Too Much Coffee

Hi guys,

I've recently came back from Poland and I brought two packs of coffee, one a typical Italian blend, the other a home roasted blend made for me by a friend. The first one isn't great, extractions look bad, like when using old coffee and I can't really taste anything good, although most shots do have a nice butterscotch aftertaste (I'm guessing it's robusta). The other one is fresh, you can smell it straight in the bag, pulls really nice, but tastes flat and waterish. Both coffees have been used be other people and I know they can give pretty nice results. So I've been wondering, is it possible that something happened to the beans while they were travelling in the baggage hold of the plane? like low pressure sucked out the good bits or something similar? or is it just me being useless...again.

Regards,
dsc.

Some people will tell you air travel wont affect your coffee, some will.

I feel air travel will age coffee more quickly, that's what happened at the last comp, we took several batches/roast dates and they cupped differently to what we expected.

Coming back from London and Copenhagen to Melbourne recently our coffee travelled well.
I taped up the valves on the Square Mile stuff and it was still good 17 days post roast.

Klaus double bagged his nitrogen flushed coffee for us but I forgot to tape the valves but i've had good feedback from one of the cafes I gave it to that were still tasting it 4 weeks post roast.

One thing I always do is take it on board, especially when i'm using it in competition.
Apart from the varying temperatures in the cargo hold, you never know how long it will sit on the tarmac and that can be a problem in hot weather.

what benefit would taping the valves have?

Hi Jason,

preventing the air (perhaps other things as well) being sucked out of the bags due to pressure differences?

Regards,
dsc.

Have you thought of the difference in the mineral content in the water? Different water quality will affect taste and extraction of the coffee in a big way.


Ola

Different water quality will affect taste and extraction of the coffee in a big way.

Certainly true. I've just got back from a week away in a place with moderately soft water - where I live the water is pretty hard. I took a grinder, chemex, scales and coffees with me, so identical kit. I would put the big difference in extraction that I noticed down to water rather than the 5 hour road trip.

I take coffee travelling fairly often. Usually I use the opportunity to compare a couple
of different coffees, or different roasting methods (eg last week in Singapore I took a
Panama Boquette at two different roast levels). Most often in travels in the hold, I haven't
noticed adverse effects from doing that, but these are mostly small amounts that get used
within a few days. But if I'm bringing back some "special" coffee eg a CoE then I'll tape up
the valves and carry it with me, just in case it helps. Taping up does prevent the bag being
"sucked out" even in the main cabin -- this could be useful for a recently roasted coffee
where you want to keep the CO2 in there for a few days. Occasionally coffee in hand luggage
gets a query from security eg in Indonesia I got asked if I had "devices" in the bags.

Water I've found to make a huge difference. The first thing I do is to go to a convenience
store and buy a couple of large bottles of Volvic water. There is a survey somewhere that
shows this to best for coffee, certainly supported by my experience, and the taste compared
to eg Evian, which is hopeless. Anyway, using the same water everywhere gives consistent
results.

Another big factor in hotels is the water heater. If I'm going to eg China or Singapore,
I can be fairly confident that there will be an electric jug in good condition. In the US
or Europe or Aus though, there is often nothing suitable or its clogged up with mineral deposits.
So I take a multi voltage immersion heater. I also take a cup suitable for aeropress,
often those in hotels are the wrong size or (increasingly) too flimsy (eg in Lyon last
year I broke the supplied ultra-thin cup just with moderate pressure on the aeropress).

So I take a multi voltage immersion heater.

Is that just one of those plug-in coils, looks like the element out of a kettle, but without the kettle? If so, I think i have an old ex-USSR one around, must remember to find it for my next trip..

Water I've found to make a huge difference. The first thing I do is to go to a convenience
store and buy a couple of large bottles of Volvic water.

Yes, Volvic's good to know about - I think the survey you refer to is the insanely long water FAQ -
bottom line - use Volvic. It's pricey, but away from home it's consistent.

When home, I use Tesco's own-brand Scottish mineral water ("Ashbeck Mountain Spring"). I wouldn't normally go to Tesco (for anything), but unfortunately theirs is the bottled water with the best TDS, bicarbonate etc. All the other supermarket stuff has far too much calcium carbonate dissolved in it.

Ah, just found the bottle - TDS 80 mg/l, bicarb 25, calcium 10, pH 6.2.

Yes, it is one of those coils, this one in fact:
http://tinyurl.com/nekmt7
Fairly compact, but still a bit cumbersome so if I know I'll be
needing a heater often I use a Japanese travel kit (heater and rice
cooker ) that my wife found at an op shop. Your USSR one should
work if it's not too big.

Pretty sure it was the water FAQ that I read about Volvic (a long
time ago). I've been intending to re-visit it to check on desirable TDS
levels -- we use RO water at home with about 15% tap water added to
restore some mineral content, but I want to measure it. One day ...

Just a quick note to Ola. While the difference in water may have an effect on the flavour of the coffee, it is most definitely the travel and storage conditions that play a bigger part.

Recently here in Australia we had similar experiences with a Geisha variety from Has Bean and the Sta Ana from Square Mile. Both were what we expected (excellent) on the day we opened the bag and cupped them, but the following days cupping showed a massive decline in cup quality. Particularly in the Sta Ana, which tasted like the green beans were very old - completely different to the day we opened the bags and cupped the coffee.

I'm looking forward to roasting here, especially so we can send roasted coffee back.