Grace & Gravel

Espresso has so much potential. We are seeing many developments in the tradition and it is always very exciting when people are willing to think outside of the (knock) box. Right now, I would like to challenge all of us to consider for a few minutes how arbitrary the espresso ‘standards’ we have inherited may be.

Everyone seems to have a strict dogma of what constitutes the immutable. We love to give ourselves these ranges of time, temperature, pressure, and volume to let us know that we have done everything we can. When determining a bean’s espresso worthiness, we taste the finished product and judge for ourselves if the bean is too bright or not balanced enough to be used in the ‘Divinely inspired’ rule of espresso extraction.

Now, let’s talk about coffee roasting. Coffee drinkers everywhere are learning about subtlety of origin based on cultivar, altitude, and quality processing and sorting. There is now a tendency to roast as transparently as possible. This comes from the influence of the professional coffee taster (cupper), who knows that there is a certain way to roast green samples in order to avoid tasting what are known as ‘roast defects’ that mask the uniqueness of a coffee. The inherent delicacies of quality are simply coerced into a palatable suspension through the roasting process. The idea of coffee roasting being some sort of mystical way of adding anything not already present is now seen as all but ridiculous.

So, back to espresso, why do we still change the way we ‘profile’ the roast of a bean based on how we intend to extract? Why do we still call a particular (darker and often less airflow) roast profile our espresso roast? Or, why do we say, after tasting a coffee bean as an espresso, “This would be great as an espresso if only we could tone down the brightness (or add body, or add crema) by how it is roasted”? I am not trying to argue that espresso should be overly bright or unbalanced, I am just saying that changing the way coffee is roasted is barking up the wrong (coffee) tree. Instead of saying, “Hey, this coffee would be better if we roasted all of the offensive stuff out of it” why not just admit that any brew method that turns properly roasted coffee into something offensive needs to be tweaked. If you know you roasted the coffee perfectly (by, among other things, cupping for roast defects) don’t fault your roasting, fault the brew method!

I know many people reading this will simply say that some coffees are suited for espresso and some are not. I disagree whole-heartedly. The only coffees that are not suited for espresso are the same coffees that are not suited for any extraction method. I want to see us get to a point where we are finding amazing coffees, we are roasting them transparently and we are brewing them in all the ways we know to be pleasant, traditional or otherwise.

So, I say that espresso has great potential. It could become another amazing way of showcasing different coffees and all their myriad subtleties. It has proven by its longevity and now its global presence to be a promising method that tends to capture the imagination. Now it is just a matter of willingness to trade arbitrary albeit traditional parameters in for honesty and experimentation. We need to be sure to not sacrifice the bean for the method. We need to discontinue the tendency of putting the (espresso) cart before the horse.

Now, what does this look like? Do we need to jump on the bandwagon of pressure profiling? Do we create more and more accuracy within machines through variables that can be tweaked to even more decimal places? Perhaps that is true for some who have the wherewithal to do so. For most of us, this is not practical. What we can do is begin to leave the idea of roasting for espresso behind us and begin to close the gap between the ‘types’ of coffees we are using for espresso and what we are using for other brew methods. I would like to see a day when the word espresso is never mentioned on whole bean packaging. Espresso will be an implied option for any great coffee, not a way of marketing a particular bean or blend of beans.

So, I plead with my fellow roasters to buy the best coffees you can afford, roast them properly and let them speak for themselves. Quality is always marketable and trends or traditions that encourage any kind of marginalization of quality will not last. I hope espresso can be fixed. I know you are out there and that you are tired of making up for an under-developed brew method by improper roasting.

I’d like to begin by taking a little of the mystery out of coffee. At least, from a scientific point of view—I never want to claim that any sensory experience can truly be analyzed. Coffee is most often experienced as a beverage, made of coffee solids dissolved in water. Most people don’t realize that there are some established rules in coffee as a beverage. The rule I would like to focus on right now is the rule of extraction. 

The Specialty Coffee Association of America, or SCAA, has established that the ideal solid extraction from coffee is anything between 18-22%. This means that the water that interacts with the coffee should be removing around 20% of the actual mass. Understand, this is not a rule for total dissolved solids in the final product, rather this refers to what is physically being taken from the coffee beans. This has been decided as a universal in any type of coffee preparation— from espresso to filtered drip coffee to french press to cold brewing. It is axiomatic that each of these methods, when tweaked to yield this ideal, will be a different coffee experience with different aspects coming to the foreground.

Now, if I had to put my philosophy about coffee into a simple sentence it would be something like this: “inherent origin characteristics determine roast and brew method; brew method does not determine bean selection or roast.” The steps between seed and cup need to bow down to the seed and not to the cup! 

I know that we will be experiencing coffee ‘truth’ when we finally think progressively from seed to cup in a paradigm that goes something like this: “this well-sorted and carefully processed coffee is of the varietal ‘a,’  grown at elevation ‘b,’ therefore I should use roast profile ‘c’ (coffee will behave in the roaster very differently based on bean density, which will be determined by these elements).”  

After said beans are roasted, every possible combination of water volume, water temperature, brew time, water pressure, and grind size that yields 18-22 percent solid extraction should be implemented and tasted. 

Painstakingly and indefinitely, these experiments should be used to formulate corresponding brew methods for particular coffees. If a coffee tastes “bright” or “over-bodied” or out of balance in any way, instead of indicting the roast, try indicting the brew method! Tweak your variables until you get something palatable. Over-roasting, scorching, or baking coffee to compensate should no longer be an option. There is actually a perfect way to roast every coffee and once it is discovered, it should not be compromised to suit a supposedly ‘established’ brewing method. 

Lastly, this article is very helpful for anyone curious about the chemical processes involved in roasting.  

http://www.sweetmarias.com/roast.carlstaub.html

In school, I was taught an exercise that supposedly demonstrates the “left and right” (creative and rational) sides of the brain. You fold a piece of paper in half and draw a random and creative shape that begins on the crease and finishes on the crease, much like when drawing a valentine heart. In order for the exercise to be effective, you are not told about the second step. You are simply encouraged to be creative with the line you draw.

In step two, the paper is unfolded and you must try to draw a mirror image of the line on the other side of the creased paper. There it is, creative in step one, rational in step two. Fun.

Many writers of epic stories attempt this exercise with their work. Some pull it off brilliantly while others flail and flounder under the bulk of their story’s ambitious framework. Specifically, we see this in Tolkien, where the reverse-engineered back story for The Hobbit became arguably one of the most flawless epics of our time. Also, C.S. Lewis did well with chronological challenges in his Narnia series.

In modern times, we have seen some mainstream storytelling that attempts this but fails. 

I could pick on J.J. Abrams and his abusive promises within the convolutions of his Lost series. But I really want to single out Mr George Lucas.

In the first three (IV, V, and VI) Star Wars films, we see great story telling and only slight examples of this weakness (i.e. Leia and Luke kissing before the sibling reveal). It becomes embarrassingly obvious in the reincarnated franchise (I, II, and III) however, that Lucas really should have left the piece of paper folded and not attempted to draw the other half of the picture.

I love Star Wars and I am not saying that the new movies are worthless, I just really don’t understand why these kinds of things happen. If someone wants to plunge me in the middle of a world they have dreamt up and convince me to pay attention, they need to have the beginning as well as the end already decided upon, or else they need to leave it out completely.

Fiction will never create it’s own truth, the author knows this. If anything, fiction tends to deconstruct it’s own truth. The best service an author can do is be humble and leave out what they cannot define. I would be okay with just half the picture.

One of our favorite quotes here at Cartel is, “You can’t add quality; you can only take it away.” That being said, we strive to maintain what we believe to be the manifestation of this perspective in how we do anything at all to our coffees. Our goal is that all the inherently qualitative aspects be unveiled through our roasting and preparation processes. Ideally, we want our contribution to be transparent, revealing what truly differentiates high quality from low quality. Unique mineral content of soil, climatic nuances and painstaking labor in cultivation and sorting by the farmer are among these factors. 

An experienced roaster can taste the difference between a roast defect and a simply unexciting or defective bean. To simplify, there are two main categories of defective roasting: baking and scorching. As the names imply, baked coffee roasts too slow, while scorched coffee roasts too fast. It is often a great balancing act, trying to roast coffee fast enough to keep it from baking while taking the time necessary to prevent scorching.

Through trial and error, and lots of coffee tasting, a good roaster will develop a repeatable method for each coffee he or she roasts. This is documented and referred to as a “roast profile”. Roast profiles can include many details: the temperature of the roasting chamber when green coffee is first introduced, the level of flame for different stages, the airflow allowed through the roasting chamber during the roasting process and goals for final temperatures and roast times.

Here at Cartel, we love finding exceptional coffees from very specific and traceable sources. We are proud to put names of farms and farmers alongside varietal and altitudinal information. We have established personal relationships with many of the farmers, having been fortunate enough to visit them and see their passion for quality first hand. 

A few years back, I was fortunate enough to spend a total of three and a half months in the nation of Japan.

I often tell people that Japanese culture is diametrically opposed to American culture. This is, of course, a major overstatement. There are, however, several very important differences between our cultures.

One of my favorite traditional Japanese ideas is the aesthetic known as “wabi sabi.” Everyone knows that true aesthetics are based on completion, symmetry, polish, and perfection of form, right? Well, this is actually a completely western way of evaluating aesthetics.

In ancient Japanese culture, the foci are quite different and based entirely on transience. Ideals such as asymmetry, incompletion and asperity are held in high esteem within the antiquated crafts. A work of artisinal beauty should be transcendent and evoke a desire to look beyond our feeble attempts at creation into the metaphysical.

There is so much here that can be used to temper our convictions on creativity. Every artist should take a few minutes to investigate the values of wabi sabi. I have found it very liberating to embrace imperfection and incompletion as a manifestation of beauty.

Which came first, nothingness or infinity? Actually, I am not talking about the origin of the universe. My query is about the two human concepts that we are now unable to live without.

Something that really blows my mind is that, since we have an absolute need for both in mathematics, we actually have symbols for them.

So, was the symbol for nothingness (zero) actually created before the symbol for infinity? Is it more natural to visualize and therefore symbolize nothingness or infinite everythingness?

I suppose this really is the same as the question of which is more difficult to comprehend: a death that terminates consciousness or an infinite existence?

Many are superstitious about the number thirteen. I have decided to be this way about the number zero. I worked in a hotel for a while that actually had a floor zero. I never wanted to go there.

If there was a floor inifinity, I would be all about it.

Two weeks ago, I made a pilgrimage to a monastery. 

In the hills of Northern California, where there was absolutely no cell phone service and very little of anything else, I spent three nights and two days inside a mystical rhythm of broad strokes and simple measure. 

This being an Eastern Orthodox monastery, one of the duties of the pilgrim is church attendance. The first day I decided to keep track of the total time I spent participating in the monastic church services — seven hours! That’s almost a full time job! The other hours of the day were devoted to carrying out simple chores, reading, praying, eating humble meals, conversing with the monks and fellow pilgrims, or any of these things done in combination. 

The most profound thing I realized while there was how damaged my concept of time had become. When every place you need to be is only two minutes away by foot, it fixes something in your brain. I am not sure how; it’s as if the real healing is tied up in the relationship between time and distance. More than that, it’s tied up in how those two are valued in relationship to the responsibilities of one’s life. 

I feel like I have grown comfortable crossing great distances of time and space, attempting to connect the fragments of something I hope is myself.

Cartel Coffee Lab is going to Guatemala.

Well, we’ve only begun the planning stages and are in conversation with our friend, Edwin, who is a coffee farmer by birthright and a damned good one. Jason and I visited his farm, Finca Vista Hermosa, a few years back and it was a monumental experience.

We burned branches from pruned coffee trees to heat water for our showers while staying on the farm, visited the Anacafe facilities in Guatemala City, saw ancient ruins that seemed to mimic the pyramidal majesty of the ubiquitous volcanoes, and ate tons of refried black beans!

The experience of seven days at origin cannot be compared fairly to any other form of coffee education. We are excited and would love to take anyone willing to cough up the airfare and expenses. If you are interested you can contact me. I’m Paul, the roaster. Hi.

High quality coffee is generally not referred to as gourmet; it is called ‘specialty’ coffee when granted its marginal status. But no matter what we call it, we are talking about a differentiation experienced either very tangibly in the senses or esoterically in the caverns of perception, often adulterated with pretense or the power of suggestion.

To put it bluntly, people want to experience a greater deal of differentiation than they actually are capable of which can lead to a subtle hypnosis (you are tasting pickles, pickle notes, I say!) or not so subtle dishonesty.

My challenge to you all is to be honest and strong. Do not agree with the pickle pusher. You are going to be unpopular with some but just remember the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. If we can’t taste it, let’s stop paying for it! I love good coffee and firmly believe that there are very real differentiations to be experienced when care is taken in every step of the process, from seed to cup. But I know that there are times when we find ourselves standing in our birthday suits hoping we are actually perceiving pickles.

Put the coffee down and put your clothes back on and enjoy being honest. It will be best for everyone.