I want some coffee!

... and now we're into a bag of Chiapas .  For a couple years Ethiopian has been a favorite of ours and I had accumulated a variety of samples. Generally it has great appeal to us because of the interesting flavors that disclose themselves as the cup cools. My impression is that most have been sweet and have a wonderful taste for a cool day. I genuinely wish I had the training to describe each of those unique flavors that appear sequentially as I sip my way to the bottom of the cup! The map above sticks a pin where the Guji district is (thank you Google Maps!). It looks to be in the far western part of Ethiopia. Google Maps got no hit on Anasora in the Guji district so I have to guess that most be the processing facility or the coffee broker. From the shading it appears to be a mountainous region which is what we should expect for a coffee grower. Location aside, this sample of Ethiopia Guji Anasora (Ana Sora?) was a winner. Other than a few grams of greens left in the bag, I prett...

... and I've been busy the whole time. But coffee is only half the story. The other half is more time consuming and it has everything to do with software development for the roaster. Thankfully the programmer, Matt-the-Code-Warrior, has been able to resolve all the issues thrown his way. As a result we seem to be closing the first development phase of RoasTime 3.0 (RT3). Along with the new release of RT3 came an extensive redesign of the Aillio server system. The Aillio servers are integral to operation of the roaster since it offers storage of all roast profiles, management of bean inventory, all error codes are saved on those servers, and it is the platform for the Aillio roasting community.  Besides changes in the way Roast.World operates, they also migrated the physical location of all data from server space on AWS (Amazon Web Services) to Google servers... something to do with easier transition if they have to add server capacity (way beyond my pay grade!). But the actual tran...

...but it was 5 lbs of some really nice organic coffee from the Chiapas region of Mexico. I just posted a map of the Chiapas region a few posts back so I'll insert a chart of the roast instead. This is the first of 4 roasts and is representative of how they all went. I've been using Drum speed to manage the Rate of Rise curve (RoR) and that seems to be working pretty well. The plan is to get RoR to fall steadily to something below 10F° from first crack to the end of the roast without stalling the roast. I did a fairly good job on this one but I can't *really* say I did great till I get to taste it in about a week. But at least I have coffee to pass out tomorrow that I don't have to worry about since this is the variety we're enjoying right now. Sweet and chocolatey which is my main criteria. And this is pretty much the look of the new software as development for RoasTime 3.0 starts winding down. The changes aren't dramatic but it just feels a lot better. It'...

"If you use cream or sugar, you don't like coffee- you like caffeine!" So said one YouTuber that has the same need to have coffee that tastes like it was roasted. So we (the Admiral and I) drink coffee with nothing added. No milk or cream, no sugar. No flavorings. If you like the taste of coffee you need nothing added to the coffee. I think my strident view originated with using Cremora or CoffeeMate in the bad-old-days when I was still working. Disgusting stuff! To my taste, sugar was just as bad. Completely distracts from what you're trying to enjoy. And then there's the roasted coffee that has had a flavoring added. Flavors like hazelnut. Or a Starbucks annual celebration of Fall with pumpkin spice. Sorry guys... no joy here! Just... Ok, now I have to 'fess up. I love Cuban coffee. Cuban coffee is like an over-grown cappuccino made with espresso from coffee grown in Cuba. I ask for a Cuban, dark, three scoops. That means extra espresso (dark) with 3 scoops ...

I made a big deal about brewing our morning cup with water that has been heated to 198°F. There are a few ways to get there including a stove top-heated kettle with a temperature probe in the center of the lid. We use something more extravagant. It's a kettle that can be set to a final temperature at which point it will either shut off or maintain the water at that temperature. I found this bonaVITA automatic kettle at Sweet Maria's that I like. There are any number of kettles for heating water, but kettles with temperature control are more limited.   The bonaVITA automatic kettle has a gooseneck spout which makes it easy to hit a specific place in the coffee when pouring. I have always assumed it was designed for tea drinkers but since I recently became aware of the methods used for pour-over coffee I must admit it lends itself to that method nicely. We use exactly 28 oz water (not precisely; if we were precise I would use a gram scale to measure the amount). Our water is filt...

There's probably nothing among coffee geeks more controversial than how to brew coffee. Each method (pour-over, percolator, Mr. Coffee, #6 Melitta cone filter, et al) has it's faithful following and we are card-carrying members of the #6 Melitta filter cult.   Our preferred method is a #6 Melitta cone filter brewed into a carafe. But what The Admiral and I remember from many years ago is a small departure from the accepted norm- We heat 28 oz of water to 198°F. While that is heating we fold the bonded edges of a #6 Melitta filter (it's a safety precaution so the seam doesn't fail when it gets wet with coffee in the filter, place the dry filter in the cone, then wet the filter (washes off any paper-taste).** Set the filter cone (some call it a filter holder) on the carafe and add the 1/2 C of coffee I ground moments before. When the water is at the right temperature (we use 198°F; SCAA*** suggests 195°F-205°F) pour some of the water over the coffee, say 25-30%, moving th...

This is a piece on getting the job done vs. blowing your retirement savings on snob appeal. Roasting is really just an opening step to my real purpose which is to enjoy s good cup of coffee. That all important intermediate step of brewing is something The Admiral (mostly) and I (a little bit) have worked out and it hasn't varied in years.  I roast the coffee, then we grind a measured amount of beans,  put the ground coffee in a filter basket (a Melitta these days), and  pour directly (for a Melitta) or indirectly (like a Mr Coffee) hot water over the top [don't laugh at the Mr Coffee- if you buy the right model it can brew great coffee! ] Once the beans are roasted it's time to brew and brewing starts with the grinder. And we've used a few over the years. The fanciest grinder we had was a Mazzer Mini we bought from Sweet Maria's for under $365 in 2003 (they cost about $700 today!). It was pretty much a commercial grade espresso grinder with a built-in doser. At the...

A few years ago I came across a storage container for roasted coffee that was being sold by Sweet Maria's in Oakland, CA. It's a stainless steel can with a a plastic seal and an additional plastic lid. It is designed and made by Planetary Design Products in Bonner, MT. The AirScape storage can is used for any food storage purpose but was originally conceived for storing coffee. It has a valve in the handle plus a seal around the body that acts like a one-way valve. The handle rotates 1/4 turn to allow air to escape as I push the inner seal in place, then I rotate the handle back to the flat position and it blocks air from getting to the beans. I reverse the process to get access to the coffee. The drawing below shows you how it works-   The principal is to minimize the oxidation of the bean oils when air has access to the bean surface. It's on the bean surface that the oil collects as beans rest. The oil leaches out of the wall of the bean after it has roasted... all ve...

Matt-the-Code-Warrior released a newer version of RT3 software and I installed it right away. Not a lot of changes but it's supposed to address a few things related to Recipes like copying them from the old RT2 into the RT3 local library of Recipes. That seemed to have been done alright so I got in a 1# roast yesterday (2 Oct) then 3# more today. Yesterday I roasted a Brazilian bean called Brazil- Dry Processed Pedra Branca Lot 2 from Sweet Maria's (map above). I've been roasting this off and on for almost a year but so far I haven't gotten it quite right. The Sweet Maria's Cupping Notes claim there's a "chocolate bomb" waiting at the end of the rainbow but so far no joy. Today's effort was Mexico Organic Chiapas FTO from Coffee Bean Corral outside Jackson, MS. It was part of a 10# sample I bought but unfortunately I haven't a clue what I thought of it cuz I never keep notes about taste ( Oops! ). I'll pay attention this time as I plan t...