Peter Theisen introduced the program as Doug and Hans and Coffee. Doug Cole and Hans Ershinger-Davis had the entire half hour to talk about coffee, history etc. because this is an affordable luxury. Doug broke his presentation into three elements: Bean, Roast and Brew.
As far as the bean goes, there are over 100 chemical compounds that come from the coffee bean. It is a member of the gardenia family. Each coffee plant produces from two to ten pounds of beans per year. That’s approximately 3 ½ gallons or 22 shots of espresso. The cherries ripen sporadically which means to get the best beans; the plant must be hand-picked every day. Machine picking just don’t make it. Coffee is now the 7th most valuable commodity in the world. Doug shared that Bellingham now has 79 businesses that deal with coffee in some way.
Roasting makes a huge difference. Doug said that the cherries will last up to about 16 months green, but are best within five days of roasting. So fresh roasted is best. This is why the vacuum sealed cans make not the best coffee. There is a flavor wheel that roasters use to “design” what their coffee will taste like. This is way too complex for this reporter to understand.
Brewing is the third element of coffee. Doug led us through the “waves” of coffee experience. The first wave is what we remember from our parents. The mass-produced canned ground coffee. Pretty much all you can say for that is it’s bitter. The second wave came with craft roasters. Beginning with Peets (in California) and Starbucks a little later the populace got the darker roasts. The third wave is what Doug referred to as”latte art”. The center of this wave seems to be Portland, OR. This has a lighter roast and is fresher. A fourth wave consists of fair trade, organic coffee. A couple of outgrowths of this is the coffee on nitro, and cold brewed coffee – a much longer process that results in much less acidity.
A few local roasters mentioned by the presenters are Woods Coffee, Tony’s, Hammerhead, Bellingham Coffee and Maniac Roasting.
Hans took over to present the Theatre of Coffee. He explained that in Ethiopia guests see the coffee roasted in front of them prior to the brewing. This process takes a minimum of an hour. Much different that the grab and gulp at Mickey D’s. In a very short history lesson Hans explained that in Europe coffee and tea actually became a replacement for alcohol.
He showed off various devices for brewing coffee. He also roasted some beans as the talk was given. And then they ran over on time. Many members stayed longer to see the demonstration of coffee brewing and to taste (?) some of the brews that came out.
