Do Green Coffee Beans make Green Coffee?
Are Green Coffee Beans better?
Glad you asked. Here's a quick review for your Home Coffee Roasting edification!
Coffee Beans are actually the seeds from the fruit of Coffee Trees.
Just as apples are red and oranges are orange, coffee beans are green when removed from the fruit of the tree. It is the roasting process that changes them from green to the various shades of brown, depending on your roast preference. So in the industry, Green Coffee simply means unroasted coffee beans (that are ready for roasting).
The Types of coffee trees:
Arabica - the source of premium specialty coffees
Robusta - a heartier, more prolific tree, with higher caffeine (unfortunately it often has a rubbery, flat taste)
To enhance profits and productivity, commercial coffee roasters may blend in beans from the Robusta tree. Specialty grade roasters will opt for quality and always use coffee from the Arabica tree.
Arabica Coffee is further subdivided into 5 grades, distinguished primarily by the number of "defects" the coffee contains per pound. For example, grade 1 coffees must have less then 5 twigs, or broken or discolored beans, etc. per pound. In general, the coffees here at Burman Coffee Traders are grade 1 Arabica, the best coffees available.
However, sometimes we discover an excellent coffee from a region does not produce a grade 1 coffee, i.e. that contains a higher number of broken beans, etc. Our Yemen Moka Matari is an example.
The Taste of Good Coffee
Specialty coffees can be further distinguished by a number of
interesting taste and aroma characteristics. These are
not necessarily on a scale of good to bad, but rather differences
that accommodate individual taste preferences plus providing a
pleasing variety of experiences available. Quite often these taste
and aroma differences are tied to a certain world region, where
altitude, sunlight, average temperatures, moisture, and a variety
of regional environmental differences produce different taste
characteristics from the same kind of coffee tree.
At Burman Coffee and on BurmanCoffee.com we use the following taste characteristics to help describe the differences among our coffees.
Acidity: Higher acidity imparts a bright, dry taste, almost similar to a dry wine. It is most distinctive at a medium roast. Coffees with higher acidity, generally have fruitier overtones. Acidity is generally considered a positive attribute.
Body: A coffee with High Body is one that tastes rich and thick.
Varietal Characteristics: In addition to body and acidity
or dryness, a good specialty coffee imparts several distinctive
flavor and aroma characteristics. These flavors may be bold or
subtle and helps further hallmark a particular coffee.
Seasonal Variations: Like fine wine, the taste of particular region and grower's coffee can be affected by weather. Coffee is a crop that varies by season, and by region, depending on the conditions present during that growing season. Our job is to uncover where the best coffees are being grown at any moment in time, and select the best lots from that region.
One of the many advantages of home coffee roasting is, that green coffees will keep for a year or more. Thus, when you find a particular coffee that you especially like, you can order a larger quantity and keep it around, and roast it fresh for special occasions.
The first step we take in acquiring new coffee is to eliminate the ones that have any negative characteristics. You won't find any bitter or sour or rubbery tasting coffees here. Then we decide if this coffee is distinctive enough to stock.. Our goal is to provide a broad selection of the best examples of the classic coffees from the world market. We often go through many samples of outstanding coffees from different sources just to find right lot.
We supplement our selection of classic coffees with high quality decaffeinated coffees and organic/shade coffees. Incidentally, many of our decaffeinated coffee drinkers, have found our freshly home roasted decaffeinated coffee beans produce a coffee light years ahead of any decaffeinated coffees they have experienced.
We always make a special effort to support those growers who produce excellent coffees and provide fair wages and conditions to their workers.
I have recently added a new category to our selection of green coffee, called Value Blend. These are excellent regional blends that remain consistent in taste over time and compare quite favorably to coffees from the large chains. . . yet are considerably less expensive!
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