While coffee is a subject that I love to talk about, and something that I would love to discuss at length on this blog, this post is primarily directed towards those who have left comments on their blog regarding the drip coffee at my place of employment. These people have said that our coffee is “terrible.” “It is a coffee house and therefore should serve, at the very least, a decent cup of coffee,” one blogger said. I say that our coffee is a least “decent” and I believe it is even good. Could it be better? Probably. Are there steps being taken to further the quality of everything at Midnight Oil? Absolutely. How do I know? Because I am the new manager of Midnight Oil. So for those of you who would like to know what makes a great cup of coffee: here it is.
There are several factors to a great cup of coffee. Some of the more important are water, brewing method, the roast of the bean, the freshness of the bean, the grind of the bean, and the proper water temperature.
Almost more important than the beans themselves is water. After all coffee is mostly water so if you have poor tasting water you will have poor tasting coffee. As we all know Searcy water is not the best around, but in order to combat this we run the water through a softener and a charcoal filter. It helps but it is not absolute. Unfortunately, however, we can’t use only bottled purified water, it would cost way too much.
The brewing method is also very important. One should use freshly ground beans in order to extract the most flavor for each cup. Here at MO we use a shower head drip which evenly distributes the water over all of the grinds in the filter as opposed to lower quality machines that just use a straight stream of water to slowly fill the basket. It is generally agreed that the best brewing method is the french press. Unfortunately it would be impossible to brew the gross amounts of coffee we serve using only a french press. However, for those of you who pretend to be connoisseurs, in the near future you should be able to purchase a small pot of french press coffee for your enjoyment.
The roast is always an important part of the process, and it is the deciding factor for many people. We serve a different roast everyday and I hope that soon we will be brewing a lighter roast and a darker roast in order to serve you our customers, but until then I suggest that those of you who aren’t too fond of our coffee try our newest acquisitions, Zimbabwe and Tanzanian Peaberry. Zimbabwe is served on Thursdays and Tanzanian Peaberry on Fridays. To be completely honest the coffee should be brewed every hour to keep it from going stale, but at the moment this a luxury I have not been allowed.
Finally to taste. The research shows that coffee is seven to twenty times more complex than wine (I’ll gladly show you the research, including a lengthy article in Wine Spectator if you would like). Just as wine has proper food pairings so does coffee, and it is this area I readily admit we are most lacking here at MO. I don’t really know how to improve the situation because we have a space problem, but I am working on some ideas. But for the moment here are some tips that might help. Next time you buy a cup of coffee also try a biscotti, or perhaps bring some dark chocolate to have with your coffee. Here are some pairings to try.
Sumatra: have a mayan choc chip biscotti with this and it should change the taste
Colombian: try the traditional almond biscotti
Ethiopian Harrar: try the dark chocolate almond biscotti
Zimbabwe: to be honest this would be best paired with a fruit such as blueberries, but it combines with the white and dark choc raspberry biscotti quite well
Tanzanian Peaberry: the raspberry biscotti works quite well with this one as well
Uganda: an almond biscotti compliments this coffee quite well
I know that most of us who frequent Midnight Oil were not brought up in household where we were encouraged to develop our taste for wine, which is less complex than coffee. So how would we have developed a taste for fine coffees especially when we grew up drinking our Grandparent’s pre-ground, old, stale, in a tin can, in the freezer for freshness Maxwell/Colombia House/Folgers coffee. And that in fact is what we get used to and what we come to call good coffee. It is like thinking that a bottle of Blackberry Arbor Mist is wine. It is and it isn’t. Some people think that it tastes good and they get used to it, and then when they have their first Cabernet Sauvignon or Chianti or Pinot Noir, they say that it isn’t as good as their good ol' Arbor Mist. Are they correct? In some respect perhaps, it is at least what they like better, but sometimes what we like the best isn’t always the best. So good luck, investigate our coffee, do some research on your own, try all of the different roasts we have, try different food pairings, and if you still don’t like our coffee okay, but it is at least a “decent” cup of coffee and we are continually taking steps to make it better.
Steven Baird
There are several factors to a great cup of coffee. Some of the more important are water, brewing method, the roast of the bean, the freshness of the bean, the grind of the bean, and the proper water temperature.
Almost more important than the beans themselves is water. After all coffee is mostly water so if you have poor tasting water you will have poor tasting coffee. As we all know Searcy water is not the best around, but in order to combat this we run the water through a softener and a charcoal filter. It helps but it is not absolute. Unfortunately, however, we can’t use only bottled purified water, it would cost way too much.
The brewing method is also very important. One should use freshly ground beans in order to extract the most flavor for each cup. Here at MO we use a shower head drip which evenly distributes the water over all of the grinds in the filter as opposed to lower quality machines that just use a straight stream of water to slowly fill the basket. It is generally agreed that the best brewing method is the french press. Unfortunately it would be impossible to brew the gross amounts of coffee we serve using only a french press. However, for those of you who pretend to be connoisseurs, in the near future you should be able to purchase a small pot of french press coffee for your enjoyment.
The roast is always an important part of the process, and it is the deciding factor for many people. We serve a different roast everyday and I hope that soon we will be brewing a lighter roast and a darker roast in order to serve you our customers, but until then I suggest that those of you who aren’t too fond of our coffee try our newest acquisitions, Zimbabwe and Tanzanian Peaberry. Zimbabwe is served on Thursdays and Tanzanian Peaberry on Fridays. To be completely honest the coffee should be brewed every hour to keep it from going stale, but at the moment this a luxury I have not been allowed.
Finally to taste. The research shows that coffee is seven to twenty times more complex than wine (I’ll gladly show you the research, including a lengthy article in Wine Spectator if you would like). Just as wine has proper food pairings so does coffee, and it is this area I readily admit we are most lacking here at MO. I don’t really know how to improve the situation because we have a space problem, but I am working on some ideas. But for the moment here are some tips that might help. Next time you buy a cup of coffee also try a biscotti, or perhaps bring some dark chocolate to have with your coffee. Here are some pairings to try.
Sumatra: have a mayan choc chip biscotti with this and it should change the taste
Colombian: try the traditional almond biscotti
Ethiopian Harrar: try the dark chocolate almond biscotti
Zimbabwe: to be honest this would be best paired with a fruit such as blueberries, but it combines with the white and dark choc raspberry biscotti quite well
Tanzanian Peaberry: the raspberry biscotti works quite well with this one as well
Uganda: an almond biscotti compliments this coffee quite well
I know that most of us who frequent Midnight Oil were not brought up in household where we were encouraged to develop our taste for wine, which is less complex than coffee. So how would we have developed a taste for fine coffees especially when we grew up drinking our Grandparent’s pre-ground, old, stale, in a tin can, in the freezer for freshness Maxwell/Colombia House/Folgers coffee. And that in fact is what we get used to and what we come to call good coffee. It is like thinking that a bottle of Blackberry Arbor Mist is wine. It is and it isn’t. Some people think that it tastes good and they get used to it, and then when they have their first Cabernet Sauvignon or Chianti or Pinot Noir, they say that it isn’t as good as their good ol' Arbor Mist. Are they correct? In some respect perhaps, it is at least what they like better, but sometimes what we like the best isn’t always the best. So good luck, investigate our coffee, do some research on your own, try all of the different roasts we have, try different food pairings, and if you still don’t like our coffee okay, but it is at least a “decent” cup of coffee and we are continually taking steps to make it better.
Steven Baird
