Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ryan Gonzales-Johnson on January 28, 2009 at 12:59pm

You ain't saying our coffee's old is ya? Just kidding...
I saw the article. I think aging is no good, personally. Some folks like it though. But it's true you might want to tame acidity to get balance in a cup. Say a Kenya's got crazy tangerine-y flavor but it's got the bite of a lime that sucks yer cheeks in... You can take off the bite and still savor the flavor, if you will with some of those techniques. I found that while it may work best in the "RD" period, even just slowing down that last phase and putting a bit more time in the end of the roast doesn't hurt, helps body and mellows acidity... But I'm a rookie compared to lots of these folks on here.

Permalink Reply by Greg Suekoff on January 28, 2009 at 1:10pm

Have you tried monsooned coffee, it's the old school way of taming acidity. By replicating poor shipping conditions, new crop acidity is weathered in open sided storage facilities for green coffee... last time I checked India was the only place to get such coffees...

Permalink Reply by Matt Higgins on January 30, 2009 at 3:28pm

Yo yo yo, Sam

This is a debate that could go into eternity, really…. There are so many ways to look at this and I will add my 2 cents. This is MHO.

OK, firstly,

Yes, if the coffee is over acetic, to the point of too much acidity, I must place the question; was the coffee purchased without being cupped? I personally would not buy a coffee I could not control, or one that was displaying a production defect at the table. But for the sake of argument let’s say, you really needed some citrus coffees and all that was available was an über tart Kenya that was out of acidic control and you bought some.

Secondly,

OK you got the coffee, what do you do with it. With everything I have read and experienced I don’t see a benefit to “taming acids” from Jute to Brute. Acids with relationship to bean development will change with time, is that a good thing. I find it to be,…… well, aged. Everything becomes dull. So why would you want to switch from Jute to Brute? You will taste a difference in Jute to Brute, is it taming acids or just an aged coffee at this point?

Storing green in the Brute will remove the variable of “baggy” tones, also the migration of moisture from varietals stacked on one another which will have an impact on your level of Maillard reaction. The Brute just helps save the coffee’s chemical/ physical makeup. It is your job to showcase the true flavors in the drum and on the cupping table.

Thirdly,

Sam, you asked “should a roaster manage acidity?” absolutely. I will certainly change profiles to enhance or change acidity. Without writing a book here let’s look at what makes it to the cup. Phosphoric, Malic, Lactic, Acetic, Citric, Quintic, and Chlorogenic acids are all present in different levels; CGA, probably being the most important here and in the highest concentration. CGA is delicate, actually made up of a family of 6 different isomers of the acids; each with different flavor attributes that change with different thermal variations. Remember the darker you go the more CGA you roast out, thus French roasts are not sweet/ acidic. The portion that does decompose is used in the production of quintic acid and flavor precursors.

I feel like this is getting too technical and I am running out of time. So let’s sum this up. Taming acids in Jute to Brute, I think the difference you see would be purely derived from an aged coffee, …. Aging mutes flavor characteristic, even bad ones. For example, if there is a production defect in a brasil DP due to over fermentation … what do they do? They age it, it tames it out. Is it better than a Brasil with no defects or aging, no way? You have to start with the best to get the best.

Lastly here are a few key concepts relating to acids you should note without talking about the Maillard reaction.

1.) Altitude determines how much acidity is produced
2.) Regional humidity determines the type of acid produced

So the goal is that we all train our palate to identify the negative direction the coffee can go chemically while in the drum, make our profile changes with the hope that we showcase a true acidic snap, all while holding on to sweetness, complexity, body and fragrance.

Whew, breathe in. Well this really needs way more writing time to fully explain, and is for some reason complex. Bottom line, work with profile tastings trial and error and you will rock the socks off sweet and citric coffees!! Just log your notes, which profile was amazing and which left it lacking?

Hope this opens up some more discussion, but I need to wrap this up for now, Sorry, getting up at 5am has left me momentarily brain dead, more soon.

Regards, Matt