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Honey process p118
Kopi Luwak p136
Old Brown Java p163
Instant coffee | COFFEE CULTURE
Instant coffee is also known as soluble coffee, which in layman’s terms means “just add water”. It is said that instant coffee was first invented in the late eighteenth century in England. The first registered patent, however, belongs to New Zealander David Strand from Invercargill. The instant preparation method has been hugely successful. Although there are varying methods, the principle is to brew coffee and then to get rid of all the water. This leaves you with a coffee powder that is just waiting to be rehydrated, and voilà, a cup of coffee in an instant. There are many commercial benefits to instant: a long shelf life, a lower shipping weight than bean or ground for the same amount of coffee, and, of course, its convenience and ease of preparation. However, “instant” has become a byword for cheap, low-grade coffee that provides a caffeine hit but fails to offer quality. This may be changing. In 2016 two-time Finnish Barista champion Kalle Freese founded Sudden Coffee – taking exceptional speciality coffees and making, brewing, and producing them as instant. The challenge here is maintaining aromatics, but having tasted Kalle’s coffees I think it fair to say that instant coffee has the potential to display the character and flavour of high-quality coffee.
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Extraction p86
Freezing p98
International Coffee Organization | TRADING
The headquarters of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) can be found on Berners Street, Fitzrovia, in London. Set up in 1963, the ICO – in collaboration with the United Nations – began to improve relations and cooperation between coffee-producing and coffee-consuming countries. From the late 1960s to the early 1990s international agreements under ICO auspices put in place a quota system to stabilize coffee prices as markets fluctuated. The idea was that if more coffee was produced than the demand of the market warranted, coffee would be withheld from the market; the opposite applied when demand increased. While the ICO no longer plays any significant role in stabilizing coffee prices, it is still an important and influential body that today focuses on research and education for the benefit of all its members.
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C market p41
Producing p180
Invention | TECHNOLOGY
On the one hand, a great cup of coffee can be made very simply; on the other, the endlessly complex variables involved in making a cup of coffee mean that things can get pretty high-tech. A focus, for example, on the impact of temperature in an espresso machine requires much research before new technology can be developed. Patents for “unique” designs get filed left, right, and centre. At seminal trade shows around the world, new projects are unveiled and rival companies circle booths. While some inventions either do not work or just do not take off, others will end up changing the coffee industry forever.
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Espresso p79
Gear p105
Grinding p109
Italy | COFFEE CULTURE
The Mediterranean nation of Italy is the home of espresso and can lay claim to a coffee culture that has been exported more than any other. Many a billboard or marketing campaign has made reference to this heritage, and the country undoubtedly represents a broad global brand. The Instituto Internationale Assaggiatori Caffè (IIAC), based in Brescia, is an institution that defines espresso down to the colour of the crema and specific flavour notes. Despite this, coffee styles vary throughout the country, with a Neapolitan espresso being more Robusta laden and served shorter and hotter than the longer, more Arabica-driven espresso of northern Italy. It is fair to say that Italian coffee-drinking culture is sophisticated, but the coffee itself tends to be more commoditized and speciality coffee is still rarely represented. Espresso machine companies have popped up around the world, but Italy is still the heartland of espresso machine production, even if the market for the top-end versions tends to be elsewhere.
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Barista p23
Espresso p79
J
Jamaican Blue Mountain | ORIGIN
Historically, Jamaican Blue Mountain is synonymous with expensive, gourmet coffee. More recently, it is developing a new reputation as an overpriced coffee that showcases how good marketing is often more valuable than cup quality. This Jamaican coffee gained its reputation back when well-processed coffee was harder to come by, but nowadays it simply cannot compete with the best coffee.
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Cup of Excellence p64
Japan | COFFEE CULTURE
Coffee is big in Japan. In fact, Japan is one of the world’s biggest coffee importers, and the country embraces a diverse range of coffee offerings and cultural approaches. Coffee lounges in Japan have long been established, evolving from traditional Japanese tea rooms. Coffee boomed in the country after World War II and is now a staple, with hot and cold canned coffee available from vending machines. (Japan was truly ahead of the cold brew craze now emerging in the rest of the world.) The concept of exceptional, rare, and carefully brewed coffee is also well established in Japan. It is a common occurrence in the world of green coffee buying and sourcing to lose out to Japanese coffee buyers on the high bidding prices paid for the best coffees.
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Cold brew p59
Cup of Excellence p64
Green p109
K
Kaldi | COFFEE LEGEND
The unanswerable question: who first discovered coffee? Well, there is a nice little folk tale that tells one side of the story. Kaldi, an Arab Ethiopian goatherd, is said to have found his goats dancing in the forest in southwest Ethiopia sometime in the ninth century. Noticing that the goats were nibbling on the bright-red cherry of a nearby bush, Kaldi took one for himself and noticed the stimulating effect and began to dance along with his goats. It is said that he then took the seeds to a nearby monastery. A monk disapproved of their use and threw them onto a fire. The aroma they gave off was so enticing that the beans were raked from the fire and ground and dissolved in water to create the first ever cup of coffee.
Kenya | ORIGIN
If you want to showcase how delicious fruit notes in coffee can be, you can do little better than to get hold of a great complex Kenyan coffee. The country produces some amazingly berry-like cups with soaring acidity and a big round body to boot. I adore the best Kenyan coffees. The country is a developed coffee producer with an auction system that helps to reward quality. Kenyan coffees are often graded on bean size, and although there is a correlation with the larger-sized AA grading and quality, it is not absolute, and AB lots (which are a combination of smaller screen sizes) can score very high. The sorting of peaberries for separate sale is also popular in Kenya. The two most oft-cited focus points of Kenya’s speciality coffee production are the SL varieties 28 and 34 and the Nyeri district. “SL” stands for Scott Laboratories, which produced these experimental varieties. They now account for most of the high-grade coffee in the country and, apart from the odd appearance elsewhere, are relatively unique to Kenya. Nyeri is located in central Kenya, around Mount Kenya, and gives rise to many of the country’s most desirable lots. Much excellent coffee is grown elsewhere in the country, too.
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Peaberry p175
Variety p228
Kopi Luwak | PROCESSING; ANIMAL RIGHTS
“Have you ever tried the coffee that gets … you know … ‘passed though’ an animal?” Some of the most expensive coffee in the world comes under the label Kopi Luwak, which translates as “civet coffee”. The idea is that the little civet cat chooses only the best (most ripe) cherries to eat as it wanders the forest floor, and that the beans then undergo a special processing in the cat’s digestive system. The resulting coffee is an exotic and sought-after rarity, or so the marketing story goes. The reality is far less fanciful. Animal welfare is a serious concern, as caged civet cats get force-fed low-grade coffee. To top it off, in blind
taste tests Kopi Luwak coffees have never scored highly. A good story is a powerful thing.
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Jamaican Blue Mountain p133
Hawaii p117
L
Latte art | COFFEE CULTURE; PREPARATION
Patterns adorning the surface of your freshly prepared flat white have become ever more commonplace. This final flourish in coffee preparation often signifies to a drinker that staff know what they are doing and that they have taken care over the making of the coffee. A study I worked on with the Oxford University experimental psychologist Charles Spence indicated that customers are willing to pay more for a coffee with latte art, not necessarily because they think it is qualitatively any better, but because they recognize that more energy and craft have gone into the preparation of the drink. The flipside of this is the illusion that a beautiful cup is always a good cup. The appearance certainly indicates well-steamed milk, but it tells us very little about the quality of the coffee within. Latte art is hard to master, and the feats certain baristas are capable of simply by pouring steamed milk into coffee can be quite remarkable. The World Latte Art Championship never fails to draw a crowd. The two main methods are free pouring and etching. Free pouring requires that steamed milk be poured into the espresso and a pattern created with no additional tools. It is a matter of timing, skill, positioning, and milk-steaming quality. Etching allows you to draw on the surface using a tool a lot like a toothpick. A combination of the two can yield stunning patterns.
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Flat white p94
Sensory science p197
Le Nez du Café | AROMA
This beautiful box of liquid aromatic solutions is the perfect dinner-party toy, albeit a relatively pricey one. The box contains thirty-six vials, each designed to represent one of the thirty-six most common aromas in coffee, both positive and negative (the latter the result of defects). Each vial has a number, and after smelling it you can have a go at guessing which aroma it is, detailed in the accompanying booklet. As with all such olfactory tasks, you get a lot better with practice. It is a brilliant game to play with a group of friends and it can be illuminating to see how differently people interpret the same smell when there are no visual or textural clues. The kit is used as an integral part of the Q Grader qualification. The same company makes similar boxes for the worlds of wine and whisky.
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Defects p67
Olfactory p163
Q Grader p183
Leaf rust | GROWING; DISEASE
While its origins lie in East Africa, coffee leaf rust (CLR) is a fungus that has had a devastating impact on coffee-growing regions around the world. The first time CLR showcased its effects was during the late 1800s when the fungus reduced Sri Lankan coffee production by 80 percent. Before the fungus hit, Sri Lanka was the largest coffee producer in the world. Careful use of quarantine kept the disease from the Americas for a long time, though it was discovered in Brazil in the 1970s. The exact path the fungus took to make its way to the Americas is unknown, but the dust-like spores can easily travel on luggage, people, and plants. There are a number of ways to combat CLR, whether through farm management, quarantine, or use of fungicides. None of the combative solutions are foolproof, and the development of varieties resistant to the disease continues to be one of the most viable options.
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Castillo p51
Climate change p56
Guatemala p113
Lever machine | EQUIPMENT; ESPRESSO
The concept of espresso is to brew coffee under pressure; the name meaning literally to “press out”. It does not mean “express” or “quick”, even though making an espresso is. The first espresso machines that began to appear at the end of the nineteenth century used steam to create the pressure. In 1945 the Italian Giovanni Achille Gaggia (1895–1961) invented and produced the lever machine. This took away the need for the steam to provide the pressure and meant that the water did not need to be as hot. Levers work by the user providing all the pressure or with the user loading the reps using a spring. It is this action that gave rise to the saying “to pull a shot”. The lever machine also largely defined the size of the modern espresso, as there is only so much water that can be held in the chamber to brew with. After this came the pump-driven machine, which now dominates the market. Levers have seen a resurgence in the artisanal movement as a more manual and “involving” machine. Modern programmable pump machines can now mimic the press changes of the classic lever machine.
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Espresso p79
Italy p131
Lloyd’s of London | HISTORY
There is a strong association between the emergence of coffee houses and social, economic, and cultural change. In Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the coffee house offered a stark contrast to the prevalent alehouse. The nature of coffee – stimulating but not inebriating – meant that coffee houses were places that induced more discussion and exploration of ideas, and many historians have drawn a link between this vibrant coffee scene and the eighteenth-century European Enlightenment. As well as being centres of scholarly discourse and gossip, coffee houses also proved great places to do business. Lloyd’s Coffee House on Tower Street in the City of London was established in 1688. The shop was frequented by sailors, merchants, and ship owners who received reliable shipping news at the establishment. The coffee house soon became known as the ideal place to obtain marine insurance, and so the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, which runs to this very day in the British capital, was born.
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Constantinople p60
Third place p217
M
Maillard reaction | ROASTING
Unroasted, green coffee is not a flavoursome proposition, tasting a bit like grass and cereal. It is an unfinished ingredient that has flavour potential, and it is the roasting process that unlocks that potential through a series of complex chemical reactions. Coffee shares one of its main flavour-defining processes with many other food and drink items – the Maillard reaction. While the process is unpredictable, it generally involves the amino acids and oxygen-rich compounds (such as sugars) present in the coffee. Chemical reactions in the compounds occur at various temperatures in the roasting process – most rapidly between 284°F (140°C) and 329°F (165°C) – creating many flavoursome by-products. Other chemical reactions also take place during roasting and, of course, how these reactions occur and affect flavour depends on how you roast. Sugars will caramelize but, if roasted too long, will create a burnt taste.
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Development p71
Drum roaster p72
First crack p93
Green p109
Mechanical drying | PROCESSING
A mechanical drier is somewhat like a roaster: it is a big rotating drum to which heat is applied. However, the temperatures involved are a lot lower, so perhaps the tumble dryer is a better comparison. Traditionally, most coffee is dried out in the open, relying on sunshine, whether on big concrete patios or raised beds. Mechanical driers are often used in countries where rainfall makes this difficult or to speed up the process. Mechanical drying is often seen as inferior, and this is not completely unwarranted, as often the driers are too hot, which risks compromising the quality of the coffee. However, there is an argument that, used well, a mechanical drier offers the most controllable and quality-focused drying technique. There is also the belief that the “resting” provided by cool nights is beneficial to the drying process, too. The research appears inconclusive at this point in time.
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Drum roaster p72
Raised beds p186
Melbourne | COFFEE CULTURE
If you read the introduction to this book, you will notice that Melbourne saw the beginning of my coffee journey. It is fair to say that in recent years this city has influenced many coffee journeys and sparked many passions. The thriving café scene there as well as in other parts of Australia is diverse, char
acterful, and top notch. Apart from brilliant brunch options, it is the care and value that coffee is given that stand out, resulting in a real emphasis on the role of the barista. Reportedly, this results in Melbourne being the best-paid location in the world to work as a barista. This Australian approach to cafés and coffee has been exported around the world in the past decade. There are now many other exciting and influential coffee scenes around the globe, but Melbourne is still pretty special.
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Barista p23
Mexico | ORIGIN
Due to close proximity to the United States, most of Mexico’s coffee is sold to the country’s northern neighbour, and for this reason you do not see a lot of Mexican coffee around the world. The country is capable of producing a range of impressive, high-quality flavour profiles, from light and floral to ripe, toffee-like, and round. Mexico is one of the largest producers of coffee in the world and the crops are predominantly of the Arabica species. Even so, coffee production in Mexico is actually down from its heights, before the coffee crisis following the dismantling of the 1989 International Coffee Agreement. The highest-quality crops in Mexico come from the southern coastal regions bordering Guatemala.
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Guatemala p113
United States of America p223
The Coffee Dictionary Page 7