Aldo Coffee Company

French Roast Outed

Among the blog articles currently being discussed ad infinitum in specialty coffee circles is this post from retired coffee buyer Kevin Knox.

In the post he rails against high-priced microlots and implies that direct trade/relationship coffees are a waste of time and resources as container loads of "equally good coffee" are in warehouses just waiting to be bought.

He seems to suggest that the big brands buy better coffee because they have more experience buying it and better tools to analyze it. And because they buy in larger quantities, they're able to provide consistency, even as the inherent flavors in those containers of coffee wane over time.

We can't argue that Starbucks, Peets, Green Mountain, et. al. have more access. We can't even argue that they don't know how to roast to bring out the best in those coffees because they seem to have a lot of smart coffee people and more resources for sample roasting and analysis than anyone else in the industry.

But we can argue that they don't care about roasting coffee so that the roast brings out the best flavor that that particular coffee is capable of producing. And that flavor is not "roastiness".  (it's always worth reminding everyone that ISO 9000 quality standards means quality as consistency, not quality as in 'mmm mmm delicious!')

To be quite honest, Kevin doesn't miss on all his points. One of the reasons we got away from using only Intelligentsia was because of the limitations of offerings and what we felt (and tasted) was a specific "Intelligentsia profile" that was becoming noticeable in coffees from every origin where they purchased. We also think they've gotten better at highlighting the nuances of each origin over the past couple of years so it's no longer a significant issue.

Anyway, in the middle of Knox's diatribe is this nugget, which we'd like to share with those remaining few who are hardcore devotees of French Roast.

Absent a costly frozen green coffee storage system gradual fading of one’s raw coffee inventory is an inevitability, and is dealt with by gradually darkening the roast for awhile, then blending out the coffee (initially into espresso blends and ultimately into  French Roast).

So there you go. Someone who's worked for years in the coffee trade and is an advocate for the old ways telling you specifically that your French Roast is basically the last resort for a roaster to make a buck on what is otherwise dead, tasteless coffee.

Don't say we didn't try to warn you about that.

Coffee Prices Concerning Pittsburgh, But Not Us

From the Post-Gazette: Coffee drinkers will get a taste of rising prices soon.

Like we said in the article, because of the quality we buy and who we buy from, we're largely immune to the double-digit percent price increases that everyone else is seeing.

There will be some increases coming very soon. But mostly those are corrections on larger size drinks we should've made awhile ago as well as bumps in drinks using a lot of milk or soy. Small cups of drip will stay as is.

Chai Chai Chai Chai Chai Changes

Sugar, nonfat milk, nondairy creamer (coconut oil, corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate, sodium citrate, mono- and diglycerides, salt sodium aluminosilicate), tea powder blend (black tea, darjeeling), honey granules (sucrose, honey), spice blend (cinnamon, clove, cardamon, anise and ginger), natural and artificial flavors, silicon dioxide (as an anti-caking agent), vegetable gums (carrageenan gum, guar gum), bourbon vanilla extract from Madagascar.

vs.

An infusion of (filtered water, organic black tea, organic ginger, organic cardamon, organic cinnamon, organic black pepper, organic clove), organic evaporated cane juice, organic molasses, organic vanilla bean and organic lemon juice.