressoT raining Revolution
. Coffee to Espresso Evolution
PART II: THE GROWER
. Cupo f Excellence®G: rowerso f the Future
-Altitude Versus Latitude
. Mountain Top® Coffee Estate
. Growers and Roasters Dance Together
. Processing Like a Winemaker
-The Essential Agronomist
. The Sweet Kiss of Long Ripening
–World Taste Preferences
PART Ill: THE ROASTER
. Arabica Versus Ro bus ta
. Crema is Only Cream?
–Roast Profiling
. Blending: The Fun of the Alchemist
–Decaft hatTastesT oo Good: SWISSW ATER®D ecaf
–Roasting Speed: Which Way Did He Go?
–Body Without Too Much Bitterness
–EspressoT asting for Smarties
PART IV: THE BARISTA
-New Breed Barista
. More Data Free Observations
-Extraction Times
. Crema … Again
. Water: The Great Elixir Base
-Grinding: Unlocking the Coffee Genie
• To Refrigerate or Not to Refrigerate
• Rage and The Machine
• How to Become a World Barista Champion
• Conclusion: How to Make an Espresso Coffee
THE ESPRESSOQ UEST 7
FOREWORD
This book is not just another textbook. Rather, it is a record
and an explanation of my quest to discover the pure joy
found in a cup of espresso coffee. For more than two-and-aha
If decades, I have been involved in the selecting, roasting,
packing, brewing, tasting and marketing of specialty coffee.
Over this time, there have been enormous changes within
the coffee industry; not just in my own country of Australia,
but all around the world.
Why is it, that of al I people, an Australian is writing a
book about espressoc offee?A s it happens,A ustraliae njoyed
a large influx of Italian immigrants after the Second World
War. In turn, they established a vibrant espresso culture
that eventuallyt ook over the landscape.A s a matter of fact,
Australia now has the highest market penetration of home
electric espresso machines in the world. Yes, more than Italy.
Although we can’t claim to be the sole arbiters of espresso
taste, our national verve for innovation, an inclination to
challenge authority, and a solid espresso heritage, provided a
very fertile field for espresso to spring up in this most unlikely
place. Perhaps this humble field down under may provide
a small glimpse into the future, with the rest of the world
FOREWORD 9
following suit and migrating toward espresso-basecdo ffees.
For someone who has made his livelihood from coffee,
true joy boils down to one thing. A few sips of thick, syrupy,
bittersweet nectar that resembles a rich, dark mocha chocolate
liquid mixed with smooth complex spices. This is espresso
coffee. The heart of coffee.
It is this humble espresso shot, a thimbleful of black
coffee poured in front of our eyes, which has become the
foundation of vast coffee empires and complete cafe menus.
It sustains untold households, from the low-paid, humble
plantation worker who picks the coffee, to the hi-tech, chic
cafe society set who consumes it.
Of the thousands of coffees tested by professional
cuppers each year, only occasionally will someone come
across an espresso coffee that has all the elements of
perfection. This sublime taste experience is what some
professionals describe as “seeing God in the cup”.
It is this experience that excites enormous passion.
It drives coffee professionals, as well as many people from all
walks of life, to almost fanatically pursue the experience again
and again. It requiresa n investment in learning, becauseth e
perfect espressoc offee is so confounding and elusive.Justa s
a beautiful mirage shimmers in the distance, or the proverbial
l 0 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
end of the rainbow beckons, so too often the wonderful taste
of espressoc offee seemsj ust beyondo ur grasp.
Enormous amounts of time, energy and money have been
invested in capturing this elusive taste, not only for personal
joy, but for business reasons as well. For if the espresso coffee
shot is not taken to its fullest potential, the rest of the coffee
menu, and the empire, will falter.
This book is a description of a coffee philosophy,
a muse with a few practical hints and a few personal stories
that could act as a guide to some. This approach differs from
that of numerous textbooks on espresso in that it gets to
the heart and sou I of espresso. I cou Id say it It is a bit Ii ke a
surgeon though, who sets out to use his scalpel to try and
locate a person’s spirit. This was always going to be mission
impossible.
Coffee’s rich history has been told countless times
in books that highlight the romance and reach of coffee’s
past and present. This book is not so much about the exotic
countries that coffee is grown in. Instead, it is about what
makes the difference between two cafes located side by
side. For instance, one may be packed with people, buzzing
with vibrant conversation and electrifying ambience, while
the other lies empty and lifeless.
FOREWORD 11
A certain alluring mystique periodically attaches itself
to coffee. In our current ti mes, that mystique is based around
the relativelyn ew form of coffee call ed espressoT. hi s book is
about embracing the invigorating mystique that is espresso
coffee, while it also sets out to burst the myths that shroud
and hinder the wonderful experience of seeing God in an
espresso cup.
My hope is that this book will inspire you in you_qr uest
for a great espresso.. .a n experiencet hat can seems o simple,
yet is so gloriously complex.
12 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
PART I
When I entered the coffee industry it was by accident.
I was on holiday from the university where I was studying
for my Bachelor of Arts degree in Australian history, when
my brother asked me to help in his new coffee roasting
business. Here I am twenty-six years later, still doing coffee.
Through the years, I’ve invested more than most do in
the pursuit of great espresso coffee. I have worked as a barista
in my own specialty espresso bars, set up several wholesale
roasting factories, trained coffee staff on a national basis,
developed practical standards in a real-time business
environment and built severals uccessfubl usinessesa long
the way including an international wholesale espresso
roasting businessw hich boastso ver 350 stores. In addition
to building businesses, I developed evaluation tests and
brewing standards for baristas, much of which has been
absorbed into World Barista Championship judging criteria.
I have been involved as a judge, or Executive Director,
THE TASTE 17
—I ::r
(D
—I
CJ
CJ)
r-t(
D
in nearly every World Barista Championship since the
inaugural event in Monte Carlo in 2000. I served as a coffee
judge at the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW single-estate
espresso competition and as the Chairman ofThe Australian
Coffee & Tea Association. My travels have taken me around
the world countless times to learn about espresso coffee and
to visit some of the world’s best coffee farms in Guatemala,
Nicaragua, El Salvador, Bolivia, Brazil, Australia and
Papua New Guinea.
Duringm y journey,I experiencedm y fair shareo f frustration
in the searchf or a sublime espressoI.t is a common frustration
for all of us who desire a simple, repeatable, good espresso
coffee. However, in my quest, I was very fortunate to meet an
intuitive espressog enius who was able to reducet he complex
dynamics of making a humble espresso coffee down to a
simple process. It was this chance meeting that acted as a
catalyst for me to continue my quest for my ultimate espresso.
THE TASTE 19
THE QUEST BEGINS: ESPRESSO EXODUS
I firstm et GeorgeS abadosa t an AustralianC offeea ndT eaA ssociation
meetingw heren ationals tandardsf or espressow hereb eing hammered
out. Aftera yeara nda halfo f passionated ebates,a ndm anyc upso f espresso
later, we finally compromised on a set of guidelines, which have since
been adoptedn ationallyb yg overnmentb aristat rainingc enters.
Coffee has always enjoyed local variations, and there is no doubt that these guidelines will incite
further vigorous debate. There are few hard and fast rules as to what is considered a standard espresso,
and this is evident in different parts of the world. Fast-maturing espresso markets such as Sydney or
Melbourne, and Seattle or Vancouver in North America, each define the perfect espresso differently.
This is true within a single city as well, much like it has been in Sydney for some time (although it
may be changing). In my hometown the harbor where the world-famous opera house sits, divides
the city in two. On the north side of the harbor, espresso tends to be a bit milder than the fullbodied
and powerful Robusta-blend espressos found closer to downtown on the southern side
of the harbor. Regardlesso f where espresso is enjoyed, the indispensable rule is: Alwaysle t your
taste be your guide.
For centuries, coffee has incited numerous controversies and passionate discussions around
the world. I believe that this is healthy as long as it leads to the gathering of wisdom. Unfortunately,
wisdom is so elusive because it is one step beyond knowledge. Knowledge comes from learning
the information, facts, ideas or principles. Wisdom comes from actively applying knowledge
to a practical test. Someone once said that wisdom is 90 percent hindsight. There is a lot of truth
to this. Through experience, a person learns the tricks of the trade to avoid common pitfalls,
and in the process gains wisdom.
George came from the sensory-inspired European school of espresso, whereas I came from
the scientific-based analytical school. This so-called European (or Italian) approach involves more
of the senses, whereas the scientific school is more about measuring grams and liquid volumes in
THE TASTE 21
an attempt to try to record the myriad variables
involved in creating an espresso. Both of us,
however, were united in testing our ideas
through practical experiments.
George and I instantly joined forces. I paid
for him to fly to Monte Carlo and compete in
the inaugural World Barista Championship in
2000. We jumped on the plane together and
proceeded to have a lot of fun as we passionately
discussed our differing views about espresso.
The one thing that united us, in spite of our
different approaches, was that we both always
let our taste guide us.
Being near the Italian border in Monte
Carlo, we came upon many seasoned Italian
espresso drinkers. Upon trying my coffee blend
at our practice sessions they would refuse to
believe that it had been roasted and blended
in Australia. They told me it tasted too good,
therefore it must be Italian. It was a wonderful
compliment. I felt assured they were letting taste
be their guide!
The European school of espresso is evident
in the old school Italian baristas, who can still be
found in large cities around the world, although
you may have to go a long way to find one.
Sadly, I have heard reports that the
professional barista is in decline in Italy. These
good baristas know what an appropriate grind
feels like. They know what a good pour looks
like. They know how used coffee grinds should
22 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
smell. They can tell if the water is too hot,
the coffee too stale or too fresh, just by the way
the crema looks. Armed with a basic sensory
appreciation, they can produce a sublime
espresso that beats one prepared by a so-called
scientific barista time and again. Unfortunately,
these baristas seem to be a dying breed, as they
are increasingly replaced by fully automatic
machines. Why won’t a fully automatic machine
produce a more consistent espresso than an
imperfect human? We’ll touch on that later.
Regardless of which school the barista
comes from, in the end, good baristas must be
good tasters of coffee. The barista must be able
to recognize how variables in brewing affect
the flavor in the one place it counts- in the cup.
There is no getting away from it. The barista
must be able to taste. Otherwise they are merely
dressing a window. And the customer will never
find what they are looking for in their cup.
The best baristas combine a few common
characteristics. They are curious about what
they don’t understand. They take care to present
their coffees with a unique signature style.
They understand they are performers and their
customers are the audience to whom they
project their personality and passion. Always
strict and severe with their coffee standards,
they communicate this dedication and passion
to their audience through their character, as
well as through their beverage. They can be
Traditional cupping requires
the removal of’crema’ after
stirring and prior to tasting
as it tends to taste a little
harsh and distorts the flavor
profile ofthe coffee being
tasted. Unlike espresso where
the presence of ere ma is seen
as vital to the integrity of
the flavor.
(Le~ to right, top to bottom)
– Roasted beans
• Coarse ground coffee for
a traditional tasting.
–Traditional cupping (water
poured straight onto the
coffee grounds)
-Tasting spoons await their
coffee tasters
26 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
flirtatious, merely hospitable or a downright Coffee Nazi. But most importantly, they always love
tasting their espresso coffees.
Taste is as important for the barista as it is for the customer. When interviewing potential
staff for a position in one of my espresso bars. I quickly learned to ask the hopeful employees if they
liked coffee. Without liking the material you are working with, it is very difficult, if not impossible,
to have a sympathetic understanding of the product and the customer who purchases it. This is one
of the unspoken things customers pick up on. And often without even realizing it, customers will
gravitate towards the cafe that is staffed by baristas who are passionate about their product.
On the other hand, there are also those baristasw ho canc reatef ancyp atternsw ith milko r chocolate
mixed with crema, but sadly they don’t have a fundamental understanding of, and sympathy for, the
brewing of coffee. Their passion for excellence is lacking, which is an essential piece in a larger puzzle.
Without passion, the so-called” Espresso-XF actor,”i s missing. This passion combined with hardheaded,
good organizational skills, is the key to many outstanding and successful businesses and is
the true Espresso-XF actor.
Mys cientifica pproach to espresso came from my training. I learned to carefullya nd laboriously
weigh and set a commercial grinder to dispense a precise weight of coffee grinds, accurate down to a
tenth of a gram. What I have since come to realize is that the trouble with this method is that different
roast colors and blends will have different densities. So, once the grinder is set for a particular roast,
it will need to be reset forone that varies even by a couple of points on an Agtron spectrophotometer
scale. (A spectrophotometer, which measures roast color, is as essential to good coffee roasting as
a thermometer.)
What I have found during my extensive experimentation, is that beans that look exactly the same
to the naked eye, can taste extremely different depending on how those beans have been roasted. The
spread of difference between the color reading of the outside of the bean and the coffee inside, is also
criticalt o good flavord evelopmenta nd can only be measureda ccuratelyw ith a spectrophotometer.
• J also learned during my scientific training that the speed at which the lever on the side of the
grinder is pulled will vary the amount of coffee that drops into the porta-filter. This too will vary
according to the coarseness or fineness of the coffee grinds. Dosing by weight rather than volume
reveals a lack of understanding of the ‘coffee press,’ which is absolutely necessary in order to make
a succulent espresso. This small, but important element, can make the brewing of espresso coffee
a very inexact, frustrating. and elusive science.
THE TASTE 27
In addition to precise portioning of the coffee, the scientific approach also involves setting
an espresso machine to dose a precise volume of water. Once you have locked in the two variables
of coffeew eighta nd liquidv olume,t heoreticallyt he next step is to adjust the coarsenesso r finenesso f
your coffee grind, which will regulate the flow of water as it passes through the grinds in the portafilter.
Howeverd, espite the flawsi n this scientifica pproach, it is better than using no guidelinesa t all.
And so my exodus from scientific captivity began.
For now, I come to my first Godin M yE spresCsou pe xperience.
28 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THET ASTE2 9
Screening trays. Each number
represents a different hole
size in a screen which allows
corresponding size beans
through and is referred to
as a ‘screen-size’.
An espresso that has been
waiting a bit too long for its
drinker. Note the crema has
subsided slightly.
30 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST —-
THE FIRST GOD IN MY ESPRESSO CUP EXPERIENCE
I have had a handful of experiencesw here I have seen Godin mye spresscou p.
The first one I can remember was when I was working for my brother
Rob Forsyth in Naremburn, an inner suburb of Sydney.
I was on holidays from my studies in psychology
and Australian history at Macquarie University.
I figured he needed a hand, so I began selling
coffee for him. I had very little experience in
the coffee business, so when I didn’t know
are used to denote where a grape is grown,
coffee is referred to by the place it comes from.
In this case, coffee from these three countries,
which are considered the cradle of world coffee
production, used to be shipped through a port
the answer to a potential customer’s question, called Mocha. Coffee shipped from this port
such as “Why is coffee from Ethiopia known eventually came to be known by this name.
as mocha?” I made it a point of finding out the Today, the word Mocha is often used to
answer. (The answer to this is below!) Without refer to a mixture of coffee and chocolate.
realizing it, my coffee knowledgeb egan to grow. (Technicallys peaking, this version should be
Today I am still learning, and I realize how much
more there is still to learn.
When I walked into my brother’s shop
there were many different coffee sacks lying
open against the wall. He would ask me to
go and get some Mocha, for instance, for the
next roast. I would spend the next five minutes
looking for a bag with” Mocha” printed on it.
Of course, I ended up having to ask him which
one it was, because not one bag had the word
“Mocha” printed on it.
He was, in fact, referring to coffee grown
in Ethiopia, Arabia and Yemen. Much like wine
appellations such as Champagne and Burgundy
spelled moccaA.) sm y brother tells the story, a
French king asked his pastry chef to bake him
a new pastry. He came up with a new mixture
of coffee-and chocolate-flavored topping and
called it moccaI.t had little if anything to do with
the origin of the coffee itself.
It was the early 1980’s, when espresso was
still relatively new in Australia, and Seattle had
yet to be considered a coffee destination, that I
tasted a pure Ethiopian Mocha. It happened. It
hit the spot. It was smooth, rich and complex.
ActuallyI, had flukedi t. In spite of my ignorance
ofbarista skills, and coffee in general, I saw
Godinmyespressofworpth e firsttime. ltstands
THETASTE 31
out in my memory, and to this day I still have a
preference for this kind of Mocha.
One of the other features of these early days
was that the standard coffees we used included
Kenya Regal AA, Papua New Guinea Sigri A, and
Colombian Supremo along with several others that
todaya re regardeda s specialtyT. hisi s my brother’s
coffee legacy.W hat is considered specialttoy day,
was our normal, eve1ydayc offee back then.
I loved coming into the factory in the
morning and opening the sealed coffee bins
that contained the coffee roasted the previous
day. The aroma was so intoxicatingly sweet
– much sweeter and more delicate than the
aroma of freshly ground coffee. The marketers
among us know that freshly ground coffee is the
most alluring of all retail aromas, with freshly
baked bread following close behind. But both of
these don’t come close to the fleeting, yet heady,
finesse of whole bean aroma in a sealed bin just
eighteen hours after being roasted.
Coffee aroma is a natural wonder of
God’s design. It is incredibly complex. With
approximately 2,000 compounds, it is
virtually impossible for mankind to replicate.
Unfortunately, too many coffee growers
these days are aiming to maximize yield while
sacrificing aromatic complexity.
I recently experienced the absurd contrast
of roses that had no perfume. When I went to
throw them out, I opened a new plastic garbage
32 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
bag, which surprisingly had a fake rose scent.
Garbage bags that smell more like roses than
roses?! What a wonderful development! For all
our progress in the modern world, it has come
down to such an absurd point as this. I hope and
pray the same doesn’t happen in the coffee world.
In the early 1990’s I began investing in
coffee prices on the New York Futures Exchange
to see what I could learn. Looking at long-term
graphs, I could see coffee was at a 20-year low.
To my uninitiated brain, I figured the market
couldn’t remain low. I was right. Eventually
there was a reported worm infestation in
Colombia and the market took off This meant
my options quickly became worth enough to
pay for a new bathroom for my wife. I was
satisfied, and to be prudent, I bailed out.
Then I had a dream. In the dream I was
surfing a fast-moving wave. I was having trouble
maintaining control of the surfboard. At the
same time, I was taking advice from some
friends on the beach who knew little about
surfing. One was a tea salesman, the other was
a real estate agent. Good guys, but why would I
take advice from them on a subject which I knew
more about anyway? I interpreted this dream
to mean that I had been paying attention to the
wrong ideas. Instead, I should get back on the
wave and ride it even if it was a little scary.
After having this dream, I clearly remember
driving home along the Pacific Highway and
——
wondering whether to get back in to the market.
Just as I was about to get on the freeway, I called
my broker and bought a couple of new coffee
call options. Soon a double frost hit Brazil and
coffee prices went ballistic overnight. I rode the
wave a 11 the way to the end. It was a revea Ii ng
experience. One moment the market moves up
forty cents and you feel invincible, like you’re
King Kong. The next night, when the market goes
down 30 cents, you lose $30,000 and you feel
like a complete loser. Why didn’t I get out the
night before? Why was I so greedy? Of course
this loss is nothing compared to the hardship
caused by natural disasters in coffee producing
countries. Yet, even for coffee producers, events
like these can be learning opportunities. For
instance, I have heard that growers who live in
particularlyf rost-pronea reas of Brazilw, ho after
experiencing crop losses, have modified their
planting methods to minimize the effects of frost.
I have since come to understand, through
my father-in-law who was a futures broker, that
because of the nature of the business, with all
it’s ups and downs, it is ve1y hard to remain
objective with your emotions. It is a wonderful
exercise in understanding and knowing yourself
under pressure. Learning how to trust your
instincts and back your own judgments, makes
for an exhilarating ride through life at the ve1y
least. In the end, I was fortunate to make enough
money to repay some of our debts and take the
kids out of school to travel around Australia
for eight months. This was my first sabbatical
in fourteen years.
When I came back to my wholesale coffee
business eight months later, I started the first of
my espresso bars. The year was 1995. There was
an existing specialty coffee business in Neutral
Bay, Sydney that offered about eighteen different
single origin and blended coffees in hoppers
on the main wall. On the opposite side was a
tiny La Pavoni single-group espresso machine.
They also sold a nice range of fine confectione1y
and Belgian chocolates, in addition to coffee
equipment and fine bone crocke1yA. s emi-retired
former airline employee ran the shop. A nice
man, but he, and the business, were ve1y tired
and it showed. I was familiar with this business
since I had tried selling my wholesale coffee
to the owner before him. It was a thriving
enterprise back then. Now, I could feel, and
almost taste, the potential.
My parents had been in retailing before
me, having run a successful small haberdashery
and craftss hop in SydneyT. heyo ften complained
that their shop tied them down too much even
though the business itself was a roaring success.
What I did realize was that my father had a flaw.
He was too close to his business. He compulsively
overstocked his small change every day and
insisted that I count every last one-cent coin
each evening as I helped him close the shop. It
THE TASTE 33
used to drive me crazy. But, there is a lesson here. To be successful in retail you have to be very focused
and committed to every detail. A bit offlair, which my mother had in spadefuls, and continually
experimenting and testing new ideas, helps too. I later learned that being too tied down to your
shop is really poor management. Instead, by training other people to perform the time-consuming
tasks of opening and closing the store, you can focus more on building the business in ways that
others cannot do for you. Because I had not yet learned this while on the road wholesaling coffee,
I had a slight aversion to being tied down to retailing.
34 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
MY FIRST ESPRESSOB AR
Despite all this, I threw myself into the new challenge with all the
refreshed energy I had at my disposal after my sabbatical. To my surprise
I loved it. I loved the immediacy of it.
I would play with placing stock in different
places to see what would happen. It never ceased
to amaze me how, if priced and presented
attractively items would fly out the door, even
products that I sometimes didn’t particularly
like myself lfl got feedback from customers,
I would try and implement their suggestions and
change the store immediately. It often worked.
I ust by taking some shelves, which blocked
customer views, out of a window, our brewed
coffee sales jumped by 25 percent. By putting
in a new three-group machine to replace the old
second-hand, two-group machine, sales shot
up another 25 percent. By putting two tables,
chairs and a sign on the footpath outside, sales
jumped up 50 percent. In retail, the results of
Success at retail is really pretty simple and
comes from following a couple of basic rules.
First, be pleasant and do whatever it takes to
make the customer return. Second, always aim
to exceed customers’ expectations. I was amazed
to find out how true this was. Four years after I
had sold out of the Neutral Bay shop, a former
employee told me a customer relayed a story
to him. It was about how I had installed an
expensive hand-beaten copper jug made
specificallyt o dispense the exact quantity of
coffee beans from the hopper to their retail
pack. I had this jug made specially for the
purpose of showing customers how precious
coffee was, and that it shouldn’t be stored in
grimy plastic containers. It worked. Customers
my efforts were realized immediately. To me, can sniff out sincerity and expertise like a drugthis
was far easier than wholesale where it was sniffing dog at an airport. Customers love it and
a victory justto get in the door and talk to a will go out of their way for it. And pay extra for it.
decision maker. Nearly everyone who walked There is true satisfaction in that.
into my shop was already a customer. And they I like the ancient proverb, “Do you see a man
paid me to sample my coffee. I used to have to who is diligent in his work? He will stand before
give it away as samples when I was wholesaling. kings; He will not stand before obscure men.”
36 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THE TASTE 37
This constantly reminds me that it doesn’t
matter how humble our craft may be, repairing
shoes or se1ving coffee, the richest, most
powerful and important people in the world
want someone they can trust and who
is dedicated to excellence. As we all should.
In 1997, I went to the Specialty Coffee
Associationo f America( SCAAa)n nual conference
and participated in their Espresso Training Lab.
This is where I began to gather experience with
different espresso styles. In the next two years,
my staff and I raised the amount of coffee sold
as espresso by almost 1,000 percent. This is
not an exaggeration. Yet, despite the fantastic
increase in sales, I kept on being made aware
there was something I was missing out on. I still
wasn’t satisfied with the flavor of my espresso
shots. As a result, I continued down the trail of
seeking to improve my espresso coffee.
A few milestones remain in my memory
from my time at Neutral BayT. he one that was
the most profound occurred early on when
I brewed an espresso from a lightly roasted
sample. It tasted like I had just bitten into a
lemon. The high acidity of the light roast was
accentuated even more because it was brewed
as an espresso. It could have been drinkable as a
drip filter or French press coffee, but as espresso
it was undrinkable. This made me realize how
pi-ofoundlyd ifferent brewing espresso coffee is
from drip or French press coffee.
38 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
Espresso is far more complex and
demanding. By subjecting the coffee grounds
to nine bars of pressure, instead ofone bar
(i.e. gravity), as is the case with drip brewing,
it exposes much more of the bean to the
extraction process. Consequently, the flavors
that may not be apparent in a drip filter or a
French press coffee ( or even in a professional
cupping), will suddenly appear in an espresso.
Sometimes this can be a bad thing, other times
it can be good.
Soon thereafter, a near Godi nm ye spressColi p
experience occurred. I roasted some Wallen ford
Estate Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee on my
newly acquired Deidrich 2-kg tabletop in-store
roaster. I made a straight espresso shot in a
relatively new machine and it was flawlessly
smooth. It didn’t transport me to places I
have since been, but it was excellent and still
stands out in my memory. What this experience
taught me was that I am more likely to get
an exceptional espresso out of a brand new
espresso machine. Once the espresso machine is
quickly seasoned, you get smooth sweet espresso
very early on in the life of the machine. And that
is exactlyw hat I brewedt his near Godin 1 11_Yespresso
rnp experience in.
It does seem hard, however, to capture this
clean taste lateron in the life of the machine.
Regardless of how fastidious the cleaning
procedures are, in the long run, the coffee oils
left behind after brewing will go rancid and
adversely affect the flavor of your espresso. It is
essential to use an espresso machine cleaningpowder
like Cafetto, but in my experience,
near Godin m ye spresrsnop e xperience repeatable.
If we are patient enough, we can be
rewarded and surprised by people who annoy us.
I remember going to the annual coffee festival
there is only a ve1ys hort time in the life of an in SydneyT. here, a leading barista trainer was
espresso machine when the machine is perfectly making coffeea nd being aggravatinglya rrogant.
seasoned and can produce a perfect espresso.
In addition to the machine, I began to
investigate how the roast affected the taste
of the espresso. Occasionallya, good customer
of mine would sincerely tell me about a cafe in
another part of town who had a better tasting
coffee than I did. I would always go and t1y them
out. In comparison, my espresso coffee was
still not smooth enough nor did it have enough
body to avoid being drowned out by the large
volume of milk being added to it.
At the same time I was running the Neutral
Bay espresso bar, I was still wholesaling coffee
and I was asked to match up a competitor’s
blend of coffee. It was a Northern Italian style
roast, which was slightly lighter than the one
I was roasting at the time. I found I couldn’t
match the good body of the coffee and retain
the smoothness. I had to retreat to the darker
Northwest American-style roast in which I
would sacrifice some smoothness, but the
body would stand out through the milk.
A new avenue of exploration beckoned. I
had to find out how I could recreate a Godin m y
espresrsnop e xperience again. .. or at least make a
He made an espresso for me. He didn’t use a
tamper, which is something we always insist
upon in our scientific training. Instead, he used
the attachment on the side of the grinder. This
is something that any supposed self-respecting
professional barista would never do. Yet the
coffee tasted ve1y good. It tasted much better
than the average coffee I was making.
He understood, or perhaps he had
stumbled upon, a key component in the art of
making great espresso. He properly dosed the
coffee into the handle and adjusted his grind to
suit the strength of his tamping. The brewing
process itself performed part of the tamping as
the coffee expanded while brewing. We’ll get
more into the technical part of this later, but the
fact remained, it was a great tasting espresso.
I had a similar experience during my
daughter’s birthday party that was held at a fivestar
hotel overlooking beautiful Terrigal Beach
north of Sydney. Expecting to be disappointed,
I was served another ve,y good espresso. This
time I noticed the smooth texture of the crema.
It was silky fine. Something you don’t achieve
with a coarser grind and hardertamp.
THE TASTE 41
I suspected that this barista had been trained was no added sugar. I almost cried out loud. It
by the same arrogant trainer who produced such was fantastic. I wanted a bucket full of the stuff.
a delicious espresso for me at the coffee festival
festival as it was the same brand of coffee.
Unfortunately, the barista and trainer must have
moved on, because I’ve been back several times
since and have had terrible espresso coffee.
I also enjoyed an outstanding coffee at a
trade show at Sydney’s Darling Harbor. It was
from another competitor, Illy, and the coffee
had so much body it tasted like a solid, strongbodied
wall of coffee flavor hitting my taste
buds. Dr. Ernesto Illy truly backs up his talk.
His coffee ‘walks the walk’ when made properly.
Whilet hese were only near Godin 1 11yespresso
wp experiences, they were enlightening. My
true epiphany came one day at the Marrickville
Michel’s Espresso when I had one for real.
A barista by the name ofTony Safar was making
the coffee on a three-group commercial
espresso machine. He had European-style
training and an instinctive feel for producing
verys hort Lavazzav olume ristrettos of about
a half ounce (15 ml). We were sampling a
new blend that had been selected by a coffee
committee. Because the majority of customers
in Australia drink milk-based espresso coffees,
he made a cappuccino for me. I was suddenly
transported. The combination of the silky milk
and the ristretto shot was immaculately, almost
unnaturally, smooth, creamy and sweet. There
42 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
To this day, I have never enjoyed a cappuccino
as much as this one. The only one that has
come close was served to me by the inimitable
showman, and extraordinarily dedicated, threetime
Canadian Barista Champion and inaugural
World Latte Champion, Sammy Piccolo, while
I was working with him at 49th Parallel Coffee
Roasters in Vancouver.
My next coffee epiphany occurred in
nearby Ashfield another suburb of Sydney.
I was with George Sabados at his home when he
made me a double ristretto using an old $300
home espresso machine. He ground the coffee
on an even older wooden hand grinder. The
coffee was a fresh sample of a new, Ian Berstein
Belaroma blend. As the coffee poured out into
a wide mouthed colorful demi-tasse, I once
again saw Godin 1 11yesprewsps.o I was astounded
that a basic home espresso machine could make
a coffee that had such an infinite complexity,
depth and richness to it. I had sold these kind
of home machines to retail customers through
my espresso bars by the hundreds. They were
similar though not as good as the current
Ci)fe Series home espresso machines. I had
conducted training courses on them, but never
had I been able to get one to produce a coffee
miracle like this. What did he do that made such
a profound difference? If it could be done using
l THETASTE 43
such basic home equipment, it surely could be bitterness. It was all smoothness, richness,
replicated using the best commercial equipment and a liquid chocolaty coffee sweetness.
worth tens of thousands of dollars. Couldn’t it? It was espresso coffee made right. It also
There have been plenty of times since, has a lot to do, I suspect, with a slightly lower
when I have enjoyed very good espressos at brewing temperature curve. But that epiphany
Bill & Tony’s and Bar Coluzzi in Darlinghurst in had yet to come.
Sydney, where they produced consistently good
old-world espresso coffee. These experiences
reminded me of the time I was setting up
another old Bezzera machine for the wholesale
customer Passalis & Sons. The coffee that slowly
oozed and trickled out resembled the texture
of thin strands of dark honey, curling in the
rounded bottom of the cup with the lighter
swirling crema mixing in. There was no undue
44 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
I had to know what the difference was.
What were these other baristas doing differently,
and seemingly so effortlessly? I suffered many
ashy-tasting espressos that were produced in
machines I knew to be clean, and from coffee
that was freshly ground. These other espressos,
no matter what blend or brand, never suffered
from that.
VIVA THEE SPRESSOT RAINING REVOLUTION
One recurring theme in all this is the training of the barista. If baristas can
be trained to consistently produce good espresso, then we will all be a lot
better off Ifw e don’t quite experienceG odin oure spresscou pst,h en at least
we can be a bit closer to a continual sublime state.
On the training side I saw a revelation. I was
reviewing a training course in Sydney conducted
by one of the city’s leading specialty coffee
companies. The ubiquitous Ian Berstein, now
a renowned coffee author, was sitting next to
me. During the training demonstration, he
leaned over to me and said, “These students
won’t learn how to make a decent espresso
this way in a million years.” Ironically, it was a
demonstration of the same scientific principles
I had been schooled on. I had to silently agree.
But I also realized that it lacked a vital piece of
the espresso training jigsaw puzzle, which had
yet to become apparent to me.
Not more than twelve hours later, George
and I were at my own training facility where
George was being photographed for a training
video I was producing. I had my nine-year-old
son Melchizedek in tow, and in between takes,
Mel asked George ifhe could show him how
to make a coffee. I am not sure why he didn’t
ask me. Maybe he instinctively knew it would
46 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
be more fun if someone other than his father
trained him. (Not that I would have made him
count one-cent coins). Maybe he just knew
where the espresso jackpot really lay.
In between photographs, George spent
a distracted half-hour training Mel. The next
day at home, my wife asked for a coffee. Mel
piped up and said he would make it. My wife
shot me the despairing parental look that says,
“I really wanted to relax with a beautiful coffee,
but I know I am going to have to sacrifice what
I want in order to develop the self esteem of
my offspring.” Low and behold, Mel carefully
packed his handle, re-evaluated it (at which
point my wife heroically restrained herself
from offering advice), then topped it up slightly
and poured a magnificent doppio. He regularly
repeats the feat on demand.
This truly highlighted the difference
between the two schools of thought. On the one
hand, an expensive professional barista training
course witnessed by hard-core coffee geeks
and hopeful professionals, was conducted by the scientific coffee textbook and yet found to be
unhelpful and over-complicated. On the other hand, a cursory half-hour practical demonstration
resulted in a nine-year-old child producing a product, which puts a multi-million dollar, five-star
international hotel chain to shame.
What exactly is this missing jigsaw piece? It is my belief that it has to do with dosing coffee
by volume, not weight. I have studied many variables, from the machine to the grind, and have
since come to realize that the volume of coffee used is a much more reliable measure than is the
weight of the grinds. Many hardened coffee professionals resist this, and I have had to fight tooth
and nail on technical committees to champion this cause. More recently I took the fight to coffee
competitions in Australia,n ot to mention the WorldB aristaC hampionship and the SCAAT. hey
are all doing a fantastic job with their annual coffee competitions and training, but still there are
professionals who resist this approach. They are not letting taste be their sole guide when it comes
to espresso. But, I believe, once I realized this, my revolution had begun!
THE TASTE 47
L
COFFEET O ESPRESSO:E VOLUTION
When I first started in coffee in 1981, cheap drip-filter machines were
flooding the market. People actually gave them to other human beings
as gifts. A startling fact of history, I know, but true nonetheless.
Prior to this, you could savor a scalding cup of produces a very faithful espresso.
instant coffee with a dash of milk throughout I can remember the overwhelming body
most of Australia. There were a few trendsetters, and oiliness of this French mix my dad used
outside the newly arrived European immigrants, to brew, which the milk could not mask, and
who braved a new coffee world. My father was my young pubescent palate did not like much.
one of them as he proudly ground his coffee Although some thirty or so years later, while
beans in a Moulinexc hopper. (I still can’t bring stayingw ith an acquaintance,G eoffB abcocko f
myself to call them grinders even though today Zoka Coffee in Seattle who passionately prefers
many well-intentioned consumers are using this this kind of dark roast coffee, I did enjoy it as
single-blade, mini-food blender to attack their a drip-filter coffee. Somehow it hit the spot in
coffee beans.)
(Ahh … the subtleties of coffee grinding
to follow).
The old Moulinex and Dad’s preferred
French mix beans, ground coarsely for the oldfashioned
electric percolator had a certain cachet
in comparison to the seemingly all pervasive
instant blend No. 43. (One number away from
the GalaxyH itchh iker’s meaning of life, but it
may as well be an eternity from great tasting
espresso!) Having said this, Nestle obviously
realize espresso is different too, as they have
developed a great system with Nespresso which
50 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
Seattle. Perhaps it suits the very moist, cool
climate that seems to prevail there.
The old percolator in our home, however,
soon went by the wayside and was replaced by a
Moulinex drip-filter machine. This was not such a
bad development, as the old percolators re-boiled
the coffee over and over again. The old percolator
was definitely not a good way to highlight the
subtle nuances of the delicate array of coffee oils
contained within any given coffee bean. In fact, it
is essentiallyg ood coffee’sa ssassin.
For the next decade or so, the drip-filter
machine reigned supreme in Australia. At least
THETA5TE 51
L
52 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
it would produce an acceptably faithful cup, even press extraction, not the least of which is to
though many of the domestic brewers took thoroughly stir the coffee grounds before
almost eleven minutes to deliver the hot water plunging your infuser because, as someone
for brewing a SO-ounce (1.5 liter) jug of coffee. once said, “A bit of foreplay is a good thing.”)
Commercial machines, which I was placing in I am deliberately skipping over many details in
the leading corporate offices of Sydney at the all this because the real passion and intensity
time, took a more respectable four minutes to lies up ahead in the tiny demi-tasse.
deliver 60 ounces (1.8 liters) of coffee. But there After the French Press came the stove-top
was a dark cloud on the dripping horizon. Drip espresso, as it is known in Australia. In Italy it is
filter was OK but… the Caffetiere. In North America it is known as
The French press arrived, or the plunger, the moka express. (Here is yet another variant
as Australians prefer to call it. Thanks to the spelling of Mocha to further confuse the theme.)
Australian preference for ruthless efficiency These handy little units can brew anything from
(although some mean-spirited critics prefer to a single demi-tasse to 16 cups of coffee. Because
call it our inherent lazy casualness), the French they rely on steam pressure alone to force the
press started to gain popularity in the mid to late water through the coffee grounds, you can’t
l 980’s. The French press not only looked more grind the coffee nearly as fine as you can for
trendy for magazine photographers, it was, and
is, much more convenient. No mucking around
with filter papers. Boil the water just like in the
good old instant days, pouryourwateron the
grinds, and in a few quick minutes you have a
palatable brew.
Because of this convenience factor,
the French press will always have a place in
the world of good coffee. For me, a little too
much sediment gets through the fine wire
mesh and creates a slightly muddy texture that
I don’t particularly enjoy. (However, if you
talk to Carl Staub of Agtron fame, he has some
interesting thoughts on maximizing French
a pump espresso machine. However, you can
get a reasonable result. Good body, much like a
drip-filter coffee that has used copious amounts
of coffee grinds. But there are no blinding
transfigurations to speak of here either.
Now we enter the Formula One class of
the coffee world: The pump-action espresso.
In our home we use a single group espresso
machine daily to entertain friends and neighbors.
It gets a workout every day. It is now as much a
part of the family and as indispensable as our
television or our computer. It has definitely
delivered an excellent return on investment in
a vety short span of time. This is both in terms
THE TASTE 53
L
of physical satisfaction and the amount of usage
per dollar invested. No other piece of furniture
in the house, with the possible exception of the
kitchen bench and the dishwasher, comes close.
Without dwelling on minutiae, there
have been a couple of significant signposts in
the development of the commercial espresso
machine. When Mr. Gaggia added a reliable
mechanical pump to the basic hand-pumped,
glorified stovetop machine in about 1946, this
greatly increased the reliability and repeatability
of a decent espresso. Then Mr. Faema introduced
his heat exchange system in 1961, a principle
still in use today. It involves running a separate
pipe through the boiler so that the hot water in
the boiler heats the fresh water passing through
the pipe straight to the brew head. La Marzocco
and others took this a step further in recent
years and created a machine with two separate
boilers, one for steaming or frothing your milk
and one for brewing coffee. The idea behind
the multiple boiler systems is to try and deliver
a more stable temperature while brewing. It
is a good idea, since brewing temperature has
a large bearing on the flavor of the espresso
coffee in a cup. Still, there are machines in
development I have heard about that wi II further
revolutionize this area of the coffee industry.
In a few short years we will be using espresso
equipmentthat will be as different from the
current equipment as the modern day Formula
54 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
One racing car is from the Model T Ford.
Yet for now, once we have secured a fully
commercial espresso machine and grinder
we are ready to get serious. We are on the grid.
As fledgling baristas, this is where most
of us begin our quest for the ultimate espresso
coffee. We wrestle with a grinder and espresso
machine to perfect the espresso shot and steaming
of milk. Up ahead, we will venture into the two
lesser-known variables, growing and roasting,
without which there is no espresso in any cups.
Coffee roasting is my main game. I have
been involved with it in some way or another
over the last 26 years. Coffee growing is a newer
field of exploration for me, as it is for most
professional roasters. But both these areas have
a huge impact on the flavor that is experienced
in an espresso cup. And in the end, all three
areas – growing coffee, roasting coffee and
making coffee – are actually parts of the one
whole world of espresso coffee. They are all
interdependent. For those of us who merely
enjoy a well-made espresso coffee at home,
and who will never venture into the professional
coffee industry, it is worth knowing something
about growing and roasting so that maybe, just
maybe, many of the frustrating pitfalls that
bedevil the enjoyment of espresso can
be avoided.
And so let us begin.
Ladiesa nd gentlemen start youre spressoe ngines.
L
PART II
Having worked in the specialty coffee roasting industry for
some time, the cool breezes and green calm I experienced
on the coffee farm are in great contrast to the heat, oil,
smoke and mechanized noise of the industrial coffee
roasting facility,w ith which I am more familiar.
The coffee farm’s na’ive, idyllic appearance belies
the complex bearing it has on the flavor of the miraculous
elixir that so many of us crave. It is true that the potential
flavor of roasted coffee is determined by a skilled roaster,
and the final flavor of the espresso coffee once extracted
is dependent upon the barista who pulls the shot. But,
if a skilled roaster doesn’t have a good quality coffee to
workw ith, then the result may be lesst han exemplaryT. he
potential of the raw material that the coffee roaster works
with is determined a great deal by what goes on at the coffee
farm. Therefore, the flavor of the espresso coffee, once
extracted, ultimately depends on what goes on at the leafy
green coffee farm.
THE GROWER 59
…….;
::r
(D
C)
~
0
~
(D
~
_l
It is a shame that the humble coffee grower is the mostneglected
part of the espresso coffee world triumvirate.
The middle part, roasters like me, get some attention,
while the glamor “show ponies,” the baristas, or the third
part, get most of the attention. I suppose this is perfectly
understandable, because as we move through our daily
world, dealing with the normal struggles oflife, we rely on
a brief, sweet stopping place where a friendly face serves us
a delicious,i nvigorating,b rave-heart-startetro help us face
life’s challenges. It is no wonder that the people who serve
us this magic elixir are looked at much like a man diagnosed
with cancer looks to the hand of his doctor.
As the world of specialty coffee changes, increasingly,
farmers are beginning to understand their role in the flavor
of the final cup, and are gaining recognition for their efforts.
THE GROWER 61
CUPO F EXCELLENCET®H:E C OFFEEG ROWERS
The first time I stood on a coffee farm in Nicaragua was when I had just
finished evaluatingt he NicaraguanC upo f Excellence®in 2003.
This is an exhaustive competition in which
coffee growers throughout the country submit
a sample of their coffee to be evaluated. It is
roasted and each sample is blind tasted by a
national panel who evaluates it according to
preset parameters. Of the sometimes hundreds
of samples received for the competition, the
national jury narrows that number to the top
forty or so. These top coffees are then set aside
and re-evaluated by an international panel
of professional coffee cuppers.
As part of the international jury, I tasted
each of these Nicaraguan coffees multiple
times, scoring them in a way that is similar to
fine wines. It is a most rigorous and demanding
procedure that requires a lot of slurping,
spitting and evaluating. When the final winner
is announced, it is quite a humbling experience
can participate. This process of buying has
proven to be a successful alternative method
for roasters to access coffees directly from the
grower. Essentiallyit, allowst hem to bypasst he
traditionalc ommodity-basedN ewY ork” C’ futures
contract, which typically has often garnered
them prices well below the cost of production.
The Cupo f Excellenceis a program that is a
descendent of Dr. Ernesto llly’s efforts to create
coffees in a way that is similar to a winemaker.
To do this, he set out to tame variables associated
with the flavor quality of his coffee by going to
where it was grown to ensure that the grower
produced the best coffee possible to suit his
style of espresso. He ran his own company
competitions in Brazil, and worked with key
growers to improve their agronomy practices
to ensure they would produce quality coffee.
to see the exhilaration of the growers and their This is exactly what good winemakers do.
families who have spent countless hours tending, They work with the plant to gain an intimate
harvesting and processing their precious coffee
trees and cherries.
The winning coffees that score above
84 percent are then sold through an Internet
auction in which buyers from around the world
62 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
understanding of the plant’s development.
They take a look at plant variety, soil type and
other factors, just as winemakers have done
for centuries.
Just imagine Max Schubert, the creator
of Penfolds’ Grange Hermitage, trying to
create the wonderful wine he had in mind by
asking a whole lot of middlemen (importers
for instance), to talk to another group of
middlemen (exporters), who in turn talk to
some more middlemen (the beneficio operators),
who buy the stuff that happens to look red from
growers. No one involved has any idea what
the initial competition in Brazil in 1999, it has
proven to be a successful way to bring growers
and roasters together to discuss taste profiles.
After three solid days of tasting Nicaragua’s
best, some of us decided to visit the local market
on the other side of Managua city. It was late
afternoon by the time we had finished our
souvenir shopping in the colorful. humid and
type of wine he has in mind or how it is even sweaty open-air market. I was extremely hot and
made! I think it is fair to say that it would have thirsty. There was a rustic open-air concrete bar
been impossible. This is unfortunately the way in one corner of the market where drinks were
in which many coffee blends that we commonly sold. It seemed to be a place that Jack Kerouac
experience are developed. There is no doubt that might have frequented ifhe had travelled this far
Dr. llly’s method truly proved to be innovative south of the border. The sun was setting, giving
within the coffee industry. These first coffee
competitions in Brazil evolved into what is now
known as the Cupo f Excellencep rogram. Since
off one of those inimitable romantic auras that
seem to coincide with the end of a lot of hard
work, adventure and concentration. I bought a
THE GROWER 63
Freshly picked coffee cherries
pouring out of the harvester.
The coffee cherries ripen at
different rates depending
on the micro-agronomy of
angle of exposure to sunlight.
This always requires diligent
sorting at the wet-mill.
deliciouslyc hilled Coca-Colaw, hich was served in an old-fashioned glass bottle with a flip-top lid. It
fit the scene perfectly. As I savored the moment by myself, dreamily watching the street urchins and
dusty, tattered vehicles passing by, with the sun in my eyes, beads of sweat ran down my back under
my shirt. It was one of those wonderful moments in life you wantto savor as long as possible. The
unusual sweetness of the Coke perfectly matched the scene. I was later told that in Nicaragua,
natural sugarcane is used in the cola. Even though I had tasted a hundred coffees filled with caffeine
overthe past few days, the caffeinated cola hit a magical spot with its surprising sweetness. I have
never enjoyed a Coca-Colas o much before, or since.
What we perceive when we taste something has an enormous amount to do with the context
in which we taste it. Wine, coffee, and for that matter, cola, are no different here. When wine or coffee
are enjoyed in pleasant company, complemented by a cozy ambience and soothing music, it seems
to taste better. It is well documented that external stimuli affect how we taste. That is why coffee
professionals seek to cup coffees in a neutral environment with little or no distractions. And I suppose
that is why the Godi1 1yo11resprwesps eox perience stands out so profoundly for professional tasters.
64 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
GROWING ALTITUDE VERSUS LATITUDE
The next day I ventured up to the award winning Nicaraguan farm along
with Henrik the local coffee exporter. He was a Danish guy with detailed
coffee knowledge and who was seemingly comfortable with the machinegun
toting guards on his coffee processing plant who were there to
protect his coffee.
We haven’t been able to find
the cherries this little guy ate
and there are no plans that
I am aware ofto sell coffee
that has passed through a
kangaroo digestive tract.
This farm was located atabout3,300 ft (1,100 m) above sea level. By climbing up this far, the
temperature and climate changed dramatically. It was much cooler and more temperate, and as
I stood beside a natural water storage pool in the middle of the farm with a cool and gentle breeze
blowing, it struck me how similarthis climate was to that of another coffee farm I had been on
thousands of miles away on another continent.
That farm, known as Mountain Top Coffee®c, an be found on top of what might be considered
a hill elsewhere in the world. It is located at just under 1,000 ft (300 m) above sea level. But because
it is about 600 miles (1,000 km) south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the climate is extraordinarily
similar to a coffee farm located near the equator, which because of its elevation, isn’t affected by
the sweltering, seething humid heat found below. Mountain Top Coffee is in northern NSW on the
east coast of Australia.
Many of the poor farmers in coffee growing countries, have little or no control over how
their coffee is processed, let alone understand how the intrinsic flavor of the bean is developed.
This is because they lack the sufficient knowledge and capital to take processing into their own
hands. Once the coffee leaves their front gate, it is often taken to large cooperative beneficios,
or processing plants, where their coffee is mixed with others from the area. This results in an
indistinct coffee that cannot be traced back to the specific farm from where it originated. There are,
however, a growing number of enlightened coffee growers, such as Mountain Top, who are taking
on the responsibility for processing their own coffee so that they can take a greater role in the final
flavorofthe bean.
66 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
68 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
These enlightened growers are utilizing
a lot of science in their work instead of what
I call, Data Free Observations (DFOs). Hmmm …
Data Free Observations. This reminds me of
a lot of various barista superstitions that are
put forth as facts but are profoundly free of
data. For instance, there is the insane idea that
you throw away the first few precious drops of
espresso that come out, to make the coffee taste
better?! Or, the obtuse, yet equally misleading
observations of a world-renowned coffee
authority who I have heard on many occasions
repeat that the only way to make a perfect
espresso is to extract it in twenty eight seconds.
Pllleeaase. .. give me a break! So, there are some
common denominators between the far-flung
parts of the coffee world already and they include:
Data Free Observations! But I get ahead of myself.
We will get deeply into the minutiae of espresso
extraction when we explore the third pillar of
the coffee world: the barista
THE GROWER 69
I_
70 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THE GROWER 71
Water is a vital and precious
key all along the coffee trail
and not just in the cup. By
modifying irrigation methods,
up to 40% of water can be
saved and the coffee tree can
have a better yield. It is also
possible to produce better
flavor by manipulating the
water now.
72 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
MOUNTAIN TOP COFFEE ESTATE
Before I continue my musings, I should explain why, for a considerable
part of the remainder of this book, Mountain Top Coffee farm will weave
constantly through this story.
Since meeting Andrew Ford a fellow Australian
in 2001 in Miami, Floridaa t the SCAAsh ow I
have been able to frequently travel to his coffee
farm which is only a one hour flight away from
my coffee factory. This has given me access to
a coffee farm which is not encumbered with
generations of history and social pressures that
inhibit innovation. Many other traditional coffee
farms around the world suffer from constraints
which hold back innovation. Andrew’s approach
to achieving quality in the cup as a grower has
wonderfully complimented my parallel quest
as a roaster. It is like having a ‘green field’
plantation driven by a like-minded companion.
It has been and still is a unique collaboration in
the espresso coffee world.
There seems to be a phrase used
throughout all three segments of the coffee
world: I do the world’s best coffee. For the most
part it is a transparent and hollow statement,
much like the shabby corner hotdog stand that
claims they serve the “Best hotdogs in town!”
Their claim has no substance and most people
walk by without hesitation, knowing the boast
is a meaningless exaggeration.
Unfortunatelyt oo many coffeep eople
take their own propaganda too seriously.
They are blinded to the fact that on their farm,
in their factory or attheir espresso bar, what
they claim and what they serve are worlds apart.
While many of these businesses use the slogan,
“Serious about coffee,” those of us who know
better joke that they should claim, “Half serious
about coffee.”E mphasizingt hat point, many of
those businesses aren’t around any longer.
But, of course, there are businesses that
are serious about coffee. That is how it is with
Andrew Ford. When I first met Andrew in Miami
during the world’s largest coffee conference
run by the SCAAhe was a young, clever,t otally
driven and seemingly endless party animal. He
has since calmed down now that he has three
kids, yet he remains extremely dedicated to
his profession and is an unusual specimen
of a grower. He has a true global focus.
In his view, his customer is not the local
beneficio’s truck that passes his farm gate
(if, in fact, there was one in his neighborhood).
THE GROWER 73
L
His customer is the world, and several times a
year, he circumnavigates the globe speaking
to his customers and brokers in Japan, North
America, the UK, Norway, Denmark, Spain or
France. Wherever there is a roaster or broker
who understands the dynamic, newly emerging
global specialty coffee market, and the demand
for consistent quality, Andrew is there.
He practices relationship coffee where the
grower and roaster meet face-to-face to swap
notes on what is required in order to develop
a unique flavor profile for the roaster’s unique
customer. Andrew has an entrepreneurial spirit
that has enabled him to create his business
from scratch and become a leader in the young,
reborn Australian coffee growing industry.
On a historical note, the Australian coffee
and downloads all the data on how much
water the plants have used. He then modifies
his irrigation program to coincide with the
results of his research on how different patterns
of irrigation affect the cup flavor and quality.
By doing so, in a land where water is so precious,
he has saved enormous amounts of water,
improved his yield per tree, and improved the cup
quality of his coffee by preventing water logging
of the root system which can stress the trees.
He has installed a climate controlled
storage building nextto his processing plant so
that after the coffee is processed it can be stored
at an ideal 60° F (l 6°C) and at 55 percent relative
humidity. Very few coffee roasters or traders
store their precious raw (green) coffee in these
ideal conditions. In fact, for the most part, green
growing industry was at its peak towards the end coffee is still counted, stored and transported in
of the nineteenth century, when small lots were 132 lb. (60 kg) burlap bags, the same way it has
exported to Europe. Labor laws enacted in 1901 been for the past couple of centuries. That is why
made the coffee growing industry unviable. It
wasn’t until the development of mechanical
harvesters in the mid 1980’s, that there was a
resurgence of coffee growing in Australia. Now,
there are coffee growers springing up like mold
in used espresso coffee grounds.
Andrew undertakes some unique
approaches to farming. For instance, he uses
computer probes in the root systems of the
coffee trees to measure water intake. Literally,
he walks into his field with a laptop computer
74 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
global production is measured according to how
many 132 lb. bags are produced, although in a
few places bag size differs.
The burlap bag is quaint and rustic. From
time to ttme I have even framed the bags in
which certain outstanding lots I purchased
came in, such as the winning Cup of Excellence
coffees I bought from Guatemala in 2003 and
Brazil in 2005. Now they were great vintages!
However, the question remains as to whether
burlap sacks are the best way to store and
The ill-fated burlap sack. Are its days numbered like the wine
cork? Coffee is still mostly shipped around the world using
this centuries old technology. It allows green coffee with 11 %
moisture content to ‘breath’ i.e. avoid mold build up, but it can
result in ‘baggy’ tasting coffee.
–.
THE GROWER 75
Harvesting coffee can be fun.
The latest harvestersu se
delicate fingers that rotate
in a harmonic figure of eight
pattern to tease the coffee
cherries off the trees.
76 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST _l_
transport green coffee. It is amusing that one
of the faults or taints attributed to coffee is that
it can taste baggy. What do you expect if you
store coffee in bags? That it won’t taste … baggy?
Interestingly enough, up to 5 percent of wine
uses is one that is still quite novel in the specialty
coffee world; a color sorter. Many people have
heard about it, but few roasters or growers use
the color sorter to help improve the quality of
their coffee. Basicallyt, hey sort and remove
bottles are spoiled due to corks making the wine discolored beans that contribute to poor flavor in
taste corked. Again, the obvious answer! In that the brewed cup. The full spectrum light spectrum
case, why not use Stelvin screw tops and totally sorters are better than mono-chrome color
eliminate the corked flavor in wine. I know it sorters, or for that matter the best naked eyes,
is not very romantic, but neither is bad tasting and can uncover additional flaws and faults in
wine, or bad tasting coffee, when it could so the coffee. Then, I have also seen green coffee
easily be avoided. There are now some brave exposed under an ultraviolet light, which reveals
pioneers who are vacuum-packing raw coffee extra flaws that exist in every coffee. Ahh … the
in large 20 kg foil bags in an attempt to preserve, enticing areas of investigation as yet unexplored
as much as possible, the integral coffee flavor. by the coffee hordes all shouting and proclaiming
There also are those who are experimenting “I do the best!” The most important part of this
with freezing raw coffee in an attempt to retain research is that it reveals how defects can affect
the same good flavor. the flavor of the coffee in the cup, instead of
Another newer technology Mountain Top leaving it to those DFOs!
THE GROWER 77
I
GROWERSA ND ROASTERSD ANCET OGETHER
Forg rowers,i t is imperativet hat they learn how to taste coffeea nd havet he
abilityt o distinguishb etweeng ood coffeef lavorc haracteristicsa nd bad ones.
It is in the pursuit of this where the very best growers are meeting the very
best roasters, and increasingly,t he very best baristas are doing likewise.
This is of enormous significance for good
quality coffee. In the past, it was pretty much
a universal practice for coffee from various
farms to be mixed together at the local processing
plant, regardless of quality. So, if a
coffee farmer was producing great coffee and
the farmer down the road wasn’t paying much
attention to quality, it didn’t really matter
too much because they were both lumped in
together receiving the same price from the
buyer (which was based on the commodity
based New York ‘C’ market price). Today, with
the emergence of ecommerce and programs
such as the Cupo f Excellencew, hich reward
farmers for their efforts, there are now further
incentives for them to continue to improve
the quality of coffees they produce.
It also means a small coffee roasting
company in Australia can build a direct
relationship with a grower on the other side
of the world in Nicaragua, Brazil or India.
Similarly, a small grower in Australia can build
78 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
a relationship with roasters in Tokyo, Chicago,
or Oslo. These relationships are the key for a
successful specialty roasting business and a
successful specialty growing business. Previously
only a roaster enormously dedicated to quality
and of sufficiently large size, had the buying
power to conduct growing competitions and
secure the best coffees for themselves, bridging
the gaps between many of the middlemen (the
exporters and importers) who dictated to the
roaster the quantity and the quality of coffee
thatthey could receive. There is sti II the need
for the role of the exporters and importers (Or,
gree11iaess t hey are known in the trade), but it is
emerging as a service role.
Under the previous system, an exporter
might promote a specific coffee to an importer
or broker simply because he happened to have
an abundance of that type of coffee. The broker,
in turn, would promote that same coffee to
the roaster, who would more often than not,
accept the coffee without roasting and sampling
THE GROWER 79
The humble coffee tree and
its fruit. Once the coffee is
picked, it is important to get
the coffee cherries direct from
the field into the bin and off
to the wet-mill as soon as
possible; otherwise it will
start over-fermenting and
going off.
82 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
it before buying. Just like there are good and bad used car salesmen, so too are there good and bad
brokers and roasters. Given the number of steps that coffee travels between the grower and the
consumer, it is truly a miracle that anyone experiences a great-tasting coffee.
NUMBER OF TRADITIONAL STEPS BETWEEN GROWER AND CONSUMER
The commodity-based system of trading coffee requires a laundry list of participants as the coffee
travels from source to the lover of espresso coffee.
MULTIPLE SMALL GROWERS 4 BENEFICIO (WET MILL) 4 BENEFICIO DRY MILL 4 CO-OPERATIVE 4 EXPORTER 4
IMPORTER/BROKER 4 ROASTER 4 WHOLESALER/DISTRIBUTOR 4 RETAILER/BARISTA 4 CONSUMER
Because much of the coffee industry is based on this out-moded model of trade, so much
coffee in the marketplace tastes very ordinary. Butthis is beginning to change. Now the roaster can
communicate directly with the grower, and tell his broker/importer to tell the exporter/shipper
that he must have only the exact lot of coffee from one specific grower purely based on the quality
he has tasted for himself and wants for his customers. Now, for the first time in history this chain
of coffee relationships has been systematicallyd emocratized in favoro f good quality and good taste
as opposed to the anonymous commodity-based system which focuses more on price.
For too long, the grower had little knowledge of how to consistently produce quality coffee.
Much of that can be attributed to the fact that many growers never tasted their own coffees and had
no idea of how quality was defined. At the same time, roasters worked indirectly with farms instead
of communicating directly with farmers, or even visiting them personally. Efforts throughout the
specialty coffee world, such as those by the Specialty Coffee Association of America and programs
such as the Cupo f Excellence,h ave done wonders to bridge this fundamental gap between growers
and roasters. There is still a long way to go, but those growers who remain focused on improving
both the quality of the coffee they produce and the quality of relationships with their roasters,
THE GROWER 83
can consistently receive higher prices for their coffee. As I have said, one of these brave new-world
growers is Mountain Top and others that I have come across including Merthi Mountain in India
and Santo Antonio in Brazil. Happily, there will be many more in the future, I am sure.
COFFEE PROCESSING
Everyc offeep ickedh asf ive layerso f protectivem aterialt hat needst o be
removed in order to reveal the bean inside and ready it for roasting.
First comes the outer skin, which when ripe,
can be red or yellow or even pink depending on
the variety of coffee. This takes with it the pith,
which is much like the pith in an orange. Next
is the sticky, sugary and syrupy-like substance
called mucilage, followed by the parchment,
a hard casing that needs to be hulled from the
bean. Finally comes the silver skin, or what the
roaster calls, the husks or chaff
Each of these layers can be removed in
different ways, at different times with varying
effects on the flavor quality. (And that is not to
mention the optimum time for actuallyp ickingt he
cherries off the trees, which we’ll get into shortly.)
In most coffee reference books you will see
that the two basic coffee processing methods
are wet and dry. The wet process involves the
use of water to move the coffee around and to
ferment the sugar away. Usually the cherries
have their skin removed and are placed in
84 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
holding water tanks. After approximately
24 hours, someone sticks their hand into the
watery mix and when the coffee is no longer
slippery,b ut rather has a gravel-likef eel, the
coffee is removed from the water.
In the dry process, cherries are dried with
their skin on. They are then put into a huller
which removes the skin and the parchment.
Each of these processes is aimed at
removing the five layers of protective material
to reveal the green bean, which the roaster
receives. The process used has a great effect on
the final cup flavor of the coffee. For instance,
in Brazil, the traditional dry process typically
used by growers, involves simply waiting until
all the coffee cherries have become over-ripe
and turned black on the trees. They are then
strip-picked and dried on patios until their
water content reaches about 11 percent. The
dried cherries are then hulled. The challenge
(Leftt o right,t opt o bottom)
• The bags of cherries are
delivered to the holding bin
direct from the field.
• The conveyor takes it from
the holding bin to the set
processing equipment.
· Partially pulped cherries.
• Hands inspect the progress
along the way.
• The cherries keep coming.
• The wet mill starts the
sorting.
86 THEE SPRESSOQ UEST
• Partially pulped cherries
• Water-the ongoing lubricator
• Screening
• Fermentation tank
• The workers are always in
the background
. Pre-dryer.
THE GROWER 87
A real worker’s hand holds
some precious parchment
coffee still sticky with mucilage.
This parchment coffee will be
dried and stored in a climate
controlled storage space to
stabilize the movement of
water inside the green bean.
with this dry-process method is that it is very but the cleaner cup profile of a coffee that is
difficult to separate unwanted, poorly developed washed thoroughly. At Mountain Top they
cherries from the ripe ones. If too much of create different bins or lots from every day’s
this under-developed coffee is present, it will processing, including washed, semi-washed,
taste excessivelya stringent and even dirty and natural and double-pass. Eachh as its own
unpalatable. There are still growers, however, separate flavor profile. It’s a matter of which bin
who are locked into commodity-based coffee
and who will include any green under-ripe
cherries, or anything that can be classified as
‘pure’ coffee, as long as they can sell it mixed
in with everything else and get away with it.
On better farms, color-sorting machines will
grade and sort out the good beans from the
discolored bad ones.
More recently,t he Braziliansd eveloped
what is knowna s semi-washedo, r pulpedn atural.
In this method, the coffee is pulped using the
wet process, however the fermentation stage to
remove the mucilage is omitted. The result is a
coffee that retains a flavor profile that is a mix
of wet and dry processes.
Now,a new process, called doublpea ss,i s
being pioneered by Mountain Top. The double
pass process sorts over-ripe or raisin cherries
(something similar to a grape-raisin) into
soaking tanks where they remain for about an
hour. This allows the black raisins to re-hydrate
and swell up. The result is that it allows you to
wash and clean fruit in a way that is similar to
a semi-washed coffee. This produces a coffee
that has the extra complexity of a natural raisin
88 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
number you prefer, rather than which origin or
which estate. Now we are getting somewhere!
Within each process, there are an infinite
number of variables which can be introduced to
alter the final results. For instance, the amount
of sugar left on a bean prior to drying can affect
the sweetness of the processed bean. This is,
in fact, of particular importance for Holy Grail
espresso hunters. Again I am introducing a little
textbook information here, but it is worthwhile
to understand the complexity of the grower’s
input into flavor development.
I was surprised when I attended a Roasters
Gui Id retreat some years ago, that for the first
time, a couple of good espresso machines
were made available for everyone to use.
I wasn’t surprised that the machines were
finally introduced as a part of the Roasters
Guild, but rather that so few roasters could
actually pack a portafilter properly to make
themselves a halfway decent espresso. It was
kind of embarrassing to watch these coffee
professionals, and they are professionals in
so many other ways, fumbling and struggling
to make a simple espresso. To their credit,
they were open to learning how to do it properly. In my opinion, if a roaster cannot properly make an
espresso, it is an indication that that roaster is not tasting the coffee that is intended for their espresso
customers. Therefore, the roaster cannot truly develop an excellent espresso blend!
Like many roasters, for a good decade and half, I was more focused on drip-filter than espresso,
so I am not making out that I am any better. But I do take pride in the fact that after nearly fifteen
years of roasting and wholesaling coffee, I put the effort into being a professional barista in an
espresso bar and I now understand how difficult it is to make a halfway decent shot.
There is an extraordinarily complex amount of detail required in growing and processing coffee,
and each part must rely on the other. On one hand every good roaster needs a good barista and on
the other hand a good grower. Likewisea good grower needs a good agronomist on his other hand.
To complete the picture, the barista needs customers on his other hand, joining everyone together.
THEE SSENTIALA GRONOMIST
DaveP easleyi s an agronomistw ho deservesm ost of the creditf or pioneering
coffee growing in the region around, and including Mountain Top. Over a five
yearp eriod, he tested approximately7 0 differentc offeec ultivarsg, rowing
test samples and taste-testing them for things like cherry yield, cherry-togreen-
bean ratio, bean size and, of course, cup quality.
He did so to narrow down the field until he chose For instance, I find the Bourbon variety has
the K? variety of bean, which came from a French a little less body than a Caturra. But it is very
mission in Kenya. hard to detect these minute differences when
There are many cultivars or varieties of
coffee plant derived from Arabica and Robusta.
In fact there are about 360 types and each
reveals slightly different taste characteristics.
90 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
a few seconds of espresso over-extraction
or a few small grams of under-dosing can
completely obliterate and mask any of these
potential subtleties.
This is one of the reasons why espresso
is so tantalizingly elusive and perhaps similar
to a sport such as golf. To use an analogy, it is
the roaster who turns the green beans brown.
The barista then takes the roasted beans, grinds
them and converts them to liquid. All three are
extremely satisfying when you are in the zone and essential to the final flavorof the brewed espresso.
everything comes together for you. Yet, there are
so many elusive subtleties that need to be worked
on to make your game better. In any case, it is
critical to get your espresso dosing and extraction
exact so these subtleties can be enjoyed.
Within the specialty coffee world, it could
be argued that different processes at the mill
have a greater affect on the final taste than the
differences in coffee varieties. For instance, a
Caturra that is picked too early and is processed
using the traditional washed method, will not
have as much body as a double pass processed
natural Bourbon. In this example, the coffee
processor has more affect on the flavor than
the grower, much like the winemaker has more
affect than does the vineyard. A grower using
a good agronomist can leap ahead of other
growers by enjoying the benefit of a select variety
more uniquely suited to his or her climate or for
optimizing harvest timing.
From time to time in my travels, I run
across growers who are embracing their role
in transforming the bean into a beverage. In
Bolivia I visited several coffee farms, tasting
each of their coffees. One farm was situated
at about 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level
and the other, Cafe Takesi, was possibly the
highest coffee farm in the world at over 9,000
ft. (2,800 m). The first coffee I tasted had
intensely rich aroma, and powerful citric acidity
combined with outstanding sweetness. It would
have stacked up against the finest Ethiopian
Yirgacheffey ou could find. The second coffee
also had outstanding crisp acidity, although not
quite as much as the first one. But as a result of
fermentation, it had an added fruity complexity.
Two others I tasted were mild and pleasant with
low acidity. One was dull and flat, which was a
result of a processing or storage problem, and
the other was very earthy with a powerful body.
Whereas the winemaker is responsible for This is a great example of how a grower can
taking the raw material and transforming it into make a difference in the final flavor, and how
wine, within the coffee world, the coffee grower, going the extra yard can help a roaster find a
who also does his own processing is actually one better coffee than all his competitors.
of three people who take part in transforming Another example of a grower making a
coffee into a beverage. First, the grower takes difference is the time a young Indian guy by the
the cherries and passes on dry green bean to name ofNithya Somaiah came into my factory
THE GROWER 91
92 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
Parchment coffee bouncing
around in the pre-dl)’er; this
allows the coffee to be gently
heated to remove excess
moisture.
Coffee cherries continue on
the conveyor belt forming a
pretty pattern like wallpaper
while they continue to get
sorted. There are now more red
cherries and less black ones.
—
to sell me some of his green coffee. I was busy wines, I went to a wine store and bought a
and he left me some samples which I didn’t get dozen bottles of wine. Four bottles each from
around to tasting before he called back a couple three different wineries. My wife and our friends
of weeks later. I did challenge him by asking if enjoyed them to a greater or lesser degree over
he could create semi-washed Rob us ta for me. the next couple of weeks. In particular, the
He went away and I thought that would probably Mission Hill wines stood out from the other
be the last I would see of him. To my surprise,
he came back a couple of weeks later with a
sample of coffee that was simply extraordinary.
It was a true semi-washed Robusta. It was not
aqua-pulped, a form of controlled washing,
which results in more of a prized sweetness and
soft body. Instead, once the skin was removed,
the parchment was placed on raised beds and
then dried with the all important sugars still on
the outside. The flavor was smooth unlike the
majority of Robustas and it had a viscous body
to it that seemed almost chewy. As a result it is
fantastic for espresso. In fact, I later found out that
he had employed extra farm workers to rub the
coffees with their hands every three hours orso for
two wineries we tasted, with the flavor of all
four bottles selected being much better than
the other two wineries. During our Canadian
holiday we visited Mission Hill, which proved to
be an incredibly impressive business. The level
of detail to attention reminded me of Mountain
Top. They had virtually rebuilt the whole hill that
the winery stood on, including dynamiting half
of the hill, then placing the appropriate rocks,
and subsoil for correct drainage while leaving
room for cavernous cellars; they used a particular
variety of topsoil and grass to ensure there was
no competition with the vines for nutrients, and
then selected the right kind of vines for the area.
The thing that really struck me was that this
several weeks in order to make sure the parchment winemaker wanted to make the best possible
dried evenly without undue fermentation. This was wine he could. This is a sentiment that is also
very humbling indeed and their efforts did not go expressed with the most outstanding coffees
unrewarded.I think it is possiblyt he world’sm ost in the world. The first statement the young
expensive Robusta coffee.
These are two good examples of how the
winemaker made was that at Mission Hill they
should strive to own their own vines so that
growerc an makea differenceB. utt here iss tillm uch they could control the entire quality chain.
research that needs to be conducted on coffee. For, if they depended on procuring grapes
Recently, I was staying with some friends in from various sellers, they would not have full
Canada. Not knowing anything about Canadian control over that part of the flavor development.
THE GROWER 95
As a result of this, you can definitely taste the
difference.
(Interestingly enough and purely
coincidental, Mission Hill Winery sought out
coffee for their restaurant that is roasted by
Vince Piccolo of 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters
who comes into ournext pillarofthe espresso
world: the roaster. I guess like minds are all
attracting one another.)
With coffee, this is very hard to do in
many parts of the world because of the lack of
knowledge and skills on the part of the growers.
The improvement of skills and knowledge at
the growing level is essential everywhere, even
in one of the remotest and often overlooked
producing countries in the world like Papua
New Guinea. This is where I met growers in
their tiny thatched villages who were extremely
hungry for information about how to improve
their quality and add value to the coffees they
grew. One grower in Siherini, for example,
modified his processing so that instead of
washing his coffee in a nearby river using a
polysack (a high-density polyethylene woven
plastic-sack), he built raised tables and semiwashed
his coffee. The coffee tastes far more
powerful yet smooth with great sweetness. As a
result, he produced a coffee that is much better
suited to espresso. Fully understanding your
product is the starting point for any successful
businesses regardless of the field you are in.
96 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
As a coffee agronomist, Dave Peasley
evaluates the exact time to pick the coffee using
a meter to measure the pull force required to
pluck the cherry off its stem. Under-ripe cherries
take greater force to pull off the trees than do
riper cherries. He systematicallym easures every
tenth tree in every tenth row and the driver
makes adjustments according to the harmonic
tension on the harvesting machine to delicately
pluck only the desired ripe cherries. This is
repeated two or three times during a season as
the fruit ripens, until all the fruit is picked at the
right point of ripeness.
Other agronomic practices at Mountain
Top include stressing coffee trees. This process,
which requires starving the tree of water to
produce a greater concentration of flavors in
the bean, occurs naturally in places like Ethiopia
where the most amazing flavors can emerge.
It is a bit like Van Gogh’s paint pallet on your
tasting palate. Striking, powerful and intense
lemon-citrus, blueberry and orange marmalade
flavors emerge but combine so beautifully that
the overall result is artwork.
THE SWEET l<ISS OF LONG RIPENING
One of the main reasonsD aves electedth e particulars itew here
Mountain Top is located is that it is situated in a frost-free climate that
hasu nbelievablyri ch, fertile soil.A t the top of itsv alley,M ountainT op
is covered and cooled by the mist as it rises from the valley below
throughout the morning. This extra coolness also allows for a slower
and longer ripening time.
A long ripening period is vital for developing the sugars which produce a natural sweetness in
coffee. If coffee cherries mature too quickly from green to prime red, the sun doesn’t have sufficient
time to convert starch to sugar, therefore the coffee will not develop as much sweetness. Even though
you can grow a coffee with good sweetness, much ofit is actually contained in the sticky mucilage
and is separated from the bean itself by two protective layers: the parchment and the silver-skin. It
is ironic that after going to so much care to grow a coffeew ith this universallya dored natural sugar,
it can all be washed away by the washing process. Water processing coffee makes it easier to process
coffee. The mucilage is sticky and difficult to manage and by soaking the beans in water for a period
of time, the sugars ferment and are transformed. Fermenting can add some complexity, but it has
to be carefully controlled so that you don’t get too much fermentation otherwise the sugars end
up tasting like sickly,c omposted, fruity,c otton candy( if it is possible to imagine that). Eitherw ay
washing removes some vital sugar and body, the two most desirable characteristics for espresso.
There are other theories, including how variations between day and night temperature
improve body or mouthfeel, although I don’t have any data for this. So one DFO hypothesis is that
the variation between high and low temperatures contributes to this effect and helps produce
buttery body, also ideal for espresso. But even something as simple as planting the trees in north/
south rows as opposed to east/west rows can have a bearing on flavor. If the trees are planted in
an east/west pattern in the southern hemisphere, one side of the tree will mature more quickly
than the other because of the angle of the sun during the ripening period. As a result you will
98 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THE GROWER9 9
Rain causes the buds to set.
These buds in turn flower
and become next season’s
cherries. World coffee
prices can fluctuate greatly
depending on whether there
is enough rain in Brazil each
year to produce these tiny
little buds.
‘I
Red ripe cherries on the tree.
By leaving the cherries on a
little longer than this when
they start turning more of
a purple color, the sugar
content can increase from
16% to 22%. This is great
for espresso.
I
)
A cherry ‘gives birth’ to a
seed covered in parchment
and mucilage. Coffee does
grow on trees. Note the mold
beginning to form on the
black cherries beneath the
coffea Arabica leaf.
have inconsistent ripening and inconsistent
sweetness development; something that is
much harder to control when picking.
Once while I was riding on a coffee
machine harvester, I noticed that the driver was
completely aware of these kind of challenges,
and had modified the equipment so each side
could be adjusted independently to suit the
variations in the tree, thereby only the desired
cherries were pulled off. This guy is prized for
his skill much like the guy who shapes the best
half-pipes in the world for snow-boarders.
I have found that tasting the coffee cherry
right off the tree is a good indicator of the
type of flavor that will develop. I believe this is
similar to the winemaker who measures grape
development by tasting the grapes in the field
as he walks through a vineyard. Winemakers
will also carry out more detailed scientific tests
with brix meters to more accurately measure
sugars and sweetness, much as a good coffee
agronomist does with coffee cherries. By
comparing sugar content in what most people
refer to as ripe red cherries to an over-ripe or
late harvest purple cherry, sugar content can
increase form 16 to 21 percent. Bring on the
natural sugar baby! This helps enormously in
our quest for a cup of espresso that doesn’t need
sugar added to it. Indeed, later in the harvest is
a preferable time to pick coffee for our needs.
Straight off th~ tree, it is very easy to pick
the difference between a fully ripe red cherry
in comparison to an over-ripe black cherry. For
those who haven’t tasted coffee cherries off a tree,
a good parallel would be to taste the difference
between a fresh table grape and a raisin.
When I first started testing coffees this way,
Dave was with me and immediately questioned
whether it was possible to tell the difference
or not. Because of his scientific background he
likes to make sure opinions can be verified. He
hates Data Free Observations, so he immediately
conducted a field test (literally!)s tanding on the
grass next to the trees on the coffee farm. He
made me and my companion, Gerard, the farm
manager at the time at Mountain Top, close our
eyes and guess whether it was a red or yellow
cherry he was giving us to taste. We were right
about 80 percent of the time, which wasn’t bad
given that not every yellow one tasted the same.
I have found that to some extent the flavors
I experience by tasting the cherry can also be
discerned in the brewed cup.
Having the knowledge of flavor in the cup
is something growers must realize is essential,
because it allows the grower to find a buyer
for the specific flavor profile of his coffee.
One grower who realizes this is is Henrique
Dias Cambraia, who is from the town of Santo
Antonio, Brazil. He is cut from the same kind of
good entrepreneurial cloth as my friend Andrew
Ford is, even though they are an ocean apart.
THE GROWER 103
(Left to ri9ht, top to bottom)
• Brazil produces great coffees
ideally suited to espresso.
· Santo Antonio, one of
Brazil’smallest and best new
style co-ops.
· Henrique Cambraia one of
Brazil’s new breed of high
quality growers sends a
sample to a roaster to be
evaluated.
While I was attending a Cupo f Excellencec ompetition in Brazil,H enrique kindlyo ffered to take
me to Santo Antonio to show me around a group offarms that are plugging into the international
grower-to-roaster direct-supply model. He has adroitly and pleasantly built direct relationships with
specialty roasters in Japan, the United States and Australia. He is looking at how he can improve his
quality via planting different varieties, among other things, and at the same time he is extending
his relationships around the world.
He is, in fact, functioning like a good winemaker. He sees the importance of selecting the
right coffee for a specific customer. It is important in selecting coffees- or grapes- to first understand
what your target market wants, and then in response to that, add your own individual interpretation.
Great winemakers though, just like successful coffee growers, are imaginative and don’t
necessarily only give their customers exactly what they want because that would become boring.
They are original and creative, aiming to exceed their customers’ expectations. By surprising them,
they establish a very loyal and successful business. This is one of the key reasons why some
businesses boom and others don’t.
l 04 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
WORLD TASTE PREFERENCES
In termso f customert astep referencest,h ere are regionald ifferencesa ll
around the world. Some areas in Italy prefer a darker roast coffee, which is
the preferredr oasto f manyW estC oasta nd Seattler oasters.I n the Eastern
U .5., a lighter roast with more acidity is preferred. In northern Europe and
Scandinavia much lighterr oasto f coffeei s desired,w hile Australians
and Japanesep refera more subtlem id-roasts tyle,t hat retainst he gentle
and delicatea romatics,w hile still enhancingt he bodya nd sweetness.
These differences even reveal themselves through
the World Barista Championships. In five out
of the first seven championships, Norway and
Denmark dominated the competition. Not to
take away from the baristas themselves, I believe
this may have had something to do with the
fact that the competition format was originally
devised in NorwayT. herefore the judges, who
were trained largely out of a Scandinavian
tradition, tended to be dominated by this way
of thinking: a very light espresso, that is less
discernible when milk is added as a cappuccino.
But even though this can be pleasant, one style
does not reflect the whole range of world tastes.
Once you know your particular customer
preferences, it is possible to then select coffees
that lend themselves to the particular roast
l 06 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
style for which you are aiming. Then, it requires
a grower, processor and a roaster who are all
carefully attuned to helping create that final
flavor profile.
So who has more effect on the flavor
of espresso coffee, the grower or the roaster?
As it happens it is probably neither. It is more
likely to be the third pillar of the espresso coffee
world, the barista who may not know anything
about the technical aspects of growing and
roasting coffee, but who has a wonderful handson
knowledge of transforming the roasted
coffee into a sweet elixir. But watch out there
is a growing number of good baristas who are
following their passion and exploring all the
factors that affect the taste of their espresso
shots, and who are entering into the roasting
business. It will not be long before they also venture into the growing world and start exploring its
effects on taste, as many roasters now do.
The long and short of all this is that, there is a need to keep exploring the wonderful areas that
beckon and to remember that as coffee growers, roasters or baristas we may never fully resolve any
debates. But along the way, if we keep our minds open we can become better coffee professionals.
Which leads us into the next part of the coffee world …
THE GROWER 107
PARTlll
Just like the champion barista or the really outstanding
grower, so too must the coffee roaster taste coffee.
Undoubtedly, tasting is the guiding light through the
long and winding search for the ultimate espresso.
Unfortunatelya, nd sadly,t oo many roasters don’t taste
or sample enough coffees to fully understand the nuances
in flavor that can be achieved through proper agronomy.
I have been guilty of this often, but no longer I hope. The
consequence of not tasting coffee is that it perpetuates
some pre-existing notions of good or bad tasting coffees.
One example of this is the debate surrounding Arabica
versus Robusta (i.e. is one better than the other?). It is this
single debate that will serve as a useful guide for exploring
many of the ills, myths and joys of the coffee-roasting
culture around the globe.
ARABICA VERSUS ROBUSTA
As any garden variety coffee textbook will tell mantra emerged because there is some truth
you -Arabica and Robusta are the two main to it. Also helping support this notion were
species of coffee grown around the world. In these pioneering specialty coffee roasters,
the specialty coffee world it has become part particularly in the 1970’s and 1980’s, who were
of a professional mantra to parrot thatArabica trying so hard to differentiate themselves from
is good and Robusta is bad! Most likely this the multi-national, institutional roasters who
THE ROASTER 111
sought to maximize yield and profits by using low-grade Robusta. In the process of doing so, they
would bastardize coffee flavor quality and create a taste profile that was barely discernable as coffee.
Of course, it was still labelled as pure l 00 percent coffee. This reminds me of the horrifying thought
of the trash can liners that smell more like roses than do roses. (But please, don’t start licking your
garbage liner bags in coffee desperation just yet). These large companies often sourced the plentiful
Robustas because they had such huge requirements for large volumes of coffee. The low-grade
Robustas were, and continue to be, available in correspondingly large quantities at cheap prices.
For nearly twentyy ears I happilyp reached the specialtym antra “Arabicag ood: Robustab ad.”
I did so mainly because I hadn’t tasted many Robusta coffees, and the ones I had tasted, were a part
of under-roasted Italian espresso blends. To me, this taste and aroma is much like that of the old,
moldy rubber found under the carpet when it is ripped up from the floor. It is not pleasant. (By the
way, I am not referring here to Italian roast which is a North American dark roast coffee, but the
large coffee companies who under-roast their coffee). What the under-roasting does is minimize
weight loss during roasting, while turning the raw coffee beans brown enough so they can be
recognized as coffee beans. It obviously improves profitability for these large companies.
It is interesting to note that the darker a coffee is roasted, the more weight it loses in the
form of water and organic material. Correspondinglyt,h e more profit you literallyb urn up in smoke.
This actually shatters the belief that a large global coffee company, like Starbucks, is purely profit
driven. If they were purely profit driven, they wouldn’t roast their coffee as dark as they do. Anyway,
we’ll get to profile roasting in a little while.
When it comes to Italian roasting, I am reminded of the time I was in the warehouse of an
Italian coffee importer who imported a well-known Italian coffee brand. I twas renowned for its
under-roasted Ro bus ta blends. The owner offered me a coffee, which, of course, meant a straight
espresso. I hesitated, thinking I was going to be served an unappealing, under-roasted Robusta
Roasted coffee beans tumble
through yet another conveyor.
blend. Surprisinglyh e offered to make me a
coffee from his 100 percentArabica blend. I
accepted his offer and was pleasantly surprised.
It was smooth, full-bodied, and well rounded. It
was a little flat, which I guessed was because it
was a little stale, but overall I would have been
happy to have served it as if it had been my own
blend … albeit a bit fresher. When I asked him
why he didn’t sell more of it, he told me that
he didn’t like selling it because baristas had too
much trouble getting a consistent crema when
using it. As a result, he tended to promote only
114 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
his Robusta blends, which produced more crema
and which contained different percentages of
Robusta from 10% up to about 50%.
I actually found these undrinkable as
straight espresso with the light roast they
had undergone. These blends featured a high
percentage of Robusta, which provided not
just more crema, but also more body to punch
through the milk. For customers who add a lot
of sugar and or milk to their espresso, perhaps
it is palatable enough though, as they sell a lot
of drinks served with milk.
THE ROASTER 115
These flaws that appear in
roasted beans also show up
in green beans but only under
ultra-violet light and are
invisible to the naked human
eye in green coffee.
CREMA IS ONLY CREAM?
Cremias a seeminglym ysticawl ord, yet it is Italian for the simpleE nglish
word creamS. implyp ut, it is bubbleso f CO2 gast rappedi n the coffeel iquid.
If coffeep articlesa re agitatede noughw hile in contactw ith water,t hey
produce a kind of foam, or a whole lot of tiny bubbles, that can look like
a layer of cream on top of your coffee.
You can get crema when brewing in a French of its higher lipid content. Apart from appearing
press coffee simply by stirring the coffee grounds in greater volume (when using a Robusta blend),
that float to the top after the hot water is poured the crema has a slightly different character and
in. Similarly,w hen cupping coffee, hot water is seems to almost clump up it is so thick and dense.
poured on coffee grounds in a cup. The coffee
is stirred three or four times to get consistency
and sufficient flavor extraction. The little layer of
foam that forms on the top, and is immediately
thrown away, is another version of crema.
As the water winds its way down between
the ground coffee particles when espresso is
being made, it agitates the grinds so that by
the time the coffee liquid pours out into a cup,
it brings with it a very fine mixture of foam
comprised of bubbles that rises to the top of
the liquid. The finer the grind, the smaller the
bubbles. This finely textured foam can actually
appear to be like a cream on top of the coffee.
What has been known in the espresso culture for
quite some time is that Robusta produces more
crema than does Arabica. Perhaps this is because
116 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
The crema on espresso helps baristas create
artwork in their cappuccinos and caffe lattes.
If you pour your hot steamed milk into your
espresso shot quickly enough, the crema will
also flavor the foam that is created by steaming
and heating milk with the nozzle on the
cappuccino machine. So, instead of white milk
foam, you have pale coffee-colored milk foam.
And if the espresso has been prepared well, a
delicious coffee flavor from the top of the milk
foam to the bottom of your cappuccino or latte
cup can be enjoyed. Of course, crema is also a
pretty sure guide as to how the espresso will
taste. I fit is too light, the espresso will taste thin
and astringent. Dark flecks in a pale background
may indicate too high a brewing temperature
causing the espresso to taste hard and metallic.
I
1
And if you have a nice, dark brown crema, a flavor-point rather than a price-point.
it should taste rich and chocolaty. Reaching a flavor point can be tricky
In Italy, a cup of coffee (which about 80-90 and requires that the roaster taste the coffee
percent of the time means a short black or constantly. Too light a roast and a grassy, hempstraight
espresso cup of coffee), has a retail price like flavor is revealed. When roasted too dark, it
that is so competitively regulated that many of
the coffee companies try to squeeze extra profits
out ofone of the few remaining areas they can
– through roasting. They do so by roasting to a
price point as opposed to a flavor point. It is,
I believe,a nother reason a true Godin m ye spresso
wp experience is hard to come across. Roasting
companies still try to get away with it (for a
while), hoping that most people, as they do in
Italy and France, will put a spoonful of sugar in
to help it go down. But espresso is not meant
to be some kind of bad-tasting, Mary Poppins
medicine. Coffee actually has its own natural
sugars (mainly sucrose), and during the roasting
process these natural sugars are broken down
and can either be developed to the point where
you don’t need to add any sugar yourself, or
they can be distorted like some strange parody
or mutated Frankenstein version of coffee that
is another ugly being altogether. When this
happens, instead of tasting sweet, the coffee can
again have a hard, metallic and even medicinal
taste to it. This has to do, in part, with the roast
profile again. So, our aim as roasters who seek
to create a Godin m ye spreswsop experience, is to
produce coffee that has been roasted to
will lose its natural sweetness as the sugars are
caramelized. If it is roasted darker still, it will
actually turn the natural wood-fibre (cellulose)
into charcoal and will taste, not just charred,
but ashy and very unpleasant as an espresso.
This is not to say dark roasted coffee
doesn’t have its place as a refreshing beverage.
As I mentioned previously when I visited Geoff
Babcock in Seattle, I enjoyed the dark roast he
prefers, even though it was reminiscent of the
French mix coffee my father used to bring home
when I was a teenager.
There is, in fact, a mid-point in roasting
where the flavor is developed sufficiently to
create a complex balance of body, intensity and
a bitter-sweet chocolaty character. It is a point
when it loses the hemp-like, grassy underroasted
flavor and has not yet developed the
carbon, burnt, diesel oil-like character of overroasted
coffee.
After I had been roasting coffee for nearly
twenty years, one of my green coffee suppliers,
a third generation coffee broker by the name
of Scott Bennett, pleaded with me, “I know
you don’t like Robustas but just t1y this one!”
Finally I agreed to try his sample. I gave it to
THE ROASTER I 1 7
‘Godin m ye spresscou p’.T his is
what a good espresso shot
looks like in the bottom of
a cup. Notice the fine microbubbles
and the lovely rich
chocolate brown color.
my roastmaster at the time, Geoff Hutchings. He roasted it a little darker than I had requested,
but of course, as is my habit, I always taste mistakes. So I tried it anyway. As it turned out, it tasted
extremely good. It was smooth, rich and powerful, just like a successful Hollywood movie star (I am
not sure why Hollywood keeps coming up in this story, although I was pleased to see an A-list star at
long last drinking a ‘real’ espresso coffee recently, when Brad Pitt had straight espresso in a ‘proper’
demi-tasse cup in Oceans Twelve.) I was stunned. How could a single origin l 00 percent Robusta
taste so good? This was a near Godin m ye spreswsop experience, and was definitelya revelation. When
discussing the espresso with Scott, he patiently told me about the estate in India that diligently and
carefully tended and processed their Ro bus ta coffee. It was a single estate coffee that was not mixed
in with all the other poorertasting Robustas, allowing it to stand out as a good clean l 00 percent
unblended Robusta coffee. I bought the remainder of their crop for that year. It simply tasted too
good to let twenty years of my own propaganda stand in the way. Since then I have ceased repeating
the mantra about “Robusta bad and Arabica good,” and I leave it to others to argue about. My taste
buds decided the issue for me.
We must keep in mind there are good Ro bus ta coffees and bad ones. And, too much of the
low-grade Robusta on the market has caused an imbalance in the coffee world. On a global scale
the demand for Ro bus ta coffee has been sufficient to see the rise of a new coffee growing country.
In the past l O years, Vietnam has grown from obscurity in the coffee world to become the world’s
second largest producer of coffee, mainly due to its production of Ro bus ta coffee. I have heard that
the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (or both), went in to Vietnam when the country
was trying to rebuild their economy following the end of the Vietnam War. Based on advice they
received from some coffee guru (maybe a large price-point based, multi-national roaster?!), they
invested in the development of the Vietnamese coffee growing industry to help give the country’s
economy a boost. I suppose it worked for the Vietnamese to some degree, because they jumped
ahead in producing large volumes of coffee, to the point where they are now ahead of all traditional
growing countries in volume, with the exception of Brazil. So maybe it helps their balance of trade,
but at the same time, it has destabilized the whole coffee-growing world. It has resulted in global
production that outpaced global demand, causing the price of raw coffee to plunge dramatically.
This has been catastrophic for many traditional coffee-producing countries around the world as
coffee prices have, in many cases, dropped below the cost of production.
In places like Brazil where much of the production is grown on huge flat plains and gently
120 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THE ROASTER 121
122 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
rolling hills, harvesting can be mechanized.
This allows them to compete on a price level
that is extremely cost-efficient for coffee
producers. However, in many other Central
American, African and Asian countries, coffee
is high-grown in hilly and mountainous regions
where a mechanical harvester can’t reach. The
only way to harvest the coffee is to do so by
hand. Of course this is not cost efficient since
it involves the employment of a lot of people.
When worldwide coffee prices declined, the
labor-and cost-intensive practices of hand
harvesting strained the farmers’ earnings. As
a result, we have heard of the tragic stories of
coffee pickers and growers walking off their
farms in Mexico and dying in the burning heat
of Death Valley as they search for a new way of
life. In other countries like Colombia or Bolivia,
the low prices farmers received for their coffee
has driven many to a more profitable, yet illegal
drug crop, which is often forced upon them
by a drug lord.
Some roasters will get all self-righteous
and refuse to use certain coffees, like Brazil
or Robusta on a purely ideological basis. But
without wanting to get too much into this
debate, I believe this practice may be a bit like
robbing Peter to pay his brother Paul. Are the
poor growers of Brazil or Vietnam any less
deserving than those of Nicaragua, EastTimor
or Rwanda? It is always important to look after
people in the coffee industry and ifwe keep
resolutely to the object of letting our taste buds
guide us, in the end we will reward those who
do the best job.
The wine industry with its wonderful rich
history of viticulture is perhaps slightly better
at letting taste be their guide than the coffee
industry. As an interesting sideline, viticulture
had a rather inauspicious beginning, when
Noah ( of the ark fame) who was possibly the
first recorded viticulturalist, found himself blind
drunk as a result of tasting too much of his first
vintage. When his sons woke him the following
morning he was lying naked in his tent. In
spite of the bad press he gets, God definitely
isn’t a killjoy.I n fact,e ven though I am sure he
doesn’t condone alcoholism or drunkenness, he
designed the elements of wine to “gladden the
heart of man”. Even the Pope, (Clement VIII),
who when he was told coffee was a drink of the
devil, had the good sense to taste it and declare,
“Something that tastes this good can’t be from
the devil!” or words to that effect! I guess he
must have fluked it with a good Italian barista
even back then!
THE ROASTER 123
The ‘stirOex’ spins the coffee
in the roaster’s cooling tray.
(Topto bottom)
• The coffee beans empty
into the de-stoner
. Beans about to go down
the hatch. The small yet
significant holes in the
cooling tray are vital for
the rapid air-cooling of the
roasted coffee. Many roasters
lose sweetness here because
these little holes aren’t
kept clear or the fan which
sucks air through them isn’t
powerful enough.
126 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
ROAST PROFILING
To the uninitiated, roast profiling sounds kind of important, and can
at first appear simple. By slightly varying heat input- more heat in at
the start, middle or the end of a roast-you can get what you need.
Roasting too short a time will maintain more
acidity in the coffee. This will work for drip
or French press coffee, but doesn’t work for
most lower acid style espresso coffees. Further,
roasting too quickly can give the coffee a kind
of astringent, straw-like taste that is sometimes
unpleasant and woody.C onverselyr, oasting for
too long will flatten the acidity and complexity
of the coffee, making it taste a bit lifeless and
dull. So, a roast time somewhere in the middle
is desirable, as that is where the most pleasant
flavors can usually emerge.
Of course, there is enormous room for
flexibility.I n terms of time, I have had one of the
most outstanding espresso coffees I ever tasted
when I was tuning a roaster for 49th Parallel in
Vancouver,C anada.W ew ere working out the
burner power required for the new roaster I was
installing, and the Brazil roast went for more
than twenty minutes, something I wouldn’t
normally do. Yet with the lower rpm of the
drum (36 rpm), the result was like pure cocoa.
It lingered for ages, and the aftertaste was
deliciously rich. Again, this was another near
Godin m ye spresswop experience,a nd a revelation
about the hidden flavors locked mysteriously
within the coffee cell walls of a bean just waiting
to be teased out by the patient taste hunter.
Roasting requires a bit of scientific knowhow
and a bit of experimental spirit to find the
best approach to unlocking the flavor within
the beans. For instance, as cold beans are placed
into a rotating drum roaster, they will cause the
air temperature inside the drum-roaster to drop.
Some roasters like to give the raw beans a lot
of heat at the start and then towards the end of
the roast they will reduce the temperature when
the beans start to generate some of their own
additional heat. This will more easily control the
color and appearance of the bean. The opposite
approach is to apply less heat at the start and
more at the end. This will make it a little more
difficult to get a consistent result simply because
when the coffee starts generating its own heat,
temperature can be difficult to control. Then,
of course, you can try to put more heat in the
THE ROASTER 127
middle, rather than either end. For what it is
worth, I have found the best results in terms of
flavor with the second method, which is what
we call ramping.
There is, however, a bit more to roasting
than that. For instance, there is a relationship
between air temperature in the drum and the
bean temperature. Therefore, you must decide at
what point you begin ramping as well as and how
long you maintain the ramping. It all makes a
difference. (In fact, a second temperature probe
measuring the air temperature within the drum
roaster is probably more important than having a
bean probe measuring just bean temperature.) If
this air temperature climbs above the maximum
point 520°F (270°() recommended by Carl Staub,
even though the bean temperature may appear
fine, the flavor will be horrible. The coffee will take
on an aggressivev, enomous and harsh character.
Roasting equipment is becoming more
sophisticated with computers that track the time
and temperature of the roast in the drum. But
metal in them which is a very good conductor
of heat. It adds a gentle amount of radiant heat.
(Think about the efficiency in transferring heat
in a frying pan. Those made out of aluminium
or cast iron transfer heat well. However, those
made out of stainless steel, must have a copper
bottom incorporated into them, to give the
stainless steel pan better ability to conduct heat.)
Many of the old roasters have lots of good
cast iron in them. New ones that have more
stainless steel can be harder to work with.
However, regardless of the equipment
used, the best option seems to be a slightly
higher mix of convection heat, then a good
amount of radiant heat. This means you must
have some, but not too much, conductive heat.
Too much conductive heat and the beans begin
to scorch. This is one of the problems with
stainless steel because the metal temperature
must be too high before a good amount of
radiant heat is produced. As a result, the beans
are more likely to get scorched. It is also good
many of the current small roasting machines to control the volume of convection heat let
actuallyc ome with little flexibilityo n them. These into the rotating drum which holds the coffee,
standard off-the-shelf roasters sometimes don’t and the rate at which it is allowed to come
allow you to adjust the amount of heat you apply, out. This example is true when using a drum
or the amount of air you let flow through the roaster, because with a fluid bed roaster you
coffee. Or, they don’t allow you to adjust the type basically only have one type of heat- hot air,
of heat you want to apply. The roasters that I have or convection.
consistently enjoyed better espresso coffee from, This tends to cook the coffee very quickly,
have a good amount of old-fashioned cast iron causing the coffee flavors to develop differently
The humble weighing
machine works the same all
around the world regardless of
differing measurements.
128 THE ESPRESSO QUEST THE ROASTER 129
-CA
M-BA at the end of the roast. The free water molecules that are sti II present towards the end of the roast
can mix into the chemicale quations and adverselya ffect the polymerd evelopment and crucial
flavor molecules for espresso.
Now the word polymer sounds a bit like something from a boring school lesson, but in order
to develop the universallyd esirable, natural sweetness of coffee, we need strings of chemical
reactions to form a myriad of combinations of molecules. It has been reported that there are over
2,000 flavor compounds in coffee, however, the chemical reactions that go in inside a coffee bean
when it is being roasted are so complex and dynamic that scientists have not yet tracked them all.
It is good to still have some mystery to it all, isn’t it?
In the end, a roast-profile is simply a graph of temperature in relation to time. But because
every coffee will vary in density and moisture content, and because the barometric pressure which
affects the amount of oxygen available for the burners and ambient temperature vary throughout
the day, this will affect how the green coffee develops in the roaster. It could then be argued that
roast profiling is useless because each batch will absorb heat slightly differently thereby requiring
its own individual profile. To some extent, this is how the Agtron roast-control system works. It
responds individuallyt o each and everyb atch of coffee based on the rate at which it absorbs heat.
It then calculates the best rate at which to achieve the desired drop result, so no two roast profiles
are the same! I definitely have had some very good espresso coffees roasted this way.
THE ROASTER 131
(Le~ to right, top to bottom)
• The spectrophotometer
measures the grinds or the
inside of the beans which is
vital to understanding what
has happened to your roast
development.
• Roasted coffee beans
continue their journey
through the weigher
hopper …
• … and down yet another chute
and through yet another pair
of hands into a bag that is
impermeable to oxygen and
water.
BLENDING: THE FUN OF THE ALCHEMIST
What is a coffee blend? Is it simply two origins mixed together as some
people would argue?
Ano riginis coffee jargon for a ‘country.’ Brazil
is one coffee origin. Costa Rica, Guatemala,
and Nicaragua are all referred to as separate
origins and they are also referred to collectively
as Centralbse cause they all come from Central
America. Using this definition, an arbitrary
line on a map determines an origin. Therefore,
coffee mixed together from two neighboring
farms on either side of an invisible line on a
map, can qualify as a blend on this basis. Yet,
if another two neighboring farms elsewhere
within one single country don’t happen to have
this arbitrary, invisible line separating them,
they can’t qualify as a blend, because they would
not be classed as separate orgins.
As an aside, I have heard it said on several
occassions, that it is impossible to make a good
espresso with one single origin. In fact the firsttime
I met Mark Prince, founder of Coffeegeek.com,
he argued this very topic with me. However, the
work being done at Mountain Top could change
his view.
of the parts can equal less than the individual
parts. For instance, if you are aiming for a sweet
acidic coffee you may be disappointed, because
when a sweet solution is mixed with an acidic
solution, rather than getting a more complex
interesting coffee, they tend to cancel each
other out. The resultant mix tastes rather
neutral and boring.
Also if you keep some acidity in your
espresso blend, keep in mind that when it
is mixed with milk, it will combine to form
a sweeter tasting cappuccino, caffe latte or
caffe macchiato. It is more delicate because
it won’t have as much body, but it is worth
experimenting with just for the fun of it!
To better understand blending, it is more
helpful to refer to terroira,s the wine industry
does, rather than originsT.e rroir refers to the
composition of the soil where the coffee is
grown in combination with the micro-climate.
It is possible to achieve a very different result
within one small farm due to the varying
Blending, like so many things to do with terroirs found in a given area.
coffee, is not as simple as it at first appears. Similar to Penfolds Wines’ release of
Blending can be tricky, since oftentimes the sum limited wines from block 42 or bin 60A, so
132 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
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THE ROASTER 133
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too does a single batch of coffee from one section of a micro-climate on a single farm, produce
amazing complexity and depth offlavor. Research into these differences is exactly what is being
conducted at Mountain Top. Any coffee that comes from many other farms in the world is blended
automatically with other batches and other blocks from within the farm, therefore it is automatically
blended right from the start.
Usuallym ost roasters blend a fewd ifferent origins, or countries, in an attempt to create some
extra complexityi n their coffee.S o a smooth, sweet body from a semi-washedB razilc an be blended
with the intense fruitiness and tang from a strictly high-grown from Guatemala. Add to this some
earthiness with a Sumatra Mandheling (and some extra crema) and maybe a little winy touch from an
Ethiopian Mocha, and the result is a very complex, well-rounded, deep and rich flavored espresso.
It is possible, however, to create these differing characteristics from one single farm by
manipulating the processing. Unfortunately there are not many coffee farms in the world that will
enable you to do it. Instead, most roasters stick with their tried and true broad-brush blending and
recipes as if they are some kind of unique trade secret that only they know about. Too few roasters
have visited coffee farms at all, let alone ones that have developed the ability to manipulate their
processing techniques to achieve different flavor outcomes. Fortunately this is an increasing trend
among up-and-coming young roasters. They are passionate about understanding everything that
affects flavor in the coffee cup. A lot of these guys have at some point, been a barista and are aware
right from the start that there are an enormous number of factors that can affect the final coffee
flavor. This is a healthy trend for the coffee industry.
134 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
DECAF THAT TASTES TOO GOOD: SWISS WATER® DECAF
Perhaps a bit like alcohol tolerance, everyone seems to have a different
tolerance to caffeine. With this in mind, why shouldn’t people who
are sensitive to caffeine be able to enjoy great tasting espresso as well?
They can enjoy it. I have tasted great decaf espresso myself, and no one
ever needs to feel inferior for drinking and enjoying decaf.
This leads to another taste epiphany I experienced
while in Vancouver when I was experimenting
with getting my own coffee decaffeinated. What
I have come to learn is that decaf coffee doesn’t
have to taste bad. If you start with good quality
coffee, you can get good quality decaf. In the
process of playing around with some SWISS
WATER®D ecafc offees, I had one that was a Fair
Trade organic coffee from Peru. My expectations
weren’t high, but when I tasted it, there was no
Roasting and brewing decafrequires a
greater understanding of the decaffeination
process and the affect it has on the bean. We
regularlyr oast our SWISSW ATERD®e caft o 25
whole-bean on our Agtron scale, with a 25
point spread. Even though this appears darker
than normal coffee, it is largely because the
decaf raw bean is darkerto begin with. So in
reality, the roast itself wouldn’t be much darker
than a regular espresso roast we might create.
denying it was a fantastic espresso. Much like my We use the same basic roasting approach,
Robusta thinking, I had to discard another long- gently teasing out the moisture in the first
held prejudice. This decaf coffee just tasted too five minutes or so, bearing in mind there is
good to deny it. I guess up until this point I hadn’t slightly less than the usual 11 percent moisture
tasted enough decaf, and like many people, I
formed an opinion that decaf somehow wasn’t
real coffee. That’s the beauty of letting your taste
guide you. Unexpected surprises turn up where
you least expect them and your hidden prejudices
are increasinglyc ast aside.
content in decaf green beans. We use the same
ramping approach as regular coffee to maximize
the development of sweetness and we drop
the roast about four degrees hotter at 4 l 7°F
(214°(). But by roasting it to this degree, you
will need to adjust the flow rate in your espresso
THE ROASTER 137
shot by adjusting the grinder a fraction finer and tamping as normal. This is probably because there
usually is a greater difference in the roast spread (the difference between the Agtron number for the
inside of the bean and the outside) for SWISSW ATERD ecaf Most likelyt he spread is due to the fact
that the decaf beans end up a little more dense than regular coffees after the SWISSW ATERD” ecaf
process. But again we’ll get into extraction and flow rates in more detail in the next section.
A COMPARISONBE TWEENS WISSW ATER®D ECAFE SPRESSOA ND TWO REGULARC OFFEES
This is a scale where 0 = coffee roasted so dark it is like black charcoal and 80 = virtually uncooked coffee. A spread or delta
of around 15 is an indication the coffee is nice and medium-rare inside.
AGTRON WHOLEBEAN
AGTRON GROUND
SPREAD/DELTA
SW DECAF BRAZIL NICARAGUA
27.9 48.2 42. l
52.7 63.9 57. l
24.8 15.7 15.0
What this table really tells us is that the inside of the decaf bean is not too far different from
the regular bean even though the outside may look different. Certainly the roast times aren’t too
different. Typicalr oast times for SWISSW ATERD” ecafw ould be 15.30 minutes for decaf versus
14.55 for Brazil and 15.50 for Nicaraguan.
We drop the Brazil roast at about 413°F (212°C) and the Nicaraguan at about 410°F (210°C)
and put them all in at about the same temperature of 410°F (210°C). This is based on a 60kg drum
roaster and will vary for other types of roasting equipment. We prefer using our drum roaster for
SWISSW ATERD” ecafe spresso just as we do for our regular espresso.Thec olor of the crema may
look a little lighter than a regular coffee, but in the end it is always about the taste. Despite the
difference in crema, the SWISSW ATERD” ecafc an taste sweet and smooth with great body.
Blending for decaf is pretty much the same as for a regular blend too. Natural coffees and
140 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
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washed coffees both work well with the SWISSW ATERD ecafp rocess. In fact there is no reason
why decaf can’t be enjoyed every bit as much as regular coffee. What is the most reassuring thing
about this unique process is that it only uses water and a carbon filter. There are no chemicals,
unlike most other decaffeination processes. Sweet! Just go for it and test and taste it for yourself!
Have some fun and forget the coffee snobs!
But beware. We have had many customers becoming quite upset because they refuse to believe
that decaf coffee can taste so good. I don’t mind these kinds of complaints in the least. It proves
that customers do notice what they taste, and it is always worth giving them something better than
they expect. The better the job we do with our decaf, the better our sales have become too. There is
nothing wrong with exceeding customers’ expectations.
By the way, a DFO I would like to dispel right here and now is in regard to the idea that darker
roast coffee has less caffeine than light roast. We already know that the darker coffee is roasted,
the more organic matter is burnt off Some caffeine is lost at the same time, but not as much as the
amount of organic matter that is lost. As a result, the caffeine is more concentrated and the bean is
lighter. Consequently, using approximately the same weight and volume of dark versus light roast
coffee will result in more caffeine in your dark roast cup. This can amount to a significant amount.
In one simple test of two espresso shots measured in a High Pressure Liquid Chromatography
(HP LCm) achine there was 45 percent more caffeine in the darker roast cup. Beware,t his is a
significant difference!
THE ROASTER 143
SWISS WATER Decaf do their
diligent hard work to keep
the caffeine out and to keep
great Oavor in the coffee bean.
Decaf drinkers don’t have to
feel like second class citizens.
It can taste great and that is
what coffee should be all about.
ROASTING SPEED – WHICH WAY DID HE GO?
Cooking( o r roasting)c offeea t first seemsd eceptivelye asy.P uts ome
raw, green coffee into some heat, and after a while it pops out brown and
roasted.M uch like the coffee-growingw orld, understandingh ow to fully
develop the flavor potential of a coffee bean in the roaster is an underdevelopeds
ciencea nd far more complext han it at first appears.
A little bit of subtle wood flavor can add
complexity to wine, but over the years, since I
have been so programmed to reject woodiness
in coffee, that ifit is too pronounced in wine, I
almost automatically reject it as unpleasant and
unimaginative.
Cooking (roasting) coffee too fast is similar
in some ways to cooking a steak too fast. The
inside is still uncooked, even if the outside
looks done. With coffee, you’ll experience the
uncooked woody flavor even if the outside of
the bean looks well cooked. Mind you, some
people like their steak charred on the outside
and raw on the inside, so this comparison isn’t
exact since I have yet to find anyone who likes
coffee cooked in such an extreme way.
But the comparison does have some
parallels. For me, cooking that perfect mediumrare
steak maximizes flavor complexity, with all
the various levels of cooked meat combined.
144 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
This is how I picture a well-roasted coffee. But,
instead of using one form of heat like you do
when cooking a steak (say, for instance, via
conduction heat on a metal hotplate), with
coffee roasting you introduce two more forms
of heat-convection (fan-forced heat) and
radiant heat (the heat that radiates off the hot
metal). Then the baffles, or walls of metal inside
a turning metal drum, bounce the beans around
inside, so that at some points all three forms
of heat get through them. No doubt this would
be a very complex way of cooking a steak, and
yet this is what happens with coffee beans in a
drum roaster.
Roasting requires a delicate balance of
variables. You have to regulate the speed of the
drum. If it’s too fast, the beans will stay in direct
contact with the metal for too long and get
scorched by the conductive heat. This reminds
me of when I was a little kid and I would visit
–
Luna Park in Sydney, and go on a ride called the
RotorGravatron. In this ride, you would walk in
through a door that would take you into a large
circular room, kind of like an empty swimming
pool. You would stand with your back against
the wall and when the ride would start to rotate,
the floor would drop away from underneath
you and you would be stuck against the wall
suspended, with the floor seemingly miles
beneath you. Centrifugal force pins you against
the wall and keeps heavy objects suspended.
Even the disgusting vomit of the overwhelmed
dizzy kid next to you.
It is also like the old bush pioneer days in
Australia, when billy tea was made by using a
little metal pot attached to a wire handle, then
heated on a campfire. Once it had reached
boiling point they threw in some tea leaves,
grabbed the handle and spun it around over
their head a few times. Of course it had to
be spun fast enough so that the boiled water
didn’t fall out. Likewiset, he drum in a coffee
roaster can move so fast that the beans become
pinned to the metal wall of the drum. When
this happens, the outside of the bean will get
scorched. Too much scorching and the bean will
taste charred. Unfortunatelya, s I mentioned, it is
not a pleasant charring like a char-grilled steak.
Converselyi, f the drum turns too slowly,
the beans will slide around on the round metal
of the drum, sliding over the baffles instead of
bouncing around in the hot air. You can get too
much charring this way because the hot air is
not evenly distributed amongst the individual
beans. Ideally the coffee should stay in the left
third of the drum in a clockwise turning drum,
and the angle of the baffles will determine
how much the coffee is pushed forward. You
need the baffles to do this, otherwise when
the roaster door opens, the coffee won’t
come out. But the baffles also compact the
beans inside the drum by pushing the beans
up against the front plate of the drum roaster.
So the relationship between the angle of the
baffles and the speed of the drum is also critical
because the faster the drum turns, the more
the coffee is pushed forward and compacted in
the drum, inhibiting the convection heat from
evenly heating the beans. So, as you can see, it
is a delicate balancing act between finding the
right speed to ensure the beans fall through the
air sufficiently to get heated by the hot air, while
keeping the beans from scorching on the hot
metal. At the same time, you must keep in mind
that as hot air rises, it is hotter in the top half
of the drum. So some hot air is a good thing as
long as it is the right mix of hot air. This concept
is illustrated easily if you line three ovens up side
by side ( one fully fan forced, one partially fan
forced and the third one with no fan), and cook
the same size chicken inside each of the ovens,
the fully fan-forced oven will brown the chicken
THE ROASTER 145
Roasted beans in a
dish awaiting their
spectrophotometer analysis.
This machine can detect
differences which the human
eye can’t perceive.
much quicker than the other two. The one with
no fan will tend to bake the chicken, yet take
much longer. We are looking for the middle
kind of air flow, with some fan-forced hot air
but not too much.
I know what I have said above has upset a
lot of coffee roasters, some of whom are good
friends, and they are very good coffee guys who
use air roasters instead of drum roasters. I am
willing to admit that maybe it is just like my
Robusta experience and I haven’t tasted enough
coffees roasted this way, but let your own palate
decide and lead the way. Don’t let the Data Free
Observations rule.
Now, ifwe have our three different forms of
heat, we have to tune the different proportions
of each properly. This can take quite a while.
With one machine I helped to tune, I tasted
every roast as espresso until we got it right.
This meant I averaged up to 20 espressos every
morning for nearly two weeks. Now that is hard
on your palate. After every espresso, we would
change something on the roaster. One time it
may have been the distance of the burner from
the drum, the next time the rpm, the next the
fan velocity, until we tuned the roaster properly.
In addition to the human mouth, good
coffee roasters use a spectrophotometer.
Here we touch on another debate. The DFO
crowd would have you believe these measuring
instruments are some kind of equivalent to
146 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
a medieval witch and that the world must be
purged of all such wicked creatures. Maybe
this is because it helps to support their Data
Free Observation belief system that scientific
instruments like spectrophotometers take
away from artisan roasting.
The spectrophotometer enables a
roastmaster to evaluate what is going on with
both the inside and outside of the coffee beans
far more accurately than the human eye can ever
do. You can taste the difference, for instance,
on an Agtron scale when there is a read-out
difference of two on the meter. But to the
human eye, it is impossible to tell any difference
from the outside appearance. What is more, it
is actually not so much what the outside of the
bean looks like that determines the flavor of
a bean, but what has gone on the inside. The
outside may look the same, but inside, it may
be rare, medium rare, medium or well-done.
When we order a steak at a restaurant, we are
asked for our preference. The first thing we do
when we receive the order is cut open the steak
to check if it is cooked to our specifications.
This is equally important for coffee beans.
Getting a number reflecting the roast
development of ground coffee is sort of like
the equivalent of mincing a cooked steak to
see how pink or brown overall the meat has
ended up. It is where most of the overall flavor
is determined. Yet we still have some so-called
I
148 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
artisan roasters maintaining that the only way
to roast is by the senses: sight, smell, touch
and even hearing. This is another debate on
science versus the traditional school in coffee,
as with baristas, roasters can be closed minded.
Even these so-called artisan roasters will use a
thermometer to give them a guide as to how
pressure of gravity ( one bar of pressure) used
with drip-filter brewing, most commercial
espresso machines have nine bars of pump
pressure. In order to extract the optimum flavor
components, the coffee grinds are much finer
than with drip-filter or French press coffee.
This smaller particle size, multiplied by the extra
the coffee is going. So they are not complete bars of pressure means that you can reduce your
Luddites. (Ah, at least I can indulge my passion optimum extraction time from around four
for histo1y!) Unfortunately some artisan roasters minutes for drip-filter or French Press coffee
who laboriously check the color of their coffee to around 25 seconds for espresso, depending
beans using a tryer, or sampler, never check the
inside of the bean accurately.
Al I a spectrophotometer does is act as
another guide to test how the roast flavor has
developed. It enables you to increase your
chances of replicating an excellent roast and in
turn, it increases the chances of experiencing
God in an espresso cup. In the end, the sense
of taste is one that I believe must always be
applied by us all as coffee professionals and
lovers. Like the Robusta versus Arabica and
decaf stories above, I guess the best kind of
roasting is a combination of science and
artisan methodology always guided by taste.
With espresso, just like the light roast I
tried at my own Neutral Bay espresso bar for
the first time so many years ago, any flaws
are magnified and exposed a hundred-fold.
This is because the espresso brewing process
is intensified. Instead of the comparative lazy
on your shot volume. It also means the margin
for error is narrowed enormously. Any mistakes
made when brewing, or any roasting flaws in the
coffee itself, such as woodiness, and they will be
brutally magnified and exposed.
As I have said, roasting darker usually
means less profits. But sometimes roasters who
buy cheap, low-grade coffees will have to roast
darker to burn out some of the flaws in the
coffee. This is why when coffee is roasted for
sampling, it is usually roasted much lighter than
the lightest espresso roast, because the intrinsic
flavor is more noticeable and is not masked by
the darker roast profile. So, regardless of how
good or bad a coffee may be to start with, by
roasting until it appears black, will result in a
certain uniformity of taste – chany burnt toast.
When it comes to profits, I am not
anti-profits. Any charity, environmental
organization, business, count1y or household
THE ROASTER 149
has to have more money coming in than going out, or we all will get into a huge mess. That is
all profit represents- good management of money in versus money out! But greed is not good!
So, if some of these larger institutional roasters have crossed the greed line by sacrificing
quality for money, then so too have hundreds of smaller roasters. But the one difference is that
the smaller guys simply haven’t given flavor consistency the priority it needs by investing in the
resources necessary to improve it. Whereas the really big guys who have crossed the line, have
invested in the resources to improve quality. But for some reason, just like a mad scientist, they
have used the equipment to actually reduce the flavor quality. As I mentioned, I don’t include
Starbucks in this group because they roast to their own particular flavor profile rather than a price
point, and they have actually done a lot of good for growers by forcing up the price of specialty
grade coffees. In fact, the guy I purchase high-grown semi-washed coffee from in Papua New
Guinea told me he could get the same price from the Starbucks buyer with less effort, so I had to pay
more. I was already paying above the going rate and way above the fair-trade price but it is great coffee,
so I happily paid the extra. Of course roasters have to bear in mind that there is a point where their
customers in turn will only pay so much or they may lose them.
152 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
(Top to bottom)
• Green beans on their way to
being roasted.
• Roasted beans get caught up
everywhere.
• Cup ofExcellence stickers.
• You’ve got to turn the burner
on to create the magic.
• Heat isa factor the whole way
through the espresso process.
THE ROASTER 153
l 54 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
(Top to bottom)
·A worker counts his coffee
packs. Yet another human
hand along the coffee chain.
•Vince Piccolo enjoys a shot in
the warehouse
( Oppositpea 9e)
•A worker inspects his sample
roast in the ubiquitous blue
tray designed especially to
display coffee beans.
BODY WITHOUT TOO MUCH BITTERNESS
Of course Kaldi the mythical goat-herder who reputedly discovered coffee
almost a thousand years ago, wouldn’t have roasted his beans like we do
at all. He would have heated and brewed the coffee cherries with the seeds
and mucilage still inside completely unroasted, and poured it out looking
nothing like the dark liquidw e call coffee.T his brew calledq ahwaihs still
served in a few remote parts of Middle-Easternc offee-cradlec ountries.
But we are pursuing something different, something almost ethereal.
As we have seen, the longer a coffee bean is
heated the greater the number of things that
happen. More body is produced, acidity is
reduced and bitterness increases. The trick
is to reduce the acidity sufficiently so that it
doesn’t adversely affect the cup flavor after the
heightened espresso extraction has taken effect.
Also, if you add milk to your espresso shot, you
need to reduce the acidity even further so the
coffee flavor doesn’t get drowned out by the
milk. You don’t want to roast it too much or you
highlight too much bitterness. There will always
be some bitterness in coffee and this is not a bad
thing. Caffeine is bitter and contributes some of
the bitterness we taste. But if there is too much
bitterness, then it becomes unpleasant.
What happens with our palates is that they
156 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
mature and become more tolerant towards
bitterness. When we are children, we taste like
children and generally prefer sweetness. Take
chocolate for instance. Most children prefer
sweet milk chocolate, whereas adults usually
prefer darker chocolate with a little bit of
bitterness, but not too much – just enough
so that there is a nice balance between sweetness
and bitterness. Soda pop, or soft drink mixers,
are another good example. As kids, we universally
prefer the sweet stuff As adults we start to enjoy
the complexity of tonic water, for instance,
which is a balance of bitter quinine and sweet
sugars. In nature virtually all serious poisons
taste bitter. (As an Australian, I should know. I am
constantly being reminded as I travel the world,
how Australia is home to the top ten most deadly
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THE ROASTER 157
Spot the odd bean out.
The bean second from the
right in the middle row is a
peaberry. Actually every bean
is completely different.
J
It’s OK to enjoy milk with your
espresso.I n yearsg one by they
used to add other weird stuff
to coffee as well, like eggshells
or salt. Milk complements
espressow ell and addst o the
mystique behind the espresso
machine.
venomous snakes in the world, not to mention the box jellyfish and the funnel web spider).
Ash umans, we are generallyp rogrammed to reject bitterness, especiallyw hen, as children,
we are not as mentally discriminating. I am not saying that the level of caffeine in coffee is
poisonous, although in combination with the rest of the particles that go to make up coffee, it
has been accused of causing all kinds of dangerous diseases down the ages. For instance, in England
several centuries ago, coffee was accused of causing impotence in men and dropsy in the general
population. Throughout the 1970’s and l 980’s it has also been accused of all kinds of debilitating
diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Fortunately, in recent years, the tide has turned again
and common sense is prevailing as more balanced scientific studies show that there are many good
health benefits in consuming coffee. In any case, with good coffee there will be a nice balance
between bitter and sweet.
The avenue of exploration that beckoned loud and clear all those years ago when I opened
my first espresso bar, was how to achieve enough body without too much bitterness. This led me
to a man who knows about roasting coffee for espresso – Dr. Ernesto illy. I attended every SCAA
show I could, particularly when he was speaking. One thing I learned from him is that by using
natural-processed coffees in an espresso, you achieve more essential body. This difference in body
was quantified in the quintessential book, EspressCoo ffeeT:i leC /JemisnyofQ11aBliyru ys.i ng coffees that
are processed this way, the coffee need not be roasted as dark to achieve good body and avoids
too much bitterness. Bear in mind that Dr. lily’s prime home market is Italy, where, as we know,
the overwhelming percentage of coffee is consumed as a straight espresso. If you want even more
body than this to cope with the added milk that more than 90 percent of North Americans and
Australians prefer mixed with their espresso, then you’ll have to wait until the research at Mountain
Top coffee regarding a completely new way of processing and storing natural coffees is finished.
Have I tempted you yet???
THE ROASTER 1 59
i
ESPRESSOT ASTING FORS MARTIES
As we have seen, tasting coffee for espresso is different than tasting for
other coffees. I learned this when I attended my first Cup Of Excellence
tasting competition.
Just like the Italian guy before me, I seemed to closer together. Recently I was involved in a
be out of step. I was marking those coffees that vertical coffee tasting where raw coffee in the
had low acidity, very highly; whereas eve1yone form of parchment had been stored in climate
else seemed to mark them down. That Italian controlled containers. These were coffees that
guy was one of the main tasters for the Italian were harvested over about seven years and each
company, Lavazzaa, nd tasted the coffees, just vintage was stored separately.E vent hough this
as I had done, with espresso in mind. One thing is a common occurrence in the wine world it
about most coffee professionals from Italy, is is very rare in the coffee world. As it happened,
that they do know espresso, so I didn’t feel so some of the older vintage coffees tasted better
bad about my marks. than the more recent ones. There is so much
Whereas, some professional tasters dilute more to be done in this area.
their espresso shots with a little hot water, Whichever way you look at it, espresso is
I always prefer to taste espresso as straight all about tasting and there is no tasting espresso
espresso because when you see God in that tiny without the barista. Which leads us to our final
cup, it is worth the thousands of other inferior pillar of the espresso world …
ones. Professional olive oil tasters apparently
only taste about six oils at a sitting because
the oils are so powerful on their palate, that
they desensitize their tastebuds. So don’t be
surprised if you can’t taste too many espresso
shots before your taste buds become jaded.
As coffee professionals and drinkers become
more aware of the breadth of tastes associated
with coffee, the wine and coffee worlds come
160 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
—–
PART IV
So what is the definition of espresso coffee anyway?
We’ve come this far and still haven’t actually defined it. Is it
a particular grind, as an aging wine-tasting authority once
pronounced prior to a coffee tasting competition? Or, as a
leading barista trainer for a very large coffee company boldly
pronounced during this same competition, is it a particular
roast color? Or, as a barista once earnestly told me, is it
coffee made through an espresso machine that has simply
been pressedth,a t is to say,t he coffee grounds are so tightly
packed that they are pressed together as they expand during
the brewing process?
Espresso is defined as a single cup of coffee that is made
expressly for you. (For the purpose of this discussion, I am
putting the Maka espresso pot to one side for the moment.)
In other words, it is definitely not a 15-cup pot of filter
coffee that has been sitting on a hotplate for an hour or
more. It is a coffee that is extracted, in most cases, relatively
quickly (in about 20-30 seconds). This certainly is an express
train in comparison to the four or five minutes it takes to
brewa Frenchp ress or standard drip-filterc offee. Finallyi,t
is coffee that is extracted using more than one atmosphere
of pressure( gravity)A. ndt hat is about as far as I’ll go. You
can get more technical definitions from a textbook.
THE BARISTA 165
NEW BREED BARISTA
When it comes to making great espresso, the barista must have a feel
for it. I often get frustrated when making espresso for myself because the
results are often disappointing. For this reason, it is always nice to have
someone else make the espresso for me because that way, I haven’t risked
any of my own mental and emotional capital. Then, if it isn’t quite perfect
there is less disappointment. By the same token, it will inevitably occur
that some baristas will always seem to make a consistently better espresso
than others, even when using the same coffee and same equipment.
One barista who always seems to do a better
espresso is a guy by the name of MickK ielyH. e
is a young barista who came to me wanting to
learn more about coffee roasting, and has since
become responsible for making all the espresso
shots for testing every batch of coffee we roast.
It turns out that in Mick’s thirst for more
coffee knowledge he does what he feels is right
for a particular coffee. He has never competed
in a competition or received an award. He just
does his thing behind the espresso machine.
He doses less or more and plays around until
he feels he is getting the best out of a particular
coffee. By doing this, he consistently makes
a better coffee than some of the more longstanding
espresso people I know. This is surely
a case of blending a bit of science with the oldschool
intuitive traditional barista approach of
evaluating what looks and feels right. It involves
continually experimenting with different pour
times, different roasts, different coffees and
different machines. He uses a bit of the scientific
approach as well in that he builds an empirical
data base of what works and what doesn’t
work. Unfortunately so far the data remains
in his head, since he has yet to be published in
any scientific or coffee journal. This, I believe,
represents the resurgence of the European or
traditional Italian barista approach. By contrast,
the barista who just stands behind one machine
THE BARISTA 167
and only makes coffee one way, by pressing one button, is taking a completely different path.
A path that may work at a large chain, but the barista may have no true idea of what goes into
making the perfect espresso – or have an understanding of the product and how different
varieties, and different processing and roasting methods affect the brewing.
This habit of tasting coffee as soon as it comes out of the roaster is a great fast-track way
to learn about espresso. I first started doing this way back when I opened my first espresso bar.
Immediately after roasting the coffee I would have a barista brew it while I was roasting the next
batch and the roast profile was fresh in my mind. The barista who first started helping me do this
was Emily Oak. She now has her own espresso company and is the Asia Pacific Coordinator for the
WorldB arist a Championship.T here’s no telling where the hunt for great espresso can lead you.
Even at the World Barista Championship, there are baristas who have just learned one routine.
Almost like a robot, they repeat the performance while describing all kinds of wonderful taste
sensations you can expect to experience. Sadly, too often they don’t seem to appear in the cup.
Fortunately all the baristas who have gone on to win the World Barista Championship have gone
the extra step in striving to achieve a better tasting espresso by searching, experimenting and
tasting. There is no doubt this has helped to set them apart from the rest of the field. All these
winning baristas have since gone on to become coffee professionals, gaining knowledge well
beyond the barista field by exploring the coffee roasting and growing fields as well. This is a very
healthy trend, and a breath of fresh air in comparison to the old school commodity based nature
of the coffee industry.
THE BARISTA 169
MORE DATA FREE OBSERVATIONS
Amongst baristas, there are those who continue to put forward their own
DFOs; many of these I have come to question through the years. One that
I am particularly perplexed by is the one that an aging barista trainer once
proudly proclaimed about throwing away the first few precious drops of
the espresso pour. I also question why some insist that the best extraction
time for an espresso shot must be exactly 28 seconds, not a second more
or a second less.
Why are there so many Date Free Observations clean, the best tasting espresso is in the first few
in the barista world -especially when you can let drops. Test it for yourself. Because I have never
taste be your guide and can easily disprove many
of these observations as ridiculous so easily?
Actuallyi, t is no different within the
growing world, where unknowledgeable
tasted an exception to this rule – ever!
So, instead of throwing away the first, few
drops of espresso, which are inevitablyt he best,
try cleaning your machine properly instead. That’s
growers are unaware of how their actions affect where my friends at Cafetto come into theirown.
the flavor of their coffee. And, it is no different (They are a specialist manufacturer of cleaning
to coffee roasters who try to determine the flavor products for espresso brewing equipment.) They
potential of their coffee by biting into a roasted are as passionate about great cleaning products
bean rather than using a spectrophotometer.
The only explanation I can surmise for
throwing away the first few drops of extracted
for espresso machines as the most passionate
barista is about getting his or her extraction right.
In fact, just like the best baristas, Cafetto are
espresso coffee is that initially, sometimes continually exploring how they can improve and
espresso can taste bitter when it is tainted by develop their products to make espresso coffee
the rancid oil build-up in a dirty machine. But taste as good as it possibly can. I actually believe
that doesn’t have to happen. If your machine is that one of the greatest issues facing the global
THE BARISTA 17 l
(Top to bottom)
• Cafetto espresso cleaner is
essential for clean tasting
espresso. You can taste the
rancid build-up in a machine
very quickly unless it is
thoroughly cleaned.
-The machine ‘tooth’ brush
cleaning out the coffee
grounds that get stuck in the
group-head seal.
172 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
Scottie Callaghan World Latte
Art Champion 2006 pours one
of his unique milky coffees.
coffee industry (and holding back sales), is dirty coffee equipment. Sounds pretty simple, but too
many baristas neglect the fact that coffee oils go rancid very quickly, and a day’s build up at a busy
cafe is enough to spoil the next day’s coffee for sure- or even the afternoon’s flavor.
As for a 28-second extraction time, it is ridiculous to insist on one extraction time to suit
all coffees just because it is linked to the volume you want to end up with. If you only want a halfounce
(15 ml) shot, it will take less time than a 2/3-ounce (20 ml) shot and less time again than a
standard 1-ounce (30 ml) classic espresso shot.
Some coffees, like Mountain Top Coffee, taste better when they look like they are almost
being over-extracted – that is, it drips really slowly- taking much longerthan is usually accepted
for most other espresso shots to brew. My hypothesis on this is that it may have to do with an
increased wood fiber content due to its unusual growing environment. The wood fibers within the
coffee grinds have to be squeezed harder than normal to extract the oils trapped within. When this
issue was mentioned to a second-generation green coffee broker in Trieste, Italy, he dismissed it as
unacceptable. This was because, he believed that all coffees should behave according to the standard
formula that he and his espresso colleagues insisted was correct. Therefore, all espresso coffees
should pour in the standard time allocated. (It is important to remember that the intrinsic coffee
can be very different from bean to bean. As a result, one universal extraction time will not allow
the intrinsic flavors of the varying coffee beans to emerge.) This is a classic example of not tasting
widely enough and not letting taste be the sole arbiter of standards, because interestingly enough,
in this case, you don’t taste any woodiness. Instead you taste the rich, viscous coffee oils that seem
to get extracted out of the wood fibre.
If a coffee bean is 80-85 percent wood fiber, it will normally show up in your espresso cup
eitherthrough a roasting fault or if you let your espresso pour too long. Not only that, it will taste
like you have squeezed watery sap out of a tree. It will taste increasingly astringent and thin. (Not
that I have ever squeezed watery sap out of a tree, but that is how I imagine it anyway). Surprisingly,
despite the wood fiber found in the Mountain Top bean, you can’t detect any woodiness in the cup.
Once again, taste is the guide.
174 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THE BARISTA 175
–
EXTRACTION TIMES
I have had a great tasting espresso coffee that has taken up to 40 seconds
to pour and I have had great tasting espresso coffee that has taken as little
as 20 seconds to pour. (This is the time from when the button is pressed
to when the coffee finishes pouring). So forget about that 28-second
extraction time.
The time I experienced the 40-second pour, it
was a Nicaraguan Maragogype that was lightly
roasted for espresso, yet had a particularly nutty
taste them separately you will never do a lungo
(long) pour again. Hardcore traditional espresso
drinkers will always prefer this part of the shot
character. What I have come to understand is that simply because it tastes better.
coffee that is more lightly roasted also seems to But once you have got your espresso shot
be able to stand a slower, more dripping pour and close to perfection, you will find it is simply not
a higher brewing temperature. This probably has enough. I mean not enough liquid. A half an
something to do with the extra-extraction that
occurs in a longer pour. It is, in effect, cooking
or burning the coffee grinds slightly more.
The surprising thing is that, in order to
make a short black espresso, we instinctively
seek increasingly powerful machines and pull
a shorter espresso shot. But one of the helpful
things I learned years ago at the SCAAE spresso
Lab, is how to break up a single espresso shot.
Once you dissect it into three parts (i.e. 3, halfounce
parts), you will only desire the first third.
This relates to the issue of the first few drops of
espresso from a machine tasting better. If you
176 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
ounce (15-20 mis) of espresso and crema,
tastes great, but it is not a very satisfying
volume. Consequently you will very quickly
gravitate straight to a double or doppio shot
in order to achieve a slightly more satisfying
volume. So there we have it. A doppio ristretto
if you please! The standard shot for fellow,
coffee Holy Grail hunters …
However, some people will argue that a
double shot (or two half-ounce shots) is a waste
of ground coffee no matter what the pour time
is. I am not quite sure what the logic is behind
their argument. For me, this issue begins and
-0
.-,,:o.-. ….. ·’.-.~
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j. •’ ••
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ends with what tastes great. If it tastes better
by using more coffee, then use more coffee.
I am sure the coffee roasters and growers will
love you for it anyway. And even though there
are some guidelines for extraction times,
such as the World Barista Championship’s
25-35 ml in 20-30 seconds, or lily’s 30-second
( +/-5 seconds), there is enormous room for
variation way beyond these normal parameters,
depending on the coffee. In the end, I say ifit
tastes great, drink it, and forget the rules.
Even though straight espresso has
become my preferred drink of choice, it
is worth considering what happens for the
majority of espresso drinkers who enjoy their
espresso mixed with milk. Outside Italy, the
majority of espresso drinks, as we in these
markets know only too well, involve buckets
of milk. Who knows what other added flavors
are used to disguise the often, bitter swill
commonly served as a form of espresso coffee.
It is, of course, just as essential to get your
basic espresso shot right so that you enjoy the
full potential of the milk-based espresso drinks
as well. I am definitely an anti-snob when it
comes to how people enjoy their espresso
drinks. As I have found with decaf and Robusta,
I am completely open-minded now, and if
someone enjoys a decaf soy latte, then they
should not be treated like a second-class citizen
because of their preference. Also bear in mind,
that over the centuries, really weird stuff, not
just sugar and milk, has been added to perfectly
well-extracted coffee. Things like salt, eggshells
and fish bones have been earnestly added to
coffee. Interestingly, there may have been sound
reasons why such weird stuff has been added.
Salt will mute bitterness. If you surf for a couple
of hours (in saltwater obviously) and afte1wards
you have a drink of unadulterated plain water, it
will taste quite sweet even though the drinking
water itself is quite neutral. The salt alters how
your palate perceives another simultaneous taste.
Eggshells and fish bones are alkaline, and
alkalinity reduces the effect of acidity on your
palate. If you’re like me, and you don’t enjoy
excessivea cidity,m aybey ou should try eggshells
and coffee. Now that is going to really raise a
barista’s eyebrows. “Hey I’ll have my espresso
short, my eggs over easy and don’t hold back
on the eggshells.” But really, if someone enjoys
their espresso with additives like plain sugar
or milk, as long as it is not making up for bad
tasting espresso, it should still be a world free of
Taste-Nazism aking people feel uncomfortable
for liking their coffee in a way that is different
from a perceived norm. I am all for coffee
diversity and I would like everyone, myself
included, to be able to more consistently enjoy
the full potential of the natural espresso flavor
that lies locked away inside the mystical bean
-and then add whatever stuff you like.
THE BARISTA I 79
It is sad when people say they don’t bother ordering coffee because they don’t want to be
disappointed. The most common cause again of this dirty-tasting espresso is simple – unclean and
poorly maintained equipment. It’s definitely a worthwhile challenge to keep your machine clean and
get your basic building block right for all milk based drinks: the espresso shot poured right!
CREMA… AGAIN
On the subject of crema and volumes, many coffee aficionados, as I
have mentioned, can waste vast amounts of time talking about angelson-
pinpoint type of subjects. Whether you measure your espresso shot
including the crema or not, is yet another one of these subjects.
For what it is worth, I always include the crema
in my measurement now, even though I was
trained not to do so. This is always going to
be problematic because the amount of crema
will va1y between different coffees. Sumatra
Mandheling will produce significantly more
crema than many other Arabicas. Robusta, of
course, produces more crema than Arabica.
Crema that is produced from coffee that is too
immature – less than four days from roasting
will be uncontrollably volatile. It will surge up
to the top of your little cup, only to rapidly fade
away to almost nothing. During the brewing,
this volatility will also cause the over agitated
tiny suspended coffee particles to be burned in
your portafilter. As a result, the crema will have
180 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
large bubbles and a darker burnt appearance.
This also adversely affects the flavor and makes
the espresso taste a little harsher.
There are all sorts of practical problems
when programming standard liquid volumes in
espresso machines with or without the inclusion
of crema. The older ( or more stale) the coffee,
the less depth of crema wi II be produced. If your
machine is programmed with older coffee, your
cup will run over when the portafilter is filled
and coffee brewed with a more immature roast.
Conversely, if you program it with fresh coffee,
your volumes will be lower when you brew with
older coffee. From day to day we never brew with
coffee at the same point of freshness or density
since it changes on a daily basis. Herein lies a
problem for consistency; that is, unless you relax
a little and eyeball your volume.
Crema quality has another interesting
aspect. As I mentioned before, the arrogant
own, as most baristas do, when I first tried to
perfect the pouring of a rosetta. By heating
milk to a temperature no higher than 140°F
(60°(), milk becomes sweeter. The first time
barista from my introduction, trained people in I tasted this I was amazed that milk could be
such a way that they produced an excellent fine enhanced so dramatically and pleasantly. Any
crema by using finer ground coffee and a lighter hotter than this, and the milk starts to change. It
tamp. When coffee beans have been aged slightly becomes wate1y and declines in taste quality. This
in optimum conditions, this will also contribute becomes painfully evident if you t1y producing
to a finer textured crema. So, fineness is related
to particle size as well as freshness. A coarse,
French press grind, for instance, will produce a
coarse or large bubble crema once it has been
thoroughly stirred.
Once it is in the cup, the crema gives all kinds
ofother clues to the trained barista’s eye. For
example, if it is too light, the brewing temperature
may have been too low. Or if it disappears too
quickly, the particle size may have been too
large, thereby allowing the water through the
coffee grinds without enough resistance to
sufficiently agitate the precious coffee oils and
particles. If there are distinct dark streaks, it
could mean that there is too much coffee, too
fine a grind or too hot a brewing temperature.
Even when you get it right, properly
prepared crema will usually taste slightly
more distinct than the coffee liquor below it.
Another revelation worth mentioning
is the relationship between milk-steaming
techniques and crema. I learned this on my
any beautiful advanced latte art patterns with
overheated milk and crema. You simply won’t
be able to get clearly defined patterns. Another
lesson I learned along the way is that if the milk
is poured in too quickly, the crema will break up
and be dispersed throughout the coffee. This
tends to make a sweeter milk-based drink than
one where the crema hasn’t been integrated
into the milk.
For milk-based espresso drinks to retain
some semblance of coffee flavor, there must
be a correct ratio of coffee to milk. What many
coffee companies will do is recommend a darker
roast to achieve a perceptible coffee flavor under
the buckets of milk. Unfortunately, the darker
the roast, the more bitter the coffee flavor will
be, due to the natural sugars in the bean being
increasingly caramelized. If you want a smooth
milk-based espresso experience with good
coffee body, go for a lighter northern Italian
espresso roast, (approximately 48 on the wholebean
Agtron scale). This roast is also referred to
THE BARISTA 181
Rosettas and hearts are
now basic patterns that any
self-respecting barista can
pour freely.
in other parts of the world as a medium, high or continental roast. Then stick to the ratio of one
part coffee to four parts milk/froth (i.e. one ounce of espresso coffee shot to four ounces of milk
and froth). So there we have it- The traditional five-ounce (150 ml) cappuccino. If you want a 10-
ounce cup, use two shots of coffee. For a l 5-ounce cup, use three shots, and so on.
182 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
WATER: THE GREAT ELIXIR
When it comes to water, the most basic building block for making any
coffee,I wasa mazeda t how muchd ifferenceit canm akea fterc onducting
testsw ith Cirqua®C ustomizedW ater while in KansasC ity,M issouri n 2004.
We tasted the same coffee in a French press pot with three different types of water. One was the
local tap water (which would be different in every city in the world), another one was the ideal
formula recommended by Cirqua (3-4 grains of hardness and 150 mg/L total dissolved solids)
and the third was the reverse of the recommended formula. I could have sworn that I tasted three
completely different coffees. One was bad, one was OK, and the other was really good. The bad
one was the reverse water, the OK one was the tap water, and the really good one was Cirqua ideal
formula water. There is no doubt that it is extremely important to start with quality water. And that
requires much more than putting a simple filter underneath your sink, because it will depend on
your local area as to how hard or soft the water is – and how consistent. That is why water systems
such as Cirqua are essential in the quest to consistently repeat a desirable espresso flavor.
Water with some mineral content tastes more complex and interesting than pure or distilled
water. Distilled water tends to taste flat. This is reflected through the coffee as well. I have heard of
some espresso companies recommending up to 6 grains of hardness, but of course this results in
machine cleaning issues as scale build-up will be greater. That is why an espresso cleaning company
like Cafetto is so important or otherwise your espresso machine will very quickly under-perform.
THE BARISTA 185
.I
GRINDING: UNLOCl<ING THE COFFEE GENIE
The next piecet o get right is the grind, and that requiresa qualityc offee
grinder.B uyinga n espressom achinew ithout a grinderi s like buyinga car
without a steering wheel.
It is imperative that the coffee is ground just
prior to brewing to ensure freshness, and that
the coffee is ground consistently. This is nonnegotiable,
and is definitely essential. Anyone
who buys coffee pre-ground for espresso is
kidding themselves. This is simply because
within a two-hour period after the coffee is
ground, a large percentage of the volatile carbon
dioxide and flavor aromas will have dissipated.
Not only that, but it will be almost impossible
to properly adjust the critical flow rate to
produce a great espresso. This is because coffee
grounds are hygroscopic, and once they absorb
moisture, they quickly swell up, thus altering
different porta-filters in relation to the level
that the spray-head protrudes down. But once
you have established that, adjusting the grind
is a bit like turning on a tap. The coarser grind
is similar to turning the tap on and increasing
the flow of water, while the finer grind is like
gradually turning the tap off. When the coffee
grinds are too fine, there is no space for the
water to flow through. As a result, nothing
flows out. By increasing the coarseness of the
coffee, the water will flow more quickly through
the coffee grounds and into your cup. But it is
always a juggling act to tweak the grind to get
the right flow of water to extract the maximum
your extraction rate. You will forever be chasing flavor of each coffee. As a guide, the espresso
phantoms trying to get it right. It is hard enough liquid should start flowing within four to five
as it is without making it even more difficult
than it needs to be.
It is essential to work out the correct
volume of ground coffee required in your
particular filter-insert. This is done by filling it
until the coffee grounds just touch the sprayhead
when the porta-filter is locked into place.
Keep in mind that different machines will have
seconds after activating your machine button,
not allowing for any pre infusion setting in the
machine. Grinders come in all shapes and sizes,
from huge commercial roller grinders that cost
as much as the average house, through various
cafe style grinders, to the tiny little antique hand
grinder. What is most important with grinding,
apart from getting the grind correct, is the heat
THE BARISTA 189
Grinders do their important
work allowing the release
of elusive navor molecules
as well as the volatile aroma
genies. Coffee aroma is one of
the most universally attractive
aromas for human beings.
(Opposiptea ge)
A grinder burr which allows
a slower RPM thus avoiding
overheating the precious
sweet coffee navor molecules.
190 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
192 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THEBARISTA 193
Grinding; dosing; levelling
and tamping.
Don’t be afraid of using as
much coffee as it takes to
make a great tasting coffee
just like an artist would with
his or her paints.
that is generated. The big industrial roller grinders work like a waterfall. As the beans fall between
two big opposing rotating rollers they begin to crack. They then fall through another set of smaller
rollers to further crush the cracked coffee. Finally, the coffee passes through another set of even
smaller rollers to produce a consistent fine espresso grind. These machines can be very expensive,
but this design is aimed at avoiding heat and maximizing the uniform size of the ground coffee
particles. The reason heat is bad for coffee is that it causes the flavor in the coffee to deteriorate.
In most successful cafes they use conical burr grinders since Paul Bassett won the 2003 World
Barist a Championshipu sing one. Conicalb urr grinders (like the CompakK lO)a re used instead
offlat blade grinders because they spin more slowly and produce less heat, which allows the coffee
to taste better. Roller grinders produce less heat than conical grinders, but they are too expensive
for cafe or home use. By using the old-fashioned antique grinders, as long as the burrs are well
enough machined, even less heat is generated! So grandma actually got something right! The worst
thing you can do with grinding coffee is use really cheap electric blade grinders. These grinders
have a single blade that spins like a food processor. These will chop the coffee rather than grind it,
and will produce an uneven grind. You’ll pull your hair out trying in vain to get a consistent grind
for espresso and you will never win. They are OK for the French press pot or drip filter, but not
for Formula One pump espresso! In any case, using whole coffee beans and a good burr grinder is
essential in the pursuit of great espresso coffee.
194 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
TO REFRIGERATEO R NOTTO REFRIGERATE
How to keep coffee fresh until ready to use, has been the subject of many
discussions. Some people say coffee beans should be stored in an airtight
containeri n a cool darkp laces ucha s a cupboardO. therss ayy ou musts tore
yourc offee beans in an airtightc ontaineri n a refrigeratorM. osts ayn ever
to freeze coffee. At least everyone agrees that coffee should be kept airtight.
The theory behind storing coffee is that when
you heat a chemical reaction, it will speed up
the reaction, and when you cool it you will slow
the reaction. The loss of CO2 gas from coffee
is in effect a chemical reaction. The CO2 takes
with it volatile coffee aroma and vital flavor
characteristics.T hisp rocess begins the moment
roasting is completed and will be accelerated
by the greater amount of heat and oxygen that
are present. Everyone agrees too much heat is
bad for storing roasted coffee and that a cooler
temperature will slow up the loss of vital coffee
flavor components. However, the fundamental
question is how much cooler?
Blind taste tests I have conducted with
my team in our roasting factory revealed that
coffee that has been stored for up to ten weeks
in a refrigerator, will taste remarkably better
than coffee stored in a cupboard at an ambient
temperature for the same period ofome. I have
196 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
even had coffee that has been frozen for five
weeks and when thawed, tasted better than
coffee stored in an airtight pack in a cupboard.
Let’s start with freezing coffee. The main
arguments against freezing are ( l) there is no
aroma in the coffee when it is frozen, (2) smells
from other items in the fridge affect the flavor
of the coffee, and (3) condensation forms on
the beans and adversely affects the coffee oils.
There is definitely less aroma from frozen coffee
beans immediately after removing them from
the freezer. But that is because the release of CO2
has been slowed down dramatically. Once the
coffee is allowed to thaw for an hour or two, the
aroma is there to enjoy.C ertainlya, s I mentioned
above, the taste can be there too. After all, isn’t
that what we are chasing?
Further, if the beans are in an airtight
storage container, then they can’t be affected
by smells from other items in the fridge.
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198 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
So that eliminates argument number two.
When it comes to condensation, it may become
problematic if the coffee is being taken in
and out of the freezer repeatedly. But as I say,
in the taste test we conducted, it was better
after allowing for thawing. In regards to
refrigeration, the same arguments apply.
If you are storing coffee in unsealed bags,
however, it will lose flavor regardless of where
it is stored – the cupboard, refrigerator or the
freezer. And if coffee is sealed in a pack with
oxygen, likewise, it won’t matter where it is
stored. I twill still deteriorate rapidly.
Some roasters de-gas the coffee beans prior
to packing them. To me, this is a euphemism for
saying the coffee is made stale before packing.
If coffee is sealed immediately after roasting,
the CO2 from the coffee will flood the pack to
bursting point unless there is a one-way valve on
the pack. The one-way valve is designed to allow
the CO2 out so the bag doesn’t burst, and it stops
any oxygen from getting in to stale the coffee.
My practical preference is for coffee that
has been packed immediately after roasting and
aged between one to three weeks in an oxygenfree
pack in a constant air-conditioned room
at around 75°F (24 °C). To me, this allows the
crema to stabilize and taste less harsh. Likewise,
it allows the coffee flavors to synthesize and
become smoother and more integrated. Perhaps
this is not dissimilar to aging a wine.
Degassing, or staling the coffee slightly
prior to packing, will enable the espresso to be
a little more stable when it is being brewed up
to seven days afterwards. What some roasters
try and do is deliver the coffee within a few days
of the roasted date, claiming that this is the
best way to experience fresh coffee. I believe
this maybe okay when it comes to drip coffee,
but it opens a Pandora’s Box when it comes
to espresso. One of the problems is that if the
coffee has only been heat-sealed without any
vacuum or inert gas inserted, the pack will
contain 20 percent oxygen. As a result, the
coffee actually stales in the pack and you lose
the full potential and intensity offlavor.
The other problem is that the ambient
temperature where the pack is stored, will
actually affect the volatility more than the
number of days since roasting. This is because,
as we know, when we heat a chemical reaction,
we speed it up so a higher ambient temperature
will accelerate the release of CO2 . As a result, the
coffee will stale more quickly. On top of this,
regardless of how it is packed, coffee will be
adversely affected if the temperature fluctuates
too much. The ideal way to store coffee is at a
constant temperature so the oils don’t move
around too much in the coffee bean and
become rancid. Maybe this is why some people
recommend putting it in a cupboard to try and
even out the temperature fluctuations.
THE BARISTA 199
A coffee ‘cake’ or ‘puck’
should be nice and firm when
you finish so you can break
it like a cookie. This is a sign
that the flavor has been well
extracted and ‘pressed’ out
into your cup.
A coffee ‘cake’ or ‘puck’ up
close and personal. The steam
is still rising and hopefully
someone is simultaneously
enjoying an espresso made
expressly for them.
I believe to alleviate this problem ideally, a constant air-conditioned temperature should be used.
Dr. Illy developed the pressurized can so that the pressure around the bean inside the can stops
the CO2 from leaving the bean and seasons the coffee. In other words, this method allows the oils
and volatile aromatics to stay within the bean, thus enabling the flavor to become better integrated.
This is also a way to extend the shelf life, maximizing flavor for the extended time between when
the coffee is roasted and when it makes its way to his customers’ palates around the world.
The volatility of the CO2 affects crema, and therefore flavor. There are baristas who dose coffee
differently according to the number of days since roasting. According to them, each day will get its
own respectived ose volume. Basicallyw, hat this does is allow more head space between the top
of the coffee grinds and the spray head in the machine where the water comes out. The amount of
head space is related to how much CO2 gas is released. If there is more gas, they leave more space.
Certainlyif y ou everg et your handso n ScottC allaghan’sd osingt ools (whicha re a serieso f 30, rounded
scrapers that range from a flat edge to almost a semi-circle), and systematically play with the
dosing, you will find a huge difference in flavor from cup to cup. I have had plenty of espressos that
have tasted good when the coffee is less than seven days since roasting and the dosing has been
lower to allow more head-space for the volatile CO2 . A coffee that is only a couple of days old, can
taste better when it is slightly under-dosed. But to me it doesn’t reach its fullest potential, which,
I believe, can only be realized if it is kept longer in the right conditions. In my opinion there is even
more potential flavor to be gained by aging coffee correctly.
Most of the best espresso coffees I have tasted have had a more integrated flavor when the
coffee has been stored in an oxygen-free environment, in either a vacuum pack or inert gas-flushed
pack, and has been allowed to mature for a couple of weeks at a stable cool temperature. The
flavor becomes more smooth and rich, avoiding the harshness and hardness that more volatile,
immature espresso coffees display.
So, it is not a simple case of fresh being a few days from roasting versus stale coffee being
older. It is probably better to think of it in terms of volatile coffee versus mature coffee. In the
factory, we taste coffees immediately after roasting to ensure quality control. The trouble with this
is the crema is very volatile and won’t taste as it would when it is more stable later on. The only
other way coffee can be fresh, is if it is stored in a completely oxygen-free environment at a low
and stable temperature. A stable room temperature of75°F (24°C) would mean the coffee would
be mature, with a more stable crema and a more integrated, smooth flavor between one to four
202 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
weeks. If the coffee is refrigerated, it will
further extend the volatility by slowing down
the chemical reactions and CO2 release and
these time-frames will change accordingly.
THE BARISTA 203
Too much coffee oil pressed
out in your filter-insert after
knocking out the spent coffee
can be a clue that the coffee
has been over-extracted.
A thermo-block is a bit like an
engine block with channels
in it to heat the water quickly.
A very cost effective home
version machine.
204 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
RAGE AND THE MACHINE
One of the reasons the espresso industry attracts an extremely eclectic
mix of personalities is that, unlike wine where anyone can open a bottle,
a relativelyc omplexm achine is needed to convertb eans to a liquidd rink.
Given the vagaries of extraction, and the intricacies of the brewing process,
people with a very high engineering intelligence seem to gravitate towards
espresso equipment. There are continual developments when it comes to
espresso machines, although sometimes it seems we go around in circles.
One of the recent developments with espresso
machines has been as a result of a focus on
a stable and constant brewing temperature.
Unfortunatelyw, hat I havef ound with machines
that have a very stable brewing temperature,
is that the coffee flavor tends to become rather
hard and metallic. My theoty on this is that too
constant a temperature actuallyh as a negative
effect on flavor. Here’s why …
If you look at coffee grounds under a
microscope, the particles will appear very
different in size. The variation in size creates
a seemingly random matrix which enhances
flavor. I have heard it said that when coffee
grounds are too uniform in size, instead of
improving the flavor it actually declines. When I
combined that thought with the idea that coffee
with a good variation in roast color inside the
bean seemed to have a more complex flavor, I
thought of all the outstanding coffees that I had
ever enjoyed and that perhaps what helped was a
temperature curve where the temperature varied
from start to finish rather than staying constant.
When this was put to the test using the
Scace measuring tool, which is possibly the most
accurate espresso tool for measuring espresso
brewing temperature, it appeared some machines
known for their constant brewing temperature
actually increase in temperature throughout 20
–30 seconds of extraction. The ones that tasted
the best, were the ones where the temperature
steadily declined a few degrees from start to finish,
and did so consistentlyT. hat is, the same brewing
profile repeated itself consistently. Many new
THE BARISTA 205
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THE BARISTA 207
machines will brew at constant set temperatures throughout the brewing cycle. At each respective
set temperature, different flavors will emerge. By having a varied temperature during extraction, it
follows that you can bring out more of the delightful variations and complexity in flavor that only
become apparent through the different degrees. This is a bit like my preference for a medium rare
steak where there is a different range of cooked meat within the steak that creates more complexity
in the overall flavor.
Now perhaps it is more apparent given all the complexity of espresso, why it might be so
difficult to get an automatic espresso machine to do a great job. It is very difficult for an automatic
machine, even with all their adjustments, to adapt to the enormous and ever-changing number of
variables and volatility that our complex little coffee beans produce. For the moment, it is a matter
of accepting the limited range of adjustments that can be made on an automatic machine. I am sure it
won’t be long before an automatic machine will be developed that can help achieve a great extraction.
Until that happens, we must rely on a good barista.
At times, I have experienced a good barista who can make up for a mediocre machine, but even
an expensive, high-tech machine cannot make up for a poor barista. So regardless of the equipment
you may have at your disposal, keep it really clean and start experimenting. Maybe you will find the
limits of your equipment and feel the need to upgrade, but above all, experiment and taste – always.
208 THE ESPRESSO QUEST
Coffee exploding out of a
‘naked portafilter’ where
the spouts have been cut off.
There is mind-blowing action
going on with espressoc offee
everywhere.
210 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
HOW TO BECOME A WORLD BARISTA CHAMPION
To be a champion you have to know more about espresso coffee.
More than the judges who are judging you.
The good thing about the World Barista
Championship competition is that it is inspiring
many young people around the world to explore
what it takes to make a great espresso coffee.
There are many different styles of espresso
flavor: mild, light and acidic; tangy and fruity;
heavy-bodied and earthy and syrupy and
chocolaty. And at the risk of over generalizing,
in different parts of the world, there are some
broad brush international styles: traditional
Italian espresso tends to be heavy bodied, low
acid and syrupy; Nordic espresso tends to be
preferred as a very light acidic style; America,
like Australia and New Zealand, tends to be
more varied with some dark roast espresso
styles thrown in for good measure. It is very
hard to appeal to all taste preferences of the
judges who come from varied taste backgrounds
from all around the world. My advice is to get
yourown style, the one you really like, and stick
to it. Hopefully it will increase the chances that
you will succeed. And if you don’t, at least you
will stay true to yourself.
A barista who wants to succeed at this level
really needs a good roasting company as a partner.
A bit like Fl racing teams except the barista is
substituted for the driver. This is what Paul Bassett
did after he failed to reach the finals in Oslo at the
WBCin 2002. Hec ame to me and asked me to help
him put an espresso blend together that would
help him win. The next year in Boston in 2003 he
became the World Barista Champion.
It is extremely important to learn as much
as possible about all aspects of coffee, including
factors affecting the development offlavor.
One barista Sasha McGinleyw, ho worked for
me for a couple of years, did just that, and went
on to become a state barista trainer looking
after 50 stores. From there she has gone on to
managing the harvest program for Mountain
Top. Her desire to learn as much as she could
about all aspects of coffee has put her in the
fast lane to becoming one of the world’s
most well-informed baristas. She has helped
Brazilian experts manage a harvest, organized
old farm hands, neighboring farms’ programs,
done sample roasting, conducted professional
cuppings and analysis. Sasha has achieved all this
at the tender age of 21.
The espresso bug is catching. A lot of young
THE BARISTA 211
baristas are being drawn into the search for an understanding of what makes a great espresso.
As a result they are beginning a potential life-long pursuit in the world of coffee. I should know,
because here I am looking back after twenty-six years as I write this section in Sao Paolo airport on
yet another trip to Brazil, still searching for the improvements that I know are there to be unlocked.
One of the things my tenure as Executive Director of the World Barista Championship Ltd.
did provide was a glimpse into the truly global nature of espresso. It is not just an Italian drink
anymore. India, China and Asia have a huge percentage of the world’s population, and as their
standard of living continues to increase, they are increasingly embracing espresso coffee too. But
it doesn’t matter if you visit Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia or North America, the presence
of espresso-based coffee is appearing more and more. And, if it is anything like the changes I have
seen in my own home country, it is not going away.
What I have learned in the past twenty-six years, is that the moment you stop seeking to
improve and change what you do, you diminish the chances of seeing Godi1 1yo11respwreps.s Wo hether
it involves formal scientific analysis or not, by continuing on the path of tasting everything you can
and letting your taste be your one and only guide, even if it means breaking all the other rules, then
I am sure you will enjoy yourown Godi1 1yo11respwreps esxop eriences.
214 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST THE BARIS TA 21 5
Beauty and elegance can be
found in the most unlikely,
everyday espresso cups
CONCLUSION: HOW TO MAl<E AN ESPRESSO COFFEE
Finallyf,o r the budding barista, I present to you insight into how to keep
your espresso simple, and how to maximize the chances of enjoying the full
potential of all the hard work of the agronomist, the grower, processor, and
the roaster- not to mention increasingt he chanceso f experiencingG odin
youre sprescsuop :
Keepy our machine veryc lean! (Alwaysu se Cafettoc leaning powder). Put enough coffee in
your porta-filter so it is full right up to the dispersion screen. Once you press your brew button,
it should take about four or five seconds before you see the coffee liquid start coming out of the
spout. It should then take about twenty to thirty seconds to see about l . ounces ( 45 mis) of coffee
liquid in your cup if you are making a doppio. This includes crema. And when you knock outthe used
coffee grinds afterwards, they should fall out in one piece, like a hockey puck. There you have it.
But these simple instructions will either drive you mad, or make you want to start out on your
own espresso quest like the one I have undertaken for the last two and a half decades. Hopefully it
will inspire you to understand more about the aspects involved in creating a great-tasting espresso,
including the knowledgeo f the grower, the roaster and the barista. Theya ll go into making a Godin
mye sprescsuop e xperienceo ccur consistently.M ayG od be with you!
‘Godi n mye spresswo p’.
This single espresso shot was
made on a home Diamond
Italia machine using a small
Compak 1(3 grinder with coffee
that was 13 days ‘old’ (i.e. 13
days since it was roasted).
I twas stored in an airtight,
impermeable pack with a
residual oxygen of 0.8% at an
average temperature of75°F
(24°C). Barista Scott Callaghan
used dosing tool No. l 0. Let
me assure you, it not only
looks great, ittasted sublime!
THE BARSI TA 217
THAN/( YOU
Albert Subira and Compak Coffee Grinders
Bob Weagle and Frank Dennis at Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Co
Charles Stephans at ECA
Chris Short and Cafetto
Henrique Cambraia and Santo Antonio Estates
Mike Del Zoppo and Diamond C Services
Natalie Risotto
Paul Jackson at Danes Gourmet Coffee
Paul Geshoz and his baristas
Rob Forsyth
Scottie Callaghan
Scott Jones
Sean Edwards Cafe Magazine
Vince Piccolo and 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters
ADDENDUM
During the printing of this book Dr Ernesto Illy died. References were not changed to
speak of him in the past tense – out of respect to a man who was a true espresso pioneer.
He was also a humble gentleman who remains an inspiration to all of us who now
follow in his espresso footsteps.
THANKYOU 219
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220 THE ESPRESSOQ UEST
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AUTHOR– INSTAURATOR
lnstaurator has been Chairman of the Australian Coffee & Tea Association where he was instrumental
in establishing national barista training standards currently used by Government registered training
organizations. He has also been ExecutiveD irectoro f the WorldB arist a Championship Ltd,E xecutive
Director of what is now known as Danes Gourmet Coffee and Founder and CEO of Michel’s Espresso.
He bid a record US$49p er pound for Brazilianc offee in ‘Cupo f Excellencea‘ uctions. He has helped
set up coffee roasting businesses in North America, japan and Australia. His passion and global
insight provide a unique view into the intense world of espresso coffee. He currently works as an
international coffee consultant and can be contacted at [email protected].
AUTHOR 221