My Friend Coffee

Coffee Chemistry

I’m a huge coffee nut.

Stop laughing.

Yes, I’m brown-ish, round, and big, but that’s not what I mean . Let’s rephrase that as: I’m nuts about coffee. 

You get the idea.

My drink of preference? Papua New Guinea beans through my home espresso machine plus an equal amount of whole milk, sometimes with a spot of condensed milk, chocolate, or caramel. Hot on a cold day, cold on a hot day.

ROC National Palace Museum Barista

PNG beans are grown in the same region as the more well-known Indonesian Sumatra variety (the country of Papua New Guinea actually shares an island with Indonesia). But unlike Indonesian coffees, PNG beans have their origins in Jamaica. The original seeds for PNG crops are Jamaican Blue Mountain, imported in the late 1920s with new seedlings being imported from Jamaica every once in awhile as needed. So, they share some of the rich, deep flavor of JMB beans but with fruity overtones all its own. Plus, many PNG beans are grown by small, organic-certified farms and sold through a small collective under Fair Trade guidelines, so I know that the beans aren’t being farmed by virtual slaves and the growers are receiving fair compensation. Because of the small-farming method of production (as opposed to plantation-farming) there can be consistancy issues, but I haven’t had any problems yet.

Coffee Waiting to be Born

If you want decent taste and 99.9999% consistency then nothing beats Kenyan beans. A few years ago the government of Kenya realized that its domestically-grown coffee was appreciated around the world and was being sold as a premium coffee. In a very smart move they invested heavily on growing the industry and now there is no other coffee-growing country on the planet with a better production, quality control, and distribution infrastructure. The house blends of most major chains, for example McDonalds McCafé, are based on Kenyan beans because they are inexpensive and reliably good-tasting.

Conversation over coffee

By the way, much is made over arabica-type beans. I’ve seen plenty of signage around proclaiming “Our beans are 100% Arabica!”. Big deal. The truth is that virtually all coffee out there comes from arabica beans. It doesn’t matter if your coffee comes from Starbucks or Denny’s, it’s going to be arabica. In reality, the only place you are likely to find the cheaper, low-quality robusta beans (grown primarily in Columbia and Vietnam, although Columbia grows arabica beans, too) are in the freeze-dried packets and cans you find in grocery stores.

Enjoy your coffee.

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