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Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff
It's about coffee, food, life and what other randomness I feel that'll be helpful to the common coffee drinker or to anyone who likes to be entertained by a stranger, briefly.
Everyday Beans Podcast - Mostly About Coffee and Other Stuff
Do I Still Hate Natural Process Coffee?
In this episode, I dive deep into my complicated relationship with natural process coffees. I used to love them—they were punchy, bold, and right in your face with flavor. But somewhere along my coffee journey, that changed. Now I find myself gravitating toward washed coffees and sweeter Brazilian naturals, avoiding the fruit bombs that once excited me. I wonder if my palate has matured, if I'm just getting older, or if I'm chasing something elusive from my past. I talk about preparing to taste a natural coffee again after a long time away, questioning whether it will reignite that old passion or confirm what I've suspected: that I've outgrown them.
Listeners will learn how to critically evaluate their own coffee preferences and understand why their tastes evolve over time. I encourage you to ask yourself the difficult questions: Why do you like what you like? What turns you off about certain coffees? Is it the processing method, the roast level, or something deeper? By the end of this episode, you'll have a framework for examining your own coffee journey with honesty and curiosity, helping you discover what truly satisfies your palate right now, not what you think you should like.
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For tips, tricks and still trying to figure it out: https://www.youtube.com/@everyday-beans
[00:00:09] It used to be my favorite type of coffee. It really was. It was something that would just hit you right in the face and would just keep going and going and going.
[00:00:25] Love them, love them dearly. But I don't know if it's something that we all go through from time to time, especially in the beginning of our coffee journey. We tend to gravitate to naturals.
[00:00:42] Probably because it was punchy, it was right in your face, it wasn't subtle with the flavors, it was there. And then for some reason, with time, curiosity, and trying more different things, you start to realize that it was too much.
[00:01:06] This is not a natural in front of me. This is a washed yellow caturra coffee. It's a medium to light roast. I use the light roast profile, and it kind of works.
[00:01:35] Not really sweet. For some reason, I don't get that many batches from Costa Rica. One of my favorite batches from Costa Rica was a black honey coffee. This was the first time I tasted sweetness.
[00:02:06] But it's been such a long time since I've had a natural. I'm not talking about a Brazilian natural. I'm used to those. That's what I drink all the time. Those are really sweet. A little bit of acidity, but nothing compared to what a natural that I'm used to tasting.
[00:02:33] I wonder what I'm going to feel. I wonder if I'm going to like it as a light roast. That's probably how I can get back into light roast, or I can just leave light roasting alone, or it's going to excel as a medium roast or dark roast.
[00:02:58] I wonder if it's just going to hit me right in the face and die down quickly. I wonder if it's just going to keep lingering and keep going on. I wonder about these things just because I know it's something that I like and gravitate to from time to time. But lately, not at all.
[00:03:25] I stay away from them because they're too violent in the mouth. They're too pronounced. I can even get that from washed coffees. So I wonder how natural coffees that are fruit bombs will react to my palate.
[00:03:48] My mature palate—that could be what it is. It could just be that I'm more mature now and I understand coffee and what I like about it. Those are some of the things that I think about constantly when I analyze and look at coffee and look at different recipes, different gear.
[00:04:10] And when I peel back and have a bird's eye view of the actual things that I do like and actually do when it comes to coffee, I tend to wonder if it's just me getting older. It's just me understanding coffee for what it is for me as it is right now.
[00:04:34] I wonder if, even though I talk about these coffees being so elusive like the ones that I've tasted in the past, I do wonder if my palate is set in stone now, that nothing can really excite it anymore. I do wonder about that. I do wonder if I'm looking at this too novelty-like, like I'm craving that thing that I used to make a lot.
[00:05:32] Those are some of the things that I think about when it comes to coffee, and especially when I'm trying to go back and re-analyze things that I used to like, fell out of love with, and just ask myself: why don't you like it anymore? What is it that puts you off? And I think that's more so the bigger question in all of this.
[00:06:00] In this whole grand scheme of things. And again, I don't want to make this like a philosophy type of thing, something that we kind of look forward to when we drink our cup of coffee and just try to get a bigger sense of what we're doing here.
[00:07:03] And it's crazy I'm saying all of this just because I put a lot of pressure on coffee. That is fair. Who cares. It doesn't really matter. But I hope that you ask yourself these questions too, because the thing about it is, even though I'm telling you my story openly, sometimes we don't even think about why we like something.
[00:08:03] And I think we need to challenge ourselves a lot more when it comes to this beverage right here. It doesn't matter really what I think about this coffee right here. The biggest thing is: why do I like it? Why don't I like it? What's holding that back?
[00:08:43] Is it the lingering quality that I don't like about it? Is it that particular fruit that lately I've been eating that's rubbing me the wrong way, and when I sense it in my cup of coffee, I'm instantly turned off?
[00:09:26] I wonder if it's bigger than just me talking about it being a natural coffee. I want to examine it in so many different ways and be extremely objective and honest with myself when it comes down to coffee, my coffee journey. What about you?
[00:10:07] Do you realize that you are drinking mostly washed coffees or Brazilian coffees or coffees that are sweet? Coffees that are less offensive, coffees that just work for you? Ask yourself. That's really what it comes down to: you asking yourself why you like what you like and why you don't like what you don't.
[00:10:35] And hopefully going down that path, that journey of reassessing and giving yourself the reasons why through your palate, through your mature palate. Because as I am the guinea pig, the test dummy in all this, I hope that you get something from this. I'll leave off with this.
[00:11:04] There's a lot of food on YouTube. I'm sure you probably watch it too, and I subscribe to a lot of people. And sometimes when my wife and I will see a recipe and see what they're doing and they give the reasons why they like it and all that stuff, and you see these compilations from time to time, you're like, "Wow, that's pretty cool." But I'm not going to try that. It's too complicated.
[00:11:36] I think in this case, that's the cool thing about coffee. Go online, go to a grocery store, or go to that roaster that you've been looking at or trying to taste for the longest. Give it a try. Get your grinder out, pick your favorite water, your favorite brewer, and sit there. And drink it and sip it and ponder and ask yourself: why do you like this particular beverage? Why don't you?
[00:12:23] I'm looking forward to this coffee. I wonder what it's going to do. And we're going to talk about it more because something about the psychology of drinking coffee—I don't know if I'm just going crazy with it, but it is what it is. So this is Okay Every Day being signing off. Talk to you later.