Batch brew coffee

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

One of our extended family circle mentioned how she had been horrified at the price of her batch brew coffee ($7.00) the other day. "Her what?" said I. I had to make her repeat it and spell it out before I understood what she was saying - and this was not due to any mispronunciation on her part, or deafness on mine - just such an unexpected word - batch - in relationship to coffee. So, of course, immediately I thought that this must be the latest thing and that yet again I was behind the trend. And indeed I am. Yet again I have proved to myself that I am distinctly uncool - no surprises there considering my advanced years - but in this instance it seems I am some ten years out of date. Oh dear.

So for those of you who are also a bit uncool, here is what I found on batch brew coffee.

"Batch Brew is all about the equipment which allows the user to prepare large batches of filter coffee in one, automated go." Five Senses Coffee website

So what's good about that? I really don't quite see what all the fuss is about. It seems to me that it's just a way of producing old-fashioned filter coffee in bulk. And didn't we give up on filter coffee some time ago? We have a machine at home somewhere and every now and then we get it out when we need to serve coffee to a large number of people. Moreover, unless you have a massive turnover and can fill several coffee cups quickly, you are going to have freshly brewed coffee sitting around for a while - and that's not good - as below:

"Batch brew has had a shadow cast on it because of its historic uses for evil such as the muck stewing in nameless diners in the USA, along with soul destroying convention centre coffee we all shudder at."

I mean what is so different about drinking coffee that's been sitting around for ages from the stuff they are talking about there - whatever the quality of the coffee and the machine that makes it? Surely what you end up with is the same 'stewing muck'. These machines make at least 6 litres at a time after all. How many cups is that?

It seems that the driver is money - well I can understand this. It's much quicker and cheaper to make a big batch of coffee in one hit and then pour it out as needed. Sure the machine is very clever and judges the temperature of the water just right and the grind of the coffee too, and no doubt it grinds it freshly, and I quite agree that the quality of the coffee you drink ultimately depends on the quality of the coffee beans you are using, but leaving it to stand for ages. Not good it seems to me. And even Starbucks, whom everyone but my husband scorns, seem to have quite a wide range of different 'quality' coffee beans on offer.

"These machines have the ability to offer a repeatability in process that simply can’t be matched with manual brewing. Variables such as flow rate and water distribution can be controlled far better by a machine programmed with a set recipe than they can with hand pouring. The problem is that many coffee shops are using batch methods to brew coffee in quantities that are surplus to their immediate needs – let’s call this ‘excess batch’. All of a sudden, rather than being served to customers straight away, we have top shelf specialty coffees sitting in insulated jugs or on warmers for often lengthy stints." The Directory

So the theory is that you can now have quality coffee on tap as it were. If it was me I would want to be sure that there was a massive turnover and that what I was drinking was freshly made. And, on the home front, I certainly haven't noticed that filters are big in the supermarket aisles. So presumably at home we are not returning to filter coffee. Pods seem to be the thing at home. So the machines look flashy and probably need lengthy training to use properly, but I'm not convinced. But then I am very, very uncool.

Later - cold brewed coffee - now what is that? Iced coffee by another name?

Isn't fashion interesting?