I had an interesting conversation with one of our local coffee drinkers the other day. She had read a recent blog where I talked about the 4 basic coffee characteristics of flavor, body, aroma and acidity and was certain that acidity was a bad thing. It's not.
When you're tasting coffee acidity isn't referring to a ph level; rather, it means that the coffee has a brightness to it, or a pleasing aftertaste. Flat coffee is completely lacking in acidity, and that is not a good thing.
Of course, you don't need to learn all these terms to enjoy a good cup of coffee. But, for those of you who do like to learn the terms you can consider going to a coffee tasting or a "cupping." A coffee cupping is just the fancy name for a tasting event. To hold a coffee cupping, you grind a bit of coffee into a small cup, pour hot water and let it sit until the grinds form a crusty surface. Then you evaluate the aroma, sip the liquid and spit it out.
What? You can' t stand the idea of spitting out your coffee? I can understand. Yet cupping is a great way to understand coffee terms, coffee flavors and coffee characteristics. Of course, a plain old meeting over coffee is good too. In fact, we've decided to host a Meet and Greet Coffee Tasting Event for those of you nearby the roastery. Watch the website for details.
Coffee Bean Tutorial: Indonesian Coffee Beans
Wikipedia lists Indonesia as the world's third largest exporter of coffee beans and the number one in producing washed Arabica beans, beaten only by Brazil and Vietnam. Coffee beans from Indonesia tend to be rich and full bodied Arabica beans, and sometimes are earthy tasting.
Until our next cup,
Sandy Riggen
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