Why Whole Bean is king… and how to utilize those beans.
Roasted coffee, much like a lot of delicate consumables, tastes best when it’s “fresh”. Like a fine wine, or delicious craft beer, oxygen is the death blow to coffee’s freshness. Once you grind coffee beans the “shelf life” clock starts ticking. Oxygenation starts to take place and freshness quickly fades. This is why all the best cafes and baristas grind their beans daily.
We take a lot of pride in our coffee beans, and we want you, the customer, to enjoy them to their fullest extent. That is why FSC is primarily a whole bean company. Our goal is to provide you with THE BEST coffee we possibly can. The best coffee will always be whole bean.
Okay, so now you have your bag of whole bean coffee… you need a quality grinder. Not all coffee grinders are created equally. You will want to use a Burr grinder over a blade grinder. Burr grinders are made specifically for grinding coffee beans, whereas a lot of blade grinders are also known as spice grinders. The difference? A Burr grinder will grind your beans to the same micron throughout the entire grinding procedure, leaving you with a much more consistent extraction rate during the brewing process. Blade grinders tend to just pulverize the beans, turning some pieces to dust and leaving other pieces very large. This can result in a lack of efficiency in the brewing process, or perhaps over-extraction resulting in more bitterness… especially in brewing methods with longer contact times (such as French press)
Once you have used a Burr grinder to grind those beautiful beans, you need to be aware of the water temperature in the brewing process. Most higher end, drip style coffee makers are pretty good at staying in the 200 degree range. Cheaper ones on the other hand… total roll of the dice. For brewing methods where you are in control of the applied water temperatures, try to target 200 degrees. Anything over that will start to bring out the tannins in the grinds resulting in elevated bitterness.
As with most things in the culinary world, time and temperature make a big difference. Good coffee adds a third element - grind size, into that mix. If you’re brewing with a traditional, drip style coffee maker; you don’t have a lot of control over the first two variables, but we can all definitely become “Masters of the Grind”. Procuring a badass title like that though, starts with purchasing whole beans.
