What the heck is a varietal? Why is it on every decent bag of coffee: Heirloom Varietal, Caturra Varietal, Pacamara Varietal, Geisha Varietal… the list goes on (also sometimes called varieties). Do these names mean anything, or are they just a fancy words to make the label look better? Well, yes, they do mean quite a bit. There is information about our potential coffee purchases to be gained from these words, it’s just a matter of learning what they really mean, and discovering how this knowledge can affect our coffee choices.
.
Read the rest of this entry »
With decent quality coffee ever increasingly accessible, it has long been time for the next movement (which thankfully is now already underway), for whilst the discerning among us will not always be impressed by a pretty rosetta or tulip on the top of our drink of choice, milk does hide a multitude of sins – and thus the quest for quality stops with the outside appearance for so many. But as a barista, to settle into serving mediocre coffee knowing that to the consumer it is merely a matter of style and status, is cheating the customer out of experiencing the full potential of coffee. The standards which so many have worked to raise, have begun to deteriorate in favour of feeding the masses. Read the rest of this entry »