Are you coffee nerds like us? We love what we do and can talk about coffee all day long. It is an ever evolving industry that most of us don't think much about, unless you do, and then that pandora's box opens up. So this is the page for you, for us, by us, about the stuff we nerd out on. The stuff that may have crossed your mind, but you forgot to google, because heck you aren't in the coffee industry. But we are, we take great pride in making the best darn cup of coffee we can, with the best beans we can source, a lot goes on behind the scenes here at 44 North Coffee, that you may have never thought of. So here is a glimpse:
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Decaf Coffee - all the things you never knew you didn't know:
We only source organic, fair-trade certified decaffeinated coffee. This is esential when drinking decaf, because the standard method is chemical process of caffeine extraction which just intensifies the chemicals when you brew a cup - yuck! Not on our watch. Learn more about how organic coffee is decaffeinated here.
A more in depth dive into our decaf coffees here at 44 North. We rotate seasonally between 3 decaf offerings throughout the year due to seasonal availability and making sure we source coffee that was grown within the last harvest year: Decaf Peru (winter-spring), Decaf Honduras (spring-summer), and new this year is a Decaf Mexico (fall-winter). The Decaf Peru and Decaf Honduras are what we consider a medium/dark roasted coffee and the newest Decaf Mexico is a true medium roasted coffee with lots of nuance and flavor. If you liked the Decaf Guatemala we carried for a number of years, you will likely enjoy this Decaf Mexico. It has earthy molasses notes, with spiced roasted nuts and a medium body.
The feedback we have received to date is that y'all prefer a medium roasted decaf. There are a few diehard dark roasted fans out there, but we are not dark roast coffee roasters. Decaf is a tricky coffee to roast because it has already been "processed" because of the decaffeination process, which happens via osmosis and the caffeine molecules stick to over 1,000 other flavor molecules, so in order to remove caffeine, flavor is also sacrificed. Decaf coffee burns easily as well as loses flavor quickly during the roasting process especially the darker roasted it is. We all really enjoy this Decaf Mexico because of the nuance of flavor, most decafs are quite flat in our experience. That is the trick of decaf coffee roasting, enough to develop the beans and get some flavor, but not too far and only taste roasting, charred notes.
For years we took great pride in offering 2 decaf options year-round, many roasters don't even offer one. Decaf is often overlooked, but we know there is a loyal and growing decaf consumer base. So the fact we could offer variety really made our dedicated decaf drinkers feel taken care of. Our medium roasted Decaf Guatemala far out sold our seasonal rotation of Decaf Peru and Decaf Honduras. And sadly due to cost and lack of popularity in the US, the Decaf Guatemala we were getting is no longer available to us. We have been actively trying to find an alternate decaf option. And now a little backstory, during COVID, decaffeination plants got significantly backed up (there are only 5 (!) in the whole world, a new is currently being built in Brail) and between shipping delays, layoffs, shutdowns, etc. they were really behind in decaffeinating all the world's coffee. It took them up through just last year to finally catch up, which means there has been a global decaf shortage for the past few years. This has had a cascading effect in even being able to sourcing decaf coffee. It has become harder to get a hold of and much more expensive. Decaf coffee is expensive because of how many hands it passes through before the consumer gets it and the decaffeination process is expensive too.
We have tried sourcing a number of decaf options in the past 2 years and everything we've sampled was sub-par, not organically certified, and very expensive. So we are pleasantly surprised that this Decaf Mexico became available, because it is quite delicious, we think, organic and fair-trade certified, and we can source it through the farmers we get our regular Mexican coffee from at Triunfo Verde and Cooperative Coffees.
Oddly enough decaf consumption is on the rise globally and the green bean market is not quite poised to meet that demand at this time.
The decaf saga continues. And know you know it is a saga.
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How important really is storing your coffee correctly?
Important! We get this question all the time and most people don't realize how perishable coffee really is. We are all used to that 3 year old can of pre-ground coffee that sat in the back of grandma's freezer and was brought out once a year, because grandma is tea drinker. Those days are over. Coffee is a perusable food! As soon as you lock that in the better your coffee experience will be, and sorry yes, you will be ruined forever once you've had freshly harvested, freshly roasted, freshly ground just before brewing coffee. You will be able to taste the aged notes of coffee and it will be hard to ever go back.
We source incredibly fresh coffee. If you read our Coffee with a Conscience page you will know we are proud roaster-members of Cooperative Coffees. We are 22-roasted-member strong green bean buying cooperative. Built on the model that freshly grown coffee roasts best and coffee plants that are organically and well cared for roast the best tasting cup. We have had relationships with our coffee farmers for at minimum 10 years and some as long as the Coop has been around for 25 years! We know our farmers by name, and now their kids too. We commit to buying our green coffee a year in an advance so that our farmers have reliable income and also know that their yield is pre-bought.
We roast coffee that was harvested within the last growing year. A crop year is always the year prior to allow for growing time, harvest time, drying time, milling, drying again and then transport. We freshly roast those green beans daily and ship them the same day and no more than the next day to you. Coffee take 3-5 to oxidize and reach peak flavor, by the time our freshly roasted coffee is arriving to you it will be at peak flavor, and you want to lock that in for as long as possible. Which really is only 2-3 weeks max! Really you should not be sitting on coffee for longer than 1 month. You should find a roaster you love (Hi! :) ) and freshly order as often as it takes you go through your volume in 2-3 weeks.
When it comes to storage, oxygen is the enemy with coffee. Storing your coffee in an airtight container with a tight fitting lid away from direct heat and light (NOT in the freezer) is king. A Ball jar with a lid or we love Airscapes with their CO2 locking lids. They keep coffee freshy fresh! Ideally you are storing the beans whole and grinding on a regularly cleaned burr grinder just before brewing. Ground coffee loses freshness within minutes of grinding. We know, tedious, but if you take your coffee game seriously, this is the way.
Please do not store coffee in the freezer. The temperature of the freezer destroys the oil molecules of the coffee beans, which is where the flavor lives. The freezer deteriorates the quality of the beans, as well as altering grinding and extraction when brewing leasing to clumping when grinding.
If you must store coffee long term, beyond 1 month. Airtight container away from direct heat and light and minimize opening the coffee regularly. It can keep, but know the flavor will likely change. The coffee will oxidize. When the beans are super oil on the surface, this is a sign of age and oxidation of a dark roasted coffee. Darker roasted coffees oxidize faster than light roasted coffees because the oils start to be extracted during the longer time spent in the roaster.
Sign of aged coffee are a general flatness in flavor, less nuance, oil on the outside of the beans, especially with a dark roast, changes in grindability and extraction when brewing. Once brewed you may notice notes of paper or cardboard. Even under the best storage conditions, coffee will age, again way more perishable then you ever possibly realized. Freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee is the way to a perfect tasting cup every time! Order and drink fresh.
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How to brew our coffee:
On the topic of freshness, let's also cover how to brew and the ratios we recommend for manual brewing methods. Don't ask us about espresso, that is not our jam.
Check our Brew Guide Videos if you are a visual learner.
Pour-over:
12 oz. cup of coffee
25 grams (~3 Tablespoons) of medium grind coffee with 205ºF degree water
We like a little finer grind in our pour-over, closer to an Auto-Drip grind for a little richer cuppa.
AeroPress:
19 grams of finely ground coffee
Follow AeroPress brew instructions
French Press:
3 cup use 21 grams of coarsely ground coffee
8 cups 53 grams of coarsely ground coffee
Let steep for 3-4 minutes before depressing
For the real coffee nerds out there:
The Golden Ratio
A brew ratio is simply a guide to help you figure out how much water and coffee you should use for brewing. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when chatting with coffee nerds about brew ratios:
- Since coffee is 99% water, the larger number in the ratio is always water. We say this because folks will say 18:1 or 1:18 without clarifying which is which, and this can be confusing at first. (Plus, when you get into ratios for espresso, it gets more confusing with more concentrated ratios like 1:3).
- Another key piece of information is remembering that for water, milliliters = grams. So if someone says they are using 20 grams of coffee to 100 millilitres of water, the ratio is 20:100 = 1:5.
- The average cup in America is 8-12 oz, and 1 oz is approximately 30ml. So for an 8-12 oz cup, you’re looking at 240-360 ml water.
SCAA, the Specialty Coffee Association of America, has come out with their golden ratio, which is approximately. 1:18. So, therefore they recommend 55 grams of coffee for 1000 ml (grams) of water.
Obviously this golden ratio depends on your brew method, type of coffee, and personal taste preference.
General Consumption Breakdown:
1 lb. of coffee beans yields 16-20 12 oz. brewed cups of coffee. The average consumer drinks 1-2 cups of coffee a day at 12 oz. per each brewed cup, which is 168 oz. a week, around 21 cups, slightly less that 1 lb. per week.