I've been meaning to share this article from San Francisco Magazine. It really does a great job wrapping up many of todays current thoughts of super light-roasted coffee/espresso. It serves as an authors journey thru the 3rd wave coffee scene here in San Francisco. Humorously, the point where he mentions being rebuffed that a coffee isn't "sour, it's the acid", while his face is puckering closed, was quite a laugh.

It also highlights a few roasters who buck this trend, even in this trendy Bay Area The article is here and worthy of a read thru.

I don't think Ritual and Blue Bottle were this extreme back in 2005; I remember them being close to Ecco. The really light roasters back then were Terroir and the Scandinavians.

But what is new now is not so much the acidity, but the retained chlorogenic acids. Instead of a caramel roast flavor, or even something reminiscent of orange peels, the acidity is now balanced by something reminiscent of unripe keewees and over chlorinated swimming pools. The Scandinavian chatter about how anything except an ultra fast finish to the roast spoils it reinforces my judgment: in ten years of roasting, swimming pool flavors have been the invariable outcome of ultra fast roast finishes for me.

Chlorine and unripe fruit is of course a flavor combination that even a complete non-taster will instantly recognize. So it's a great way to signal "third wave," just as char was a great way for Starbucks to signal their coffee. Nothing succeeds as well for branding purposes as a taste even dead people can pick out.

Of course, I'm just guessing about the taste of the sapsucker in the article. However, chlorine was the predominate taste I experienced in SF cafes, and it has become much more common among roasters here in Chicago as well.

But what works for branding may not work for coffee in the objective sense. I for one cannot habituate my palate the retained traces of chlorogenic acids; to me it masks the origin flavors of coffee just as surely as Starbuck's charred distillates. Ideally, for objective tasting clarity, you would like there to be no background bitter flavors at all; and that is what George Howell is now going for. But for me, I can identify coffees pretty well when there are Maillard browning compounds or caramels in the background; but not with these third wave chlorogenic acids.

Let's hope the tide turns, and ends up with more reasonable light roasts.

I like how she is making a point that not everyone has the same taste and not everyone wants their palate's bombarded by an intense spectrum every day. Some people enjoy IPA's all the time, some people only find them interesting in a beer flight, and others find them unpalatably bitter. I think we find something similar here. There are definitely coffees that I enjoy tasting and that I find incredibly interesting, but that doesn't mean I want to drink it every morning. For me these are Indonesian coffees and dry processed Ethiopians. If I drank these everyday, I would become overstimulated and tired from the deep complexity and unusual flavors. Some roasters make a great, sweet dark roast in the full city+ region that are easy to drink, but I find them simple, and I'd get bored if I drank these everyday.

The acidity-sour confusion was kind of a silly remark, obviously, but I think the context is more about connotation. In the specialty coffee industry, acidity generally refers to an enjoyable amount of brightness/tartness, while sour often refers to an overbearing acid presence due to brewing defects or underdeveloped roasts. It is important to try new things and try them often, but one should not force themselves into believing they like something just because it is trendy and according to society, "you are supposed to like it!" If the tables were turned and I was forcing myself to drink full city+ and darker everyday, I'd be in Sara's shoes longing for those light roasts. Neither of our palates are better, so we should both follow what they enjoy. I know when articles like this pop up, they have to be a little extra defensive since they are going against popular belief, but she's making it sound a little like the rest of us are fooling ourselves. I genuinely enjoy the lighter roasts. I'm not forcing myself to believe it.

Also the 3rd wave isn't a roasting style. Lighter roasts are a characteristic of it, but not the defining factor. It is so much more! The 4th wave will not be a shift toward darker roasts. There will have to be some paradigm shifts occurring before a new wave of coffee culture begins, and that shift won't just be a shift in roast level, light or dark.

another_jim wrote:
I don't think Ritual and Blue Bottle were this extreme back in 2005; I remember them being close to Ecco. The really light roasters back then were Terroir and the Scandinavians.

I remember sitting in Ritual some time around 2006 and actually hearing the coffee finish 1C Those were the days.

another_jim wrote:
Nothing succeeds as well for branding purposes as a taste even dead people can pick out.

Profits before palates.

In the competitive BBQ world, when the folks who geek out on BBQ sauce the same way we geek out on coffee discuss designing the best BBQ sauce recipes, the type that will win the most 1st place "calls", trophies, etc, they all agree that the product to emulate would be none other than McDonalds BBQ sauce for their chicken nuggets. For no other reason than they've had 35+ years and hundreds of millions of dollars in food lab/taster's research to find what the "average" consumer likes the best.

another_jim wrote:

Of course, I'm just guessing about the taste of the sapsucker in the article. However, chlorine was the predominate taste I experienced in SF cafes, and it has become much more common among roasters here in Chicago as well.

I think all tides change. I'm really keeping my eye on Highwire Coffee in Emeryville.

I read this when it was published. I've had objectionable light roasts from many well known roasters; some mentioned. Even more often (by shear number) than light roasts being thin and sharp are coffees from those who stake their claim in medium land that are both muffled and baked. Dark roasters often scorch. None of this is absolute, though. There are excellent coffees roasted across the spectrum of light to dark.

I have a preference for super light roasts with prominent acidity balanced by raw sweetness. I'm starting to sound familiar, but the type of sweetness I love in coffee is lost in roasts taken to or past the end of first crack. What Jim says hits me with a slight jab, as my coffee in the current Craft tasting box is described: "Strident flavors of kiwi, lime and white grape settle into golden toast sweetness and a delicate finish like dried lavender". I can see how these may be the exact objectionable flavors being described in the article and by Jim, or exactly what I want from a Sidama. I suspect there will be those who love and those who hate it.

That there is an article discussing both well executed chocolaty medium roasts and tart light ones is a huge step in the right direction vs. those discussing things like kopi luwak or caffeine content.

I certainly like your roasts enough to keep giving them the HB home roasting prize; that wouldn't be happening if they had a chlorine edge.

My feeling is now that some roasters are going for the chlorine flavor deliberately, since it is so easily tasted. I'm guessing you are seeing the downside of the new on-line world of crowd sourced reviews. So how do you get the current madding crowd to recognize you as a state of the art 3rd wave cafe? Chlorinated coffee is one way.

jonny wrote: Also the 3rd wave isn't a roasting style. Lighter roasts are a characteristic of it, but not the defining factor. It is so much more! The 4th wave will not be a shift toward darker roasts....

When the term "3rd wave" is used, it's used to describe transparent sourcing, higher quality, and a connection to the grower among many other things (that are highly focused upon in the bay area). I didn't say it was a roasting style. But many lump that in as if it were the only definition.

I think if there is a paradigm shift or a "4th wave", it will be one of two things, either they'll finally figure out how to infuse technology into your standard consumers kitchen, like the microwave did decades ago, produce great coffee and espresso drinks with something you can pick up at Macy's, or it will be an acknowledgment that everyone likes coffee in different levels of roast, and actually support that broadly. It would be nice to see people willing to stand proudly, unashamed that they can deliver something in the medium to "french roast" range, with still an eye on high quality in the cup.

But, I'll add, my biggest fear is that our best years in coffee are already behind us, like 6-8 years ago, and we didn't know how to optimize what we had when we had it. Climate change, Roya, corrupt governments, slavish ties to the C market, can and could continue to crush the amount of high quality coffee that we all enjoy.

My own take on this is here. http://www.coffeeco.com.au/newsletter/october2012.html . Note that it was written in 2012 for an Australian audience, and acidic filter brews have never really been part of our coffee culture.

Alan

another_jim wrote:I certainly like your roasts enough to keep giving them the HB home roasting prize; that wouldn't be happening if they had a chlorine edge.

My feeling is now that some roasters are going for the chlorine flavor deliberately, since it is so easily tasted. I'm guessing you are seeing the downside of the new on-line world of crowd sourced reviews. So how do you get the current madding crowd to recognize you as a state of the art 3rd wave cafe? Chlorinated coffee is one way.

I should probably stop entering now that I'm full time... but I just love competing.

While there is no chlorine in chlorogenic acid, I think I know the grainy sweet flavor with soft volatile aromas you may be talking about. If that fits, I agree; they say nothing about the particular coffee. Those are coffees that I would call underdeveloped. I'm not sure that approach is intentional target marketing; It's a lot easier to serve a funky natural with a medium roast to garner rapid attention from novice palates. "Lightest roaster" as a badge of honor, perhaps. Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some shops hyper-overextract coffees without the right grinder or sense of flavor balance. I think it's less marketing and more attempting to be as current as possible without having developed the skills or palate required.