Coffee – a simple beverage that is at the center of our lives and culture. How many times a week are you offered a cup of coffee, or how many of your daily activities surround coffee? Many of us jump-start our day with it, catch up with friends over it, compliment our desserts with it, and can’t imagine our parties without it. A good cup of coffee is the hub of any great gathering.
Since its discovery years ago coffee has captivated man. Over the years, we have explored how to grow, roast, grind and brew the berry of this plant. But what is coffee and where exactly does it come from? What factors influence each coffee’s individual flavors and complexities?This is where a Webster based coffee roasters comes in. Joe Beans a Webster-based artisan micro- roaster, loves to explore these questions.
The coffee plant was first discovered in Ethiopia by a goat herder who saw that his goats seemed a bit livelier when they ate from a particular plant. It didn’t take the herders long to use this plant’s cherries to create a wine-like beverage to help them stay awake during the long night watches of the herds. The coffee plant’s cherries were initially boiled down to make a beverage, but eventually people began to use the inside “pit” (or bean) instead. It was the Arabs that introduced the world to the coffee beverage we now recognize by roasting, grinding and brewing the beans.
As coffee became more popular throughout the world, it became big business. Plants were smuggled out of Ethiopia and transplanted all over the world including the islands of Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico. As each of these countries adopted coffee growing into their culture, they added their own unique growing and processing styles; causing coffees from different regions to have distinct characteristics. 
Because the plant is highly influenced by soil and climate conditions, coffees grown in the volcanic ash soil of Guatemala are distinctly different from those grown in the sandy soils of Mexico. In addition, coffee cherries must be picked and the inside bean removed prior to export. Each country’s approach to this process distinguishes their coffee as well. For example, coffee cherries that are dried in the sun to remove the bean will have a more berry-like flavor. In contrast, coffee cherries washed in a water bath will have a cleaner flavor.
Joe Bean Coffee purchases the majority of their coffees from farming cooperatives, which allows them to have intimate knowledge of how each coffee was grown and processed. Joe Bean features primarily organic coffee, meaning the coffee is shade-grown and handpicked. Shade grown coffee has a longer growing season, which allows more time for the beans to develop - adding richness to the flavor.
Even though climate, soil and processing methods play an enormous part in a coffee’s unique flavor, how that coffee is then roasted is equally important to its final taste.
As artisan micro-roasters, Joe Bean roasts all their coffee in small batches using the “profile roasting” technique. Small batch roasting allows the fine control necessary to be exact with each attribute of a coffee’s taste: acidity, body, flavor and aroma.
Roasting coffee is primarily about creating chemical reactions in the coffee bean; as reactions occur, different characteristics and traits are released. In less sophisticated roasting methods, the final temperature of the coffee is considered the most important influence on the coffee’s flavor (i.e.: light, medium or dark roasts). This is due to the fact that as the beans are roasted to a higher temperature, more sugars are developed. So the longer you roast a coffee, the more “caramelized” sugar taste it will have.
Although this is a very important part of developing a coffee’s flavor, there are many other characteristics that can be developed. Profile roasting recognizes that chemical reactions in coffee occur throughout the roasting process and not simply at the end of it; therefore the entire roasting process is fined tune to develop a coffee’s flavor. By holding a coffee at a particular temperature for a specific amount of time throughout the roasting process, the coffee’s distinct undertones, overtones, body and acidy level are adjusted.
Each variety of coffee is tested and re-tested in order to determine its best roasting profile; the one that develops that coffee’s natural flavors to its fullest. Once the profile is determined, it can be consistently followed through the use of a computer program that analyzes the coffee’s temperature and development. Ultimately, the customer gets a consistently sensational cup of Joe.
Interested in trying Joe Bean coffee?
Joe Bean’s freshly roasted coffee may be purchased on their web site (joebeanroasters.com) or at a number of Webster retailers including: - Kittelberger Florist, Mac Five Bikes, R Salon and Hermans Farm Market.
Additionally, Joe Bean has created a signature blend for the Webster Comfort Care Home called the Murisanga Blend, a Rwandan word that means, “feel at home”. The blend can be purchased at the Webster Comfort Care Home and at the above retailers, 10 % of all sales goes to support this precious community resource.
Joe Bean also offers free home delivery of their freshly roasted coffee to the Webster community through their monthly Coffee Ring Program. See the web site for details or to sign up. www.joebeanroasters.com. Or call at 585-265-4710.
