May 2014 - Same Blend, Different Taste?

Date Posted:1 May 2014 

Why coffee blends change.....

Over the many years of working with coffee, we have come to identify 2 very distinct types of coffee drinkers - those that like to try something new and interesting and the others who want things to stay the same.

Like life itself, it takes all types to make up the coffee lover's spectrum.

Well before the emergence of the specialty coffee market, the majority of coffee roasting companies would live and die by a very strict rule - keep it the same or we will lose customers.

Unfortunately, the whole "keeping it the same" policy did not take into account whether "it" was currently regarded as horrible, average or brilliant. Alas, in most cases "it" was actually pretty crappy - especially by today's standards.

Generally speaking, most of the roasted coffee produced in Australia up until around 2007 was targeted around basic and simple outcomes - keep the costs low via poorer quality beans and bulk, bland roasting to a dark, homogeneous depth.

Fast forward 7 years and the coffee industry in Australia now has more than 900 brands. Our domestic market is totally saturated with a mix of local and imported products to the point where no real dominant players can shape or influence the direction of quality coffee - the exception of course is portion control (capsules and pods) and instant coffee markets where fewer players currently operate.

Increased competition has resulted in dramatic improvements to coffee quality - both in the sourcing of better raw (green) beans, the use of advanced roasting systems for creating a cleaner and sweeter cup and of course the greater awareness by the end consumer of need to treat roasted coffee as a fresh food - just like your fruits and vegetables - it has a short shelf life for optimal enjoyment.

Coffee roasting companies use the concept of a blend for many different purposes - some use it for cost, others for adding greater cup complexity or consistency and yet another reason is to mitigate supply challenges. Of course some, or even all of these approaches can apply at various times of the year.

Consumers may be surprised to learn that sourcing coffee beans is actually a very difficult and time consuming task. Take this time of year as an example - there are shortages of almost all origins as new season shipments are either being prepared at port or on the water part of the way through the 8 week journey from a farm to arrive into a roaster's warehouse.

Raw green shortages are most acute in the quality segment. For this reason, many specialty coffee roasters will call their blends "seasonal" - which actually means it is subject to change 2 or maybe 4 times a year, depending upon how many and what type of beans are used in the blend.

Our Mycuppa blends change. Suuweet coffee had remained relatively constant for 5 months up until late April 2014, at which point I made some quite radical changes. Almost all of the beans in the blend were changed at the same time and the current evolution of Suuweet is very a different coffee indeed compared to the former.

The popular Espresso and Barista Blends have also remained relatively constant for more than 12 months, which is some kind of record in specialty coffee. Bear in mind, coffee is a 6 monthly crop, so that's almost 3 seasons. They will change around June.

Roasters will tweak a blend to deal with shortages/new seasons or if the roaster is not entirely happy with how the coffee is cupping - an idea for improvements. Generally, changes are tapered in and out over many weeks or in some cases, like with Suuweet late April, it's a sudden change.

There are many parallels between the wine and coffee industries.

With wine, change is celebrated and respected as the weather and conditions greatly influence the vintage.

In coffee, change is not always that well received or accepted and as roasters we often find ourselves drawn into conflict with brokers, farmers and customers who resist change or cannot understand that it is a fundamental part of the coffee life-cycle.

Rwanda Inzovu

African coffees tend to feature in the top group of many coffee drinker's most memorable cups.

Whether it's the complexity of an Ethiopian, the richness and long, sweet intensity of a Kenyan or the mesmerising effect of a well-balanced Tanzanian, there is always something special about the way in which African coffees can deliver that extra punch.

For many years Rwanda lived in the coffee shadows of Ethiopia and Kenya. The quality has never been under question, but Rwanda suffered largely being completely overlooked given the cult status of Ethiopia and Kenya.

Just over 3 years ago, the head of Australia's largest raw coffee brokers whispered quietly into the phone one rainy afternoon..........."Jeff, listen........one of my buyers in Africa stumbled upon this sensational coffee from Rwanda......orange, chocolate mocha, clean cup and a super long finish.........it's quite a difficult coffee to source......we have some......do you want to grab a few bags ?"

I felt at the time I was privileged to be given some type of secret message.......what else could I do but jump on it.

Having not tried Rwandan coffee beans and searching around the Australian market seeing zero in the way of specialty coffee roasters offering Rwandan coffees, I thought to myself......why not, let's go for it.

When the bags arrived, I noticed there was a sweet smell of tangerine from the raw coffee. Raw coffees typically have very little in the way of aroma (except some sun dried fruity Africans) and this washed coffee appeared amazingly clean and consistent - perhaps the best prepared coffee I has seen all year.

Roasting the coffee and waiting for it to develop over the next 10 days I had completely forgotten about testing it. In a rush one afternoon to make a coffee, I grabbed a sample jar and tipped it into the grinder. A few adjustments later I was pulling some incredible red tiger stripped shots.

I picked up the empty sample jar to read the batch code 12RI3. Rwanda Inzovu roasted 12th March.

Adding milk to the espresso shot and taking the first sip I almost fell over. What an amazing coffee. I pulled another, then another and ran around handing out cups to everyone present.......quick, taste this......taste it......what do you think ?

That coffee had to most sensational orange chocolate finish. It was if we had Jaffas melted into a cup.

I bought the remaining bags and thus began our long association with Rwanda coffees. Over the periods since, we have had 4 different crops of Inzovu and a couple of different types - in 2012 and 2013 we ran the Muraha alongside Inzovu and just recently we picked up a very small amount of the Gihombo that was offered to our Subscription members.

2 weeks ago I received the first ton of a 6 ton shipment of a select grade Rwanda Inzovu. In 10 days we ripped through 500 kilos as news spread around some of the specialty cafes.

This new Inzovu is an 86 point coffee ranking it in the top handful of coffees available within Australia.

Caramel, lime and soft floral in aroma, black tea- like, plum, lemon, thick body with tart green apple acid, candied grape-like sweetness, long finish

What makes Rwanda Inzovu coffee so special is that it’s produced by over 25,000 smallholder coffee farmers. Where the majority of the farmers only have around about 200 trees each to look after. The coffee production in Rwanda has seen exponential growth, benefiting the countries economic wellbeing. Due to the popularity and quality of this coffee, over the last several years the price paid directly to the farmers has significantly increased.

The Inzovu is a special project where only specially selected lots are combined together in order to supply rosters with a consistent specialty quality coffee available in larger volumes. The coffee it self is grown in fertile volcanic soil. The altitude ranges from 1200 to 1800 meters above sea level across all of the farms. The harvest takes place from March all the way through to July. After the cherry has been harvested it is then brought into a washing station, for processing. The coffee is graded, milled, hand sorted and sun dried on tables. Inzovu comes from a number of different wet mills including Coffee Villages, Gasange, Gitesi, Izere, Karama, Kigembe, Kirezi, Mahembe, Mayogi, Mukindo, Mutovu, Mwasa and Nasho. 

The Great Leveler

One of our very good private label clients, we have been roasting their coffee for over 3.5 years now, developed a fantastic tamper for use with espresso machines - The Great Leveller.

A high precision piece of engineering.

Tamping a one of the most misunderstood methods in the process of preparing espresso coffee.

I still remain utterly surprised at the majority of people who seem to believe the action of using a tamper involves applying eye-watering heavy-duty high pressure to pack the ground coffee so tight into the portafilter you would think they were trying to create an instant diamond.

Unfortunately, that style of tamping is not best practice. The truth is you do not need to apply much pressure, except of course if you are still using those ridiculous plastic tampers that are still shipped with many espresso machines.

The purpose of a tamper is to create an even and level distribution of coffee across the portafilter surface areas.

Extracting a great shot on an espresso machine takes plenty of skill and many years of experience. When it comes to pulling good shots, there is no such thing as "natural" talent - it's practice, practice and more practice.

What happens with grind and dose will directly influence how the resulting espresso extraction performs and tamping is just an ancillary task.

Each model of coffee machine has a matching set of tolerances based on the design of heights for between the group head shower screen and the portafilter. When you dose the coffee, it is important to ensure there is sufficient coffee so as to create enough resistance to the flow of water to enable the pressure to release the oils from the coffee which are in fact the flavor of coffee.

Grinding coffee generally creates a light and fluffy heap and you typically have to over-fill the portafilter, tap to settle and then lightly tamp.

If you dose too low, the water will flow very fast and there will be little coffee oil released from the ground coffee particles - just a very thin, watery, bitter fluid lacking flavor and sweetness. This is called under-extraction.

If you dose too high, you may choke the machine, or burn the coffee as the hot water remains in contact with the ground coffee particles too long. This is called over-extraction.

The Great Leveller has an adjustable depth setting so that you can use a consistent technique when dialing in your grind and dose settings.

The most efficient way to arrive at the best espresso extraction is to remove as many variables as quickly as possible. The Great Leveller helps remove tamping defects from the equation.

Tamping that is not level will cause channeling - where the water under pressure finds the path of least resistance. Channeling is the #1 cause of tamping error and perhaps 50% of the problem for most baristas. Channeling results in some of the coffee being under extracted (or not extracted at all) and some being over extracted.

The depth of tamping is also very important due to the design of espresso groups. It is very difficult to apply the same pressure each time when tamping manually.

For those of you with espresso machines at home, the Great Leveller will rapidly elevate your skill levels almost instantly and help you focus solely on the grind and dose settings.

I firmly believe that this product is the single best investment you can make in achieving improved barista skills and will directly lead to a better cup of coffee for those with espresso machines.

The Great Leveller is only available in Black and is designed for the most common size of 58mm. Please ensure you check your machine uses a 58mm portafilter before ordering.