S2: Episode 5: Are You Drinking Defective Coffee?
In this episode we’re exploring the topic of defective coffee beans which are beans with problems that make them taste bad. What exactly is defective coffee and how can you tell if you are unfortunate enough to be drinking a cup of it? All will be revealed along with the importance of defective beans in defining the quality of a coffee. This week’s FACQ asks the crucial question of how to avoid buying defective coffee.
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Examples of defective beans - just a few of the problems that can affect green coffee beans!
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Hello and welcome to The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster and writer on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
This week's episode is all about defective coffee - by which I mean coffee beans with issues that make them taste bad. We will be looking into why coffee beans might be defective and how you can tell if they are…
…and later I’ll be answering the important question of how you can avoid buying defective beans…
I feel very lucky to work in specialty coffee where I get to drink high quality, great tasting coffee every day. But it has to be said that sometimes the odd bad bean can slip through, because they are quite literally the coffee equivalent of the proverbial needle in a haystack. This was brought home to me one day when a bag of coffee was returned to the roastery where I worked with a complaint about it tasting bad. I knew the coffee in question was really lovely and wondered if perhaps there was an issue with the roast or how it had been ground. So I blithely brewed a cup of the coffee in the roastery cafe to see what was up with it. What happened next, in my mind at least, must have looked something like a scene from the Exorcist to the poor customers in the cafe, as after taking a sip of the coffee I spun round and projectile spat it into the cafe sink. The coffee tasted foul. It had most likely been contaminated by a single defective phenolic bean. Medicinal in taste, when phenol is detected by the tongue the thinking part of your brain is bypassed as the body is triggered to get it out of the system - fast! - regardless of what or who is around. My embarrassment aside, it was a good reminder of how even the best coffee can still contain the odd dodgy bean and why its worth knowing a bit about coffee defects, so lets get into it…
So firstly defects and the brew
While defective coffee beans are relatively easy to see when raw, once roasted they become much harder to spot - and after grinding, impossible. Sometimes the aroma of the coffee can give a defective bean away, so its worth having a quick sniff of the grounds before you begin brewing to check for any ‘off’, or non-coffee aromas. One very obvious type of defect is the potato defect which literally smells (and tastes) of starchy, raw potato. Yum. If the grounds do smell weird or actively bad it is really not worth brewing that coffee as it will taste how it smells. Unless you are curious of course. Buying poor quality whole bean coffee is akin to playing a weird coffee version of Russian roulette - as it is likely to be inconsistent in flavour from cup to cup. Where one cup may taste OK, the next may taste vile. If you buy poor quality pre-ground coffee, just one bad bean can contaminate the whole bag. In the worst case scenario the coffee may be completely undrinkable. If this is the case your only solution is to bin it and buy better quality coffee next time!
Next defects and the taste
Take it from me, you really, really don’t want defective beans in your coffee. Even at their least offensive defective beans will affect the flavour of a coffee, masking good flavours and introducing off tastes. The worst defects make a coffee taste actively unpleasant or even undrinkable - as I discovered in my Exorcist moment. While you definitely know it when you taste it, pinning down the cause of a defective coffee is another matter. Defects may be due to poor green bean storage or issues within the beans themselves. Poor storage manifests in different ways. It can result in mouldy flavours if the beans get damp. Beans can also absorb aromas from their environment if they are not properly protected, aromas such as diesel, which is not something I appreciate in my coffee. And coffee that has been in storage for too long, or at too high a temperature, will taste woody. Issues within the beans themselves can result in tastes that are earthy, reminiscent of a farmyard or medicinal like TCP or iodine. I have even tasted a defect which caused my throat to prickle and close up, which was really quite unpleasant. But sometimes the defect can taste weirdly OK. There is a defect found in Brasilian coffee that tastes like caramelised onion - which is actually quite pleasing - but not perhaps when tasted in coffee!
Finally defects and the bean
There is no magic ‘specialty coffee bush’ which only produces beans of the highest quality. Within every coffee harvest there will be cherries that are unripe, over-ripe, insect damaged, infected with bacteria or have other problems - all things that can lead to defective beans. The quality of a coffee is largely determined by the number of these types of beans that are allowed to remain in it. While obviously damaged and unripe cherries may be removed before the harvest is processed the main quality screening procedures are done afterwards, as defects can be introduced during processing too. This screening is called grading and has two components to it. One part involves removing bad, or defective, beans based on their colour and appearance to reduce the number present to an accepted level. The other part involves sorting the beans by size. The higher or better the grade the lower the number of defective beans in the coffee after grading. So the highest quality coffee has the fewest defects and the most evenly sized beans. While I would love to be able to tell you definitively the best grade of coffee to look for it is sadly not so simple. Each coffee producing country has their own system of grading which doesn’t correlate with any other country so it is not at all straightforward! Apologies.
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
How can I avoid buying defective coffee?
To put it bluntly, don’t buy cheap coffee! Removing defective beans from coffee is a cost to the producer and one of the reasons better quality beans are more expensive. Also since producers can’t afford to throw away a variable percentage of their crop every year, where do you think those defective beans end up? In cheap coffee! As a rule of thumb better quality coffee is indicated by evidence of provenance and the more detail the better. Mentions of the country, region, producer, variety, grade and processing method all point towards better quality coffee with fewer defects.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about defects in coffee. Have you ever tasted a coffee that was so bad you had to spit it out too? I’d love to hear about your experience. Let me know using the ‘send me a text’ link in the show notes. In the next episode we are getting back into coffee brewing - specifically the influence of the amount of coffee that you use on the flavour of your brew. If you are curious to know what I am talking about make sure you follow the show so that you don’t miss it when it drops. Also if you know of someone who would like to up their coffee brewing game please tell them about the show and rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. And as always, if you have a question about coffee or a topic that you would like me to cover please get in touch. I’m on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide or email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for sharing your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee!
The Coffee Drinker’s Guide is a Blue Sky Coffee Project