Does Coffee Bean Consistency Matter?

Posted on: 2016-07-15 3:33 PM

If your particular brand of coffee doesn’t seem to taste the same from week to week or month to month, you may be right. And it’s not you, it’s the coffee beans.
 
Agricultural entomologist Christian Nansen of the UC Davis department of entomology and nematology and four colleagues analyzed 15 brands of roasted coffee beans, purchased at an area supermarket on two dates about six months apart, and using hyperspectral imaging technology, found “they were all over the board.”
 
“There was no consistency in the protein/sugar content and within the roasting classes of light, medium, medium dark, and dark or between sampling dates,” said Nansen, who specializes in insect ecology and remote sensing and uses imaging technology to quantify variability and identify trends and patterns in biological systems.
 
The question isn’t whether it’s the same all the time, the question is does it matter?
 
Hear me out before you tell me that of course it matters.
 
1. Coffee is a biological product which means that everything from temperature and rain to sunlight and soil quality affect the quality of the coffee. In short there is a little chance of making sure that the coffee is consistent as there is between any farm produce.
 
2. Flavor profile versus coffee bean. Since roasters can’t always be guaranteed that they can get the same beans from year to year they have to come up with a flavor profile that the can assemble from the beans that they can get. If your roaster offers up a mild roast that you really like it’s most likely because he likes it too. He finds a profile that he likes and then mixes and matches the beans that he can source to come up with as close a profile as he can. That’s why sometimes blended coffees will taste better. They’ve had beans selected and combined for a consistent taste. Starbucks and Tim Horton’s are great at this.
 
3. Unique flavors make visiting the local coffee shop more fun. Think of it as coffee roulette.  The roaster has found and sampled some specialty coffee quality beans and come up with usually a great one of a kind flavor experience. If you like it then I suggest that you buy a bag of the beans to take home because the next time you go back there it that coffee is likely to be gone. Those beans from that farm from that harvest are gone and that flavor has gone with them.
 
So when you hear or read about people investigating the consistency of coffee my opinion is that if the coffee results in a good experience…why does it matter?