Tonight I decided to check out some of the draft files and 'coffee' files I had sitting around gathering dust in my laptop. I found part of an article I saved in my files last summer 2014, because it had 5 coffee myths - some of which I knew already but thought it would be a great idea to get the word 'out' there to other coffee affectionatos.
Chris Vigilante, owner of DC-based Vigilante Coffee Co.,
fully admits that he originally got into coffee as a way to avoid the
real world and elude the dreaded cubicle job. But what started as a long
stretch of slackerdom while surfing in Hawaii has turned him into
something of a java superstar among those who know coffee in DC.
“It’s a great time to be in coffee and have people appreciate it,” says
Vigilante. “We’ve never had access to great coffee like we do now. It’s
pretty damn similar to pot, wine or beer.”
Here are five myths and misunderstandings surrounding coffee that Vigilante would like to see debunked once and for all:
1. The freezer is best: “Everyone thinks they should
store it in the freezer. It’s actually kind of the opposite. You can
grow mold on the coffee if moisture builds up - and you don’t want to be
drinking mold.”
2. Dark roast = more caffeine = more flavor: “Everyone
thinks dark-roasted coffee has more caffeine. It’s the opposite - you
actually roast out the caffeine when you heat it. The higher the
temperature, the more you’re burning out the caffeine. I think people
associate the stronger taste of the coffee with the higher caffeine
content.”
3. Espresso is a bean: “It’s a process, not a type of
coffee. You can make any coffee bean into espresso [by grinding it
finely and brewing it in the style of espresso]. Some beans are roasted
specifically to be brewed into espresso, but there’s no espresso bean.”
4. Coffee should be cheap: “Coffee is a commodity
that's already undervalued, as far as I’m concerned. A lot of times
farmers can’t make ends meet with the market price of coffee. Vigilante
pays well above the market price for our raw green beans, and we pay
based on quality - but it shows up in the cup. Consumers are used to
paying low dollar, but that’s unsustainable. We’re eventually not going
to grow enough coffee to supply everyone.”
5. Italians rule the coffee scene: “Everyone thinks
Italians are the top dogs in coffee, and that’s not the case anymore.
For Vigilante Coffee, we look to Japan, Australia and New Zealand for
examples in the coffee industry. If you go to Japan or Australia, it
will really blow your mind where they’ve taken the level of their coffee
culture. The culture of Italy is more about quantity.”