I want some coffee!

The search has been an on-going struggle. I limit myself to one 12 oz. cup of coffee and that's in the morning. I'd really like to have a second cup but the caffeine seems to interfere with my sleep. Decaf would be an option after I hit my daily limit, but finding a decaf I actually like as much as my morning cup of Chiapas has been a lost cause. And finding nothing has been disappointing as I've tried a number of decaffeinated greens- The Sumatra Aceh Farmers decaf above was pretty good but I can't say that about the other 9 decafs. And that roast went pretty well...   So... why the sudden interest in finding a great tasting decaf? Well my neighbor Will offered me some decaf he buys from Peet's ( Mokha-Java darkroast decaf) for his wife Patty. That was downright good and it didn't need any qualifiers like "pretty good for decaf". We felt the same in past years when we were buying Starbucks Verona decaf . But I just haven't been able to compete a...

As I've posted previously, I've been having great success roasting some organic beans from Chiapas. They are beans I bought from Coffee Bean Corral. Probably at or near the very top of our list of all-time favorites. When I saw similar organic beans available from the same vendor and sourced from neighboring state of Oaxaca, I couldn't help but place an order. Well, in hindsight... this is why they offer 'sample orders'. But the eternal optimist in me said "don't worry... it'll be great!". Yeah, right. Not bad is the best I can say. The roast profile (below) is a little odd with a repeatable double hump at the start (?) and the end of the roast is pretty much what I expect. The taste was quite different (this is very frustrating to not have the training to describe what I specifically tasted! 😡 ). The body (which I've come to realize is important to us) was good but the flavors were quite different. And the roasted & bagged beans didn'...

Matt-the-Code-Warrior has been keeping me busy with changes to version 3 of the RoasTime software for our Aillio Bullet coffee roaster. This most recent release was a major step in promised features that have been years coming. The model V2 roaster which I have contains infrared temperature measurement of the drum (during the pre-heating period before beans are added) and of the beans during the roast as they fly past the view port of the IR sensor. The roaster has an infrared sensor mounted in the front panel which is aimed at the beans as they tumble in the drum. Since the beans are being heated by the drum they absorb that heat which in turn causes them to radiate in the (not visible to the human eye) infrared spectrum. Anyone who has had their temperature taken as part of the current COVID pandemic has most likely had that measurement done using an infrared thermometer (preferred measurement because there's no contact). The device has a space age ring to it but the reality was ...

Not the freeing experience I'd anticipated to have gotten the 2nd COVID vaccination. With the second shot on the score card (as of 19 Feb) we still have to act like we haven't had the vaccine since we will need to continue with wearing our masks, washing hands and acting in all regards like we haven't had the vaccination. But that apparently is what it takes for us (all!) to defeat this disease. On the plus side my favorite crazy nurse was on hand to poke holes in our arms. This time we learned that Teri and her husband raise alpacas over in Chochise. They harvest alpaca wool in April otherwise the local temps will be so high it will kill them... these critters want high elevation and cold temps! Teri says these guys come in 14 different colors- 14 shades of brown! Wonder if they all look as happy this guy. With a goof ball like this, what's not to love?! But getting #2 out of the way has prompted us to plan a trip to our favorite restaurant: Mi Casa here in Benson. Fi...

I've chastised myself over and over for waiting so many years to try coffee from Mexico. The only excuse is the opportunity never dropped into my lap. Of course about 12 seconds with Google could have resolved that issue but I just had no idea what I was missing. Granted not all coffee from Mexico is as good as this Organic Chiapas greens I've been buying from Coffee Bean Corral . I tried something they call La Laja Honey Process from Veracruz and it just isn't as good. The Chiapas Turquesa sample I bought is pretty good but doesn't yield the same great cup. So this love affair with this coffee from Chiapas, Mexico continues. It's a dark roast but not so dark it bleeds oil when the beans are dropped into the cooling tray. A few oily spots is all I see. After perhaps 10 days of rest the oil starts to appear on the surface of the roasted beans. That's when the good stuff happens in the brew. I found that it's best to follow my own dictum of keeping the secon...

In the end it was our friend Linda that made it happen. She hounded the Admiral mercilessly till C called Benson Hospital and inquired about the COVID-19 vaccine. Yes, they were giving vaccinations. Yes, we can schedule you. But first you have to get on a waiting list.  3 days later they called and told us we could be scheduled to be vaccinated at 1100 & 1115 on 22 Jan.  The Admiral signed us up without hesitation. Even with the appointment I stewed about it for the entire week. I was concerned that this would give us the first dose but that there might not be sufficient vaccine to schedule the 2nd dose.  We arrived at the hospital 1/2 hr early on the 22nd thinking it would take awhile to get checked in. Our cloth masks had to be removed and a proper hospital-supplied N95 paper mask put on (that meant ear loops which tangle with my hearing aids). A few minutes later we were at the receptionist's desk and blew thru registration with time to kill before the first schedu...

Matt-the-Code-Warrior has been gone... holidays, family business, whatever. So in the interim I've fallen prey to my lazy ways. Oops. I did get in some roasting each week to keep friends supplied with the primary ingredient for their morning cup. Several batches of Mexican organic Chiapas (still our favorite), a batch of Ethiopian organic Yigacheffe, and several tries at some decaf. I keep hoping I'm going to find the pot at the end of the decaf-rainbow but so far that pot has turned out to be definitely not gold. Don't get me wrong- the product has been a very drinkable decaf roast. But vendor claims to the contrary they have not contained the chocolate bomb I keep hoping for. And while this has been fun experimenting with decaf roasts the pandemic continues to rage... and in Arizona that's not an exaggeration. We were #1 in the US for about a week or two. The vaccine for COVID-19 has arrived in some limited quantity but distribution appears hit or miss. A neighbor in ...