So, what is it about coffee and music? One of my favorite things to do is to sit down and drink a cup of coffee while listening to music. (im doing this now) But my concern is with bands and coffee and getting into the mainstream consciousness. I am sure most people have seen this:
The band Deathklok loves coffee, and it doesnt end just there. One of my all time top favorite bands Akron/Family loves coffee, and although they have not written any songs about coffee (that I know about) they are known to scoure the city they are playing a show in to find the best cup of joe. One of the dudes in the band also worked at Gimme coffee at some point as well as them playing a bunch of shows at one of their stores. Check out this article about the bands top 10 favorite shops for espresso here. Historically speaking too, just about everyone who has worked in coffee knows that there is this thing about bands playing shows in coffee houses. In two of my last two coffee houses we had bands and musicians play multiple times a week, forming communities of people who loved good coffee and people who loved local music. Here is a song played at my old shop 'The MugShot' by the band Shripmpanzee :
And from another shop I worked at 'Kozy Koffee' here is the whole open mic crew playing to a packed room their version of Outkast's song 'Hey Ya' :
Beyond all my history of having bands loving and playing in coffee houses I think I have had more impact on peoples lives via the music I have played in the shop while they were there drinking their coffee. I have played music that most people would never have otherwise listened to and hopefully opened their minds to not just new music but a new way of looking at coffee...
I'm not sure if coffee inspires music or vise versa or if they co-exist and build on each-other on some plane of the human subconscious, but there is some connection to be had in that they work so well together.
How about Iggy Pop and Tom Waits in the movie "Coffee & Cigarettes":
or the traditional coffee and blues :
Or Ella :
Ya gotta admit that there is something with coffee...
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Futuro?
As you know by my previous post on Who, What, Where, When, And Why? you know, and hopefully think, that the more information a consumer has is better for about a million or so reasons having to do with coffee than having none. But, something no roaster in the world would consider doing is putting their roast profile on the bag. A roast profile in my very humble (is it humble if I have to say it?) opinion, is one of the most important steps having to do with your final cup. The unfortunate thing is that for the most part, you as the consumer have absolutely no clue about anything having to do with the world of roasting coffee. Most people see dark roasted this, medium roasted that, and a light roasted whatchamacallit, never knowing if what they are drinking is actually a light roast, a dark roast, or even what the hell roast levels have to do with coffee. I have not taken any polls, but it seems to me that the majority of the folks who come up and talk to Steve or I while we are roasting at Anodyne have absolutely no idea that the big machine in front of them is actually a coffee roaster. We do however get told that it is the biggest grinder that folks have ever seen! We promptly and through learned empathy and education teach these consumers in small steps about coffee trying to ultimately not overwhelm them with our plethora of information.
How does roasting affect the coffee? Beyond the obvious that you cannot drink green coffee, there are a few very important chemical reactions going on in the roasting process. I am not for fear of being boring, going to get into those processes but be assured that every coffee takes different methods of finesse to bring about that signature flavor that shines in a cup.
So basically as the coffee roasts, the sugars caramelize, aromas are created, amino acids are exchange, lipids and oils move about and cell structures break down. What does this mean for the consumer? There are no two plants that are the same in the world. Why would there be two identical coffee beans let alone the thousands of beans in a pound of coffee which equates to several dozen potential trees over how much area? What I am saying is that there is virtually no uniformity on a very micro level, but it and they become more uniform per micro-lot to farm, to region, to country. Some of these defining characteristics follow through into processing style, whether it be natural, wet, pulped natural, dry or monsooned.
So back to my question of whether or not roasters should give more information to the consumer in order for the consumer to make the right brewing choices? The reasons rosters have for not giving out their profiles range from it being top secret like recipes to not wanting a competitor to mimic a profile and potentially steal business down to the plain and simple "we don't know what we are doing and are putting out something we are not proud of." I am not speaking of Anodyne in this sense, but I can imagine there are a ton of "roasters" out there that don't have the knowhow to develop and knowledgeably know what they are doing and why they are doing it. Maybe it will be a mark in the future on a bag where right under the varietal of 100% bourbon and pulped natural there will be a 422 drop temperature and a 370 first crack to signify to the consumer that the sugars began to caramelize at 370 and that at 422 degrees 3.5 minutes later we feel that the profile would best produce the best results in your cup? Yeah, I could see this becoming a problem in that some customers (who care hopefully) might start demanding a change to the profile of a coffee, but this would be resolved in public cuppings or possibly the offering of different profiles for coffees for different applications? I can see on some level that you would not want to give up the blends to public scrutiny in fear that 'Joe's coffee shop' down the street would just roast and mix what you are doing in his shop. But, that would also mean you are doing something right if someones copying you and your styles. Maybe it would set a quality standard for people to follow, or set you apart? I'm thinking of this as a potential learning tool.
Maybe in the future we will see with elevations, the density of the beans for the proper brewing technique so you don't over extract... less waste and more quality?
Afterthought: Am I for or against profiles for consumers? I am for raising quailty standards and learning for all people. It is something to consider and think about for the future.
How does roasting affect the coffee? Beyond the obvious that you cannot drink green coffee, there are a few very important chemical reactions going on in the roasting process. I am not for fear of being boring, going to get into those processes but be assured that every coffee takes different methods of finesse to bring about that signature flavor that shines in a cup.
So basically as the coffee roasts, the sugars caramelize, aromas are created, amino acids are exchange, lipids and oils move about and cell structures break down. What does this mean for the consumer? There are no two plants that are the same in the world. Why would there be two identical coffee beans let alone the thousands of beans in a pound of coffee which equates to several dozen potential trees over how much area? What I am saying is that there is virtually no uniformity on a very micro level, but it and they become more uniform per micro-lot to farm, to region, to country. Some of these defining characteristics follow through into processing style, whether it be natural, wet, pulped natural, dry or monsooned.
So back to my question of whether or not roasters should give more information to the consumer in order for the consumer to make the right brewing choices? The reasons rosters have for not giving out their profiles range from it being top secret like recipes to not wanting a competitor to mimic a profile and potentially steal business down to the plain and simple "we don't know what we are doing and are putting out something we are not proud of." I am not speaking of Anodyne in this sense, but I can imagine there are a ton of "roasters" out there that don't have the knowhow to develop and knowledgeably know what they are doing and why they are doing it. Maybe it will be a mark in the future on a bag where right under the varietal of 100% bourbon and pulped natural there will be a 422 drop temperature and a 370 first crack to signify to the consumer that the sugars began to caramelize at 370 and that at 422 degrees 3.5 minutes later we feel that the profile would best produce the best results in your cup? Yeah, I could see this becoming a problem in that some customers (who care hopefully) might start demanding a change to the profile of a coffee, but this would be resolved in public cuppings or possibly the offering of different profiles for coffees for different applications? I can see on some level that you would not want to give up the blends to public scrutiny in fear that 'Joe's coffee shop' down the street would just roast and mix what you are doing in his shop. But, that would also mean you are doing something right if someones copying you and your styles. Maybe it would set a quality standard for people to follow, or set you apart? I'm thinking of this as a potential learning tool.
Maybe in the future we will see with elevations, the density of the beans for the proper brewing technique so you don't over extract... less waste and more quality?
Afterthought: Am I for or against profiles for consumers? I am for raising quailty standards and learning for all people. It is something to consider and think about for the future.
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