The current fad in coffee brewing seems to be pods. Whatever the fad in vogue at a given time, it might be well to remind the reader of the universal principles covering proper coffee brewing, whether using pods or any other device. As Aristotle noted, a thing must always act according to its nature. Coffee has a certain nature, and as Sir Francis Bacon said, “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.” So let’s take a look at coffee’s nature to see if we can “command” it to be perfect every time.

In the early 1980’s I was asked to train the “Coffee Ambassadors” of the Coffee Development Group, precursor of the present Specialty Coffee Association of America. They were bright young people, one from each of America’s largest cities, charged with the task of fanning out across the country to spread the gospel of good coffee.

The trick was to find a simple way to automatize in their minds the nine key variables leading to “a perfect cup of coffee every time.” I decided to call the process, starting with great green beans and winding up with the perfect cup, “The Continuum to Contentment.” We hope that you can use the Continuum to establish yourself as an authority on coffee preparation, a coffee diagnostician.

While we have discussed these things briefly in previous articles, they have not been elaborated upon in great detail. So here we go with the nine main variables subsumed under the general principle, “A Perfect Cup of Coffee Every Time,” and which apply to all methods of coffee preparation:

GETTING READY TO BREW

1. The Bean
2. The Roast
3. The Grind
4. Packaging Quality
5. Coffee-to-Water Ratio

NOW LET’S BREW

6. Brewing Temperature
7. Infusion Period
8. Water Quality
9. Cleanliness of Equipment

We will only discuss the first of these in this issue. The rest will be covered in the future,  but all we will include here are little verses covering all nine variables. You might find them useful in remembering and in passing on to others in your staff. It is wise to end each couplet with the words, “All other things being equal,” for you can’t consider just one issue when one or more of the other variables may be out of kilter as well.

Here we go:

The better the bean, the better the brew.

The poorer the bean, the poorer the brew.

The darker the roast, the darker the liquor,

The lighter the roast, the lighter the liquor.

The finer the grind, the stronger the brew,

The coarser the grind, the weaker the brew.

The better the bag, the fresher the brew,

The poorer the bag, the staler the brew.

The heavier the weight, the stronger the brew,

The lighter the weight, the weaker the brew.

The hotter the water, the stronger the brew,

The colder the water, the weaker the brew.

The longer the time, the stronger the brew,

The shorter the time, the weaker the brew.

The better the water, the better the brew,

The poorer the water, the poorer the brew.

The cleaner the pot, the cleaner the brew,

The dirtier the pot, how awful for you.

Given this simple knowledge, if a customer calls and says, “You’ve changed the coffee. It’s no good this morning. Come and replace the inventory.” You might ask, “What seems to be the problem?” “The coffee is weak, has no color, and tastes stale,” comes the reply.

Do you accept his premise and run out to bring him new inventory, or does your mind go to work? Do you ask yourself: “Is the coffee roasted too light, is the water temperature high enough, is the ground coffee really stale, is it ground too coarse, causing the weakness, or too fine, causing the water to channel through the dry grounds and leaving them under-extracted? And what about the “stale” comment? Does he mean the kind of stale rancidity that comes from airports that have not been kept spotlessly clean, clean meaning especially on the inside? This is why it helps to know the variables. Let’s now take a look at the first, on which all the others depend.

THE BEAN

While we are in a poetic mood, let’s look at the four basic possibilities for beans, the simple truths regarding the outcome of our perfect cup.

You can make good coffee with good beans.

You can make bad coffee with good beans.

You can make bad coffee with bad beans.

But you can’t make good coffee with bad beans.

It is the roaster’s responsibility to sift through the myriad offerings available from around the world in evaluating and selecting the required green coffee. Once a blend structure is established at a given quality level, that level must be maintained. Contrary to popular belief, the green buyer must not become hung up on names of continents, countries, or regions within a country.

For example, new crop is better than past crop, and past crop is better than old crop, but new crop is better when not too new. Some green coffees can stand being a little older than others, and washed processed is usually better than unwashed or semi-washed, except where unwashed works better in some applications (this gets worse).

The name “Naturals” for unwashed coffees must drive the environmentalists crazy, for it denotes generally lower cup quality, not higher, and has nothing to do with birds, pesticides, or fertilizer. These beans simply have not gone through the superior washed process. On the other hand Brazilians, producers of most of the world’s unwashed arabicas, don’t like their coffee sounding as if it belongs to the unwashed masses, so they prefer to call them “other milds,” or “other arabicas.”

Why is washed coffee not always better than unwashed? It depends on the origins involved, the varieties, the altitudes, the bean size, the number of imperfections, and the age of the beans, to name but a few considerations. And there is no necessary correlation between bean size and cup quality, though in fairness the larger, uniform sized beans can make a better visual presentation, tending to have fewer imperfections, more easily detectable, thus more likely to be removed during processing.

The criterion of altitude should be considered in relation to a country’s proximity to the equator. To the extent that growing temperature is an important criterion in coffee quality development, a nation straddling the equator needs to grow coffee at a higher altitude to reach a given cooler temperature than one situated nearer to temperate zones e.g. Colombia, which straddles the equator, vs. Mexico or Guatemala.

Promotion of a name or location can drive a coffee well beyond its intrinsic value. Good examples of this would be Blue Mountain Jamaican and Hawaiian Kona. What makes this possible of course is their extremely low levels of production set against a demand driven by good promotion. Unfortunately, one consequence can be the phenomenon of more coffee being sold under that name than is grown, something a little tricky to do.

This was embarrassing for even the largest “specialty” chains that didn’t seem to know they were buying Panamanian or Costa Rican coffee while thinking it was Hawaiian. Further examples of coffee seeming to come from one place but really coming from another can be seen in the case of contiguous areas where it is easy for “tourist” coffees to be misidentified. Examples would be coffee originating in Mexico that has crossed the border and seems to come from Guatemala. And it can happen within a country, as with contiguous areas of Costa Rica using the name Tarrazu to cash in on the higher price achieved by their neighbor. Much of the price differences between districts do not reflect intrinsic value differentials, for they are merely the result of the smart promotion of a name. And names can be confusing. Remember that Panama, after all, was once part of Colombia, but could hardly now call its coffee “Colombian.”    

At the other end of the production scale, Brazil can suffer from another problem, that of being the world’s biggest producer. With its constant availability of green coffee including unwashed, washed, and semi washed, as well as robustas, Brazil is the underwriter of world supply, which normally has a stabilizing effect on prices. Unless of course that supply is threatened by a legendary Brazilian frost that curbs production and sends the coffee world into an orgy of high prices. 

The green coffee buyer has to contend with the problem of how far in time he or she provides for inventory replacement. The trading months on the Exchange are March, May, July, September and December. The prices for each succeeding month are higher than the one before, roughly reflecting the cost of storage and interest. This can be significant when a company in a market with low margins wants to cover itself long-term.

For example, as of this writing, the near month of September 2004 is 13.15 cents below December of 2005. This translates into around 15.65 cents per pound after 16% shrinkage in roasting, a big competitive disadvantage to any company that went a long way out as insurance to protect itself against a Brazilian frost. For if there is no change in world prices over that time span, a company paying a 15.65-cent premium on 500-million pounds just lost over 78-million dollars. Imagine the poor guy who recommended the long position, assuming he is just the green coffee buyer having to face senior management in defense of it.

All of this is but a taste of the trauma that a green coffee buyer must experience while not only making the right economic choices, but by doing so having the degree of sense (taste) perception necessary to deliver quality and consistency. And after green beans, of course we still have a long road to travel before getting to the cup.