Sun Valley Magazine: Coffee 101

Who doesn’t like to talk coffee?

I finally sat down with Liz Roquet of Lizzy’s Fresh Coffee in Ketchum, Idaho, for a lengthy discussion about the science of coffee — from bean to cup — for an article in the winter issue of Sun Valley Magazine.

(It took a while. A couple years ago I approached her for a story and she made some “demands” that I couldn’t live with. To her credit, she had just been profiled in a newspaper article that was full of errors — misspelling her name, attributing quotes from her to another roaster, and vice versa. She was, needless to say, “down on journalists.” I don’t blame her. That’s why I circled back a couple years later to see if she would let me tell her story for a different article. I’m glad I did. I learned plenty from her.)

Don’t try to convince Roquet there is an “art” to coffee — either roasting or brewing. She’ll blow your ears back.

Roquet is a no nonsense businesswoman who grew up in coffee culture (her parents are Austrian and she was sipping coffee before she was 8 years-old).

Here is my story, for the winter issue of Sun Valley Magazine about the science of coffee in your cup. 

Before 1970, drip coffee made from pre-ground commodity coffee scooped out of a tin can bought from the grocery store ruled the home coffee scene. Then Starbucks came along. After decades of coffee-lingo evolution, some coffee lovers now want to skip Starbucks’ lines, skip the new breed of hipster coffeehouses that followed in the Seattle giant’s footsteps, and brew a quality cup of joe in the peace and quiet of home sweet home.