Google+

dani california cooks

homegrown and homemade in CA

What I Learned about Coffee from the Blue Bottle Coffee Company!

by 23 Comments

I had the pleasure of driving out to Oakland on Sunday morning for two educational sessions on coffee - one called coffee “cupping” where you learn all about smelling and tasting coffee, and then a “how to brew” session at the (locally) famous Blue Bottle Coffee Company.

P1120202 A few of the standout things I learned include:

  1. A lighter roast of coffee actually has LESS caffeine, because the roasting process takes out some of the caffeine
  2. A darker roast of coffee often is less bitter and less acidic, because the roasting process removes those flavors
  3. All coffee is fermented (whaaaat?!)
  4. Unless you’re making coffee with a french press, coffee does not like “turbulence” i.e. does not like to be stirred up a lot
  5. When coffee is cooler, you often taste the sweeter/brighter flavors

P1120211 During coffee “cupping”, we smelled the freshly ground beans, also after hot water was poured over, and then we tasted the different coffees once brewed. It was kind of remarkable the different aromas and flavors of each coffee. I discovered hints of blueberries and oats and caramel and all sorts of unique flavors within each coffee. P1120209 We also learned how to “slurp” the coffee to get the best flavors - kind of like a wine tasting technique - and I could never do it right and always ended up in a coughing (a coffee-ing, lol) fit each time I tried to properly slurp.

P1120218 I added a bunch of new ways to describe coffee to my repertoire as well, such as:

  • Thin/weak
  • Bright/fruity
  • Caramel/chocolatey
  • Bitter/strong
  • Rich/dark

P1120234 During the brewing session, we sampled the same roast of coffee brewed three different ways - a Bonnmac (looks like a single drip pour over cup), a Chemex, and an Aeropress. Each of them tasted delicious to me - I think the Chemex was my favorite, but also certainly the hardest to recreate at home.

P1120243 This morning, I took some of the tips and tricks I learned into my own kitchen and brewed a wonderful cup of coffee on my French press! For anyone who lives in LA, NYC, or the Bay Area and wants to learn more about coffee from some of the most passionate (and good looking) baristas around, I definitely recommend checking out the educational sessions put on by Blue Bottle Coffee. Many thanks to Andy, our barista, for answering all of my questions and humoring me when I tasted flavors such as “cereal” within the coffee!

P1120238

It's only fair to share...Email this to someonePin on PinterestTweet about this on TwitterShare on Facebook

Comments

  4. What a cool event to go to! I love coffee but rarely drink it because it makes me so jittery. Maybe I need to try some lighter roasts 🙂

    And I think it’s awesome that you could start to taste hints of caramel or tell whether it was bright/fruity. I’ve never been able to tell a huge difference between different types but I’m sure it comes with practice (i.e. lots of drinking it!) LOL that you tasted hints of cereal for one of them 🙂
    Liv @ Healthy Liv recently posted…Foodie Swap: Round 2My Profile

    Reply

    • I probably could only taste it because I was drinking them side by side!! But I can certainly tell the difference between strong/weak coffee now that I’m a coffee drinker.

      Reply

  12. Hi there Dani, that must have been really fun. the way you were tasting the different aromas with the spoon reminded me of how I once visited a tea factory. The had lots of them there and at some point you could even forget what a certain brand taste like. Thanks for sharing your experience and keep up the great work here.

    Cindy

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge