Costa Rica Hacienda Miramonte Coffee

In 2003, when Zingerman’s Coffee Company first started roasting coffee, small, specialty coffee roasters were few and far between. A decade ago, specialty coffee was beginning to find a foothold, but it was still a nerdy, niche product with a limited audience. Today, the story has changed. Even a small town is likely to have at least a couple of offbeat coffee shops serving locally roasted brews. (In the rural town of 30,000 I call home, we have four.) A big city may have dozens of independent coffee roasters.

Across the nation, specialty coffee follows certain trends.

As specialty coffee has become more ubiquitous, in many cases it’s also become more generic. Many roasters make similar boasts: they source directly from small growers, sharing details like the name of the farms or farmers, the type of coffee beans grown, and the processing methods. That transparency is great, and it’s wonderful to see the hard work of coffee growers celebrated. But for all the specificity, it’s often hard for someone who isn’t a professional coffee cupper to tell the difference between one brew and another. These days, specialty coffee tends to be synonymous with lightly roasted beans that produce highly acidic, fruity brewed coffee. If jammy coffee isn’t your jam, you may be stuck with the one token dark roast that a shop offers.

Zingerman’s Coffee Company has never been about the trends.

While the specialty coffee landscape around Zingerman’s Coffee Company has changed significantly in its 21 years in business, the operation here in Ann Arbor has largely remained the same. That consistency plays out in many ways. For one, from the beginning, the Zingerman’s roasting crew have selected a wide range of beans, with a few offerings hitting lighter, medium, and darker roast profiles. As flavor fads have come and gone, the Zingerman’s crew have continued serving a range of tastes.

Behind that range of flavors, we have long standing relationships with many of the folks who grow our coffees. While other shops may not have much to share about a grower beyond their name and a photo or two, we focus on building long-term relationships with our growers. We’ve sold coffee from Hacienda Miramonte in Costa Rica every year for a decade. It’s been even longer since we started working with the DaTerra Estate in Brazil. Over those years of partnership, we’ve traveled down to visit the estates—and they’ve come up to visit us in Ann Arbor, too. Together, we’ve worked on experimental microlots to discover the impacts of very specific terroirs. We’ve tried out different processing methods to tease new flavors out of coffees. These aren’t the kinds of partnerships that spring up overnight. Our long, strong relationships have given us deeper understanding of the coffees, and better access to exceptional beans.

A decade from now, I can’t predict how the specialty coffee market will have shifted. But I can bet that the coffees from Zingerman’s Coffee Company will continue to produce excellent, easy to love brews.

With every iteration of the speciality coffee world’s evolution come new terms for folks like us to learn. One of the latest is “micro-lot” coffee. It sounds interesting, it even carries a whiff of the scientific, but what does it mean?

Micro-lot is generally used to describe very specific coffees from small producers.

One way to illustrate the idea is to look at its parallel in the wine world, where much of the vocabulary we use for coffee was born. Some winemakers produce “single parcel wine” that comes from a particular patch of a vineyard. Perhaps a spot that has more sun. Or an acre of limestone. The winemaker experimented in isolating grapes from that parcel, made wine with it, found it tasted different—better, more interesting, something that stood out—and bottled it with its own label.

Micro-lots are the same thing, only for coffee. A micro-lot is a batch of beans from a specific area of a coffee farm. Some areas on a farm may produce different coffees for reasons of sun exposure, water drainage, altitude—or factors we don’t quite understand. The farmer and the buyer can sort among beans from particular parcels to taste the differences. One of the great differences between wine and coffee micro-lots, though, is speed. A single parcel wine test takes months or years to see how it tastes. Coffee can be roasted in days. Even better, we get to be involved in the role as winemaker since we roast the beans.

“We’re not telling the farmer how to cultivate or grow their beans,” explains Steve Mangigian, managing partner of Zingerman’s Coffee Company. “We’re collaborating with the farm. Together, we pinpoint the exact area of the farm that’s producing the best beans for what flavors we like. Once we do, we buy everything we can.”

Micro-lots are called micro for a reason.

The number of beans is not measured in container loads or even pallets, it’s kilos—and not many of them. What matters for us drinkers is that this level of terroir precision makes flavors appear that are rarely experienced so distinctly. There are berries and flowers that sparkle. Roasted notes that beam. Each lot has a personality that’s strong—you may love it, you may hate it, but it’s always a fun ride.

Pretty much everyone professes a desire to drink better coffee. Of course what constitutes “better” isn’t the same thing for everyone. For me a great coffee is complex. It’s well balanced. It’s got a nice nose and nice finish. Bad coffee? Again, it’s a personal thing, but to me bad coffee is usually thin textured, watery, flat-tasting, and frequently overwhelmed by off flavors like excessive sourness, a burned flavor, paperiness, etc.

Aside from educating my palate with tasting after tasting, probably the biggest single thing I’ve learned from it all is just how much the same exact beans can taste totally different depending on how they’re handled. Basically, brewed coffee quality can be very, very variable. It’s become ever clearer to me that even the most carefully sourced and roasted coffee beans can only get you a small way to where you want to go on your quest for quality. The grind, the water, the method, the age of the beans, the volume of ground coffee used…it’s not a simple thing.

That said, here are the things I’ve learned that any of us can do to radically increase the odds of consuming a better cup of coffee at home.

Buy Better Beans

I will tell you truthfully and with great confidence that there is a really big difference between great coffee beans and so-so stuff. I am very confident that even the biggest skeptic really can tell the difference pretty darned quickly if they just decide that they want to. This is where all of our head roastmaster Steve’s homework has paid off with connections to the most quality-conscious brokers in the US, enabling us to get hold of some really special green beans.

Use Enough Coffee

As simple as it seems, this really could be the single biggest offending action at issue in the world of home brewing. The generally recommended ratio is two tablespoons of ground beans per six-ounce cup. Even if you like weaker coffee you’re better off to brew at that ratio and then add hot water to thin your cup. Paul puts three coffee scoops of whole beans into his grinder for each 8-ounce cup of water he’s using. If you’re calculating pounds in decimals, as I like to do, it’s about .45 ounces for an 8-ounce cup. I’m sorry for all the confusion but it’s become clear to me that part of the problem is that everyone is using different measurements and, consequently, ending up with really variable coffee quality even if they start with the same exact beans.

Store the Coffee Well

That would mean in an airtight glass jar. Probably at room temperature, and stored in a dry cabinet where it’s away from the light, for no more than a week after you get it home. Although there are those who like to keep the coffee in the freezer, most folks I’ve talked to of late have given up on the idea; there is little to be gained and you run the risk of causing condensation inside the jar which will ruin your brew.

Grind Right

Your best bet is to buy a good grinder and grind at home right before you brew. My personal choice right now is to use one of the old-fashioned hand held German coffee mills that we’ve gotten hold of—they’re quieter, they look good, they’ve got a really great set of perfectly tooled gears inside. They don’t heat the beans in the least. They’re incredibly easy to use. And they’ve got a ten-year warranty on ‘em. For more on these old fashioned—yet marvelously modern when it comes to the actual grinding mechanism—check them out online.

If you want to stick with electronically powered machines, the best I think are the burr grinders. Like the old-fashioned hand driven mills above, these actually grind the coffee (as opposed to the chopping action you get from the ones with those little whirring blades). Whatever grinding method you might use, keep in mind the amount of time it takes to grind. A fifteen count is about right. Once you’re happy with the timing, the burr grinders give you the option of presetting the timing so that you get a higher level of consistency. If you’re using the blade style, stop a couple times to shake the beans so you get even grinding. Too fine will lead to bitterness. Too course and you lose flavor.

Use Better Water

Since nearly all of what we actually end up with in our cup is water, not coffee, it’s kind of clear that the better the water we use, the better tasting the brew will be. Filtered water will help a great deal—you may not recognize your current coffee purchases if you switch from tap water to filtered (I will say though that if you’ve become accustomed to tap water you may not like the “cleaner” taste of coffee brewed with filtered water when you first try it). Regardless it should be clean and cold. And be careful not to ever overboil.

If you brew the exact same coffee—same origin, same roasting—with different methods, the flavor of the drink can be dramatically different. Take Zingerman’s Coffee Company’s Espresso Blend No. 1. As you might guess from the name, this blend of beans from the Daterra Estate in Brazil was developed with espresso in mind, and it produces a great shot: rich with flavors of dark chocolate and a sweet nuttiness. But that doesn’t mean you have to prepare it as espresso. If you made it in a French press, the flavor becomes lighter and brighter, with notes of white cake, chestnut, and blood orange. Prepared in an aeropress the flavor changes again, now emphasizing creamy caramel notes with a hint of spice. And brewing the espresso blend in a Clever cup draws out toasty cocoa notes and a rich, full body. Brew the espresso blend in each of these four different ways and taste the four cups side by side, the differences are striking. None of these different brewing methods are “right” or “wrong”—at the end of the day, the only taste that counts is yours, and whichever way you like your coffee is the right way.

Six superior home brewing methods.

You could use your regular brewing method to make any Zingerman’s coffee at home. You’d make yourself an excellent cup of coffee. Try a different method, and you’ll create different flavors. Here are my favorite brew and coffee combos. Each brings a coarser- or finer-ground coffee in touch with hot water and pressure in a slightly different way. Try some variations at Zingerman’s Coffee Company’s cafe in Ann Arbor—it’s an amazing experience. Or stay home and check out all the possibilities on our Big Brew Board.

1. Roadhouse Joe Coffee brewed in an automatic drip pot
Our perennial best-selling coffee, the Roadhouse Joe blend is a mix of Papua New Guinean, Costa Rican, Indian and Brazilian Peaberry beans. We’ve served it every day alongside breakfast (and brunch, and lunch, and dinner) at Zingerman’s Roadhouse restaurant for over a decade. Brewed in a standard automatic drip machine (like the kind most of us have on our kitchen counters at home), it’s nutty and balanced.

2. Espresso Blend No. 1 prepared as espresso
Made from a blend of coffee varietals all grown on the Daterra Estate in Brazil, our house espresso blend is especially great as espresso—luxuriously thick crema, with flavors of dark chocolate and sweet nuts—but it’s great brewed just about any other way, too.

3. Ethiopian Guji Coffee brewed in a press pot
Ethiopian coffees often have intensely fruity flavors, almost like biting into a handful of juicy berries. This coffee, from Ethiopia’s Oromia region, is no exception. Brewed in a press pot (also called a French press), the flavor is so light and bright it’s almost tea like, with acidic notes of lemon and blueberry.

4. Sumatra Mandheling Coffee brewed as a pourover
Sumatran coffees tend to be on the full-bodied, dark, earthy, wild end of the coffee flavor spectrum. When this one from the Jegarang Region of Indonesia is made as a manual pourover—which is basically drip coffee made by hand—those deep, earthy notes find balance with hints of butterscotch, almond, pecan, and banana.

5. Uganda Rwenzori Coffee brewed with an aeropress
The beans are handpicked, then undergo a dry, “natural” processing, whereby the coffee cherries are dried for 18-20 days with the fruit of the cherry intact around the coffee “bean” seed. Drying the beans with the fruit intact can give the coffee beans a notably fruity flavor. Brewing it with an aeropress—a 21st-century take on a French press that uses pressure to quickly brew a single smooth, clean cup—particularly emphasizes those bright, fruity flavors.

6. Costa Rica Hacienda Miramonte Coffee brewed with a syphon
At the peak of the season, the most experienced pickers harvest the ripest coffee cherries just for us from a micro-lot on the Hacienda Miramonte estate. When brewed using a syphon—the science-experimenty looking brew equipment seen at some specialty coffee shops and the occasional serious coffee-lover’s home—the flavors are rich and complex with a pleasant toffee note.

Why are dark coffees confused with strong coffees? This is one of the most common misperceptions in the coffee world and the starting point for frequent conversations with customers. When someone is browsing Zingerman’s coffees for the first time they often ask, “Which is your darkest coffee? I like strong coffees.”

This question really hits on two very different, often confused, aspects of brewed coffee: roast color and brew strength. Roast color does not necessarily affect how strong a coffee tastes. Brew strength will always affect how strong it tastes.

Roast color affects what flavors you taste but not necessarily how much of them you taste. In very dark roasted coffees, the pleasant characteristics of the bean – sweet, floral notes and other aromas – are burned away. They are replaced by bitter components, often a charred flavor. We’re sensitive to those bitter flavors and sometimes mistake them for strength. Dark coffees aren’t necessarily stronger, though. They’re just darker.

It’s brew strength that really makes a coffee intense. Chances are, when you say you like strong coffee, this is what you mean. Technically brew strength is a measure of dissolved coffee solids in your cup. A strong coffee is one with more solids.

A lot of formal research has gone into the measurement of “optimal strength” coffees. Coffee experts will often tell us how much ground coffee we should have for how much water. To some extent, these guidelines are helpful. Too much coffee will start to taste bitter. Too little may taste pleasant but thin or watery, lacking body. I have my own personal opinions and preferences for brew strength. My professional opinion is that nearly everyone errs on the side of too little coffee. But in the end it’s your taste that counts, so find a brew strength that works for you.