Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Dark Roast Rant Update

Well, plenty of you people are still coming in and asking for my "darkest roast." My ranting may be changing things, but only in a very small, slow way.

Today an old farmer came in and asked me for my darkest roast and I didn't even bother to try to educate him. Nope. Just pulled our burntest [sic] coffee off the shelf and sold it to him.

Is the fight worth it? I don't know. I do think that I'm getting worn down by people who know nothing about coffee but refuse to consider the idea that dark roasted coffee might not be the best way to go. Sure, what do I know? Tasting and roasting and preparing coffee is only my profession. But you, well, you probably read a snippet from the side of a Starbucks bag. Please, enlighten the rest of us; tell us how much better a dark roast is.

Mmmm. Tar water...

3 comments:

Munkee said...

Dear Angry Jack,

I have wondered about this roast issue for the general consumer, and I'm still wondering, but my thought for the moment is that folks who brew their own coffee at home may appreciate the dark dark roasted stuff more because it tastes similar to what they get in the shop. It is very likely they aren't brewing it properly with the proper temps and water contact time with the coffee etc and so the lighter roasts don't come out tasting as rich and full bodied.

Does that make sense? Would you concur Dr.?

Panimatka Philo said...

Certainly your explanation makes sense. Other equally valid theories that I've heard suggest that most people drink stale coffee, and even though stale dark roast isn't good, it will still have that smokey, high-carbon taste. The stale light roast, on the other hand, will have even less to offer. Lesson: Drink stale dark-roasted coffee.

Fr. Gregory said...

I'll tell you -- I don't know how you survived here in Greece, where they mix a spoonful of dirt, uh I mean, Nescafe, with a cup of sugar, whip it up and charge you 4 Euros.

Love the blog -- just for giggles, give me your analysis of the Greek coffee scene.