Tim Ferguson, who owns Heroes, recently gave me a bag of Tanzania coffee to sample.  When I get beans from a local roaster to try, I usually swing by a local coffee shop and test them out with the owner of the shop for two reasons: 1) the shops have the best equipment on hand to brew up a couple cups to sample, and 2) I think it’s always good to keep the efforts of local roasters in front of our local coffee shop owners to help further the local coffee community. It’s always fun to evaluate a local roast with a coffee shop that works to brew excellent coffee every minute of every day.

Some of the local coffee shops use local roasts, such as the Mudhouse, which roasts its own coffee at the Mudhouse roasting facility downtown, Heroes Coffee Cafe, Big Momma’s Coffee, which uses coffee from a local roaster named Origins, and from what I’ve heard, Hot Shots over on East Sunshine in Springfield.  There may be other local shops that also use local roasters, but several of the local shops use national roasters, namely PT’s Coffee and Intelligentsia, both of which create a great coffee product on a national level with expeditious shipping to guarantee freshness.

On this particular day, I knew the The Hub Bikes and Beans, which carries Intelligentsia coffee beans, had just received a shipment of Tanzania beans.  So I felt it would be fun to do a side-by-side comparison of the Intelligentsia Tanzania with the Heroes Tanzania.  Jason Strother, who owns The Hub, can brew two cups side-by-side using a pourover drip brewer, using the same measurement of beans, the same grind and the same water.  By equalizing those variable as much as possible, we can see what comes out of these two roasts.

On physical inspection of the beans, we noted that the Heroes Tanzania beans appeared to be of the peaberry variety while the Intelligentsia beans appeared larger and may not have been a peaberry.  A peaberry is a special type of coffee bean.  Typically, two flat-sided coffee beans, called flat berries, develop inside each cherry of coffee fruit, but in the case of a peaberry, only one side of the coffee fruit gets fertilized and as such only one small oval, pea-shaped coffee bean develops inside.  According to Wikipedia, about 5% of the worldwide coffee crop comes in the peaberry form.  Tanzania has become known for sorting out the peaberries and selling them together as a coffee variety.  For more on peaberries and the specific peaberries of Tanzania, there’s an interesting, very detailed read over at the Virtual Coffee site on the matter.

Back to the side-by-side comparison, though, it was interesting to us that the Heroes appeared to be a peaberry variety while the Intelligentsia appeared to be more of a flat berry roast.  I was expecting both roasts to be of the peaberry variety simply because it was from Tanzania, but looking at the Intelligentsia site’s description page for this bean, I don’t see any reference to peaberry.  What was also noticeable in visual inspection was how similar the two roasts were.  The Heroes roast was barely darker than the Intelligentsia roast, but they were so close that you couldn’t really tell the difference until you put the beans side by side.

In grinding the beans, they smelled similar, and then in brewing, the only thing we noticed different between the two brew cycles was that the Intelligentsia roast had a more prominent “bloom” than the Heroes roast.

Fresh roasted and freshly ground coffee will typically “bloom” as it comes into contact with water, meaning the grounds will expand and almost foam together. From my experience, the bloom of a coffee brew is a good sign of freshness of the roast, but you can actually get too much bloom if you brew too soon after  a roast without letting the beans rest for a few days.  I once had a roast that wouldn’t stop blooming — the whole time the grinds were in the French press with the water, they were constantly effervescing and moving the grinds in almost a rolling boil style, and after a little research, I discovered that too much bloom means you’re brewing the coffee too early, and the beans haven’t had a chance to release enough gases post-roast, so all those gases are expelling out during the brew process.  Typically, a freshly roast coffee that has had ample time to rest will bloom for about a minute after coming into contact with water and then settle down.  Anecdotally, I’ve heard that you won’t get much bloom in a brew around 30 days post-roast, but I personally believe it’s shorter than that.  In this situation, though, the low bloom in the Heroes roast was somewhat odd, because I know it was freshly roast.  I’ve notified Tim about this odd behavior and he’s checking into it because the Heroes coffee should have bloomed more.

After the brew, Jason poured the coffees into cups, and we tasted them.  After a few slurps, Jason and I both agreed that the tastes of the coffees were almost identical.  The flavors were the same, the acidity and the same, but the only real distinction was the body.  The Intelligentsia brew was a little more syrupy in its mouth feel than the Heroes version.  We couldn’t really tag one as better than the other.  Instead, it came down to a preferential determination as to whether you wanted a more syrupy body to the coffee or a less syrupy body.

All in all, we considered this a success for Heroes Coffee.  Intelligentsia Coffee is a national roaster that produces some of the better coffee roasts in the coffee industry, so for Heroes Coffee to produce a roast of similar, almost identical qualities is a big deal.  Heroes is working hard to develop their roasts to the level of consistent quality that the national roasters, like Intelligentsia and PT’s Coffee, are putting out, and it’s exciting to see a local roaster producing a good Tanzania roast like the one we sampled.

What’s a disloyalty card, you ask?  We’ve all used loyalty cards before — a punch card or swipe card that encourages you to visit the same coffee shop over and over for some kind of benefit or perk once you buy the right amount of products.  Ever since I started 417coffee, I’ve wanted to create some sort of card that did the opposite by rewarding you for drinking at a variety of shops around the 417 Missouri Ozarks instead of just staying with your own preferred coffee shops.  This disloyalty card is the answer!

Last December, James Hoffman, founder of Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London, England, and 2007 World Barista Champion, posted on his blog a new “disloyalty card” concept produced by Gwilym Davies, the 2009 World Barista Champion.  Gwilym runs a London shop called Prufrock Coffee, and he created a card that directs coffee enthusiasts to 8 other London coffee shops.  When drinkers have visited each shop and tried their drinks, they can then visit Prufrock Coffee and Gwilym will make them a free coffee drink at his shop.  These 8 cafes are producing quality-focused coffee, and as Hoffman says in his post, “There is no catch, it isn’t some cunning ruse to sell more coffee… Gwilym just wants people to go and try coffee in different places.”  Since Gwilyn’s card launch in London, disloyalty cards have also sprung up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and then in Seattle, Washington.  Now, we’re excited to offer a coffee disloyalty card to highlight the excellent coffee shops we have here in southwest Missouri, particularly Springfield and Branson.

Enough with the history of the concept — what’s this whole 417coffee Disloyalty Card thing and what can it do for you?

Here’s the deal:  We have put together a collection of 8 of the best shops in the 417 Missouri Ozarks — 7 in Springfield and one on the edge of Branson in Hollister.  Each of these shops is willing to be put to the test by allowing you to compare them side-by-side with the other 7 shops on the card.  The participating shops are:

• Vintage Paris Coffee and Wine, 260 Birdcage Walk, Hollister, Missouri (in downtown Hollister just over the bridge from Branson Landing)
• The Hub Bikes and Beans, 811 N Boonville Ave, Springfield, Missouri (just north of Chestnut Expressway in Springfield across from the old City Hall building)
• Big Momma’s Coffee and Espresso Bar, 217 East Commercial St., Springfield, Missouri (on historic Commercial Street in downtown Springfield)
• The Coffee Ethic, 124 Park Central Square, Springfield, Missouri (on downtown Springfield’s Park Central Square, attached to the Park Central Square branch of the Springfield-Greene County library)
• Kaldi’s Coffee, 850 S. John Q. Hammons Pkwy, Springfield, Missouri (located on the lower level of Plaster Student Union at Missouri State University’s campus)
• Heroes Coffee Cafe, 601 North National, Springfield, Missouri (at the southwest corner of National and Chestnut Expressway in Springfield, across from Ozarks Technical College)
• Hebrews Coffee, 1604 East Republic Road, Springfield, Missouri (on Springfield’s bustling south side near the YMCA)
• Dancing Mule Coffee Company, 1945 South Glenstone, Springfield, Missouri (just north of Aunt Martha’s Pancake House and the Brown Derby International Wine Center)

The disloyalty card is actually a very simple concept –

1. Get a card at any of the 8 shops participating in the disloyalty card program. Cards are limited, so get one quick!
2. Buy a qualifying drink at each of the 8 shops and get your card marked at each shop.
3. Get a free drink at the shop of your choice once you have had a drink at every shop on the card and they’ve marked off your completion at their shops.
4. Turn in your card with your name and email address on it, and you will be entered in a giveaway of prizes from 417Coffee.

We’ve posted a summary of the program and all the official rules and explanations at a special 417Coffee Disloyalty Card page here at 417Coffee with maps, hours, phone numbers, websites and more to help you as you make your way to each shop.

As we get started, this 417Coffee Disloyalty Card is a limited edition project.  There are only 250 cards available.  We may produce more, but for now, there’s only a handful to be given out.  Each participating shop has a set of cards, so go to any of the eight shops to get your card now before they run out.

We have to openly acknowledge that this disloyalty card is not designed for you to go buy a oversugared, whipped cream-topped, syrup-flavored frappe.  This whole concept is focused on quality coffee, traditionally prepared.  So we’re limiting the qualifying drinks so that as you visit each shop, you can actually taste the coffee and its quality.  The drinks you can purchase to get a mark on your 417Coffee Disloyalty Card are as follows:

• brewed coffee (preferably single origin instead of a blend),
• iced coffee (not frozen coffee),
• a traditional espresso drink, which would include:
  • espresso,
  • Americano,
  • macchiato,
  • cappuccino,
  • traditional mocha, or
  • traditional latte;
• any other drink that each specific coffee shop deems appropriate as an expression of their shop’s dedication to good coffee.

On top of getting great coffee, getting to compare these shops, ultimately getting a free drink and a chance to win in a giveaway, some of the shops will also make it worth you while by providing some perk or benefit when you tell them you’re there to use your 417Coffee Disloyalty Card.  We’re leaving all that to each individual shop, but be sure to ask if they’re giving out a discount or some other promotion to 417Coffee Disloyalty Card users.

Here at 417coffee, we heartily agree with that coffee culture concept expressed by Hoffman about Gwilym’s intentions.  We believe that the best coffee culture is one where coffee drinkers, baristas, and shop owners can engage in a community learning and education experience by not just sticking to one shop that they like but instead moving around, building relationships, and trying the coffee at other shops, roasted by other roasters, and prepared by other baristas.

Each coffee shop has its own style, its own philosophy, its own mindset and culture and crowd, but if we can promote the concept of quality-focused coffee through multiple coffee shops, and then those shops begin building relationships, sharing information and maturing in their processes of making coffee and their understanding of the bean, everybody wins!  Yes, it requires openness, transparency, and willingness to be critiqued and to even fail on occasion, but if we’re pursuing coffee together with pure intentions for the betterment of the local coffee culture, critique and failure can be a good thing if it leads to more education and a better coffee experience for everyone.  We appreciate the 8 shops taking part in this program, their owners and their baristas as they have provided input, momentum and excitement in the development of this program — we’re excited to help them share their coffee to a broader audience, and we are very thankful for their willingness to participate.

Get out there and enjoy some coffee!  And be sure to write your name and email address on your completed card when you turn it in for your free drink so you can be entered into giveaways here at 417Coffee.com.  There’s been some discussion of putting together some coffee crawls to hit all of the shops in succession to complete the cards. Feel free to update us via Twitter or the comments of this post or on the disloyalty card page.  Also, feel free to put together photos and videos of your endeavors to complete the card and post them on Twitter and on the 417Coffee Facebook page and in the 417Coffee Flickr user photos group.

[UPDATE: 6/17/2010 - today we created a 417 Disloyalty Card GoWalla trip that you can follow and check in with as you pursue completion of your 417Coffee Disloyalty Card.]

1. the place is called Dancing Mule.
2. it is located in a nondescript shopping center south of Sunshine.
3. one word: drive-thru-centric (okay, I cheated).
4. did I mention the place is called Dancing Mule?

So I braved the morning traffic and crossed Glenstone Avenue on foot, where I soon got my pretense handed to me on a plate. First, they serve PT’s Coffee; as far as pure coffeery, they’re not fooling around. PT’s is an award-winning Midwest roaster, and I’ve never been disappointed taste-wise with a shop that serves them. But I do have to admit, as much as I like coffee, I’m more personally interested in coffee culture and a big part of that is taking a look at the spaces where we find ourselves drinking coffee, working on our Macs, and reading our Dave Eggers’ novels.

And here again, I’m pleasantly surprised with Dancing Mule. They’ve outfitted this place where it doesn’t really feel like I’m sitting in a nondescript shopping center so indicative of southside Springfield. The look isn’t as über-modern as I would have chosen, but I’m not their interior decorator and it’s a far cry from bad looking. I feel comfortable here and don’t want to leave quickly. I want to linger and enjoy my drink, listen to the barista educate a customer on their brewing methods. And isn’t that the point of a good coffee shop? Good job, team Dancing Mule—you make this side of town better, and that’s not an easy feat.

Hugs,
d

This Finland revelation led to some Googling.  First, I discovered that alcohol used to be illegal in Finland, so coffee became the social beverage of choice in Finland, and even when alcohol was legalized, coffee stayed on top as the drink of choice. In recent years, as the population has aged, coffee consumption has dropped off to some degree. The older coffee drinkers were the diehards, and the loss of their older generation is also leading to a decline in coffee consumption.

I also came across a report of a study in Finland that helped highlight one of the positives of coffee consumption.  According to this study, Finnish smokers who consumed — get this — 8 or more cups of coffee a day had a 23% lower risk for cerebral infarction – the most common kind of stroke. The long-term study consisted of 29,133 Finnish men aged 50 to 69 years who smoked at least five cigarettes per day and had no history of stroke. From 1985 to 1988, these men were recruited into the trial. Approximately 2.5% of the study sample reported never drinking coffee, and approximately 64% did not drink tea. Daily coffee consumption among drinkers averaged 5.7 cups. “After adjustment for age and cardiovascular risk factors,” the study reported, “both coffee and tea consumption were statistically significantly inversely associated with the risk for cerebral infarction.”

Except, as Fast Company has noticed as well in their post about the umbrella, it doesn’t seem to be the most flexible design.  The handle cup holder forces the umbrella back at an angle, so it requires you to hold the umbrella a specific way in order to use it.  That angle could definitely cause problems.  I’ll quote Fast Company because they summarized it very well:

What happens when a gust of wind kicks up? I’ll tell you what happens: Your shirt’s ruined, your hand is burning, and you’re cursing the well-meaning but misguided Jung-Woo Lee. Since your coffee flew into the thick necked bruiser next to you, he’s kicked your a**, to boot. So you’re wet, black and blue, angry, you smell like coffee–which you haven’t been able to consume yet. And then someone comes by and says, “Wow, cool umbrella–is that a cup holder?”

Yeah, I’m not sure the umbrella cup holder design has been perfected yet.  Let’s wait for version 2.0.

Over the last couple of days, Cafe Grumpy in New York City has gone viral for offering a $12 cup of coffee. This featured brew is a cup of Ethiopian Nekisse from the Neji locality in the country known as the birthplace of coffee. The website for Cafe Grumpy describes this coffee as “Very clean, sweet, complex cup with tropical fruit notes of pineapple, kiwi and key lime. Floral notes of jasmine, lemongrass and rosemary.”

But why the price? According to the Huffington Post, this coffee is made from handpicked Ethiopian beans and its cost is high due to the long development and processing time. Steve Holt, vice president of the company distributing the beans, Ninety Plus Coffee, told the New York Post, “There are flavors you would expect in a really nice glass of wine — it’s a cacophony of nuances. You detect flavors of apricot, pineapple, bergamot, kiwi and lime. The deeper tones are levels of chocolate, and the finish is super clean.” But isn’t this wine-like flavor profile that most high-end, single-origin coffee drinkers have come to expect from every cup?

The New York Times story goes into a little more detail. It further quotes Holt as saying, “It is a higher-end coffee, and you have to take a lot of time developing and processing it. Once the coffee is harvested, it is dried on a raised African drying bed — the actual coffee cherries never sit on the ground.” Thereafter, the beans are roasted on site at Cafe Grumpy, which is partially where the My Fox New York story attributes the additional cost. One of the Cafe Grumpy baristas noted to the New York Post that in comparison to a cup from Starbucks, it is a “far more complex coffee that should only be taken black.”  Again, most coffee aficiandos say, “Well, duh.”  To some of us this is not news, but it’s amazing how it captivated the media this week.

But is a $12 cup of coffee so unheard of? A little more digging shows that as far back as 2007, Caffe Artigiano and 49th Parallel Roasters in Vancouver, British Columbia sold cups of brewed Hacienda la Esmeralda Especial from Panama for $15 a cup. Hacienda la Esmeralda Especial back then was named the “world’s best coffee” at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Roasters Guild Cupping Pavilion Competition. At the time, it wholesaled for $130 US per pound. Ironically, just this week before the Cafe Grumpy story hit the media wire, I was in conversation with Tom Billionis from The Coffee Ethic on Springfield, Missouri’s downtown Park Central Square about the current Esmeralda Especial bean and how they would have to charge double digits to brew it by the cup.  Also the CBS News story (while unfortunately calling the this Cafe Grumpy single origin coffee a “blend”) notes that in Baltimore you can buy a cup of Aida’s Grand Reserve for $13.  I guess that cafe doesn’t do good enough PR work like the Cafe Grumpy crowd.

Below is a video of the Early Show anchors of CBS morning television testing out the Cafe Grumpy Ethiopian Nekisse.  As you can see, their anchor team comprises an even spread of the different types of coffee personalities:

I was recently reading a blog post about how coffee can be approached from either a right brain or a left brain approach.  The right brain approach is described as holistic, broad brush, subjective and creative, being based in intuition and emotion, while the left brain approach is more detailed and analytical, highlighting logic and language and often focusing itself in science and mathematics.  These, of course, are generalities of the two sides of the brain and how they operate, but nonetheless, coffee can be experienced by one or the other or, ideally, by both.

Think back to your favorite memory of drinking coffee.   I have one — it was sitting at my kitchen table, drinking a cup of Brazil coffee from Starbucks, and my friend Paul, who lives out in California now and I rarely get to see, was at my house.  The coffee tasted really good, and I had bought it special because I knew Paul enjoyed coffee, too, and I wanted him to get to experience this coffee with me.  On that day, Paul suggested that I try out homeroasting my own coffee, and I told him I had no time for such thing.  He persisted, and the next week, I started researching homeroasting on SweetMarias.com and eventually bought some equipment and green coffee beans to roast.  That moment at my kitchen table, drinking and talking with Paul, is seared in my emotional memory, and it has made Brazil a sentimental coffee for me.  I love to drink a Brazil because it conjures up good feelings based on that memory.

The funny thing is, though, that most coffee drinkers wouldn’t characterize Brazilian coffee as being great coffee.  From an analytical viewpoint, Brazilian coffee can be too earthy and can be scattered in its flavor profile.  Often, when I mention that I enjoy a cup of Brazil, coffee professionals will look at me with a funny look and tell me that Brazil isn’t one of their favorites.  I agree — from a left brain point of view, there are many other coffees that have a better flavor profile, more complexity, unique characteristics, a better mouth feel or finish than a Brazil.  When you step back and analyze coffee, you can often work through the objective parameters of a coffee or a group of coffees and come to an intellectual decision as to which coffee is the best.  Cupping rooms are often stark rooms with little decoration flair simply so those tasting the coffees in cupping room will remove the subjective from the moment and instead review a coffee based on its actual characteristics.  I’m sure that if I were to cup several coffees and a Brazil was in the mix, the Brazil wouldn’t win top billing.

Interestingly, in my reading, I learned that the general enjoyment of coffee by the consumer is often due in part to someone who takes the time to analyze the coffee.  In the period from 1940-1990, the United States coffee industry focused more on cost cutting and offering the cheapest cup of coffee possible, but in so doing, the enjoyment of coffee by the general public waned.  During that time, there was a steady decline of coffee consumption in the United States.  The coffee industry wasn’t analyzing to find the best coffees; it was focused on finding the cheapest coffees it could find.  When you speak to someone who has lived most of their life in that time frame, oftentimes they have no love for coffee but instead just drink whatever it at hand and expect nothing of it.

In more recent years, though, the coffee scene has grown as people dedicated to analyzing coffee, especially those who represent the Specialty Coffee Association of America, have taken to time to sort out the best coffees and elevate them in the coffee industry, even though they often cost more.  This willingness to pay more for quality coffee has pushed forward the fair trade and organic coffee movements as coffee consumers began to understand the economics required to get better coffee.  The “third wave” of coffee we are currently experiencing, where coffee drinkers are enjoying high quality coffees, often single-origin coffees with great flavor, is due to the analyzers looking out for the enjoyment of the average coffee drinkers.

Whether you analyze coffee or simply enjoy coffee, or both, take a moment to realize the value of both.  If you’re just a coffee drinker who loves to drink coffee and aren’t too picky, be thankful for those who analyze tirelessly to make sure that cup of coffee is of a higher grade than it would have been several years ago.  And if you’re an analyzer, don’t be too hard on those who just enjoy a cup every once in a while without regard to all the nuances and methods.  The coffee world is a better place thanks to the analyzers, but every analyzer got to that place because at some point, they really enjoyed a cup of good coffee.

The vacuum pot method (also called the siphon or syphon method) involves the simple science of creating a vacuum, thus the name vacuum pot. The apparatus employs two glass bulbs sitting vertically connected with a glass tube. Hot water is poured into the bottom bulb and coffee grounds are added to the upper bulb. A small burner heats the water to the boiling point. As the water heats, water vapor is created and expands. The water vapor is now taking up more volume and has nowhere to go. As more heat is applied, steam is created and the water vapor pushes on the water, forcing it up through the top hole. The water and steam move up into the upper bulb. Once there, the hot water is in contact with the coffee grounds for a specified period of time. When the bottom burner is removed, the bottom bulb cools to a temperature lower than the upper bulb. This causes the water vapor still left in the bottom tube to contract. It contracts so much that it creates negative pressure and thus a vacuum. The coffee is then sucked back down the glass tube to the bottom pot with only a cloth filter left to hold back the coffee grounds.

If you get a chance, stop by The Hub, check out the bikes next door, and have Jason or Joe brew up some single origin coffee in their vacuum pot brewer.

I attended my first coffee cupping this morning at The Coffee Ethic in downtown in Springfield, MO today. I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but I had seen a cupping on a YouTube video, so it wasn’t completely foreign.

I was pleasantly surprised once I arrived to find that I was not the only participant who had not been through this experience before.  In fact, of the 11 or 12 people present, only one had previously attended a cupping.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with what goes down at a cupping, you smell the beans, smell them once ground, then the hot water enters the mix and you wait. Then you smell the “brewing” coffee…then once the excess grounds are scraped off the top, you taste. You insert your spoon, get a bit of coffee and slurp it as quickly (and loudly) as you can….

Here are a few notes–
Cup 1: I found it to be very mild, fruity and it’s aroma made me think of toast. The taste was tart, crisp (like a green apple) and most everyone found it had tart, crisp fruity notes.
*Cup 1 ended up being a Burundi Mwurire from Africa, and is described as being similar to a Kenyan. I really liked it. The group all liked it and this was the one most people wanted to get their hands on and have available to purchase.

Cup 2: I found it to smell fruity as well, but more spicy, and even a bit floral. It was more subtle. Its taste I found to be like black tea; you know the dry mouth feel black (hot) tea can leave you with? I got that from this coffee. Many also found it to have a ripe red cherry flavor.
*Cup 2 ended up being a St. Augustine from Columbia, and I liked it as well.

Cup 3: This was the big surprise. Once it was ground and I bent to give it a whiff, I jumped back in horror. This coffee (to me) smelled exactly like black walnuts. This would be fine if one likes black walnuts, I can’t stand them. (to me black walnuts have a strange sweet smell and flavor that doesn’t jive w/ my tastebuds). I was hoping once it was brewed it wouldn’t taste like black walnuts. It did. All I could taste were black walnuts. Many others in the group found it to ahve blueberrry or other fruity flavors, which I get, but the black walnuts overpowered any other flavors and I obviously didn’t like it at all.
*Cup 3 ended up being a Sidamo from Ethiopia. I understand this is a very popular coffee; if you hate black walnuts however, proceed with caution.

All in all, it was a very fun experience; to be able to taste things side by side, then discuss, was a fun way to learn about coffee and also about what you like, don’t like, and about how to recognize different flavors in the coffee itself. Good times!

Tom Billionis of The Coffee Ethic explaining the procedure...we were all supposed to keep our comments to ourselves until the end so as not to influence one another. It was also a blind tasting- we didn't know what kind of coffee we were tasting until the end--again, no preconceptions.

Coffee cupping table set up at The Coffee Ethic

Getting closer to the actual tasting...Tom Billionis pours hot water over the grounds here and then we wait several minutes before breaking the crust and giving a good sniff to each cup.

Waiting to break the crust on the cupping coffee brews

Local coffee drinker Taylor Baldwin works on getting the full aroma...

Scraping the bulk of the grounds out of the way so that we will be able to taste without too much grit...

Tasting....

Aftermath after everyone has tasted...

Years ago, after buying pre-ground coffee for a while, like most people who delve into the world of grinding whole bean coffee, I started grinding my own coffee with a whirly blade grinder.  I’ve recently been asked why grinding your own coffee is preferred over buying pre-ground coffee.  The reason behind this extra step is that it keeps your coffee fresher longer because it keeps the bean whole and its insides away from oxygen until the moment you need it right before you brew. The more the surface area of a coffee bean (both internal and external surface area) is in contact with air, the quicker the coffee loses its flavor.  As such, the moment coffee is ground, all of its internal and external surface area becomes exposed to the air, and it begins to degrade in flavor quickly.  Even if you vacuum pack coffee after you grind it, it will still go bad quicker.  Roasted whole bean coffee only has a shelf life of a few weeks, so when you buy your coffee already ground (especially when you don’t know how long it’s been sitting on the store shelf), you should expect your coffee’s flavor to flatten shortly after the purchase.  Your best option is to buy whole bean, then grind precisely what you need right before you brew it, and your coffee will end up tasting better in the cup in addition to lasting longer on your pantry shelf.

Most people start grinding their own coffee with a whirly blade grinder that costs about $15, but it’s best to move on quickly.  These grinders use a metal blade to chop up the beans. The blade cuts up the beans, and you control the fineness by how long you let the grinder run.  What’s wrong with whirly blade grinders?  They tend to obliterate the bean instead of evenly grinding it, which can cause inconsistent brew quality.    Also, if you are grinding finely, there can be significant heat created by the blade. This can give your final coffee a burned taste.

Those who pursue the best flavor out of their coffee beans prefer to go with burr grinders because they grind more evenly.  The more evenly ground your coffee is, the better the final brew will be.
Burr grinders crush the beans between a moving grinding wheel and a non-moving surface. The positioning of the burr is what regulates the ground size, which allows for a more consistent grind.

Burr grinders can come in two forms:  wheel or conical.  Wheel burr grinders are the less expensive of the two burr grinders, operating with a wheel that spins very fast, making these grinders very noise. The higher speed rotation make these grinders more messy as well, plus the high speed can create friction and heat that can degrade the coffee’s flavor. I’ve personally found that I’m not satisfied with the grind I get out of the inexpensive wheel power burr grinders you get at most big box stores.  Most of these cheaper power grinders run in the $30-$50 range and sound like a jet engine.  I’m not a big fan of the loud noise they make or the fine dust mess.  And if you want to grind for espresso brewing, most of the inexpensive burr grinders won’t grind fine enough.

As such, if you want to go quality, I’ve found that the power grinders worth buying start around $150 and go up from there because they use conical burrs.  With conical burrs. the burr spins slower than the wheel model, which makes them quieter and less messy.  Again, though, you pay a premium to get a power conical burr grinder.  These days you can also find conical burr grinders made of metal or, even better, made of ceramic.  You pay more for ceramic burrs, but they don’t generate as much heat as metallic burrs.

So, what if you’re on a budget?  This is where hand mill coffee grinding comes in.  I’ve found that hand mill burr grinders are much cheaper than the quality power burr grinders on the market, and with most of them, you can grind as fine as you need.  They are usually adjustable using a flywheel or some other mechanism that adjusts the burrs. Using a hand burr mill grinder, you can grind the right amount of beans to the proper grind regardless of whether you’re making a French press coffee or an espresso.

I personally use a Zassenhaus hand coffee mill grinder at home and at the office, but these days the Hario hand coffee mill grinders are also looking really good.  In his NYT online article, Strand gives his input and some background on the Hario Skerton grinder, which I’ve found locally at The Coffee Ethic and Dancing Mule Coffee, or you can find it online at Sweet Maria’s or Amazon.com.  It generally runs around $50.  The older slim Hario hand grinder runs about $30 these days, and I’ve seen one recently at either The Coffee Ethic or Dancing Mule. I love my Zassenhaus coffee mill grinders, too, so if you’re in the market for a hand grinder, don’t forget to check them out — you can find them at Amazon.com, Sweet Maria’s, and on eBay.

Besides the fact that hand grinders are smaller, simple and downright pleasant, Strand puts it nicely:

It’s this meditative pacing that I enjoy most. Turning the hand crank isn’t exactly languorous — you’re working for a solid minute, maybe more — but it’s relaxing. Sure, there are some practical reasons to go with a hand grinder: it’s good on a trip (I travel with mine), it’s better than a blade grinder (as are all burr grinders), the coffee grounds have a brighter smell (perhaps because of the low R.P.M.’s). Though these are flimsy justifications for picking up another coffee gadget. If you get one, it’s because you want to linger on the ritual of making coffee.

My kids love my hand grinder and love to help me grind coffee.  On top of that, I tend to make my coffee via manual brew methods, such as French press and Chemex, and they enjoy the sights and sounds of the entire manual experience.  As Strand mentions, a hand grinder is also good for traveling and camping, too.  I’ll often pack up my grinder and seal up some whole beans in a Ziploc for a camping trip so I can make fresh ground coffee at the campground.

Granted, when I have a large group of people and several batches of coffee to make, hand grinding can get overwhelming. and someday I’ll be in the market for a higher-end power grinder for just that purpose.  But I stand beside hand grinding as my favorite method of making coffee, and I encourage you to check it out, whether you’re on a budget or not.