Best type of coffee?

A visit to a coffee retailer will present you with an overwhelming array of options.

As a reader of this site, I think we can put aside any instant coffee right away - it's just not the same drink.

There are many species of coffee grown but only two main types are widely grown for commercial distribution: arabica and robusta.

Arabica is a smoother, milder flavour and robusta is stronger but lacks the subtlety. Robusta is often blended in with Arabica to give it a stronger flavour.

Coffee beans evolved to grow beneath a forest canopy, and while growers get higher yield by planing in direct sunlight this is said to impact flavour and so you'll see shaded varieties available.

Mountain grown and of course plants grown without chemical sprays are desirable.

The critics in the "Black Coffee" documentary, seemed to say with certainty that Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is the best coffee, but of course this is all a matter of taste.

For me, a medium roast Arabica coffee, such as Illy is my favourite. I also like the FairTrade East Timor coffee.

What do you like?

Black Coffee - great documentary

I've just watched parts two and three of a wonderful documentary "Black Coffee" broadcast on SBS on Friday nights.

Written and directed by Irene Angelico, the three one hour episodes titled "The Irresistible Bean", "Gold in your cup", and "The Perfect Cup" present an enlightening history of coffee, background on how it's grown and traded, and the politics of economics of the business.

After it's boom in popularity in the US, coffee became the second biggest traded commodity (after oil), and went on a spiral to the bottom in cost and therefore quality. Thankfully a new culture is emerging where consumers are prepared to pay a bit more to get a quality cup.

The coffee tasters shown suggest that coffee should be savoured the way that wine is.

"Baristas are the bartenders of the speciality coffee industry", so perhaps we are getting to that state.

BaristaReview is under construction

I'm building the web site baristareview.com where you can find local coffee shops, list your favourite coffee shop, and make comments and rate coffee shops.

Rather than building my own news display it seems best to leverage a blog engine.