How to Conquer Any Coffee Bean

In this episode, I dive deep into the art of conquering any coffee bean without relying on the tasting notes printed on the bag. I explore what happens when you're faced with a new coffee and the roaster forgot to include those helpful flavor descriptors, or when they decided to get creative and just tell you a color or basic flavor profile. I share my personal approach to dialing in coffee by trusting your own palate and building your brewing protocol from experience.

I discuss the importance of treating each new bag of coffee as "game time" - a moment where you need to figure out what that specific coffee means to you, regardless of what anyone else says about it. I walk through my method of using your favorite brewing equipment, starting with familiar ratios, and then adjusting variables like grind size based on what you taste. Throughout the episode, I emphasize that this journey with each coffee is yours to take, and you don't need anyone else to tell you exactly what to do with your coffee. By listening to this episode, you'll learn how to develop confidence in your own palate and create a systematic approach to brewing any coffee you encounter, turning each new bag into an opportunity for discovery and enjoyment.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:30 Game Time: Approaching New Coffee Beans
• 3:15 The Tasting Process: What to Look For
• 5:30 Trusting Your Protocol Over Roaster Notes
• 7:45 Personal Experience: The 12-Ounce Journey
• 9:30 The Philosophy of Coffee Conquest

Transcript

[00:00:00] Imagine if you didn't have the tasting notes on the bag. The roaster forgot to put them, or they decided to do something wacky and just tell you a color, a flavor. How would you dial it in? What would be your approach?

[00:00:27] Those are sometimes the things that we go through when we deal with a new bag of coffee. And even if it does have the tasting notes on the bag, it doesn't really matter. Because we have to do the thing that we want to do to the coffee. We have to try to conquer what that coffee is.

[00:01:21] You're on vacation and you wanted to try something new and different. And even talking to the person who sold it to you if you have that opportunity, that chance, it doesn't matter. It's one of those things where we know that once we get that bag of coffee in our coffee bar, it's game time. We have to figure out what it is for us.

[00:01:55] So what would I do? I would lean on what I've been doing all along. I'm talking to you about if you don't have a TDS meter because most of us don't. What we have tasted before and what we think that this coffee will taste like, and the only way to really know that is to just try what we've done before.

[00:03:01] Especially for a medium and dark, even to an extent for a light roast because the acidity can get a little out of hand from time to time depending on the coffee. So try that. Use your favorite brewer. Probably 1:16 ratio has been the move lately.

[00:04:02] This coffee is what it is right now. You are a different person as you are now than when you were even yesterday. Sip it, drink it, think about it. If you want to jot down things that you like about it, do that. If you just want to go off the gut and just tell yourself, and the world, but really just yourself, what you like about it, what you don't like about it.

[00:04:36] Is it too strong? Is the body heavy? If you know that if you change one or two variables, you'll probably get it right the next time. Does it have a lingering bitterness after a couple sips? Because initially, most of the time, especially a medium and dark roast, it does have that initial bitterness and it's kind of hard to decipher exactly what you're drinking.

[00:05:08] But if it doesn't have that sharp bitterness because you just introduced your palate to coffee, just write down the things that you like about it. What would you change? Would you change the grind size? Because all we're really doing here is just navigating through our own protocols.

[00:05:30] So it doesn't matter if you got a recipe online that you've been rocking for a long time, or it's just a new way to go about it because you understand what the coffee bed does if you pulse five times instead of two times. What's the best way to go about it? Can you really taste sweetness in this coffee? Is it more balanced than what you would think that you would like in a coffee? You hate it? It's okay to hate it.

[00:06:03] I don't think it's a fault to the roaster - it can be. Probably they left it in a heated place for too long. Who knows? I guess what I'm saying is that no matter which coffee you get, you're going to have to explore. You're going to have to figure it out. You're going to have to get in the nitty gritty of all of it because that's all we know how to do.

[00:06:29] And then if you want, just go ahead and try another recipe. Go totally off the wall. Go push yourself. Even if you decide to turn that bag around and it's at the bottom of the bag and it tells you exactly what that roaster's tasting at that time, especially when they're cupping - I talked about cupping too many times - sometimes you can trust what they're saying and it's a glorified French press, the way they get their profiles. And you're doing a pour over, maybe even doing an AeroPress. It doesn't really matter. Just try different things.

[00:07:49] You're on this journey with this coffee for a short time, not a long time. Even a two-pound bag can be kind of grueling sometimes. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to do what you guys do. You get a bag of coffee. I treated myself just like you. A 12-ounce bag, even though it was my coffee. And for the most part, about 85% of the time, I was the one drinking it. And after about five or six times with this coffee, I was done. I kind of figured it out, even though I gave myself constraints. But I was done with that coffee. And I had about another 20, 25 rounds of it.

[00:08:40] So I guess what I'm saying here is that the journey is yours. Take it, figure it out. And you don't need anybody else to tell you exactly what you need to do with your coffee. Because at the end of the day, it's your coffee. It's something that you like and enjoy. It's something that you're going to be there with that coffee.

[00:09:08] All of these variables that we know that we play around with, things that we do in order to figure things out, in order to enjoy the cup of coffee, because that's all we're trying to do. We're just trying to enjoy the coffee. That's the conquering part. And if we do that and we figure it out, we're going to just go onto the next bag of coffee. Don't get me wrong. That's the whole thing. We're living, we're grinding, we're doing things that are supposedly magical.

[00:09:55] And as we do that, I think we're just going to be in a better place at the end of the day. And that's all we really want. We just want a good cup of coffee for a couple of rounds. Understand it, conquer it, push it, push ourselves, try other different recipes.

[00:10:24] So that's how you conquer almost any coffee bean. And even if you don't conquer it, that's fine. Analyze it. Wonder why it didn't work for you. And then as you do that, I think you'll figure it out that it just didn't work. Just like all things in life, not everything's going to work 100% of the time. And I think that's where we can draw parallels to anything and everything, especially when it comes to coffee.

[00:11:14] And then as you build that strength, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. We're just living. And I think as we drink our coffees and analyze it and kind of just be in the moment, we're in an awesome place where we're just here, just enjoying. And then as we do that, it is what it is. On to the next.

[00:11:42] So how do you dial in the coffee? Do you think about it? Do you analyze it? Do you go through the motions? Do you go through your own protocol? Or do you just do something totally different, or you follow the recipe of the person on the bag? This is Okay at Everyday Beans. Talk to you later. Bye.