A Beginner's Guide To Buying Great Coffee — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03[Music]
2. 0:15welcome to today's video and the
3. 0:16beginning of a series of sorts a
4. 0:18beginner's guide to coffee and this
5. 0:20video is a beginner's guide to coffee
6. 0:22buying
7. 0:23now i know you know how to buy coffee
8. 0:25but what today's video is all about is
9. 0:27helping you
10. 0:28explore the world of coffee more easily
11. 0:31more enjoyably
12. 0:32with less mistakes here's the thing if
13. 0:34you have found a coffee that you love be
14. 0:36it a coffee roaster or a coffee brand
15. 0:38that's great i don't want to stop you
16. 0:39drinking that thing i'm not going to
17. 0:41tell you what to drink today
18. 0:43but part of the joy of coffee is the
19. 0:45diversity of flavor and whatever you're
20. 0:46enjoying now
21. 0:47there's something something out there
22. 0:49that i think you could enjoy
23. 0:51even more but what i don't want you to
24. 0:53do is experiment
25. 0:54gamble buy something that kind of looks
26. 0:56good and then hate it
27. 0:58that's the goal today help you buy stuff
28. 1:00that you're likely to really enjoy
29. 1:02and avoid stuff that you're likely to
30. 1:03really dislike we're gonna break this
31. 1:05down into three
32. 1:06sections part one is gonna be the kind
33. 1:08of golden rules of buying coffee
34. 1:10part two will be where to buy coffee and
35. 1:12the pros and cons of each
36. 1:13and then part three will be about kind
37. 1:15of decoding a bag of coffee decoding the
38. 1:17label on a bag of coffee
39. 1:18what are they trying to tell you and how
40. 1:20do you match that marry that up to what
41. 1:22you want
42. 1:23before we begin i should disclose a
43. 1:25couple of very important ways in which i
44. 1:26am biased firstly i have a strong
45. 1:28preference and i'm a big advocate for
46. 1:30specialty coffee if you're watching this
47. 1:32and you don't like specialty coffee
48. 1:34that's okay this is still a useful video
49. 1:36for you but just know that i have a very
50. 1:38strong preference towards it secondly
51. 1:40i also co-own a coffee company now none
52. 1:42of our products are in the video today
53. 1:44there are no links to our products in
54. 1:45the description down below
55. 1:47but you should know and i should
56. 1:48disclose this right at the start so
57. 1:50let's begin
58. 1:51the golden rules for buying coffee and
59. 1:53the first one
60. 1:54you probably know buy fresh
61. 1:57but what does fresh mean now coffee
62. 1:59after roasting declines
63. 2:01in a pretty steady way over time it
64. 2:03loses its aromatics they kind of float
65. 2:05off into the atmosphere and escape and
66. 2:06you also develop some
67. 2:08unpleasant flavors things go stale and
68. 2:10they begin to oxidize
69. 2:11and so a combination of those things is
70. 2:13is what happens when coffee stales and
71. 2:15goes off
72. 2:15it's food safe for a really really long
73. 2:19time
74. 2:19some of you might have seen i've drunk
75. 2:20coffee from the 1950s and while i
76. 2:22wouldn't necessarily recommend it
77. 2:24yeah coffee lasts a really really long
78. 2:27time but it's not
79. 2:28at its best now typically coffee will be
80. 2:30dated
81. 2:31in one of two different ways specialty
82. 2:33coffee typically will offer you a roast
83. 2:36date the day on which it was roasted and
84. 2:38that's pretty useful you know how old
85. 2:40the coffee is exactly however
86. 2:42if you're selling a product through a
87. 2:43supermarket supermarkets don't
88. 2:45want you to put a roast date on there
89. 2:47they hate roast dates they want
90. 2:49a best before date this is often 12 even
91. 2:5118
92. 2:52sometimes 24 months after the roasting
93. 2:55date
94. 2:55so you don't really know when the coffee
95. 2:58was roasted this is not a choice that
96. 3:00the roasters get to make really this is
97. 3:01a choice from supermarkets in fact
98. 3:03here on the table i've got the same
99. 3:05coffee one
100. 3:06from a supermarket and this has a best
101. 3:08before date
102. 3:10and the same roaster same coffee bought
103. 3:12directly from them
104. 3:14has a roasted on date so understand
105. 3:17this is a little bit confusing way you
106. 3:18buy it will impact the information that
107. 3:20you have
108. 3:21more on that a little bit later on today
109. 3:22we're going to cover coffees for both
110. 3:24filter coffee drinking and for espresso
111. 3:26and what gets confusing about the
112. 3:27messaging of fresh is that fresh
113. 3:30isn't always the best now when you roast
114. 3:32coffee a lot of co2 comes out that's why
115. 3:34any bag of coffee will have a little
116. 3:36valve on it that you can squeeze the gas
117. 3:37out of now when it comes to espresso in
118. 3:39particular
119. 3:40fresher isn't always better because
120. 3:42there's a lot of co2 in very fresh
121. 3:44coffee beans when you try and brew them
122. 3:46as espresso a lot of gas comes out in
123. 3:47this pressurized environment and it can
124. 3:49make
125. 3:50for a disrupted brewing process it's
126. 3:52harder to brew
127. 3:53really really fresh coffee and many
128. 3:55people rest the coffee
129. 3:56for seven to ten days sometimes two
130. 3:58weeks if not sometimes longer
131. 4:00to make it a little easier to brew for
132. 4:02espresso with filtered coffee
133. 4:04it's less of a concern a day or two fine
134. 4:06you know it's pretty easy to brew from
135. 4:08that point onwards it gets a little bit
136. 4:09easier the older it is
137. 4:11when you're trying to hit a kind of
138. 4:12window of anywhere from a week to
139. 4:14six weeks in which it's going to be at
140. 4:15its best and speaking of at its best
141. 4:18we need to talk also about ground coffee
142. 4:21versus whole bean i will
143. 4:22always always always advocate for whole
144. 4:24bean coffee for a couple of reasons
145. 4:26firstly it's better value for money with
146. 4:28ground coffee
147. 4:29they'll often pack it in a protective
148. 4:31atmosphere but once you open that bag
149. 4:32and air gets in
150. 4:33the clock sticking and you might have
151. 4:35one or two days to enjoy it
152. 4:37at its best yes it's still drinkable
153. 4:39yeah it's probably okay for a little
154. 4:40while more
155. 4:41but you're not getting what you paid for
156. 4:44whole beans
157. 4:44last much longer and when you grind them
158. 4:46they begin to degrade but if you grind
159. 4:47before you use them
160. 4:49you're just gonna have a better time
161. 4:50it's better value for money to buy whole
162. 4:52beans
163. 4:52and secondly grinding coffee is one of
164. 4:55the great pleasures of life
165. 4:56you know i don't want people to miss out
166. 4:58on having their morning be that little
167. 4:59bit more
168. 5:00aromatic and enjoyable as final guidance
169. 5:03for hobby and coffee
170. 5:04anything that's a kind of light medium
171. 5:06roast i think is generally fine
172. 5:08four to six to eight weeks after
173. 5:10roasting depending on how you're storing
174. 5:12it
175. 5:12if it's pre-ground it's not gonna be
176. 5:14that case and if it's a darker roast
177. 5:16i would say maybe four to six weeks
178. 5:18maximum because darker roads go stale a
179. 5:20little bit quicker the second rule i'm
180. 5:21going to give you
181. 5:22is to buy traceable coffee buy coffee
182. 5:25from
183. 5:26as distinct a place as you can that
184. 5:27might be a single farm
185. 5:29that might be a cooperative of growers
186. 5:31that might be a region in some cases
187. 5:33but historically coffee was just sold by
188. 5:36country of origin
189. 5:37and you'd be skeptical if the wine you
190. 5:39bought on the shelf just said
191. 5:40france that's not enough right you would
192. 5:43want more which region is this from at
193. 5:45the very least
194. 5:47same with coffee just because the coffee
195. 5:48is from guatemala or colombia
196. 5:51well it doesn't really tell you that
197. 5:52much about how it's going to taste
198. 5:54there's huge variation within just about
199. 5:56every single producing origin
200. 5:58of flavor of styles so knowing what
201. 6:01country it's from
202. 6:02isn't that useful to you it's a little
203. 6:04useful but it's not that useful
204. 6:06if you can't tell where in a country a
205. 6:08coffee is from
206. 6:09it's not particularly traceable now the
207. 6:12secret sort of shortcut of traceable
208. 6:13coffees
209. 6:14is that adding traceability to a coffee
210. 6:16keeping it separate all the way from a
211. 6:18farm or a co-op
212. 6:19to you the consumer costs money it adds
213. 6:22cost to that product and that will only
214. 6:24be done in situations where that coffee
215. 6:26is good enough
216. 6:27in terms of its taste and its quality to
217. 6:29merit a premium price
218. 6:31there's no point keeping a coffee that
219. 6:33doesn't taste very good traceable all
220. 6:34the way through
221. 6:35because it doesn't have the value
222. 6:37necessary to kind of return on that
223. 6:39investment so that's why traceability i
224. 6:42think
225. 6:42is a nice little shortcut to quality i
226. 6:44don't want to tell you how much to spend
227. 6:46on coffee
228. 6:46but i would say that spending more buys
229. 6:48you generally better quality better
230. 6:50tasting coffee
231. 6:51and more of that money is likely to go
232. 6:52back to the producer so i'd obviously
233. 6:54encourage you
234. 6:55to invest a little bit in the coffee
235. 6:57that you drink this last tip
236. 6:58it's not really optional but it's kind
237. 7:00of complicated tip and that's to buy
238. 7:02seasonally here's the deal different
239. 7:04countries around the world harvest
240. 7:05coffee at different
241. 7:06times this means that the raw coffees
242. 7:08are arriving into kind of consuming
243. 7:10countries at different times of year
244. 7:12raw coffee lasts longer generally than
245. 7:15roasted coffee
246. 7:16and a roaster may carry a coffee from
247. 7:18anywhere from a few weeks to
248. 7:20six to eight months classically roasters
249. 7:23would carry a coffee
250. 7:24all year round right they would have a
251. 7:25guatemalan offering
252. 7:2712 months of the year even though for
253. 7:29three four
254. 7:30sometimes five months that coffee wasn't
255. 7:32very good because the raw coffee was a
256. 7:34little bit old
257. 7:35specialty has embraced seasonality which
258. 7:37means that you may only see coffees from
259. 7:39certain origins
260. 7:40for six months of the year i'm not going
261. 7:42to ask you to pay attention to which
262. 7:44country is harvesting when or understand
263. 7:45shipping dates or that kind of stuff
264. 7:47but do look to buy from places where the
265. 7:50offering changes reasonably regularly
266. 7:52if they're doing that if they have
267. 7:54different products on the shelf quite
268. 7:55often
269. 7:56while that can be initially frustrating
270. 7:58it's actually a good thing
271. 7:59it means the raw coffees are nice and
272. 8:01fresh and you're gonna get the best
273. 8:02possible experience now let's talk about
274. 8:06where to buy
275. 8:06coffee for this i'm gonna say there are
276. 8:08three kind of places to buy coffee
277. 8:10one is the supermarket two would be
278. 8:13a cafe or coffee shop or a shop on the
279. 8:15high street let's say or in your
280. 8:17neighborhood
281. 8:17and the third place would be online we
282. 8:20need to talk about each of these
283. 8:21because they impact the offering and
284. 8:23your options and the way you should
285. 8:25approach buying in those places so let's
286. 8:27start with the supermarket
287. 8:28right it has a couple of big advantages
288. 8:30firstly for most people it's incredibly
289. 8:33convenient they're often visiting or
290. 8:34buying for supermarket online or
291. 8:36you know it's a part of your week it's
292. 8:38part of your kind of routine day to day
293. 8:40and secondly things there are generally
294. 8:43cheaper supermarkets
295. 8:44compete with each other they're happy to
296. 8:46use their size and their scale to
297. 8:47diminish their profits
298. 8:49and so typically products in the
299. 8:50supermarket are as cheap as they're
300. 8:52likely to be
301. 8:53anywhere that's the good news here's the
302. 8:55bad news supermarkets do not treat
303. 8:58coffee like fresh food
304. 8:59as i said before they don't want you to
305. 9:01think about when that coffee was roasted
306. 9:03because you might pick up a bag and
307. 9:04think oh this is two months old but if
308. 9:07they give you a best before date
309. 9:09well you might think oh i've got 10
310. 9:10months left to use this product now the
311. 9:12way supermarkets work is that they may
312. 9:14buy from a single supplier
313. 9:16that goes into a centralized
314. 9:17distribution center then eventually goes
315. 9:19to the individual supermarket
316. 9:20goes onto the shelf works its way slowly
317. 9:22forwards to the front of the shelf
318. 9:23and it can take months from it being
319. 9:26produced to it being sold
320. 9:28so freshness is really really really
321. 9:30difficult you can buy
322. 9:32good quality traceable coffees there
323. 9:34well roasted coffees that i would
324. 9:36say are good coffee is definitely worth
325. 9:38drinking but know that
326. 9:39the trade-off is freshness so now let's
327. 9:42talk about coffee shops
328. 9:43and right now as coffee shops around the
329. 9:45world begin to reopen in many places
330. 9:47this is a great way to support them i
331. 9:48just want to put that out there now
332. 9:50now coffee shops have some advantages
333. 9:52one you you often go to them so there's
334. 9:54a convenience factor there
335. 9:55two there's the opportunity for a
336. 9:57conversation you can talk to someone and
337. 9:59say i like this kind of coffee this is a
338. 10:01brand i like or this is an experience i
339. 10:02had that i liked
340. 10:03what can you recommend and a good coffee
341. 10:05shop should be able to help you now in
342. 10:07terms of freshness their product
343. 10:09typically will be
344. 10:10actually pretty fresh it may not be as
345. 10:12fresh as buying online we'll come to
346. 10:14that in a second
347. 10:15but if you need coffee to use right now
348. 10:18coffee shops are perfect chances are
349. 10:20that coffee is
350. 10:21five six seven days old and they
351. 10:22certainly will have something that old
352. 10:24that you can buy
353. 10:25it's beautifully fresh perfectly ready
354. 10:27to brew
355. 10:28and you can take it home and have a
356. 10:29delicious cup of coffee one more thing
357. 10:31don't forget that coffee shops are often
358. 10:32serving the coffee they retail
359. 10:34you know there may be an opportunity to
360. 10:36try before you buy taste something
361. 10:38or buy something drink it really enjoy
362. 10:40it go back and take a bag of that home
363. 10:42to enjoy in the morning
364. 10:44big fan of buying from coffee shops
365. 10:46let's talk about
366. 10:47online now online gives you probably the
367. 10:50most variety it's often competitive in
368. 10:51price you're buying directly from a
369. 10:53roaster
370. 10:53and that means in many cases though not
371. 10:56all but in many cases they will roast
372. 10:58your coffee once they receive your order
373. 10:59they'll ship it often
374. 11:01the same day and it will come to you a
375. 11:03day or two after
376. 11:04after being roasted incredibly fresh but
377. 11:06like we said
378. 11:07fresher isn't always better if you're
379. 11:10kind of managing the freshness and
380. 11:11you know you've got like a week left on
381. 11:12this bag great time to buy online
382. 11:15you know like that's that's a good
383. 11:16decision it'll come it'll be nicely
384. 11:18rested you can go into that bag next
385. 11:20life is easy but it requires a touch
386. 11:22more organization
387. 11:23now often roasters will offer things
388. 11:25like subscription services i think those
389. 11:27are generally a
390. 11:28great way to go it sort of takes away
391. 11:30having to remember to do something
392. 11:31coffee just arrives through your door
393. 11:34that
394. 11:35i think is a great thing to do and often
395. 11:37for many people they'll go through more
396. 11:38than one bag a month and so a great way
397. 11:40to set up life is to have one bag come
398. 11:41on a subscription from a roaster
399. 11:43and then buy one bag on top of it from a
400. 11:45different place or from a cafe or from
401. 11:47wherever because the whole point that i
402. 11:49keep coming back to is that coffee is
403. 11:51really really fun
404. 11:52and tasting different stuff is really
405. 11:54really fun so
406. 11:55those are my recommendations and those
407. 11:57are the impacts of buying on each of
408. 11:59those different places now before we
409. 12:00move into the third section where we
410. 12:01decode a bag of coffee
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439. 12:53about all of these bags of coffee here
440. 12:55and work out what they're trying to tell
441. 12:56us about how they taste
442. 12:58now to kind of get a wide coverage of
443. 13:00coffee for the video today
444. 13:01it required a trip to the supermarket
445. 13:03which was always good for me to go back
446. 13:05and
447. 13:05look at that enormous wall of choice and
448. 13:07try and work out what i wanted to buy
449. 13:10and that's kind of what we're thinking
450. 13:11about here right you walk up to that big
451. 13:12wall of coffee
452. 13:13you pick up a bag and you're like will i
453. 13:16like this
454. 13:17so the first thing we're going to talk
455. 13:18about is going to be roast degree
456. 13:20how darkly a coffee is roasted generally
457. 13:22we talk about either light or medium or
458. 13:24dark
459. 13:25and in the case of supermarket coffees
460. 13:27often they don't use that language
461. 13:29often they use strength they'll say
462. 13:32strength five
463. 13:33strength three now they don't generally
464. 13:35put anything down a strength one or two
465. 13:37because no one wants
466. 13:38weak coffee so the functional range is
467. 13:40generally three through five which is
468. 13:42kind of absurd
469. 13:42but it is what it is now specialty
470. 13:44coffee gets very angry about the use of
471. 13:46the word strength on the front of a bag
472. 13:48because strength means something else
473. 13:50strength is how much coffee to how much
474. 13:51water you know i mean the more coffee
475. 13:53you use to brew a cup the stronger
476. 13:55that's going to be that's the correct
477. 13:57usage of strength but
478. 13:58in the defense of the supermarket
479. 13:59coffees at least they're trying to
480. 14:01properly communicate
481. 14:02roasted degree to some extent for people
482. 14:05specialty coffee often
483. 14:06does not describe roast degree now it
484. 14:10does occasionally there's a bag here
485. 14:11that has along the bottom here medium
486. 14:13roast right that's that's that's
487. 14:15nice but that's not common in specialty
488. 14:17coffee
489. 14:18the most common thing to see is a
490. 14:20description about whether it might be
491. 14:22used as a filter coffee or as an
492. 14:24espresso coffee
493. 14:25now when it comes to the term roasted
494. 14:27for espresso
495. 14:28that tells you a little bit regarding
496. 14:31the coffee from that particular roaster
497. 14:32right most roasters will roast their
498. 14:34espresso sort of focused products
499. 14:37a little bit darker a little bit deeper
500. 14:38than they would do their filter coffee
501. 14:39roasted products
502. 14:40however some people in specialty use
503. 14:43what's called an omni
504. 14:44roast where they're kind of roasting for
505. 14:45both at the same time
506. 14:47it's a kind of philosophy thing for many
507. 14:49roasters their approach to espresso to
508. 14:51filter coffee to roasting as a whole
509. 14:53but if you are buying specialty coffee
510. 14:55and it does not have
511. 14:57any indication of roast on it it is a
512. 14:59light to medium roast
513. 15:00that's the default on the occasions that
514. 15:03they don't roast that way they tend to
515. 15:05signify that if there's a description of
516. 15:06roast
517. 15:08beer by country description which
518. 15:09doesn't really mean anything like french
519. 15:10roast
520. 15:11or just dark roast then you know it's
521. 15:13different but otherwise
522. 15:14you can presume it to be light to medium
523. 15:16roasted with the supermarket stuff
524. 15:18the higher the strength the darker the
525. 15:19roast and generally speaking the lighter
526. 15:21the roast of coffee the more acidity it
527. 15:23will have
528. 15:24the darker the roast the more bitterness
529. 15:25it will have and the less acidity it'll
530. 15:27have
531. 15:27and you know specialty feels that light
532. 15:30to medium gives you nice sweetness a
533. 15:32little bit of acidity not too much
534. 15:33bitterness and tons and tons of flavor
535. 15:35of where the coffee comes from which is
536. 15:37why that's such a popular roasting style
537. 15:39choice for specialty companies
538. 15:41now we need to talk about the
539. 15:42descriptors and generally
540. 15:44specialty companies and in fact more and
541. 15:46more commercial companies will offer you
542. 15:48maybe three sometimes more
543. 15:49descriptive words now these are doing
544. 15:52two different jobs
545. 15:53and i think people can forget about this
546. 15:55firstly
547. 15:56they are trying to describe in some way
548. 15:58the taste of the coffee
549. 15:59and secondly they're trying to entice
550. 16:01you the buyer
551. 16:03to buy that bag of coffee it's half use
552. 16:06and it's half sales
553. 16:07and it's important to remember that in
554. 16:08some cases descriptions could be so
555. 16:10odd or unusual or kind of contrary and
556. 16:13clashing that that really doesn't work
557. 16:14but
558. 16:15in many cases it does and things sound
559. 16:17completely delicious
560. 16:19those words promise a great deal if you
561. 16:20tell me my coffee is going to taste of
562. 16:22caramel
563. 16:23well i expect it to taste almost as if
564. 16:25you've put caramel
565. 16:26in the bag and it leads to further
566. 16:28confusion with the consumer who thinks
567. 16:30oh is this like a flavored coffee is
568. 16:31this like a caramel
569. 16:33flavored coffee because those exist but
570. 16:35often no
571. 16:36it's not they're trying to communicate
572. 16:38something about the coffee's taste
573. 16:40to you with that word we'll come to that
574. 16:42a bit more
575. 16:43very soon one other quick tip specialty
576. 16:45coffee is
577. 16:46a little bit like wine except for one
578. 16:48thing the very highest priced wines are
579. 16:50often
580. 16:50the most elegant the most kind of
581. 16:52classic the most beautiful wines
582. 16:54but they would be familiar and enjoyable
583. 16:56to most people
584. 16:57the highest priced coffees tend to be
585. 16:59the most unusual the least kind of
586. 17:01coffee tasting coffees so it's just one
587. 17:03to bear in mind
588. 17:04if you're looking at a more expensive
589. 17:06coffee have a look at those words are
590. 17:07they promising you a very unusual
591. 17:09experience
592. 17:09and is that what you want in some cases
593. 17:12yes it is and in other cases
594. 17:13no it's not one other thing to bear in
595. 17:15mind is that often these roasters come
596. 17:17up with their descriptions for coffees
597. 17:18through comparative tasting they're not
598. 17:20just tasting that one coffee on its own
599. 17:21they're comparing it to other coffees
600. 17:24that they're also roasting and serving
601. 17:26now we've talked a lot on this channel
602. 17:27about learning to taste there's some
603. 17:29information up here if you want to
604. 17:30develop your tasting skills but
605. 17:32comparative tasting is really useful
606. 17:34for kind of breaking apart the flavors
607. 17:36of coffee but if you the consumer don't
608. 17:38have that comparative tasting experience
609. 17:40when you drink it
610. 17:41it can feel harder to pull out the berry
611. 17:43qualities of a coffee or the the kind of
612. 17:45ripe
613. 17:46pear promised by the roaster but if you
614. 17:48were comparing it to something else
615. 17:50oh the differences would be more obvious
616. 17:52and yeah this is kind of more
617. 17:54pear-like in its way in its flavor
618. 17:56compared to coffee b
619. 17:57or c or d so know that there is an
620. 18:00element of frustration that's almost
621. 18:01inevitable
622. 18:02because you won't have had the same
623. 18:04comparative experience as a coffee
624. 18:06roaster
625. 18:06but generally they're doing their best
626. 18:08to broadcast some key information to you
627. 18:10to help you really find out if you're
628. 18:12going to enjoy that coffee or not
629. 18:14now what i can't do is know what your
630. 18:17personal preferences are around what you
631. 18:19really really like what i
632. 18:21can do however is understand some things
633. 18:23that you really really dislike
634. 18:25and give you some guidance there there
635. 18:27are three categories of kind of coffee
636. 18:29experience
637. 18:30that really trigger dislike for people
638. 18:33i'll explain some people cannot stand it
639. 18:36when a coffee is quite light bodied
640. 18:37quite delicate quite tea like almost
641. 18:39it doesn't taste like coffee to them and
642. 18:41and i want to help you avoid buying
643. 18:43coffees like that if you feel that way
644. 18:44now
645. 18:45generally specialty coffee is often of a
646. 18:47certain roast degree as we said it's a
647. 18:49kind of light to medium roast
648. 18:50and the kinds of coffees that are
649. 18:52typically bought by specialty companies
650. 18:54are often as a default kind of
651. 18:56medium-bodied
652. 18:58generally they'll use language to
653. 18:59highlight the texture of the coffee
654. 19:01if it is not a kind of medium-bodied
655. 19:03coffee if it's quite light-bodied
656. 19:05look for words they'll use like delicate
657. 19:07or elegant or often explicitly tea like
658. 19:10look for descriptors of things being
659. 19:11quite floral you know those kind of
660. 19:13words suggest
661. 19:14lightness to you and that's what they're
662. 19:16trying to say and if they use
663. 19:18kind of creamy or rich or those kind of
664. 19:21words
665. 19:22then they're suggesting it is a
666. 19:23fuller-bodied coffee in that way but if
667. 19:25there's no texture words
668. 19:27i would say as a kind of vaguely useful
669. 19:29rule
670. 19:30it's a medium-bodied coffee now the
671. 19:31second one i think is a much easier one
672. 19:33to kind of decode
673. 19:34and it's a much bigger love hate aspect
674. 19:37for a lot of people with the coffee they
675. 19:38drink
676. 19:39and that is the sensation of acidity
677. 19:41some people
678. 19:42do not want any acidity in their coffee
679. 19:44the idea of an acidic coffee
680. 19:46is genuinely repulsive to them and
681. 19:47that's completely okay
682. 19:49there are other people who want all the
683. 19:50acidity in their coffee they want it to
684. 19:52be bright and juicy and vibrant
685. 19:54how do we help you there well it's going
686. 19:57to be fruit words
687. 19:58if you see fresh fruit words in the
688. 20:00descriptors
689. 20:01there may be berries there might be
690. 20:03apple right
691. 20:04those kind of fruit descriptors if they
692. 20:07are referring to fresh fruits
693. 20:08that coffee is going to have a
694. 20:09reasonable amount of acidity if you see
695. 20:11berry fruits i'd expect a lot of acidity
696. 20:13if you see citrus fruits i'd expect a
697. 20:15lot of acidity if you see things like
698. 20:17apple or pear
699. 20:18yeah i would expect a good amount of
700. 20:20acidity if the words are fruit words but
701. 20:22they're kind of transformed if they're
702. 20:24cooked fruit words if it's described as
703. 20:25jammy
704. 20:26or candied orange for example then i
705. 20:28would expect a little acidity
706. 20:30but not a lot if a description has no
707. 20:33fruit words
708. 20:34then i would expect very low acidity
709. 20:36from it if they're using other words
710. 20:37like
711. 20:38caramel or treacle or nuts or chocolate
712. 20:41those are non-fruit words and they are
713. 20:43suggesting low acidity in that regard
714. 20:45so that will help you kind of decode how
715. 20:48much acidity do i generally expect
716. 20:50the third kind of key aspect around sort
717. 20:52of love hate with coffee
718. 20:54is what i would call fermented fruit
719. 20:55flavors that sounds a bit odd
720. 20:57but there are styles of coffee they're
721. 20:59often dry or natural processed coffees
722. 21:01where the whole cherry was dried in the
723. 21:03sun
724. 21:04instead of the seeds being squeezed out
725. 21:05and sort of washed and kind of cleaned
726. 21:07of their fruit before being dried if
727. 21:09it's been dried inside the fruit
728. 21:10then a little fermentation can go on and
729. 21:12you can get these kind of funky very
730. 21:14unusual flavors
731. 21:15that are often described on bags of
732. 21:17coffee as tropical fruit
733. 21:19if you see pineapple if you see mango if
734. 21:21you see strawberry even
735. 21:23chances are there's going to be some
736. 21:24fermented fruit qualities to the coffee
737. 21:26in the bag
738. 21:27if it says dry process or natural
739. 21:29process on the bag
740. 21:31expect those flavors now some people
741. 21:33love those flavors
742. 21:34they are fascinating they are unlike any
743. 21:36other coffee flavors
744. 21:38they are easily identifiable they're
745. 21:39just kind of fun other people are
746. 21:41completely disgusted by them and they
747. 21:43hate them for that reason
748. 21:44it's really important to me that people
749. 21:46understand how to not buy those or to
750. 21:49buy those on purpose
751. 21:50and never make a mistake if you don't
752. 21:51like fermented fruit flavors and that in
753. 21:53my experience is
754. 21:54around 40 of people then i would
755. 21:57strongly avoid
756. 21:58dry or natural processed coffees unless
757. 21:59they're making a lot of promises around
758. 22:01how clean it tastes there's no weird
759. 22:03fruit flavors on the bag
760. 22:04if they're saying it's just like clean
761. 22:05or sweet or chocolate or nuts
762. 22:07maybe but if there's any kind of fruit
763. 22:09on there chances are
764. 22:11that's not going to be to your tastes
765. 22:12and it's just a bit of a gamble which i
766. 22:14want you to avoid
767. 22:15now i've talked a lot about the sort of
768. 22:17theory side the reason i bought a bunch
769. 22:19of coffee is to use some sort of
770. 22:20practical
771. 22:21examples here right let's take what
772. 22:24we've discussed so far
773. 22:25and apply it to some real world examples
774. 22:27this is a canyon coffee it's from the
775. 22:29supermarket strength three
776. 22:31so it's gonna be the lighter roast that
777. 22:32you would get at a supermarket because
778. 22:34two and one
779. 22:34don't really exist it's saying zesty
780. 22:37citrus
781. 22:38and blackberry they are broadcasting to
782. 22:40you that this is going to be a
783. 22:42light to medium-bodied coffee it's going
784. 22:44to have for them
785. 22:45a lot of acidity but those fruits are
786. 22:48kind of clean fruit tastes
787. 22:49it's not kind of funky fruit that's what
788. 22:51they're telling you about this coffee
789. 22:53and from that perspective you may love
790. 22:54or loathe the experience that is coming
791. 22:56now this lavazza rosso very popular with
792. 22:59a lot of people description
793. 23:00rich and full bodied with chocolate
794. 23:02notes so they are saying to you
795. 23:03this is a heavy bodied coffee right
796. 23:06there's going to be very little acidity
797. 23:07there's no
798. 23:08fruit words in here whatsoever so
799. 23:09they're saying no to low acidity
800. 23:11lots and lots of body lots of texture uh
801. 23:14they're saying intensity
802. 23:15five out of ten roasting medium so
803. 23:17you're not expecting a ton of kind of
804. 23:19bitterness or kind of harsher
805. 23:20more kind of developed roast flavors but
806. 23:23it's still going to be a big kind of
807. 23:24heavy-bodied experience
808. 23:26back to this bag which i picked up
809. 23:27before it's a coffee from china which is
810. 23:29interesting
811. 23:30now this is described as kind of nutty
812. 23:31and sweet here they say cherry
813. 23:33almond candied orange and caramel right
814. 23:36it's a medium roast
815. 23:38so what i'm expecting is reasonable
816. 23:40texture actually like a
817. 23:41some nice body it's a washed coffee but
818. 23:43i wouldn't expect it to be light-bodied
819. 23:45in addition it has some fruit but
820. 23:47they're pushing towards kind of
821. 23:49cooked fruit candied fruit in a way so i
822. 23:50would expect some acidity
823. 23:52but not that much and i wouldn't expect
824. 23:55any fermented flavors in this from
825. 23:56their particular description so you know
826. 23:59i can kind of understand am i likely to
827. 24:00enjoy this or am i not
828. 24:02so this one is really interesting to me
829. 24:04because this is a very big coffee
830. 24:06company called taylor's of harrogate
831. 24:07very large uk company one of the biggest
832. 24:09roasters in the uk
833. 24:10doing specialty coffee now this is
834. 24:12listed right in the front as a natural
835. 24:14so straight away we know we're in for
836. 24:15some funky flavors
837. 24:17we look at the back of the bag yeah it
838. 24:18says pineapple
839. 24:20coconut and whiskey this is going to be
840. 24:22a strongly fermented
841. 24:24tasting coffee right it says natural
842. 24:26process it's roasted for filter it tells
843. 24:28us that and it also says it's a light
844. 24:30roast
845. 24:30so we've got a lot of information
846. 24:32natural processed coffees don't often
847. 24:34have the same acidity as washed coffees
848. 24:35but still if you don't like acidity
849. 24:38they're saying probably avoid this
850. 24:39coffee and if you don't like fermented
851. 24:40flavors then probably avoid this coffee
852. 24:42but if you like those two things
853. 24:44this might be a pretty safe bet if you
854. 24:46know if you're buying it off the shelf
855. 24:48especially if you're spending a little
856. 24:49bit of money now in some cases
857. 24:51you may not have any descriptors on a
858. 24:53bag but generally speaking
859. 24:55specialty roasters are wise enough to
860. 24:57the whole fermented flavors thing
861. 24:58that they will say if it's a natural or
862. 25:00not and so here we know that it is a
863. 25:02natural processed coffee
864. 25:03so from that word alone you can make a
865. 25:05pretty informed decision around your
866. 25:07preferences around those styles of
867. 25:08flavors
868. 25:09and then one more one more so here it's
869. 25:12an espresso roast so we'd expect it to
870. 25:13be darker and it is strength four so
871. 25:15they're suggesting
872. 25:16it's gonna be pretty darkly roasted not
873. 25:18all the way to very roasted but
874. 25:19pretty dark
875. 25:20descriptors of rich chocolate spice and
876. 25:23toffee
877. 25:24so no fruit words there whatsoever we're
878. 25:26gonna expect really pretty low acidity
879. 25:28they're offering you know by the
880. 25:30description some kind of sweetness there
881. 25:32but ultimately it's not going to be a
882. 25:35you know
883. 25:35a fruity or in any way acidic espresso i
884. 25:38think it's going to be more kind of
885. 25:40medium-bodied but relatively high
886. 25:42bitterness and low acid
887. 25:44that's the sort of subtext of this whole
888. 25:46thing so that i hope is a really useful
889. 25:48guide to help you buy
890. 25:49better coffees but now i want to hear
891. 25:51from you down in the comments below
892. 25:53what did i miss out on what more
893. 25:55information would be useful to you
894. 25:56when it comes to buying a bag of coffee
895. 25:58and feeling confident that you're really
896. 26:00going
897. 26:01to enjoy it let me know down in the
898. 26:03comments below
899. 26:04but for now i'll say thank you so much
900. 26:06for watching and i hope you have a great
901. 26:08day