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Coffee is a little bit more complicated...

 

Hey! Glad to come back with some updates and thoughts to share!

 

As you know, I am in the middle of roast profiling for the first coffee and I have never been so confused and full of doubts, as the responsibility and fear of commitment hold me back like a hook on my throat.

 

Even if it is my personal misconception of reality and pushing "brakes" is what I usually do under the pressure of circumstances that happen to be new and unfamiliar, at least I would like to be able to make confident decisions in field I am passionate about.

 

So unfortunately coffee is such a complicated product and topic that it makes the situation even worse.

 

I have a constant practice in cupping and analyzing taste but every time struggle to understand why does perception play a devil joke with my mind and what subjective and objective reasons cause the fluctuation in evaluating the cup, sometimes enormous!

 

Trying to choose the right profile or cup is complicated, although it encouraged me to deeply think and express some thoughts below.

 

Today we had a great coffee event in Tbilisi, cupping of Kenyan coffees from about 20 different roasters.

 

This is a great experience and I would like to give a huge respect to people who organized this fantastic Kenyan day - @sensekik and @ivan.slusar, well done!!! I had a great time and got all emotional range from confusion of spilling coffee on our regular customer to shyness and thrilling of standing close to the person I like.

 

Beside the joyful part of meeting new and already known coffee people the event also had a goal to pick up the best Kenyan coffee as a culmination of the whole cupping session, which kept every one focused and heated up the degree of discussion. Of course the topics regarding infused coffee were raised not once, as well as freshness and roast styles... there were much to talk about and I really enjoyed but still felt confused of how the coffee plays this trick to me on choosing the best one.

 

So, what is "the best" coffee anyway and why even should we choose the best. If the last question I can relate to gratulating and encouraging the people who produce the great product of good quality, but the first question still is not clear for me.

 

May be you have heard about recent beta version of new SCA value assessment protocol which we will definitely come back to on future posts. For now I will just say that it has so called extrinsic attributes which should contain all kind of information about producing, farm etc. It seems to me very important because it can help to reveal what stands behind the beans you are enjoying. It gives you the opportunity to have additional scale of values, express and establish your personal statement for moral, ethical and social issues by choosing the coffee with the corresponding narrative.

 

Unfortunately now we have so little  talks on cupping tables about the story of the coffee lots, often we don't even know the story, it is hidden from us by roaster or importer. For sure it could be delicious cup but it leaks the narrative compound.

 

And I totally feel this, the full image of coffee is built from the pieces: taste, roaster, producer etc. I feel more connected to coffee lots which I know more about. That is why I treated coffee from local roasters with more accuracy and attention. That’s why, to my shame, I emotionally critiqued the Kenyan lot of my ex-employer @botanicacofeeroasters (i know you could do better and i hope you will, love you guys). This is because I get known with you already a little bit, I care about you and appreciate this bond.

 

 

Continue reasoning on coffee taste...

 

It happens so that once the cup of ordinary coffee you've occasionally brewed "by eye" taste better than anything you've had before. And I would prefer to have  such an insight instead of going insane on my equipment and brewing technique to get more "kiwi" from some experimental high scored coffee, sitting on the edge of infusion - co-fermentation. We are so tempted with something exotic, that rarely can enjoy with regular. We often ready to value something extraordinary more than familiar because we had got used to that.

 

I am not saying that we need to refuse all amazing experimental coffee, don't get me wrong, I am just reminding that it would be great to keep valued everything in coffee we loved in early days and try to find something new in already known, go deeper and wider.

 

What I miss so hard nowadays about coffee I had, especially Kenyan, is the flavor of black currant that I enjoyed so much back then, but can’t find today. It feels like a lost opportunity, a regret for not saying or doing the things I should  to people I love and care about.

 

And thanks God the coffee is so unpredictable, you can never learn it enough to be confident and bored. What I find even more interesting is how this idea reflects on the people's relationships. You can never be bored with person who you truly and constantly try to explore and understand. It requires quite an effort and maybe it is the real LOVE, it does not make you suffer but enjoy.

 

Another interesting thing I mentioned is how coffee differs on certain circumstances, even on today’s event, beans brewed differently on the final table and  was unrecognizable for me (except stinky ones ))). The balance had shifted and everything that tended to be unripe and sour become juicy and balanced, what felt like complex and sweet became roasty and bitter. And again a great analogy to daily life when some events may seem to be not so bad if you know the right angle to look from. You just need to learn how to do that, I am learning!

 

And you, my dear friends, surely will make delicious cup of coffee, don't forget to share this moment with someone and look from another angle, may be the sun lights will fall differently, highlighting something you never saw!