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The Coffee that
Won the West and Launched the
Dark Ages of Coffee By Dan Gill,
Ethno-Gastronomist Coffee
became the American beverage of choice following the Stamp Act of 1776 as patriotic
Americans tried to distance themselves from the tea drinking British and
onerous taxation. Prior to Reconstruction, practically all coffee was bought
as green beans and roasted in small batches by tavern keepers or housewives.
Green coffee beans can be stored indefinitely, but once they are roasted and
their flavorful oils released, complex chemical reactions begin to dull their
delicate flavors. Within a week changes in taste are noticeable and by two
weeks after roasting the fresh flavors are gone and coffee starts to taste
stale and rancid. Oxidation is the primary culprit and can be slowed somewhat
by excluding air, but many other chemical reactions inevitably destroy the
flavor and aroma of freshly roasted coffee and it becomes bitter and harsh.
Americans of all classes and stations enjoyed the robust and stimulating
flavors of freshly roasted coffee. There was little or no trade in
pre-roasted coffee except in some larger cities and even then it was bought
in small quantities and used within a week or so. Roasting coffee on a
wood-burning stove or over a campfire is a time-consuming and often wasteful
art that requires even heat and constant agitation, preferably in a covered
pan. Great care must be taken, as a few burned beans will ruin the lot.
Impatient Americans were ready for an easier and quicker way to satisfy their
coffee cravings. In 1865
John Arbuckle, who had dropped out of college to join his brother Charles in
his Pittsburg grocery business, patented a method to coat roasted coffee
beans with a gelatinous mixture of eggs and sugar. This glaze was designed to
seal the porous surface of roasted coffee beans, preserving flavor and aroma
while retarding oxidation. Arbuckle's Ariosa Coffee soon became the first commercially
successful pre-roasted coffee to be marketed nationally and
"Arbuckle's" became synonymous
with both the product and the brew. It was especially popular with cowboys
because it was dependable, consistent and convenient. It could be ground and
brewed quickly under primitive cooking conditions and tasted almost like
coffee. Arbuckle's Ariosa Coffee became known as "the coffee
that won the West". Some cowboys
claimed that "they weren't worth shootin' 'til they had their
Arbuckle's". The
Arbuckle brothers were also marketing pioneers. Each bright yellow and red
package included a redeemable coupon and a peppermint stick. When the camp
cook was ready to brew another pot, he simply called out "Who wants the
candy?" and even the toughest cowboys competed for the job of grinding
the "Arbuckle's" to earn a sweet reward. The popular coupons could
be redeemed for pioneer necessities such as handkerchiefs and razors or even
wedding rings. Their successful marketing strategies and consistent quality
launched a coffee empire that dominated the "Gilded Age". The
Arbuckles used so much sugar in their glaze that they built their own sugar
refinery and packaged sugar for sale. The existing sugar "trust"
took great exception to this intrusion and went into the coffee roasting
business in retaliation. Millions were spent in the greatest advertising
campaign in history, and coffee and sugar were sold at cutthroat prices and
below cost, further stimulating consumer acceptance. Arbuckle's
survived the "great coffee war" but was ultimately responsible for
the industrialization of pre-roasted and pre-packaged coffee that led to the
20th Century's being known as the "dark ages of coffee".
Corporations more concerned with profit than quality shortened roasting times
needed for full flavor development (the roasting profile), quenched (cooled)
roasted beans with water, further diluting flavor, and substituted cheaper
Robusto beans for traditional Arabica beans. Robusto beans, which can be
grown at lower altitudes, add body to coffee blends but lack the richness of
flavor and contain almost twice the caffeine compared with Arabica beans. Early in
the 20th Century improvements in packaging rendered glazed beans
obsolete and Arbuckle's Ariosa Coffee disappeared from the market. The company continued to
package other quality blends, and vestiges of the Arbuckle legacy still
survive. John created a special blend of premium South American beans that he
called his "Yuletide Blend". During his lifetime it was made only
for holidays and gifts. After his death in 1912, the Company released and
marketed this premium blend as Yuban, now owned and marketed by Kraft Foods. Some time
later, Arbuckle Bros. Company was sold to C.W. Post, the cereal magnate. His
company later became General Foods and marketed Maxwell House. An independent
company in Tucson, Arizona, recently revived Arbuckle's Ariosa Coffee. By WWI,
packaged coffee had become a staple grocery item – consistent, uniform,
mediocre and boring. Coffee is anything but boring. There are more flavor
compounds in coffee and more variations in flavor than in any other food,
including wine. Every coffee-producing region has distinct characteristics,
and within a region or country quality varies by location, season, processing
and production methods. Therefore, the ritual evaluation of coffee, called
"cupping", is demanding and exacting. To complicate matters even
further, roasting profiles and brewing methods affect the way any given
coffee smells and tastes. Each coffee has its own "sweet spot" or
degree of roasting that best balances the high notes of origin with the dark
notes of roasting. The full range of coffee flavors can only be experienced
if it has been roasted properly within ten days, stored properly as whole
beans, ground immediately prior to brewing and brewed properly. In recent
decades there has been a dramatic resurgence in the appreciation and
popularity of specialty coffees from artisanal roasters. Most independent
shops feature freshly roasted Arabica coffees from around the world. Some
even roast on premises and sell green beans to home roasters, but that is
another story. (c) Dan Gill - Published in Pleasant Living Jan. – Feb. '10 Download Printer
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