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Micro vs. Macro coffee tasting at Old City
The folks at Old City Coffee held a blind taste test for the coffee connoisseurs and the clueless to find out which roast reigned supreme.
Micro vs. Macro coffee tasting at Old City
How do you take your coffee, macro or micro roasted? The folks at Old City Coffee (221 Church St. and stand in Reading Terminal) held a blind taste test for the coffee connoisseurs and the clueless (yours truly) alike yesterday at the Reading Terminal Market. The coffees were served up in tiny dixie cups where attendees sipped, swirled and gulped 3 different roasts, and tried to figure out which cup came from which company.
Oh Dunkin' Donuts, you know I love your iced coffee loaded with cream and sugar, coffee-purist that I am... but the black sample from DD's had a very faint aroma with a highly acidic bite, lemony notes and a watery body. To be fair, vice president of Old City Coffee Jack Treatman thought it was probably a good bean that hadn't been roasted long enough.
I found the Central American roast from Starbucks to have a medium-full body, with very slight acidity and woody notes. Not a bad bet, if you like your coffee bitter as hell. The experts attributed the bitterness to over-roasting.
The final sample was the Old City Coffee house blend, with beans from Brazil, Honduras, Sumatra and Ethiopia. Medium-bodied, with a delicate aroma, medium acidity and floral notes. I dedtected a little cocoa in there too, but don't take my inexperienced word for it.
The major difference between the corporate brands' and OCC's locally roasted beans is the batch size. Macro roasters stuff up to 800 lbs of beans into an industrial roaster, roast them all one way, and usually add ingredients to create different flavors. At OCC, they use an old Victorian style roaster with a cast iron drum and an adjustable flame. The key though, are the 25-lb batches. To get different flavors, they roast different beans different ways in small batches, without any added ingredients. You can count on your beans being roasted and ground the day of, whereas the stuff that goes into your drink at a big company may be months old.
No matter what kind of coffee you drink (buttery or watery, lemony or sweet), go ahead and support micro roasters. You can count on fresher beans, more variety and more amiable baristas.
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