Ok regardless of conclusion life is too short to give up grinding beans, extracting coffee from them and drinking it. Glad it’s “good for you” in this study.
don't want to give up grinding beans, but I want to find an alternative to jamaican blue mountain so that my wallet stops complaining. Everything else seems hyper sour and acidic by comparison.
I paid £24 for 250g of Blue Mountain a few weeks ago. Unimpressed - it tasted like - er - coffee. I mean, it was like regular coffee, a bit smoother than usual.
So I've gone back to my touchstone brew: Harar Hyena (it's from the Harar region in Ethiopia; the "hyena" bit is because the town is famous for being infested with hyenas). It costs half as much. I was warned the first time I bought it that it's not to everyone's taste; well, it's certainly to mine. It's fruity and complex. I certainly wouldn't describe it as acidic.
I can't write tasting notes, I can't bear to be that pretentious; but The Spruce Eats says: "This flavor is often described as fruity and winey with a mocha note, medium acidity, and a full body."
James Hoffman has a video about tasting coffee for yourself. Basically looking at acidity / bitterness / body / strength / sweetness. Rating out of 5 kinda things. Always comparison based and
using cupping. (I have not done it yet but I’m going to treat myself to some barista training. It’s actually very affordable thing to do)
Then pick out any comparisons that come to mind but don’t think too hard about “is it a strawberry or raspberry”. Doesn’t matter. Whatever comes to mind. I can’t even pick fruits is just think “acidic, sweet”
The purpose, rather than to sound sophisticated is to get an idea of what coffee you like.
For me a dark roast and chuck in some milk can’t be beaten, but it’s interesting trying the fruity stuff. And when I say fruity … it ain’t subtle like wine. Some coffees taste like tea!
The thing I like about blue mountain is a strong coffee flavour, very smooth, without any acidity or sourness. That's what I value from it. I'm not looking for fruity acidic or sour because I don't like any of those things. I'm looking for smooth bold coffee flavours without those things.
You can enjoy your coffee that you enjoy. I certainly wouldn't, but I'm glad you do.
In my experience all the etheopian coffees I've had were unacceptably sour. But taste is personal and you are free to enjoy it.
Until quite recently it was still cheaper for me to be drinking blue mountain than it was to be using those keurig pods. I just have decided to spend less on coffee in general, but haven't found anything to replace the blue mountain or even approximate it.
tasting notes don't have to be pretentious, they are about distinguishing coffees when tasted side by side -- not for going deep into the made-up subtleties about what minute flavors are present if you brew a single cup.
usually they are hiting flavor compounds that are in the coffee. in the example you gave, knowing what usually make it into coffee:
fruity i associate with citric acid.
winey is probably acetic acid.
mocha is the classic chocolate flavor of the maillard reaction from roast and bitterness
Minor exception: "Exotic" fruits like mango or pineapple may mean there are fermentation flavors present, e.g. with naturally processed beans (vs washed process).
yeah, good point. have you heard of the podcast Making Coffee by Lucia Solis? it's really good on the topic of coffee fermentation, and she addresses those fruit compounds in particular because it's considered a defect in wine but she grew up eating papaya so enjoys the taste.
