With global warming (and other factors) affecting coffee production and prices, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting patterns in marketing strategies for household and white label brands.
Everything is extra intense, high intensity, intensity 11 (probably comes with a free Spinal Tap record)… Robusta roasted past 5th crack, no doubt.
I also spotted a bag of highly exclusive “100% Robusta.” At this point I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and for them to market “0% cyanide” coffee.
How’s everybody else’s grocery shopping experience these days? Is this a big trend in your area?
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Nothing like that, just more automated coffee machines with credit card terminals across the city. It’s a progress I guess.
I never understood “100% Arabica” trend. It’s just sour. The fancy expensive coffee made by a barista on a shiny manual espresso machine tastes acidic to me, and the best-tasting coffee is what our free office-provided automated machine makes from bottom-shelf beans. Am I supposed to fix it with cream and sugar? Do I have some rare gene mutation that makes me sneeze when looking at the sun and makes 100% Arabica coffee bad-tasting?
I love acidic specialty coffee that tastes like you squeezed half a lemon into the cup, but I also enjoy bolder, more classically intense coffee.
My main point isn’t so much about people’s different preferences, but the way companies seem to be pushing towards one end of the preference spectrum bit because of its value, but because of the cost and margins.
Coffee tends to not have any upper price range, you always can find something even more exclusive than beans pooped by a rainforest squirrel. So whatever marketing trend is occurring, it likely won’t impact most consumers, who drink it for the caffeine content not the taste. Maybe in 10 years when the trend soaks down to the bottom shelf of the supermarket, I will have a bit differently tasting beans in my free office-provided coffee. But it’s already 95% Robusta with 5% mystery beans to provide foam, not enhance the taste. They could add fried soy beans for all I care, it certainly won’t make the taste worse.
Anyway, to answer your original question, I’m not seeing any “100% Robusta char-fry” coffee ads in my city.
I think it’s an attempt to introduce apparent differentiation at a low price-point. I’m curious about future developments.
People tend to like what they are used to.
Yes. I noticed a decently reputable (but mega corp) bag of whole espresso beans… 50% robusta. I was surprised.
Everyone is right into burnt coffee for some reason too. I hear a lot of people talking about dark roasts and how they like “strong coffee”.
The burnt bean people like their beef well done.
This is me. I also like slightly burnt microwave popcorn. I dunno, maybe something’s wrong with my taste buds.
I expect it’s unfamiliarity with roasting and some “more must be better” reasoning that makes this marketing work.
Dark roast drinker here. I am completely unfamiliar with the roasting process. I prefer the flavor. Regular dark roast. For me it’s a flavor preference.
Upvote for dark roast being stronger flavor. If I just wanted more caffeine, there are brands that do that
I like my beer IPA or ESB, I like my coffee, black, strongly flavored, I like my chocolate dark with little to no milk solids, I like my grapefruit by itself with no sugar. Intense flavor is life
You know what all those have in common? They all go good with dark chocolate.
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For sure!
I was recently one of those people. 🤦
Made the mistake of thinking French roast would be a nice and bold cuppa, so I bought a couple bags of beans at Costco… absolutely terrible coffee.
I have discovered cold infusion coffee just last week. It’s a surprising way to salvage ruined coffee roast. Cool water until there’s some ice in it, or just dump ice in water, then dump your badly roasted coffee powder, shake, and leave in the fridge overnight (not the freezer). Strain the grounds, reheat in the microwave and drink (or just drink it cold and with grounds, whatever works for you). Ideally you should use coarse grind size, but it’s mainly because it’s easier to filter it.
I’d love to do this properly. I tried it a while ago and it tasted like dirt. What is the best ratio of water to grounds?
Dirt
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If I’m not mistaken, burning the shit out of coffee neutralizes some of the caffeine in it- ironically
It’s not as bad as people make it out to be but a lighter roast will pack more caffeine in it. If you get a chance to a tour in Costa Rica. I did a few and it was awesome
That is a widespread assumption, since roasting breaks down the caffeine somewhat, but Hoffman did a test and found higher caffeine in darker roast brews, and speculated that while there was less in the bean, it may be more extractable. There’s also the issue that the more you roast the bean, the less each bean weighs so you get more beans per unit weight.
There’s room for preference, I can enjoy a dark roast blend, but they seem to be really leaning into it these days.
Once I saw a bag of over roasted beans from a small roaster. They screwed up the process and ended up with a batch that tasted like smoke, ash and charcoal. Instead of throwing it away, they decided to sell it instead.
Dark roast used to be my go-to before I realized I had some sort of reflux issue and started taking antacids. But sometimes I still stray back it had strong bitter flavor is kind of comforting
That’s not the case around me, where the fancier the coffee shop the lighter the roast typically. And many smaller roasters are selling very pale cinnamon roasts under the heading “medium”.
The trouble is, many people really dislike an acidic light-bodied cup full of floral notes. Plus often they’re not especially skillfully made and I’m pretty sure some people are reacting to very thin acidic, sometimes woody and vegetal, cups and assuming that if they don’t like this, they must want dark roasts.
As usual, it’s shouldn’t be a binary, and they might enjoy a traditional medium roast, or perhaps a better prepared lighter roast. Personally I hate acrid, shiny-bean dark roast, but I’m not sure I hate it more than some of the cups of woody acid I’ve been offered from some enthusiast “high end” coffee shops around here.
Plus often they’re not especially skillfully made and I’m pretty sure some people are reacting to very thin acidic, sometimes woody and vegetal, cups and assuming that if they don’t like this,
Another possibility is just that light roasts can just be too fiddly for most people to want to bother with. Between the money for equipment and time spent brewing it, it’s probably just too great an investment for most people to take something from at least acceptable to them to being great, after a while when you get things dialed in and the stars align.
Sure, though to many of us it’s a lot of money and investment to take something from very unpleasant to kind of palatable.
Sure, I was just trying to say that while some people will dislike the flavor of the currently vaunted light roasts, even when properly brewed, I think there is a pretty sizeable number of people who would like them well enough, but just find it too much hassle. Especially outside of the specialty coffee scene, where you see more and darker roasts, in my experience
When Costco or someone puts out a dark roast on the shelves, they generally aren’t competing for customers that drink single lot beans from your favorite café, they’re looking to get the people who find McDonald’s coffee or Dunkin Donut’s good enough, but want to save a bit of money by brewing at home.
Is 100% robusta a bad thing? I tried a robusta on a whim and loved it to the point I don’t brew arabica at home. Is this some sort of feaux pas?
Bad? Who’s to say. Specialty coffee is 100% Arabica and Arabica is more expensive to source, so, regardless of preference, I’m surprised by “100% the cheap stuff” marketing.
My issue is that it has about double the caffeine content.
Yeah this is the one big downside I’ve noticed. I’ve been doing cold brew and basically have to water it down to nothing in order to not vibrate out of my socks. Shame because the flavour is just exactly what I want out of coffee.
The specialty robusta niche is growing since it is easier to grow. I’ve not tried any of it yet.
I haven’t seen this, but I like that there are more options for whole bean in general at stores.
