The coffee lovers’ page

In association with Caffeine Australia, the award-winning magazine for coffee lovers.

We love our coffee. And it’s no surprise to coffee aficionados that the best coffee in far-flung places such as New York and London is said to be made by Aussie baristas, whether it’s a macchiato, latte, cappuccino or a flat white with full, skim, almond, rice or soy milk.

The choices don’t stop there. There’s fair-trade coffee, organic coffee, wood-roasted beans, beans from the shady side of the hill, high-altitude coffee, and micro-lot coffee.

Do you choose Australian-grown or imported coffee from Brazil (the world’s largest producer) or Vietnam (the second largest), or anywhere in between? There’s a lot to be said for buying locally roasted beans to support Aussie producers, and just one benefit is in lowering your carbon footprint. While we’re on the subject of the environment, organic coffee grown with organic fertilisers has lower greenhouse gas emissions. And of course, re-useable cups also lower your carbon footprint by (we’re told) a couple of per cent.

What you may not want to know is that coffee roasted in its country of origin (where the best coffee is usually kept for export) is packed in nitrogen or argon; as is much of the coffee that requires a longer shelf life, such as the coffee you buy in the supermarket. Sounds very chemical and is not the preferred way to retain the more delicate flavours, but we’re assured the coffee tastes remarkably fresh, even after shipping. The big benefit to those local farmers, who rely solely on coffee growing for their meagre income, is that they get a greater share of the coffee income.

There’s a whole different tale at the farm level. Does the farmer grow the best flavoured beans or the beans that are most disease resistant? And at what stage of ripeness were the coffee cherries picked? To help pickers choose the perfect beans, we heard one story of pickers encouraged to paint their nails to match the colour of coffee cherries that are at perfect ripeness for picking.

As with wine, terroir is important to coffee connoisseurs, as is the side of the hill it’s grown on, and how ripe the coffee cherries are at picking. The end flavours echo descriptions seen in wine tasting notes, too. You’ll find delicious notes of fig and vanilla alongside apricot. Or blackcurrants and toffee with subtle rhubarb and rosewater notes. And there’s the perfect winter coffee with notes of spice, fig and plum … and a creamy mouthfeel. Or for beans grown in mountainous regions, you may find hints of dark chocolate and red plum.

What about the taste of decaffeinated coffee? Decaf drinkers, long classified by baristas as the YB or “why bother” brigade, are at last being recognised. After all, decaf drinkers can never be accused of drinking for the caffeine buzz. What else is left then, but to drink entirely for the taste. And the taste is different because decaffeinating coffee removes the acidity and bitterness. The method for decaffeinating beans in the 1800s, was to use a benzene solvent, now luckily outlawed. One of the newest methods is to use a fermented cane sugar derivative to steam the green coffee under pressure.

Another alternative for anyone wanting to drink less caffeine is to seek out coffee grown from plants that are naturally lower in caffeine (much like you can do with teas). It’s more expensive because the caffeine in plants evolved to deter insects, so the low-caffeine plant is more expensive to grow successfully.

All we can say is, go forth, find your favourite coffee blend, and then enjoy it in the comfort of your home, in your favourite cafe, in your favourite location ...