S4: Episode 11: Grounds For Confusion: Separating Bean From Blarney
In this final episode of the season, I take off my roaster’s apron and put on my consumer hat as I explore the supermarket coffee aisle to see how much the labels on coffee bags really tell us. Armed with a single origin Kenya and a premium own-brand blend, I compare what the packaging promises versus what’s actually in the cup. From roast levels and brew advice to origin detail and flavour accuracy, I ask: can you judge a coffee by its label? Tune in to find out which bag came out on top and why sometimes, spending just 35p more is the difference between a decent brew and a bitter disappointment.
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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…
In this last episode of the season I don my consumer hat to take a look the information given on two supermarket bags of coffee to see just how useful it is…and later I’ll be answering the question of which of them was the better choice and why so stay tuned for that…
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I roast my own coffee. It makes sense since I am a coffee roaster. It is an extraordinary privilege to be able to select exactly the coffees I want to drink with full knowledge of their provenance. Hashtag smug. So it was a bit of a shock when for fun I wandered down the unfamiliar coffee aisle of a supermarket recently to take a look at the coffee choices available there. I have to confess that it was a little dispiriting. My general advice for buying the best tasting coffee when you haven’t been able to taste it first is to look for the one that has the most information about it. But as I looked through the packets of coffee I wondered, how does that advice stack up when all the indicators I rely on as signs of a good coffee - such as the altitude a coffee was grown at, its variety, the green bean processing method used on it, the name of the producer who grew it and even its grade - are largely absent? It is a very good question. Standing in that supermarket aisle there and then I decided to tackle it from the other direction by taking a look at the information that is actually to be found on those supermarket coffee bags in the light of the coffee in the bag. So gritting my teeth I bought two bags of UK supermarket coffee to compare: a single origin Kenya and a blend from a premium own-brand range. OK lets get the kettle on and get to brewing….
So firstly supermarket coffee bag labels and the brew
Since I bought whole bean and not ground coffee, both bags give some advice about grinding coffee. The Kenya coffee bag recommends grinding fresh for the best flavour - which earns it a big old gold star - and gives some broad guidance on grind sizes for different brewing methods. The premium blend somewhat dodges the question of grind size by simply recommending that you grind the coffee to suit your coffee maker - not so useful. Both then go on to recommend how much coffee to use to make a brew. The Kenya bag is quite precise: 6g of coffee per 100ml of water which works out to a brew ratio of around 1:16 and this will produce a good tasting brew. The premium blend says one tablespoon per cup. Yeah - this is not exactly precise given that cups vary in size and your version of a tablespoon may not match their diagram on the bag which shows a heaped spoon. Honestly you are highly likely to experience a disappointing brew by following this instruction. Sadly both bags fall down on brewing water temperature by recommending the use of boiling or just off the boil water which would increase the bitterness of the brew. Setting that aside, if you follow the instructions on each bag you are more likely to brew a better tasting cup of the Kenya than the premium blend.
Next supermarket coffee bag labels and the taste
Both bags state they are ‘strength 3’ - meaning medium roast. The Kenya bag mentions flavours of citrus and chocolate in the coffee description while the premium blend’s bag says that it is a complex blend of floral, citrus and caramel notes. Both sound great but actually these are fairly generic descriptions. Sadly the premium blend turned out to be what I can only describe as a proper dark roast. This meant that the hoped for floral and citrus notes were literally lost up the flue of the roasting machine and what was left was some quite dark rubbery notes in their place. Meanwhile the Kenya was a good medium roast. It did not have the satisfying depth of flavour that the best Kenya coffees have but the flavour was as described. The Kenya bag wins the second round…
Finally supermarket coffee bag labels and the bean
The coffee in both bags is 100% Arabica, the coffee species with a finer flavour than Robusta which is the other main commercial coffee species. The Kenya bag goes further, emphasising that the coffee is of specialty grade meaning it is of high quality. The bag also takes pains to explain that the coffee is, and I quote: ’expertly sourced and roasted’. It includes the signature of the coffee buyer, which I guess is intended to supply some sense of accountability. Although its hard to make out the name. Neither bag is specific about exactly where the coffee was grown or who grew it. The Kenya bag talks about the growing conditions on the slopes of Mount Kenya - without explicitly saying that the coffee was grown there. The premium blend bag is even more vague saying merely that the coffee is sourced from farming communities across Latin America and Africa, which covers an awful lot of ground, a wide variety of growing conditions, and many, many people! This lack of real detail about the coffee in the bag is where both bags fall down. In the absence of provenance they lean on certifications to persuade you of the coffee’s ethics: Fairtrade for the Kenya, Rainforest Alliance for the premium blend. A gold star for you if you can tell me what these certifications actually mean - without reaching for Google!
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
Except that its not, as this episode’s question is what I am sure you are all wanting to know, and it is…
So which of these supermarket coffees was the best?
Out of these two bags, no question the Kenya coffee won hands down. Is it actually the 'best' coffee you can buy? No. Was it the better choice? Yes. The brewing advice was brief but well thought through. And the coffee in the bag matched the description on the bag, both in so called ‘strength’ and in flavour. The quality control at the roastery for the premium blend had clearly gone badly awry. But I wonder if a proper medium roast would have exposed poor quality coffee beans since bean defects are covered up by roasting the coffee darker. Blends are also highly likely to contain cheaper, poorer tasting, coffees to bulk them out. So while it’s not an infallible indicator of better tasting coffee, I always prefer to buy coffee from a named origin rather than a blend. And while the information on the bag did not have the detail I’d like, this exercise did prove that as an aid to choosing better coffee the more specific the detail on the packet the better. Finally, on price: the Kenya bag cost 35p more than the bag of premium blend, which was 35p well spent. This brings me back to something that I often mention - to get better tasting coffee, you generally need to spend more money. Even if its only 35p.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about the information to be found on supermarket coffee bags. I hope this was helpful. If there’s something you’ve seen on a bag that you’d like explained but that I didn’t get into let me know on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide, email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com or leave me a text message using the link in the show notes. And that’s it for Season Four! If you haven’t already be sure to hit follow so that you don’t miss the start of Season Five when it drops. If you have a coffee friend who you think would enjoy the show, why not send them your favourite episode! And as always please rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. Don’t forget you can support my work - and tackle your coffee break boredom - by buying my puzzle book ‘Wordsearch for the Coffee Curious’ using the link in the show notes. 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 breaks with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee!
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