The early days...

... began in San Francisco.

Roasting started for me in late 2003 when I wanted to try my hand at pulling espresso shots. We'd become addicted to cafe con leche while in Key West and wanted to be able to make our own. We had just bought the Santa Fe house and were back in San Francisco for a couple weeks to gather up the basics to bring with us plus get the movers loaded.

A quick look at the local Safeway on Noriega made it clear a bag of beans labeled "Espresso" wasn't to be had. I already knew about Sweet Maria's across the Bay in Oakland- that's where I'd bought the coffee grinder. So I already knew that they were a supplier of green coffee beans. I found a cheap fluid bed (hot air) roaster for something like $75. And green beans were a bargain compared to a can of Yuban. "Wow! This was going to save a bunch of money!" Yeah, right.

I ordered the roaster and a sample of greens. The new espresso machine (a Giotto which looked similar to this newer model) hadn't arrived yet so I was ahead of the game. When the roaster arrived a few days later, I roasted some and then ran them through the new grinder. Things were moving along quick as could be except for one small detail: I hadn't a clue what coffee ground for espresso looked like. So on Saturday morning I called Sweet Maria's and asked if they were open and said I needed guidance. Luckily they were around.

I looked through the 'store' (it was strictly a warehouse then and the 'store' was all the items ready to be pulled for shipment) and set aside some 'necessities', then told Maria I was the one who'd called. She got Thompson to come over and I explained my dilemma. What followed was a 15-minute crash course in bean varieties for espresso, grinder settings and roasting for espresso and included a lot of frustration on Thompson's part (for one thing, the ground sample I'd brought was about the color of rust). Someone had turned on the light, but it was in the next room! Thankfully the door was open to start learning about coffee and Thompson gave me the nudge in the right direction to get started.

The espresso machine arrived shortly afterward but was set aside to be tackled when we got to Santa Fe. I started focusing on roasting and grinding coffee for drip. The first try wasn't too bad and it was actually fun, which combined to create the encouragement to keep moving forward. The Admiral was supportive and if she grimaced, she waited till I was out of the room!

But the smoke...  what came out of that tiny roaster was astonishing! My new career was clearly going to be an outdoor job. In Santa Fe where our house was at exactly 7,000' elevation. In the Rockies. And we were 2.5 weeks from the start of winter.

Only a coffee lover would understand!