21st Street Coffee and Tea

So by now I’m sure most of the readers of this site have learned that Starbucks has bought out the Coffee Equipment Company- makers of the Clover. I’ve held my tongue for a little while on the subject but the NY Times had an interesting article today about their new approach- “fresh pressed coffee”. Let’s hit the street for a closer look…

Along for the ride with the reporter was Mr. George Howell- one of the “godfathers” of the specialty coffee industry. Mr. Howell knows coffee, he knows brewing equipment, and he knows you need to put it all together to get the proper results. His take?

Mr. Howell sipped the Arabian Mocha Sanani and made a face. “I hate it. That’s really spoiled fruit, like really bad wine,” he said, adding that he was perplexed at its popularity.

If none of the coffees made a favorable impression, we concluded, it seemed that the problem lay less with the Clover, or the quality of the beans, than with the roast.

And there you have it. “Dark” is not a “better” roast profile, just like getting a steak well done is not the best way to enjoy that cut of meat. “Dark” does not equal “Strong”. “Dark” tastes more like the roast and less like the coffee it once was. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just that if you want to truly taste the flavor of a coffee it needs to be roasted much more lightly to preserve it’s natural aroma and acidity. But wait, Starbucks has other coffees to try…

Starbucks also offers “mild” roasts, which is another way of saying lighter. I ordered two of them, the Colombian Nariño Supremo and Guatemalan Antigua, from the Clover, as well as from the regular drip coffee maker and from a French press.

The drip coffee tasted burned and acidic. Then we tried the Clover coffee. “That’s interesting,” Mr. Howell said of the Guatemalan Antigua. “There’s a brighter clarity to it.” While the Guatemalan Antigua was “coming out quite nicely,” the Colombian, more flavorful than any of the coffees we tried earlier, was still over-roasted.

So they tried a drip, the press, and the Clover…

“The new machine, the Clover, did the best job,” Mr. Howell said with a nod.

Imagine what the coffee could taste like if you put incredible beans in an incredible machine? I wish we had one of those newfangled Clover deals.

BTW did you see their new honey latte? It’s a latte, but… and here’s the catch… they put honey in it… oh and whipped cream- because espresso is at the heart of everything they do. It’s just that the heart is clogged with whipped cream and sugar. That’s a rant for another day.