The Results

  Per my last post, I'd like to update you on the Ethiopian war going on in my kitchen. I have to give the nod, although only slightly, to Yirgacheffe. While I still prefer the Harrar for it's earthy fragrance, the batch I tried lacked the mushroomy, fresh soil flavor, and aroma I love so much. It was still earthy, just not as penetrating and fragrant as I like. Yirgacheffe is harder to mess up, cleaner, and has enough body so as to never be considered week.

Harrar vs. Yirgacheffe

Okay folks, we're back. Now on to the main event: Ethiopia's finest battle it out - Harrar vs. Yirgacheffe.

I'm just finishing the last cup of the Yirgacheffe I had roasted last week. The same local roaster is making me up a batch of Ethiopian Harrar today, so I'll drink it tomorrow (you shouldn't drink coffee the same day it's roasted - the gases need time to breathe.) I'll let you know tomorrow or Friday how it turns out, and I'll post a review of both coffees. I'd also be interested to do a roast-level and quality comparison with some other good roasters. Let me know if you like me to try your version of one of these African favorites. I'll also give you the contact info for the roaster who provided this weeks coffee when I do the review.

One more side-note: If you want to try a dense, delicious little cup of Ethiopian coffee (think somewhere between Espresso - in concentration, and a french-press - in drink-ability) you must visit the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant in South Tampa. The food is amazing, and the coffee is some of the best I've had. They serve it in a small cup (a couple of ounces, at most), but that's all you're likely going to need. I asked for another, and the waitress gave it to me at no extra cost. Another plus, you eat all the food with your hands! Don't worry, my girlfriend likes it too, so it's not messy.

The top 5 myths about great coffee

For as long as I've been drinking, buying, selling, and reviewing coffee, I've heard many of the same myths regurgitated with little originality, and I believed them. Today, I'd like to expose them for what they are: false! Feel free to add your favorites in the comments section bellow.

Myth #1 - Good Coffee only tastes good pipping hot.

This simply is not true. Heat masks imperfections. When coffee is over-roasted or extracted, or otherwise poorly developed it shows up as the cup cools. The flavor profile certainly changes with temperature decrease, but this shouldn't be a negative change. Just like your favorite perfume changes scent as it dries from the top note all the way down. I like to get a good sense of the complexity, or purity or the cup as it cools, and good coffee always shines through.

Myth #2 - The larger the operation, the better quality coffee they can get. 

I want to be careful not to say that all large coffee corps. are bad, or everything they do is bad This simply isn't true. That being said, the idea that all the best beans flow through them isn't true either. When a large company wants to purchase coffee for all it's stores to carry, it requires a large supply of that coffee (think around 20 million lbs annually). When such a supply isn't available (as in smaller, family farms), they rarely purchase that coffee (except on a limited run, and even then, that's rare). Small to medium sized farms produce some of the best coffee available because they're heart, soul, and livelihood are invested into the coffee. So who buys the smaller crops? Your local roaster (either directly - see: relationship coffee or through a coffee broker). 

Myth #3 - Espresso has to be bitter and tough to drink black.

Au contraire! When roasted, prepared, and pulled properly, almost anyone can move from drinking black coffee, to straight espresso with little to no pain. The problem is, so many people drink beverages loaded with syrup, that the quality of the espresso matters less and less (they can't taste the difference.) For those of you that drink Vodka - Would you put Grey Goose (c) in a screwdriver? Of course not! Why? Because the orange juice negates the need for the higher quality liquor. You just can't taste it that well with such a strong competing flavor. Still, once you've developed a taste for high quality espresso, it's hard to swallow the other stuff, even with mocha syrup. 

Myth #4 - Espresso is a type of coffee bean.

 Okay, I know the coffee geeks out there already know this, but it's such a common misconception that I had to cover it. Espresso is a method of preparing coffee through pressurization, and heat. The coffee is ground very finely to allow the hot water to be forced through quickly, and to allow contact with alot of surface area (compared to coarsely ground coffee), thus producing a dense, syrupy cup. While certain flavor and roast profiles function/taste better as espresso, technically, any coffee can be prepared this way. So if you've never tried your favorite drip coffee in your espresso machine, go ahead, live a little!

Myth #5 - Great coffee has to be expensive.

Puh-Lease!! This one is the kicker. With a little help (like from your friends at G.C.R.) and a few simple tools, you can have great coffee anywhere, anytime. It just depends on what you want to achieve. Next week we'll feature a review on the basics of brewing coffee at home, including ways to brew low-acid, and alternatives to the french press. For now though, make sure you buy fresh roasted (as in THIS week) coffee, and use cold, filtered water. It also helps if you buy an inexpensive grinder and grind just before brewing. Target has a few good options here: http://bit.ly/9KwAJj I bought a burr grinder by Black and Decker for around $30 that does the trick sufficiently for most folks.