For the New Mill Bay Coffee Buyer

If you are relatively new to gourmet coffee, start out by purchasing milder coffees such as Colombian, Guatemala, or Malinal. When do you drink your coffee? If you drink it in the morning, chances are you will like a sharper coffee, and this typically means a darker roast coffee or blend. Then, try out a few coffees from different countries to give you an idea of what kind of tastes you like. In our Kodiak store, we ask you what kind of coffee you are currently drinking. If you haven't bought our coffee before, we want to know how you like your coffee to taste. Most people will say they don't like bitter coffee. Bitterness is an unfortunate feature of many coffees and there are various reasons a coffee can taste bitter. A lot of what you experience as bitter coffee comes from acids that are created during improper roasting and brewing.

What causes acidity and bitterness?

Coffee roasting is a two-stage process. The first stage is drying of the green beans. Unroasted coffee beans are green. After coffee cherries are picked and pulped, the seeds are dried down to about a 12% moisture level. This stabilizes the beans for shipment and storage. This moisture should be evaporated during the first stage of the pre-roast, before the actual roasting occurs. If this is not sufficiently done, the moisture will interact with the heat and beans during roasting and create a tannic-type acid. Because of the way our fluid bed air roaster functions, acid is dramatically reduced. However, there is always some acid in all coffee. The acidity of coffee should be roughly equivalent to the level of acid in carrots. Roasting should not develop so much acid that it upsets the coffee drinker's stomach.

Another cause of coffee acid, and a bitter flavor experience, can develop during brewing. The longer it takes to brew coffee, the greater amount of acid the coffee will have. Brewing is the interaction of coffee, water, heat, and time. If it takes a long time to brew the coffee, such as in a percolator, this coffee will be much more acidic. If the coffee sits on a warmer plate for a long time, it too will contain higher amounts of acid.

The preparation of the coffee for brewing can also cause bitterness. Grinding too fine and the use of too much coffee can create bitterness. Most often it is the over-grinding that causes bitterness. When coffee is too fine, it makes it difficult for the water to pass through. The water ends up pooling in the grounds and once again, this inescapable brewing process creates higher levels of acid.

Our Quality Guarantee

Because our coffees generally have less acid than coffees roasted in other types of roasters, when we are trying to find the best coffee for you, we can concentrate on the coffees you might like rather than simply searching for less acid coffees! In our Kodiak store, we find that the best way to sell coffee is by letting you smell it. If you find that you don't like it, you can bring it back. Online, of course, you can't smell the coffee - not yet, anyway. However, if you are unsatisfied with the quality of the coffee you buy from Mill Bay Coffee, send the unused portion back for a refund.