I love dark roast. Always have since a child growing up in an Italian family in Brooklyn NY. I'm 66 and still grind single serve beans. I think some of the coffee was crap but was what we could afford, especially since my family drank what seemed like gallons each day. I could never get into the light roasts and find them awful. I once visited a friend in Portland and she knew my love of coffee and was convinced she could help me appreciate the coffees there but each coffee shop only brewed the light crap. What a disappointment! :-) DO you have suggestions when I seek beans in the dark roast world? I prefer they be raised ethically, organic and that farmers and those farming the fields are treated and paid a living wage. THANKS!
Hi Richard, thanks for reading! I also appreciate a good dark roast - while medium is more my speed, I think it's important to provide all types of coffee because everyone's taste is different. Hence the article!
As far as recommendations, you could do worse than trying Rabbit Hole Roasters (the founder of which I interviewed for this piece). They're based in Canada but ship to the US, their coffee is excellent and ethical, and they have some dark roast options. Otherwise, I used to live in Ann Arbor and all my friends rave about Roo's Roast, and they also have a few dark roast options.
My pleasure! My wife is from Michigan and went to university in Ann Arbor. It was a while ago. I'll ask if she knows of this brand. She grew up in East Lansing. Coffee is a fun exploration. I went to a supermarket I never shop in yesterday waiting for my tire rotation at Discount and this was a mega store with many bags of coffee from all parts 12 feet long. I wish the roasters would date the bag with the "roasted on" date, like olive oil has on it's label. The bags have a "best by" date but I'm guessing that's a personal matter for roasters, although they wouldn't want to say their beans are good in that bag for too long. Like fair trade chocolate, coffee producers should be ethical in practice. I'm more inclined to buy from that kind of company. As for roast, dark is always my go-to. I have a share in a raw milk producer in the area and I get heavy cream each week and the combo of a dark roast in a hot frothed cream is wonderful. 2 strong profiles! I use a Capresso Frother. I recently stopped using my $800 Jura Capresso coffee machine (did so for the last 14 years) and switched to a stainless steel Bialetti moka pot. I'm going to check Rabbit Hole and Roo's! Sorry for this lengthy message! ;-)
Thanks for putting this out there. There is so much I could say here and when I find time to give a more thoughtful reply,I will. Third wave catechisms, however zealously embraced, do not lead to better espresso,for instance. i drink only straight espresso and most of the new roasting operations are third wave in the sense that they accept all the things their contemporaries say. All I really want is coffee that tastes good,TO ME, not under roasted, nearly green geisha or whatever the hell with notes of citrus,blah,blah ,blah. Not only are most tasting notes near worthless, they are only the usual preaching to the choir, customers be damned. One of my best friends is among the top wine guys on the planet and he says a similar wave of nonsense has entered the wine world under the moniker "natural' wines.
The other important elephant in the room is that the marketing around all this,although at times beautiful and bewitching to some,, ignores what it actually takes to get bodies through the door. Said another way, you end up with the very limited demographic to whom you have thrown out the usual fetishistic bait.
I love dark roast. Always have since a child growing up in an Italian family in Brooklyn NY. I'm 66 and still grind single serve beans. I think some of the coffee was crap but was what we could afford, especially since my family drank what seemed like gallons each day. I could never get into the light roasts and find them awful. I once visited a friend in Portland and she knew my love of coffee and was convinced she could help me appreciate the coffees there but each coffee shop only brewed the light crap. What a disappointment! :-) DO you have suggestions when I seek beans in the dark roast world? I prefer they be raised ethically, organic and that farmers and those farming the fields are treated and paid a living wage. THANKS!
Hi Richard, thanks for reading! I also appreciate a good dark roast - while medium is more my speed, I think it's important to provide all types of coffee because everyone's taste is different. Hence the article!
As far as recommendations, you could do worse than trying Rabbit Hole Roasters (the founder of which I interviewed for this piece). They're based in Canada but ship to the US, their coffee is excellent and ethical, and they have some dark roast options. Otherwise, I used to live in Ann Arbor and all my friends rave about Roo's Roast, and they also have a few dark roast options.
Hope this helps!
My pleasure! My wife is from Michigan and went to university in Ann Arbor. It was a while ago. I'll ask if she knows of this brand. She grew up in East Lansing. Coffee is a fun exploration. I went to a supermarket I never shop in yesterday waiting for my tire rotation at Discount and this was a mega store with many bags of coffee from all parts 12 feet long. I wish the roasters would date the bag with the "roasted on" date, like olive oil has on it's label. The bags have a "best by" date but I'm guessing that's a personal matter for roasters, although they wouldn't want to say their beans are good in that bag for too long. Like fair trade chocolate, coffee producers should be ethical in practice. I'm more inclined to buy from that kind of company. As for roast, dark is always my go-to. I have a share in a raw milk producer in the area and I get heavy cream each week and the combo of a dark roast in a hot frothed cream is wonderful. 2 strong profiles! I use a Capresso Frother. I recently stopped using my $800 Jura Capresso coffee machine (did so for the last 14 years) and switched to a stainless steel Bialetti moka pot. I'm going to check Rabbit Hole and Roo's! Sorry for this lengthy message! ;-)
Thanks for putting this out there. There is so much I could say here and when I find time to give a more thoughtful reply,I will. Third wave catechisms, however zealously embraced, do not lead to better espresso,for instance. i drink only straight espresso and most of the new roasting operations are third wave in the sense that they accept all the things their contemporaries say. All I really want is coffee that tastes good,TO ME, not under roasted, nearly green geisha or whatever the hell with notes of citrus,blah,blah ,blah. Not only are most tasting notes near worthless, they are only the usual preaching to the choir, customers be damned. One of my best friends is among the top wine guys on the planet and he says a similar wave of nonsense has entered the wine world under the moniker "natural' wines.
The other important elephant in the room is that the marketing around all this,although at times beautiful and bewitching to some,, ignores what it actually takes to get bodies through the door. Said another way, you end up with the very limited demographic to whom you have thrown out the usual fetishistic bait.
Not all coffee drinkers are coffee geeks.
By the way,nice blog. You will do well.