Comments on: Condé Nast’s Coffee Drinking Guide http://theshot.coffeeratings.com/2008/06/conde-nast-coffee-guide/ Rants and Raves on Espresso Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:59:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: TheShot http://theshot.coffeeratings.com/2008/06/conde-nast-coffee-guide/#comment-4169 TheShot Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:41:26 +0000 http://coffeeratings.wordpress.com/?p=21#comment-4169 "Darker roasts" as ones that actually dare go into the second crack. I don't associate darker roasts with a specific coffee roaster (though some roasters, such as Ritual, willingly do), a specific varietal, etc. Now "burnt" would be "darker", but way darker on the kind of spectrum I'm thinking about! There's just so much "anti-dark roast" blather out there right now, it strikes me as just another flavor of the very single-mindedness they are reacting against. From day one when Ritual Roasters said, with pride, that they only did "medium roasts", I thought they were merely replacing one myopic, one-dimensional treatment for another. That's not progress; that's just moving the same blind spots around from one corner to another. “Darker roasts” as ones that actually dare go into the second crack. I don’t associate darker roasts with a specific coffee roaster (though some roasters, such as Ritual, willingly do), a specific varietal, etc.

Now “burnt” would be “darker”, but way darker on the kind of spectrum I’m thinking about!

There’s just so much “anti-dark roast” blather out there right now, it strikes me as just another flavor of the very single-mindedness they are reacting against. From day one when Ritual Roasters said, with pride, that they only did “medium roasts”, I thought they were merely replacing one myopic, one-dimensional treatment for another.

That’s not progress; that’s just moving the same blind spots around from one corner to another.

]]> By: ManSeekingCoffee http://theshot.coffeeratings.com/2008/06/conde-nast-coffee-guide/#comment-4168 ManSeekingCoffee Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:35:36 +0000 http://coffeeratings.wordpress.com/?p=21#comment-4168 Just to be clear - and I think this is what you mean - by darker roast you mean something like Blue Bottle vs. Ritual and not Peet's vs. Ritual, right? Darker, not burnt. And of course the old mantra about the right roast for the right coffee. But you're right, the current trend does have a kind of Hegelian extremes vibe to it. Now we just have to swing back and find the Aristotelian virtuous mean. Just to be clear - and I think this is what you mean - by darker roast you mean something like Blue Bottle vs. Ritual and not Peet’s vs. Ritual, right? Darker, not burnt. And of course the old mantra about the right roast for the right coffee. But you’re right, the current trend does have a kind of Hegelian extremes vibe to it. Now we just have to swing back and find the Aristotelian virtuous mean.

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