It seems clear to me was that the biggest mistake was in roasting and grinding your own coffee as the original purchasers of these beans from Harrods wouldn't have done that. You should have had your *servants* do it for you. Then anything wrong with it would have been their fault.
Yeah, purchased at Harrod’s in Argentina in the 1930s…..the intended drinker of this coffee would absolutely NOT have been roasting their own coffee. They would’ve had a poor indigenous woman up at 4 in the morning doing it for them.
As a historian, I’m a really big fan of the care James consistently shows for the things he uses from the past - both as objects of history and as consumables. He always approaches them from a place of respect.
@@BadEmpanadaLive Boo, that's a naff interpretation. "Historians shouldn't care about people caring about history" is a really very weird claim to make. You could make the case that as a technicality there is a difference between "history" and "material culture", but your apparent expectation that people in the field of history and heritage aren't invested in treating things from the past as in some way venerable seems really weird given that it is literally our job to make people care about things from the past. Zero stars.
@@Hrafnhistorical I suppose it’s *an* interpretation of the word historian. Someone who deals specifically with words that are written down, nothing else matters - to the point where a historian would rather read a book than interview an available primary source or examine an extant object. It’s not like they’re one of those filthy archeologists, after all. (Note: this interpretation seems to be where the word ‘pre-historical’ comes from - no written sources, then there is no history) Luckily the modern interpretation of History is a little more expansive and inclusive.
If anyone watching has some very old, ideally highly potent, unopened coffee: please, please, please send it to James so we can watch him enjoying more of these delicious beverages.
Or not. Idk why he does it, but I don’t like seeing him suffer. And I don’t like the idea of consuming anything that old, let alone coffee. Just leave it in the pretty bag, and I’d be happy. Came to fine someone’s comment, but didn’t see one. But I’m sure I’m not alone.
@@spitalhelles3380 If MRESteve can stomache WWI rations, James will survie some old coffee. Maybe they should do a collab and try some instant coffee type 2.
Hey, as a porteño (somebody from Buenos Aires), Peruvian coffee is and was rare, and expensive, specially back in the 1930s. And porteños most likely would have drunk that with milk. Can I make a suggestion? Maybe your technique is also a bit too modern. Maybe you should do a pre-war brew espresso, o a moka pot (Volturno down here, from the brand that made them popular) with a tiny bit of milk, would be more the profile expected of a coffee in Buenos Aires. Oh, and for you education, the Harrods shop closed down somewhere in the 1980s, the building is closed down, the owners basically living of the underground parking that is still in operations, as is a cafe in the opposite corner called Florida Garden.
That's so insightful!! Would love to see James make a moka with some milk. Does that drink have a specific name similar to cafe au lait or latte in Buenos Aires?
We need the Barista Lawyer Channel now. Or the Lockpicking Barista one. Although I think any Masterlock can be opened with a coffee bean... if the coffee bean stares at the lock for time enough, I mean.
Just in case you still wanna know, pencils are usually made out of cedar wood. The same wood type often used in euro pallets, decking, cupboards, etc... It's a great wood for building because it's decently strong, smells great and it's insect repellent. The disadvantage of the wood is that it needs to be treated for outdoor use quite often and it turns gray over time.
Dendrologist here, that pencil wood is almost always incense cedar, usually California incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens). As nasty as it tastes, incense cedar certainly sounds more appealing in a coffee than pencil wood!
Now remember, James didn’t say it tasted like cedar. He said it tasted like pencil shavings.... Which means, it tasted like a mixture of cedar and graphite. Graphite is the “lead” in a pencil that leaves a mark on the paper.
This cup of mine glows with an awesome power! Its wooden taste tells me to defeat you! TAKE THIS! MY LOVE, MY ANGER, AND ALL OF MY DISGUST! SHINING PAIN, MEGA PENCIL!
The guilty smirk at 2:11 saying he loves old coffee is not only adorable, but also marvelously cheeky and quite amusing. I applaud you, Hoffmann! You have done an excellent job of being endearing and fantastically humerus.
"Harrods has an archivist." And I'm very impressed by that. A key source of frustration these days, corporate amnesia is a minor but no less inflammatory bane on our modern existence.
If any company were to maintain an archivist, Harrods is the one I'd most expect. A long history of patronage by fancy people (esp. British ones) means needing to be able to answer questions about the history of the company and its products either when someone shows up wanting more information on the treats their grandparents got them (and if similar is available today) or when the belongings of late Fancy Somebodies get appraised for property insurance or auction.
So do John Lewis, M&S (both of whom maintain company museums) and Sainsbury’s. I used the Sainsbury’s online archive to show and try and explain to someone a long discontinued coffee they used to sell
"its more than the pencil of the brew" - really interesting to know that it was common to buy green coffee for home. Could we see some "roasting from home" series?
James: I know you, I know what you’re thinking Me: no chance James: you’re thinking I did two roasts, and I’ve only brewed one Me: yep. He’s got me there. Turns out he knows exactly what I’m thinking. But I bet he won’t brew is as espresso… *cuts to shot of espresso* Me: James gets me.
I live in Tokyo, your reaction to the taste is exactly how I feel after a gulp of the cheap beans, over extracted, canned coffee that's all over the country here. They actually have a chart on the side emphasizing the bitterness.
The oils in the beans had to have gone rancid years and years ago. Then cook that rancid oil. I can actually kind of imagine the flavor, having tasted some other old rancid products.
Aging over many decades is like very slow roasting. The sugars and oils tend to cook off leaving mostly cellulose. Then you roast your wood pellets to further drive off anything not wood. If you have any left, try soaking the beans in distilled water for a week. Then roast them only slightly and see if there is any different flavor besides wood.
@@bryneleong6622 Do you think coffee companies ADD oil to coffee today? Of course the coffee beans have natural oils. You can see them in the pot floating on top.
I watched quite a few coffee channels over the years, your's is by far the most balanced, objective, well researched and most funny to watch! Your channel is my personal gold standard for *all* youtube channels! And I thank you, that - in this particular case - you took such a fierce position, it shows your integrity of character. I pull my hat!
at least it had been in the freezer! I tried some coffee my mom "stored" for over 25 years, and by stored I mean it was in a plastic container under a cupboard. it was not good...
I almost peed my pants laughing seeing James in pain; why do we enjoy so much seeing James in pain? Is a British man in pain more funny? Is James funnier when in pain? Existential questions... Thank you James for taking one for the team, we love you
The funniest beat must have been when he thought the pain was over, but like a savage chili pepper the awful flavor continued to linger and grow. Delightful seeing him striving to maintain his British reserve and composure under that awfulness.
The “Oh no oh no oh no oh no. That was a mistake. Um, that’s a lot. That’s a lot. That is… oh no, it’s still coming. Wow. Okay. My brain just couldn’t cope with the searing pain of liquid wood. It’s like… mega pencil” audio has great out of context potential
I'm a coffee novice and don't begin to understand all the nuances, but James' videos are highly entertaining, amusing and - yes - sometimes educational. Excellent stuff 👍
@Pawe łek Just talking to get attention. Some people were not hugged enough as kids. Anyone who starts a post, "as a..." irritates me because they use that phrase as validation. It would be more effective if they stated, "In my experience..." People need hugs as kids then most people need to get punched in the mouth at least 1 time as an adult. Forgive me, maybe I needed attention too. Lol Best wishes and great brews to you.
@@TronaldDump69 I love the smell of coffee and I want to know the art of making coffee so that when I have guests in my house I can offer them the best possible coffee that I can make
This was definitely a Steve1989 tasting. First, smell and try to analyze what time has done to the original. Next, a small sip determine if it is indeed consumable. Let any perceived nastiness wash over your senses to go in for a further drink. Finally, after description of the flavors, nopes the hell out of a truly disturbing cup of coffee.
James, I found some coffee from the pot next to the Egyptian mummy. Would you care to try that? Teste like pencil? Don't worry, the bean looks calcified. Perfectly okay 😊
The only more amusing followup video I can imagine is re-labeling the Harrod's bag "Fresh Coffee" then convincing Brad Pitt to drink the exceedingly bitter brew from a manly mug labeled "Brad".
I’ve just discovered this channel. Quickly realized I needed the origin story and have gone back to the beginning of the videos and will eventually get caught up to whatever present is when that happens. I just hopped onto TH-cam to kill a minute and a rando espresso machine vid was heading up the list. I clicked, watched no more than 2 minutes, realized I’ve been permanently changed. No one can tell me about anything coffee except for James, ever again. And I hope to one day know as much as he knows in one pinky finger. If you ever happen to come across this Mr Hoffmann just know this- I bow to you Sir. Cheers! ☕️
I'm am archivist, and thus I'm delighted to hear that you got help from Harrod's archivist! It's so cool that they were able to help you trace this coffee's provenance. I hope you sent them a link to your video!
I’m spanish and it’s my native language. I have to say that I am absolutely baffled by the way he pronounced “comestibles” at 1:16 specially “bles” not a lot of foreigners manage to say this so naturally. Although I’m new to the channel so maybe he has been speaking Spanish for a while, but it’s still very impressive! Also thank you James for all your videos, I love the way you speak it’s very soothing and elegant, and the way you observe and analyze everything, makes it feel very pleasant to watch your videos.
I do love Cafe De L’Ambre in Tokyo, although Sekiguchi-san passed away a few years ago. There was a much more limited number of super old beans on offer when I went last.
I wonder if he'd be willing to do something on Coffee Instant Type II, straight from a 40s ration, Steve1989 goes on about how good it is all the damn time, It'd be interesting to see what James thinks of it.
I would love to see a James Hoffman / Steve1989 team up. Steve introducing James to the wonderful world of antique MRE coffee packets would be prime youtube content.
With all these episodes of old coffee drinking James has done over the years, he has me wondering what is the oldest coffee that still retains a decent taste? 20 years old vacuum sealed? 10 years maybe? it would be interesting to see how well a coffee from the 90s would hold up.
Well, I still sample my 5year old Nespresso special edition coffee and concluded that packaging is a very important factor - more so than storage and time
@@heidelbergaren5054 as steve1989 would attest storage is also a major factor on top of packaging if the packaging was punctured then storing it in a very dry condition can still make the coffee be enjoyable
Frozen beans last long time. But its newer thing, so max like 5-10 years I guess. Nitro/gas packed might last long time too. I think I have can of 4 yrs old now. Depends on temp too.
I cannot believe how far I had to scroll before someone mentioned this. Made me burst out in laughter and watched the clip several times in a row. Thank you, James!!!
@7:30, I'm impressed. You're giving Ray Chen a run for his money with the facial expressions! btw - pencil wood is Western Red Cedar. It's a lovely soft wood, and the smell is very distinctive.
imagine being one of those coffee seeds, being forgotten in a bag for 90 years, brought to the future and brewed with fancy equipment, captured in a video that would be watched by millions of people
My dad has the exact same model of hand crank pencil sharpener I used in elementary, middle, high school (American) bolted next to the door to the shop in my basement. I know what you mean, especially when I have to empty the shavings. Gotta say, it works well, unlike the ones that you often find on their final leg in schools.
Could the coffee's bitterness be explained by them being robusta beans, rather than arabica? Since robusta tends to be more bitter, more hightly caffeinated, and can have strong, woody notes. Plus, "green" robusta beans tend to look more beige compared to arabica when unroasted, so maybe that explains the colour?
@@dalelc43 He didn't mention it... And you will notice that I worded the comment like a question. So, I'm not trying to tell the coffee expert about coffee, I'm asking him about it.
Better you than me. I'd be hesitant to toss out coffee at all.....Love it.....but that's some spectacularly old coffee! When the weight was much higher than printed I thought..... mold? Better pencil shavings than mold.
Would have interesting, if possible, for the beans to have been analyzed in a lab .. to find out their chemical composition and hypothesize about what occurred that led to their current state .. Presumably the enormous increase in weight was due to moisture intake? But if so, why didn't any form of secondary fermentation take place? It was surprising, apart from their color, in what good condition the beans were in .. and also the packaging, in terms of leakage of oils or emission of other chemicals and/or gasses over time .. Sensual analysis is fine .. But next time, more science please!
I really doubt it absorved a kilogram of water from its surroundings, it's far more likely that it originally said 1 1/4 kilos and the first 1 got erased over time, or there was a mistake when printing the weight
i think that the bitter compound taste is due to secondary fermentation creating bad tasting byproducts. it's honestly a bit scary. not sure that it was food safe.
Yes more importantly what types of coffee plants were used & to track down fresh beans from a nearest relative plant. Plants that might hail from some of the same fields as the originals could be interesting. In an effort to see if fresh beans of the same type from the same place are any good.
A brave man to have tasted this coffee without having a spittoon nearby (or foolish - it seems that sometimes there's a fine line between these two adjectives).
"Next, on British Guy With Cool Hair slowly poisons himself with very old stuff: crushing a fossilized dinosaur's internal remains that contain subatomic particles of prehistoric coffee and making a v60 out of it." It has quite the ring to it, in my opinion
Ring to it !! (Spits coffee out) I think James said that he wouldn't drink civet 💩 coffee again and as the annual production of same exceeds the "capacity" of the population of civets to produce it most of the Kopi Luwak is fake. If you want to know what semi digested coffee tastes like try eating some and "harvest" the cherries. They often find Roman or earlier "coprolite" in archeological digs.I wonder if a coffee eating proto Hoffman has any 💩 yet to be discovered.
I had some "coffee rings" that were about twenty years old. They were from an unopened package and an opened package. They were pre packed in percolator ready ring filters. I broke them open and worked a cone pour over on them. They took some getting used to , but after the second batch I started looking forward to it and lamented when it was all gone. Definitely woody, cork like, with a hot attic aroma and dusty remnant of coffee flavor. The unopened had more depth and the opened was more watery tasting at the same specs.
"I was very excited the day when this package arrived, the idea of tasting this was really exciting......It's interesting... how that has changed..." ha ha ha ha comedy genius!!! Laughing out loud on my own at 1am 🙂
James is such a great coffee aficionado. This little history lessons makes me wish I could go back in time and see the way people brewed coffee. It was more tedious to roast and grind coffee around the early 20th century yet having freshly roasted coffee everyday would be a dream to me. I also love the simplicity and minimalism of hand grinders. Our predecessors truly gave us fantastic inventions.
After a long day at work, coming home and being told they forgot to get bread, the marvelous balance of coffee, quirkiness, curiosity and cringe that is James Hoffmann is exactly what I needed.
Would *love* a chemical lab analysis of the compounds in the brewed coffee to know what that bitterness is coming from (and whether James has long to live 😅)
Oh my. I'm not by any means a coffe afficionado (never understood how something that smells so wonderful could taste so foul), but I just love the faces you make as you taste coffee.
I always wonder about these kinds of videos. They're definitely entertaining to some degree, and it's cool that he did the work to figure out where the coffee was from etc. but I wish he would've also investigated how people would have been roasting and brewing then and there. It's like someone trying a robusta roasted like an arabica and decrying how terrible it is.... I just wonder what could have been.
Something to consider for the next one (I'm sure there will be): You don't actually have to swallow the coffee to taste it, it's okay to spit it out lol
James, I kept thinking about the weight of that bag full of green coffee beans, so I went hunting. Heh, I used the net to find out it's all probably about net weight. I'm picking that it's this way: Green coffee beans weigh more than roasted, because they have water in them. The roasting process drives that water out. That "net" value is the weight you can expect, once you've roasted them. It says a lot too, about the excellent packaging to prevent them drying out. One can only wonder what chemical reaction went on in there, though, over 90 years. But, I thank you, for once again stepping into the breach, and tasting it, for us. Love it!
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Time to add “megapencil” to the SCA tasting wheel
I'm getting hints of peanuts and pencil shavings. Very nice
Megapint of megapencil coffee
Watching James drink a log.
Tasting notes: pencil shavings, the fear of ET in your closet, and a discount store parking lot
Megapencil, Rotten goodness 😅😅 reminds of something
It seems clear to me was that the biggest mistake was in roasting and grinding your own coffee as the original purchasers of these beans from Harrods wouldn't have done that. You should have had your *servants* do it for you. Then anything wrong with it would have been their fault.
Well said, sir! Huzzah!
Yeah, purchased at Harrod’s in Argentina in the 1930s…..the intended drinker of this coffee would absolutely NOT have been roasting their own coffee. They would’ve had a poor indigenous woman up at 4 in the morning doing it for them.
@@cartilagehead it's 1930's not 1830's
@@Soulxstar yeah, I know. During one of several dictatorships. You think I don’t know my South American history?
@@cartilagehead granted but how on earth would i know you are from latam as well?
As a historian, I’m a really big fan of the care James consistently shows for the things he uses from the past - both as objects of history and as consumables. He always approaches them from a place of respect.
Same. Just taking the time to interact with an archivist was a nice touch.
nahh he just a coffee masochist
I work in a museum and I agree totally, these videos are always my favourites.
@@BadEmpanadaLive Boo, that's a naff interpretation. "Historians shouldn't care about people caring about history" is a really very weird claim to make. You could make the case that as a technicality there is a difference between "history" and "material culture", but your apparent expectation that people in the field of history and heritage aren't invested in treating things from the past as in some way venerable seems really weird given that it is literally our job to make people care about things from the past. Zero stars.
@@Hrafnhistorical I suppose it’s *an* interpretation of the word historian. Someone who deals specifically with words that are written down, nothing else matters - to the point where a historian would rather read a book than interview an available primary source or examine an extant object. It’s not like they’re one of those filthy archeologists, after all. (Note: this interpretation seems to be where the word ‘pre-historical’ comes from - no written sources, then there is no history)
Luckily the modern interpretation of History is a little more expansive and inclusive.
If anyone watching has some very old, ideally highly potent, unopened coffee: please, please, please send it to James so we can watch him enjoying more of these delicious beverages.
Or not.
Idk why he does it, but I don’t like seeing him suffer. And I don’t like the idea of consuming anything that old, let alone coffee. Just leave it in the pretty bag, and I’d be happy.
Came to fine someone’s comment, but didn’t see one. But I’m sure I’m not alone.
"Enjoying" heh
We're gonna lose him to one of these..
Can we all at least tuck away something now for him to taste in 15 - 20 years? I'd hate to think he could run out of material.
@@spitalhelles3380 If MRESteve can stomache WWI rations, James will survie some old coffee. Maybe they should do a collab and try some instant coffee type 2.
“Grinding them by hand is more appropriate for the time period.” My brother in Christ you just roasted those beans with the brand new iRoaster 3000 😂
Also...that coffee is now nearly 100 years stale. Not exactly what it was anyway.
@@DM-kv9kj /r/whoosh
@@samljer who the fuck tries to link a Reddit sub on TH-cam? I feel embarrassed for you
@@samljer redditors will be hunted and skinned.
This comment made me spit out a sip of water. Almost hit my computer 😅
Hey, as a porteño (somebody from Buenos Aires), Peruvian coffee is and was rare, and expensive, specially back in the 1930s. And porteños most likely would have drunk that with milk. Can I make a suggestion? Maybe your technique is also a bit too modern. Maybe you should do a pre-war brew espresso, o a moka pot (Volturno down here, from the brand that made them popular) with a tiny bit of milk, would be more the profile expected of a coffee in Buenos Aires. Oh, and for you education, the Harrods shop closed down somewhere in the 1980s, the building is closed down, the owners basically living of the underground parking that is still in operations, as is a cafe in the opposite corner called Florida Garden.
I would think it is even harder finding _milk_ from the 1930s, though...
That's so insightful!! Would love to see James make a moka with some milk. Does that drink have a specific name similar to cafe au lait or latte in Buenos Aires?
This is super interesting info! Also, please don't ask me to drink this coffee again.
I wonder what's left on the shop, did they clean out or is there still stuff from the 80's there?
@@jameshoffmann please drink it again.
Personally I hope you *never* stop doing these.
“James drinks something awful” is a face I never get tired of seeing.
I think it'd be funny if he would invite Ashens next time he tries some unusually old coffee
The first time had a hint of hope which was quickly dashed. Just a rollercoaster of emotions
the entertainment is not james drinking old coffee, but james's expression while drinking old coffee.
James is the Steve-o of coffee?
Same. I’m usually shouting “drink it!” At the screen
James Hoffman: roasts sample using Smart roaster with iPad
Also James Hoffman: I felt like I should use a hand grinder and cloth filter
James taking another sip of aged coffee like the Lockpickinglawyer picks a lock again for the second time to make sure it wasn't a fluke
Lockpicking lawyer 😂 so that's how TH-cam's algorithm decided to trash my homepage? Because of coffee and James' channel... 🤣😂 🙄
I feel so weird seeing this comment after watching a bunch of LPL videos recently. Are we all on the same side of youtube 💀
I also watch LPL)))
Like Steve1989MREInfo taking another bite of a PLA ration
We need the Barista Lawyer Channel now. Or the Lockpicking Barista one.
Although I think any Masterlock can be opened with a coffee bean... if the coffee bean stares at the lock for time enough, I mean.
Just in case you still wanna know, pencils are usually made out of cedar wood. The same wood type often used in euro pallets, decking, cupboards, etc... It's a great wood for building because it's decently strong, smells great and it's insect repellent. The disadvantage of the wood is that it needs to be treated for outdoor use quite often and it turns gray over time.
Yellow Cedar
Western Redceadar does not need to be treated and will last 60 to 90 years in applications such as exterior trimwork.
I wonder if the coffee was stored in a cedar cabinet
'The Searing Pain of Liquid Wood' sounds like a progressive rock album from 1971.
It was followed by The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway a few years later.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 you win youtube today!!
It could also be the name of a post-rock act. I would 100% listen to either, honestly.
On tonight's Peel Session...
Dammit 2 days to slow on my comment 😂
Dendrologist here, that pencil wood is almost always incense cedar, usually California incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens). As nasty as it tastes, incense cedar certainly sounds more appealing in a coffee than pencil wood!
What's the reason for the cedar? Is it for binding or pest repulsion?
Sounds like a much more pleasant tasting note than “pencil wood”! Key phrase being “sounds like”
Now remember, James didn’t say it tasted like cedar. He said it tasted like pencil shavings.... Which means, it tasted like a mixture of cedar and graphite. Graphite is the “lead” in a pencil that leaves a mark on the paper.
@@thatcherdrake6452 Believe it’s due to minimal splintering
You know the coffee is absolutely bizzare when the usually eloquent James Hoffman says things like shining pain, mega pencil.
'Shining pain, mega pencil' sounds like an english translation of a japanese video game.
@@leeboy26 also sounds like some weird hipster hot sauce description.
This cup of mine glows with an awesome power!
Its wooden taste tells me to defeat you!
TAKE THIS!
MY LOVE, MY ANGER, AND ALL OF MY DISGUST!
SHINING PAIN, MEGA PENCIL!
Wasn't Shinig Pain Mega Pencil featured on the John Peel Show in November 1983?
@@adamuk73ah that's before my time. About a month before my time in fact.
The guilty smirk at 2:11 saying he loves old coffee is not only adorable, but also marvelously cheeky and quite amusing. I applaud you, Hoffmann! You have done an excellent job of being endearing and fantastically humerus.
Flavor profile: searing pain, mega pencil, rotting goodness.
"My brain couldn't cope with the pain, the searing pain of liquid wood." Pure poetry.
"The searing pain of liquid wood": a new math metal album
I’m trying very hard not to see liquid wood as liquid of wood - but my brain refuses to see anything but innuendos
lol is this the new smoke meat flavor
@@akmalkarim4707 'Oh no, it's still coming.'
I love how excited you sounded as you said „Maybe it‘s just nearly a kilo of mold“ as if that was an equally desirable outcome
If it had been a kilo of mold, would he have roasted, brewed, and drunk it?
For science?
"Harrods has an archivist."
And I'm very impressed by that. A key source of frustration these days, corporate amnesia is a minor but no less inflammatory bane on our modern existence.
@@Hooplamoopla Nah, that's just a frustrated historian, a distinctly different breed
If any company were to maintain an archivist, Harrods is the one I'd most expect. A long history of patronage by fancy people (esp. British ones) means needing to be able to answer questions about the history of the company and its products either when someone shows up wanting more information on the treats their grandparents got them (and if similar is available today) or when the belongings of late Fancy Somebodies get appraised for property insurance or auction.
Are they a sub-department of marketing though?
@@crapstirrer either that or possibly a sub-department of Research and development? If Harrods has one
So do John Lewis, M&S (both of whom maintain company museums) and Sainsbury’s. I used the Sainsbury’s online archive to show and try and explain to someone a long discontinued coffee they used to sell
As sophisticated as James' voice and explanations can be, his facial expressions are an entire language in and of themselves...
Watching your face go through the 5 stages of grief, and then going back for more, was not what I expected.
Keep up the amazing video.
"its more than the pencil of the brew" - really interesting to know that it was common to buy green coffee for home. Could we see some "roasting from home" series?
Yes, we need a home roasting series!
Air popper roasting series, let’s goooo
Just in case you’re curious - pencil wood are made of some sort of soft wood, usually cedar, pressure cooked in wax, so they are soft enough to shave.
James: I know you, I know what you’re thinking
Me: no chance
James: you’re thinking I did two roasts, and I’ve only brewed one
Me: yep. He’s got me there. Turns out he knows exactly what I’m thinking. But I bet he won’t brew is as espresso…
*cuts to shot of espresso*
Me: James gets me.
🤣🤣🤣
He even dialed in the perfect shot timewise. :))))) DEDICATED
I thought he was going to roast samples and do a random sample giveaway with the remainder of the beans. Mildly disappointed lol.
Me: No, I’m thinking… will there ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark?
I died at that cut. LOL
I live in Tokyo, your reaction to the taste is exactly how I feel after a gulp of the cheap beans, over extracted, canned coffee that's all over the country here. They actually have a chart on the side emphasizing the bitterness.
7:20
A man going through all 5 stages of grief in 12 seconds.
"It's more than the pencil of the brew."
Definitely a sentence that cannot possibly have been uttered before
The oils in the beans had to have gone rancid years and years ago. Then cook that rancid oil. I can actually kind of imagine the flavor, having tasted some other old rancid products.
Hmm are they oils in green beans?
@@bryneleong6622 It's not necessary obviously evident but all grains and seeds have various oils in them.
Aging over many decades is like very slow roasting. The sugars and oils tend to cook off leaving mostly cellulose. Then you roast your wood pellets to further drive off anything not wood.
If you have any left, try soaking the beans in distilled water for a week. Then roast them only slightly and see if there is any different flavor besides wood.
Yep, not sure what he was hoping for
@@bryneleong6622 Do you think coffee companies ADD oil to coffee today? Of course the coffee beans have natural oils. You can see them in the pot floating on top.
This was a lot of fun. James' bitter tasting faces are the best.
Thank you for being willing to suffer for our enjoyment.
I watched quite a few coffee channels over the years, your's is by far the most balanced, objective, well researched and most funny to watch! Your channel is my personal gold standard for *all* youtube channels! And I thank you, that - in this particular case - you took such a fierce position, it shows your integrity of character. I pull my hat!
I once made coffee from a bag that had been in my freezer about a decade. It tasted like liquid ash-tray.
at least it had been in the freezer! I tried some coffee my mom "stored" for over 25 years, and by stored I mean it was in a plastic container under a cupboard. it was not good...
I almost peed my pants laughing seeing James in pain; why do we enjoy so much seeing James in pain?
Is a British man in pain more funny? Is James funnier when in pain?
Existential questions...
Thank you James for taking one for the team, we love you
James trying so hard to retaining his posh' composure while clearly swirling in discomfort is what did it to me lol
The funniest beat must have been when he thought the pain was over, but like a savage chili pepper the awful flavor continued to linger and grow. Delightful seeing him striving to maintain his British reserve and composure under that awfulness.
The “Oh no oh no oh no oh no. That was a mistake. Um, that’s a lot. That’s a lot. That is… oh no, it’s still coming. Wow. Okay. My brain just couldn’t cope with the searing pain of liquid wood. It’s like… mega pencil” audio has great out of context potential
James tongue: ah yes another good sip of coffee
James: today we're gonna drink 1930's coffee
James tongue: ah bollocks here we go again
I love how his tongue is a sentient being but is eternally forced to accept whatever he puts in his mouth
also tongue :why it feels so wrong but feels so right
I'm a coffee novice and don't begin to understand all the nuances, but James' videos are highly entertaining, amusing and - yes - sometimes educational. Excellent stuff 👍
As a tea drinker who doesn't like the taste of the coffees I've tried these facial expressions are relatable!
What are you dong here?
@Pawe łek Just talking to get attention. Some people were not hugged enough as kids.
Anyone who starts a post, "as a..." irritates me because they use that phrase as validation. It would be more effective if they stated, "In my experience..."
People need hugs as kids then most people need to get punched in the mouth at least 1 time as an adult. Forgive me, maybe I needed attention too. Lol
Best wishes and great brews to you.
@@TronaldDump69 I love the smell of coffee and I want to know the art of making coffee so that when I have guests in my house I can offer them the best possible coffee that I can make
@@kg-Whatthehelliseventhat My apologies but the ‘As a’ phrase was the only one that seemed fitting in the sentence structure
@@TronaldDump69 I'm in the same boat as OC and I'm just here because I enjoy the content. 😊
We need a James Hoffmann X Steve1989MREInfo collab where James makes the finest possible "coffee instant type #" and has Steve get it out onto a tray.
Exactly, I also miss "No hiss" on the opening.
This was definitely a Steve1989 tasting. First, smell and try to analyze what time has done to the original. Next, a small sip determine if it is indeed consumable. Let any perceived nastiness wash over your senses to go in for a further drink. Finally, after description of the flavors, nopes the hell out of a truly disturbing cup of coffee.
This really needs to happen!
"Nice"
James could have used a tray... beans everywhere when he opened that tsk tsk
Ah yes, time to watch James drink more ancient coffee
Time to get in touch with the british museum 😅
"...this one in specific was sent to me by some ‘Lara Croft’ - _very_ interesting Glyphs on the package!"
Let's send him Pharaoh's balls and tell him these are coffee beans from ancient Egypt
James, I found some coffee from the pot next to the Egyptian mummy. Would you care to try that? Teste like pencil? Don't worry, the bean looks calcified. Perfectly okay 😊
The only more amusing followup video I can imagine is re-labeling the Harrod's bag "Fresh Coffee" then convincing Brad Pitt to drink the exceedingly bitter brew from a manly mug labeled "Brad".
Yes please 🤣🤣
I’ve just discovered this channel. Quickly realized I needed the origin story and have gone back to the beginning of the videos and will eventually get caught up to whatever present is when that happens. I just hopped onto TH-cam to kill a minute and a rando espresso machine vid was heading up the list. I clicked, watched no more than 2 minutes, realized I’ve been permanently changed. No one can tell me about anything coffee except for James, ever again. And I hope to one day know as much as he knows in one pinky finger.
If you ever happen to come across this Mr Hoffmann just know this- I bow to you Sir. Cheers! ☕️
THAT IS A LOT.
Never change, you're awesome!
I'm am archivist, and thus I'm delighted to hear that you got help from Harrod's archivist! It's so cool that they were able to help you trace this coffee's provenance. I hope you sent them a link to your video!
Like my 5yo daughter usualy says about some food: “It’s pretty good, it just makes me puke a little bit!”
😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂
she is one of my sons' spirit siblings.
You know, you could have developed those notes of cedar and hickory even more had you let the coffee rest a couple years after roasting
Probably a mistake using freshly drawn water. Should have collected some from a stagnant pond.
I’m spanish and it’s my native language. I have to say that I am absolutely baffled by the way he pronounced “comestibles” at 1:16 specially “bles” not a lot of foreigners manage to say this so naturally.
Although I’m new to the channel so maybe he has been speaking Spanish for a while, but it’s still very impressive!
Also thank you James for all your videos, I love the way you speak it’s very soothing and elegant, and the way you observe and analyze everything, makes it feel very pleasant to watch your videos.
I do love Cafe De L’Ambre in Tokyo, although Sekiguchi-san passed away a few years ago. There was a much more limited number of super old beans on offer when I went last.
I wonder if he'd be willing to do something on Coffee Instant Type II, straight from a 40s ration, Steve1989 goes on about how good it is all the damn time, It'd be interesting to see what James thinks of it.
Better be instant Type II, though
I would love to see a James Hoffman / Steve1989 team up. Steve introducing James to the wonderful world of antique MRE coffee packets would be prime youtube content.
I believe it would be....Nice!
I had a coffee instant type 2 the other day. It is actually surprisingly good stuff!
With all these episodes of old coffee drinking James has done over the years, he has me wondering what is the oldest coffee that still retains a decent taste? 20 years old vacuum sealed? 10 years maybe? it would be interesting to see how well a coffee from the 90s would hold up.
Well, I still sample my 5year old Nespresso special edition coffee and concluded that packaging is a very important factor - more so than storage and time
@@heidelbergaren5054 as steve1989 would attest storage is also a major factor on top of packaging if the packaging was punctured then storing it in a very dry condition can still make the coffee be enjoyable
Frozen beans last long time. But its newer thing, so max like 5-10 years I guess. Nitro/gas packed might last long time too. I think I have can of 4 yrs old now. Depends on temp too.
I want an episode of this 😂
It's all about the oils going rancid, don't know how you could stop that
I love that you are willing to drink these really old coffees and giving us these tasing notes.
Watching James can just make me happy. 😊
My God I love this channel. Dude is hypnotizing in his.....well everything.
“Some of you watching are going to be stressing out that I’m drinking this coffee too fresh… I hope you think about that”…
I proceed to die laughing.
I cannot believe how far I had to scroll before someone mentioned this. Made me burst out in laughter and watched the clip several times in a row. Thank you, James!!!
Me too pffffffffft.
@7:30, I'm impressed. You're giving Ray Chen a run for his money with the facial expressions!
btw - pencil wood is Western Red Cedar.
It's a lovely soft wood, and the smell is very distinctive.
Distinctively bitter too, should you want to chew on it
James: "It smells delightful like pencil shavings and peanuts"
Me: "I hope it doesn't *taste* like that"
the coffee: *tastes like that*
“The shining pain. The searing pain of liquid wood.”
“It’s more than the pencil of the brew. It’s like mega-pencil.”
😂😂😂
“It’s more than the pencil of the brew”. - James Hoffman
imagine being one of those coffee seeds, being forgotten in a bag for 90 years, brought to the future and brewed with fancy equipment, captured in a video that would be watched by millions of people
[in erudite Attenborough style] The most famous coffee seeds ever. Even the outcasts got air time.
And being told you taste like bitter pencil wood! "I should have stayed in the bag." >:(
haha exactly! finally, after 90 years you are going to fulfill your life purpose in front of millions! and you ended up tasting like pencil
Anthropomorphizing a 90 year old coffee bean... okay then.
This madman went in twice on both drinks. Absolute legend.
This has GOT to be your most entertaining video to date....just your facial expressions as you tasted it were worth the price of admission!!!
James Hoffman, you are the best kind of nerdy, hilarious coffee connoisseur and I have a massive crush on you!
Incredible how his reaction is very close to mine, trying to make espresso with my recently owned simple machine and very special Brazilian coffee...
I'm always ready to watch James suffer for our -entertainment- education. Love you!
“The bitterness up front freaks me out” **goes in for more**
😂😂😂
The journey James’ face took on that first sip was an epic voyage of discovery 😂😂😂
My dad has the exact same model of hand crank pencil sharpener I used in elementary, middle, high school (American) bolted next to the door to the shop in my basement. I know what you mean, especially when I have to empty the shavings. Gotta say, it works well, unlike the ones that you often find on their final leg in schools.
Yes!!!! Botanical prints!!! I'll never forget the hand carved prints I saw in Paris at the Musée de la Vie Romantique.
This is James at his most James and absolute best! “Oh no, it’s still coming!” 🤣
Could the coffee's bitterness be explained by them being robusta beans, rather than arabica? Since robusta tends to be more bitter, more hightly caffeinated, and can have strong, woody notes. Plus, "green" robusta beans tend to look more beige compared to arabica when unroasted, so maybe that explains the colour?
Is there anything else you would like to tell the coffee expert about coffee? 🙄🙄
@@dalelc43 He didn't mention it...
And you will notice that I worded the comment like a question. So, I'm not trying to tell the coffee expert about coffee, I'm asking him about it.
@@Crowbars2 Don't worry, I found your comment useful and appreciated it.
Yea Bruv, first dude who responded to your comment was having a bad morning. Solid question, keep in keeping on bruv!
@@dalelc43 Who pissed on your cornflakes?
That was a perfectly reasonable question.
Better you than me. I'd be hesitant to toss out coffee at all.....Love it.....but that's some spectacularly old coffee! When the weight was much higher than printed I thought..... mold? Better pencil shavings than mold.
your expression really entertains me a lot! thanks :)))))
The intersection of watching coffee videos and MRESteve videos.
Would have interesting, if possible, for the beans to have been analyzed in a lab .. to find out their chemical composition and hypothesize about what occurred that led to their current state .. Presumably the enormous increase in weight was due to moisture intake? But if so, why didn't any form of secondary fermentation take place? It was surprising, apart from their color, in what good condition the beans were in .. and also the packaging, in terms of leakage of oils or emission of other chemicals and/or gasses over time .. Sensual analysis is fine .. But next time, more science please!
Strongly agree, let's get this coffee to some viewer's lab!
I really doubt it absorved a kilogram of water from its surroundings, it's far more likely that it originally said 1 1/4 kilos and the first 1 got erased over time, or there was a mistake when printing the weight
i think that the bitter compound taste is due to secondary fermentation creating bad tasting byproducts. it's honestly a bit scary. not sure that it was food safe.
@@pablo89212009 or maybe did they mean the weight after it being roasted? But then again, I can't imagine it losing that much weight after roasting.
Yes more importantly what types of coffee plants were used & to track down fresh beans from a nearest relative plant. Plants that might hail from some of the same fields as the originals could be interesting. In an effort to see if fresh beans of the same type from the same place are any good.
A brave man to have tasted this coffee without having a spittoon nearby (or foolish - it seems that sometimes there's a fine line between these two adjectives).
James doing his own version of the Kombucha girl reaction is excellent
I just loved your reactions... made me laugh out loud!
His face went through so many expressions upon tasting it!😄😁
Perhaps I’m just weird or unusual, but so delighted that you produced this segment.
"Next, on British Guy With Cool Hair slowly poisons himself with very old stuff: crushing a fossilized dinosaur's internal remains that contain subatomic particles of prehistoric coffee and making a v60 out of it."
It has quite the ring to it, in my opinion
What's the closest dinosaur analog of a civet?
@@JROwensPhotos A Civossaurus, _obviously_
Ring to it !! (Spits coffee out) I think James said that he wouldn't drink civet 💩 coffee again and as the annual production of same exceeds the "capacity" of the population of civets to produce it most of the Kopi Luwak is fake. If you want to know what semi digested coffee tastes like try eating some and "harvest" the cherries. They often find Roman or earlier "coprolite" in archeological digs.I wonder if a coffee eating proto Hoffman has any 💩 yet to be discovered.
I imagine pooing out coffee beans would give you a “saurus”.
So does coffe age linearly? Is this 20 years older tasting than the 1950's coffee?
This is a great question!!!
yes! i was wondering about a comparative taste test too! 😁
I had some "coffee rings" that were about twenty years old. They were from an unopened package and an opened package. They were pre packed in percolator ready ring filters. I broke them open and worked a cone pour over on them. They took some getting used to , but after the second batch I started looking forward to it and lamented when it was all gone. Definitely woody, cork like, with a hot attic aroma and dusty remnant of coffee flavor. The unopened had more depth and the opened was more watery tasting at the same specs.
I am more an whiskygeek by myself, but I like coffee and I like you talk things. Very entertainable.
"I was very excited the day when this package arrived, the idea of tasting this was really exciting......It's interesting... how that has changed..." ha ha ha ha comedy genius!!! Laughing out loud on my own at 1am 🙂
What's amazing is that James now has enough of these videos for a series on "Drinking Old Coffee"
What’s remarkable is it still probably tastes better than any coffee I’ve ever made
James is such a great coffee aficionado. This little history lessons makes me wish I could go back in time and see the way people brewed coffee. It was more tedious to roast and grind coffee around the early 20th century yet having freshly roasted coffee everyday would be a dream to me. I also love the simplicity and minimalism of hand grinders. Our predecessors truly gave us fantastic inventions.
This video was worth it just to see your expression. Thank You I 😄really enjoy your channel!
After a long day at work, coming home and being told they forgot to get bread, the marvelous balance of coffee, quirkiness, curiosity and cringe that is James Hoffmann is exactly what I needed.
6:06 Why you gotta call me out like that bro 🤣
“It’s too fresh.”
“It’s 80-90 years old, is there such a thing?”
i have the all 6 print on my kitchen wall above my coffee counter, love it.
When opening an antique package, open the bottom, so as it sets for display, the top appears sealed.
Too late
Would *love* a chemical lab analysis of the compounds in the brewed coffee to know what that bitterness is coming from (and whether James has long to live 😅)
Unpretentious : Smells like peanuts and pencil shavings
Pretentious : It smells nutty & a littlebit of woodiness
I use a 1zpresso grinder, and it's the best thing that ever happened to my coffee making. It genuinely delighted me to see you using one!
Oh my. I'm not by any means a coffe afficionado (never understood how something that smells so wonderful could taste so foul), but I just love the faces you make as you taste coffee.
u r a coffe master. thanks for posting this video
Give it a couple months and James will find a coffee from the XIX century to drink.
Next video he’s going to team up with a scientist to bring back an extinct coffee plant from the Permian era
Get him to collab with Steve MRE. There might be some coffee from those super old rations
I always wonder about these kinds of videos. They're definitely entertaining to some degree, and it's cool that he did the work to figure out where the coffee was from etc. but I wish he would've also investigated how people would have been roasting and brewing then and there.
It's like someone trying a robusta roasted like an arabica and decrying how terrible it is.... I just wonder what could have been.
Something to consider for the next one (I'm sure there will be): You don't actually have to swallow the coffee to taste it, it's okay to spit it out lol
Yeah and waste the caffeine? Are you high?
This is the 10th video that I watch through the day. I think this guy hypnotized me and once again revealed my passion for coffee.
James, I kept thinking about the weight of that bag full of green coffee beans, so I went hunting. Heh, I used the net to find out it's all probably about net weight. I'm picking that it's this way: Green coffee beans weigh more than roasted, because they have water in them. The roasting process drives that water out. That "net" value is the weight you can expect, once you've roasted them. It says a lot too, about the excellent packaging to prevent them drying out.
One can only wonder what chemical reaction went on in there, though, over 90 years. But, I thank you, for once again stepping into the breach, and tasting it, for us. Love it!
As an archaeologist, this really tickled me the right way! :D
Tmi