COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / WHY ALEXANDER BROWN DRINKS BLACK COFFEE

GUEST BLOG / By Alexander Brown, Weaver’s Coffee & Tea Blogger—Our Weaver’s Coffee blog isn’t meant to get you to radically change your coffee drinking habits rather it is intended to share with you an idea, a way to branch out of your comfort zone and get you to try to drink black coffee.

The average coffee consumer usually adds sugar and cream to their morning cup of coffee. When I was young and just started drinking coffee, I would add milk and sugar without thinking. I assumed that this was what adults did when they consumed coffee. When I went to college I was adding milk and sugar to my coffee, because it tasted better with milk and sugar.  

However, whenever I am home and working at the Coffee Roastery, or in one of the coffees shop I find that when I am drinking a cup of Weaver’s Coffee the taste is really different when I add milk and sugar.  The coffee literally tastes like a dessert when I add milk and sugar.

Yesterday, while I was working in the Roastery, John Weaver saw me adding milk to my coffee and just as I was about to add some sugar, John yelled at me and said, drink your coffee black Alexander! So I did, and you know what? For the first time in my life I had found that I could drink a cup of coffee black.

Does that mean the average coffee drinker shouldn’t add milk and sugar to their coffee? No, I believe you should have your coffee whatever way you like to have your coffee, especially if you are at your favorite coffee shop. (Let’s not tell John Weaver, I said this on the company blog) My adding milk and sugar to my coffee was because I usually go out for a coffee to a local coffees shop when I am at school and have been adding milk and sugar to the coffee to hide the bitter taste of over-roasted, mass-produced coffee. Unfortunately, milk and sugar also adds unnecessary calories and flavors to coffees, which can affect your health. Lately, especially since I am home, with John Weaver looking over my shoulder, I am drinking black coffee and loving it.

Why is Black Coffee good for you?

Black coffee is the perfect way to start the day. The delicious smell of freshly brewed coffee, coupled with the warmth of the cup of coffee in your hands, is the best way to start your morning routine.

There is a reason why coffee roasters taste test coffee black. For instance to understand the full flavor profile of one of our single origin coffees or blended coffees we would not add milk or sugar to the taste it on the tasting table as it would negatively impact the coffee tasting and the coffee would be diluted.

If I an traveling, or at school, and happen to find myself getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks or Peets Coffee I will always add sugar and cream to cover the taste of an over-roasted coffee. This is because massive coffee roasting companies produce such large batches of coffee that it is difficult to get the high quality coffee roast John Weaver and his apprentice roasters are able to reach in our small-batch coffee roasting.

My First Double Espresso

I vividly remember my first double espresso. I was thirteen years old when we set up our Coffee Roastery, Manufacturing, Warehouse and Weaver’s Coffee & Tea Café at 40 Louise Street in San Rafael, California. John Weaver was roasting and yelled over to me to go pull him an espresso. We only serve double espressos, so I ran into the café and pulled the double espresso shot for him. I handed him the shot and he said, that is for you, drink it. The espresso shot was smooth and creamy and I liked it. Twenty minutes later almost 300 pounds of coffee was packaged and ready to ship, so the coffee tasted great and it sure helped me focus and work fast in the shipping department.

Now that I am twenty-one I find myself drinking black coffee on a regular basis. If I go out to brunch with friends and want to try the restaurants coffee I try it black. The mass-produced coffees you find readily available at the grocery store are for the most part the same mass-produced coffees you find at your neighborhood restaurant. It seems that certain restaurants think that every consumer will add cream and sugar to their drink to hide out the burnt and bland flavor of their morning cup of coffee. I am finding it hard to get a great cup of black coffee when I am out to lunch or dinner.

While not every coffee drinker may have been able to do a full coffee tasting in his or her life it’s nice to drink a coffee at its most pure state. It shows you exactly the finished product you are drinking and how it was intended to taste. When it comes to other coffee shops and coffee companies I tend to add cream and sugar to my coffee, but when it comes to coffee roasted by John Weaver, then I usually choose to drink the coffee black. Personal preference along with experience over the past eleven years have allowed me to better gauge the different flavors and nuances in coffees. Why sacrifice these flavors and also add in extra calories?

Why drink Weaver’s Coffee?

Here at Weaver’s Coffee & Tea we pride ourselves on roasting the Best Organic Coffee, and believe in supporting Fair Trade Certified Coffee as well as multiple charities. While most of the staff and all of the owners drink their coffee black, we want you to drink your coffee the way you like to drink your coffee. Well, maybe not John, he will tell you to drink black coffee.  John Weaver throughout the last forty years has been perfecting the perfect cup of coffee for you, and as we continue to focus on quality and consistency, we hope you continue to enjoy drinking Weaver’s Coffee as much as we enjoy roasting it for you.

Alexander Brown was 11 years old when
he joined Weaver's Coffee & Tea.

About the Blogger

Alexander Brown began working at Weaver’s Coffee when he was 11 years old.  Now, at 21, he’s in his final year at UCSB and he is Majoring in Global Studies and Minoring in Japanese. He enjoys making music in his free time.

Listen to his music on Spotify. Click here.