Tuesday, December 10, 2002


u.s. gov't moves on quality coffee

an interesting development today: the governmental development agency usaid signs an agreement with green mountain coffee roasters in which green mountain will offer expertise to help struggling coffee farmers increase the quality of their coffee.

as part of this, the u.s. senate will begin offering fair-trade coffee in its cafeteria. they should choose a blend that goes with bean soup.

doubtless, you're going to be hearing a lot about the new consumer reports test of coffee makers. this test concludes that different methods -- french press, vac pot, chemex -- don't make a significant difference in the taste of the coffee. once again, we must shake our heads in despair at how little consumer reports gets right.

using blandish, generic colombian beans doesn't let the different methods shine. vac pot in particular is great for estate varietals (such as here), where the subtle flavors of fine coffee can really sing out when you drink it.

normal people really can tell the difference; this isn't effete wine snobbery! what should tip you off to how clueless this report is: they claim folgers is a fine coffee. spare us!

long-time readers are well aware that most supermarket brand canned coffees are actually cheap robusta beans that taste so terrible, they have to steam them in large factories to remove the burnt rubber and other off-tastes and then add artificial coffee flavor and aroma to the remaining plant cellulose so it sort of tastes like coffee again. spare us!

and finally, yet another interesting article about the coffee crisis. long-time readers will have heard about this stuff several times before. . .

posted by fortune | 4:17 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments