A Bean for All Seasons

Every morning, I start the day with a nice cup o' joe.  Or two.  Every afternoon, I get a nice drip or a latte to combat the two o'clock blahs.  I drool over a piping hot Colombian.  I have dreams about Tim Horton's that leave me homesick when I wake up.  I still talk about my undergrad university's tunnel coffee (literally coffee that was sold in a tunnel) that was both cheap and delectable.

Which is why, when I heard that Counter Culture Coffee was holding a coffee tasting, I knew I had to go.

Counter Culture is a locally-based coffee company that focuses on sustainable practices and fair trade.  They also have darn good coffee.  And every Friday at 10 a.m., they open their Durham Roastery to the public for a "cupping" or coffee tasting.

Now, while I am a coffee-holic, I am apparently not a coffee connoisseur.  Much like I would feel out of place at a wine-tasting, with all the swirling and sniffing and spitting politely into buckets, I felt a little out of place passing judgment on the local brews. 

Three sets of cups were lined up along a stainless-steel counter, and filled with the grounds of three different types of coffee.  Suddenly, the room became a flurry of motion as 30 or so people armed with pencils, paper and spoons grabbed the cups and got to shaking and sniffing.  We were told to come up with words to describe the smell of the grounds, ranging from "woodsy" and "chocolaty" to "it smells like my child's plastic pool toy that has been left in the sun too long" (an interesting and very specific observation made by a hilarious British man).

After we had finished with the grounds, boiling water was poured over them and we

returned to sniffing, this time to describe the "aroma."  Now, apparently "good" coffee goes through some sort of chemical reaction and releases carbon dioxide when confronted with boiling water, which results in a thick crust forming on top.  While not pretty to look at, we were informed that the crust can reveal a lot about the coffee. So after we had finished sniffing the coffee, the friendly Counter Culture Coffee connoisseurs encouraged us to take our spoons and gently break open the crust, then take a giant whiff.

Finally, once all the smelling was done with, we got down to my favorite part... the tasting.  Now, while the rest of the coffee tasting steps sounded a lot like wine tasting, the level of sophistication definitely went downhill when we dove into the coffee, armed with our spoons.  The staff informed us that the best way to get the true taste of a coffee is to slurp it vigorously from the spoon, mixing oxygen with the brew and enhancing the flavor.  So, slurp we did.  Some even chose to spit politely into empty glasses after, in an attempt to regulate their caffeine intake.  I myself savored the pleasant (if somewhat unnoticeable) morning jolt.

Once all the tasting was done and everyone had slurped their last slurp, we exchanged notes and discussed where the coffees came from, and why they tasted how they did. 

The staff then showed us their warehouse and roasting facilities, and answered any questions we might have about the coffee-making process.

The whole experience was educational and eye-opening (not to mention fun!)  Besides occasionally opting for the coffee in the carafe labeled "Fair Trade", I never really paid any attention to where my coffee was coming from.  And while I may not have time in the mornings to roast and grind my own beans, then brew them in a French press, I'm definitely going to be more conscious of where in the world the beans came from, what undertones they bring, and whether or not they were harvested fairly and sustainably.