This is like a prelude or prequel to my first post, because I think my palate got so used to tasting good coffee, I was beginning to take it for granted. Perhaps that’s why I decided to venture outside my comfort zone of world class roasters like Square mile coffee, JB Kaffee, Workshop Coffee, Balthasar-Vienna, Tim Wendelboe and the like and try something different. I wanted to challenge my coffee palate and see if I could detect a pronounced difference.

So, after my previous post, where I tasted coffee from a tin, highlight the high and lows of my experience, I defaulted to my comfort zone. So, what does good coffee taste like ?

It tastes good. Is that it ?  Okay, here’s more…

It smells good – when my son was much younger, like about 5 – although he didn’t like coffee and still doesn’t – only my daughter followed my path – he got excited when he saw new bags of coffee in the house because he loved squeezing the vacuum outlet to ingest the lovely aroma. I liken children, at least under 10 to be like angels – they know the good stuff when they see it, or in this case, smell it. 

The roasters usually describe their coffee in very exotic terms – I recall the old and original square mile coffee bags with large type-write of the predominant taste profiles. In fact, back then, the best coffee roasters had the best bags. You got excited, just by looking and touching them.

Before I continue…. there’s a downside if I can call it one.

Good coffee is so precious that when you try to find the right type of grind for espresso, so that you pull a great shot of about 45ml in 20-25 seconds, etc, you want to ,make sure you get it right the first time, because otherwise you’re just throwing good coffee away – aargh! I think that is why I got a bit excited with espresso but more so with filter grind, as you can’t really get the wrong type of grind – you can tweak it, but you don’t have to throw away 15g of coffee as opposed to 18-20 grammes of espresso grind coffee every time you get it wrong.

so may be there’s two downsides….

espresso grind is so temperamental that it changes so slightly with the weather, especially in the summer. One night, it’s a bit cooler and a grind setting just works – the next morning as you’re rushing to work and don’t have time to check settings, the coffee rushes out, leaving you with a sharp tasting daily cappuccino – aargh! Okay, not so filter grind with a hario V60.

Let’s move on and taste this thing.

Once you get used to good and great tasting coffee, it just seems right – everything is balanced – by this I mean there’s no unusual taste trying to break out of your taste bud system like corn when it pops in the microwave. I think this is probably one of the best judgement of good coffee – BALANCE.

sure, sometimes something strikes you and you’re like “what is that?” BUT it’s a pleasant kind of feeling that bring a smile to your face and if you believe you just say “praise God!” as He was the source of creating such a beautiful thing that can taste so different, albeit look so ordinary.

Good coffee caresses your taste buds – your whole mouth enjoys the experience – it wraps around your tongue and travels from the top of the tongue to the back of your tongue with different taste profiles – the experience is just wow! How can something taste one way at the beginning and another at the end – I remember the first time I tasted Intelligentisia Black Cat Espresso Blend over 10 years ago – see here.

Good coffee lasts  and great coffee lasts even longer. By this I mean after drinking the coffee you can still experience it, sometimes up to 30 minutes after. In fact that’s why I never drink water or eat anything after drinking coffee – I don’t want to spoil the experience. I don’t recall any other drink or food still giving me a tasty experience after I’ve consumed it.

Good coffee leaves you wanting – by this I mean once all those high notes have been reached, you just default to whatever coffee or roaster helped you experience that. I guess that’s how you create a great customer base – get it right the first time and all the time and they’ll keep coming back.

I think that’s enough for now. Never take anything good for granted, especially coffee. Perhaps that;s why my wife calls me a coffee snob – I just can’t compromise on drinking bad coffee and trust me, whenever I’ve slipped, I’ve regretted it and I suffer on two accounts – a screaming tongue followed by an angst stomach. It’s just not worth it.

Well done to all those great coffee roasters who do their jib well and keep up the standard.

Peace!