If you’re in the coffee biz for 14 years, you hear a lot of crazy coffee myths. This month, I thought I’d debunk 10 of the misconceptions that coffee-consumers worldwide subscribe to.
MYTH #1: Espresso has more caffeine than drip coffee.
| Per serving, espresso actually has less caffeine than drip coffee. Espresso has a shorter brewing time—less than 30 seconds versus five or six minutes for drip brewing—so less water-soluble caffeine is extracted into the espresso. The longer brewing time for drip coffee allows more caffeine to be extracted into the cup. |
MYTH #2: Espresso is bitter.
Many coffee-lovers, upon trying espresso for the first time, find it bitter and believe that’s the way all espresso tastes. Indeed, they believe that’s the way espresso is supposed to taste. Not true.
Although much espresso is indeed bitter, that’s only because it is prepared incorrectly. Too often, poor equipment is used, resulting in inconsistencies in the brewing process. Or an unskilled barista might grind the coffee too finely, resulting in a “long shot,” which is an over-extracted shot.
A skilled barista can pull a shot of espresso that is just as sweet—if not sweeter—than brewed coffee. A well-pulled espresso should yield a harmonious combination of tastes that include acid, sweet, creamy, and bitter, and have a lasting, pleasant flavor on the palate. |
MYTH #3: Bigger is better.
Espresso was designed by Italians to extract the intense soul of coffee. This mirrors the European approach to food: serving small, satisfying portions using fresh, seasonal ingredients. In contrast to the traditional American approach of serving large portions of food and drink that fill you up but don’t always leave you feeling satisfied, there is a growing movement in this country to adopt the European model of “less is more.”
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MYTH #4: The darker the roast, the better the espresso.
| Over-roasted coffee loses all its complex flavors—they go up the chimney and leave you only with bitterness. What you taste with very dark-roasted coffee is the roast itself, not the actual coffee flavors within the bean. It’s like burned steak—beneath the char, you can’t tell the difference between a filet and a strip steak. In order to bring out all of the flavors inherent in the bean, it’s important for coffee to be roasted to its optimum level. This “peak roast” level depends on several factors, including the type of bean, the timing of harvest, and the bean density. |
MYTH #5: More expensive coffees taste better.
| Some coffees demand a higher price because of their higher quality. For example: Cup of Excellence coffees, such as Panama’s famed Hacienda La Esmeralda, which recently sold at auction for $130 per pound. Other coffees, like Jamaican Blue Mountain or Kona coffee, don’t always live up to their reputation or astronomical prices, a byproduct of marketing hype. A bizarre example of an overpriced coffee is Kopi Luwak, which runs $200 a pound or more. Kopi Luwak is known for its unusual processing, in which it is digested by a civet, then picked off the ground, before it is roasted. Delectable! |
MYTH #6: Shiny, oily coffee is better than dull coffee.
The oily surface you see on coffee is not a sign of freshness; it’s a sign of over-roasted coffee beans. Over-roasting allows coffee oils, which contain most of the complex aromas and flavors of the coffee, to escape to the surface of the bean. These oils coagulate on the surface of the bean to give the coffee a bitter, stale taste. Lighter roasts retain the aromatic oils that give each coffee its unique flavor.
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MYTH #7: You can keep coffee fresh with packaging.
Coffee is a food product, and like food, it is perishable. At best, you can slow down coffee-staling with good packaging. Fresh, whole-bean coffee vacuum-packed in heavy foil-laminated bags with a one-way valve should be used within four to six weeks of the roast date. The two-year “use by” dates on coffee bags in your grocery store are unrealistic at best.
Rather than relying on the packaging itself to keep coffee fresh, it’s better to buy small quantities more frequently. You’ll also get the best flavor by buying whole-bean coffee and grinding the beans just before brewing. Ground coffee stales 100 times faster than whole bean coffee.
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MYTH #8: The darker the roast, the more caffeine it has.
Generally, dark-roast coffee has less caffeine than lighter roasts because the roasting process burns off the bean’s caffeine content.
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MYTH #9: Coffee is a potent diuretic.
It’s true that the stimulative effect of coffee can act as a slight diuretic. However, the overall volume of water you consume while enjoying your cup of coffee will more than make up for the small amount lost in your urine.
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MYTH #10: Coffee-drinkers are smarter, better looking, and happier than non-coffee-drinkers.
| OK, this one really is true. They’re more charismatic also. |