Green Coffee Grading and Decaf

At the SCAA show in Anaheim (April 2010) I was able to take the Roasters' Guild's "Green Coffee Grading" course. It helped me learn about the various types of defects. It's almost like a "processes at origin" course on it's flipside - they are primarily talking about and showing you throughout the class what happens when those processes at origin are not done well.

As we witnessed the kind of stones, little sticks, "blacks", "withereds", "pre-matures" and other defective beans, my thoughts turned to what must be going into a lot of decaf coffee in North America. Each defect found in a 300g sample downgrades the quality of the coffee, and therefore the price. That's why more often than not, it's the cheap, low quality coffee (with blacks, whites, sticks, brokens, etc.) that is getting thrown into the brutal decaffeination processing plant, and then the giant roasters at commodity coffee production plants throw it into a wicked 7 minute blast roast. It's no wonder most decaf in the US tastes miserable!

The power of the word - what decaf method is it?

Here's another rave related to Coffee Review's July article on decaf coffees. I appreciate the non-inflammatory language the author found to use when he had to describe the different decaffeination processes. Given that there are basically four different decaffeination processes in use today (water, super-critical CO2, methylene chloride and ethyl acetate), and all of them are allowed by the FDA with no controversy, it seems safe to say that none of the four are "unhealthy." So it's helpful that Ken Davids uses the term "synthetic solvent" instead of "chemical" to describe the methylene chloride processed coffees. It seems obvious to me that when the water (and CO2) process marketers were designing their campaigns, they cleverly chose a word that had some negative baggage, "chemical", to describe their competition. Over the years, they and many others have used this term a lot and it's been successful. Three cheers for marketing! One should never underestimate the power of it.

But when others who are not marketers for the water-process brands use the term "chemical process" to describe methylene chloride and ethyl acetate processes, it irks me. A more objective, less negatively charged term, such as synthetic solvent, should become the norm and the standard amongst specialty coffee professionals.

Not only that, I propose that the industry move away from defining the decaffeination processes by the solvent used, to something that helps the consumer understand how brutal the process is on the coffee bean. When brevity and amount of material that remains in tact are the focus of the descriptor, the potential for negative baggage quickly shifts to the other foot. The most "precision" process is the super-critical CO2, followed by a tie between methylene chloride and ethyl acetate. The water processes could be described as "brutal to bean and very long" (sometimes days, I understand). So "soaked" might be the appropriate term, versus "precision."

Top Rated Decafs - Gotta Get 'Em!

The top rated decaf coffees in this month's Coffee Review are Cafe Valverde's "decaf South American blend", Metropolis' "Decaf Redline" and Doma Coffee's "Jackie Oh Organic Decaf". I've bought and tasted the second (Redline) and the first (South American blend) is on it's way. Need to get on-line and get some of that "Jackie Oh" next!

Metropolis' Redline does hold up nicely to both espresso extraction and drip brewing. I agree with the flavor notes the Coffee Review guys shared -- sweetness comes in the form of caramel and dark chocolate, and there's an aromatic woodiness and fruitiness mixed in. What separates it from other decafs is the mouthfeel -- it's round not flat.

Coffee Review's Pity for the Poor Decaf Drinker

Ken Davids and Ted Stachura have done the coffee world a great service! Their detailed and discerning cupping skills were applied to 50 decaf coffee samples (most were blends, but a few single origins made it in) and now their articulate and thorough review has been posted at www.coffeereview.com/articles.

Their overall impression was not surprising: "the North American specialty coffee industry continues to underperform when it comes to producing decaffeinated coffees intended for non-espresso brewing methods." And their conclusion of "what to do about it" is right on target: "the one area where I think roasters and their green dealers could improve is in selecting green coffees for decaffeination. ...The kind of curiosity and innovation that the top tier of the specialty industry has lavished on sourcing exceptional single-origin coffees and developing sophisticated espresso blends has largely passed decaffeinated coffee by. ... What we need are roasters and green buyers [and cafe owners] who bring the same passion to pairing fine green coffees with optimum decaffeination methods as they have to sourcing prize-winning green coffees in the first place."

The new era is coming folks...

Roaster's Question 2: Is truly high-end decaf really even available?

Back in May we started this series on "roasters questions regarding decaf." The first question appears in the May 6 blog. Today's question: "Is truly high-end decaf really even available, since such large volumes of beans are needed for minimum toll decaffing?"

Answer: Available? Yes. Easy to find? No. And if you do find it, there might not be a lot of it. Artisan Coffee Imports is trying to help roasters overcome these two issues related to availability. Its business model is to become the "go-to" source for roasters who want a reliable and high quality decaf. They don't want to waste precious time searching through more than the average number of samples for something that meets their quality criteria, but is only 15-20% of their volume, tops.

The best ways to find out if an importer puts any time and effort into the quality of the decaf is to ask questions about the cupping scores and the traceability to origin. The importers listed on this webpage are places that will have reasonable answers to those questions. Or you can contact any of the roasters listed here and find out where they get their great tasting decaf. Finally, Coffee Review will focus on "decaf Blends" in their up-coming July 2010 issue. Check this blog for comments when that comes out!

Next roaster's question, "how does one keep exceptional decaf beans from losing their exceptional character over time?

New Research: Caffeine Users Not More Alert

New research in the U.K. appears to show that people who use caffeine on a daily basis are not more alert than people who rarely or never use caffeine. The article (click here), published June 2, 2010, in The Guardian, is unfortunately poorly written. They talk about "coffee drinkers" instead of "caffeine users", but the tests were done with caffeine pills. The fact that the author, Jacob Aron, equates caffeine pills with coffee drinking is strange for several reasons. First, since he's writing in the U.K., why wouldn't he equate caffeine use with tea-drinking? Second, he obviously hasn't heard of decaffeinated coffee, since it wasn't mentioned. And lastly, everyone in the specialty coffee industry should bristle when journalists project the idea that the coffee beverage is simply a liquid, widely available form of a caffeine pill!

The article would have been more impressive had the author mentioned that decaf coffee drinkers and non-caffeinated tea drinkers would be included in the "alert but abstaining from caffeine" group. And I would submit, at least this decaf drinker is better able to interpret the research on caffeine.

Find more information on great tasting decaf coffee at www.artisancoffeeimports.com.

Skill Building Workshop in Ann Arbor a hit!

The SCAA Skill Building Workshop, May 13-14, in Ann Arbor, MI was a treat for coffee professionals and a watershed for the coffee industry in southeastern Michigan. Maybe even for the Midwest as a region.

Tom Isaia and the crew from Coffee Express as well as Allen Leibowitz from Zingerman's and Greg Miricle from Great Lakes Coffee were all instrumental in getting the event together. As if those 3 names aren't big enough, the event also brought in Trevor Corlett from Madcap Coffee Roasters in Grand Rapids, Jack Groot frim JP Coffee and the Midwest Barista School, and a large contingent of Canadians, such as Richard Ottenhof, of Multatuli Coffee in Kingston, Ontario.

I was the only green coffee importer represented, as far as I know amongst this crowd of ~ 100 top notch coffee professionals. As Artisan Coffee Imports I cupped some amazing coffees during Allen's Comparative Cupping course (see video). As a generic SCAA member, it was fun for me to be a porter for Trevor's Milk & Latte Art class (see video).

The informal Motown Barista throwdown of latte art at the Plymouth Bean coffee company was my first throwdown. Three judges (Allen, Jack Groot and Sherry from JP Coffee) quickly gave a thumbs up or thumbs down as two baristas at a time competed to create delicate rosettas in the foam and crema of the lattes they pulled. The excitement and suspense created a wonderful and fun atmosphere -- collegial even.