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Grex Ing Item 47: The coffee drinking item
Entered by jdg00 on Tue Oct 25 15:31:20 UTC 1994:

Why do these bulk commercial vendors of caffienated sludge seem to
market their products as high quality by selecting only *arabica*
species, as if this is somehow special?

There are only two species of coffee.  C. robusta has only been used in
beverages this century, and only to develop the first "instant" coffee
used in vending machines.  

Even the worst Brazilian bulk is C. arabica.  

What gives?

9 responses total.

#1 of 9 by remmers on Mon Oct 31 13:34:58 1994:

Marketing hype, what else?  Gourmet coffee has snob appeal these days
and everybody wants to get in on the snobbery.  (Even Kroger has a
gourmet coffee section.)  If it's a fancy name, people who don't know
any better will think it has something to do with quality.

I don't know much about coffee varieties, but I buy and drink the
gourmet stuff because it tastes a lot better than your standard brands
like Maxwell House or Hills Bros.  There seems to be a lot of variation
among coffee from different regions, though, and I've developed
preferences, liking Guatamalan coffee more than many others, for
example.  If it's not species, what *are* the factors that account for
differences among coffee from different regions?

#2 of 9 by kentn on Mon Oct 31 15:03:54 1994:

Growing conditions (?)

#3 of 9 by jdg00 on Tue Nov 1 02:57:47 1994:

Kent got most of it.  Conditions, mainly, but I understand that there are
varietals, just as in wine.  And the growing conditions that produce the
coffee are as complicated as those that produce fine wines, too.

I've been very happy with some high quality espresso roasts I've been getting
from Hill o' Beans in Ann Arbor and Black Gold in Southfield.  The H-o-B
has a more complex flavor profile, the B.G. has a longer lasting "crema"
and they have equivalently long lasting acidy finishes.  Both around the
same price.  B.G.'s is roasted in Walled Lake, H-o-B's in Atlanta.  Both
can tell me what day they were roasted, and both get them from their 
roasters in 5 lb bags with one-way valves to allow CO2 to outgas.

With both, I find there's a definite fall-off after about 13-15 days since
roasting.

I've recently changed over to buying in very small lots (1/4 lb - 1/2 lb) 
at a time, and not freezing the beans.  Quite a momentous change.  Freezing
really changes the flavor, and I prefer the "unfrozen" roasts, even though
the beans don't last as long.

#4 of 9 by lee on Fri Nov 7 05:01:25 1997:

(reviving an old item)

Could somebody define the following for me and tell me what the
similarities and differences between 'em are?

1) cappuccino
2) espresso
3) latte
4) mocha

#5 of 9 by birdlady on Fri Nov 7 06:09:20 1997:

1.  pretty hyper
2.  *REALLY* hyper
3.  kinda hyper
4.  chocolate-flavored hyper

<eg>  Sorry...

#6 of 9 by lee on Sat Nov 8 00:05:59 1997:

I was looking more for an ingredients list :)
anyone know?

#7 of 9 by scott on Wed Nov 12 00:38:42 1997:

Expresso  is a very strong coffee, make with very dark, oily looking beans
ground really fine and brewed with steam.

The rest use expresso as a base.  Cappuccino has steamed milk added, leaving
a big head of foam.  Latte is a mix of expresso and milk (no foam).  Mocha
is basically cappuccino with added chocolate (and sometimes mint).

#8 of 9 by lee on Wed Nov 12 01:30:38 1997:

So the only difference between cappuccino and latte is that the former
uses steamed milk and the latter uses milk straight?  And here I thought
they were completely different things :) Thanks for the info... now all I
need to do is get espresso and make the rest :)

#9 of 9 by mary on Wed Nov 12 13:03:21 1997:

Latte has steamed milk too but the foam is not added 
the the cup.  I like a good latte with a double hit
of espresso (more coffee, less milk, no foam).

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