Do you make a conscious or unconscious taste adjustment when you drink single origin shots? I think I do. For instance, if I'm pulling shots with a Harrar that has great blueberries, I tend to be so psyched about tasting the blueberries that I ignore other things that may be taste flaws. It might be sour, or need more body, but I get a tunnel vision effect, and I just concentrate on the flavor that I'm seeking. The shot will be exciting for me, but maybe other folks, being more objective, would find it flawed.
It's not just blueberries, of course. The same thing can happen when I taste great orange-fruity flavors in a Rwandan or even just a classic earthy Sumatra.
Tonight I chatted on the phone with Kevin C about this issue. He talked how the origin flavors could come through with much greater clarity than they could in a blend. As he said this, I flashed on how an SOS was like an expert soloist performing on their instrument; you could hear every nuance of style and interpretation. An espresso blend, on the other hand, was like a chamber group, with harmony and complexity being more important than solo virtuosity.
One of my goals as a barista, although I'm only an amateur, is to make single origin shots joyously expressive of their uniqueness, while remaining finely balanced. The Harrar shot that Kevin prepared last week did this pretty darn well. On a forty-year-old espresso machine!
But Beethoven's op 132 quartet would definitely be a single origin shot
ReplyDeleteCello is the terroir, Viola is the faster maturing beans, 2nd violin is the Bourbon, 1st violin is the SL28 blended in. :).... I dunno
Yirgacheffe is pure harpsichord (Bach's Goldberg Variations)... Why would someone throw in symphonic drums?
This whole SOS tastes better than blends thing is trivial and unanswerable... but anonymous and diluted blends surely don't help the farmers who created them.
And no offence intended, but blends bore me! ;)
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather that Chateau Beaucastel served 13 different wines than blend all 13 CdP varietals... Sure Beaucastel wine tastes decent, but I feel mentally lost while drinking it.
Just my small preference in a valid soup of diverse opinions.
(I promise this is my last point until someone else responds)
ReplyDeleteI think it's okay to have to recalibrate too. Unless there's some preconceived notion of how coffee should taste; like a muzaq formula.
I personally cut SOS's slack when tasting. Often it is a learning experince when pulling and drinking the shots and also as you mentioned, looking for an atribute. I have had some great SOS's, some not-so-greats and some pretty bad ones - pulled by me ;), but each time I have learned something from the shot - even from the flaws.
ReplyDeleteHarrar... a good example of a one sided SOS. No matter how you pull it to get the 'blueberries', you will always have a funk that is nasty.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't we use an analogy without getting dorky about classical music?
How about a good SOS is like a skilled soloist who can stand alone, but a good blend is often a bunch of poor players harmonizing into something better.
I love this article.
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