Stephen Leighton is the owner of Has Bean Coffee. He is a roaster, greens buyer, blogger and loves coffee more than most anyone I have met in coffee to date. You may have seen him in his weekly subscription videos on inmymug.com or you may have seen him chatting it up with WBC finalist Colin Harmon on their video blog at tampertantrum.com. He was one of dirtyCup’s first supporters and we are glad to have him guest blog here.
Hello the world of dirtyCup. Firstly very honoured to be asked to join in the fun here, I just hope I can keep up with the high quality postings here, I seem to have neglected my own blog a little of late, so it seems ambitious of me to guest else where but lets see how it goes.
This week I awoke from my blogging slumber with the following post
“So I’ve been searching for inspiration for a while for a good blog post. Not just making noise for noise sake.
To be fair I have been incredibly busy of late, a quick jump to www.hasbean.co.uk you will see exactly why. A major revamp of the whole site, focusing on some of the lovely photos I’ve collected over the past few years, I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoy looking at it. Feedback always very very welcome
I had an email conversation last week that set my blogging mind off, and I was talking about roasting styles for certain brewing methods, and we got talking about the recent in my mugs being roasted more for espresso. I disagreed with this and thought the gayo was a great brewed coffee, and well, it set my mind a running.
I think that the roast style has nothing to do with the brew method of the coffee, nor do I believe that you should roast coffee differently for those different styles. I think I owe it to the coffee to let it be the very best that it can, if that means playing with a profile that may not suit the majority of peoples pre conceptions of a brew method then I can live with it. What I couldn’t live with is not present the coffee the best I believe it can be.
On saying this I don’t think a roast will suit all brew methods an omniroast, but it will be what it will be, it may be inclined towards brewed or espresso. I really enjoy some times a darker roasted coffee in the filter just as some times I’ll play with a lighter more delicate bean in espresso its all part of the fun, but what I want from each cup is delicious tasty coffee that is a wonderful expression from the farmer.
So thoughts, I’m guessing the camp I am in is not a popular one, and not for the cool kids, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, and arguments for and against. Opinions can be changed. “
The response back on the blog were interesting so I decided to use my first dirtyCup appearance to discuss these further. The one that I guess had the most resonance is the one from David Walsh. I pick on Davids because I asked his permission, but two he is someone that when he speaks I listen and I think makes me question myself.
David is also I believe going to be one of the guest bloggers here, so he will have plenty of opportunity to defend himself on this forum so I’m picking out his response more than any other. He said
“No coffee is drank without being brewed in some manner. So in my mind the best it can be, cannot be separated from this step.
While there may be circumstances where the best for filter and espresso overlap, in my experience (for what its worth) the two brew methods are too different for it generally to be the case.”
Now I agree that coffee has to be brewed (of course I do) but I do think it can be separated from this step, this is where the mind of the practitioner in beverage preparation and the mind of practitioner of roaster / green buyer. I don’t select coffees thinking about the brew method but about how good a coffee it is. OK admission there have been are and will be times when I’m cupping I’d love to run and drop it on an espresso machine or make a pour over, but on the whole its to access the coffee and its intrinsic qualities.
I don’t think I explained myself very well though so I am going to use this forum (and you may have been sent here from my blog) to make sure I do explain it better.
To explain it let me give you a situation. Your a coffee roaster, you have had this amazing coffee for a number of weeks, you have roasted many many kilos to make sure you perfect the roast profile your keen to share it with the world, but you want it to be just right to bring out the very finest of its rare and exquisite coffee. The many hours after the daily roasting is done you find the perfect roast profile for that coffee. You find at this point it is at its very very best to drink and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
The very next day you come in and take it a few shades darker just so it will suit a perception of someone else for espresso or take it a few shades darker so you can enjoy it in filter (general perceptions which I will try and clear up later.
This seems a massive slight to the craft of the roaster, a massive slight at the consumer that they can not possibly drink anything that doesn’t hit there most basic perceptions, and an insult to the farmer that you don’t present the coffee the very best it can be.
The one thing I am not saying is that all coffees will be good for every brew method, there are some that just wont work. But it seems like a massive compromise to try and make that square peg fit in the round hole for the different brewing methods.
The other point I want to clear up is a darker roast doesn’t necessary mean that its for espresso and a lighter roast doesn’t mean its filter only, and emails from some people about the last post got a bit confused at that point, I have had some lovely dark roasted indo’s in a pour over and delicious light roasted yirgs in the espresso machine, sure the generalisation is there but its a broad brush.
Thank you to the Safehouse team for letting me guest blog here I hope that my ramblings don’t scare you all away and please do comment I look forward to seeing your flames…. I mean feedback
7 Comments
It’s not about shades of roast or preconceptions of what a brewing method can be. I would hope you didn’t think I looked at the beans that sparked all this and made my decision on that basis. The fact is the Gayo, as filter tasted more of roast, and less of the coffee than I would like. Had I an espresso machine at hand, I would have happily used them for that purpose. I firmly believe there would be an alternative version of the Gayo, certainly ligther, perhaps with a tweaked profile that would deliver a great representation of that coffee when brewed as filter (there probably exists an equally light roast with a different profile that works great as espresso).
So that is my logic. I don’t think it’s particularly revelatory, and I certainly hope I’m not insulting the farmer or you (the roaster) to suggest this.
On your last point, I completely agree on the shades or roast for espresso. It is more about acidity and body than shades – though they are interrelated to a degree. Same/similar shade – different profile…ftw (out of my depth here – not a roaster)
Stephen,
I agree very much with what you have to say here. Perhaps it is that we both studied at the cursor of sweetmarias in our formative years, but my belief is that when I get my coffee in, the bean is perfect and my job as roaster is to not muck it up. Because of this approach of wanting to take the bean to a drinkable state without transforming, but instead of preserving its qualities, I can only roast so far before I have to start weighing the trade off. What I mean is, at some point, if I am going to roast any darker, then I am trading sweetness, brightness, and terroir for something that is further along in the roast. Why would I do that? Just to shoe-horn the bean into a specific brew method (like espresso)? I refuse. Not to personify coffee into sentience, but if I am to honor the farmers and their labors, then I must honor the bean – let it be what it is without trying to mold it, like some unruly teenager, into something else. I have found that beyond the cupping table, that particular bean’s favored brew method(s) will be found in testing on the bar. Right now, we have a Yirg that is improbably light in roast and is stellar in V60 and in a portafilter (if, of course, you have a taste for bright shiny espresso sometimes), but that doesn’t mean I’m going to try to make our Bali multi-task as well – it simply doesn’t want to. Could I tweak the roast to make it servable as espresso? Maybe, but I am much more inclined to let it ‘do what it do’ in a pour-over at what we think is its optimal roast. Some may see this as lazy by having coffees that have only one or two tricks, but we just have a more laid-back approach (a really labor intensive “laid-back” approach, mind you, replete with roast after roast, tasting after tasting, and a whole gaggle of Mojos).
The compromise in this subject is NOT to roast for different brew methods.
Yes, not all coffees are going to work as espresso and for, say, V60. But some work wonderfully for both brew methods. The key is to get the best out of them for the respective brew method via roast profiles. Cupping or brewing a coffee that has roast or smokey characters is ugly. It suggests your profile or roast degree is too dark – run this same coffee through an espresso machine, and it tastes beautifully balanced and sweet.
I think this conversation is touching on personal taste. My preference is to never, ever taste roast characters, baked characters or smokey characters in my coffee. This means we roast light, yet still ensuring the coffee has developed fully. Brewing on an espresso machine vs. brewing a coffee on a siphon or whatever is completely different. Which is why the roast needs to be different.
Our espresso roast profile is vastly different to our filter style profile in every way. It is almost like 2 different coffees. We will never sell anyone a filter style roast for use with an espresso machine and vice versa – instead we will recommend an appropriately roasted coffee.
Tim,
thanks for getting in here. Agreed, again, on all counts. However, while roast profiling varies greatly from drip (even brew style) to espresso, I am always open to the serendipity of a bean falling in that mythic region where it sings as both. As I said, I just have to be in the temperament for a more acidic, bracingly bright espresso from a bean not specifically roasted for such, which I surely am from time to time! But of course, De gustibus non disputandum est. So much of what we are discussing is based on preference. For example, I do not value “balance” in an espresso nearly as much as many people and am always game for a beautifully unbalanced shot that sings two notes of a chord instead of three; that perhaps could have a more balanced “voice” if the roast was tweaked or it was blended with something else. I hold the Brian Johnsons of espressos in as high esteem as the Sinatras of same. Preference – its a bitch when trying to nail things down!
I am not a roaster, a barista or even that great at making consistant steamed milk, but I know what my senses tell me when I taste a great brew, whether its a shot, press or drip…and to wall a coffee in to a particular roasting profile or brewing method eqates to the idea that only African coffees are the best or that an S.L. 28 can only be grown to its best in Panama. Its all conjecture and opinion(within the boundries of reality). My perfect cup is not your perfect cup-and my perfect cup today, may not be my perfect cup tomorrow- it’s an unnattainable, perpetually moving, Holy Grail,(OK i was going to get into the infinite variables- but we could not possibly account for them all) but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying- some times theres a lot of consideration put into getting there, sometimes it’s a mistake you cannot recreate.
If you get that “perfect cup”, enjoy it for what it is, then look for the next one
If you love it for what it is and…
If people(and I mean the general public) like your attempts at creating that perfect cup, you can make a lot of money- If you persue it- at the very least, you will make a lot of friends- which brings us to the crux… the “perfect Cup” must be shared among friends or it is meaningless
(simple and cliche- but true)
Mine #1: Anohki Liberica, Christmas 2007- Blueberry, semi sweet chocolate, almond cream with a clean, soft finish-
with the Safehouse Family
Ah, that was an incredible, unrepeatable cup, wasn’t it? Good point about the enjoyment of coffee – never its fullest unless it is shared with someone. That is the truth to me as well. I guess its that way with anything; the sharing is a X modifier to the experience. Remember the fresh keg room at the top of the mountain in Boulder? I know you do and that was a singular drink experience that will never be recreated. I think we may have to write on post on this concept.
hi all nice to see steve on this site,im in scotland and love the beans and service i get from hasbean,not going to ramble on but have been enjoying an amazing yirgacheffe this week as espresso.learning loads from you all jim.
2 Trackbacks
[...] a slightly ambitious plan, I was honored to be asked to guest blog on dirtycup blog, and kindly [...]
[...] was also honoured to be asked to guest blog post on Dirty Cup at the link here. It was a real month of [...]