Kaldi, the old goat herder, walked along the well-worn paths of his ancestors, intuitively knowing the right mixture of sternness and tenderness needed to get goats from point A to point B safely and efficiently. The lines in the old man’s skin, weathered from years under the sun, seemed to tell their own stories of ancient traditions. These traditions made life manageable and predictable.
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
The story of Kaldi and his dancing goats is a charming and imaginative origin tale, even if it may be more myth than reality. It's a testament to the enduring fascination with coffee and its power to captivate our imagination. Thank you for sharing this delightful journey with us.
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
Coffee professional here- impressed at how much you were able to fit into a single post! As for how I drink my daily coffee? Kalitta wave pour over. Without adulterants. Roasted by my friends and coworkers.
I'm really glad this came across well. It was tough not to just keep going with the history (first half), and I'm sure Michael could have also thrown a lot more info out there. I feel like the art is in what you leave out, some of the time.
My daughter and I are cold brew aficionados. We buy a variety of whole beans, grind them and cold brew them daily. It gives us time together from prep to drinking and has also saved us money over store-bought inferior versions.
I'm late the game on this post, but I'm glad I got here. Great overview of the coffee process!
One point I'd add is it's not just America with the whipping cream, etc. Vienesse coffee culture is also full of drinks with heavy cream and sugar. But they make it look luxuriant!
As for me, I have like seven different coffee making tools at home but the ones I use most are the Aeropress, Chemex (when it's not just me), and I recently got an ibrik, so I use that a lot. Aside from the Turkish coffee, which gets slightly less than a teaspoon of sugar, all the others are mostly black. Occasionally, I'll put a drop of milk in if it comes out too bitter. Something to note for me is that I'm solely a decaf drinker so my bean choices are limited, but Los Angeles has lots of roasters so it hasn't been too hard to find good stuff.
I love black coffee, and drink enough every day to kill a small mule, but I like some of those sweet drinks too (just different times of the day/purposes). Vietnamese and Thai coffees are similar, right? Those are tasty after dinner in lieu of a dessert.
Sep 28, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
Loved this! I also roast my own and it’s definitely a fun hobby. My go-to lately is a Chemex pour-over but I like to keep changing it up. Also have a cheap espresso machine that I’ve modded to be able to pull some pretty decent shots. Mostly enjoy light and bright beans and love a good Ethiopian bean.
It’s great how accessible home roasting is these days. I have a Behmor 1600 and love it. Thanks for the fun article and combination of history and science!
That's awesome, Josh! I find myself doing only the bare minimum to get very good coffee, but even that little bit of effort isn't insignificant. It is well worth that bit of work to be happy by way of taste!
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
Mike and I are former colleagues.
It is no mean coincidence that the happy collision of the Gutenberg press significantly reducing the price of books in concert with the concomitant explosion of silent reading (the cost of texts before the press was prohibitive and those who couldn't afford books listened in groups to readers) in train with the increasing consumption of coffee were certainly proximate causes to the rapid advances in arts and sciences in the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras (15th through 17th centuries).
It's true. And Bill, I focused a bit more on the industrial revolution aspect, but you're spot-on about the more broad expansion of the arts and sciences, especially science. But also politics.
Sep 24, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
Great post. As a rank amateur in terms of coffee, most of this was new to me. Thanks for the enlightenment! I now know why the place I get my coffee in Tokyo - Kaldi - is called that. I just drink it filtered and black. Nothing very sophisticated. The best coffee I have had was when I was living in Turkey. Great stuff.
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
I've been a home roaster for about three years and just as Michael's experience a friend introduced me to the world of single origin, third wave coffee.
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
Just loved this post, thank you Andrew and Michael. First, a little transparency: I am not a coffee drinker, never was, but I do adore the smell of coffee, both the beans and when it's being brewed. Why that adoration stops at the act of imbibing, escapes me. I tried coffee, real coffee, for the first time at an international summit in Valencia, Spain, right after a full buffet lunch, and it sent my heart racing for the next several hours.
I'm a chocolate gal. And coffee and chocolate are a match made in heaven—and brought back down to us by the gods. Just think of the delicious similarities... they both have "beans", they are both roasted (although you can have virgin chocolate), and they are both called "dark and rich." Both can be taken as a beverage, or in bar form (yes there are chocolate bars with coffee beans embedded in them, sheer ectasy!). Both have a long and storied cultural history and heritage.
How curious too... literally yesterday I softlaunched a new Substack dedicated to our love for cacao (cacaomuse.substack.com). Great food-loving minds clearly think alike :) When I write my piece about cacao history would love to link to this post, so watch that space!
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
Low fat Chocolate milk added to my coffee everyday, old school drip machine on a timer, in the summer I add ice and it is wonderful. 💚 Thank you goats and Andrew for the story!
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
Pour over coffee is my go to! I didn't like coffee until I discovered this style a few years ago at Roast'd in Fort Lee, NJ. The different flavors you can get with different coffee beans and different brewing ways was an eye opener to me. But with pour over you need to know that the place you're going to makes it well. It can come out either watery or bitter if not done well, so you might not like the style because of a bad brew rather than the method.
I love that coffee was invented because church is boring😂 I drink mine black from a Chemex, although, I switched to a reusable filter during the pandemic when I had trouble finding their paper filters. It’s not the same flavor, definitely, but it’s still pretty good.
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
I have been slowly coerced into this method by my spouse - who is obsessed with making and drinking the perfect cup of espresso each and every day. When he’s home to make mine for me, it’s great...the stuff of fairytales....but whole process is completely antithetical to the way I operate in the morning, which is barely at all, until after I’ve had my coffee. I bought a French press for emergencies, but it is collecting dust in the cabinet, because I have gotten so spoiled by the amazing flavor of coffee made this way. So, on those mornings when he leaves the house early, I snap my sleep-addled adhd brain into gear and fumble through the seemingly thousands of steps and micro-considerations for those few glorious sips. The coffee beans are ordered and sent from Wendelboe in Oslo, Norway, and each pouch lists the country, region, producers and process, the date of harvest and flavor notes.
Sep 23, 2023Liked by Andrew Smith, Michael Woudenberg
We have a La Marzocco machine in our kitchen that my spouse purchased and trained me to use. He makes coffee for me when he’s at home. It’s an exacting, several-step process, at the end of which you have a single shot of excellent espresso. First, weigh the portafilter on the small digital scale, then tare the scale to 0 with it resting there. Next, place the portafilter under the grinder and press the preset button. You want somewhere between 18.5 and 19.5 grams. If it’s less you switch the grinder to manual mode and quickly tap until you have that number. Then I use several implements that help with flow once it’s in the machine. I use a magnetic tube that clicks onto the top of the portafilter to prevent the coffee from escaping while I aerate and comb through it with a multi-pronged metal brush/rake tool. Then I remove the tube and press down on the top of the coffee with a specialty tamper with a spring that packs it tight, flat and even every time. Then I put a flat, round disk/net on top that makes the water disperse more evenly through the packed coffee. Now we’re ready to reattach the full portafilter to the machine, and place an espresso cup on top of the digital scale beneath it. Tare the scale again. Then press the button and watch as it pools and starts to drip in the tiny mirror that is angled up at the bottom of the portafilter. When the digital scale says 36-39 grams, I press the bottom to stop the water flow. Then I empty the used puck out of the portafilter and enjoy! There’s a whole milk frothing process that is done with the frothing wand in the side of the machine while the coffee is dripping if I want a cappuccino as well, with various methods to create coffee “art” on top into the crema.
I admire this approach to coffee, but I lack the requisite OCD skills to pull it off consistently.
Let me rephrase that: my OCD is focused on writing and publishing every day (like, it's allowed to run free every day for a couple of hours). I think the trade-off would be no more writing.
That being said, it is well worth the effort for me to grind the beans every time I want to brew coffee (just a drip maker, but slightly higher end) and I use filtered water. The quality of the beans is good, probably locally roasted, but not like the highest of the high end stuff. Just plenty good enough for me to really look forward to coffee every day!
The story of Kaldi and his dancing goats is a charming and imaginative origin tale, even if it may be more myth than reality. It's a testament to the enduring fascination with coffee and its power to captivate our imagination. Thank you for sharing this delightful journey with us.
Thanks, Winston!
Coffee professional here- impressed at how much you were able to fit into a single post! As for how I drink my daily coffee? Kalitta wave pour over. Without adulterants. Roasted by my friends and coworkers.
YUM!
I'm really glad this came across well. It was tough not to just keep going with the history (first half), and I'm sure Michael could have also thrown a lot more info out there. I feel like the art is in what you leave out, some of the time.
I like mine black and a pour-over is solid.
Probably my favorite if I have time/patience!
My daughter and I are cold brew aficionados. We buy a variety of whole beans, grind them and cold brew them daily. It gives us time together from prep to drinking and has also saved us money over store-bought inferior versions.
Sounds awesome! It sounds like a pretty fantastic ritual.
I'm late the game on this post, but I'm glad I got here. Great overview of the coffee process!
One point I'd add is it's not just America with the whipping cream, etc. Vienesse coffee culture is also full of drinks with heavy cream and sugar. But they make it look luxuriant!
As for me, I have like seven different coffee making tools at home but the ones I use most are the Aeropress, Chemex (when it's not just me), and I recently got an ibrik, so I use that a lot. Aside from the Turkish coffee, which gets slightly less than a teaspoon of sugar, all the others are mostly black. Occasionally, I'll put a drop of milk in if it comes out too bitter. Something to note for me is that I'm solely a decaf drinker so my bean choices are limited, but Los Angeles has lots of roasters so it hasn't been too hard to find good stuff.
I love black coffee, and drink enough every day to kill a small mule, but I like some of those sweet drinks too (just different times of the day/purposes). Vietnamese and Thai coffees are similar, right? Those are tasty after dinner in lieu of a dessert.
Glad you made it here, Oleg!
Yup, Vietnamese, Thai, and, I would add Cuban coffees are all pretty sweet but in different ways.
I enjoy them all!
But I'm married to black coffee and espresso. <3
Loved this! I also roast my own and it’s definitely a fun hobby. My go-to lately is a Chemex pour-over but I like to keep changing it up. Also have a cheap espresso machine that I’ve modded to be able to pull some pretty decent shots. Mostly enjoy light and bright beans and love a good Ethiopian bean.
It’s great how accessible home roasting is these days. I have a Behmor 1600 and love it. Thanks for the fun article and combination of history and science!
That's awesome, Josh! I find myself doing only the bare minimum to get very good coffee, but even that little bit of effort isn't insignificant. It is well worth that bit of work to be happy by way of taste!
Mike and I are former colleagues.
It is no mean coincidence that the happy collision of the Gutenberg press significantly reducing the price of books in concert with the concomitant explosion of silent reading (the cost of texts before the press was prohibitive and those who couldn't afford books listened in groups to readers) in train with the increasing consumption of coffee were certainly proximate causes to the rapid advances in arts and sciences in the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras (15th through 17th centuries).
Coffee fueled the Elightenment of cross-disciplinary exploration! Coffee: The Fuel of Polymaths.
It's true. And Bill, I focused a bit more on the industrial revolution aspect, but you're spot-on about the more broad expansion of the arts and sciences, especially science. But also politics.
Very informative post.
Great post. As a rank amateur in terms of coffee, most of this was new to me. Thanks for the enlightenment! I now know why the place I get my coffee in Tokyo - Kaldi - is called that. I just drink it filtered and black. Nothing very sophisticated. The best coffee I have had was when I was living in Turkey. Great stuff.
I've been a home roaster for about three years and just as Michael's experience a friend introduced me to the world of single origin, third wave coffee.
My top three coffee brewing methods are:
1. Aeropress
2. Chemex
3. Melitta pour over
Walther, have you written about these methods anywhere? I'd check it out!
Oddly enough I have a coffee post in my drafts. I might need to finally finish it.
Allow me to push you over the edge with my coffee-colored dog: https://youtu.be/i1eDSFNdCHg
aaawww fine, I'll do it
Yes! I am not above using my children for the purpose of making the world a better place.
Just loved this post, thank you Andrew and Michael. First, a little transparency: I am not a coffee drinker, never was, but I do adore the smell of coffee, both the beans and when it's being brewed. Why that adoration stops at the act of imbibing, escapes me. I tried coffee, real coffee, for the first time at an international summit in Valencia, Spain, right after a full buffet lunch, and it sent my heart racing for the next several hours.
I'm a chocolate gal. And coffee and chocolate are a match made in heaven—and brought back down to us by the gods. Just think of the delicious similarities... they both have "beans", they are both roasted (although you can have virgin chocolate), and they are both called "dark and rich." Both can be taken as a beverage, or in bar form (yes there are chocolate bars with coffee beans embedded in them, sheer ectasy!). Both have a long and storied cultural history and heritage.
How curious too... literally yesterday I softlaunched a new Substack dedicated to our love for cacao (cacaomuse.substack.com). Great food-loving minds clearly think alike :) When I write my piece about cacao history would love to link to this post, so watch that space!
We totally do need to weave the two together!!
I would enjoy reading this.
Low fat Chocolate milk added to my coffee everyday, old school drip machine on a timer, in the summer I add ice and it is wonderful. 💚 Thank you goats and Andrew for the story!
Yay! Old school drip for me as well, although I've upgraded to more of a Thermos-style carafe.
Pour over coffee is my go to! I didn't like coffee until I discovered this style a few years ago at Roast'd in Fort Lee, NJ. The different flavors you can get with different coffee beans and different brewing ways was an eye opener to me. But with pour over you need to know that the place you're going to makes it well. It can come out either watery or bitter if not done well, so you might not like the style because of a bad brew rather than the method.
Check out all the heroes in the comments here who do this themselves! (I'm not such a hero)
I love that coffee was invented because church is boring😂 I drink mine black from a Chemex, although, I switched to a reusable filter during the pandemic when I had trouble finding their paper filters. It’s not the same flavor, definitely, but it’s still pretty good.
That sounds fantastic!
I have been slowly coerced into this method by my spouse - who is obsessed with making and drinking the perfect cup of espresso each and every day. When he’s home to make mine for me, it’s great...the stuff of fairytales....but whole process is completely antithetical to the way I operate in the morning, which is barely at all, until after I’ve had my coffee. I bought a French press for emergencies, but it is collecting dust in the cabinet, because I have gotten so spoiled by the amazing flavor of coffee made this way. So, on those mornings when he leaves the house early, I snap my sleep-addled adhd brain into gear and fumble through the seemingly thousands of steps and micro-considerations for those few glorious sips. The coffee beans are ordered and sent from Wendelboe in Oslo, Norway, and each pouch lists the country, region, producers and process, the date of harvest and flavor notes.
I don't blame you one iota for feeling spoiled! That sounds really incredible.
I am the same way: coffee first, please, then fancy movements.
We have a La Marzocco machine in our kitchen that my spouse purchased and trained me to use. He makes coffee for me when he’s at home. It’s an exacting, several-step process, at the end of which you have a single shot of excellent espresso. First, weigh the portafilter on the small digital scale, then tare the scale to 0 with it resting there. Next, place the portafilter under the grinder and press the preset button. You want somewhere between 18.5 and 19.5 grams. If it’s less you switch the grinder to manual mode and quickly tap until you have that number. Then I use several implements that help with flow once it’s in the machine. I use a magnetic tube that clicks onto the top of the portafilter to prevent the coffee from escaping while I aerate and comb through it with a multi-pronged metal brush/rake tool. Then I remove the tube and press down on the top of the coffee with a specialty tamper with a spring that packs it tight, flat and even every time. Then I put a flat, round disk/net on top that makes the water disperse more evenly through the packed coffee. Now we’re ready to reattach the full portafilter to the machine, and place an espresso cup on top of the digital scale beneath it. Tare the scale again. Then press the button and watch as it pools and starts to drip in the tiny mirror that is angled up at the bottom of the portafilter. When the digital scale says 36-39 grams, I press the bottom to stop the water flow. Then I empty the used puck out of the portafilter and enjoy! There’s a whole milk frothing process that is done with the frothing wand in the side of the machine while the coffee is dripping if I want a cappuccino as well, with various methods to create coffee “art” on top into the crema.
That’s it. ☕️
I admire this approach to coffee, but I lack the requisite OCD skills to pull it off consistently.
Let me rephrase that: my OCD is focused on writing and publishing every day (like, it's allowed to run free every day for a couple of hours). I think the trade-off would be no more writing.
That being said, it is well worth the effort for me to grind the beans every time I want to brew coffee (just a drip maker, but slightly higher end) and I use filtered water. The quality of the beans is good, probably locally roasted, but not like the highest of the high end stuff. Just plenty good enough for me to really look forward to coffee every day!