Coffee

A Sommelier's Introduction to Coffee

Why should the Sommelier study coffee?

Many restaurant guests will select some form of coffee as their last beverage before exiting the establishment, and an expertly brewed cup can seal a positive experience. Nonetheless, even at the highest level many restaurants continue to operate sub-par coffee programs, and many sommeliers, despite meticulous attention to detail in other areas of the beverage program, allow poor coffee preparation and service to persist. Coffee is a second-class citizen in many beverage programs: its costs and oversight are often relegated to kitchens, and the machinery of coffee production is geared too often toward ease and quantity rather than the simple preparation of a good cup of coffee. Specialized barista personnel in restaurants may be poorly trained if present at all, beans may be out of date, and coffees may be brewed too infrequently, in excessively large batches. Of course, the presence of caffeine, the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug, leads a majority of coffee-drinkers to consider coffee as a form of fuel, presumably ingested when one is tired, drunk, or otherwise in need of quick energy. Yet to suggest that coffee is only a vehicle for caffeine is like stating that wine is just a mechanism for the delivery of alcohol. The coffee bean, like the grape, experiences a complex series of processes from farm to cup, and falls within a spectrum of quality levels, developing distinctive characteristics in different growing regions throughout the world. Contrast the state of coffee in many of America’s restaurants with the revival of good specialty coffee shops and artisan roasters. Educated restaurant