Coffee Education (Part I)

Good morning... What can I get for you?

How about some coffee? So... because of my less than stellar experience a few days ago with buying some coffee at Starbucks and the lack of knowledge for some "basic" coffees... and the resistance to making me a French Press of coffee... I thought I'd do a series of posts on basic coffee knowledge. Now, you won't find much of this knowledge in your current materials... you'd have to go back to The CORE from '96.

Let's start off with some basics... Starbucks sells Varietals and Blends... That's it... 2 kinds. All are arabica. Arabicas are high-quality and grown at higher elevations.

So, you with me?

The best way to remember which coffee regions have what characteristics is to think of it this way. 3 Regions... The Americas, The Pacifics (or Indonesians) and the Africa/Arabians.

The Americas - Abundant sources of water means "wet processing" means high acidity, clean finish and milder flavors.

The Pacifics (or Indonesians) - Means heavy bodied, thick, syrupy, earthy coffees (earthy can be described as "green" like an unripe vegetable.

The Africas/Arabians - Not much water means "dry processing" means the cherry parts sit on the bean, means the bean picks up the wild flavors from the fermenting fruit means a "winey" flavor... means fruity too...

Now there are exceptions of course, but this is a good platform... Go find yourself a map... locate the Equator, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and you should be able to find all of the regions mentioned here. Once you learn that, I'll buy coffee from you again.

Have a good weekend... We'll see you Monday for you usual.

Pat Nerr...