Coffee and Wine Comparison

Filed in archive Wine Tasting on October 11, 2006

I've only recently become a coffee drinker.

In fact, I'm still kind of a coffee wuss.

It takes me about a half hour at most fancy coffee places to order a cup of something, while it takes me about five minutes to pick out a bottle of wine.

Go figure.

But, if you think about it, both coffee and wine have a lot in common, or says says this article Studying coffee could help with wine appreciation: Starbucks was a sponsor of the 24th annual Food and Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo., this summer - which begs the question: Is coffee food, because it certainly isn't wine?

Or is all of it food? I am a firm believer that wine is, in fact, food.

It is part of cuisine, and a meal is simply not complete without it. Now Starbucks pinpoints exactly that idea with its whole food and coffee pairings information.

But here's the part I like. There are no coffee snobs that I know of.

Maybe I just haven't met them, but I don't know of anyone who tries to intimidate folks at the diner with his or her knowledge of coffee. As in:

"Looks like we have a slow roasted, medium-bodied South American single-Origin bean here that has been allowed to be exposed to a little too much heat, and it's lost a lot of its complexity and taken on an overly acidic, almost chemical astringency."

Coffee has escaped the tradition from which wine is desperately trying to free itself - that it somehow is only for the upper class and those who have the knowledge to appreciate it. Anyone who has a day of work ahead can appreciate a good cup of coffee.