Setting Up the Pantry, Part Three: Coffee and Tea

The genesis of the coffee house sounds like locations from a James Bond flick -- Vienna, Instanbul, Amsterdam. But it wasn't mid-century superspies that gave us the American coffee house -- it was bohemians. In New York City and San Francisco, beats sipped inky espressos in coffee bars while writing, reading, talking and listening with like-minded hipsters. Coffee was cheap and could be served to the underaged, even if during those readings someone inevitably snuck in a jug of eye-squint wine. A culture emerged from the beat coffee house, rescuing it from the courtly refinement of the European kaffeehaus and making it both the center and the symbol of American bohemia.

When, a couple of generations later, a new breed of hipster, relocated to the pacific northwest, reinvented the coffee house as a chain store, some beat elders groused at the commercialization of what had been their community center. But the kaffeehaus had always been a place of commerce. Coffee is a commodity, and it first traveled west through European trade routes. And concurrent with those hallowed urban coffee houses of second-hand furniture and pinlit stages had always stood the honest American lunch counter. There, for a dime a waitress with a hairdo and a local accent would pour a long shot into a thick white mug. Crabbers about the commercialization of the coffee house forgot that it was those very roads and the lost Americana of them that beckoned Bohemia's own icons, from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan, from Jack Kerouac to the Merry Pranksters, from Todd to Buzz to their Corvette.

And that waitress? She was someone's wife, daughter, aunt, friend. She kept a home, where as central to her kitchen as the flour in the bin and the salt in the shaker was the coffee in the canister. That coffee was probably medium-roasted and ground medium-coarse in the style of the day. That coffee was strong and good, brewed in an aluminum percolator and kept warm on the stovetop all day. That strong coffee meant home to every kind of American from GI to office worker, from farm hand to school teacher, from weary traveler to someone just undertaking the journey.

In post-boom America, Robert Mondavi and his contemporaries spearheaded a coming-of-age of American wine that resulted in America taking its place at the world table of connoisseurs. As a result, the American table achieved a level of worldwide respect it had not really achieved until then. Americans began to eat and drink with more knowledge about the culture of food and drink. We wanted to know what we were eating and drinking, and we wanted it to be prepared with best methods and from the best ingredients. It was only a matter of time before American connoisseurship shifted its attentions from the wine glass to the coffee cup.

America had always had coffee importers, where coffee houses, restaurants, local shops,  and some private residences sourced their beans and had them roasted to specification. But overall, American coffee was grocery store coffee, sold in tins under one of the brand names most of us would recognize. The American palate grew up on grocery store coffee just as surely as it did on bacon and eggs. And though that coffee was good, American coffee drinkers developed curatorial tastes. Coffee and tea shops, small batch roasters, coffee houses both local and chain began offering their own roasts and blends, and sales and buzzes followed.

We love coffee in our urban home, and our month of stocking the pantry is the perfect time to stock the coffee and tea pantry. Here is Urban Home Blog's guide to coffee and tea. As with all lists and guides at Urban Home Blog, this list is a based upon my years of experience as a homekeeper and a lifestyle writer, and none of these is a compensated endorsement.

Urban Pantry, Part Three: Coffee and Tea

TEA - THE BASICS
The Tea Plant. Camellia sinensis is a species of flowering evergreen shrubs. Two varieties of Camellia senensis are used for tea: sinensis (Chinese tea) and assamica (Assam tea). Each tea plant produces broad leaves. The tips and tender first two or three leaves of each branch are harvested for tea production, in a hand-picking method repeated weekly or bi-weekly. Caffeine is a natural occurrence in tea leaves that protects the plants from pathogens.
Geography. Tea is native to tropical and subtropical climates, in areas with plentiful rainfall and sunlight. Though some tea plants are cultivated for winter heartiness in northern climates, most tea is cultivated in Asia, principally China, India and Indonesia. Tea grows ideally at high altitudes, and as a rule, the higher the altitude where the parent plant resides, the higher the quality of the tea it produces.
Varieties. All teas -- white, green, oolong, black, etc. -- originate with the two basic varieties of Camellia sinensis: Chinese or short leaf tea and Assam or broad leaf tea. Short leaf teas are identified as Chinese or short leaf. Broad leaf teas are identified as Indian, Assam, Darjeeling or Niljiri.
Notes. Japanese green tea is a short leaf tea that has been specially cultivated, prepared, dried and ground according to culturally significant method. The terms "pekoe" and "orange pekoe," familiar to American consumers, refer to grades of tea. Herbal teas are not teas at all. Tea is only the beverage that results from steeping short- or broad-leaf tea leaves in hot water. Herbal teas are tisanes, beverages that result from steeping botanical ingredients in hot water.

COFFEE - THE BASICS
The Coffee Plant. Coffea is a genus of flowering shrubs and trees native to tropical zones, notably in Africa and Asia. Coffea is a widely populated species, but those of interest to coffee drinkers are those that produce red or purple berries known as cherries. Each coffee cherry contains seeds that are called coffee beans, though they are not beans at all. Caffeine is a natural occurrence in coffea cherries and their seeds that protects the plant from pestilence. This unique natural protection combined with the plant's vigorous growth result in the capacity to produce a high yield of seeds. Accordingly, coffea is one of the most cultivated plants on the planet, and coffee is one of the most profitable and important commodities in the world economy.
Almost all coffee sold in the United States is a variety of a single plant: Coffea arabica. Additional varieties of coffea do exist, including Coffea canefora or robusta, Kape baraco, and Kape liberica. These additional varieties are rare for the common market, and are not included below.
Geography. Coffee is grown worldwide including vast hothouses for the mass market. The best beans are grown in their original tropical zones. Coffee grows most ideally at higher altitudes, and is not freeze-resistant. The notable areas for high quality coffea cultivation are Africa, Indonesia and Central America, with South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands also producing well-regarded beans.
Because each region produces coffee with distinctive characteristics, terroir is almost as important to coffee as it is to wine. Indeed, coffee adventurers are aware of trees, hillsides, estates that have been producing historically mythic beans, and chasing these beans is a calling of its own. The region where a coffee grew is known as its variety, which should not be confused with the botanical variety as identified above. These varieties are the terms you see at point of purchase, such as Jamaican Blue Mountain, Timor, Java, Sumatra, Columbia, Kona, etc.
Roasts and Blends. Roasters, grocers and baristas all categorize coffee by roast. Roast refers to the degree of toasting the beans receive. Roast is appraised by the color and surface of the beans before brewing. The five fundamental categories of coffee roast are light, medium-light, medium, dark and very dark. Blended together, roasts become blends. From these five roasts, no end of subcategories emerge, which is wonderful for coffee adventurers but confusing to many consumers, especially given that it is from these sub-categories of roast that emerge many of the terms we find on our bags of beans: French Roast, City Roast, New England Roast, Continental Roast, Espresso Roast, etc. These are interesting enough but all you really need to know is the basic roasts.
Notes. The qualities of the coffee that brews corresponds to the qualities of the beans and of the roast, and the blending of those if blend is applicable. There is wide room for interpretation, and that is reflected in the recommendations below. Ultimately, coffee is just about as specific to individual palate as is anything that we eat or drink.

Coffee Recommendations
In reflection of our tastes, this list is skewed towards darker flavor profiles. All of these coffees are easy to obtain either at supermarket or via phone order or online.
Light / Medium-Light
McNulty's Timor, Trader Joe's Smooth and Mellow Blend.
Medium / Medium-Dark
Black Coffee Roasting Company Vinyl, Cafe Le Semeuse Classique, Starbucks Thanksgiving and Yukon Blends.
Dark / Very Dark
Groundwork Bitch's Brew, Irving Farm Coffee Roasters' Gotham Blend, McNulty's French Roast Java, Peet's Major Dickason's Blend, Starbuck's Christmas Blend.
Flavored
Archer Farms Pumpkin Spice, McNulty's Pumpkin Spice.
Espresso
If espresso is your drink, your best shot will be made by a talented barista at the local coffee house. If you pull espresso at home, you probably already know to use Illy.

COFFEE AND TEA
Basic
1 - 2 1 lb. supplies whole bean coffee
1 box black tea bags
1 – 2 boxes household favorite flavored or herbal tea, such as Earl Grey, mint, chamomile, orange-spice, etc.

Nice to Have
1 supply vanilla sugar. Click here for Urban Home Blog's recipe for vanilla sugar, and recommendations for sugars and sweeteners.
1 tin high quality loose black tea

Specialty
Instant coffee or tea, decaffeinated coffee or tea, powdered creamer, artificial sweetener, etc. Purchase according to household pattern.

• Coffee beans deteriorate, so always buy smallish quantities of whole bean coffee and grind small batches for use within a day or two. As a guideline, a family of four that brews coffee every morning and occasionally throughout the day should plan on using one pound of coffee beans per week.
• Store freshly ground coffee in an airtight ceramic coffee canister. We like Airscape Coffee Canisters. Store coffee beans and supplies of ground coffee in a cool, dry place – never refrigerate or freeze them.
• Because tea is dried, it lasts longer than coffee beans do, but it does not last indefinitely. Store loose tea bags in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Store loose tea in its tin. Store flavored, herbal and specialty teas in their original boxes. Write the dates purchased and expiration dates if any on a note card stored with the tea.
• Sample sizes of teas and coffees often arrive as part of gifts. Keep these together in a storage basket for individuals to partake of at their discretion. You can expand this idea by keeping a larger storage basket or rimmed tea tray ready for coffee/tea service by also including such items as the French press, teapot, tea and coffee utensils, insulated to-go cups, etc.
• It is environmentally responsible to obtain an insulated to-go cup for each member of the family. It is a great way to carry the house brew on the way to work, and most coffeehouses offer a modest discount for individuals who bring their own cups.

Click here for Urban Home Blog’s Guide to Hot Coffee, including brewing instructions.
Click here for Urban Home Blog’s recommendations for an electric coffee maker and coffee grinder.
Click here for Urban Home Blog’s recommendations for cleaning products, including those for cleaning the coffee maker.