Coffee Dancers

As promised, a history/science/art journey from my wild days as a Rebel-in-Training with the wonderful folks at Counter Culture at their inaugural Counter Intelligence Camp.

Many of you see on the backs of coffee bags: 100% Arabica. What does that mean? Well, it appears that every time you drink coffee, you are really having Ethiopian food.

Say what?

Coffee was originally ONLY grown in the southwestern part of Ethiopian in the mountain area known as the Great Rift Valley. This area is also known to be where people originate…coincidence? Anyways, it continued to grow there for hundreds of years before it was finally brought elsewhere.

No one really knows where the word coffee came from or how it got started. Many people swear by the legend of Kaldi. Kaldi was a goatherder who had goats (duh). One day, his goats ate the leaves from a plant and started to dance (duh). Kaldi became curious and so he ate the leaves and started to dance (double duh). A passing monk came by and thought, this is peculiar sight, a dancing goatherder and dancing goats. So he decided to make a beverage out of the beverage that made them all dance.

Legend or not, coffee traditions have continued, including the Ethiopian coffee ceremony which is still a strong tradition rich in history and symbolism. Women elders have the honor of making and serving the coffee. A charcoal fire is lit, frankensense is lit, grass is laid. Stories are shared, family updates are given, and much like any coffeehouse, the ceremony gives time for participants to share, inform, and exchange.

Photo: visionary founder Brett Smith giving tour.

In any case, continue on my brief history: after coffee reached eastern Ethiopia and Yemen, coffee became extremely popular in the Ottoman Empire and it spread to the Mediterranean (which is why there is also a strong Turkish coffee tradition). The Turks spread it to the Near and Middle East…then off to Europe via Vienna (during wars with the Ottoman Empire) and Italy. After it crossed the Red Sea, the coffee ceremonies lost its association with women in many places, but maintained the concept of a coffeehouse where information is exchanged. In the 17th century, coffee was smuggled from Yemen to southern India, and the Dutch smuggled it to the Indonesian archipelago (Java, anyone?). In the 18th century, the French got a coffee plant from the Dutch (who called it Café Arabica in light of the Ottoman influence) and the French brought it to the Americas to Martinque…and the rest is history.

Whew! How’s that for history in a hurry? Let me get to another fun part of coffee tradition I learned: cupping. It sounds kinda naughty…anyways, cupping used to be this super secret society thing. It was started in the 19th century to formalize a process for coffee buying houses in New York to set a standard for price setting. Counter Culture – always challenging the status quo – decided seven years ago to make cupping available to the broader community.

There are rules and guidelines, i.e. Rule of Silent Work to avoid sensory distractions. Glasses of unidentified coffee grounds sit on a table, and each cupper takes turns to smell and taste the coffee. It is so super cool. So on this day, Counter Culture held the largest cupping in one room ever (about 70) people, all quietly observing, smelling and tasting coffee, writing down thoughts and impressions. The seven areas to evaluate include:

• Fragrance: smell of coffee when dry
• Aroma: smell of coffee when wet
• Break: smell of coffee when coffee is stirred (to break the coffee crust)
• Brightness: mouth-watering characteristics of coffee (similar to fruit)
• Flavor: everything on the tongue except brightness
• Body: feeling (i.e. same sensation as whole versus skim milk)
• Aftertaste: taste when coffee has left the mouth

Usually, coffee has one descriptor for me: bitter. But this time, I actually could smell and taste things I never thought imaginable! Although I wasn’t as sophisticated as others (one cupper tasted buttered beans and the pavement of an asphalt road after a rain. Who knew?), But I did smell and taste lemon, orange peel, molasses, steak (yes, steak!), almond. WOW. It gave me such a greater appreciation for coffee’s complexity and by the end, I could begin to understand where my preferences lie.

Counter Coffee offers free cuppings every Friday at each of their training centers. I highly recommend it.

Aside from cupping, we also learned to brew coffee. For me, this was some education. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that I finally learned how to use a Mr. Coffee. Well, it turns out there are a billion ways to do this.

These glass things are not part of science experiment, even though it looks like it. The left one is a siphon where you make the coffee over an open flame and it uses the heat and vacuum to make amazing coffee without remnants of coffee grinds, as you may get in a French Press. The other is something called a Chemex coffee pot. With one paper filter, you can control the speed and flow of your water to adjust your taste accordingly. And it’s so easy. This might be someone’s Christmas present this year….

We also spent an afternoon learning how to properly steam milk (use the palm of your hand and wrist, not fingers – they are too sensitive to heat changes) and all about foam. Foam. Any proper espresso or latte or cappuccino needs proper foam.

So apparently (I’m paying homage to the great Alton Brown), milk is comprised of fats, proteins, and sugars suspended in water. Proteins are like wound-up stress cases and when you add heat to it, it loosens it up. But it’s clingy and wants to find something else to latch on quickly, and that something can be air, creating air bubbles. There is a science to ensuring that the milk is heated and aerated enough for solid micro-foam, but not so hot that it loses its sweetness.

However, if you think coffee is just a science, think again! You can PLAY with it. And who can turn down a chance to play?

We got to play with foam and milk art. After properly steaming the milk for a stable micro-foam, we learned the three stages of The Pour. To make proper cappuccinos and fancy milk art, you have to first “sink” the milk to get it under the espresso, then create the “dot,” which then becomes the “design.” You may have seen some fantastic cappuccino art like faces of monkeys and pictures of trees from award-winning baristas.

My first attempt (not so bad, eh?) was a quirky heart.

In any case, thank you for staying with me on this history/science/art journey. Opportunities like this gave me a chance to play and learn about coffee, but also to connect with different cultures, traditions, and people with the same interest: food. Learning can be fun.

And afterwards, you can dance your quirky latte milk heart out.

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