History UsefulNotes / Coffee

Coffee, like a lot of tropical agricultural products, is often a rather exploitative business, both towards the environment and to frequently underpaid workers. Several terms are common in the coffee trade business to denote production with a mind towards ethics; organic coffee is, like any other organic product, grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Shade-grown coffee refers to coffee grown in semi-wild tree groves that double as preserves for birds and other canopy wildlife (coffee sometimes grows better with some shade anyway, making it a good deal for all involved). Fair trade coffee refers to coffee purchased outside the commodity market at a higher price in order to subsidize higher wages for the growers and plantation workers. While it's fair to say these are admirable goals, they don't have any direct bearing on the quality of the product; fortunately, this will not usually be a problem, as people paying more for these coffees are still expecting to get their money's worth. (It's worth noting that in some very poor coffee-growing areas, some of the coffee in fact fits the organic and shade-grown profiles as a general matter of practicality; however, because organic certifications and the like cost some serious money, they aren't allowed to use those terms.) Coffee's even been used as part of rebuilding broken states; a large part of Rwanda's coffee output, for example, is put on the market to help finance rebuilding the country after the bloody civil wars of the 1990s.

MMmpphzzzz...

ZzzzzSNRKKK WHAT?!

Okay, coffee. The world would stop without it. People spend big money on it. It is in practically every workplace everywhere in the world. From weak, sour percolated coffee to [[KlatchianCoffee eating the grounds with a wet spoon]][[hottip*:Or, you know, coating the roasted beans in chocolate works too.]], people have come up with many, many ways to consume what might be the second most common psychoactive drug in the world, apart from alcohol.

Okay, coffee. The world would stop without it. People spend big money on it. It is in practically every workplace everywhere in the world. From weak, sour percolated coffee to [[KlatchianCoffee eating the grounds with a wet spoon]], people have come up with many, many ways to consume what might be the second most common psychoactive drug in the world, apart from alcohol.

Coffee's made in a number of ways. The first step in the preparation is drying the coffee beans, sloughing off the fruit coating and washing and drying the seeds. The coffee is then roasted, which gets rid of the grassy flavor of green coffee and produces the flavor compounds we normally associate with it. There are several different levels of roast; although the names aren't standardized, one way of ranking the roasts from lightest to darkest in the US would be as follows: cinnamon, city roast, full city roast (think Starbucks), Italian roast, French roast. Like everything else about coffee, roast is SeriousBusiness; light roast fans will ridicule dark roast fans as drinking burnt coffee, while dark roast aficionados complain about acidity and underdeveloped flavor in light roasts. (Ironically, the company most responsible for creating demand for high-end coffee in the United States, Peet's, uses a darker roast than almost anyone else, including Starbucks.) Perhaps counterintuitively, the darkness of the roast and the strength of the brew have little to do with each other; the same bean, roasted dark, will actually have less caffeine in it than a light roast.

There is an extensive vocabulary of coffee slang, and not nearly enough room for more than a tiny sampling (names like java, joe, wakey-wake, wirewater, etc). People are also very attached to their coffee shops; around Boston, people must have their Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks still has their home in Seattle, Canadians treat Tim Horton's as a matter of national pride, and lots of people have their local neighborhood diner or greasy spoon where they go in preference to any chain.

* Coffee is also blended to create a specific flavor profile, evening out the differences between individual varietals. There's too many of these to count, although the first widely-sold and best known blend, Mocha Java, was created to balance the fruitiness of Yemeni Mocha and the heavy syrupiness of Java to satisfy people who weren't keen on idiosyncratic local flavors. In addition to that, you'll find generic blends like Breakfast Blend (usually a lighter coffee that won't compete with heavy breakfast foods or startle a sleepy palate[[hottip:*:In the United States, similar coffees are sometimes referred to as "donut shop" or "diner" blends, implying that they're meant to be just like the morning coffee you grab on the way to work, but better.]]), Espresso Blend (usually, but not always, a darker roast meant to produce maximum crema and flavor from the fast, high-pressure brewing process; in parts of Italy, they actually prefer a lighter-roast espresso, but that's a little unusual elsewhere), French or Italian roast (these tend to refer to very dark coffees with a nearly carbonized flavor, and usually the exact opposite of a "breakfast blend"), and, although not usually by that name, some kind of dessert blend (frequently a dark or mixed light and dark roast meant to complement rich desserts and pastries).

* Latin American coffees tend to be relatively tame; Colombian coffee is very well-advertised, but flavorwise it's just a clean, slightly boring coffee good for flavored drinks, ultra-dark roasts, and a run-of-the-mill cup for breakfast. Costa Rican coffee is notable for its well-rounded flavor, like Colombian with a touch of spice, and is considered (along with Kenya's) to be the best in the world; Guatemalan coffee (of the Typica variety) is known for a cocoa-like flavor, as well as being ancestral to one of the most exclusive coffees in the world, Hawaii's Kona. Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, and Nicaragua aren't as well-known or distinctive, but produce a lot of organic coffee for American and European markets; there's even a fair bit of coffee grown around the Caribbean, for which Jamaica, Cuba, and Puerto Rico are best known. Brazil is a huge coffee producer, but for some reason their coffees are known to have an iodine-like quality to them; the Italians use a fair bit of Brazilian coffee, but for the most part it's used as a mixer in other blends.

There is an extensive vocabulary of coffee slang, and not nearly enough room for more than a tiny sampling (names like java, joe, wakey-wake, wirewater, etc). People are also very attached to their coffee shops; around Boston, people must have their Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks still has their home in Seattle, Canadians treat Tim Horton's as a matter of natural pride, and lots of people have their local neighborhood diner or greasy spoon where they go in preference to any chain.

* Direct steeping: This is used with Turkish, er, [[InsistentTerminology Greek]], um, [[OverlyLongGag Armenian]], screw it, let's just call it [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Middle Eastern Coffee]], as well as what's commonly known as cowboy coffee. This coffee is brewed in a pot directly over the heat; Middle Eastern Coffee is ground to a powder and prepared quickly with a lot of sugar, while cowboy coffee uses a coarse grind (presumably to avoid overextracting the flavors and burning the coffee while it sits by the fire). This is also used in what's called a vacuum pot, where the water is boiled and forced by steam pressure into an upper pot where the coffee grounds are, then sucked back down through a filter when the pot's taken off the heat and the steam pressure drops, and the French press, which essentially uses a fine-mesh screen in a manner similar to a teabag to force the grounds to the bottom; in both of the latter cases, there's no direct heat on the coffee brew itself.

Okay, coffee. The world would stop without it. People spend big money on it. It is in practically every workplace everywhere in the world. From weak, sour percolated coffee to [[KlatchianCoffee eating the grounds with a spoon]], people have come up with many, many ways to consume what might be the second most common psychoactive drug in the world, apart from alcohol.

* Coffee is also blended to create a specific flavor profile, evening out the differences between individual varietals. There's too many of these to count, although the first widely-sold and best known blend, Mocha Java, was created to balance the fruitiness of Yemeni Mocha and the heavy syrupiness of Java to satisfy people who weren't keen on idiosyncratic local flavors. In addition to that, you'll find generic blends like Breakfast Blend (usually a lighter coffee that won't compete with heavy breakfast foods or startle a sleepy palate[[hottip:*:In the United States, similar coffees are sometimes referred to as "donut shop" blends, implying that they're meant to be just like the morning coffee you grab on the way to work, but better.]]), Espresso Blend (usually, but not always, a darker roast meant to produce maximum crema and flavor from the fast, high-pressure brewing process; in parts of Italy, they actually prefer a lighter-roast espresso, but that's a little unusual elsewhere), French or Italian roast (these tend to refer to very dark coffees with a nearly carbonized flavor, and usually the exact opposite of a "breakfast blend"), and, although not usually by that name, some kind of dessert blend (frequently a dark or mixed light and dark roast meant to complement rich desserts and pastries).

* Coffee is also blended to create a specific flavor profile, evening out the differences between individual varietals. There's too many of these to count, although the first widely-sold and best known blend, Mocha Java, was created to balance the fruitiness of Yemeni Mocha and the heavy syrupiness of Java to satisfy people who weren't keen on idiosyncratic local flavors. In addition to that, you'll find generic blends like Breakfast Blend (usually a lighter coffee that won't compete with heavy breakfast foods or startle a sleepy palate[[hottip:*:In the United States, similar coffees are sometimes referred to as "donut shop" blends, implying that they're meant to be just like the morning coffee you grab on the way to work, but better.]]), Espresso Blend (usually, but not always, a darker roast meant to produce maximum crema and flavor from the fast, high-pressure brewing process), French or Italian roast (these tend to refer to very dark coffees with a nearly carbonized flavor, and usually the exact opposite of a "breakfast blend"), and, although not usually by name, some kind of dessert roast (frequently a dark or mixed light and dark roast meant to complement rich desserts and pastries).

* Coffee is also blended to create a specific flavor profile, evening out the differences between individual varietals. There's too many of these to count, although the first widely-sold and best known blend, Mocha Java, was created to balance the fruitiness of Yemeni Mocha and the heavy syrupiness of Java to satisfy people who weren't keen on idiosyncratic local flavors. In addition to that, you'll find generic blends like Breakfast Blend (usually a lighter coffee that won't compete with heavy breakfast foods or startle a sleepy palate), Espresso Blend (usually, but not always, a darker roast meant to produce maximum crema and flavor from the fast, high-pressure brewing process), French or Italian roast (these tend to refer to very dark coffees with a nearly carbonized flavor, and usually the exact opposite of a "breakfast blend"), and, although not usually by name, some kind of dessert roast (frequently a dark or mixed light and dark roast meant to complement rich desserts and pastries).

* Asian coffees -- the best-known are mostly from Indonesia (the origin of "Java" as a slang term), with quite a bit grown in India and a couple of others -- tend to have a full-bodied, umami-ish flavor, frequently likened to mushrooms or even dirt. Aged and "monsooned" coffees are somewhat of a signature product from Asian countries; some of them have muddy or oily flavors (BetterThanItSounds). The coffee from Sulawesi, in Indonesia, is one of the most popular varietals in Japan, and can cost quite a bit compared to the more common Sumatran coffees. Indonesia is also home to kopi luwak, which is notoriously processed with the aid of the digestive tract of a species of civet[[hottip:*:which is a viverrid, part of a group semi-closely related to cats, hyenas, and whatever the hell the plural of mongoose is.]]

* Asian coffees -- the best-known are mostly from Indonesia (the origin of "Java" as a slang term), with quite a bit grown in India and a couple of others -- tend to have a full-bodied, umami-ish flavor, frequently likened to mushrooms or even dirt. Aged and "monsooned" coffees are somewhat of a signature product from Asian countries; some of them have muddy or oily flavors (BetterThanItSounds). The coffee from Sulawesi, in Indonesia, is one of the most popular varietals in Japan, and can cost quite a bit compared to the more common Sumatran coffees.

There is an extensive vocabulary of coffee slang, and not nearly enough room for more than a tiny sampling (names like java, joe, wakey-wake, wirewater, etc). People are also very attached to their coffee shops; around Boston, people must have their Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks still has their home in Seattle, Canadians treat Tim Horton's as a matter of natural pride, and lots of people have their local neighborhood diner or greasy spoon where they go in preference to any chain.

Those basic methods of preparation are the base of a huge array of different drinks. When not drunk black, coffee's most common accompaniments are milk and sugar, and everyone likes it a little different; Middle Eastern coffee is sweet and dark, espresso is syrupy with a cocoa-like bitterness and a fine foam (called crema) on top, and drip coffee is thin and sometimes faintly translucent. Espresso mixed with hot milk makes the caffè latte, the classic Italian breakfast drink and the coffee equivalent of a comforting hot chocolate; with foamed milk (using the steam wand on an electric espresso machine), you get a cappuccino, the foam-layered coffee drink named after the garb of the Capuchin monks, and a small dab of the foam gets you an espresso macchiato ("marked" or "speckled" in Italian). Strong drip coffee mixed half-and-half with milk is a café au lait; add chocolate syrup and you get a caffè mocha. Outside coffeehouses, drip coffee in big electric urns or small glass carafes is associated with diners and greasy spoons, and despite the fact that it's often kind of crap, there are a lot of people who have a strong affection for the stuff. In some areas, various forms of iced coffee drinks are popular, even in the dead of winter. And flavored coffees are popular too -- hazelnut, vanilla, and almond are among the most common, but there are many, many others. Dismiss them as hot milkshakes if you wish, but they're immensely popular.

* African and Arabian -- coffee comes from Ethiopia, and a lot of it is grown around the horn of Africa and the southern Arabian peninsula. Coffees in the area have floral and fruity flavors; the famous Mocha coffees of Yemen (Sanani) and Ethiopia (Harrar), the closest thing to the wild coffee Kaldi's goats supposedly ate, taste nothing like chocolate and have a strong blueberry flavor, while Kenya's coffees taste like blackcurrant and grapefruit, and some of Ethiopia's other coffees like Yirgacheffe have a floral flavor to them. Overall, African and Arabian coffees tend to be a bit of an acquired taste, though they're excellent on ice.

* Asian coffees -- the best-known are mostly from Indonesia (the origin of "Java" as a slang term), with quite a bit grown in India and a couple of others -- tend to have a full-bodied, umami-ish flavor, frequently likened to mushrooms or even dirt. Aged and "monsooned" coffees are somewhat of a signature product from Asian countries; some of them have muddy or oily flavors (BetterThanItSounds).

* Asian coffees -- the best-known are mostly from Indonesia (the origin of "Java" as a slang term), with quite a bit grown in India and a couple of others -- tend to have a full-bodied, umami-ish flavor, frequently likened to mushrooms or even dirt.

* Asian coffees -- the best-known are mostly from Indonesia (the origin of "Java" as a slang term), with quite a bit grown in India and a couple of others -- tend to have a full-bodied, umami-ish flavor, frequently likened to mushrooms or even dirt.

Those basic methods of preparation are the base of a huge array of different drinks. When not drunk black, coffee's most common accompaniments are milk and sugar, and everyone likes it a little different; Middle Eastern coffee is sweet and dark, espresso is syrupy with a cocoa-like bitterness and a fine foam (called crema) on top, and drip coffee is thin and sometimes faintly translucent. Espresso mixed with hot milk makes the caffè latte, the classic Italian breakfast drink and the coffee equivalent of a comforting hot chocolate; with foamed milk (using the steam wand on an electric espresso machine), you get a cappuccino, the foam-layered coffee drink named after the garb of the Capuchin monks, and a small dab of the foam gets you an espresso macchiato ("marked" or "speckled" in Italian). Strong drip coffee mixed half-and-half with milk is a café au lait; add chocolate syrup and you get a caffè mocha. Outside coffeehouses, drip coffee in big electric urns or small glass carafes is associated with diners and greasy spoons, and despite the fact that it's often kind of crap, there are a lot of people who have a strong affection for the stuff. In some areas, various forms of iced coffee drinks are popular, even in the dead of winter. And flavored coffees are popular too -- hazelnut, vanilla, and almond are among the most common, but there are many, many others.

Coffee has its own flavors, too, depending on where it comes from and what variety of tree it's grown from. There's four different species, but the most important commercially are ''Coffea arabica'' and ''Coffea canephora'' (also known as Robusta); Arabica is the source of most specialty coffees, while robusta is usually used as filler in cheaper blends and occasionally

Those basic methods of preparation are the base of a huge array of different drinks. When not drunk black, coffee's most common accompaniments are milk and sugar, and everyone like

Coffee's made in a number of ways. The first step in the preparation is drying the coffee beans, sloughing off the fruit coating and washing and drying the seeds. The coffee is then roasted, which gets rid of the grassy flavor of green coffee and produces the flavor compounds we normally associate with it. There are several different levels of roast; although the names aren't standardized, one way of ranking the roasts from lightest to darkest in the US would be as follows: cinnamon, city roast, full city roast (think Starbucks), Italian roast, French roast. Like everything else about coffee, roast is SeriousBusiness; light roast fans will ridicule dark roast fans as drinking burnt coffee, while dark roast aficionados complain about acidity and underdeveloped flavor in light roasts. (Ironically, the company most responsible for creating demand for high-end coffee in the United States, Peet's, uses a darker roast than almost anyone else, including Starbucks.)

* Pressure-brewed coffee: Better known as espresso, this is similar to filtered coffee except instead of using gravity, it uses steam pressure or some kind of pump to force hot water through fine grounds. (Single-serve coffee makers like Keurig and Senseo work on a similar principle, though at much lower pressure.) Espresso makers range from the simple Moka pot (similar to a percolator, but the coffee collects in a top reservoir and doesn't reboil) up to massive pump-powered monsters that can cost as much as a car and produce dozens or hundreds of shots of espresso in an hour. Espresso is originally from Italy, but has become the base of most of modern Western coffeehouse culture, from Scandinavia to Japan and on.

* Pressure-brewed coffee: Better known as espresso, this is similar to filtered coffee except instead of using gravity, it uses steam pressure or some kind of pump to force hot water through fine grounds. (Single-serve coffee makers like Keurig and Senseo work on a similar principle, though at much lower pressure.)

Coffee's made in a number of ways. The first step in the preparation is drying the coffee beans, sloughing off the fruit coating and washing and drying the seeds. The coffee is then roasted, which gets rid of the grassy flavor of green coffee and produces the flavor compounds we normally associate with it. There are several different levels of roast; although the names aren't standardized, one way of ranking the roasts from lightest to darkest in the US would be as follows: cinnamon, city roast, full city roast (think Starbucks), Italian roast, French roast. Like everything else about coffee, roast is SeriousBusiness; light roast fans will ridicule dark roast fans as drinking burnt coffee, while dark roast aficionados complain about acidity and underdeveloped flavor in light roasts.

The legend has it that coffee was discovered in Ethiopia by a goatherd named Kaldi, who got very curious about the cherry-like fruit that made his goats happy and hyper. Although the story itself is probably apocryphal, it's generally agreed that coffee was discovered in Ethiopia and spread throughout the world by the Arabs; in Catholic Europe it was even referred to as "the wine of Islam" and was widely opposed (but still drunk) until supposedly Pope Clement VIII, a downlow coffee drinker himself, blessed it around 1600; over the next century it would become popular throughout Europe.