Well Fed Network

Posted by Kate Selner on A Nice Cuppa.

Never one to pass up free coffee, I jumped at the chance to review three blended coffees from Starbucks that were made especially for the Aspen Food and Wine Festival held this year.

Coffee is very similar to wine in that the concept of terroir, or ‘taste of the earth’, comes directly into play with how the bean tastes after it is roasted and brewed. Coffee flavor is determined by the species and variety of the coffee tree, the soil it grows in, climate and altitude, the care in picking the fruit and how the beans are processed. World coffee production totals more than 100 million bags a year, with Brazil being the global leader, and it is a world commodity that is second only to oil. It is grown and harvested primarily in the equatorial region of the globe, generally called the Coffee Belt.

For some fun history facts:The first coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1554, with Paris following in 1672, America in 1689 and Berlin in 1721. In 1893, coffee became the first plant to be cultivated around the world when it was established in Kenya and Tanzania. A housewife from Dresden, Melitta Bentz, is credited with inventing the first coffee filter in 1908, and coffee sales boomed when Prohibition went into effect in 1920. An International Coffee Agreement was negotiated in 1962 by the United Nations that established coffee export quotas on a worldwide basis. The United States alone imports 70% of the world’s coffee crop.  So now, after our brief history lesson, let’s move on to the coffees.

La Boqueria Blend from Latin America, was a medium roast made for Chef Jose Andres. The bag had the scent of fruit and nut upon opening with some floral undertones. It made a lighter cup of coffee with a clean balanced taste. It finished nicely, leaving little aftertaste.

Shoka Blend, from Asia/Pacific was a dark roast made for Chef Morimoto. Dark chocolate was the prominent scent of this blend when I placed it to my nose, but other scents of blueberries and some cherry came to mind as well. This was the kind of knock-your-jaw cup that jerks your senses awake and gets you stepping lively. The flavor was rich and bold, with dark earthy undertones.
Bisous Blend from East Africa/Arabia was another dark roast made for Chefs Jacques and Claudine Pepin. This one was the favorite of my husband and I. We enjoyed it’s heady scent and strong personality. It was moody, aromatic and deeply flavored, and it reminded me slightly of a good rich red wine that was in a perfect state for drinking. Time and again we went back to this bag until one morning, I picked it up and it rattled forlornly, indicating its bean level had dropped to a somber, but expected low.

The only drawback to enjoying these blends is that they are not standard, so once they are gone then that’s it. Thoroughly enjoyable that they were, there is a world of coffees out there.