The red flag for me was saying he switched the decaf for the highest caffeine roast available.
Decaf is roasted pretty dark, because the roasty flavors that creates help cover up some of the flavor destruction you get from the decaffeination process.
High caffeine roasts are light ones, though, because the roasting process itself slowly degrades the caffeine.
Thus, he’s saying he replaced a bunch of dark roast decaf coffee with one of the lightest available, and nobody noticed. That’d be like swapping someone’s chocolate milk for strawberry milk and them somehow not noticing. You’d even see the difference the moment you looked at the beans, because almost-black and very light brown are different colors.
Next time someone wants to share this story, say you replaced the decaf with a similar roast of regular. That will at least sound plausible to the coffee people.
While I agree with your facts, I think you overestimate what most people will notice. The hue of the coffee beans would probably slip past most people, even if significant.
Possibly. I will admit that it’s uncaffeinated people we are asking to distinguish between the two, which is worthy of consideration.
Still though, it’s like looking at toast and not noticing how toasted it is. Colors are something that just stand out, a lot, unless you’re pretty distracted. If we were running a single individual through the trial then sure, but multiple people? I don’t like the odds.
People know what the colours mean for chocolate/strawberry milk and toast. Reading you explain that the espresso beans would be noticeably darker, I went “Oh yeah, makes sense”. But I wouldn’t question the colour of coffee beans unprompted, as long as they’re bean-shaped.
Okay that’s fair. Would you notice the flavor difference between strawberry and choc milk though? Because that’s on par with the flavor difference between the two coffees. Dark roasts taste roasty, light roasts taste fruity. My comment on bean color was a minor side note that I ended with, the much bigger difference is in the flavor.
Given then that we have these multiple, fully independent differences that could be noticed (different beans, different flavor, not having caffeine), a bunch of people missing all of them is not likely imo, unless all of them are particularly oblivious. All it takes is one person to notice, after all.
Gotta be honest, I’ve never noticed any particular taste in coffee other than “yep, coffee”. I absolutely believe that there are differences but if I’m not looking for them (especially if I’m drinking it while working), I won’t notice. And even then I wouldn’t assume that it’s decaf.
Yeah, I think that’s most people. Have you tried a light roast coffee though? They’re not common at all, and most people don’t like them in my experience. Those two things are probably related.
The red flag for me was saying he switched the decaf for the highest caffeine roast available.
Decaf is roasted pretty dark, because the roasty flavors that creates help cover up some of the flavor destruction you get from the decaffeination process.
High caffeine roasts are light ones, though, because the roasting process itself slowly degrades the caffeine.
Thus, he’s saying he replaced a bunch of dark roast decaf coffee with one of the lightest available, and nobody noticed. That’d be like swapping someone’s chocolate milk for strawberry milk and them somehow not noticing. You’d even see the difference the moment you looked at the beans, because almost-black and very light brown are different colors.
Next time someone wants to share this story, say you replaced the decaf with a similar roast of regular. That will at least sound plausible to the coffee people.
While I agree with your facts, I think you overestimate what most people will notice. The hue of the coffee beans would probably slip past most people, even if significant.
Possibly. I will admit that it’s uncaffeinated people we are asking to distinguish between the two, which is worthy of consideration.
Still though, it’s like looking at toast and not noticing how toasted it is. Colors are something that just stand out, a lot, unless you’re pretty distracted. If we were running a single individual through the trial then sure, but multiple people? I don’t like the odds.
People know what the colours mean for chocolate/strawberry milk and toast. Reading you explain that the espresso beans would be noticeably darker, I went “Oh yeah, makes sense”. But I wouldn’t question the colour of coffee beans unprompted, as long as they’re bean-shaped.
Okay that’s fair. Would you notice the flavor difference between strawberry and choc milk though? Because that’s on par with the flavor difference between the two coffees. Dark roasts taste roasty, light roasts taste fruity. My comment on bean color was a minor side note that I ended with, the much bigger difference is in the flavor.
Given then that we have these multiple, fully independent differences that could be noticed (different beans, different flavor, not having caffeine), a bunch of people missing all of them is not likely imo, unless all of them are particularly oblivious. All it takes is one person to notice, after all.
Gotta be honest, I’ve never noticed any particular taste in coffee other than “yep, coffee”. I absolutely believe that there are differences but if I’m not looking for them (especially if I’m drinking it while working), I won’t notice. And even then I wouldn’t assume that it’s decaf.
Yeah, I think that’s most people. Have you tried a light roast coffee though? They’re not common at all, and most people don’t like them in my experience. Those two things are probably related.
I’m here for the caffeine, actively trying different roasts and comparing them is too sophisticated for my tired ass :)
It’s the work coffee pot not that weird for the brew to change