Demystifying Coffee: Just the Basics

  Getting Started with Coffee

Coffee and all that its world encompasses today can be confusing. I toss the word coffee around rather cavalierly and use it to define quite a few things — a drink, a bean, a crop, an industry. It used to be far easier, and if you’re old enough, you probably remember the biggest decision was whether you wanted cream and sugar or black. The story is quite different today as the industry has exploded and, in that growth, it has become immensely confusing. I want to make it easier so you just might start to understand it better, gain a bit more confidence with it, and in the end, enjoy that coffee experience way more.

 This chapter serves as your jumping-off point into the world of coffee. Whether you like it with cream and sugar, with just a little cream, with steamed milk, with some syrup and whipped cream, or just black, you can find the basics in this chap ter and then dive into the rest of this book for more details in your search of the perfect cup.

Understanding What Coffee Is (and Isn’t)

 Coffee is right up near the top of the list of the most consumed beverages in the world. (It actually ranks third behind water and tea.) But before it gets to your cup, it’s a significant, globally grown agricultural crop that represents a livelihood to millions of people around the world.

 Coffee is all the following:

 » A seed (the bean), well protected in a layered fruit (the cherry).

 » Put through one of a number of distinct processes in order to get to the seed at the center. Whichever process is used plays a big part in its eventual taste. (Refer to Chapter 2 for more about the different processes and how they can affect the taste of coffee.)

 » An annual crop — and, like wine, a different crop every year, even if it’s from the same place. (The chapters in Part 3 look at the different places in the world where coffee is grown.)

 » Significantly impacted by environmental conditions, such as temperature, rainfall, and where it grows. Refer to Chapter 2 for more info on coffee growing and the impact the environment has on it

 Appreciating Coffee — from Its Past to Today

 To better understand coffee today, it’s useful to look at where it came from. With a history spanning across centuries as well as the globe, coffee is more easily under stood when you know some of its historical background. That history has witnessed romance, revolution, discovery, and turbulent change, all of which have led to coffee being what it is today. The following sections give you a snapshot of impor tant historical developments that have led the coffee industry to its present state.

 A world of farms and fickle crops

 At its most basic, coffee is a precious miracle of nature. Although it’s scientifically classified in a rather confusing hierarchy of names, here I focus on two types of coffee crops:

 Arabica: Represents about 70 percent of what is grown and consumed around the world and is the type seen most prominently in the gourmet or specialty coffee business. Arabica is difficult to grow because it needs elevation and is easily impacted by insects and disease. Even if everything goes perfectly in a crop year, the yield with Arabica is limited. Arabica is the type that has the best taste though, with complexities and flavors that are unrivaled.

» Robusta: This would be the ideal type of coffee because it has greater yield per tree than Arabica, isn’t as susceptible to insects or disease, and grows at any elevation. Unfortunately, it’s known for its harsh taste characteristics, and even though a significant quantity is grown, processed, and consumed, it isn’t considered specialty or gourmet.

 The cherry is picked annually, and it yields seeds. About 95 to 97 percent of the time, each fruit has two seeds; 3 to 5 percent of the time, it has a peaberry. A pea berry is the seed of a cherry that has only grown one inside. Multiple decisions regarding growing, often driven by long-standing practices, availability of water, and technology, determine how the trees are raised, how their fruit is collected, and finally how the seed inside that fruit, the coffee bean, is handled. These fac tors all have a significant impact on the taste of the coffee when it gets to you, the consumer.

Going back to coffee’s roots

 An almost inadvertent discovery by some goats and their herdsman might just have started it all. Whether this story is truth or fable, the centuries that followed that discovery certainly saw coffee rise as a brewed beverage that inspired pas sionate interest and dialog.

Religious leaders, politicians, and artists played a part in the development of the beverage’s refinement and a burgeoning café society. Cultures across time and the globe seem to have been imbued with coffee and its side effects. Furthermore, industrial and cultural revolutions, coupled with the growth of coffee consump tion across all demographics, put coffee at the forefront of change. An industry sprang up from those changes as entrepreneurs recognized a wide-open frontier and major opportunities. Chapter 3 examines the history of coffee — where people started drinking it and how the business of coffee started.

Examining coffee and roasting today

 Coffee in modern times really began with a vision and a dream in the late 1960s. A transition occurred that involved a small group of entrepreneurs taking a differ ent approach. Specifically they began focusing on origin (where the coffee is grown), quality, craft roasting, and taste as fundamental to their coffee work. Like many entrepreneurial adventures, that of coffee is wonderfully woven into a kind of art and science, and roasting coffee is central to and representative of that. I discuss how coffee roasting has evolved in Chapters 9 and 10

Traveling Worldwide — Where Coffee Is Grown

 I realized early in my journey with coffee that I was challenged by global geogra phy. The equator and the continents were easy to recognize, but the names and locations of countries, borders, mountains, lakes, and streams quickly became overwhelming as I learned more about coffee. I also found that geography estab lished connections to the perceived quality and inherent characteristics linked to taste

Add to all that the crucial environmental elements, because growing coffee requires Mother Nature’s cooperation. The following are important aspects of climate:

 » Temperature

 » Rainfall

» Soil conditions

 » Sun, shade, and wind

 Visiting the Western Hemisphere

 In the Americas, coffee has been grown successfully in several countries, both large and small. Chapter 6 provides more in-depth information about these places

Central America

 Some of these smaller countries feature a few of the most noteworthy coffees and coffee success stories of the last century

» Costa Rica: Known as the Switzerland of Central America, Costa Rica offers a perfect environment for growing coffee. Peace and neutrality have allowed for the development and growth of an envied coffee infrastructure. Figure 1-1 shows a Costa Rican coffee farm.

 » El Salvador: Societal development, the coffee industry, and cultural growth in El Salvador both benefited and suffered together over the past 25 years, and a solid but still not fully realized coffee opportunity exists there.

 » Guatemala: This country is the source of some of the most exquisite and treasured coffees in the world.

» Honduras: This country has a burgeoning coffee industry and an increasing premium crop production.

» Mexico: One of the world’s top ten coffee producers, Mexico features diverse, mountainous terrain and an equally diverse range of potential flavor profiles.

 » Nicaragua: Although coffee is a principal crop in Nicaragua, an opportunity remains for both increased output and better quality.

 » Panama: The famed Boquete Valley, and an interest and investment in producing the Geisha varietal, have cemented Panama’s reputation for amazing coffees

 South America

 An almost perfect coffee-growing climate and vast land made South America a prime spot for cultivating a relatively new crop all the way back in the 1700s. Today it’s home to Brazil and Colombia, the top coffee producers in the world for annual production. Here are countries in South American known for coffee production:

 » Bolivia: A forest called the Yungas in the Andes Mountains is home to some strikingly beautiful, high-elevation coffee farms. Despite Bolivia having a past reputation for lower-quality output, the industry is watching and waiting to see what the future holds

 » Brazil: The largest coffee producer hasn’t always been the best, but Brazil has focused on fine-tuning its crops; some prodigious infrastructure efforts and a significant goal to be a top premium coffee source have spurred a resurgence.

 » Colombia: Famous thanks to stellar marketing and some beautiful coffees, Colombia is thought by many to be “the most coffee” of coffees when it comes to flavor in the cup.

 » Ecuador: Small farms in the Andes are producing limited quantities, but there’s currently hope for infrastructure investment, because coffee in Ecuador has considerable potential

» Peru: A diversity of growing regions in this country has resulted in a wide variety of intriguing flavor profiles

 » Venezuela: At one time, Venezuela had a coffee output that was comparable to its high-production neighbors. However, Venezuela’s diminishing output has really taken away from the country’s coffee exports, and so most of the interesting and good-quality crop is consumed in country.

 The Islands 

 With striking mountainous regions and situated perfectly in the tropical climate of the equatorial belt, these islands have history and heritage in coffee. Three are in the Caribbean Sea and one is in the Pacific Ocean, but all continue to have tre mendous potential and some considerable pedigree as coffee growing origins:

 » Cuba: Although Cuba has been growing coffee since the mid-18th century, the political situation has all but eliminated any output from what is a coffee growing environment with true potential

 » Dominican Republic: This is another country with a long-established history of coffee farming and recognized potential for investment and renewed effort.

» Hawaii: These islands host some of the most beautiful coffee farms and celebrate production of some of the most favored and pricey coffees in the world

 » Jamaica: The famed Blue Mountains, which are located in the eastern third of the island, are home to coffee farms with a heritage that dates back to 1723 and French King Louis XV. King Louis sent three plants as a gift to Martinique, and five years later the governor of Martinique gave one of those as a gift to Jamaica’s governor

Heading to Africa

 Home to the birthplace of coffee, and centuries later some of the most powerful stories of human perseverance and resilience, Africa today is an important fron tier for innovation and growth in the coffee industry. Here are the countries in Africa that are known for coffee (Chapter 7 takes a closer look at coffee in Africa).

 Northeast Africa

 The Great Rift Valley, Mt. Kenya, and the Ethiopian Plateau combine to establish a splendid geography for coffee production in these two countries:

 » Ethiopia: The birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia is home to a long-standing, established culture that is centered on coffee and its place in community. Ethiopian coffees are some of the most exotic in the world

» Kenya: Although not the largest in terms of output among the African coffee countries, Kenya is certainly recognized and celebrated for its unusual and often high-quality, noteworthy coffees with unique flavor characteristics all their own

 Southern Africa

 This region is home to countries that are often seen as having the greatest poten tial in the industry, as development and innovation are alive there. Following are the main coffee producers in southern Africa:

 » Burundi: An on-again, off-again approach has impacted Burundi’s coffee consistency; despite that, this small country is often the source of some unique offerings

 » Congo: Some refreshingly bright and flavorful coffees have come out of Congo in recent years

» Malawi: Despite the fact that this country has experienced turbulence linked to political instability, Malawi still has been able to export some tasty coffees that have found their way to consumers in Europe and the United States.

 » Rwanda: Highly respected for their response to the tragedy of genocide in the 1990s and the ensuing focus on coffee as a key to a brighter, more prosper ous future, Rwandan coffee growers have established a reputation for producing some terrific coffees.

» Tanzania: Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru are home to some highly regarded coffee farms, and coffee plays an important role in Tanzania’s economy.

 » Zambia: A small country with a growing interest in expanding its coffee industry, Zambia is another country with potential — one to be watched.

 Heading to the Eastern Hemisphere

 Perhaps the most remote and exotic environments for coffee growing exist in the region known as the Asia Pacific. Head to Chapter 8 for more information about coffee in Asia

Consider coffee in the following countries:

 » China: Although coffee production in China didn’t really begin in earnest until the late 1980s, what has been developed, primarily in the Yunnan Region, has been impressive, and green coffee buyers now recognize coffee from China as having huge potential

» India: An incredibly long history of both coffee and tea production has made India a long-standing and important source of both beverages.

 » Indonesia: The thousands of islands that make up Indonesia include a few that have established an enduring and respected place in the world of coffee.

» Papua New Guinea: Coffee represents an important export for Papua New Guinea, and the industry began here with the importation of coffee seeds from the Jamaican Blue Mountains in the early 1920s.

 » Vietnam: The number-two coffee producer in the world, Vietnam has made progress in establishing itself as a source for quality and not just quantity over the past few decades, and so high-quality coffee exports from this country are being noted more than ever

 » Yemen: Coffee dates way back to the 6th century in Yemen. The Arabian Port of Mokha, a Yemen coffee variety called Mocha, and a drink named Mocha all contribute to the confusion, but there is no denying that Yemen has been the source of some of the greatest coffees

Getting Started with Indian Cooking & How spices traveled outside India

Exploring India through Food

There is no single Indian cuisine. The more I travel through India in search of new recipes and ways of cooking (I’ve loved going on food trips for many years now), the more convinced I am that there is no other land as varied. India almost seems like it’s several countries in one.

If you’ve traveled to India, you know what I mean. The food of the North and the South (and I’m bunching vast land masses here) vary hugely and then there are countless more smaller regions to consider, too.

In this chapter, I take you on a journey through India so you can see what influ ences this diversity.

The Early Use of Spices

Records of excavations of early civilizations suggest that my ancestors were eating grains and spices from as far back as 3000 BCE. Medical texts estimated to be from the first and second centuries mention spices and herbs for healing purposes. 

How spices traveled outside India

 Early Europeans imported spices from India to use in food and incense. Around 2,500 years ago, the Arabs controlled the trade. Spices could change hands a dozen times between their source and Europe, soaring in value with each transaction, and the Arabs were the greatest of the middlemen. Eager to keep it that way, they did everything possible to confuse consumers about the origins, some stories claiming that spices grew on remote mountains in Arabia!

 Pepper was prized and there was even a Guild of Pepperers in London, the records of which date back to 1180. They bought and sold spices and also controlled the quality. Things changed in the 15th century when the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovered the route to India by navigating around the Cape of Good Hope. Direct trade routes between Europe and the East opened, and spices such as cinnamon, pepper, and cloves became more commonplace in Western markets.

Later, when the British started the East India Company, its officers began sending Indian recipes in letters back home. Slowly, suburban English housewives began to cook curries in their homes. There was of course, a lack of authentic ingredients and cookware: Tender green mangoes were replaced with tart English apples, and curries that were traditionally thickened with onion paste began to be made with a roux of flour and butter. Basically, they started to make a curry and ended up with apple pie.

 To compensate for the lack of all the necessary spices, a convenient mix was cre ated and became known as curry powder. Even today, curry powder is a generic blend that doesn’t even hint at the complexity and variety of India’s cooking

 No self-respecting Indian cook uses curry powder. Instead, there are subtle regional spices blends in every part of the country that make each cuisine distinct.

 Soon small Indian restaurants began to be seen in London, and in the last century, Indian sailors who had fled British ships due to terrible working conditions opened Indian takeout restaurants in the East End. Catering mainly to late pub-goers, they created a simplistic curry menu based on pungency. A fiery hot curry was vindaloo (actually a Goan–Portuguese curry), a Madras was medium (you can’t f ind a Madras curry in India, let alone an area called Madras), and a korma was mild (a chile korma can be super spicy in India). Along the way, the popular curry known as chicken tikka masala was invented and caught the fancy of the British public; today it’s one of the highest-selling ready meals

 Menus based on heat levels have thrived until present day, and people who have only eaten restaurant food believe it to be the real thing. In this book, I hope to show you how diverse Indian cooking really is and that heat is just one of the things to consider when creating your meal.

 The influences that make Indian cooking so diverse

 With so many regions, it’s easy to be perplexed by the variety in Indian cooking. If I tell you that India is a vast country, you may reply that there are many other vast countries in the world. That’s completely true, but none has a cuisine that changes every few miles. Here are the reasons Indian cooking is so diverse:

 » Climate: You may think that all of India is a hot country because it’s in a tropical part of the world, but there are many places in the country that are cold enough to experience snowfall. When we’re in a hot place, we want to eat cooling foods, like ice cream. But it’s India, so we’ll talk about spices. Chilies contain a compound called capsaicin in their membranes; capsaicin is what makes them hot, but when we eat them, capsaicin also makes our blood vessels dilate and makes us sweat. Have you seen some people mopping their foreheads when eating a hot curry? Sweating helps us cool down, and that’s why in hotter parts of India such as the South, which is nearer the equator, recipes have lots of chilies. You’ll find milder curries spiced with pepper in the colder regions.

 » Geography: In such a big country, eating local food and not paying for transport costs is definitely cheaper. Local recipes make the most of ingredi ents that grow close by, so you’ll find coconut-based curries in the South and wheat breads in the North. The desert state of Rajasthan uses few fresh vegetables. The ones that do grow are dried and cooked with fiery spices to combat the searingly hot and dry climate. The availability of water is a big contributor to food diversity. In fertile regions that are fed by rivers and seas, more crops can grow. Similarly, there are a variety of soil conditions all over India — the rich black soil of Western India supports the growth of millet, whereas the alluvial soil of Punjab in the North is good for wheat.

 » Religious beliefs: India is home to many major religious groups. Growing up in cosmopolitan Bombay (as Mumbai was then called), I had Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist friends, and we all celebrated each other’s festivals and foods. We knew that some Hindu friends would be vegetarian, whereas others would eat meat but never beef. Our Muslim friends didn’t eat pork. The Jains didn’t eat root vegetables (their way of life is based on nonviolence, so killing of life forms by uprooting vegetables is prohibited). The cuisine of each community is based on these religious beliefs and meant that I was eating vastly diverse foods from when I was quite little

» Trade, migration, and conquest: I don’t like to use the word authentic when speaking about Indian cooking. Although the cuisine is ancient, there are so many foreign influences that make it what it is today. (I explain more about this concept in the sections that follow.) At the heart of the cuisine is the world’s need for India’s spices and what each of the foreign powers brought with them in exchange. Pepper, the spice that started it all, is said to have changed the history of the world

The North: Of Conquest, Kings, and Empire

If you travel through North India, you’ll be struck by the beautiful Islamic and British architecture in many cities. Over many centuries, parts of this vast region of India have been ruled by the Greeks, the Mughals, and the British. The food you’ll eat here is a result of these conquests, and perhaps Mughal cooking was the one that changed the culinary scene the most.

Delhi: The Mughals and Islamic influences

New Delhi is the modern capital of India. It has a cosmopolitan population of poli ticians, diplomats, and business officials, and the cuisine reflects the diversity of its past history. The streets are lined with stalls selling tandoor cooked foods, crisp samosas, and rich biryanis. As evening turns to dusk, the city’s rich and famous dress up in their best silks to attend countless cocktail and dinner parties where tables creak with the best of Mughlai food.

This is a legacy left by the Mughal rulers who reigned over a large part of India from their capital Delhi from 1526, before the British took over. The cuisine was influenced by Persian and Turkish cooking as the rulers had ties with these cul tures (the official language of the Mughal rulers was Persian). Today’s korma, biryani, kofta, and kebab are a Mughal legacy and have become mainstream North Indian dishes. Traces of Mughlai cooking can be seen in some southern cities such as Hyderabad, where the Mughal Empire extended to

Because of the Islamic origins of this style of cooking, and in reverence to the many Hindu courtiers that advised the kings, pork and beef dishes were not included. Indian restaurants offering Mughlai food today serve it up as a mild, delicious cuisine based on creamy or nut-based curries laced with dried fruits and rich spices, such as saffron and cardamom. Desserts are flavored with rose water and pistachios, and the recipes are typically richer than those found in other parts of India. This is an indulgent cuisine; in India, it’s seen as a treat

The foothills of the Himalayas: Basmati rice

Although India grows many different varieties of rice, basmati is the best known outside its country of origin. This beautiful, aromatic (the name basmati means “fragrant”), long-grained rice finds the climatic and soil conditions at the bases of the Himalayan mountain range ideal.

In India, basmati rice is considered special and is more expensive than other rice varieties. This is because it’s a uniquely slender grain that cooks up fluffy, a trait that’s valued in Indian cooking. To enhance this quality of cooking into separate grains, it’s aged in warehouses where conditions such as light, air, temperature, and humidity are highly controlled. This results in each grain drying and forming a light skin, which can effectively seal the grain and help lock in the starch. The aging process can take anywhere from a year and a half to two years, the longer period yielding a more expensive rice.

When the British divided India at the time of independence in 1947, a part of this basmati-growing territory fell in the newly formed country of Pakistan. The cui sines of both countries celebrate this superlative grain in dishes such as biryani and pulao.

Punjab and the Partition of India

A number of Indians who live outside of India are Punjabi in origin. Around the time of Partition, when the state of Punjab got divided, Hindus living in the newly formed country of Pakistan and Muslims living in the Indian part of Punjab crossed borders, giving rise to one of the world’s largest human migrations. The chaos, genocide, and displacement meant that some people fled to postwar Britain where jobs were available along with the opportunity to begin life anew.

They brought with them the unique food of the North — so much so that, today, in many parts of the world, when someone talks of Indian cooking, it’s Punjabi food that they’re referring to. Rich onion- and tomato-flavored curries, aloo gobi, saag paneer, or the delicious tandoori foods (cooked slowly in a clay oven called the tandoor), even the naans and parathas, all came from Punjab.

Ingredients that you would commonly find in a Punjabi kitchen are beans such as chickpeas and red kidney beans; black lentils; vegetables such as cauliflower, potatoes, peas, and turnips; and whole-wheat flour to make many kinds of breads. Punjab grows a lot of wheat and was once known as the granary of India.

There are many stories about how tandoori cooking came to be associated with India. It was already being used in undivided Punjab and, after Partition, found its way to the Indian side of the state. Because a tandoor is quite large and needs to be brought to the right temperature over some time (as you do with a barbecue), it was impractical for every Punjabi home to fire one up every evening. Communal tandoors were set up, with each village having one. People prepared their dough at home and took it to the village tandoor to have their rotis cooked. Eventually, commercial tandoori shops offered cooked breads to take away, and the commu nal tandoor became less of a ritual; today, only a few villages have one

Kashmir and its saffron fields

Kashmir is one of the most beautiful states of India, resplendent with green val leys, flowing waterfalls, pine forests, and fruit-filled orchards. Due to its proxim ity to the Himalayas, Kashmir was the natural passage to India for many invaders. Its cuisine is, therefore, a mix of Indian, Persian, and Afghan styles

The cooking of Kashmir is best showcased in the Wazawan or traditional Kashmiri feast. Even today, the master chefs of Kashmir are hailed as the descendants of the traditional chefs from Samarkand, the Wazas who came to India with the ruler Timur when he entered India in the 15th century. The royal Wazawan, comprising 36 courses, is a feast that few can get through. The meal begins with the ritual of washing the hands. Then the tramis (dishes filled with food) begin to arrive. The entrees are eaten with a sticky, dense variety of rice, which is prized. Much of the Wazawan is meat-based because this is a sign of affluence, but vegetarian dishes with lotus root or potatoes are also served

Two distinct groups of people live in Kashmir — the Muslims and the Hindus — and their cuisines are also distinct. Spices such as dried ginger, ground fennel, and saffron, which grow in Kashmir, are used. This state is known for its quality saf fron. The bright red stigma of the saffron crocus flower produces the spice, which is considered the most expensive one in the world. The cost is due to the labor- intensive harvesting process where around 200,000 stigmas need to be collected to make up a pound of saffron!

The East: Tea Plantations, Tempting Sweets, and Treasures of the Sea

The food of East India is also influenced by trade and colonization. Parts of this region share a border with neighboring China and Myanmar, so those influences are evident; you’ll find ingredients such as pork, bamboo shoots, and soya beans. Don’t be fooled into thinking that all the food here is gentle and mild — this region is also home to one of the world’s most fiery chilies, the bhut jolokia, or ghost chile, which is so hot that one little taste and you yourself will become a ghost

Tea and the British

Have you heard that India is one of the world’s largest producers of tea? Much of it is drunk in house, so we have a nation of tea lovers. The industry as we know it today was introduced to India by the British. The Dutch had brought tea back to Europe from the 17th century, and the British considered it to be both a medicinal and a refreshing drink.

China was the only country growing tea at the time, and the British wanted to top ple China’s monopoly. So, they smuggled opium into China with the aim of exchanging it for tea and even got Bengali farmers to grow opium for them instead of staple crops needed to feed the masses. This did not impress the Chinese.

Early tea plantations were set up in the hilly regions of Assam from 1837. Soon after, tea estates mushroomed in Darjeeling. Both these eastern areas had perfect growing conditions, and even today, driving through the beautiful mountain roads, you can only admire the step plantations carved into every hillside.

In India, everything needs to be spiced with masala, so it isn’t surprising that the brew was enhanced with ginger, cardamom, and fennel seeds to make Masala Chai (Spiced Tea; see Chapter 21). The Indian word for tea is chai, and I’ve heard it comes from the Chinese word cha. This delicious brew has caught the world’s fancy (although strangely called chai tea, which translates as “tea tea,” in the West) and seems to be a much-loved flavor in lattes and ice creams