Black Coffee is the Best Coffee
Let’s be honest. Whenever I tell someone I am a professional barista, I feel pretentious. Maybe that is really just some sort of weird, misplaced, psychological guilt for me, because I am, at my heart, a coffee snob. I am not judgmental about what others do with their coffee, and certainly do my share of what other self-professed coffee snobs might deem “slumming it”, but I have my standards. Those standards are organic, shade grown, and fair-trade. It follows that I just so happen to work for a seriously amazing coffee roaster, Café Campesino, based in Americus, Georgia that meets all of those requirements.
As a barista I get to literally make people’s day by serving the best drink on earth: Coffee. But… It’s time for some more honesty. Something happens almost every day that breaks my heart, mostly because I too, at one time was guilty of doing the same thing: Folks insisting on not drinking their coffee black.
Now, let’s take a time-out and let me clarify that I am in no way advocating a snobby person telling you how you should like your coffee. If your definition of a delicious cup of coffee offends me, I should probably check my own priorities, because it is your cup of coffee. For years, I put cream and sugar in my coffee because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do, as I saw the majority of other people do that. My mom always drank her coffee black but she had crappy coffee, and consequently, I spent a good chunk of my life thinking coffee tasted like blackened toast and wet dirt (Sorry, Mom, I love you). That is, until I had decent coffee for the first time. My eyes were opened and I saw all of the wonderful deliciousness that could be inherent in a cup of coffee.
I know what you’re thinking. Nothing can sweeten coffee like sugar, and that’s true, but naturally sweet coffee exists. And while nothing can quite replicate the creaminess of half n’ half, naturally creamy coffee exists. I know this, because I drink some every day. Now, this advice comes with a little warning. I’m not saying go to your local gas station and get a .99 cent, 36 oz. cup of coffee. Treat yourself, and go find a specialty coffee shop (preferably the one I work at), and get a cup of coffee that was roasted with attention to bean quality, flavor, grind, water temperature, brew time, and all the other millions of things that go into crafting a great cup. Odds are it’s won’t be outrageously more expensive than an average mug of diner coffee, and it will be infinitely more enjoyable.
When I stopped adding things and started paying attention, I realized that coffee can be fruity, like our (Café Campesino’s) Ethiopian Sidamo Natural Full City Roast. I realized coffee can be smoky and bold, without the bitterness, like our Sumatra Viennese Roast. It can be all of the above, like the Mad Poet Blend, or sweet and complex like the Guatemala Full City Roast. The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Medium Roast always reminds me of fresh citrus. If you had asked me three years ago if citrus was a quality I wanted in my coffee, I would have thought you were a little crazy. Now, I consider a good Yirgacheffe a staple on my list of delicious coffee.
I’m not saying give up your latte, I’m not saying stop drinking cappuccinos, and I’m not saying that if you try coffee black and don’t like it, you are a terrible person unworthy of consuming that precious beverage. I’m saying treat specialty coffee like food at a fine restaurant. You wouldn’t season your food without tasting it, so give trying your coffee black a shot before you decide if it needs anything.
PS: Just in case you need any more reasons, take some time and do calculations about the caloric values of coffee with and without cream. Hint: there’s a significant difference.
