Sadly for Prof. Coffee drinkers but happily for Prof. Coffee, yours truly is taking a break from roasting your faves during May and the first half of June. I’ll be enjoying 1 euro espressos with pasteis de nata in Portugal during the first half of May and then real ramen that doesn’t cost $20 in Japan right after that. So, this means only one more opportunity for you to order any Prof. Coffee until late June. I’ll do a last roast this coming weekend and deliver on May 1. Please get orders in no later than by Friday evening so I can plan my time over the weekend. The April winner of the Residential Fellow (TBA next week) will be able to cash in their coupons any time after I return.
The Acid Test
It’s common coffee knowledge that in general, light roasts taste more acidic and dark roasts tastes more bitter. That’s why I tend to do medium roasts that are neither too acidic or too bitter. Specialty coffee roasters and connoisseurs, however, tend to prize lighter roasts because they feature more nuanced and complex flavors of the beans themselves rather than leaning on a “roast” flavor and the sweet-chocolately caramelization that it brings. But most mainstream coffee drinkers nowadays shy away from light roasts because of a fear of the acidic. But is it really one or more of various organic acids in coffee that is being tasted in those light roasts? This was the question posed by a Danish study that questioned the ability of even highly trained baristas and roasters to taste specific types of acids that sometimes appear in tasting notes. The results of the study were rather surprising. The main takeaway is that the citric acid in the Brazilian beans (representative of South American coffees) that were tasted was the only acid perceptible in the natural concentrations of a brewed cup. And that Kenyan beans—which have a reputation of being acidic and representative of African coffees—have less acid than Brazilian beans. This throws into question some of the tasting standards and descriptors used in the trade. But more interestingly, it raises interesting questions about where the perceived acidic taste comes from if not entirely from organic acids. This article goes into some of the hypotheses and I encourage those who are interested in such things to read it: “What We Taste When We Taste Acidity“.
April’s Prof. Coffee Residential Fellow: Prof. Rob Campany!
This month’s Residential Fellow competition was tight. Two people—last month’s winner Seok Bae Jang and Rob Campany—were tied in total number of bags ordered. However, on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion tiebreak, Rob edged out Seok Bae by ordering three different roasts: HUG, Bandung Blend, and Base-2. Congratulations to a well-caffeinated Prof. Campany!
Note the because a my travel during May and the first half of June, the winner of April’s Residential Fellowship will have to wait until mid-June to begin their residence. This also mean that all you all better stock up in April!
Variety is Hard Work!
When I first created Prof. Coffee I thought it would be nice to have a wider choice of roasts beyond Bandung Blend and PhD. And it would be interesting to have some new multi-bean blends alongside a couple single-origins. I knew that it would be possible that I could wind up having to be many roasts for a relatively few number of orders, but that hasn’t happened—until this week. Three orders of three bags each spread across all but one offering (surprisingly, CRT, the #1 bestseller) meant that I had ten separate roasts of ten different beans to fulfill the orders. I had to split the roast sessions between two days and carried out a full maintenance on my roaster before the second session. In the end, it was fun. And cheaper than therapy….
Did you know…
… that coffee “beans” are not really beans, but are rather the pits of berries that look like cherries? So, technically, they are seeds. May your day today be well-seeded!
(image source: https://www.cherrynleaf.com/blogs&blog_id=1)
New Brew for You: ABD Now on Offer!
After much procrastination reminiscent of those grad school days when instead of actually writing my dissertation I would convince myself that I had to read just one more book before starting to write, ABD blend is finally available to order. I’m still tweaking ratios and playing with roast levels of the three beans I’m using for it—Uganda Bugisu Mt. Elon, Bali Blue Moon, and Dominican Republic Red Honey Ramirez Estate—but today’s sample was good enough for me so it’s good enough for you. Try it out and let me know what you think. I’m sure to continue making slight alterations because I’m OCD, not ABD….
Prof. Coffee’s First Residential Fellow Winner – Dr. Seok Bae Jang!
Dr. Seok Bae Jang, Vanderbilt’s Korean Language Program Coordinator, is the first recipient of a Prof. Coffee “Residential Fellowship” discount coupon. Congratulations! Seok Bae purchased a total of 7 bags of Prof. Coffee roasts (4 Base-2 and 3 Bouquet) during the period from Prof. Coffee’s launch (January 28, 2023) to the end of February. He will be entitled to one free bag of a Prof. Coffee roast of his choice for each week of March. A new competition for the April Residential Fellow starts today. Start submitting your “applications” now!
Did you know…
… that contrary to popular belief, dark roasts do not pack more caffeine than light roasts? In fact, light and dark roasted beans have the same amount of caffeine per bean, but if you’re measuring the amount of beans to grind by volume (i.e., with a spoon) rather than by weight, then your brewed cup of dark roast will have less caffeine than the same volume of a light roast because beans taken to a darker roast expand to a larger size, so your spoonful of French roast beans will have fewer beans than a spoonful of lighter roasted beans. And fewer beans means less caffeine. Moral of the story: always weigh out the amount of beans to use for the cup or pot that you’re going to brew if you want the same caffeine kick regardless of roast level.
Fancy Tasting Gear for Fancy Coffee
Some of you may be wondering why I generally don’t do traditional tasting notes for my roasts; some of you may not give a hoot for pretentious and preposterous descriptions of flavors we mere mortal coffee drinkers can’t come close to discerning. Well, the main reason is because I’ve never bothered to train my palette properly and I’m too lazy to use a thesaurus. But, I figure it might be fun to learn how to be able to give pretentious and preposterous tasting notes like the pros. So, I bought a proper cupping bowl and proper (and properly expensive) Hario Tetsu Kasuya Model cupping spoon. Now all I need to do is to practice cupping—basically brewing a sample cup and smelling/tasting it according to SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) guidelines. I think that all the practice and creative use of a thesaurus in the world will not tune my tongue to be able to honestly say that a Blah-Blah Blend tastes like fig, pine, tobacco, blueberry, burnt sage, and mascarpone, but at least I’ll have the credentials to fake it.
Who is Tetsu Kasuya, btw, and why is a cupping spoon named after him? He was the 2016 World Brewers Cup Champion. Upon his victory, he proceeded to monetize his accomplishment (good for him). And, he shared the 4:6 pour-over brewing technique that won him the championship. If you too want to brew like a champ, you can learn his secret here.
Prof. Coffee Now Tweeting
Prof. Figal had actually dumped Twitter after that guy took it over, but Prof. Coffee thought that limited tweeting and following only other coffee-related accounts might be worthwhile. So, if you’re the Twitter-scrolling type, you can follow Prof. Coffee’s occasional tweets at:Follow @ProfCoffeeFigal