Focus on Coffee
This morning my wife had a few friends over and they all wanted to drink my coffee - presto, instant focus group. This gave me a chance to try my hand at preparing a lot of drinks in a short period of time. It also was an opportunity to get some feed back on my drink preparation using my new machine, and on a blend I have recently been working on.
I was about to shut down the machine, and then somebody asked for a second drink, and several of them joined in, including the guest who was not even a coffee drinker.
Victory? Well it is if I judge the comment of one lady who said that it was the best latte she had ever had. Would I have ranked so high if placed beside the best that Toronto has to offer? Probably not today as my preparation was a bit off (see addendum below). However, it was good enough to blow away the mass-market competition's thin and burnt brew! While I did not conduct a formal survey, I did get the impression that at least a couple in the group were regular coffee drinkers and they were all aware that the quality at Tim Hortons was deplorable. One person was a regular latte buyer who wanted some advice on which machine to purchase to start making her own drinks at home.
The Problems with Pods
While they were gathered around the coffee bar enjoying their lattes the conversation changed and taught me something unexpected. After bashing Tim Hortons and discussing the merits of McDonald's coffee, the ladies turned to a discussion of the merits of single preparation machines such as Keurig and Tassimo. There was a general consensus that these systems are undesirable in three ways. Flavour was not discussed - instead the packaging was to blame:
- Sustainability
- Cost
- Health Risk
All agreed that the waste created by these systems was unnecessary and excessive. The foil and filter in the pod as well as the plastic pod itself are not recyclable. The cost per drink is usually in excess of $1 which seemed unreasonable when compared to so many other home-brew options. Later I did some research and found a
New York Times article by Oliver Strand that placed the the cost per pound of pod-coffee in excess of $50! That is way higher than the $16-$18 paid for a pound of speciality whole bean coffee.
The most objectionable aspect however, was the preparation using a plastic pod combined with hot water. Several people were aghast that anybody would be so silly as to consume anything that had been in contact with heated plastic. The comment, "What rock have they been living under?" was made. The obvious health risk was certainly a killer of pod-coffee for all of these ladies, who I believe all have children still living at home with them.
It was so interesting to me that during this discussion there was no mention from the group of the negative impact on the flavour of the coffee by it being prepared using hot plastic and old ground stale coffee. Why was that? Isn't coffee selected by a potential consumer based on taste? Perhaps not. Perhaps the marketing of coffee has gone so far beyond a simple attribute such as the flavour and aroma that some consumers consider the flavour a secondary consideration?
The group's reaction to the coffee I served them leaves some room for hope. Perhaps the damage done by first and second wave coffee giants is not unreversable. Although the general public may have become accustomed to bitter and astringent flavours in their brew, when they are presented with something better they know it. In fact, they get excited. Excitement was certainly the reaction of the group today. They seemed genuinely interested in the flavours they were tasting, and they were asking for seconds!
The exchange today also contains another ray of hope for the artisans of coffee. One of the ways that we can fight the coffee bosses and beat them at their own game is to highlight the deficiencies described by the group. The negative impact and cost associated with that packaging and marketing used by the big guys is certainly a big stick we can whack them with. Also, the health risks of plastic pods and the other chemicals and devices used for mass market preparation is on the minds of consumers. Small coffee houses and restaurants preparing delicious wholesome drinks made from locally prepared ingredients in a socially conscious manner really can make a difference. Not only are we offering a product that just tastes so much better, we can be the knights in shining armour from ecological and heath perspectives.
The best tactic for the long term has to be educating consumers, because great coffee is like a lot of other things... once you start, there is no going back. Once people know what they are missing, they miss it. Unfortunately there is a lot of work to do because the coffee bosses have been trying to keep people in the dark about great coffee for a long time. Keep up the revolution!
Addendum... the details...
I prepared the lattes using a blend based on Ethiopian Harrar, Brasil Cerrado and Indonesian Sulawesi Kalossi. The feedback from the group was great, which was surprising as for only about 25% of the shots was I able to pull perfect extractions. The rest were under extracted, some running out as quickly as 15 seconds, rather than the 25 seconds I was aiming for. I had set up the grind and tamp pressure the night before, but I realize now that I should have dumped a couple of shots and tightened the grind. Instead of that I just carried on and tried more pressure in my tamp. Scool-boy error, I know. Lesson learned...
