Coffee: A Common Yet Unknown Beverage

Coffee is a widely consumed yet little understood beverage. It’s been enjoyed for hundreds of years, but only recently has a mass movement become captivated by it. They’ve rapidly transformed the beverage itself and its industry. And it’s only the beginning.

These coffee aficionados want not only a warm, energizing way to start the day—they seek out all the hallmarks of world-class beverages of any kind: acid balance, aromatic complexity, freshness, a supple mouthfeel, a pleasant finish, and a flavor profile that balances typicity (how typical is a given coffee of its kind?) with individual character and uniqueness.

These qualities are achievable in coffee by the same means as in fine wines and spirits: by cultivation of the best varieties of coffee in their ideal growing regions, and by methods of production that preserve, amplify and build upon the natural beauty of the bean.

The Land and the Bean

Like the vines that grow grapes for wine, coffee trees are highly sensitive to terroir, that complex latticework of interrelated climatic, weather, topographic, environmental and other conditions that determine whether and how well a plant variety will flourish. Temperature, latitude, sunlight, elevation, soil type and many other factors play a role in a coffee tree’s ability to grow in a specific place, and whether it will produce quality fruit.

After a harvest, growers apply rigorous standards of selection. Coffee "cherries," the sweet red fruit from which the seed (bean) is laboriously extracted, are sorted to separate the underripe from the fully ripe berries. The extracted beans are dried, rested, and their papery protective layers hulled off. The beans are carefully graded by quality and separated from one another, prepared for shipment to buyers on the vast global coffee market.

The Alchemy of Roasting

Prior to roasting, coffee beans have a light brown-green color, and you’d never know from looking at, smelling or tasting them that they have within them the potential to become powerhouses of complex flavor and irresistibly fragrant aroma.

The job of a roaster is decide upon the optimal roast—fast or slow, light or dark—and to skillfully execute a roast that will bring the beans to life, preserve their acids, avoiding over-drying and making them brittle, and so on. The result is grind- and brew-ready coffee.

The Daily Grind

How to purchase, store, grind, brew and serve coffee is an art and a science. In search of the perfect cup, the modern coffee drinker has continually revised and refined the rules of thumb, the techniques and the gadgetry of good coffee making.

Experimental drinkers may be able to tell you whether they prefer a coffee brewed at 195, 200 or 205 degrees Fahrenheit—may have a strong view about whether it’s really worth trading in your blade grinder for a burr grinder—or in what window of time after the roasting date it’s optimal to use beans so that they’ve had time to rest but not to stale.

A New Taste for Tasting

Recent growth in the number of certified sommeliers, cicerones, whiskey specialists and other credentialed food and beverage experts reflects not only a growing interest in gaining deep expertise in these topics; it reflects the market for such expertise, the casual consumer’s growing demand for guidance on these topics.

This is reflected in retail sales. People around the world, and in North America in particular, are shifting away from an overly fast-paced way of life—of fast food and commodity beverages—and taking greater pleasure from their senses of taste and smell.

We believe the revolution in coffee is only just beginning.

Masters of Coffee

Wine, spirits, beer and other focuses of new consumer interest have had well-established study and certification programs for years, and these programs have served to enliven their respective fields, feed the growth in consumer interest and bolster their industries. They’ve also helped many thousands of consumers to better enjoy the details of daily life.

Masters of Coffee was founded to extend this effect into the world of coffee. We are pleased to support the personal and professional goals of coffee aficionados everywhere through our Certified Coffee Specialist (now open for enrollment) and Master of Coffee programs.