Office coffee? Bleah.
Sanka? No thank ya.
Java has come a long way from stale brew fermenting in coffee-stained glass pots.
The proliferation of coffee shops helped usher in a new era, and coffee lovers now have a new bean to grind. Many are doing their own roasting, grinding and cupping–testing the beans’ quality by sipping and spitting out samples.
These budding hobbies reflect a trend: Americans have moved away from store-bought brands and are flocking to coffee shops and gourmet outlets–and treating coffee a lot like wine.
In coffee circles, connoisseurs refer to this trend as the “third wave” of American consumption, said Kristin Marks, 20, a barista at Metropolis in Rogers Park.
From the first wave–freeze-dried and canned brands–Americans leapt to the second wave, making espresso at home and frequenting quality cafes such as Starbucks.
The third wave carries coffee drinking to the next level, with specialized roasting, grinding and cupping, and picking gourmet beans by their vintages from around the world.
The total consumption of gourmet coffee has reached an all-time high, with 63 percent of Americans saying they drank at least one gourmet coffee beverage within the past year, according to a recent study by the National Coffee Association of USA.
In the U.S., 80 percent of adults drink coffee, gulping down an average of 3.3 cups a day, according to 2005 figures from the coffee association.
For coffee fanatics looking for more than a caffeine fix, gulping won’t do. They prefer “cupping.”
It may sound like some illicit practice at a rave, but it’s simply a do-it-yourself way to flex increasingly picky coffee palates.
Professional bean testers have been cupping for years, and now regular consumers have picked up the habit. Cupping involves taking roasted coffee beans, grinding them into coarse particles, pouring steamed water over them, and sipping the brew to identify flavors or detect bad batches of beans.
Coffee cupping is similar to wine tasting: Tasters often spit out the brew after tasting it, and they judge a coffee by its aroma. Both fields share many of the same terms.
“Acidity, body are used in both. Flavor terms overlap strongly,” said connoisseur Jim Schulman, an engineer and graduate student at the University of Chicago. “You’ll also find these [terms] in beer and cider tasting.”
Most cuppers wouldn’t waste their time on low-grade beans found in a lot of canned coffee brands, reserving the exercise for premium beans used in the increasingly popular gourmet blends.
A specialty coffee boom in the mid-1990s helped reverse a 30-year decline in American coffee consumption, according to the Automatic Merchandiser, a publication for vending and coffee service operators. Census research from 2002 shows that about 9,400 coffee shops in the U.S. generated about $4 billion in sales.
“Until 10 years ago, you couldn’t drink the coffee in this country,” Northwestern graduate student Paul North, 35, said while sipping coffee with his wife, Carolina Baffi, at Metropolis on a recent afternoon. “Now I’m drinking like three [cups] a day, three, maybe four.”
Nearly half of 18- to 34-year-olds say they drink coffee at coffee shops, according to market research by consumer trends analysts Mintel. They’re also less likely than other age groups to drink coffee at home, the 2005 report found.
When North started drinking coffee at about age 15, “the coffee was terrible, and it cost 50 cents a cup at the local deli. And then I went to Europe, and thank goodness while I was in Europe everything in the States changed.”
Refined tastes pushed this evolution, but it’s also about bonding and networking, North said.
“The cafe has really replaced the bar as a place of gathering … and conversation,” said North, who learned about coffee from being a regular at Metropolis
Connoisseurs also connect online at sites such as portafilter.net and coffeegeek.com. And cupping parties and roastery tours have become the “it” thing to do.
Chicago-based Intelligentsia gives tours of its Roasting Works Facility at 1850 W. Fulton St. on the first Saturday of every month. Some tourgoers become more rooted in their addiction the more they learn about coffee, Intelligentsia spokesman Marc Johnson said.
“Starbucks did a good job” of raising America’s “coffee intelligence,” said Johnson, who used to work for Starbucks. “Some of these people are really intense, they are really into it.”
Johnson said that Intelligenstia’s sales increased 14 percent in 2005 from 2004. “A lot of that is driven by coffee enthusiasts,” he said.
Schulman, one of those enthusiasts, reviews “green” or raw coffee beans for home roasters at coffeecuppers.com, a Web site he operates with a friend in Vermont.
But don’t call Schulman coffee crazy or a coffee snob. He’s just someone who knows his way around cupping and grinding.
“Coffee is best the week after it’s roasted,” Schulman said. “Coffee oxidizes [after it’s ground]. It goes stale like bread.”
The 53-year-old was enticed by gourmet coffee about seven years ago because of his love of fine foods. “I drink three to five cups a day or have an espresso,” Schulman said.
He spends between $350 and $750 a year on coffee.
Schulman also shelled out $200 for a popcorn popper for roasting coffee beans, $300 for a grinder and $900 for a small commercial espresso machine. A home espresso maker just wouldn’t do for the man who hosts cuppings: “You have to have something that can serve four or five people in one sitting.”
But of course.
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The inside scoop
It’s funny how coffee seeped into Kristin Marks’ blood. The 20-year-old barista–a trained espresso maker–took a position at Metropolis three years ago just because it was a job.
“I didn’t even like coffee when I started,” she said. “Now I’m addicted.”
She also can school the coffee clueless about flavor profiles, coffee-growing regions and blend construction of beans.
Amateur enthusiast Jim Schulman, a University of Chicago student, also knows a few things about coffee. Marks and Schulman shared some tips.
– When “cupping,” or grinding and sampling different beans for their tastes, slurp it up in a spoon and spit it out. You don’t want to overload by swallowing, Marks advised. A co-worker “once said it’s like free-basing caffeine.”
– Customers should ask questions about their coffee, because the more you know about what you like, the better coffee servers can fine-tune your selection, Marks said. Marks thought she knew it all when she worked at other coffeehouses–that was before she had to pass a written test at Metropolis.
– Some baristas can perform what’s called latte art, crafting images from foam. Marks can make leaves and rosettes, and a co-worker can fashion a White Sox logo.
– Coffee goes stale soon after it’s ground, Schulman said. So you should brew the beans within a half-hour of grinding them for the best flavor, he said.
– Even a process seemingly as simple as grinding makes a big difference in taste, Schulman said. Blade or spice grinders are cheap and will get the job done, but the coffee grounds come out in uneven sizes.
“The coffee doesn’t brew right,” he said. Burr grinders are best, Schulman said, because they mill the beans like wheat or corn for really uniform grounds.
– “If I had to give one or two tips,” said Marks’ boss, Metropolis co-owner Tony Dreyfuss: “Buy a grinder. And buy coffee within a week of the roast and use it within a week. Freshness is absolutely the most important thing.”
— Phillip Thompson
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BY THE NUMBERS
Hallowed grounds
The statistics don’t lie: Americans are crazy for their coffee.
56
Percent of Americans who drink coffee every day. That’s up from 53 percent in 2005.
72
Percent of 25- to 39-year-olds who have had at least one gourmet coffee beverage in the past year, compared with 67 percent in 2005.
31
Percent of 18- to 24-year-olds who say they drink coffee.
2
Basic types of coffee trees: The arabica, which produces the more expensive and flavorful variety; and robusta, which yields the often cheaper but more full-bodied bean generally found in canned and freeze-dried blends.
[SOURCE: National Coffee Association of USA]— Phillip Thompson
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plthompson@tribune.com
