Ep. 33 Espresso Shots Edition - 'How to Select Coffees'

Hello and welcome this is Pennyburg is very sound bike your host for coffee for called podcast. This is a new series and we'll call it a special shot. A quick small podcast about some interesting topics so let's begin. The topic for this podcast is choosing the right coffee. How does one go about choosing the right coffee? Choosing the right coffee is simple pick the good coffee that's the simple part but wait how do you know if the coffee is good now this is not so simple stay with me as I explained a little bit about this there is no definition in the world that says whether this coffee is good or not it is subjective let's say think about wine how do you know if a wine is good or not some people say the costly or the wine the better it is but it's not really true again when you compare it with wine there's a lot of difference a wine producer produces the wine and then bottles it so he is in complete control of how the wine is going to eventually taste but with coffee it does not happen like this there is a producer who is probably harvesting and processing coffee and then there is a roaster who buys the coffee and then roast the coffee in different way in a profile that he or she likes and then it ends up in the hands of a barista who's going to brew you a cup of coffee based on his understanding of what a coffee could taste so there are so many different variables so how do you know what good coffee is to make it quite simple good coffee according to me and according to a lot of other people it starts with coffee that is fairly traded that means the cup of coffee that you drink you are quite sure that the farmer was paid correctly for the amount of coffee that is sold to the roaster or to the buyer and how do we know that if you pick up a coffee packet and if it says that the coffee comes from a particular farm that means hypothetically you can contact the farm and ask whether they have been paid appropriately for the coffee that you are drinking from XYZ roaster or company now this is called a traceability so if your coffee is 100% traceable that means the coffee would be fairly traded that means most people or all the people in the value chain were paid appropriately now this is one base of selecting what a good coffee could be the next step is to know what you like now once we have established what good coffee is the second stage is to find what you like now how does one know what one likes there are different ways in which coffee is processed there is natural there is honey and there is washed which is basic umbrella of different processed coffee and then there is different roast levels they light medium dark now this becomes complicated so what you can do is you try it unless you know what you like don't like imagine you have a cafe close to you that serves different coffees from different origins in different places that has different roast levels and probably different processes pick a coffee a day drink it and find out what the coffee tastes like for example pick a coffee let's say that comes from chick-machlow from a particular estate now stick to this estate probably on the first day drink something that is dark roasted probably on the second day drink something that is medium third day drink something that is light roasted in this way you know what kind of roast level do you prefer for yourself then start another layer of do I like washed coffees do I like natural coffees do I like honey coffees and probably then explore different regions or different estates that that particular cafe has to offer you will be surprised there be some coffee that you will really fall in love with and this is how you can find what coffee is you're liking or what coffee you prefer the other thing to keep an eye on is the roast date lot of commodity coffees would have a best before date best before six months eight months three months and so on normally if you purchase good coffee as we discussed before it should have something called as a roast date a roast date tells you when the coffee was roasted this does not mean that you should buy the coffee only if it was roasted a day before or a couple of days ago depending on the coffee depending on where the coffee is from depending on the roast levels some coffees only taste good after about a couple of days or a few weeks find a cafe that has good offerings and then talk to the barista and explore the coffee options that they have and yes please be as open minded as you can to try different coffees you'd be surprised what kind of coffee you might like try the coffee the way you would want to have it if you normally have your coffee black try it black if you have it with milk have it with milk if you have it with sugar do that because at the end of the day you are the one who want to drink the coffee and you should know what you like and you should be comfortable with it unless you try it you would never know what you like so this is a simple way to know what coffee do you like last but not least remember there is something called a single state and there is something called as a blend now single state might have the name of the state but a blend might not have the name of the state because it is a mix of different single states like or a single moth scotch and a blended scotch so single a state coffee and blended coffee both can be good okay do not have any buyers on the coffees that you have try a rabbica try a robusta try all the different kinds of coffee that you can all the best thank you so much that was it for this episode I'll be part soon with another one you