Most Expensive Coffees- Have ya tried any? Truth or...?

[HB-Wantabe]

Hello everyone.

Have you seen this article?

Wine & Food Feature: Most Expensive Coffee

Seen, tried or tasted any of the beans? know anyone that uses them? What do you think, worth the money? I know "worth the money" is subjective but, sharing opinions are what forums are all about. Go ahead opine for the curious.

[another_jim]

Many expensive coffees are not better than regular ones, they're just rare -- St Helena, Kona and Blue Mountain are cases in point. Some have great stories attached like Kopi Luwak, but taste mediocre or worse (in the Kopi Luwak case, the weasels do slightly improve on the basic Robusta taste, but not much).

Auction winners from normal coffee areas are almost always superb, and I buy them regularly. The $100 Esmerlada wasn't as good as the $50 one from two years ago, but it still was pretty good. Being the Panama winner three years in a row gave it enough of a reputation among high end coffee consumers that assured a high price.

Now here's the most important part:

There's roughly 64 cups of coffee per pound. This means that even at $100 per pound, it's only $1.56 per cup, or cheaper than a plain coffee at Starbucks. So instead of asking why some people pay so much for good coffee, you should be asking why so many more people pay so much more for indifferent coffee.

[luca]

Now here's the most important part:

There's roughly 64 cups of coffee per pound. This means that even at $100 per pound, it's only $1.56 per cup, or cheaper than a plain coffee at Starbucks. So instead of asking why some people pay so much for good coffee, you should be asking why so many more people pay so much more for indifferent coffee.

So true!

I don't think that I've had any of the real heavy-hitters. The highest price that I've had is probably Yauco Selecto, which was fantastic.

Cheers,

Luca

[HB-Wantabe]

There's roughly 64 cups of coffee per pound. This means that even at $100 per pound, it's only $1.56 per cup, or cheaper than a plain coffee at Starbucks. So instead of asking why some people pay so much for good coffee, you should be asking why so many more people pay so much more for indifferent coffee.

I have always wondered what the big allure of Starbucks is. To say the brew is substandard is a gross understatement and it always seemed overpriced.



Never thought about how many cups one pound produces. A buck and half sounds like such a bargain. I think about the outrageous amounts I have spent for a single ounce of other products. Now. Now. Now. How you think. Clean it up.
I'm talking about this other fine liquid product:

[Layvodvo]

I'm sure that variation of prices means difference in quality.
As for me I have tasted Javaberry and have to say that it is the best coffee I have ever drunk. Every cup is a gamut of emotions and feelings. Its taste is unique.

[cremacafe]

I held an exotic coffee tasting here at my cafe a few months back. We featured arabica Kopi Luwak, Hacienda La Esmeralda Gesha, and a 100% Kona. The Kopi was down right repulsive. My roaster and I both looked at each other with a look of disdain. We could tell when we were roasting it that it was a poor quality coffee, with both arabica and robusta in the mix. So I would steer clear of the most expensive on the Forbes list.

The Gesha on the other hand......WOW!! Believe the hype, it is that good. I have never tasted such a complex, delicate, and beautiful coffee. Jasmine, blueberry, tea notes, all in spades. I can't wait to get my hands on more.

The Kona was average. Nothing great, nothing negative, just an average cup.

We currently have the Guatemala COE winner El Injerto and the Nicaragua COE #3 El Cipres. These two coffees will be at our next tasting this month. I'll let you all know how they turn out.

[sohoespresso]

Speaking of Gesha - and bringing the conversation back towards espresso - one of the most expensive espressos we've tried is the Novo Bambito Estate, which scored just second to Gesha in Best of Panama 2006. Excellent stuff. It's also nice that if it's brewed at home, it's still much cheaper than Starbucks or Peet's, even! Does anyone else know of any expensive espressos out there? How did they hold up?

[another_jim]

Speaking of Gesha - and bringing the conversation back towards espresso - one of the most expensive espressos we've tried is the Novo Bambito Estate, which scored just second to Gesha in Best of Panama 2006. Excellent stuff. It's also nice that if it's brewed at home, it's still much cheaper than Starbucks or Peet's, even! Does anyone else know of any expensive espressos out there? How did they hold up?

The series of premium (screen dried) Dry Process Yrgs and Sidamos Paradise Roasters and some others have been bringing in -- Bale Kara, Heche, Adado, Idido, etc, are virtually perfect for SO espressos. The only thing I'm wishing for Xmas is that all these expeditions to Ethiopia to locate high end microlots come up with coffees equally well prepped from the Hararghe region. Harars, are to my mind, the ultimate SO (or dry process) coffee; however, the coffee is so poorly processed that much of this potential is lost.

The Semi Wet El Salvador Santa Sophia is also a beautiful cup, in that roasty-sweet Bourbon almond style. This is good news for the growers there. Specialty coffee is skewing towards espresso, and the Central American countries will need to move away from wet processed coffees to maintain their high end market. Up till now I've been underwhelmed by semi-wet coffees, but this year they have been three or four from El Salvador that have been very fine. I notice Nick Cho's blend uses the Cerro Las Reinas as its base, this one was already decent last year, when we reviewed it for coffeecuppers. I think as some fincas get experience with the process, the quality will pick up. It may be worth while for roasters to form relationships with the best semi-wet producers in El Salvador and Nicaragua to get bring some consistency to this market.

[paradiseroasters]

Super-prepped Harrarghe coffees similar to those coming out of Sidamo/Yirgacheffe (and many other regions) recently shouldn't be to far off into the future. Perhaps only 4-6 months away with any luck. If they are as Jim suspects the ultimate SO, you better believe we will be among the first to have one. We should know by February if any shall exist for 2007

[another_jim]

Super-prepped Harrarghe coffees similar to those coming out of Sidamo/Yirgacheffe (and many other regions) recently shouldn't be to far off into the future. Perhaps only 4-6 months away with any luck. If they are as Jim suspects the ultimate SO, you better believe we will be among the first to have one. We should know by February if any shall exist for 2007

Not quite Xmas, but I'll take it.

Harars, although they aren't as pure and luscious as Sidamos and Yrgs, tend to be more complex, alcoholic-heady, and with more interesting roast flavors. This is why I think a super-prep of one could be the ultimate SO.

[paradiseroasters]

I'll have to respectfully disagree with you on Harrars being more complex in flavor. I find the best bed-dried Natural Yrg/Sidamo coffees to be dizzyingly complex in comparison. Much the alcoholic flavors and aromas are caused by ferment and can certainly by found in many of the yirg/sidamo coffees often accompanied by a cherry cough syrup or date and fig like flavor. I however have not purchased coffees yet with this characteristic I find them over the edge ferment for me. much of yrg/sidamo natural's flavor is a fuller sweeter version of the citrus and floral qualities of the washed coffees over the intense blueberry/strawberry chocolate and alcohol of traditional mocca-style coffee. Perhaps i'll look for a good example of this type of coffee to bring in a small amount of next year. My fear is however that the on the edge ferment will fall off fast and end up tasting like manure and vinegar in a few months.

[another_jim]

My fear is however that the on the edge ferment will fall off fast and end up tasting like manure and vinegar in a few months.

This may pseudo-science, but I'm guessing the drop off of flavors is proportional to how light the the chemicals carrying them are. The SCAA flavor wheel lists them in order of increasing weight, and the light florals fade fastest, while the heavy distillates fade most slowly. That part is science; the speculation is that the precursors of these flavors in green coffee also fade in this order.

In any case, my experience has been that intensely floral and citrus coffees like Yrgs fade faster than the dried fruit and berry coffees like Harars or Yemens. The manure and leather flavors of many samples is probably there from the beginning, and becomes more prominent as other flavors fade. If the coffee were platform dried, those flavors should (with luck) not develop.

I disagree about the complexity of good Harars or Yemens. When they are poor, the flavors run together and are obscured by the murk. In the good ones, the bowl of fruit you like so much in a good Yrg has been turned into wine and cellared for 20 years. I have the same reactions drinking a great Harars or Yemen as I have drinking a well aged wine. I know that in the coffee world, this added mix of dying flowers, vanilla, fermented dried honey, and petrol is considered a flaw on the purer fruit flavors, but wine lovers are looking for precisely these notes when they pay hundreds of dollars for a bottle.

[CaffeFresco]

[SL28ave]

I know that in the coffee world, this added mix of dying flowers, vanilla, fermented dried honey, and petrol is considered a flaw on the purer fruit flavors, but wine lovers are looking for precisely these notes when they pay hundreds of dollars for a bottle.

Thank you, Jim, for inspiring me to have my first DRC Richebourg; you know, to help gauge if I should argue. ... (the benefits of working under GHH)

In other news: the Mamuto is right on the verge of "over-ferment", even with hints of blueberry and strawberry, but never crosses the line whatsoever, btw. I almost have the confidence to talk definitively about its silky, ripe tannins! Not a single DP I've had comes close to that attribute. But it's only Kenya that I'm singing about this morning.

Oh, and I shoulda told you. I enjoyed the "sh**" in the '82 Haut Brion I had a couple months ago. I may wait a few years or decades before I even try to relate that experience to coffee.

[zin1953]

I have always wondered what the big allure of Starbucks is. To say the brew is substandard is a gross understatement and it always seemed overpriced.

The McDonalds of Espresso . . .

Never thought about how many cups one pound produces. A buck and half sounds like such a bargain. I think about the outrageous amounts I have spent for a single ounce of other products . . .

After spending some 35 years in the wine & spirits trade, I have to ask you the same question I first asked in 1971 -- back when Remy Martin's "Louis XIII," their top-of-the-line Cognac, retailed for $299.00 for 25.4 oz (or 750ml), while Martell's top-of-the-line, labeled "Extra," sold for $125.00: how much are you paying for the Cognac, and how much are ou paying for the Baccarat crystal decanter?

The difference between "cups per pound" and "drinks per bottle" is that the coffee still comes in the same bag other coffees come in (i.e.: you aren't paying more for the packaging. When a high-end Cognac comes in Baccarat, you KNOW you're paying more for that. Martell's Cordon Bleu used to be available back in the 1970s in "regular" glass bottles or in a Baccarat decanter -- you could quite easily tell how much more money you were shelling out for the crystal decanter. Guess what? They stopped doing that. (Back then, Cordon Bleu was around $35 in glass, and $199 in Baccarat. Same Cognac, different containers.) Now that Louis XIII retails for $1,399.99, or $55.11 per ounce, how much of that $$$ covers the cost of the Baccarat???

[cannonfodder]

Looks like someone's roaster was a little hot and fast.