Japanese consumer fad of the minute?: Newly harvested coffee beans attracting attentions
Posted by TheShot on 21 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
Japanese consumer fads notoriously have about the same lifespan as mayflies — or a Rudi Giulliani presidential campaign, whichever comes shorter. However, here’s one we had not heard of before until seeing this in today’s The Daily Yomiuri: Newly harvested coffee beans attracting attentions : Arts Weekend : Features : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri).
Japanese coffee consumption habits are vastly different from Western ones. It’s not just street coffee in a can or the rare siphon bar either. Instant coffee is still rampant, and decaf doesn’t even exist here. For those with higher standards, they do have fashionable, pricey coffee bars called kissaten that ceremoniously select and grind fine beans for you … and then boil the living crap out of it. However, some of Japan’s coffee elites have the habit of buying up small packages of boutique beans from around the world, and this latest consumer trend suggests a growing preference for the “freshness” of early harvest beans.
Coffee cherries (and the beans they contain) are an annual crop — though there are exceptions of some growing regions having both a main crop and a fly crop (a smaller, interim crop between the prime harvests). The harvesting period for coffee depends on the region, climate, and, well, labor, and it can vary between three to six months (or year-round, as in the odd case of aged Indonesian coffees). While it’s not as critical as the freshness of roasted beans, green coffee bean freshness is important. But we haven’t heard much about the qualities of early harvest beans being that much fresher tasting than late harvest, as long as shipping supports lots as they are harvested. But, hey — at least it’s not shark fin soup or whale bacon.
![Hopefully it ain't a 'bowel moment' [sic]](http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/images/potd-coffeeshopcute.jpg "Hopefully it ain't a 'bowel moment' [sic]")
5 Comments »
on 23 Feb 2008 at 9:59 am +00:00T 1.t o n x said …
I think there is some confusion in that article between the idea of “early” harvest versus merely fresh crop coffees. Its unlikely that any coffee buyers are particularly seeking out the first lots out of the mills. On the contrary, the earliest parts of the harvest in most coffee regions are typically from the lower elevations and therefore lower in quality. The real distinction would be between coffees that are freshly arrived versus coffees that have been loitering in a warehouse becoming dead and baggy. Its not clear to me from the article whether the Japanese are taking some liberties in their marketing or if the author misunderstands their premise. Or maybe something is lost in the translation between “fresh”, “new”, and “early”.
Many roasters in the US have been shifting to further embrace the seasonality of coffee, running particular origins only during their peak of flavor, changing offering lists more frequently. More a welcome development than a fad.
on 23 Feb 2008 at 11:33 am +00:00T 2.TheShot said …
I have to believe you’re right about that, Tonx. I’ve always associated the early main harvest stuff as better than some of the fly crop that might otherwise get tossed in some regions, but not by a whole lot. Like the first strawberries of the season. And the early harvest stuff is more likely to sit longer before an isotainer gets filled for first shipment.
I gotta believe it all has to come down to prompt shipping relative to the prime harvesting times.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 4:41 pm +00:00T 3.Len Phillips said …
My question is how many beans does it take to make one espresso…….I live in Canada and where would I buy the most fresh beans, I am assuming from a locla roaster.
Thanks,
Len Phillips
on 20 Mar 2008 at 5:54 pm +00:00T 4.TheShot said …
Well, not knowing a direct answer, let’s do some math.
According to this research, there are about 3,423 coffee beans in a pound:
http://edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=79
And per the Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano’s standard for Certified Italian Espresso:
http://www.espressoitaliano.org/doc/EIC%20-%20Eng%20-%20LQ.pdf [pdf]
an espresso should have 7g (±0.5) of ground coffee. (This says nothing of coffee’s cultural turf war where some Westerners stuff 14g or more into a puck.)
And we know that there are about 453.59 grams to a pound.
7 ÷ 453.59 = .0154 pounds of ground coffee per espresso
× 3,423 = 52.8, or about 53 beans.
Now remember that we’re excluding for the fact that some ground coffee doesn’t make it from the bag through the grinder and into the portafilter basket for various reasons. Or that different bean varietals can vary in density and bean size, thus affecting the beans-per-pound ratio, etc. But that should get you started.
And yes — use a local roaster if possible. But in Canada, you’d be in heaven if you lived near 49th Parallel Roasters. They deliver within 48 hours of ordering (yes, that includes roasting!) for anywhere in North America too.
on 16 Jul 2011 at 12:01 am +00:00T 5.dewa maharda said …
Dear Sir,
I have around 14 hectares of coffee fields in Bali. Would you please visit my coffee fields? who knows we can work together in the future. This is my email address : dewamaharda@yahoo.com
Best regards
Dewa Maharda