Unlocking the Secrets of Coffee Flavours:

Hey coffee aficionados! Ever wondered why your coffee tastes the way it does? Let’s take a journey through the fascinating process of how coffee gets its unique flavours. From the farm where it's grown to the final brew in your cup, every step plays a crucial role. Let's dive in!

The Foundation: Understanding Terroir

What is Terroir?

"Terroir" is a term borrowed from wine, capturing all the environmental factors that affect how coffee is grown. Think rainfall, elevation, soil nutrients, and the specific region where the coffee is cultivated. These factors create a baseline for what you can expect in terms of flavour.

• Soil Nutrients: Different regions have various nutrients that coffee plants absorb, influencing flavour profiles.
• Altitude: Higher altitudes often result in coffee beans packed with more nutrients due to the harsh growing conditions. These beans tend to have more complex flavours.
• Water: Adequate rainfall is essential for healthy coffee plants, changing their ability to fruit and absorb nutrients.

Why Nutrient-Packed Beans?

Nutrient-dense coffee beans mean more flavours to extract! The challenging environment of higher altitudes forces coffee plants to concentrate their nutrients into the seeds, enhancing the potential for rich, diverse flavours.

Beyond the Growing: Picking and Processing

The Importance of Picking

You might wonder how picking can affect taste. Simple: if you use a machine to harvest all the cherries at once, you'll end up with a mix of ripe, unripe, and overripe fruits. Many farms still hand-pick their cherries to ensure consistent ripeness, which is crucial for balanced flavour.

Methods of Processing

Processing methods significantly affect the final flavour of coffee. The two most common methods are:

• Washed: The cherries are picked, and the flesh is washed off, leaving the seed to dry. This method tends to produce cleaner, brighter flavours.
• Natural: The cherries are dried with the flesh on, absorbing fruity and floral notes from the fermenting pulp. This can lead to more robust and complex flavour profiles.

Other methods include:

• Honey Process: Partially removes the cherry flesh, leaving a sticky layer called mucilage. This process, originating in Costa Rica, adds sweetness and body to the coffee.
• Lactic and Anaerobic Fermentation: More specialised methods that I’ll dive into in another blog.

From Farm to Roaster: Sampling and Roasting

Once processed, the dried beans are sold to importers or directly to roasters. Here’s where the magic happens:

Sampling

Roasters sample the beans with a super light roast to see what flavours are present and find any defects. If the beans pass the test, they’re ordered for full-scale roasting.

Roasting to Unlock Flavours

Roasting is all about highlighting the bean's inherent flavours. Roasters cannot add flavours (except for maybe some 'roasty' notes); their goal is to unlock and enhance the natural taste from the bean's growing and processing conditions. This involves test roasting to various temperatures and times to find the best roast profile.

For example, when we test roast new Ethiopian beans, we aim to bring out the clear blueberry notes we detected during cupping. The roasting process will be tailored to highlight this flavour.

Tailoring to Brewing Methods

The final roast is often adjusted based on the brewing method:

• Espresso: Generally longer roasts finishing at hotter temperatures.
• Filter: Generally shorter roasts finishing at lower temperatures.

The Final Touch: Brewing

You, the brewer, play the final role in the flavour journey. By fine-tuning your brewing ratios and methods, you can refine the taste to your preference, ensuring every cup is perfect.

Summary

The flavour of your coffee is a journey that starts with the conditions it grew in—terroir, variety, and region—then continues through the processing of the beans. Roasting unlocks these flavours, and brewing refines them. Each step is essential in creating the delicious cup you enjoy every morning. Cheers to understanding the complex, wonderful world of coffee! ☕️