ROASTING IS NOT A CONCEPTUAL ART FORM

Dear Readers,

I’m having some serious fun exploring mild arabicas from all over the world.  My primary interest is Ethiopian coffees.  Lately we have sourced a Sidamo with extraordinary  blueberry in the fragrance and the finish.  And, every Sunday we offer a new single origin at our Brix and Alley 24 locations.  So far Indian Monsooned Malabar is the hands-down favorite among staff and customers. (Look for single origin offerings on our website, coming soon for retail and wholesale customers).

As you may know our roast is modeled after the coffees I found in Northern Italy, high caramelized sugar content developed with the peak origin notes.  Of singular importance is zero citric acid…

Roasting coffee is not a conceptual art form!

Speaking of citric acid it reminds me how embarrassed I am that many US roasters have adopted the undeveloped roasts dominated by citric acid. Some clown said “coffee is a fruit it should taste like a fruit”. ( Obviously it is not a fruit, it is a legume, a consumable seed of the coffee cherry).  The flavor of these coffees is totally dominated by the citric acid present as the beans approach 2nd crack: it tastes like unsweetened lemon juice when brewed as espresso.

So this is the concept-“coffee is a fruit”.  Roasters following this are blindly following a conceptual artist…Now when it comes to visual art an artist may have an eloquent concept to communicate  such as ” rejection of materialism”. To transport the viewer into a state of reflection on their life they may employ jarring images or textures, deliberately  abandoning sensuous beauty, and perhaps craft, to make a point.  Western culture accepts this and artists then communicate important truths through their art. The viewer can easily turn away, choose not to look. 

However a fine chef in Paris would never, ever make a bitter or sour sauce to drive the point home that life for the Parisian might be very sweet compared to most people in the world.  OMG no….culinary art is in your mouth!  It is visceral and powerful on an intimate level.  A culinary artist must always seek to create pleasure in the participant first and foremost through an artful blending of flavors and textures to achieve umami-sensuous beauty in the mouth.