Bunn Coffee Maker Newsletter #1 - bunn commercial coffee maker, coffee brewer, commercial ice tea brewer, bunn coffee makers, bunn automatic coffee makers, bunn coffee equipment, bunn coffee, commercial coffee grinder, bunn iced tea maker

No one was more surprised than I was when Starbucks won the coffee taste tests I conducted for John Stossel on the television show 20/20 last year. Not only did it prove to me that I'd conducted a truly impartial test, but it also proved that many consumers have been won over to the caramelized taste dark roasts impart over the winey, fragrant and earthy allure of the lighter ones.

Rather than waste your time and my ranting about what dark roasts are missing, I'm going to try to explain why dark roasts have gone from being a regional style to mainstream within just a few years.

In case you don't know the story of dark roasting, it begins, not in Italy or Yemen, but in the United States Old West. Prospectors in San Francisco would buy several months' provisions for their entrepreneurial venture into the mountains in search of gold. Roasters were under the misconception that if coffee was roasted to the point where oils appeared over the entire surface of the beans, this "coating" offered some preserving action, a kind of coffee shrink wrap.

And, it did make sense to the taste buds. Anyone who has bought dark roasts usually finds it harder to tell when the product gets old. A critic might say it s because the more delicate flavors have been burned off in the roast. Let's just agree that dark roasts do seem to keep their flavors longer. Whether this really means the coffee stays fresher longer is subject to debate, but please let's save that for another time.

So, the American West Coast, roughly from San Francisco upwards, has a history of dark roasting, one that either inspired or accepted Alfred Peet's eccentric habit of roasting his beans beyond recognition. I meant this last bit literally. Peet's coffees are almost impossible for me to tell apart in standard brewing tests. The only exceptions are some of his aged coffees, which are so different and "take the roast" so exceptionally well, that they are easy to spot, even after the most careless brewing.

But, none of this really answers the question of consumer acceptance. It's too easy to just stand around with coffee snobs (my friends) as we brew for each other and play flavor tune detective, a game we all feel is spoiled when coffees are roasted too long. It's too lame to just blame the snake oil "marketers," nor do I want to credit them.

I've discovered an answer, and, as usual, it comes from observing other cooking arts. Grilling, for instance. Have you ever wondered why we all can't wait for those long summer weekends, bad Hawaiian shirts included, where we cook all manner of food on those charcoal grills? It's not just for the cold drinks and chance to see friends.

We all love to see our food with those "grill marks" on them. Those are so prized that a major fast food chain painted them onto their chicken pieces. Well those marks are really where the meat or vegetables came in contact with the grills' hottest part, the surface. That surface is so hot that it actually singes the food wherever it comes into contact.

That burning causes carmelization. Did you know that caramels are pieces of burnt sugar and milk? Carmelization results in a smoky sweetness.

Another analogy. The popularity of oaked wines, especially Chardonnay, is directly attributable to the sweetening effect of charred wood. It's basically another way of doing the same thing, to enhance the taste by adding sweetness.

Now, I'm not judging here, I'm actually trying to answer the question that plagues many a serious specialty coffee roaster. A lot of them were left scratching their collective heads when, following the return of some great single origin coffees, the public seemed to suddenly become entranced with coffees roasted to cover the very tastes that distinguish these coffees.

From a brewing standpoint, sweetness is also easier to extract. The caramelized flavors in coffee are almost brew-proof. I'm not saying that brewing doesn't matter, but I can back up what I'm saying with some simple brewing tests. If I vary the time, temperature or formulas with light roasts I find I get significant taste changes. When I do the same thing using dark roasts I find the results far more consistent.

I doubt Starbucks, Alfred Peet or anyone else predicted this side effect to dark roasting.

But as we ve seen, dark roasting often makes brewed coffee sweeter. What it all comes down to is... Sweetness sells.

I m going to out the industry as well as coffee snobs who do more harm than good when it comes to bringing the joys of great coffee to people around the globe.

One of the biggest myths around is that coffee connoisseurs only drink the stuff black that is minus cream, sweeteners or, for that matter, any flavor you can mention.

Let me tell you a little story. I was cupping once with someone who s well known in the industry. He represents upscale coffees from farms where I bet they vacuum the employees to keep dust off the precious coffee plants. I know they carefully cut the weeds rather than use any solvents to clear the fields.

Let s call him Michael. Michael and I were cupping that is, rating various coffee samples. Cupping is the coffee equivalent to taking carpet swatches and testing them in your living room, only instead of wall-to-wall carpeting, the cupper wants wall-to-wall flavor. It is necessary to brew it very consistently and to drink it straight, nothing added, and at several temperatures. (Believe it or not, coffee flavor is most revealing as it cools. Try it yourself some time take a few sips of some cold coffee.)

Michael and I finished our work (yes, it is considered work) and he made notes as to which coffees were going to be purchased in big lots, then we left to take a break a coffee break. Michael broke out some rolls he d bought from his favorite French baker that morning, put on some music and brewed a pot of coffee with some of his firm s latest blends featuring a beautiful aged Colombian in the formula. He weighed the beans, ground them in his $1200 commercial grinder and brewed a full pot. You might think we were caffeinated enough, but, most coffee that is cupped is expelled (spit out) so there is little if any caffeine absorbed.

As we sat down to enjoy, Michael just naturally reached into one of those little dorm-room refrigerators and took out some 18% cream. Without skipping a beat, he poured it into his cup to achieve whatever learned degree of lightness to which he s grown accustomed, then scooted it across the table to me. I must have broken out in a smile, because he looked suddenly perplexed and asked if something was wrong.

Ah, yes, relaxing. In other words, we re drinking for pleasure.

To some degree, this comes down to the reason why you drink coffee at all. I know there are people who say they drink coffee to stay awake. I ve suggested to actors that they drink coffee in a scene in order to give them what s known as business to do. Alcoholics drink coffee as a substitute. The list goes on.

by Kevin Sinnott

You know one thing that bothers me about so-called celebrity chefs? They never measure carefully. It s as if they are forever trying to prove just how intuitive they are. What it really says to viewers is that measuring isn t important. Now, take my word as a television producer on this: Someone does measure. What you don t see is the behind-the-scenes intern with a digital scale doing all the chopping before the show, while Emeril is backstage getting his manicure.

Coffee s books are no better even the one I wrote. It s as if none of the authors want to commit knowing there are so many differences of opinions. Or, in some cases, they probably don t know. Can you imagine a cookbook not giving you measurements?

Keep in mind, the coffee bean industry, the so-called specialty roasters, are always touting the idea of using more grounds. Meanwhile, the canned commodity coffee folks keep claiming you can brew more using less, for reasons I ll provide to you in a moment.

I ve brewed with many of the world s leading coffee experts and they tend to be meticulous measurers. Why? I ll tell you why: coffee is an extraction process. It supports my belief in God to realize that many years ago someone supposedly stumbled onto this wonderful drink. Making great coffee is no accident. Making great coffee is a passionate chemistry exam.

I promise you that if you start to measure carefully, you will reap the rewards of aroma and flavor.

The first thing to realize is that most coffee in America is brewed using too little ground coffee and those grounds are likely to be an overly fine grind. It used to be that people at home ground their coffee too fine in a feeble cost-savings attempt. They reckoned that if you use less coffee and you grind it finer, you can slow down the brewing process, thus lengthening the contact time, which releases more taste. This is all well and good, and at least proves that the common man is capable of sneaky intelligence if not true brilliance. The trouble with this use less and pulverize it theory is it assumes the coffee grounds have been holding back flavor. They don t. They are like mothers to their children in that they just give more, even when they don t have it. The flavors they give during the first four minutes of brewing are very different than they give, say, seven minutes into the brew. Those later flavors are bitter.

Ah, so there you have it. In an effort to save money or to actually make the coffee less strong, the end user makes it bitter. Ironic isn t it?

A big problem in home brewing is how much ground coffee to use. If you listen to the big supermarket coffee companies, you hardly use any grounds. Well, that s a slight exaggeration, but nevertheless, they became big mostly by promising to deliver a decent cup of coffee to thrifty consumers and that meant using less coffee. Meanwhile, the upscale and boutique so-called specialty roasters want you to use a lot of grounds. It doesn t take rocket science to be a wee bit suspicious of anyone who sells coffee by volume to tell me I need to use more.

Who do you believe? Well, first there are legitimate reasons that each camp tells their story s side. Are they both lying? Well, no. For instance, the large conglomerate roasters buy harsher, but stronger flavored coffees. You may have heard the term robusta (row-bust-uh). These are hardy, strong coffee plants, both higher in strength and even caffeine. The only thing they lack is that wonderful flavor. Meanwhile, the coffees that are all Arabica (arab-eek-uh) coffees, the better growths (think romaine lettuce as opposed to iceberg) are still roasted to taste stronger, but harsher by the low cost Canned coffee roasters.

Let s go to the kind of coffee you re probably already buying if you re taking the time to read this article: the upscale stuff. You may even be buying beans and grinding them yourself. Grinding is worthy of an article all by itself (after all, I m paid by the amount I write), so let s stick to the original subject: how much do you use?

Well, the truth is, while there are no hard and fast rules, there are guidelines. Start here and you can adjust to your own equipment, how the coffee was roasted, and, most important, your taste buds.

The industry standard for coffee has always been two tablespoons per six ounce cup. There are oversized scoops, sometimes labeled approved coffee measure . This standard is a good place to start. If you have one of those little diet scales, you ll probably discover that two tablespoons equals ten or eleven grams. So, if you re making eight cups, you simply use eight scoops. The first time you do this I almost guarantee you ll be floored by how much coffee this is. And, keep in mind, it is between 80 and 88 grams, according to the above stated formula. Oops, that s right. Most coffee makers are now marked in five-ounce cups. Well, that s okay, it just means the formula requires you to do a little math.

Just to make it easier, here s a little chart you can print out and keep in your kitchen.

How do you know if your coffee is too strong? Taste it. If it is too strong, back away in the grind. Only once the grind is getting ridiculously boulder-sized should you consider reducing the amount of grounds. Once you get a formula that pleases you, stick to it.