Q: When Is A Butt Not A Butt?

Q: When Is A Butt Not A Butt? was Originally Posted on April 4, 2013 by lavarock

A: When it is a Boston Roast.

The meat industry has determined that the 40 year old meat labeling classification is hurting sales and confusing consumers. It appears that the original grading was made for butchers and not for consumers.

For example, Food Manufacturing Magazine says that pork butt is not from the hind part of the pig, rather it will now be better described as described as a bone-in pork shoulder.

You will begin to see these names roll out across all meat products, this this shoulder cut would be the same name whether pork, beef or lamb.

The meat industry uses over 350 names just for pork and beef, thus the confusion.

With coffee, we have more limited classifications. Generally we grow Arabica or Robusta coffee (the former from Arabia and the latter from Africa). The former is mild and the latter more bitter (and a bit more caffeine).

Here in the US, Hawaii is the only coffee growing area and thus we have specific grading by both size of the bean and quality of the bean. These grades go from Extra Fancy, Fancy and so on down the line. If too many beans have imperfections or chips, they may be down-classified as Fancy, even if the size would make them an Extra Fancy bean.

The beans can also be advertised based upon which island or which part of an island they are grown. Since coffee from one island or region will taste different from another, being able to classify a coffee by region is desirable.

If that coffee bean quality drops a bit more, it cannot be called by its regional name (Kona, Kau, Kauai, Maui, etc) and would be called “Hawaiian” coffee. Though downgraded from a more perfect cup, it would still be a very good cup of coffee, especially compared with other world coffees.

Here in Hawaii, we have a number of blenders and processors who know that using a regional name for their mostly foreign coffee will bring them higher profits. They take perhaps 10% regional coffee and add 90% foreign coffee. They tell you the region where the 10% comes from, but hide the fact that the rest of the blend is low grade offshore beans. Then they add flavorings to hide the bitterness and cover up the taste of the coffee. Unsuspecting tourists think they are buying a Hawaiian coffee when they are not. I liken it to taking a test and getting a 10 on a 0-100 scale and telling people you are on the “Deans List” because the person giving the test had a last name of “Dean”.

So if you see a coffee labeled as “10% Kona” it is really a “90% non Hawaii” cheap imported coffee.

I hasten to say that if you like the taste of that coffee, then by all meany, buy it. However you now know what you are drinking and don’t let their labeling fool you into thinking you are getting better than you are.

In the case of making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, I think that now the meat grading will call it a “sows ear”!