Coffee 301: What the heck does Bold Coffee mean?

Boldly go where no cup has gone before.

A recent article/discussion about bold coffees on the very informative forum coffeed.com had me fascinated. I could not contribute as I am not accepted as a professional member, so I decided to take keyboard in hand. The issues are many and diverse, from just what is a bold coffee, do you like it and is boldness borne in the bean or does it come later in the roast or perhaps the brew? These issues are right up there with Bethlehem or Nazareth as the true birthplace of Jesus, or which came first, the chicken or the egg?

When it comes to coffee boldness, the marketing litmus paper is Starbucks. As the market leader, why not. They have the beans, the labeling and the human research to decide this stuff. A few years back they re-aligned their coffees by boldness, taking a favorite of mine at the time, Verona, from medium to bold. The extra bolds then became French Roast, Italian Roast and Sumatra etc. Does this mean that on the Starbucks scale, bold is determined by roast?

Here is my conundrum. Have you tasted Starbucks coffee? They basically dump so much product in the pot of water that the coffee is mighty no matter which coffee you ask for. My mom says her heart rate doubles. Therefore, if it is the roast, but the coffee made is stronger than Hercules, what does it matter what "bold" means?

Back to the discussion on coffeed.com, which is for those of us in the specialty coffee business, or who believe the true passion behind coffee is in fresh, quality coffee beans, each chosen for for their origin, taste and variety. Bold may mean the flavors that pop or the kick at the start or finish, or maybe a blend that gets your heart pounding out of your chest.

But it sure means a lot of different things to passionate coffee lovers!