Mario Tama/Getty Images
READ MORE ABOUT:
You can help the planet, and make your morning more awesome, by picking an eco-friendly coffee roast for your mug. Use these pro cupping and tasting tips to figure out which brand of "sustainable coffee" is your new favorite bean. Before you know it, you'll be sniffing and swooshing your brews like an expert, and by "spending your cash" on sustainable beans, you'll be supporting ethical business practices to boot.
On the Planet Green TV show Stuff Happens, host Bill Nye makes a compelling case for why you should switch to sustainable coffee. Once you're sold on the ecological and economic importance of organic, shade-grown, fair trade "coffee beans," it's time to put your senses to work to pick out an awesome brand and roast that'll give your morning the right kind of kick. Grab a couple of friends, a couple of mugs, and a couple of bags of beans for a sustainable coffee blind taste test using these expert tips:
- Start by filling your teapot or coffee maker with cold water, not warm or room temperature, for the brightest possible brew.
- For a strong and flavorful cup, similar to what you'd find in a high-falutin' gourmet cafe, use two tablespoons of ground beans for each six ounce cup of water that you put on to boil.
- Brew a couple of different brands of sustainable coffee. Then, have a friend be in charge of pouring the samples for your taste test, so that he or she knows which kind of roast is in which mug, but you have no idea. This will keep you from being biased towards (or against) any given brand. (Once you?ve made your pick, return the favor and pour your friend's "secret" samples, and keep track of what kind your pal likes.)
- Slurp it, don't sip it. Pulling the coffee into your mouth with some force helps pump it full of oxygen as it hits your palate, letting you taste the roast more fully. It also helps distribute the brew around your mouth, giving you a better sense of the liquid's body and heft. (Just make sure it?s not too hot!)
- Instead of swallowing, swirl and spit. Swoosh the coffee around your mouth, then spit it into the sink or an empty cup. This will leave you with a better sense of how the flavor feels on your tongue than swallowing.
- In addition to the basics (whether you love it, whether it sucks, etc.), pay attention to acidity (the feeling of dryness around the edges and back of your mouth), aroma (take a sniff and see if you can detect undertones like nutty, flowery, carmelly, woody, earthy, etc.), and body (how heavy or light the stuff is in your mouth). There's no right or wrong in terms of what you prefer?it's a matter of taste, after all!?but although there may be differing opinions about Dark vs. Light, Spicy vs. Fruity, or Shmancy vs. Cheap-o, most people agree that acidic is a positive quality for a cup of the brown stuff.
- Take a swig or two of water in between the different kinds of coffee. That way, you'll have a clean palate to approach each new kind of Joe.
For more on sustainable coffee and other green morning ideas, don't miss the Breakfast episode of Stuff Happens.
Checkout the Planet Green Schedule to catch the Breakfast Episode of Stuff Happens.
