I like pizza. I also like (and love) sushi, peanut butter, pears, asparagus, and breakfast burritos. That's the easy part. The difficult question to answer is why? Why do I love what I do? I'm afraid that would would take years on the couch of a psychologist to plumb the depths of that question. Or maybe it really isn't that complicated after all. Maybe the answer is simply, "I just do."
The same struggle is prevalent in coffee and what we like and don't like. Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that, especially since we can train our taste buds to enjoy and appreciate higher quality handcrafted coffee compared to the over-roasted mass-produced pre-ground coffee that line the shelves of most grocery stores. But apart from that we all love and gravitate towards different coffees grown in different regions of the world. Many love coffees from Ethiopia in general and some do not. Some love Sumatran coffee while others don't. And then we also get down to the actual quality of the coffee and how it's rated (to read more about cupping and the 100 point classification click here). The higher the rating (from 1 to 100) the better the cup quality.
Let's say we have a coffee rated at a 90. Then it goes into the hand of the roaster who decides precisely how to then roast that coffee. For lack of technical terms ... light roast? Medium? Dark? The flavors are locked into the green coffee bean. It is up to the roaster to coax and highlight the best tasting notes that the bean offers. Some roasters opt to roast that same bean this way while others roast it that way. Oh, and I haven't even scratched the surface of then how to brew said coffee, what ratio of coffee-to-water you'll use, grind size, water temperature, and so much more.
If you're still on the journey into this coffee wormhole with me you're probably wondering then how this ties into mountain biking. Simple. What kind of bike do you ride? The answer to that question then reveals what type of riding you prefer ... downhill, enduro / AM, dirt jumping, XC, bikepacking, etc. Now why do you like those different ways to ride your bike? Is your answer simply "I just do?"
Why do we gravitate towards certain coffees? Why do we gravitates towards certain riding styles, the bikes themselves, and even specific bike brands? Maybe those answers are as mysterious as to why I hate broccoli but maybe they are as simple and easy as to why we love french fries (or poutine ... yum!). We "just do." Here at Loam Coffee we love the creative process of finding the right beans that fit who we are and roast them in a way to accentuate what makes them special. We're always tweaking, adapting, and experimenting how we do things. Thanks for journeying with us.
Words by Sean Benesh, Loam Coffee Founder and Brand Manager.
