Bean Thinking
As I sat down to write this, I came up with a title first (a writing no-no) and realized I could take this piece in two directions: my love of coffee, or my love of L.L. Bean. To spare you what essentially would boil down to a post about “the idea of Maine” and Your L.L. Bean Boyfriend (sigh), I’ll opt to write on my original topic: the glorious coffee bean.
For the very few of you who have neither worked as a barista nor drink coffee on a daily basis (you know who you are), let’s cover the basics first: the coffee bean that we all know and love first starts out as a berry on a plant. When ready for picking, the seed within needs to be processed in order to be extracted. The act of processing alone could be a very long and detailed article, but, in truth, I cannot do justice to giving that process a proper narrative, and am much better at making up describing ridiculous tasting notes. To quote a very wise scholar friend, the way we “articulate source” is an integral part of the narrative of what we eat and drink. To quote Fat Bastard: “get in my belly.” So where do we go from here? Well, here’s the quick and dirty from the folks at Stumptown:
Processing coffee varies greatly from farm to farm and region to region. The amount of time that the coffee cherry is stored, the method by which it is pulped, cleanliness of equipment, fermentation type and amount of time, water quality, speed and temperature of the drying process are all major factors that can affect the flavor of a coffee within the same processing category…we’ve categorized processing into a few basic methods: Washed, Semi-Washed and Natural.
So if you’re going to take a good bean from green to great, you’ve got to make sure you pay careful attention to its terroir to process it well. Now, Stumptown loves to be didactic and heady and really heavy-handed with this shit, but basically any of the coffee companies that are worth buying a bag of beans from will take this process seriously – because you can’t polish a turd – so it stands to reason that green beans must be properly extracted to be roasted well.
Which gets us to step two: assemble the dais, ‘cause it’s time to roast these bad boys.
Roasting is exactly as it sounds –to again quote Stumptown: “Our job as roasters is to be transparent” (which really means nothing when you think about it) – and it’s what can make or break the best part of waking up. So this is my main point: I love choosing the beans I’m going to use at home for the next few weeks. I have a little clear airtight container and looking at it every morning makes me really happy (is this sad? I think this is what doctors mean when they speak of a “chemical dependency”). Anyway, I’ve been going through a quest to find the best beans for home use and I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.
But in the name of research, let me take you through my recent acquisitions. I have no scale for judging except “how good does this taste with 2% at 8am?” and my palette. I use a single-serve Bodum French press, and I grind my beans every morning with a regular ol’ Krups grinder. Here’s what I’ve been drinking, and thinking:
Blue Bottle: Bella Donovan
Blue Bottle describes this as the “wool sweater” of their blends. So, naturally, I am inclined to drink it. The beans are a mix of African and Indonesian origin. They are dry processed and wet-hulled. The product is good with cream; better with cream and sugar (isn’t everything?), and the last bag I had was slightly too dull and not well roasted (a lot of those small, light colored beans floating around). My brother and I taste tested a batch against an Intelligentsia blend (the great Chicago-San Francisco showdown!) –both with milk and sugar - and we preferred the Blue Bottle. However, I wasn’t sold this time as I don’t put sugar in my coffee. I think the next Blue Bottle I’ll try is Giant Steps because a) Coltrane, and b) I can’t resist anything that is described as “viscous, fudgy, and substantial.”
Tastes like: blueberry pancakes, grass, jarlsberg
Rating: 3.5/5
La Colombe: Haitian Blue Forest
I’ve been trending towards brand loyalty to Philadelphia-based La Colombe for a long time. Frankly, the prices they charge are reasonable, they have free refills at their cafes, and against my better judgment I love them solely because they have a great aesthetic. (e.g. Cafes with terrariums. Yes, it matters.) Barring the dispute between the owner of La Colombe, Todd Carmichael, and the owner of Stumptown, Duane Sorenson, I like the lower-key attitude of La Colombe as a company. They preach, but they don’t act as if they discovered fair trading practices. Haitian Blue Forest is one of their single-source coffees. I have gone through about 2 bags of this. I tried their Ethiopian blend recently; usually I like a light roast, but it didn’t really have the same kind of “dynamic flavor profiles” as the Hatian beans had. So far, this is the brand I keep returning to. Bonus: they partnered with Leonardo DiCaprio’s charity, and I’m thinking for the sake of scaring house guests I may or may not buy that next time I’m up for a new blend.
Tastes like: maple syrup, fog, black pepper
Rating: 4/5
Stumptown: Hairbender
This is my current brand. I have actually been very happy with it. I’ve wanted to try Stumptown at home for a while (but I didn’t want to schlep to the Ace Hotel and deal with actual Stumptown people). This is, funnily enough, the cheapest of the “gourmet coffees” that the fancy grocery store near me carries. Once thing I’ll give both Stumptown and La Colombe is that you get a fair amount of coffee for $13. (Blue Bottle’s bags are about 3/4ths the size for $9; in terms of beans-per-dollar that is not a good deal.) One of my complaints with Bella Donovan and La Colombe’s Ethiopian brand was that they were just too bland. I’m still trying to find this coffee’s sweet spot, but fortunately I’ve got a few weeks’ worth of ammo to get it right.
Tastes like: coffee, handlebar mustaches, nostalgia
Rating: 4.5/5
So that’s what’s been on my mind, coffee-wise. I’m probably gonna go to Ninth Street Espresso, have them make me a cappuccino, and look at photos of attractive WASPs on boats in Maine now.
Galia Abramson appreciates a damn fine cup of coffee, a good slice of apple pie, and has never been to Freeport, ME.