I want some coffee!

... to hear that others enjoy the Chiapas as much as we do. Yay!! Thanks y'all! So now I'm ready for another bag but I'm holding off till I hear from Coffee Bean Corral (the supplier). They invited me to participate in their discount program back in April but I never responded. Saturday I thought I'd give it a try. They are certainly looking for commercial roasters and not hobby roasters like me, but what the hell. I thought I'd at least ask and see what happens. The discount is an extra 5% but they offer free shipping to accepted accounts when the order is over $150. The last batch was $28 for shipping a 25# box, so the perc is significant. In the meantime I did 6# of Chiapas for the fan club (that includes us!) plus a pound of Liquid Amber (an espresso blend) for my neighbor Will from his stash. 7# of bagged coffee (3.9 kg of greens) turned out to be a bit much. I was pretty whipped by the time I was done. I'll have to spread this around next week...   ...

... on this Chiapas we're having. A week ago I roasted some la Laja (the name of a farm) from Veracruz, Mexico for friends here in the park. It can be pretty good but it looks like I trashed this roast! We dumped our 1# bag and went for more of the Chiapas (from unidentified farms) I bought from Coffee Bean Corral in Jackson, MS. The problem with the la Laja is that I took the roast too dark. We both thought the coffee tasted a little burnt. There is no point in trying to drink poorly roasted coffee when you have an alternative. So... out with the old; in with the new. In the meantime I continue to support the development effort of RoasTime software from Aillio. The design is that of Matt-the-Code-Warrior (he lives in Idaho) who has turned the requirements that Aillio (offices in Taiwan) has devised into working software. The latest struggle is related to "Recipes" which are short sets of instructions that automate the roasting process inside RoasTime. Frankly I poo-po...

Probably because the coffees from Chiapas are a new discovery for us, we were both happy to rotate back to it when the Ethiopian Guji was finished. Very surprising that I didn't take the usual one or two days to adjust to the change in beans. This was like having your favorite relative suddenly show up for a brief visit after a long absence. "Great to see you again Uncle Chiapas!" While we enjoy the remaining Chiapas , I was busy yesterday roasting coffee from not-too-far-away Veracruz ... the abutting state to the West of Chiapas which then extends North along the Gulf of Mexico. What we have from Veracruz is from a farm ( finca ) named la Laja or properly Finca la Laja , part of the holdings of the Sampieri family. I've done this one before and had a profile to follow, but for whatever reason it all got away from me toward the end of the roast and it went longer than planned. So we'll see how this works out. If the Chiaspas is any indication, there needs...