the break-up coffee
November 17, 2007 by m'lissa
While Chris and I are very close and agree about most things, such as fashion and hair, what color Ferrari we would buy if we were wealthy, and wishing we could have seen The Cure live after the “Disintegration” album came out, we do not agree on naturally processed coffees.
Chris Owens: “It’s not my fault you like ferment.”
M’lissa Muckerman: ” It’s not my fault you can’t appreciate traditional methods.”
C.O.: “Oh, I appreciate it, I just don’t want to drink it.”
M.M. : “That’s it, we are breaking up.”
C.O. : “Fine, ferment-lover!”
M.M. : “Fine, un-lover and under-appreciator!”
On deck to be brewed at Octane right now is the ever-amazing Idido “Misty Valley” from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia with perfectly ripened strawberries and blueberries bursting in your mouth. It is, by far, one of my favorite coffees again this year. After the Misty Valley, the naturally sun-dried excellence from Biloya, Ethiopia will be up. This is coffee is out-of-this-world-berry-tastic. Then, to quench my thirst for the naturals we will brew up some of a Counter Culture exclusive, Michele from Sidamo, Ethiopia. This coffee is intense! Stellar.
That all being said, I will be in heaven and Chris will be brewing his own coffee at home.
One of the reasons coffee is so interesting is the vast amount of flavor profiles the little bean provides us with. I love it, and it will never stop amazing me. Thank you Mr. Bagersh for putting such care and effort into these coffees, and thank you Peter G. for sourcing them, and Tim Hill for your roasting skills, and all of Counter Culture Coffee for making it all available and beautiful for the masses to enjoy with me!
While you and I are not particularly close and disagree on many things, such as fashion and hair, I agree with you on this one (despite many dissenting opinions). One of the best coffees I was fortunate enough to cup in mexico was a natural from Miguel Flores’s farm, in Nyarit. If Owens doesn’t like ferment he shouldn’t eat bread. Or drink beer.
Thanks Mike. I did not think we would agree on this. That thrills me! (I did cut your hair once.. that’s a little bit of agreement on fashion
)
Good point. But i think it’s safe to assume that we disagree on a majority of all other fashion related issues. Glad to know there is in fact one more thing we have in common.
Couldn’t help but weigh in.
Abdullah Bagersh has an interesting perspective on this. It is his contention that “washing” coffee is an inherently unnatural act. It is the most natural thing in the world to pick a fruit and let it dry in the sun. Stripping it of its skin, subjecting it to various processes of washing before drying it seems (to him) to be, well, overprocessing of the coffee.
History lends credence to this position. The washing process, invented in Costa Rica, was brought to Ethiopia in 1959 by the French. The biggest supporters of the process were the Germans and the Americans (virtually all of the washed Yirgacheffes are sold in the U.S.). Therefore, in Bagersh’s view, washed coffees are a sort of “Europeanization” or “Westernization” of the Ethiopian coffee tradition. And this is a loaded statement!
I love coffee, for these arguments we keep having. Enjoy the coffee, i will be drinking the Michele, IMV, and Biloya myself this week.
Peter G
Viva la revolution! Thanks for the post M’dizzle.
Sorry, I’m with Chris. Natural, DP, mbuni, whatever, it just isn’t my cup of coffee.
It’s traditional and that’s all good, but washing a coffee is more good. gooder.
Don’t make me give back my “Tamp This” shirt, please!
herumph. for me naturally processed coffees have always been a bit like seeing the Cure after he Top album came out– great in concept, but erratic and (usually) vaguely unsatisfying. That said, I’ve had more excellent naturally processed Ethiopian coffee in the last year than I have had since I first saw robert smith in concert.
Peter - this is a very interesting point of view. I did a load of research into the wet process for the coffeed study group that never happened. Originally I thought that the process was designed to create a better cup, a cleaner cup with more acidity. From the reading the real advantage of the process seems to be the reduction of defects in the lot. Maybe everyone but me knew this, but no one ever seems to talk about the wet process from this point of view.
I am very sure you know better than me the lengths that one has to go to in order to achieve a stellar lot of naturally processed coffee, and it is a relatively rare skillset. Just to weigh in to the discussion above I do like some naturally processed coffees but for me the line is very, very fine indeed between insanely fruity and tasty and unpleasantly fermented.
I’d love to understand better natural process. The basics of the wet process are pretty easy and I think if I get time I will finally write up and publish that little paper.
BILOYA!!!
where’s me tshirt missy?
BILOYA!!
Christopher and I had this conversation once, we just haven’t spoken to each other the same since.
Jim-
Right you are. Washed coffees were invented, and are popular, because they are harder to screw up than naturals. That’s it.
There are only a handful of coffee millers who treat the process as a craft, where they can positively affect the quality of the coffee. Most think of processing, whether wet or dry, as simply an expedient to getting the various layers of fruit and skin off the bean. Therefore, most wet mill/washing station managers are inclined to do the process that brings with it the least risk. Hence short fermentation times, aquapulpers, etc. Bagersh is one of those few who has really turned processing coffee into a craft.
Most Ethiopian naturals are poorly picked and dried on the ground. In my mind, Bagersh naturals are a completely different animal, and the old “dirty, fermented, mbuni” comments just don’t apply.
I’m always amazed at the vehemence with which washed coffee-lovers attack naturals. I must say I don’t really get it.
But, then again, I think mission-style burritos are an abomination against nature.
go figure.
Peter G
Oh, and I agree with you, true. In part because of Bagersh’s work, and others in the Ethiopian trade like Menno Simons, we’re seeing millers actually putting the effort into high-quality naturals, and the difference is super evident. It’s a wonderful time to be a coffee lover.
pg
This is amazing, thank you everyone!
p.s. I am writing another segment to the Octane Manual about the different processes coffee goes through. However, I am having trouble finding many sources, maybe you guys could give me a little assistance in my quest for more information…
and tacos should be in corn tortillas.
soft corn tortillas.
yes, of course soft corn..
let’s get specific here: soft corn tortillas that have been steamed or warmed on a griddle, but not deep fried to a crisp.
tacos are a big conversation. Tacos must be on corn tortillas. Most should be on griddle-warmed fresh tortillas. However, the deep-fried shredded beef taco and 3 roll tacos with guacamole are permitted exceptions. Anybody who wishes to argue must report to the San Diego airport where I will pick you up and blow your mind.
M’lissa, there are precious few resources about coffee processing. Unfortunately, the normal texts gloss over the subject, because they tend to consider processing a simple expedient, like I mentioned before. Much of what I have learned, I gleaned through travel and firsthand experience, and I am still learning. The CCC History, Botany, and Origins class covers a bunch of that stuff, have you been to that one?
Peter G
As we can all see, this is what’s great about coffee. There is something for everyone. Naturals, (very generally speaking, and without implication of an absolute) are most often, not for me. What most taste as pleasant “berry”, to me starts vaguely Boo Berry (Thanks Peter G!) and then quickly turns strange, woolly and bleh.
I love craft, I love tradition, and I love that these coffees are being produced as a tremendous example of both. I just don’t happen to (so far) enjoy drinking them. If I were in a position to control what coffees are offered to the consumer (be it shop owner, roaster, importer, what have you) these would be on the list, without a doubt. The variety in coffee is staggering and extremely exciting, and I want to share that with everyone.
Having grown up eating Mexican food in Texas, Arizona, and Southern California, I agree, Mission-Style burritos are an abomination. Also, I never encountered a flour tortilla taco in any of those places outside of a national chain. It’s all about the corn!!
For the record, I have never shouted “ferment-lover”.
Peter, if you really want a true consciousness-raising taco experience, I know of a makeshift marina/taquería about 5k out of La Paz, Baja. Thomas Keller could do no better than those women with their corn tortillas, mariscos, and chiles…
Just to be clear, I was not talking about Chris O. when I wondered about the vehemence with which some people attack Naturals. Chris is a lover not a fighter. (of coffee, and many other things.)
pg
you should have met him a few years ago Peter, he was definitely a fighter then. M’lissa just broke his natural hating spirit.
CO said “What most taste as pleasant “berry”, to me starts vaguely Boo Berry (Thanks Peter G!) and then quickly turns strange, woolly and bleh.”
Natural is a misnomer really. There is nothing natural about processing any coffee by any method. As far as tradition, it’s never really a good reason to do anything.
I prefer a scientific approach to the whole debate and for me that means quantifying. Dry topics such as defects, bug bites, under ripes, over ferment, pales etc. That’s the woolly bleh you taste in the cold cup. I do not prefer dry process unless it is incredibly controlled because as Chris points out, the cool cup can be garbage. The hot cup can be a lot of garbage too as the coffees age and you get these nasty bread notes. To remove defects to the level of a WP, you are talking about getting towards grade 1 where the attrition rate is so high and the process is so meticulous that it becomes just as complicated as a good washing station but with >much less< end product.
naturals are very popular, I think because they are easy. it’s easy to identify and even at a dark roast level, the booberry survives. Even a very limited skill roaster can keep the desirable flavors present in the coffee. The flavor in a natural though seems to be largely defined by the process. The entire cup character is by how well sorted, how under/over ferment is present, and the actual origin or sense of origin has only a marginal role much like an afterthought. There are exceptions but it just seems to me there is a lot more unique characters and variation in washed coffees than in naturals.
The other thing is that washed coffees are hard to roast well. let me rephrase that, they are harder to preserve the desirable characters. The flavors are more complex but often the acidity is hard to balance and you see much character(particularly aroma) erased or destroyed trying to balance acidity. I don’t debate this often but besides Biloya and last years gr 1 Idido, I haven’t had many clean dry process coffees that had much unique character that could distinguish them from a slew of other dry process coffees.
I just cupped this premium kenya, went for $8/lb but had added sorting at origin, basically, the electronic eye set to max which intensified the sweetness and distinction of origin characters. Also Esmeralda non auction, and Idido Misty valley gr ‘0′ by a foreign roaster. The Esmerlda was great and really stood out, the misty valley was fantastic as it had been cleaned up pre roast and post roast from gr 1 to something even riper/cleaner but the Kenya wiped the floor with both on aroma and cup character/complexity. The Idido was interesting and sweet but just not very complex in comparison and that’s why Naturals don’t interest me for.
If Kaminsky had come through, samples would have made it south. Next time, I promise…
thanks, man..
I love that coffee can evoke such discussions!
Btw, that $8/lb Jaime quoted was green price. It will run you $16 for a lb sorted and roasted (shipping not included). Quite a bargain actually…
Sorry Ben C., it’s not a full lb. price, but a 230g price. No bargain! haha~