As a reader (reading is in fact the only true hobby that I have), and being a coffee person (a consumer as well as a producer/purveyor of roasted, equipment, etc...) I often run across articles that I feel offer some insight into coffee, even though the articles themselves are not about coffee at all. These writings can cover many disciplines, to use the academic phrase. Some recent examples include economics, consumer behavior, politics, labor, trade, physiology (taste, smell and addiction), marketing, merchandising, agronomy, etc.... Coffee for me is truly global, and not just in the geographic sense.
The following article, written by Eric Felten for the Wall Street Journal, in his "How's Your Drink" column, is a good example of how I learn and expand my understanding of coffee through, seemingly, unrelated fare. I find this article very interesting on two levels; personal and professional: 1) it helped me gain an understanding of why I prefer my Scotch on the rocks, even as I drink my Bourbon neat (the personal), and 2) it helped remind me of my role as a seller of coffee (the professional). And yet, at the end of the day, both the personal and the professional are not really that far from one another. For just as Mr. Felten points out, it isn't really the role of the blender to tell people how to drink his product, but more why he drinks it that a 'way. To analyze his own preferences, and try to understand those of his customers, so that he can further his craft; increase his industry and at some level enhance his own enjoyment. To do less would be both unprofessional and unnecessarily limit his quality of life. Not unlike coffee...... Hope you enjoy the article. The last paragraph sums it all up nicely.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124242619283025137.html
ps- I find Eric Felten to be one of the best food writers around, and if you can find his article on creating your own drink from last year, it is the best I have ever read on blending theory and strategy.
-td
I enjoyed this as well as the article by Eric Felton. I never really thought about the temperature affecting the flavor, in whiskey . Do you think the temperature of coffee would likewise do the same? We all know coffee tastes different depending what you add to it, but does black ck coffee taste different iced?
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