Hi all! Happy to find this community!
Just wondering if some might be willing to help with some confusion Iâve had.
I was talking to someone here (Masto actually) about the best forms of coffee, and espresso hadnât been mentioned. So I said, how about just espresso ⊠clearly the best form of coffee.
They responded with âI donât like dark roastsâ. And I said it sounds like you just havenât had good espresso and that you donât need to have use dark roasts with espresso, as it can be quite light, floral and fruity. They didnât seem to like what I said and didnât respond.
This person comes from Canada, and I come from Melbourne Aus. From what I know, we have different coffee culture from Canada, or at least used compared to the US. For instance, Iâd never really seen espresso be tightly bound with the âdark roastsâ.
Naturally, being a snob, my impression was that this person and their coffee culture donât know what good espresso can be, but I truly donât know whatâs going on over there.
Any insights?!
EDIT: This conversation was much more polite than this ⊠I was just trying to summarise it and the feeling I had that they didnât quite appreciate that I thought there was more to explore in espresso than what they knew.
Otherwise ⊠thanks to those who answered and more or less confirmed my suspicion that some think espresso must be made from dark-roasts but itâs not true and oneâs understanding is probably due to what theyâve been exposed to.
Personally, I wouldnât have said that it sounds like they havenât had good espresso. Iâve had similar conversations (in person), and I used phrases similar to âyeah, I donât really like dark roast, either, and eapressos pulled with dark roasts tend to be too bitter for my taste. However, Iâve pulled some amazing shots from medium and light roasted coffees, with floral and fruity flavor notes that had me question everything Iâve ever thought I knew about espresso.â Then, during one such conversations, I pulled him a shot using some store-brand medium-light I had on hand then. He didnât like it, but admitted that it tastes very different than he expected, which challenged his preconceived beliefs about espresso. So, I didnât convert him to an espresso drinker (he was a tea drinker), but that wasnât really my goal, and he did open his mind to the challenge of the âespresso is dark roastâ mindset. Iâd call it a win.
To be fair, I did have past conversations where I used the phrasing you did, and they didnât go well, so I tried something else with next conversations.
I recommend not entering the conversation with the intention of converting their beliefs, but, instead, with the goal of simply broadening their understanding of the subject.