Crema Wars: Attack of the Lipids

It's been a good week in Oakland researching the coffee scene out here.

Tommorow it's back to L.A.!

We went back to Mr. Espresso today to get some prices on the Faema E-61's he has and ended up talking for a while about... Yes, that's right, coffee.

Mr. E. explained to us his particular philosophy on espresso, along another walk through of the roastery, this time in action.


The roastmaster would periodically grab a sample of beans and get an Agtron scale reading, grind it, then get another reading.
The Agtron scale, for those of you that don't know, is a light refraction measuring system that measures the roast intensity of coffee. The lower the number, the darker the roast. This batch came in at 47, pretty dark, but not yet a "French Roast" (I think!).

The Agtron scale is scientific, whereas other measuring/naming systems are not.

An Espresso's crema, he explained is a suspension of the coffee's flavor oils or lipids. The more lipids, the more flavor.
With an espresso roast of about 47 agtron (I think, about a full city roast) and a brewing temperature of 185 degrees F.
combined with his Oak Roasting technique, Mr. Espresso believes the shots posses greater amounts of lipids.

David Schomer, of Seattle's Espresso Vivace on the other hand advocates a lighter espresso roast and a much higher brewing temperature: 203.5 F.

Neither of these men have any problems extracting ample amounts of crema in their shots.

I must admit though, that Mr. E's espresso's had a crema that didn't seem like it was going anywhere, anytime soon.

Both of these espresso enthusiasts do add Robusta beans to their blends.

Robusta is the often unloved coffee cousin of the fairer Arabica, who gets all the attention.

Robusta is cheaper and generally not as tasty as Arabica, but guarantees a longer lasting crema.

Why then add it to an Arabica espresso? Just to cheaply give it the appearance of a good crema?

The going philosophy is that with the addition of a small amount of a high grown Robusta, that it's long lasting crema will preserve the delicate lipids of the Arabicas and thus preserve it's flavor a little longer.

This is one area where many espresso people are starting to converge.

My take is that the Robusta can still be tasted. But I'll also go on the line to say that a good Robusta doesn't have to taste bad.

In my opinion they taste like wood. Not cedar, but pine.

Wood, of course is typically described as a negative flavor characteristic, but if it's just a hint, it can add to the shot's overall complexity and longevity in milk.

One of the wonderful things about coffee is that so many people love it for so many different reasons.

One man's swill is another man's gold and vice versa.

Who's right?

Who's wrong?

Polarization to different ideologies in coffee, just like in politics can lead to unpleasant battles and wars.

One thing is for sure though. Everyone in the coffee world is not going to agree anytime soon on how to produce the best results.

I think the most important ingredient any roaster or barista or drinker can add to their coffee is of course passion.

It may seem like, or even be a cliche, but...

You just can't fake the funk.