The Fascinating Parallels Between Coffee And Bourbon

 The Fascinating Parallels Between Coffee And Bourbon

Have you ever noticed similarities between things not often compared and found it interesting? Then, exploring further reveals even more similarities? Well this happened to me over a long period of time. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert, but definitely someone who is passionate about two beverages: coffee, and bourbon. As I’ve learned more about each over the past few years, I’ve recognized more and more similarities between these two beverages. Now it’s gotten to a point where there is so many, it has to be shared!

Coffee is something I’ve been passionate about for a long time. I’ve actually worked in specialty coffee for about five years with various experiences of packaging orders, being a barista, and a roaster. Coffee is a very complex beverage, even more so than spirits. When I learned about coffee, it’s often related to the wine industry, which adds another parallel to consider, but I want highlight bourbon. Coffee is considered the most complex beverage on the planet when it comes to the amount of flavors found in the beverage, which is fascinating on its own. Having been in the industry for five years, I’m just now starting to grasp how truly incredible it is. The first time I drank a cup of coffee that made me say “wow”, was around seven to eight years ago. It was that ‘aha’ moment that opened my eyes to coffee being more than caffeine to get me through the day. I had a similar experience with whiskey as well. 

My fascination with whiskey was a few years after coffee. Around 4 years ago, whiskey was just a mixer component. I never really thought about drinking it neat or “on the rocks”, even though I won’t deny the appeal of looking like a stud drinking whiskey neat. It started by FaceTiming my father in law, who was into bourbon. I had just gotten married to his daughter and we lived about 9 hours apart. So he suggested with get to know each other over FaceTime with a glass of bourbon (He’s a cool guy right?). I drank some George Dickel rye whiskey over ice, because it was what I had in the cabinet, and started to taste some flavors distinctly and was blown away. It was this "aha" moment I realized that whiskey was more than fire water. 

Although these experiences didn’t necessarily start me off on a journey exploring their similarities, it was my personal understanding of each that grew through the years of enjoying them both. I’ve learned so much about each separately, and realized more and more how similar they are. They are presented in different ways, and used in different ways, but the process of getting each to the end product, has an unbelievable amount of crossover. Fair warning, this is a nerdy deep dive, so here we go. 

The way forward is exploring the process from start to finish. We will explore the how each of these factors play a role in how the coffee and the whiskey obtain flavor along the way. I also want to point out that I will use the term "whiskey" interchangeably with ‘bourbon’ as to not leave out a type of whiskey, but I’m referring to "straight whiskey" with no additives. Similarly, I will also be referring to coffee as "specialty coffee", meaning there is no additive flavors and coffees are roasted to highlight the flavors of the origin where it came from. If you think of coffee roasting as a spectrum, on one side you have a very light roast that highlights the characteristics of the farming and processing - a.k.a Terroir - and typically you taste lighter, brighter flavors like fruits. On the other side, you have dark roast, where more characteristics of the roasting process are highlighted with richer, bolder, sugar browning flavors like bitter dark chocolate, burnt caramel, and charred flavors. Somewhere in the middle is the medium roast. Here the roaster can highlight characteristics of the origin and the processing, showcasing what the roasting process can do to the coffee. In these coffees you can get a blend of both with flavors like fruits, brown sugar, nuts, and caramel. 

Let’s start with the growing process. Whiskey and coffee are both agricultural products, more so than most of us realize. Before we get these brown liquids packed with flavor, it starts on a farm. Farming is no small task. It is a labor intensive process, which is the first step before anything else. Whiskey is a product made from grains such as corn, rye, wheat, barley, etc. Bourbon, in order to be called bourbon, has to be primarily made with corn. That is where a good amount of it’s sweeter flavor comes from. (There are standardized laws of making bourbon in order to ensure that bourbon tastes like bourbon). Other grains can be used within that same whiskey as long as it is majority corn. This makes up a mashbill, a.k.a. grain recipe, which refers to the percentages of each grain used to make the whiskey. There are various reasons to use percentages of each grain or not, but to keep it simple, whatever grain is chosen will affect the flavor. 

In regards to farming, there are many things to consider: weather, growing conditions, soil, water; these are all variables that affect the growth of the plant. Similarly, coffee is also affected by the plants chosen to make the end product. Making a short call back to wine, as there are different varietals of grapes, this is the same with coffee plants as well as grains. If you didn’t already know, coffee is grown on trees in the form of a cherry (different from normal cherries). Within the cherry are two seeds. These are the coffee beans. Farmers often choose certain types of coffee plant varietals based on what will grow in their climate, disease resistance, and what flavors the plant typically produces. There are many different factors to discuss here, but the main similarity to highlight between coffee and whiskey production is the type of plant used to contribute to flavor. In some cases, the farmers will pool all of the different coffee varieties together, which is referred to as a "Field Blend". This will give you a more homogenized flavor of the coffee being grown on this farm. Another way they can do it is by choosing to separate each variety and present them individually. This can help to show how each varietal taste different from one another. Some are more sought after than others, so again, this decision is up to the farmer. The  flavor of coffee and whiskey all start with the farm. There are so many decisions starting from the ground level (pun intended) that will affect these two beverages I love so much. 

Continuing on in production within the farm, there are quality standards of coffee and grain that are upheld. There are many different standards of quality but one thing that isn’t always presented clearly is the Organic Certification. In almost all cases, specialty coffee is organically grown. To get certified as organic, a farm would need to pay for this certification, which costs quite a bit of money, so not every farm can or will get this certification. The specific standards of quality the farms want to ensure are different based on preference and who their customer is, but as with most other things, the more steps added to increasing quality, the more the price goes up. An example of how coffee quality is graded at the farm level, after processing (which we will talk more about soon), is based on a grading system specific to each country. While each are slightly different, the gist is this: the better the grade, the better the quality. Some of the standards in Ethiopia are based on the amount of defects allowed within a certain amount of coffee. Specialty coffee is hand sorted, which is very labor intensive. Being able to get out every visibly defective bean would be extremely difficult, and would slow down the process quite a bit. So for a Grade 1 Ethiopian coffee, which is the highest grade, there are the fewest amount of defects allowed per pound, which will lead to the most uniform taste profile. Grains are graded very similarly: they are given grades based on the amount of foreign material (things present that are not the grain itself) within the mass of grains. 

Another contributing factor at the farm level is the yields of each product. There are specialty grains, and coffee varieties that are harder to grow, yield less, and require more attention to yield high quality. Not to mention, many of them are more susceptible to common plant diseases or pests that also contribute to lower yields. They also may not grow as well as other varieties in the same environment, so there are a lot of factors to consider here. So in these cases of harder to grow coffee plants, or specialty grains, the cost may go up, but there is usually one primary factor contributing to this decision: flavor. Flavor is subjective, but is usually what commands the higher prices in many cases. The better flavor doesn’t always come from these higher end species of plants, but it certainly can.

Processing methods of the grains and coffee plants also are a major contributing factor in flavor and production similarity. Processing refers to what happens after the grain/coffee cherries are harvested, before it is ready to sell. These two processes are quite similar, and there are unbelievable depths to talk about with each. Put simply, the whole idea is getting this agricultural product to a point where it is ready to sell. There is one major difference: when fermentation takes place. Coffee undergoes fermentation naturally while it dries, or intentionally before it is dried. In coffee, the fermentation process, contributes greatly to the end flavor. This is also the case with grain, but it will undergo fermentation later at the distillery. Although fermentation happens at different times in production for these two products, they share similarities in how they contribute to the end flavor.

Something that may not be commonly thought about in the processing of coffee is fermentation, but wow is it important! Fermentation has always happened naturally within coffee as it slowly dries. It doesn’t ferment to large alcohol quantities though. This drying period happens naturally between 8-30 days based on a quite a few things. The seeds can be dried mechanically on raised drying beds, in the sun or covered, or in something similar to a green house, which is a type of slow-drying. One of the more specific processing factors in the overall drying time of the coffee seeds depends on how the coffee is chosen to be dried. The processes leading up to drying are referred to as the washed, natural, or pulped natural (honey) processes. Washed refers to the seeds (a.k.a unroasted coffee beans) being depulped and washed thoroughly before drying. Natural refers to drying the seeds within the cherry. Pulped Natural or the Honey Process refers to depulping the seeds and leaving the inner fruit matter on the seeds while drying (fun fact: the sticky fruit matter is called mucilage). As you can imagine, these vastly different processes contribute to much of what you taste in your coffee. 

Nowadays, fermentation has been explored further in how it affects flavor. Farms are starting to intentionally ferment coffee for longer and longer periods of times, or in different ways. A few examples are anaerobic fermentation where the coffee seeds are fermented in a closed-off environment for a period of time. This can be in tanks, bags, underwater, or in other ways. Aerobic fermentation or open air, which is fermentation exposed to oxygen. Beyond this there are some crazy ways to ferment coffee, but I don’t want to digress too far. Fermentation plays an integral role in the flavor you find in your cup of coffee. Depending on roast level, this will affect how you taste those flavors in the cup of coffee. As mentioned before, fermentation happens naturally as the coffee dries. If there is a slower drying time, there is more opportunity for chemical compounds to form or transform into flavor you taste in your coffee. If the coffee is dried in mechanical dryers, as you’d imagine, this drastically reduces the drying time, but can also decrease the complex flavor you taste. If the coffee dries too slowly or has too much moisture for too long, the coffee can taste musty or over-fermented. There is an art here with fermentation and drying. 

Fermentation also takes place in whiskey production. It happens a little further on in the process once distillers have the grain in there possession. According to these distillers, once the grain is milled (which we will come back to a little later), water is added at varying temperatures to steep the grain. These varying temperatures depend on each grain. The distiller has to decide how much they want to pull out of that grain. Similar to coffee brewing, they are "brewing" the grain essentially. Higher temperatures extract more out of the grain, lower temperatures extract, lower amounts. Now that may be over-simplified, but this is essentially what’s happening. Once all the grain and water is added, yeast is added to kickstart the fermentation. (This is also the case in some coffee fermentations). The fermentation process creates a lot of chemical reactions. Depending on what the distillers want to get out of the fermentation, will determine how long they ferment. This process is typically around 2-7 days, with the common sweet spot being around 3-5 days. The longer you ferment, the more fruit flavors (esters) are created, and the shorter you ferment, more cereal grain and nutty flavors are created. This again is a gross oversimplification. 

Each yeast does different things and creates different flavor, so the type of yeast selected is also an important factor. This is more important in the case of whiskey since one of the main goals is to create alcohol. But not only do yeasts have the job of eating sugars to create alcohol, the way it interacts with the compounds can create different flavors. A practical way this can be seen is with the distillery Jim Beam. One of the signature flavors in their whiskey is a nutty flavor. If you’ve tasted a lot of whiskey, or a lot of Jim Beam products, you will probably be familiar with this flavor. It comes off as a dry peanut flavor. This is a distinct characteristic of their yeast. That is a great example of what yeast and fermentation together can showcase within the flavor profile of a whiskey. Through a combination of fermentation, distillation, and the barrel, certain compounds are created, and linked with others. The way that these chemical compounds form and link together has a large effect on whether or not we will taste the flavor produced by those compounds in the end product. 

Similarly within coffee, chemical flavor compounds are formed and created through the fermentation and processing phase. There are a lot of compounds that overlap between coffee and whiskey. For example, one compound called vanillin, which is what we smell and taste as vanilla (pretty convenient right?). This is created in whiskey from the freshly charred oak barrel. Once the wood sugars are caramelized, the whiskey can interact with it and absorb it. It is almost always present in bourbon as it is one of the compounds that is soaked up from the wood. In coffee, this vanilla flavor can be present in a couple ways: it can be varietal characteristic at the farm level, or more likely can be created in the roasting process as the sugars are being caramelized. The roasting process is very similar to the charring or toasting of barrels, but before we get too far ahead… let’s talk about distillation. 

After the grain, water, and yeast have interacted, it is time to distill it. Fermentation creates a beer around 5-8% alcohol. Distillation separates the alcohol from the grain and water mixture (beer), raises the proof significantly, and concentrates the alcohol. As the mixture is heated in the still, different compounds evaporate off at different temperatures, then reduces back to liquid as it cools. We are used to seeing bourbon around 80-100 proof, even though it can be higher. When it is distilled, it comes off the still at even higher proofs, around 150. The law mandates that the distillation proof off the still cannot exceed 160 proof. If distilled at higher proofs like 180-190, then you are stripping away so much flavor, and you essentially have vodka. So distillation proof is kept slightly lower to maintain the flavor characteristics of the grains. This is another area that is customizable to the distillery. Some choose to come off the still at 160, some lower than that. There are different motivations for these decisions, but the most obvious next step in the process is putting the distilled liquid into a barrel to age. Another law requirement is that the distilled liquid cannot go into the barrel higher than 125 proof. So if the distillation proof is 160, water must be added to proof it down to 125, or whatever is the desired barrel entry proof is. 

This is another highly preferential area within bourbon production. If you add water to your distilled liquid, it might sound like a bad thing right? Yes and no. Some compounds, like wood sugars, are more soluble in water rather than alcohol, so theoretically, more wood components are easily available. If only it were that simple. Some choose not to add any water at all. They want to preserve more of the grain flavor by distilling to 125 proof or lower and put it in the barrel without water added. There are a million combinations of ways to do it, and again, it all comes down to the preference of the producer and what traits are desired in the end product. There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to do it. 

When it comes to the wooden barrels that the distilled liquid is put into, the manufacturing and presence of heat parallels quite a bit to the roasting process of coffee. With these wooded barrels, they are made of oak, which is also a requirement of the law. (Side note: bourbon has a lot of regulations not only to make sure that bourbon is made in a uniform way, but also to protect us as consumers). Usually white oak is the choice here because the wood is strong enough to hold liquid and not leak, but porous enough that it allows for micro-oxidation. This allows the barrel to "breathe" and helps the spirit mature over time. These barrels are cut from trees into staves, which are the many pieces formed together to make a barrel. There is no wood glue or any other compound that keeps the barrel together other than metal rungs around these staves to keep them in place. Once formed, the barrels are charred or toasted on the inside, sometimes both, to make the sugars that are naturally in the wood, available on the surface to dissolve into the whiskey. One fascinating aspect of this whole process, is that the color of whiskey entirely comes from the wooden barrel. When distilled, it is completely clear, and called "White Dog", or "White Lightning". Throughout the aging process, more and more wood components dissolve into the liquid, turning it the brown color we expect in Bourbon. So cool!

Another genius discovery with wooden barrels and charring the inside is the fact that the charring process creates a charcoal layer on the inside of the barrel. As the barrel gets hot during the day, the whiskey expands and travels into the wood, and as the barrel cools, the whiskey contracts out of the wood. This in and out movement is how the whiskey picks up wood flavor and color, but also, how it is "filtered". The distillation process sometimes allows for some compounds that don’t taste to great into the white dog. As the whiskey matures in and out of the wood, the charred layer acts as a charcoal filter and catches and removes many of those compounds. Genius right? How does coffee factor in?

Coffee goes through a similar heating process called roasting. Coffee received unroasted from the farm is actually a light green color. The roasting process is where it becomes the brown roasted coffee color we expect. Roasting can be simplified to this: The longer the coffee is roasted, the darker the color will be, and a shorter roast time will result in lighter color. In the same way that certain compounds are created by toasting and charring the wooden barrel, the coffee is put into a very hot roaster, and certain compounds are degraded and created. The coffee roasting process can be divided into three phases: drying, yellowing (maillard), and development. The majority of the roasting process is drying. With coffee and grain, there is a shelf-stable moisture content; an amount where mold and bacteria won’t grow, and it won’t be too dry where it cracks and falls apart. In coffee, this is around 9-12%. Roasting is similar to cooking. If the temperature is too high, the outside will burn while the inside is still raw. Conversely, if the temperature is too low, it will take too long to cook, and it will expose the food to heat for too long, and it won’t taste good.

When you put coffee into the roaster around 400 degrees Fahrenheit, the moisture within the coffee is resisting heat. As the room temperature coffee starts to equalize with the temperature of the roaster, the coffee will start to change. As the moisture reduces, the color also starts to change, turning from a light green to yellow. This yellowing color indicates the maillard phase, where flavor is created. The yellow color gradually gets darker until transitioning to brown. The final phase of development is the most exciting and easy to identify, because the beans start to pop and crack like popcorn. It really does sound like popcorn! This indicates that the moisture in the bean has heated up the point where it has to escape. This is a violent reaction which causes the popping sound and the beans to increase in size. Now that the moisture has escaped, the outside of the beans will start to take on color, or develop. This development phase is the most important for bringing out the desired flavor in the coffee. As I said earlier, this phase illustrates the best, how more time equals darker color, less time equals lighter color. The outer color of the bean indicates greatly the flavor you will taste. Lighter color, lighter flavor, darker color, darker flavor. Sugars are caramelized in this phase similarly to the wood being toasted and charred, and the flavor in both coffee and whiskey are enhanced during this maturing phase. 

Recent years within the coffee industry have revealed a new trend: Co-Fermentation. Unlike how unnatural or artificial flavor is added to some grocery store coffee, this is seen as a more natural impartation of flavor. This happens during the fermentation process. Fruits in some form are added to the fermentation with the coffee cherries. As you can imagine, this has lots of potential to impart flavor to the coffee. There has been some wild experimentation here, and it is an innovating way to naturally add flavor to coffee. In some cases, this impartation of flavor is tastefully done (pun intended) and complements the coffee. In other cases, the fruit overtakes the coffee flavor and reduces it to taste overbearing, like coffee and fruit juice were mixed together. Whether or not it is a good thing is up to you and your palate. On one hand, it is innovating, and has a large potential to get more people into specialty coffee. On the other, it could damage the industry and drive people away. The way this parallels the whiskey industry is barrel finishing.

Scotland has been doing barrel finishing for many years, and this is the standard in Scotch whiskey. Rarely ever is single malt put into new charred casks like American whiskey. Majority of the time, it is put into used casks ranging from ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, ex-port, etc… Doing this allows the spirit to pick up elements soaked into the wood from the previous spirit aged in that barrel. This is a good thing and does really dynamic, complex things to Scotch whiskey. In Bourbon, law requires a new charred oak barrel to be the primary aging environment. After the aging is complete, bourbon can be ‘finished’ in one of these barrels as well. But unlike Scotch whiskey, it tends to be frowned upon with bourbon. It is seen as "cheating" or changing the flavors of what makes bourbon… bourbon. If you want to nitpick, “technically”, according to law, it is no longer considered bourbon. It is considered bourbon “finished in” said cask, or apart of the “Distilled Spirit Specialty” category. The reason for this is because you never know how much liquid was left over in the barrel from the previous cask. It could have been a little or a lot. The end result might taste more like bourbon blended with sherry rather than bourbon with a hint of sherry flavor. This is more of the "purist" view, but the argument of co-fermentation with coffee and bourbon being finished is this: does it change the product completely, or not? Like co-fermentation, barrel finishing of bourbon can add nuance, complexity, and elevate the spirit, or it can overtake the bourbon, and only taste like the finishing cask. No matter what you think is correct, the similarities of “natural” flavor impartation can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how well it is done. 

Before we go further, I want to expand what I mentioned earlier about plant yields and how that relates to sourcing materials for each of these different products. Sourcing is very important in all aspects. Obviously the source of grains, wood for barrels, and coffee plants will affect the flavor of the product immensely. There may be incentive to pay more for higher quality, or a lower yielding variety if it impacts flavor. For a long time, quantity has been the motivation for most industries. Money is the motivation, and it would be foolish not to consider profits when making products. If you lose money, you won’t be able to survive. But this has created a system where quality loses to quantity in most cases. Over the past few years, our culture has made efforts to “responsibly” source things or at least know that quality is a priority. This has been the case with coffee as well. On the farming side alone, we’ve seen really unfair practices where farmers weren’t even making enough to sustain their farms. I don’t want to digress too far down this rabbit hole, even though it is important, but I hope to highlight the pushes for quality in sourcing. 

Distilleries, coffee roasters, and cooperages have started doing this. Sourcing higher quality coffee plants to create a higher quality product. Sourcing higher quality wood, and grains to create a higher quality product, even if it means slightly lower profits. The motivation here is to make flavor the priority. An exciting result of this aside from higher quality, is limited production. In the case of some types of coffee plants and grains, some varieties with desirable characteristics, yield lower quantity. This is the case with wood varieties as well. Different wood types can be used to age products, but are more rare. All this to say, these industries will pay higher prices for lower yielding, better tasting end products. The limited nature adds a layer of excitement to each industry. It is something new or different to try in regards to the flavors that can be experienced. An example in each category are, the Gesha coffee varietal, the Japanese Mizunara oak species, and Rosen Rye grain. They each have highly desirable flavor characteristics, lower yields and rarity, and command higher prices.

Another fun way that coffee and whiskey can create excitement is through these limited productions. There is already a limited nature to coffee. In some specific cases, micro-lots, or a small production lot of a farm is isolated and sold on its own. Usually this is to showcase something specific, like terroir, or the taste of place. A farmer may grow one specific coffee plant in this one spot, process it separately, and sell it separately. In this way, you can really see exactly how that variety of plant tastes at this farm, in this country… an expression of terroir. Some of these lots can be highly desirable. Similar to wine, one specific grape variety from a specific region can command a higher price than that same variety grown somewhere else, because of taste. 

An example of how a micro-lot expresses itself in the whiskey world could be through a grain varietal that is all distilled by itself in a limited run, or it could be through one single barrel being sold on it’s own. Single barrels are what some consider the "true unicorns" in the whiskey world. This is because every barrel ages differently. Wood can be made from different trees, to make a barrel. Once the barrel is filled and stored in a barrel rickhouse, one could age on a lower floor with less heat, while another is on a top floor with more heat. There are more factors to consider here, but the idea remains, no two barrels age exactly the same. Selling them on their own are a fun way to experience VAST differences of flavor, even within one distillery. Most of the time, one single barrel, bottled by itself will yield about 200 bottles, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. 

When it comes to getting the coffee or whiskey ready to sell, quality control becomes an important factor. Would you believe after all this, that there could possibly be another similarity? Yes… yes there is haha. Roasters have a plan for how they want the coffee to turn out, but tasting it is the only way to know for sure. This form of quality control is called “cupping”. This is a standardized way to taste coffee by steeping coffee in a bowl with hot water, and tasting it. It is done this way every time to standardize how the coffee is brewed. That way industry professionals all taste it the same way. In coffee, there are different ways to brew a coffee to highlight different characteristics within a coffee. For instance, if you’ve ever had a French press coffee vs. a standard coffee pot, you can probably tell the French press is a little more bold compared to the coffee pot. Therefore, having a standardized way to test coffee flavor is the best way to determine if the coffee is ready to sell to customers. If it does the roaster’s standards, then a tweak can be made in the roasting process to ensure it is ready to sell. 

Whiskey production has similarities. Often adding water to a spirit reveals any flaws. Flaws are less detectible at a higher proof. For example if the whiskey comes out of the barrel at 120 proof, it might be difficult to taste or smell a defect from distillation with such high alcohol levels. Distillers add water until it is 80 proof, 60 proof, 30 proof, and so on, to see if there are flaws. They are usually looking for compounds from the distillation that can be harmful, or sometimes, just don’t taste or smell good. Even after aging in a barrel for years, being filtered by this charcoal wood layer in the barrel, flaws can still make it through. Alcohol also does require higher levels of chemical testing to make sure that the product is safe to drink, but the tasting element is important also. Our noses are pretty helpful in figuring out if something doesn’t smell right, and can often be extremely helpful in deciphering flaws. 

Just like fermentation happens at different points in the process for coffee and whiskey, so does the grinding and milling process. The grinding and milling process happens at different points but have a similar effect on how flavor is perceived. I mentioned above that coffee tasting is standardized for quality control, but at home, or in a cafe, it is up to the person brewing the coffee to decide. The decision is coarse or fine. What this does is promote the rate of extraction, and the amount. Believe it or not, coffee has a sweet spot. If coffee is ground very fine like espresso, and it is brewed as a pour-over, since the particles are so small, the water will take longer to flow through, meaning longer time that the coffee particles are in contact with the water. This means that more coffee flavor can be extracted, but if too much is extracted, you will taste a lot of good flavor along with astringent, not-so-desirable flavors. This would be like steeping tea for too long and it becoming very strong and overly bitter. On the other end, if the coffee is ground too coarse, the water will flow through too quickly and not extract enough. This will leave your coffee weak and watery. 

At the distillery, before fermentation, the grains are milled/ground to a certain particle size. It is exactly like coffee; if the grain is too coarse, not enough will be extracted, and too fine, too much will be extracted. There are sweet spots of each grain and each coffee. This can be one of the artful aspects of both. “Dialing in” your grind size will give you the perfect amount of extractives in your coffee. Similarly with grains, the right extractive amount will be important for fermentation running smoothly, and getting the right flavor. And once the flavor is just right, it is ready to go to the consumer.

Within both coffee and whiskey, each industry has a similar model of how product gets to consumers. With spirits, it is called the three tier system. Whiskey goes from the producer (tier 1), to the distributor (tier 2), to the liquor store (tier 3). In some cases, it can be sold directly from the distillery to the consumer, but majority of the time, the sale of alcohol requires these three stages in order to be sold to consumers. While there isn’t a direct three-tier system in coffee, a similar chain also exists. It can be sold directly to the roaster and sold to the consumer, but typically this is not the case. There is someone in the middle called a importer/exporter. Their job is to bridge the gap between farmers and roasters. They usually have people in the countries of origin, with the farmers, tasting their coffee to see which coffee they want to buy for their importer/exporter company. Then they create a catalog of their coffees available to roasters. This makes buying coffee much easier for roasters, because without it, some of these farmers would be inaccessible, or unknown. So the pattern remains: the coffee starts with the farmer (tier 1), it is sold to the importer/exporter (tier 2), and then sold to the roaster (tier 3). This doesn’t necessarily fascinate me about the process of coffee and whiskey, but it is a similarity worth mentioning nonetheless.

There are so many similarities across the board between these two beverages. There certainly could be more mentioned and added depth in some areas, but not necessarily needed. As I’ve listened to podcasts, videos, and read more about each over the past 5 years, I’ve learned a lot, and recognized a lot fascinating similarities between my two favorite drinks. I hope that this article has conveyed these ideas to you as well as sparked further interest. There are also fascinating similarities between coffee and wine, and other spirits as well, but since these are two that I know well, I decided to stay in this category. If you’ve made it this far, you’re a trooper, and I appreciate you!

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Article by: Drew Martin