Coffee, Coffee, Coffee



I've been reading this great book called The Book of Coffee and Tea by the Schapira family. [you can get it on Half for $0.75] It's quite fascinating really. I've learned a ton of stuff I didn't know about coffee. It grows on a tree like bush, it's the seed of the fruit you see above, it's picked, dried and shipped to the roaster. There any number of levels of roasting, but here in the US we tend to like our coffee "City Roast" which is also known as "brown roast". How dark the coffee has nothing to do with it's strength (strength comes from the brewing process). The darkness of the roast is what gives the coffee body and depth. The acidity of a coffee comes from the kind of soil (preferably volcanic) and the altitude (preferably high) where it's grown.

Cheap mass-marketed coffees are made from a shitty bean called the Robusto. The trees are hearty and disease resistant, but the cup quality is like boiled straw. Good coffee comes from Arabica beans only, which is why good coffee is more expensive than cheap shit.

So I know all this stuff now, and I'm learning more all the time, but I still don't like the taste. I can discern the difference between types of coffees now, but I don't really like any of them. Maybe I'll learn to like it...
- posted by Mason @ 11:31 PM