It’s like an epidemic. I’ve tried like 4-5 cafes now and it’s all like drinking battery acid. Do they just not care? Or do you think they believe it’s meant to be like this? If that’s the case I feel bad for them.
It’s like an epidemic. I’ve tried like 4-5 cafes now and it’s all like drinking battery acid. Do they just not care? Or do you think they believe it’s meant to be like this? If that’s the case I feel bad for them.
For almost ten years now I’ve been encountering lots of drip coffee with some kind of “rotten” flavor note to it.
It’s vaguely like hops in a way. A funky note, similar (experientially; I understand it doesn’t come from the same process or ingredients) to what a wheat beer has that other beers don’t.
Anyone else know what I’m referring to?
Rancid oils? Like a “break-room-at-11am”-flavor?
Actually yes, I think rancid oil could be similar. Do coffee beans have oil in them?
I’m not sure what you’re referring to with the break room thing, unless you’re referring to butter left out too long and gone rancid?
Tons of oils. And the darker they’re roasted, the more the oils come out and get exposed to oxygen and get rancid. Once you identify the smell, you can’t unsmell it. These oils stick to everything, especially plastic coffee drippers.
The “break room smell” I’m referring to is the lingering, heavy, overpowering stink of rancid coffee clinging to everything in a break room where the 20-year-old company dripper gurgles along all day every day, that has never seen any cleaning more advanced than a quick rinse of the glass jar.
I should have been trusting my gut and not drinking that coffee then. Rancid oils are pro inflammatory I think.
I mean, almost all coffee that’s not freshly ground and brewed in a perfectly clean machine is rancid anyway. I know people who actually associate this taste with coffee itself, and won’t enjoy a cup until their moka pot has been “properly seasoned”.
Your grandma’s drip coffee? Rancid. From the vending machine at work or in a gas station? Rancid. Every single preground package at the store? Rancid. From your brother-in-law’s $2k bean-to-cup machine? You guessed it, rancid. The 10yo nespresso you salvaged from a friend to bring at your desk? Boy you don’t wanna know how much crap gets trapped inside over the years.
Lots of those don’t have this flavor note though.
And I never noticed the note until about ten years ago. Been drinking coffee over thirty years.
Maybe it’s something else then.
If you ever want to see it leave some coffee in a container in direct sunlight. They will ooze oil everywhere
It’s the fermentation process. You’ll find it more in natural processed coffees or honey processed. Even more so with anaerobic fermentation or yeast based fermentation.
What you’re looking for is washed coffee, or commodity coffee with no mention of the processing. Or dark roasts, as the taste of heavily roasted coffee will negate a lot of the taste that is inherent to the bean and the processing. A bit like a well-done steak.