Coffee is Like Wine, Except Not
Coffee shares many characteristics with wine—deep and complex flavors, subtle aromas, and (sadly) you can’t drink it unlimited quantities. The specialty coffee industry takes pride in such a comparison and even tries to emulate the wine business with significant investments in research and technology. But there’s one major distinction between coffee and wine, one that is impossible to overcome and makes coffee notoriously difficult to empiricize.
It lies in the fact that, unlike wine, which is sold and served as a generally “finished” product out of the bottle, coffee leaves with the consumer the last—and perhaps the most significant—step of production: the extraction process. We’ve talked about this before in the Coffee Flavor Chain, where extracting the flavor out of the coffee depends largely on how you brew it. Espresso will taste different than drip coffee with the same roasted coffee, as will a French press from a pour over and so on. Duh!
And that’s aside from grind size, how old your roasted beans are, what kind of water you’re using, what temperature you’re drinking the coffee, and whether you’re adding anything to it like milk or sugar. The variables can be dizzying. A (poor) analogy would be selling barrels of cabernet sauvignon directly for you to age, rack and serve, either straight or in a sangria. How you prepare it will matter!
What if you buy your coffee directly from a coffee shop. Don’t they standardize all that? Would the same coffee roaster’s bean at one shop taste the same at another in the same extraction method? Sadly, no (and test that for your self). Equipment may be different (resulting in different grind sizes, brew temperatures and extraction pressures), methods for the same brewing technique may be different (coffee to water ratios, immersion times, pourover techniques), water sources may be different, roast dates may be different—the list goes on.
So what’s the point? The coffee industry has long realized that how people prepare coffee will often drive what they think of the coffee itself. Here’s a study saying the same thing in impenetrable jargon, yawn-inducing statistics and fancy charts. So if you use a basic drip machine, a “medium” grind on a kitchen blade grinder, tap water in Florida, you might emphasize certain flavor notes and hide others, like “roast,” “acidity,” etc., which may not be what the coffee roast is known for. If you don’t like it, you might then conclude that particular roast or region isn’t for you. And if you like, you’ll stick to that roast forever. We often get comments like, “that Ethiopians is too acidic,” or “that Brazil is too bland,” or “I don’t like light roasts.”
That open secret among speciality coffee types opens the door to the marketers. “Espresso” roasts are formulated knowing that people who pull espresso shots will generally brew a certain way, so roasters will try to roast for mild, roast and sweet flavors, toning down acidity and fruits. “Morning blends” might be formulated for automatic machines that are ready for consumption quickly, allowing for higher caffeine content and brightness notes.
We don’t judge. But we definitely recommend mixing it up. The most frequent feedback we get (unsurprisingly) is: “I never really liked black coffee until I tried your …” with almost every different coffee and roast we offer. We love it! Some say that using a french press, some with drip, others with fancy espresso machines. It really doesn’t matter. Mix it up and see for yourself before you judge a coffee roast (from anywhere)!