Coffee Varietals and Interesting Coffee: Why you should explore coffee outside of your daily latte
Working as a barista for a few years now, the biggest thing I notice about customers and regulars is their consistency in ordering the same drink every time they come in. The coffee shop and their daily caffeine fix has become a routine, day in and day out ordering the same vanilla latte or the same cup of black dark roast. This is due to neglect from both the barista, in their lack of interest to give new suggestions to their customers, and from the customer in their lack of desire or lack of knowledge to experience the new and interesting coffee drinks and varieties that they might be presented.
Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with that vanilla latte you keep ordering, but a vanilla latte at one coffee shop is going to be the same at all of them.
The best way to befriend your barista:
When you go into a coffee shop and order, the best way to make friends with your barista, is to ask them:
“what do you recommend?”
“what’s your favorite drink?”
”do you have any special drinks?”
Ask a barista any one of these questions and their face will light up with enthusiasm and you might have to listen to them rant about really cool coffees for the next 10-15 minutes. Chances are, your barista will offer to make you a pour-over, as it is the best way to showcase the interesting and amazing depth and flavors of a coffee.
Coffee Varietals, what are they?
Coffee is very similar to wine; just as there are grape varietals, there are coffee varietals. Coffee varietals are the hybrids or natural mutations of the two major species of coffee: Arabica and Robusta. There are a few thousand varietals of coffee around the world, all with different growing traits and amazing flavor characteristics. The list of coffee varietals is vast but see the list below for a few examples:
Typica
Bourbon
Gesha
Pacamara
When tasting new coffees, coffee professionals use what is called a flavor wheel, used to describe different tastes and aromas to coffee. It won’t tell you whether or not a particular coffee is good or bad, but it will allow you to more accurately pinpoint certain characteristics that you might not be able to describe without colors and words for reference.
The flavors that coffee can encompass are vast and incredibly fascinating. In my own personal experience, I have tasted coffees that gave flavors of soy sauce and almost reminiscent of orange chicken, to coffees that tasted of rose with floral aromas. It is amazing that one plant can have so much distinction and variety in flavor and smell, and I implore you to pursue the awesome experience of tasting these interesting coffees.