FAQ
Below is a list of frequently asked questions.
We believe in organic, most of what our family consumes at home is organic. There are enough coffee retailers out there selling non-organic coffee. For most coffee retailers, organic coffee tends to be an afterthought, a retailer may sell a dozen or more single-origin coffees but only offer one or even no organic choices. Customers who only drink organic coffee generally have to search high and low to find a variety of choices in single-origin organic coffees. We'd like to change that and offer an easier alternative, a one-stop shopping experience for those who prefer organic coffee.
The Swiss Water Process is a patented decaffeination method that uses only water to remove close to 99% or more of a coffee's caffeine content. Heat and time are also employed, but clean water is the only added ingredient. Other decaffeination methods use chemicals to remove the caffeine. The Swiss Water process is therefore the healthiest most natural method used making it the perfect complement for organic coffee, which is why we only sell decafs using this method.
Due to misleading marketing, there is a fallacy in the food and beverage industry that espresso is a type of bean or beans roasted to a specific dark “espresso” level, neither of which is true. Espresso is a brewing method whereby water is pump-forced through a small amount of finely ground packed coffee. In reality, any coffee can be used for espresso and that includes any of our coffees. Coffee advertised as espresso is often a blended dark roast and can use Arabica or Robusta or a combination of both. Italian espresso will often use Robusta as it is believed to create a better crema, however, the tradeoff is a bitter coffee. CO2 in coffee also affects crema, so the fresher your coffee is, the greater the CO2 level and therefore the better the crema. However, it is important to note that crema, while used as a visual indicator for a good espresso also adds to the bitterness of coffee because of the CO2. Some coffee connoisseurs who value taste over looks will even discard the crema, removing it with a spoon before sipping the espresso because it makes that much of a difference to the taste.
There is no universal grading standard for coffee beans. Some coffees are graded based on bean size (which generally falls between 8/64th to 20/64th of an inch) with the notion that bigger means better. For example, Kenya AA refers to a screen size of 17 to 18. Other countries grade their coffee based on growing elevation, the higher the elevation, the better the quality because the bean takes longer to mature at higher elevations and develops more complexity as a result. For example, Costa Rica SHG/SHB bean stands for Strictly High Grown/Strictly Hard Bean (either one of these acronyms can be used and are interchangeable). This means that the beans were grown at elevations above 1200 m.a.s.l. Still, other countries might use a grading system based on defects. For example, Ethiopia Grade 1 refers to coffee with the least amount of defects per 500 g of coffee. To add to the confusion, even different countries that use a similar grading system may differ in their criteria for that grade. Our coffees all tend to be the highest quality organic offered by that country, i.e., Grade 1, SHG, etc.
It's not our place to recommend a brewing method. People have preferences and so we say go with your preference. However, it is worth noting that each method yields a very different cup even when using the same coffee and water, this is one of the many magical qualities of coffee. It's also worth noting that you, the brewer, also play a part in the quality of your cup! Here are some universal tips that apply to all brewing methods.
Grind – only before brewing, the proper grind for the method used and the correct amount.
Water – use the best water you can; that delicious cup of Joe is made up mostly of water, so believe me, it makes a difference!
Temp – approx. 190° - 200°F (88° - 93°C), but never boiling water, as it extracts undesirable bitter flavors.
Storage – to prolong freshness, store beans in a vacuum sealed or at least airtight container in a dark, dry, and cool place.
Freshness – use beans within a month of the roast date.
Filters – If using a paper filter for pour-over or drip, I generally run warm water through it first to remove that paper taste that can affect your coffee's flavor profile.
Fair Trade coffee is generally coffee certified as having been produced to fair trade standards by organizations aimed at supporting a better life and fair compensation for farming families and workers within the coffee growing, harvesting, and production business. While we would love all coffee to be fair trade, not all are. And do not confuse organic with being fair trade, there is some overlap, but Organic and Fair Trade certifications are different. We source our coffee from certified Fair Trade distributors, though not all the coffees they sell or we sell are Fair Trade certified. The term Fair Trade is sometimes misleadingly used when describing farms and regions but has no real merit unless the coffee offered is certified as such. Any Fair Trade coffee we sell will be listed in our product description.
The general public is used to roast descriptions like light, medium, and dark. It conveys the roasted color of the coffee bean. However, it is somewhat misleading because the assumption it creates is that a darker roast was roasted longer or at a higher temperature than a lighter roast which is not necessarily true. Raw green beans range in color from a vibrant grape green to dark gray blue or speckled brown depending on origin, cultivar, processing, moisture content, and crop age. The initial color of the raw bean impacts the final roast color. For example, you can take two different bean batches such as an Indonesian Blue bourbon and a Kenyan SL28 and roast them at the same temperature for the same amount of time and both will yield a different end roast color, because they were different colors to begin with. If the Indonesian coffee results in a dark roast, the African result might be medium in color. This just tells you the color of the roast without imparting any information about the roast itself. Many craft roasters prefer to use the terms City, City +, Full City, and Full City + and here’s why. Bean development and flavor profiles happen between what’s known as first crack and second crack, a small window of a few minutes (there are also other roast levels outside of this range). City is the earliest stage within this range, so a City roast is a roast that has been stopped just as first crack finishes, City + is stopped a little later, Full City later, and Full City + on the cusp of second crack. This is a much more fitting description because it describes at what stage of the roast the beans have been dropped. So a City roast is truly a lighter roast than a Full City roast regardless of what color the end roast is.