I can hear it now. DUH! LOL However, what is generally not understood is because it is an agricultural product, it varies in how it tastes. It’s an agricultural product. It varies. Added to that reality, is also the reality that our palates change in how they perceive tastes. Recall the concept of “cleansing the palate” between tastes of different wines, or different foods. The variability of our palate is the reason.

Regardingcoffee, in this instance, I’m not talking about different coffees from different growing regions. Eg, an African vs an Indonesian vs a Central/South American, which are the major growing regions of the world. Nor am I talking about different growing regions within a major growing region. Eg, African Ethiopian vs African Kenyan. Nor am I talking about different growing regions within a growing region. Eg, Ethiopian Sidamo vs Ethiopian Limu. I am talking about, as an example, how variant Sidamo can be. This is true for any coffee. It varies from the harvest season of one year to the harvest season of the next year. It varies from one harvest to the next within a harvest season.

High quality coffee greens are harvested several times within a harvest season. Why? The cherries on a given tree ripen at different times. So, on a tree, at the same time, there are berries in different stages of development, resulting in multiple harvests within one harvest season. Within one harvest season there is typically an early harvest, a mid-season harvest, and a late season harvest. Each produces a very similar yet different tasting bean. Most times it’s barely distinguishable, but the difference is there.

Therefore, there are at least two dynamics, the variability of a specific bean and the variability of our palates. So, when you notice a difference in taste of one of our coffees from one day to the next, or between Roast Weeks of the same coffee that are weeks apart, now you know why. When we roast the coffee, the behavior of the bean in the drum sometimes changes. This can happen not only from one shipment to the next shipment of the same coffee, but also from one bag to the next bag of the same coffee, and sometimes within one bag. And none of this gets into the effects of relative humidity and barometric pressure! I thought you’d find this interesting and hopefully helpful. But then again, maybe not... HMMM!