The humble coffee bean

You may have seen the Twinings tea advert on the UK TV? The one that goes “in 1709 there were over 2000 coffee houses in London”; coffee has been with us for eons, far longer than most people expect.

In those early days coffee was drunk in small cups as a thick syrupy drink. Even as recently as the 1900s coffee sets were usually comprised of a large coffee pot and a number of really small around 5oz cups. Now we have a vast array of coffee brewing methods available. In no particular order of preference, here are just a few of the different ways fresh coffee can be made at home; home espresso coffee machines; home bean to cup espresso coffee machines; electronic pod coffee machines; filter coffee makers; percolators; French press or cafetiere; Aeropress; moka pot; V60; siphon; cold brew and nitro. Writing that last bit made me wonder how many coffee makers we have at home in the kitchen, more on that later.

The other major change over recent coffee drinking history, probably heavily influenced by the USA coffee drinker is the volume of the coffee drink. It is common for coffee to be served in 16oz, 20oz or even 24oz cups. Consider for a moment, if you drink milky coffee such as a latte or mocha that is around a pint of milk for each drink before you add in the sugar or syrups. No inferred criticism of course but it does highlight how things and our tastes change.

Continuing the theme of changing tastes, the emergence of the cortado and flat white coffee drinks where the the ratio of coffee to milk is increasing is now a growing segment.

Our philosophy at Blue J Coffee Co is that when it comes to coffee it really should be “All about the taste”! Take our Blend 34 coffee for instance; the skilful addition of a small amount of the Robusta coffee bean variety lifts the flavors from the Arabica and Robusta coffee bean blend. This addition of the Robusta coffee bean enhances the different combination of flavors released from the coffee bean blend to produce a really delicious coffee drink. There are many coffee bloggers and coffee roasters who would be surprised at the addition of the Robusta coffee bean variety as it is seen within certain circles as the lesser of the two main coffee bean types. They too would be pleasantly surprised at the depth, smoothness, range of coffee flavors or “tasting notes” and robustness of the coffee taste with no after taste. So it is no surprise that even at home, Blend 34 is our everyday coffee drink.

Although we recommend Blend 34 coffee and encourage you to try it for yourself as your regular coffee we would also encourage you to try some other coffees; particularly the coffee bean types provided by the many different specialty single origin coffee bean growers. These specialty coffee beans are from a single harvest from a specific location and each single origin coffee bean has a unique and delicious flavor profile. This is where it gets really interesting because we have found that getting the best from the specialty coffee bean really does rely on the ideal coffee bean roast profile, the grind and the brewing method.

The ideal roast for the speciality coffee bean will have been done for you so you can concentrate on the grind and the coffee brewing method.

Usually with the small volumes of coffee beans involved for home use we recommend a small good quality hand operated coffee bean grinder with ceramic burrs. We feel that to get the equivalent consistency and longevity from an electric coffee bean grinder with metal burrs you would need to spend several hundred pounds. They are available and it is of course personal preference.

The ideal brewing method is now where you can get really creative and explore the coffee making method you prefer the most. From the quicker French press to the elaborate siphon, they will each give you a slightly different coffee flavor even from the same ground coffee bean. We have found that the delicate flavors from the speciality coffee bean are best released with the slower more gentle brewing methods so siphon, V60 and filter methods may each deliver a slightly different flavor profile. We start with Aeropress to see if the speciality coffee beans are a good match with this method. Espresso machine coffee extraction methods can be a little too aggressive at extracting the flavour from the speciality coffee bean.

As I noted earlier, whilst writing this I decided to have a quick look around the kitchen to see how many different coffee makers we have. I found 6 and I know somewhere there are 2 more an old percolator and an original design of a V60. Over the next few weeks I’ll have a go with them but for now I’ll enjoy my Blend 34 made with an Expobar 1 group espresso machine. Tomorrow I’ll try a speciality single origin Kenya Kathakwa AA roasted coffee bean with my Aeropress and V60. Just to see if I can match the Q score it has of 86.50

There is a wide range of coffee beans available including the single origin speciality coffee beans for you to explore. I hope you enjoy the experience.