Most coffee drinkers have been there: they’re in a café, looking at a menu with names that sound vaguely familiar, and then they order the same thing they always do. Maybe a flat white. Or just a coffee. The language just floats around, never quite landing. The coffee world might have made things seem more difficult than they really are. This is something that should be pushed back on a bit.
Start with the bean, since everything starts there. Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa are the four main types. Arabica is the base of most commercial coffee. It is smoother, a little sweeter, and has a variety of flavors that depend on where it was grown. There is a difference between bags from Ethiopia and Colombia, even though they are both labeled Arabica. Robusta has more caffeine and a stronger, earthier flavor with a hint of nuttiness that some people like and others don’t like. Liberica and Excelsa are very hard to find and are usually only found in specialty roasters. They have floral, fruity, and woody notes that might seem strange if you’re used to the regular stuff.
A lot of people don’t realize how important processing is. The fruit around a coffee bean has to be taken off before it can get to a roaster. The wet or washed method gets rid of that fruit before drying, making a cleaner cup with more acidity, like citrus or stone fruit for some drinkers. The dry or natural method lets the cherry dry in the sun without any damage. The bean stays inside the cherry and pulls sweetness from it as it dries. Most natural coffees are stronger, sweeter, and taste more like fruit. In a strict sense, neither is better. They’re just different tools that give you different results. Being aware of that difference is the first thing that will help you understand what you’re tasting.
The way you brew adds another layer. Under a lot of pressure, espresso pumps hot water through finely ground coffee. This makes a concentrated, syrupy shot that most café drinks are built around. An Americano is the same shot mixed with hot water. It’s easier to drink and lasts longer. There should be an equal amount of espresso, steamed milk, and foam in a cappuccino. The balance between these three things is more important than most recipes say. The milk is more important in a latte than the espresso. The process for making cold brew is very different. Ground coffee is soaked in cold water for twelve to twenty-four hours. The result is coffee that is much less acidic and more sweet than hot brew, even without any extra ingredients.
Some people think that coffee shops have turned into places where excitement can actually outrun knowledge. There are now serious coffee fans in cities all over the world, from Melbourne to Seoul to Brooklyn. The specialty coffee movement has done a lot of good by raising standards and making farmers and roasters think more carefully about quality. But it’s also made something scary that started out as a simple drink that people drank every day. All of these things matter: the level of roast, the origin, the processing, the grind size, and the water temperature. You don’t need a degree to understand any of them.
Most likely, caffeine is the detail that people pay the least attention to. About 63 milligrams make up a standard espresso shot. As the brew time, grind, and roast vary, so does the amount of caffeine in a cup of drip coffee. It may seem counterintuitive, but lighter roasts tend to have a little more caffeine than dark roasts. This is because heat breaks down caffeine, so the longer a bean roasts, the more caffeine it loses. It’s not a huge difference, but it is a real one that you should be aware of if you are trying to control your caffeine intake.
If you want to know the truth, coffee encourages curiosity without punishing ignorance. To enjoy a well-made cup, you don’t need to know everything about how it was made. That being said, it gets harder to settle for something average the more you know about everything, from the farm to the cup in front of you.
