Coffee roaster shares his passion for the beverage
By Dmitri Fridman
Vertigo Coffee
Coffee? you say…
Been there, done that.
Well, not so fast, my friend. Don’t go yawning on me just yet.
If your coffee experience consists of giant cans of preground
coffee or, ( and I shudder) instant freeze dried granules, you are
missing out.
Coffee roaster shares his passion for the beverage
By Dmitri Fridman
Vertigo Coffee
Coffee? you say…
Been there, done that.
Well, not so fast, my friend. Don’t go yawning on me just yet. If your coffee experience consists of giant cans of preground coffee or, ( and I shudder) instant freeze dried granules, you are missing out.
How do you take the sales pitch, black or with cream and sugar? For every four parts of coffee in your cup you get six parts of marketing. The big food conglomerates spend a lot of money to convince us what good coffee is suppose to taste like. Well, that’s not good coffee. Let me broaden your coffee horizons, and introduce you to specialty grade coffee, where the coffee bean is the star – where it is all about the flavor and aroma and not the ad campaign.
A coffee bean is a seed of a red or yellow color fruit, the size of a small cherry. It is, in fact, called coffee cherry. The mucilage of the fruit is sweet and tangy and depending on the process used to depulp it, can impart different and significant flavors to the seed. Coffee trees are found growing between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and in the case of specialty grade Arabicas, at elevations of 2,000 to 6,000 feet.
Coffee is one of the worlds widely traded commodities, second only to oil. That is a lot of coffee, but only 10 percent of it qualifies as specialty grade. As is usually the case, there are levels of quality and so of that, only 2 percent is considered a top specialty grade and is pursued by artisan roasters, large and small.
So what makes top specialty grade beans? Well, books have been written on the subject, but I will reduce it to a twitter: Coffee cherries from the heirloom tree varieties (such as Bourbon, Tupica, Geisha ) are hand-harvested and processed at the peak of its ripeness and brought to the consumer as whole bean.
First and foremost it is about the quality of raw material and the meticulous care that the perfectly ripened cherry receives through harvesting and processing on the farm. All the extra steps and care involved in bringing a top specialty grade to market is very labor intensive and adds to the cost of the final product. Of course, it isn’t specialty grade coffee, if it isn’t special in your cup and that requires further steps of characteristic fresh roast and sound brewing practices.
For me, as a roaster, the search for that special coffee has become a never-ending pursuit. Much like fine wine grapes, this year’s great coffee does not mean a repeat next year. Whatever imponderables that create the winning bouquet remain just that – imponderables. Outside of physics lab, you just can’t reduce nature to a mathematical equation and so the search, for me, becomes part of the thrill. Every sample I come across has the potential to be the next star.
A connoisseurship of fine coffee is, always was, and will remain a sensuous experience. The first whiff of the aroma conjures up vague images of tropics and far away places. Take a sip of its creamy smoothness and you might get transported, if only for a brief moment, to Rome or Paris, Casablanca or Medan. The exotic romance of it is undeniable.
Give coffee the respect it deserves.
Drink it well!
Coffee Fact:
Coffee has more than 1,200 flavor compounds, while chocolate has 800, and red wine has 300.
Dmitri Fridman is the founder of Vertigo Coffee, which he roasts at his San Juan Bautista home. He can be reached at [email protected] or visit www.vertigocoffee.com.
