Open Mike: Mmm, Coffee

[Ed. Note: This article concludes Off-Topic Week at TOP.

It didn't go so well, I'd say. Next time I do this I need to write the articles in advance; I didn't have much time this week for writing. Plus, I really actually would prefer to write about photography, which, I guess, makes perfect sense. I only made it till about Wednesday before I got the itch to start posting photography-related posts again. But at that point I figured yet another about-face on my part would just confuse people.

Well, I guess if you never do any experiments, then you never learn anything. But I probably won't do this again—I think one regular off-topic post a week—"Open Mike," on Sundays—plus the occasional unscheduled blip, blurt, or blat are plenty for me.]

My Behmor 1600 home coffee roaster gave up the ghost this morning. I met Zander and his girlfriend for dinner at a roadhouse in the tiny Wisconsin town of Lomira on Friday—it's halfway between Waukesha, where I live, and Oshkosh, where they're students at the U of W—and the batch of Phil Rosenberg's Kona I took to them as a "care package" turned out to be the last gasp for the Behmor. This morning the motor is dead.

That's right about on schedule. I roasted my first batch of green beans (that's what unroasted coffee beans are called) on Friday, December 23, 2011, and the Behmor 1600s are widely reputed to last for just about two years. Mine did that and another two months plus.

Cost
Cost-wise, fresh roasted coffee is about a wash. The roasting machine cost 38¢ a day; but because green beans cost about 1/2 to 2/3rds the cost of shop-roasted coffee, I probably saved at least that much over the 26 months the roaster was in operation. (Precise accounting is impossible, because I buy different coffees when I buy green beans vs. roasted, packaged commercial varieties.)

Quality
Quality is a big win for home roasting. If I were to quantify the quality of various options subjectively, here is what I'd say:

Canned, instant, and convenience-store coffees: 0–2, maybe rising to a 3 for those who have succumbed to slave mentality and habituated themselves to their misery;

Grocery store or gourmet shop whole beans, vacuum-sealed: 2–5;

Starbucks: a narrow range of about 5–6, with the substantial caveat that you must enjoy overcooked, roasty-flavored coffee (the primary benefit of Starbuck's is convenience and consistency—you'll never get good coffee there, but you'll never get bad coffee there either);

Seattle's Best, the best pre-packaged coffee I ever found (now owned by Starbuck's but operated independently, or so everyone claims): 6

Independent coffee-house coffee: 4–7 (the high end of this range might seem insultingly low to baristas, but I've personally never had a cup of coffee in a coffee house as good as what I routinely make at home. I should add that coffee houses are thin on y^e ground in the Wilds of Waukesha and I don't seek them out in any case).

My fresh home roasted coffee in the Behmor: 7–9 (I'm not exactly tootling my own horn here, at least not too much: there's a lot to be said for a) truly superior beans [search this site for "Kuni'i" for more on that], and b) freshness (grinding 4–12 hours after you roast and brewing right after you grind).

Why no "10"? Just being realistic. I tend to come up to speed in my enthusiasms relatively quickly, to whatever level I choose. But I haven't become a true coffee geek. I was revving along at full speed learning the minutiae of coffee connoisseurship until I brought that particular train to a halt because I don't believe I have good enough smelling and tasting abilities to allow me to learn to become a true savant. My very good cup of Phil's Kona in the mornings is good enough for me. So I'm assuming that my subjective evaluations of coffee quality are just true for me, and might not be agreed to by real savants who have better tastebuds and more sensitive olfactory organs than I do.

Besides, every rating system needs to leave room at the top for future surprises, right?

Convenience
Home roasting is more bother than buying prepackaged roasted whole beans or ground coffee, but less bother than you'd think, once you get set up to do it. You do have to come up to speed with the basic skills, which I would estimate I did over the course of about three weeks. At this point, though, I roast coffee approximately every four days, and it's as automatic as any other household chore. I would say (subjectively again) that it's as much trouble as washing the dishes. No less, but no more.

It takes about 25 minutes. Through most of that time you're just waiting (I usually read or surf the Web on my iPad Air), and cleanup takes less than two minutes.

You have to attend to the machine during  the actual roast (there's a danger of fire, which means you should never let the roasting stage go unattended), but you don't have to stay in the room for the cooldown period, which is almost as long as the roasting time.

Many's the time I've woken up to find I'm out of roasted coffee and I have to roast a batch along with my other morning chores, and even that is not too much of a bother, although I usually wish I'd remembered to do it the night before.

Bottom line: I've bought another. My second Behmor 1600 is on the way. Without complaint.

Using the Behmor 1600
For those few of you who might be contemplating a Behmor 1600 of your own, I'll cover some details about how to use one. If you're interested in that bit, please click past the break.

Using a Behmor 1600 home coffee roaster ($299) is simple—too simple for real connoisseurs. However, there isn't a true small-scale alternative that's unreservedly better; most of the home roasters on the market have drawbacks of one sort or another, and commercial "sample roasters" and "shop roasters" can cost $3,500 to $10,000 and require more expertise to run. The best home roasters are probably the Hottop ($820) and the Quest M3 ($1,350 and currently not available). I've never used either.

To use a Behmor 1600 you need a ventilated space to put it—it's about as large as a large toaster oven and needs a foot or two of free space around it. It has a pretty effective smoke-reduction system so it's okay for using in a kitchen that can be closed off—it will set off smoke alarms otherwise. The smell is very strong after roasting but dissipates satisfactorily after running the exhaust fan for a while.

For cleanup, you need a Shop-Vac or a hand-held vacuum with a round or narrow nozzle handy. Cleanup however is very quick, about 90 seconds.

The Behmor has some quirks, most notably:

• The bewildering variety of different roasting profiles and programs. I cannot tell what the program buttons even do, and I usually just set mine on the P1 profile and go, unless the bean supplier suggests otherwise for a particular coffee.

• Auto shutdown: The machine allows you to extend the roasting time manually, but not indefinitely. Eventually it will shut itself off whether you're ready for it to stop or not.

• For the above reason, most people roast less coffee than the weight setting they're using. That is, when using the 1/2 pound setting (my standard), I load only 6.5 ounces of beans. The machine is advertised as being able to roast a whole pound at once, but it cannot in most cases. If using the one-pound setting, I would roast 12 ounces at the most—and even then you can get into trouble with the machine shutting down before the roast has finished. Note that when this happens, your roast is ruined because the machine will not start up again until it has gone through a complete cooling cycle. It's best to be conservative to avoid wasting beans.

I always open the door completely during the cooling cycle, because the big weakness of the Behmor is that the cooling phase isn't instantaneous enough (commercial roasters stop the roast by dumping the beans out into a giant tray and drawing cool room-temperature air through perforations in the bottom of the tray). Opening the door however is a bit messier—you'll get chaff on the counter. Not an issue for me, but you could experiment with just cracking the door or leaving it shut during the cooling cycle if you want to.

The standard way of timing a roast is by a) listening and b) evaluating the color of the beans. As coffee cooks it goes through two distinct cracking phases—first crack, which is more of a snapping sound, followed by a pause, followed by second crack, which is a thinner, lighter sound similar to paper being crumpled. I usually stop the roast at the end of first crack or the beginning of second crack, because of the degree of roast I like.

You can be as obsessive or as casual as you want to be about the various settings and timing methods. I go the simple route, so I just use Joe Behm's timing method—I wait for first crack to start and then set a standard time for the completion of the roast. Of course, if you are roasting the same kind of green beans over and over again, eventually it gets automatic.

Note, however, that you cannot buy "the same kind of green beans" indefinitely. Even if you buy the same pure variety from the same grower, beans from different crops will roast, and taste, somewhat differently. My last buy from Kuni'i Coffee was 20 lbs., which will last me for a good long while, so after I get the roasting process "dialed in" for that bean, it won't change.

Although roasted coffee will lose its distinctive flavor progressively, becoming "generic tasting" within eight days to two weeks, green coffee keeps just fine for a year, in some cases two years, and sometimes even longer. So there's no rush to use up your green beans.

This machine is not really too suitable for dark roasts. Some people do it, but the danger of fire increases considerably and the machine fights you with its timing safeguards. The rule of thumb is that the darker the roast, the more you taste the roast; the lighter the roast, the more you taste the distinctive flavors of the bean cultivars you're roasting. (Besides, if you like roasty dark coffee, you probably already like Starbucks just fine.) For the light to medium roasts I like, the Behmor 1600 is perfect.

Finally, a couple of tips: try home-roasted coffee without sugar. People put sugar in coffee because it's bitter, but that's a fault, not a feature. Good fresh-roasted coffee ground just before brewing just doesn't taste bitter at all. A final tip is that really good fresh coffee changes flavor as it cools. If you allow it to cool toward room temperature as you drink it, you'll find that your last sips are just as enjoyable as the first.

In short, if you have the room in your kitchen or a ventilated back porch, and you're interested in roasting your own, I'd encourage you to try it. If you work your way through a few pounds and find the process isn't for you, a newish Behmor 1600 would sell readily on eBay, I'd think. Just keep track of the number of roasts you've used it for.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mike Anderson: "Mike, I'm curious about your (and others') brewing technique. Perhaps you've already covered this in a previous post. I recently got an Aeropress and it's an improvement over techniques I've tried at home—bonus: it's cheap. Still working on dialing the process in."

Mike replies: I wrote about that on 6/9/13 in a post called "Open Mike: Indexer." To save time, start reading at the header that says "Try again."

Rob L: "I get my caffeine the way god intended: in a can, or a bottle.  :-)  But still interesting to read about what it takes to get a good cuppa. Granted, I can get pedantic on the proper temperature and filtration of water for a perfect soda fountain, so nice to know we're all a little crazy about what we consume—as well we should! Life is too short for crap. (My favorite coat is from Filson's—whose motto is 'Might as well get the best.' That might be on my tombstone.  :-) "

Mike replies: Guess what? The caffeine in those cans or bottles come from coffee.

Roger: "I'm still running on a v. 1.0 Behmor. I think that's at least four years with the original parts. Damn thing just won't die. I'd love a new model with the fine mesh drum and the improved chaff tray but this one has to slip its mortal coil before I drop another three hundred bucks on one. It certainly has paid for itself and I still enjoy my weekly roasting session. Kind of nice having a hobby that saves me money instead of sucking my wallet dry."

Philip Rosenberg: "Hi Mike—thanks for mentioning Kuni'i again, and am happy you still enjoy our coffee. I just finished pruning our 1600 trees, and need a break. Maybe a trip up Mauna Kea again this week to see some snow for a change! Stay well."

Zalman Stern: "The Hottop roaster is a fair bit more money, but rock solid reliable and has a great reputation for replacement part availability. It will also absolutely do as dark a roast as you want. The thing I like best about home roasting is I don't run out of coffee because I forget to buy it."

Comments

[Michael Trupiano]

Mike, it seems your quality comparisons are for both coffee and roasted beans. I am wondering if you have done any side by side taste tests with your roasted beans and others? While I don't roast at home I do buy whole beans from across the country (trying different roasters and only buying 12-16 oz. bags) for my morning latte (and occasional machiato and espresso in the pm); using a Mazzer Luigi Brevetto grinder and my Swiss made Giotto machine.

Spring is only 19 days away! Hang in there!

[Patrick Perez]

$300 for a roaster whose motor dies at two years? I am surprised that you can't find a local appliance/electronics repair shop that can't fix it for substantially less than a replacement. mean, a roaster is basically a motor (and fan) and a heating element. Pretty simple stuff.

Patrick

[David]

Yeah..I gave up on Coffee brewers that have a plug on em. Im back to a Melita #6 filter holder and hot water in a vessel. Perfect.

[Go to Sweet Maria's and search "Clever Coffee Dripper." Even better! --Mike]

[Mike Anderson]

Mike,

I'm curious about your (and others') brewing technique. Perhaps you've already covered this in a previous post.

I recently got an Aeropress and it's an improvement over techniques I've tried at home - bonus: it's cheap. Still working on dialing the process in.

[Dave Millier]

Fascinating level of detail from someone clearly in love with subject.

Sadly, I can't fully share the enjoyment as I detest the taste of coffee - not just the remarkable variety of gourmet coffees but even coffee flavoured desserts and coffee cake and coffee centre chocolates...just coffee anything! Thinking about the aroma of coffee emanating from the Carwadine's coffee houses we got dragged to a a kid makes me shuddered with remembered horror.

My mum is a great coffee fan but tea and hot chocolate for me.

But for those in the coffee camp, enjoy a good one for me ;-)

[Ken Sky]

So did you get the 3 year warranty this time? Only 33 bucks. That will drive your amortization cost dramatically. Not that I care, cause I find Nespresso "good enough". Sounds like the camera debate about the IQ of camera phones;)

[Joe Holmes]

I love trying espresso from shops all over when I travel, but so many of the most famous independent shops make a shot that's much too dense and dark for my taste.

My favorite shops are relatively obscure -- Zocalo Coffeehouse in San Leandro, CA, which has a roaster on premises (and was owned for 10 years by my brother Tim but is now under renovation for the new owner), and, oddly, the Saturdays NYC surf shop on Crosby Street in Manhattan.

I've learned the hard way that you can't judge an espresso by the price of the machine that made it or the hipster cred of the barista -- so many horrible shots over the years. That's one thing I thank Starbucks for -- as a last resort, I can always count on that pretty good shot.

[Bernard]

Sorry, but here it's Expresso only. Or sometimes Greek/Turkish coffee.
To each his own :-)

[You still need roasted beans to make espresso, at least from what I hear. --Mike]

[B.J. Segel]

Really? The motor died? I would have thought the heating elements would go first. Behmors seem somewhat repairable, so maybe the motor can be replaced, but maybe it's not worth it. Save your old drum and chaff tray; spares might come in handy some day.
You might also want to discuss brewing some off topic day, and the fact that most home coffee makers don't get the water hot enough (195-205 degrees F) to fully extract the flavors and make really good coffee.

[John Brewton]

Just curious if you tried jimmying the gears around with a sharp implement. Mine supposedly "died" so I took it apart and discovered the gears were merely jammed up.

[James Liu]

I have a really hard time crediting you, because I know my coffee roasters, and they put a lot of professional energy, time, effort, and hard-won know-how into sourcing beans and dialing in their beans. To think that some photography blogger with his ten-thousand hours invested in something else altogether could miraculously roast better coffee at home reliably and consistently? I see that's not quite the claim you make, but you come awful close to making it. Awful close.

And it's not like these professional roasters make the stuff they sell and then go home and roast the coffee they drink for themselves on a Behmor or iRoast.

As a reader of this blog, I'm a photographer too. And I like the photographs that I take, but I know very well that my best few street photography shots aren't better than, say, Gary Winograd's. Do I like some of them better subjectively? Sure thing. Would I rather pay to print and hang my own photography than to get a photo print of a photographer I admire? Well, depends.

I also just started brewing my own beer. It's competent home brew, and it's very drinkable, and I enjoy the process and creativity that brewing my own beer allows. But I don't pretend to make better beer than (say) Half Acre or New Glarus.

I've heard your story before from many other people. I have to imagine that tens of thousands of people would claim that they roast better coffee at home than they can buy. What seems more likely to you, that tens of thousands of people are simply biased in favor of their own DIY creations, or that craft coffee is a fancy sham?

And all of the qualification that it's just your own subjective preference? It still reads as humblebrag to me. And I don't like it, and I'm willing to credit you less even about photography because of it.

[Wow, I did not see that coming. I didn't intend to start any fights here.

You seem to have skipped the paragraph that starts, "Why no '10'?" What I said there was that I don't consider myself an expert and I'm speaking only of my own experience. As usual. Anyone is free to disagree or disregard, also as usual.

As I said in the post, a lot of the goodness in coffee depends on the quality of the beans and on freshness--the time between the roast and the grind, and the time between the grinding and the brewing. Another thing professionals can't do that I can is to adjust everything according to my personal taste--which is one reason why everybody does things a little differently, preferring many different brewing methods for instance.

I just ate some steamed broccoli, and it was better than any broccoli I've ever had at a restaurant. (Really, it was.) That just means I waited until the store had a fresh batch, handpicked the best looking bunch, fixed it just the way I like it, and then ate it sixty seconds after it came off the stove. It doesn't mean I think I'm a better cook than every restaurant chef.

I think these are some valid reasons why you've "heard the same story before from many other people." --Mike]

[Bob Smith]

Damn, home roasting....gonna have to fight that urge off.

I stick to light roast beans, we have some roasting companies locally that you can buy from so you get freshly roasted beans. I only home brew on the weekends so it's not that expensive.

As far as brewing methods I've tried several, ended up using a French press. I'm now using the Espro press. It is giving me noticeably better tasting coffee. MAKING SURE THE WATER TEMPURATURE IS CORRECT is the most important thing after the beans.

[Ann]

I'm sure a big reason what you make is so much better than what you can buy is freshness. Coffee is best used within the first couple of weeks after roasting, and by the time the coffee gets to Wisconsin from wherever it was roasted, it's most of the way to stale.

Living in Seattle, I have no desire to roast my own. I'm sure I couldn't do as well as any of the half dozen places I buy beans from, so I'm perfectly content to pay them to do the job.

[Anthony]

I'm curious that you say the best results are when you 4-12 hours after roasting. A new coffee shop near me, Artis in Berkeley will roast green beans to order while you wait - it takes about 5-6 minutes and, of course, you can dial in the roast and bean selection as you want. But they will tell you that you should wait 2-3 days before brewing, and, if you want something to use that day they'll suggest a pre-roasted batch.

[Steve Smith]

I can't fully share the enjoyment as I detest the taste of coffee

Me too. It's a ghastly drink, second only to Horlicks.

[Gabe Bandy]

Say there fellas.........

Do you love good, strong, freshly ground coffee? The aroma of just roasted coffee beans? Miss the whirr and crackle of the grinder and that warm, Sahara wind-like blowback of the roaster? The joy of a home roasted, ground, and brewed cup within just an hour or two of rising?

And how about the pleasure of private hours spent in the darkroom? The unique delight of a freshly enlarged and hand printed 8x10 after just a few hours in dark solitude. The knowledge that you truly are the hand crafter that everyone looks up to, and silently envies?

But wait - do you hate the pesky cleanup? The need to save and re-strengthen the chemicals? The shop vac needed for the roaster? The knowledge that either passion takes hours and hours of pre and post prep time? The venting and plastic sheeting?

Well, for the first time, you can combine your two passions, and halve the cleanup! Yes, for a limited time, for only three easy payments of $ 49.98 (plus shipping and handling) we'll rush the Roast n' Print kit, approved by the Darkroom Roasters Guild of America, straight to your home.

Now you can dual-purpose those stainless steel processing tanks, the temperature control apparatus, the valves, the timers, the safelites, the light table. Don't throw out that rubber apron! Save your ventilator, your gloves and tongs! That silver recycling rig - perfect for grounds! Best of all, if you have one of those fancy motorized Jobo set ups - you'll save hand-crankin' forever! Remember, this is a limited time offer, not available in any store, so call today!

But wait again - that's not all! The first two hundred callers will receive, absolutely free, Chef Mienhard Reisner's "365 sausage dinners". Imagine, adding the joy of bratwurst to your coffee roasting darkroom. Just pay separate shipping and handling.

[Grizzlymarmot]

You could look into the drum roaster attachment for a gas grill. I have been doing that for about 20 years. If you already have a gas grill, the drum may work just fine if you invest in the rotisserie system.

[David Vatovec]

Hello,
300 bucks for a roaster is a lot of momny, and it works for only two years?
I skip the grinding and roasting process and buy coffee in vacuum packs. The coffee from a "moka" machine is delicious and is way above a Sturbucks Coffeee - if that can be named coffee.
For 300 bucks I get more than two years of coffee for me, and I`m talking Illy and Pellini TOP kinds.
Oh, and I drink mine straight, no sugar no milk, that`s how you taste the coffee.
How much costs those beans of yours?

[Paul Kierstead]

I roasted in the oven for a couple of years, moved to an iRoast 2, when that failed, moved to a Behmor 1600. My Behmor has been doing 1-2 lb/wk for about 4 years now. I have a laundry list of things I wished it did different, but will still probably buy another one...

[John Ironside]

@David Miller: "aroma of coffee emanating from the Carwadine's coffee houses".

I never thought I'd ever hear anyone comment on-line on Carwardine's coffee houses. You've brought back memories of growing up in Bristol, England, and of enjoying coffee cake and the wonderful smell wafted from the roaster strategically placed near the door, even before I liked the taste of coffee itself, probably around 1958.

Carwardines were into retail theatre then, beans weighed out on brass scales, ground and poured onto a sheet of wrapping paper that was by some sleight of hand folded into a neat package. Like a bit of high-class Tokyo retail transported to 1950's provincial UK.

I'm so sorry coffee doesn't suit you - but I'll send back your good wishes tomorrow morning when I'm pushing the brew through the AeroPress.

[Jayson Merryfield]

Every post about coffee you make brings me closer and closer to trying this for myself.

[Chuck Albertson]

If you can find a Starbucks store with one of those clover brewing machines, you might revise your opinion of their in-store product. Most of the time, though, I just go with some fresh-ground in a Melita one-cup drip cone that I bought about 40 years ago. This is apparently making a comeback as the "pour-over" method, as the trendos call it.

[Rai]

Did you ever tried cold-brewing your coffee? I know it sounds very, very strange. Some time ago I read an article by the author and former leading EFF member Cory Doctorow, wherein he described his new tried and simple methods. He got it from other coffee aficionados and tried it with surprising results: it should preserve the very volatile aromatic acids and yielded no bitterness in the coffee. I did it myself with very fine tees (maybe Ctein could be interested, too) and they never tasted better.

If you'd like, you could read more about it in the mentioned article:

boingboing.net/2011/11/14/howto-attain-radical-hotel-roo.html

[robert e]

This post was chock full of information. I guesstimate that this particular device would be a wash for me in terms of cost. But as you say, Mike, there are qualitative benefits even so, not to mention the fun. (Actually you didn't mention the fun, but I know I'd probably enjoy the trying and learning as much as the result.) On the other hand, I live in a city with a dozen professional artisanal roasters, and have a cramped kitchen.

I'm curious what the taste-time graph looks like for roasted coffee, and whether it's consistent for different beans and roasts. This would be useful to know whether or not I do my own roasting. Another thing I wonder about is water temperature: I've confirmed that the recommended 165F (or slightly less) is best for the Aeropress, which contradicts the common wisdom that higher water temps makes better coffee.

Add my thumbs up for the Clover machines mentioned by Chuck. I also notice that Starbucks been adding and promoting less-roasted beans to its selection.

As for off-topic week, it somewhat reaffirmed my suspicion that I come here at least as much for the quality of writing and editing, and the voice, as much as for the topic. Sure, I'd prefer you write about stuff I care more about, like photography or coffee, rather than stuff like new cars, but it's all worth reading (if not all worth re-reading, for me). The important thing is that you're writing (and publishing); with good writers, the topic seems less important than what the writer finds in it. I'll add that for me the experiment suffered somewhat for following a particularly good Open Mike.

This piece was pretty good though. Besides, I've used coffee for developing and toning prints, so it doesn't even feel off-topic to me.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

We men are such fetishists, aren't we?! No wonder women ridicule us (as if THEY are above fetishes).

[Andrew Kirk]

"Phil's Kona is good enough for me". Well, Folger's instant is good enough for me. My, how our mileages differ. But, still, I read your blog every day. Your writing is a vintage unsurpassed on-line. With no roasting necessary.

[JohnMFlores]

Here's an interesting article I read a couple of months ago:

"Joy in the task: Even the finest restaurants are serving coffee made with capsules. Have we lost faith in the human touch?"

http://aeon.co/magazine/being-human/julian-baggini-coffee-artisans/

At home we grind and make espresso in a Neopolitan or Aeropress. The Neopolitan makes a bolder cup. The Aeropress a smoother one. And like you, it is to our taste and nine times out of ten better than what we can get out and about.

Nespresso? No thanks. We prefer the imperfect human touch and don't like the excessive plastic waste that capsules generate.

[Michael Bearman]

How do you store your green beans, and how long do they keep.

[Gordon Buck]

I’ve recently switched from a molded plastic disposable razor to a classic double edge, shaving soap and brush. The classic procedure does take a little longer – especially preparation. The water temperature must be just right. There are many preferences and recommendations for razors, blades, soaps and brushes – even bowls and scuttles. This means no time to roast and grind coffee so I use south Louisiana’s favorite: Community Coffee.

[Dennis Ng]

Fresh food or drink is always better. Add the factor that it was made by yourselves. It is just great. Ignore comment when you are right.

[Carl Blesch]

Commenter robert e wrote: "I also notice that Starbucks been adding and promoting less-roasted beans to its selection."

This is my big beef with Starbucks, and marketeers in general. When Starbucks first came to my then neck-of-the-woods (Chicago in the early 1990s), each store had an elaborate display of the roasting process, starting with green beans, to light roast, to medium roast ("city roast"), to dark roast to espresso roast. Their point being that nothing less than a dark roast was good enough. Store and restaurant coffees are city roast, they proclaimed, which falls short of bringing out the true and full flavor of coffee.

I bought into the premise wholeheartedly and started drinking Starbucks coffee exclusively. So imagine my surprise when Starbucks recently began selling something they call a blonde roast, while seriously cutting back on the varieties of traditional darker roast. This contradicted their "truth" of yore, on which they based their whole reason for being.

But then I remembered, that's marketing. Proclaim your way of doing things as truth, and then when the truth becomes inconvenient (i.e. it no longer makes you money, or as much money as it once did), pretend you never proclaimed it and proclaim something else as truth. That's why I've drifted away from 'bucs and have started cultivating independent sources (e.g. TOP reader Phil in Hawaii and an independent roaster I found in upstate New York).