I guess I'm just bored...

I feel like I ought to be roasting more coffee but apparently no one is ready yet.

For months I've been on a roll roasting 2 or even 3 times per week as part of software development for the roaster manufacturer (Aillio- they're based in Taiwan). But the lead programmer (Matt-the-Code-Warrior up in Idaho) has taken a couple weeks off for the year-end holidays. And that leaves nothing in the pipeline requiring testing.

That said I realized over the morning cup that I have been jumping on every opportunity to roast. I've been relentlessly chasing a flavor in the Chiapas beans that has evaded me of late. The first of this lot I roasted had a chocolate bomb tucked away inside the wall of the bean. And I nailed it immediately with the first roast. I'd assumed all I had to do is follow that same roast profile and all would be unlocked.

Well, Mrs. Bowman's little boy found nothing but disappointment after about the 10th batch! That incredible chocolate bomb just went into hiding. And this morning I accepted defeat... it's gone and it isn't coming back till I find a new lot of some new coffee beans from somewhere in the world that has the same phantasmagorical combination of bean chemistry that is apparently <sigh> fragile.

So that's what I learned this morning. If you find something special in a batch of beans, enjoy it and be thankful for that rare circumstance. It's a fragile thing which will disappear with time and there's just not a lot you can do about it.

I had assumed if you provide proper bean storage with a vapor barrier to prevent moisture change you were doing everything necessary to keep what you just bought. Now I've had to accept that the bean chemistry of my now favorite coffee has changed while it was sitting protected in its GrainPro double-wall bag. It's almost the same as what I first bought several months ago,,, but not quite. Makes a great cup of coffee but that secret chemical ingredient that was activated during roasting has been modified within the bean while it waited for me to roast it.

Gone but not forgotten.

Click the image... anyone with great coffee bag artwork like this deserves a link!! Raven's Brew Coffee in Ketchikan, Alaska.

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