A Question About Good Coffee?!
A Question About Good Coffee?
Last year I went to Guatemala and since returning I have been haunted by the coffee I had in one particular cafe. It was an average cafe by any standards but the coffee served was excellent. Since returning I have tried many different beans whether from a supermarket or Starbucks etc, none of them come even close to how good it was. So the other day I ordered some gourmet Guatemalan coffee from here: http://www.hasbean.co.uk/
the bean I ordered was in the top 10 coffees of Guatemala and is freshly roasted the day before sending. Although it was the closet yet, it still wasn't in the same ball park. I use a French press to brew the coffee, so you experts out there...is it the way I make the coffee or the bean I use, what am I doing wrong?
Answers:
Hi You, I reckon you have done the best thing possible in the first instance by purchasing your coffee from a specialist dealer. Don't bother with places like Starbucks, they are OK for the indiscriminate masses but not for an afficianado.
Do you mean a cafitiere by a french press? If so that is fine. I hope you bought the coffee as beans and you grind them just before brewing the coffee.
Do you drink the coffee black or as a latte type? If the latter using sterilised milk helps to replicate a true continental taste.
Can you remember what kind of machine was used in the cafe? You have managed to source some beans so the problem could be the method of making the coffee. Persevere problems are only solutions in disguise. Coffee making can be a serious business. It took me years to get the taste I wanted, I tried loads of different methods some dreadful, some almost there but found the simple methods were the best in the end. Good Luck.
I'm pleased you enjoyed our coffee. I too have enjoyed coffee in origin countries and I think a lot of the enjoyment is in the romance of it all.
But there are things you can do make sure you are using enough coffee to water ration in brewing, good clean water, the correct grind can all have bearings on the results.
But I bet that one moment in time will never be beaten, but at least you can look back and enjoy it and enjoy the journey trying to find it again, that's coffee.
You are not doing anything wrong. There is something about market that works like that. If you go to Brazil or Colombia and drink coffee there, it will taste different. Although Brazil and Colombia export coffee to almost the whole world, the beans must be roasted according to the country's to be exported standards. I know what I am talking about. Example, you must know how Brazilians bikinis are, but friend of mine that has a bikini factory in Brazil, needs to make the bikinis way bigger when exporting to North America. Coffee is no different. Also, in South America, we do not use creamer, or powder creamer, only milk, and boiled. That alone, change the flavor of the coffee. If you go to a Guatemalan store, you might find the coffee that is grinded for Guatemalans to drink. And that is what you want. If you buy Colombian coffee at the grocery store, you will buy coffee for North Americans to drink. And so on. Food is processed differently when are exported. The same with Olive Oil. I only find THE olive oil that I like in Portuguese, Greek, Italian stores. Cause those in the grocery stores are processed for the north American public.
Hope it helps.
The best coffee is produced in "Adjuntas, Puerto Rico". It is not distributed to any other country. They produce it in small quantities, and in order to purchase it you must visit a small cafeteria right across the mountains.
The best coffee is made in a old style perculator!
I useto have an old iron perculator that I got from Blue Ribbon coffee company! that perculator made great coffee.. it didn't seem to matter what brand of coffee I put in it. I however like Blue Ribbon or Maxwell house coffee best. The worst way to make coffee is in those drip coffee makers. They just don't do a full job in making coffee also it comes out more costly using the drip coffee makers because U need filters and you will use more coffee to get a good strength coffee than you would in a perculator! The only problem with a perculator is if the coffee is in it too long it gets too strong!
Honey, you haven't tasted coffee from Jamaica, it comes from what they call " The Blue Mountain " my daughter in law, gave me some when she came from visiting her family ( she's a Jamaican ) that coffee , taste like glory, there's no coffee in the whole USA, that can beat it. It is so expensive, one pound for $ 76.00, but it's to die for.
they have there own bean
Where were you in Guatemala when you had that cup? They grow a lot of coffee around here. Some people like the coffee from around Antigua. Lake Atitlan gold is grown a little higher. Last year's coffee grower's competition picked Huehuetenango's as the cup of excellence.
100% pure roasted arabica, ground or whole bean, retails for about $3 per pound.