Anchor Bay Roasts

The Art of Coffee Roasting...

2012-02-08T17:05:00.000-05:00

Dancing

As coffee roasts there are two things that happen.

1. The moisture cooks off

2. The sugars in the beans caramelize

The art is to cook the beans raw enough to leave the natural God given flavor but cooked well enough that those caramelized sugars do a tango on your tongue.

Did you know that I can make green coffee beans dance?

Roasting Wednesday...

2012-02-04T13:59:00.002-05:00

Coffee for Enthusiasts

Recently I have started roasting on Wednesdays only. This was an economic decision as well as a family welfare decision. Since I use the family kitchen to roast I recognized that it was not fair to my family to take up the kitchen 3 times a week when with better management I could occupy it only once. And too many times trying to get a fellow coffee enthusiasts order of $6.00 to them I had to make the hard decision that it is just not economically worth spending the 2 hours needed to process an individual order alone. So, Wednesdays it is... Please don't get me wrong, I love $6.00 orders (heck, I love $1.00 orders) but to insure that I don't go out of business in a few months I have to insist that small orders are filled with the larger group of orders.

If you would like to have some coffee roasted, please let me know so I can get your order on the schedule.

February Event - 02/18/2012

2012-01-29T17:40:00.000-05:00

My next public demonstration is at the ECCO, a bookstore in New Baltimore. Heh heh, I really thought that I would have to write a book to get invited to a bookstore venue but I guess books and coffee do go together.

Coffee Demonstration - January 2012

2012-01-28T22:23:00.000-05:00

John explaining the functions of the roaster

Today I roasted the Malawi Mapanga Estate - Washed "AAA" for a few guests of a coffee tasting and demonstration. I explained the processes of bean growth & harvesting, processing, roasting, and tasting. The guests were invited to help me sample this new bean and to help me decide if it was a good bean for me to stock and sell or not.

While the coffee was roasting I made a pot of Blooming Heart flowering tea for the guests to sample while we talked about coffee. Even though nobody was real excited about the tea, it went over exceptionally well because it had a splendid flavor and was fun to watch steep.

The coffee took about 40 minutes to roast and cool then I brewed 2 pots of it. The first pot was in the Siphon Pot and the second was in the French Press. While people liked both they agreed that the siphon pot made the better brew. It really was good but to be fair to the french press, I muddled the ratio and made the coffee too strong. Some of the comments about the coffee from the siphon pot was that it was very smooth - clean and neutral.

Sampling and tasting the Malawi Mapanga Estate - Washed "AAA"

Guests observed a chocolate note which had a note of a citrus. The body was slightly buttery which weighed lightly on the palette. Overall, everyone enjoyed this coffee and approved it as a fine coffee to sell to my coffee enthusiasts.

After the tasting was through and everyone had sampled the coffee everyone was marked as an official coffee snob with the ABR tattoo. Then, the $25.00 gas-card door prize was given to one of the guests.

After about 2.5 hours the demonstration concluded and everyone went home just a little more joyful than they had come. Thank you to the guests of this demonstration and thank you for helping me assess the Malawi coffee.

Coffee Demo This Saturday...

2012-01-25T12:27:00.000-05:00

There are still a few seats available for this FREE event if you are interested. Also, there is a $25 Gift Card for FREE gas that will be given as a door-prize to one of the attendees.

Sorry, a reservation is required for a seat.
Please find my contact information on the website.

The Art in Roasting

2012-01-06T09:13:00.000-05:00

Indian Monsooned Malabar - Roasted

Have you ever Googled for images of roasted coffee beans? If you have then you have seen the many images of coffee beans with a uniform color. This uniformity is indicative of a mechanical roast which is scientifically heated, timed and cooled. Not so with my roasts. My roasts are not uniform because the process I use to roast is not at all scientific - it's artistic.

When you go to Target, Kohl's, K-Mart, or Walmart to buy art, what you are actually getting is a mass produced image of something that may have been art at one time - but no longer. Real art is what you get when you go to Sotheby's.

Take the image above for example (click the image for a larger version). Highlighted by the yellow star is a lighter bean. The lighter beans retain the intrinsic flavor of the bean itself. In this bean is an awesome flavor that is only found in the soil of the Malabar region of India. It is wet-processed leaving the fruit of the coffee berry to dry onto the coffee bean itself until it naturally flakes away. Then, the bean retains the natural flavor of the environment of that region of the world because it has been cured for about a year through the monsoon season which wet and dried and wet and dried and wet and dried this bean. Yes, it took time but the flavor is wonderful because of it.

Now notice the bean toward the top in the blue star. This bean is very dark and oily, it has the strong flavor of the roasting process. The moisture is all gone out of this bean and the sugars caramelized under the heat to create a great roasted flavor. If you will notice the bean in the purple star, this also is a dark roasted bean and if you will notice a rough patch on the bean, this shows that the bean was taken well into what is called the Second-Crack, a stage of the roasting process that tells me when to stop roasting (any darker and I would begin to make charcoal).

So there you have it, my Monet, my Van Gogh, my Dali! The piece that you see above is originally mine and it will never be duplicated - it is a one of a kind and this specific one is being shipped to soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

Thank you to those who serve! I hope this little piece of art brings you as much joy as I had creating it.

Flame-Roasted Artisan Coffee...

2011-12-27T13:31:00.002-05:00

I am happy to present a new product that I call Flame-Roasted Artisan coffee. This is a single-origin bean but it is roasted by hand-and-flame only. There is nothing electrically driven or heated in this roasting process - it is just me versus nature, in the age old way of cooking that our great-grandparents had mastered, attempting to roast a perfect coffee.

I roasted a test batch of the Indian Monsooned Malabar and sampled the product. WOW! This roasting method produces a raw and rich coffee as many of the beans roast to perfection while others are less roasted retaining the intrinsic flavor of the bean. This coffee is certainly roasted just as as our elders used to know, love, and enjoy.

I presently (12/27/2011) have 9-6C packages prepared as samples for people who want to try the brew. These packages are FREE while they last for anyone who wants to come and pick one up. The only string is that I want you to tell me your opinion of the product after you have tried it. These are available to people on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please shoot me an email if I may expect you.

Jamaican Blue Mountain

2011-12-14T12:18:00.001-05:00

One of my clients who had gotten coffee for Thanksgiving said that one of his friends had some of the coffee and asked if I would roast some Jamaican Blue Moon? So he asked me to look into it and get back with his friend. So I did look into it and decided that I could do it for $48.00 a pound. I called the friend and he ordered 2 pounds without batting an eye.

When the Blue Mountain I ordered came in I first inspected the green beans themselves. Perrrrffect, absolutely perfect. Each bean appeared to have been hand chosen and hand washed. Each was a beautiful shade of light green and each was as clean as freshly washed infant.

When I began to roast the Blue Mountain, many of the beans began to blow out of the machine to the waste bin - Eeeek!!! At $48.00 a pound I was burning my hands trying to save these most precious and expensive beans. I told my wife how the price changed in my mind the value of the individual beans themselves. The fact that many of the beans were blowing out of the machine indicated that the water-content of the beans themselves were much lower than the standard beans that I was used to cooking. Proving that it was indeed unique. The chaff was less than normal and they roasted up without any complaint. I was careful to not roast too much past the first crack in order to retain the natural flavor of the bean.

I would never had paid the price for this coffee but since I had some in the house, and I was selling it to a client, I decided that I had better brew some and taste it. I have decided to refrain from an extensive review of this coffee here (lest my praise be deemed not worthy) but I will point out that the flavor of the Jamaican Blue Mountain has the best balance that I have ever tasted in a coffee before.

PS. If you are still looking for the perfect Christmas gift, I still have Gift Certificates available that I can wrap and drop ship for you. Email me for details.

Mexican Chiapas

2011-12-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

On the Southern most edge of Mexico, just before you get to Guatemala, is Chiapas (chee-ah-pass). Once there you may ask the locals for a cup of cafe and they will give you a brew from of their home-grown beans.

The Chiapas is a mild cup that sports a dominant fruit-wine flavor. Roasted just 60-seconds into the second-crack this bean's profile was just slightly Full-City roasted. Here the flavor of the roast is obvious while the intrinsic flavor of the bean remains present.

While this bean is roasted a strong smoky-nut aroma is revealed making the roaster assume that nut will be present in the flavor however that flavor never materialized. Only a sweet aroma that had a dry-wine effect was present. Overall it was a clean cup that nosed sweet and sipped brightly a midst a panorama of floral notes.

Sumatra Tarbarita Peaberry

2011-12-04T14:56:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite coffees is the Peaberry. This coffee has a unique flavor like the added chicory of Louisiana but it is not as dominant and it is natural to this type of bean.

The aroma is very pleasant sporting a mocha scent that is a touch sweet. The flavor is so good and smooth that it makes me want to cry with delight. Alright, maybe crying is a little much but it really is a great flavor. It has a smoothly sweetness that finishes very clean. We tried it with some 90% chocolate and the sweetness of this brew exploded and brought a generous cacophony of flavor to be delved into by the taster of deep exploration.

I have always been partial to the Peaberry from Papau New Guinea but this Sumnatran ranks right up there with one of the best.

Gift Key

2011-11-29T22:02:00.001-05:00

NEW for the Christmas season is the Anchor Bay Roasts Gift Key. When your friend or loved one receives this gift they will open a little black box to discover a gold skeleton key inside with a card informing them that they have just received an Anchor Bay Roast Gift Key worth however much money you put on it for them.

The gift never expires so if they put it aside only to come across it in a year - it will still be valid.

Be sure to get your coffee lover this gift and they will thank you for months to come.

Gene Cafe'

2011-11-29T15:48:00.001-05:00

A week ago I did two coffee roasting demos and I featuredthe Bali Blue Moon. I used theprofessional Gene Café roaster and the coffee turned out much different from myfirst experience roasting in the popcorn poppers. In my opinion the coffee was under-roasted inthe first demo and over-roasted in the second. Both seemed a touch bitter to me but my guests were gracious enough totell me that the coffee was good – at least better than the Maxwell House theyhad just drank. So I decided that I needto roast a couple batches and get to know what was going on.

The first batch that I roasted was called a"High-Roast" (464 deg. F: 15 min.) in the Gene Café. It was on the under-roasted side and left thebean rawer than it was roasted. When Iground it and brewed it we (me and my wife) sampled it and found it to be trueto its description of very fruity in flavor. My wife commented that it reminded her of an Orange Zinger tea. Indeed we could identify that this bean wasactually grown between tangerine and orange trees. However, my wife and I not being fans ofOrange Zinger tea ended up dumping the pot and moving on to roast #2.

This second batch I moved up a notch on the roasting scaleto "City-Roast" (482 deg. F: 17 min.) which was enough more to takethe coffee from under-roasted to almost perfectly roasted (I say almostperfectly roasted because I don't know what perfect is in the world ofcoffee). This coffee tasted balancedwith only undertones of the fruitiness (like seeing something in the periphery)from the previous roast. The naturalnuttiness of this bean blended with the fruit dominance and made the fruit asthough it were just a memory and an ever so slight chocolate note on the finishand after taste.

What is the difference between roasting with the popcornpoppers and the fancy Gene Café? Thereare two main ones as I see it. First,roasting with the popcorn poppers is more of an art form as the result issingularly dependent upon a human to listen, look, and determine when the beanshave been roasted enough. When roastingwith the Gene Café the human need only set the controls for the result theydesire and then they are free to push start to begin the automatic process. And second, I consider the two roastingmethods best described as the "Petal-to-the-Metal Roasting" versusthe "Oh-Dear-Heaven-I-Think-My-Grandma-is-Behind-the-Wheel Roasting"methods. With the PttM method, the heatis full and furious and takes about 7 minutes to roast a batch of green beansand the ODHITMGiBtW method is well, about 30-35 minutes from start to finishper batch. Granted, the ODHITMGiBtWmethod makes about twice what the PttM method does per batch but since I am thetype of person who would rather drive 50 miles out of my way to avoid 5 minutesof stop-and-go traffic can you guess which method I prefer?

So, as it turns out, I have tried the Bali Blue Moon threeor four different ways now and the result has always been a different. Coffee is truly like wine tasting in thatthere is much to be explored in each cup if only we will take the time to gospelunking. Please, the next time youhave a cup of coffee consider exploring your cup and be determined toexperience it fully.

7 Pounds of Pure Joy...

2011-11-18T17:03:00.001-05:00

Yes, a baby would meet the description but no - it's not a baby of which I write. I am talking about the 7 pounds of coffee orders that I roasted and filled today. It took all day as I am working on efficiency practices and such but the whole time I could not help but be thankful for the orders that are coming in. There are a lot of people who want FRESH coffee for this Thanksgiving's festivities.

Speaking of my efficiency efforts, I have created an online form that I can send to people when they request coffee. Take a look and make suggestions for improvements if you like or just order some coffee.

Bali Blue Moon

2011-11-04T14:24:00.003-04:00

Click For Larger

Just South-East of Vietnam in the Flores Sea comes the Bali Blue Moon. Highly regulated and hand-washed this bean looked very promising.

While I roasted I noticed that there was very little chaff. It smoked a little on the initial heat-up and then it did not smoke again until the end of the roast. I read that this coffee was better when the bean was roasted to a Full-City Roast so I took it in to the Second Crack when the flecking was quite evident. The beans looked very good and dry except for a couple that showed signs of oiling.

I brewed with the syphon pot which uses a slightly higher than normal grind/water ratio. The coffee I would say was strong because of this but not so strong that bitterness became a factor.

On a scale from 1 - 10 I rate this coffee a 9 - Right up there with the Peaberry. The aroma is fruity like a sweet-and-sour sauce and very pleasing to the nose. The flavor was solid and smooth as it boasted of a cocoa-bean note as well as a mellow tone. The brightness of this cup was medium though it was quite complex and deep. The body of this cup was buttery and weighed on the pallet long enough to let you know it was there and lingered on the tongue like a fond memory.

The "Holiday Stash"

2011-11-03T16:14:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to announce a new product...

Would you like to shine during these holidays as the champion of good coffee? Of course you would. Many people will serve coffee and call it good, but will they actually serve fresh coffee and then explain why it is fresh? Not likely.

This holiday season you will serve single-origin fresh-roasted coffee and delightedly watch people's eyes light up as they gasp in delight. Someone may faint, but that reaction is a highly rare reaction and should not dissuade you from serving the best.

Presenting the "Holiday Stash" that you may serve to your guests after dinner or during dessert.

As many people will flourish that they are breaking out the best wine for the occasion, you may flourish the fact that you are not serving just any old blend of coffee that your bought at the grocery store. Sure, that store-bought stuff might be tasty, but coffee from Anchor Bay Roasts is in a league of its own, because it is all-natural and freshly roasted just days before you brew it.

For just $17.50 (includes S&H), you can serve three 12-cup pots of liquid heaven and watch your guests experience single-origin fresh-roasted coffee for the very first time. It is a great way to honor your guests this year.

Looks Can Be Deceiving & The Label...

2011-11-02T09:41:00.001-04:00

Sumatra Iskandar Premium & Yemen Mocca Sanani

Can you see the difference in the bean quality?

It is quite remarkable to look at a batch of both and see the uniformity of the Sumatran verses the unkempt look of the Yemen. The Sumatran is a quality coffee and certainly lives up to its name of Premium but the Yemen certainly has a chocolate note to it that draws the observant taster back time and time again. It would be easy to be lured to the Sumatran coffee because of the beauty of the beans but that would be a mistake. Good as it is the Mocca coffee is very pleasing and has an aroma that takes me back to grandma's stove as she let the homemade chocolate pudding cool.

Both are very pleasing coffees in their own rites and both need to be experienced to be understood.

The Label...

I've been all over the place with the development of the label but I have finally landed at this configuration.

The X and the YELLOW text are not part of the label

LINE 1: This is the disclaimer that I am required to have under the Cottage Food Law
LINE 2: Company Name
LINE 3: Tag Line
LINE 4: Contact Info
LINE 5: Coffee Type | Date Roasted | Weight | How many cups the bag makes
LINE 6: Website Address

NEW Easter Egg...

2011-11-02T06:16:00.003-04:00

The winner of the October Easter Egg is Darlene L. from Chesterfield. Darlene will be getting a pot of Sumatran Iskandar Premium. This is a hand-washed bean that is both wet & dry processed and its flavor is truly premo. I am betting that her toes are going to curl at the first sip. ;-)

There is a NEW easter egg on the web page. Go to www.anchorbayroasts.com to find it and you too could win FREE coffee.

Who Wants FREE Coffee?

2011-10-30T16:38:00.004-04:00

And another coffee snob is inked!

Today is the last day for you to find the easter egg on the Anchor Bay Roasts website. If you find it you will be entered into the October drawing to win a package (12C pot) of coffee.

This month's easter egg is literally sitting out in the open for you to find. In fact, if you CLICK THIS LINK you will be taken directly to the page with the easter egg. Sorry, all finds after 12am Eastern Time will not count.

And the Winner IS?

2011-10-29T19:30:00.000-04:00

Click for Larger

It was a great time as I prepared and served the coffee to about 25 guests at a birthday party last night. The winner of the night was certainly the syphon pots. Not only was the coffee served a very rare Indian Monsooned Malabar but the guests saw and smelled the beans as they roasted and ground for the brewing pots. Their eyebrows shot up a half-inch as when they tasted the goodness of God in their cups.

There was one lady in particular who was not necessarily fond of coffee but her husband was. As I explained the intricacies of the Monsooned bean, how it was seasoned in a particular monsoon season, and how he will never again taste that particular coffee again because the season is passed and so is the crop - she immediately reached over to taste what was certainly a once in a life time experience. Needless to say she got inked as a result.

Click for Larger

She got inked? Yes, everyone who became a snob last night got inked. Tattooed that is. As every membership has a ritual so does becoming a coffee snob. So everyone left with a great memory and experience but also with a new tattoo. Don't worry, it was a temp tattoo because I am a coward where needles come into play. ;-)

If you are ever in the need for a once in a lifetime experience for your guests, please be sure to remember that I will provide you with a coffee roasting demonstration.

---
Also, if you have not yet seen our press releases - be sure to check them out below.

Coffee Demo for Birthday Party...

2011-10-28T16:04:00.000-04:00

Tonight I am doing a coffee demonstration for a wife's (ahem) 29th birthday party. First I am serving samples of regular Maxwell House coffee so that everyone can be remind of the norm, then I will be brewing up some Moccca Sanani from Yemen with filtered water. It will be fun to see how high the eye brows fly up on the foreheads of people when they taste the difference. I will be percolating & French-pressing the Mocca so people will experience the different tastes in brewing. I will also be French-pressings some Organic Royal Select Decaf from Peru.

While all of this is going on I will be roasting a Monsooned Malabar from India. This will be the crowd-pleaser because not only is it an awesome coffee it will be the freshest coffee that the guests have ever had and I will be making it in Syphon pots. Can you saw fun?

CHANGING SUBJECTS...

There are only a few more days left for people to find the easter egg for September. If you want to be entered into the drawing for the FREE coffee, take some time on the Anchor Bay Roasts website and find the easter egg.

Papau New Guinea - Peaberry

2011-10-25T06:16:00.000-04:00

Click for larger

If you have not seen the new Press Release you can click here to see it. I think it will be worth your time - but I am biased of course.

I roasted one of my favorite beans last night and am getting ready to go brew some now. It is amazing to me that my coffee excites me as it does.

70% of this crop is used by Australia and Germany so the rest of the world is lucky (and I mean that) to get the other 30%. It makes this coffee a little more rare in the states.

The flavor of this coffee is absolutely complex as it contains layer after layer of vivid flavors that require palatial separation to be understood. The first time my wife and I sampled this bean we were floored by the flavors that all swam together in the one cup which seems to be characteristic to the peaberry - my wife described the experience like a dinner plate of food all mixed together needing to be separated. This coffee is absolutely amazing - Mmmm, I cannot wait.

EASTER EGG!!! There are only a few more days left for you to find the easter egg on the Anchor Bay Roasts website. Find it and you will be added to the names in the drawing for this month.

Press Release...

2011-10-23T15:25:00.000-04:00

October 23, 2011

Coffee, Tea, & FREE...

2011-10-22T18:20:00.003-04:00

Harvest Moon

So I have had to expand into some teas as I am learning that there are haters among us. Can you believe that there actually are people who hate coffee? My land, next thing you know people will be marching on Wall Street. :-o

Click to Enlarge

I discovered these things called Flowering Teas. They are hand woven flowers with tea that are wrapped up into a ball. When hot water is poured over the ball it slowly steeps while is blossoms before your eyes. I must admit, I'm not a tea lover but when I watch this tea open before my eyes I am compelled to at least try it. I now have this on hand for those rare times when I have people in my demonstrations who don't like coffee.

Have you seen the press release? In this release the spokes person (me) announces the very big news that Anchor Bay Roasts is open for business. During the PR you are likely to feel the tears well up in your eyes, but don't worry - I wasn't fired for it. ;-)

Finally... There is still time for you to find the easter-egg on the Anchor Bay Roasts website and get entered into the drawing for FREE coffee. So far only 4 people have done it so your odds of winning are pretty good.

Good Luck!

Flowers or Coffee?

2011-10-21T15:48:00.000-04:00

click for larger image

I was thinking today how a husband invited me to do a roasting demonstration at his wife's birthday party. It dawned on me that any middle school kid can buy flowers to show his affection to his girl but it takes a man with real insight to get his love such a rare treasure for her birthday. She's going to love it!

Since it is the holiday season, please let me know if I can provide you with some coffee for your special events - your guests will do a double back-flip with a single twist when they taste how good your coffee is. (You do know that is hyperbole right?) Take a look at what I have to offer.

If you have not yet taken the time to find the easter egg on the website - lucky for you there is still time. Go over to the Anchor Bay Roasts website, find that easter egg, and you will be entered in (with the other 3 people) this month's drawing for FREE coffee.

You Guessed Where?

2011-10-20T15:42:00.000-04:00

Click for Larger View

Yesterday I left you hanging when I told you that my wife got a tattoo and asked if you could guess where she put it. No, no, she did not put it on her bottom of her left heel - that would just be silly. Instead, she put it on the back of her neck so that all the people behind her in the line at the grocery store might see it. Her pixie cut makes this a very strategic place for it too.

There are only 10 more days to go for this month's easter egg. So far there have only been 2 people who have found it so it could be an easy contest between them. If you want to look for the easter egg and a chance to win the FREE coffee, visit the website and spend a few minutes reading through and looking for it - it really is out in the open. Good Luck!

Also, if you have not had a chance to view the 2:20 video press-release I invite you to take a look-see at http://anchorbayroasts.blogspot.com/2011/10/press-release.html.

Anchor Bay Roasts TATTOO!!!

2011-10-19T17:10:00.000-04:00

Click to make larger

I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to make the experience of coffee demonstrations last longer than just the length of time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Then it hit me - I'll design a tattoo! Ha! That will last longer than a cup of coffee. So even though I lack a logo I designed a tattoo that everyone will want - a smiley face tattoo.

Click to make Larger

So everyone in my immediate family has been marked so far and as I create further posts I will insert pictures of them sporting their new tats. Then, as more and more people join us coffee snobs at Anchor Bay Roasts I will include their pictures as well. However, I guess to be fair I need to go first so here I am sporting my new tat.

For the next post I will be featuring my wife's tat - and you will not guess where she chose to sport hers. I'll post the picture tomorrow.

In the mean-time, have you seen the video of our official Press-Release? If not, click here to watch the 3 minute video of my recorded live press release.

Press Release...

2011-10-18T23:14:00.001-04:00

October 18, 2011

The Sweetest 1 Tenth of 1 Percent (00.175%)

2011-10-16T14:20:00.004-04:00

He was casually doing his work and moving along the hall when he noticed it - that smell. He started walking to find the source when he came upon it - we were brewing the coffee and it smelled like heaven. He inquired how much he had to pay for a cup but the church told the janitor that he was welcome to enjoy - no charge. He did enjoy and now he will forever be a coffee snob.

I talked with the janitor at the school where our church meets at length about the attributes of fresh coffee. Before I left he asked me if there was any coffee that he could buy. I sold him an extra bag (2 pots for him) and he gave me $3.50 in exchange. This is the sweetest $3.50 that I had earned to date because he was sold by the smell alone - the taste just sealed the deal.

I have been asked where I plan to find the "coffee snobs" but it appears that they will be finding me.

Do You Know Why Easter Uses Eggs?

2011-10-14T22:24:00.000-04:00

No really, I was asking a serious question because I have no idea why the Easter Egg is used for this holiday. A rabbit does not lay eggs...

However, while we are on the subject of easter eggs, were you aware that there is one somewhere on the Anchor Bay Roasts website? If you find it you will be entered into this month's drawing for FREE coffee. BTW, there has only been one person who has found it this month so odds are really in your favor.

Good Luck!

Honestly...

2011-10-12T15:23:00.000-04:00

The coffee that I roast is not for everyone - It is expensive and it is not at all convenient. I know it, you know, and even my 7 year old knows it.

But then again, a Lexus or BMW is expensive and those companies are bold enough to expect their owners to go through the inconvenience of firing uncle Wilbur's Backyard Auto Care service so that they might have their cars properly maintained in their further expensive Service Centers.

As I think about it, I do individually roast single-origin coffee fresh per customer, I do package each order in proper ratio to each customer's specific brewing style, and I do spend a bunch of time roasting each small batch order because I will not make or sell in bulk. So I guess that while my coffee is more expensive than the stale stuff in the grocery store and more inconvenient than simply tossing a bag into your cart, at the end of the day there are still quite a few people who prefer to drive a Lexus or BMW.

So no, the coffee that I roast is not for everyone.

anchorbayroasts.com

Coffee Like a Great Lake - Improve Your Coffee Part 3

2011-10-11T22:46:00.000-04:00

I remember a television show when I was a kid called "That's Incredible" where a guy said that he could identify each of Michigan's Great Lakes by the flavor of the water. The man claimed that each of the Great Lakes were notable because of the impurities in their water. And when he was given samples in a blind taste test - sure enough he identified them - 5 for 5.

I say all that to point out that the water that we make coffee with should be filtered-water. I first learned this lesson when my brother-in-law made coffee using filtered water and I noticed a significant difference in the taste. Then I really noticed a difference when I used water gathered in a snow storm in my Michigan Snow Coffee trial - it was not good. It was because of both of these experiences that I can honestly say that you can improve the taste of your coffee by improving the quality of the water that you use. If you doubt me just make your coffee with

Do I Sell Flavored Creamers?

2011-10-11T07:49:00.000-04:00

I was asked this while talking with someone about doing a coffee demonstration for them. While I was not offended nor insulted I just told the client honestly, "If you are going to add flavoring to my coffee, you might as well save yourself some money and buy something inexpensive at the grocery store."

When I say this, I am not trying to be catty or snobbish but the reality is that the coffee that I sell is not cheap and if someone is just going to put flavoring in it anyway they can save themselves a few bucks and add the flavor to cheaper coffee - The result would be the same.

The point of Anchor Bay Roast is to help people to experience the coffee that they drink - not the flavors that they add. Coffee, especially freshly-roasted unadulterated single-origin coffee, has a wonderful flavor and many wonderful characteristics to experience in it. Tasting coffee (properly called cupping) is akin to wine tasting in my world. Each cup is to be recognized as a unique experience but helping people to experience their coffee is impossible if they put additives in the coffee that I prepare and serve to them.

Lots of people do not really believe me when I tell them this but good coffee does not need creamer, sugar, and or other flavors to be added because God already put all the flavor necessary in the beans that He created. All we need is good coffee - And good coffee is often most difficult to come by.

Please Allow Me To Introduce...

2011-10-10T17:29:00.001-04:00

I am sorry I forgot to do this earlier...

Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is John and I roast coffee. While I will not be so bold as to proclaim my coffee as the best in the world - it is still a very good experience.

Why is it good? Because while the common coffee bean is a very sturdy product (remaining good after 2 years in its green state if stored in a dry and cool location) it still goes stale in just 2 weeks after being roasted. This means that the stuff that you purchase is usually stale and often altered in order to maintain its consistent brand flavor. With my fresh-brewed single-origin coffee it rarely tastes the same from pot to pot but it is always fresh and very yummy (if I am allowed this small boast).

My company is Anchor Bay Roasts and I would like to help you experience your coffee.

www.anchorbayroasts.com

The Coffee Goddess

2011-10-09T13:43:00.001-04:00

I needed to roast some coffee for myself today and my daughter wants to learn the art - so I started her on her training. She roasted her first batch of beans today to a Full-City roast- a Rwandan Bugisu. This is not my favorite bean and I certainly would not serve it to customers, however it is a perfect bean for learning how to roast with.

She is pictured holding her first batch. She learned how much bean to put in the roaster, how to assess its color and listen for its two-separate cracks. As I write this she will not let me forget that we still yet need to grind and brew a cup for sampling.

Ahhh, my little snob is blossoming...

Please visit anchorbayroasts.com and find this month's easter-egg for your chance to win FREE coffee. This is the good stuff too, none of the bland stuff. I figure that when you taste fresh single origin coffee that all other coffee you drink will suffer in comparison.

October Easter Egg

2011-10-08T23:04:00.006-04:00

There is an easter egg on anchorbayroasts.com.

If you locate it you will be eligible for a FREE 2.5oz package of coffee (That's one 12-cup pot). There has been just one person who has located it so far so your odds are good if you find it.

Last month's easter egg was a bit tricky but this one is right out in the open for everyone to see. If you cannot find it it is simply because you are not reading the pages. (oopsies, was that a hint I just let slip?)

Happy hunting!

Coffee Sale...

2011-10-07T13:08:00.000-04:00

Hi there. Today (10/11/2011) I am offering 5 - 12c pots of coffee (12.5oz) for just $15.00 + shipping!

The coffee is a Mocca Sanini from Yemen - and it is fabulous. The very moment that you first smell this brew you will be returned to the days when you stood over the stove and smelled your grandma cooking chocolate pudding. As this cup cools you will experience a note of cocoa in the taste like a baker's chocolate - not sweet but rich. This bean is nutty with a strong earth tone and begs to be experienced.

Email me now to taste this delightfully-and-artfully-crafted fresh-roasted single-origin coffee.

Coffee Like ?- Improve your Coffee Part 2

2011-10-06T05:49:00.001-04:00

I wanted to come up with a snappy metaphor for coffee grind that worked but I just couldn't think of one this morning. I'm sure that I will think of one later in the afternoon but for now - I have nothing...

Another key to improving your coffee at home is to understand the grind that you use. If you use a process of brewing that steeps or washes your grounds with hot water then you may use a grind that is more course. However, if the hot water that you use is simply running through the grounds once then you want a grind that is finer. And further still, if you use a brewing process that mostly blasts steam through your grounds you want to go with a grind that is more akin to dust.

Most people who grind their own coffee at home use a hand-held blade grinder. The problem with this type of grinder is that the final grind is not very consistent and the blades tend to heat the beans and further cook them. However, if you would have further control over the grind that results then you will want to look into a burr-mill grinder. These are a few dollars more but certainly worth it if you are seeking a better cup of coffee.

October Easter Egg...

2011-10-05T14:26:00.003-04:00

There is an October easter egg on the www.anchorbayroasts.com website. If you find it you will be entered in the drawing for the FREE pot of coffee. The egg is obvious so the only reason you would not be able to locate it is because you really are not trying.

Good Luck!

Coffee Like Motorcycles - Improve Your Coffee Part 1...

2011-10-05T08:27:00.000-04:00

Ratio is a key to good coffee.

When I had a 4-wheeler with a 2-stroke engine I had to mix oil with the gas. There was a certain percentage of oil that had to be added to the gas for the engine to run properly: Add too much oil and it smoked - Add too little and it seized. Coffee is the same. Add too much coffee to your water and it is too strong (I know, hard to do but follow me here will ya?) - add too little and you're lucky to get bad tasting tea.

What ratio of grind:water do you use to make coffee? You have likely learned that you just throw so many scoops in and hit the button right? Try weighing your coffee. I know this is a pain but really, you will thank me.

1. Find out how many ounces of water you use in a pot of coffee.
- Cups of coffee are 5 ozs. each. So if you have a 12-cup pot you have (12 * 5) 60 ozs. of water.

2. Now multiply the ounces of water with .042 ... This results in a number that indicates how much grind (by weight) to use for your pot.

- 12 C = 2.5 oz
- 10 C = 2.1 oz
- 8 C = 1.7 oz
- 6 C = 1.25 oz
- 4 C = .85 oz
- 3 C = .65 oz
- 2 C = .40 oz

As a disclaimer, coffee tastes are subjective so you may be used to just heaping the coffee grind into your maker as drinking strong coffee. Using the lower ratio may indeed make you think that the coffee is too weak. Actually, your coffee is fine it's just that your 2-stroke engine is not smoking as much.

How To Buy My FRESH Coffee...

2011-10-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have had a few questions about how a person can buy the coffee that I roast. So I thought that I had better explain.

First, I will not sell more coffee to you than what you actually think you will use in 14 days. The reason for this is simple - fresh coffee is the goal. If I were to sell you a month's worth of coffee, this would be good for my cash-flow as a budding business but selling bulk like that ensures that my coffee would be stale at some point when you consume it. Coffee (as the Brits put it) "goes off" in just 14 days. I believe that if you were to taste my coffee stale you would think to yourself, "Huh, this coffee does not taste any better than the stuff that I buy at the store." So by limiting the quantity that I will sell to you at one time I hope that you will never have a stale cup of coffee from Anchor Bay Roasts.

Second, Anchor Bay Roasts is governed by what is called the Cottage Food Law of 2010. The law states that I may not sell my coffee online or through a distributor of any kind. The idea is that the end consumer of the coffee must have a direct line of contact to me in case there is ever any complaint. I have written more about this on the website so please go there if you desire more info.

In the end, I may indeed be shooting myself in the foot by not selling large quantities of coffee to the people who request it but one of my core values is to make sure that every cup of coffee that you get from me is fresh. Because really, if all you want is the standard stale cup of coffee you can just pick some up at your local grocery store and save yourself some time and money.

September Easter Egg Winner...

2011-10-01T06:49:00.000-04:00

There were just four people who found the easter egg for the month of September, the winner is Denise from New Haven, MI. - Denise, you will be getting your FREE coffee ASAP and thanks for playing. As for the 3 runners-up, I have a consolation prize for you but don't get too excited, it is cheesy and I am still waiting for it to arrive around the 18th of October. When it comes I will mail it to you.

Now, there is also an easter egg on the website someplace for the month of October. I plan to make this one easier because I actually want people to play. People who find it will be entered into the October drawing for FREE coffee. And if I failed to mention it earlier I should mention this disclaimer now, I will only ship the FREE coffee to the contiguous 48 states.

Good Luck!

Final Day for the September Easter Egg Drawing.

2011-09-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

Only 4 people have found the easter egg on the landing page of anchorbayroasts.com. You could get your name added to the drawing by visiting and finding it too. When you do, you have a chance at winning FREE coffee too!

Good Luck.

Happy Belated National Coffee Day!

2011-09-29T23:09:00.000-04:00

I had never heard of such a thing but then a friend of mine told me about it, then I saw that another friend and his wife got "their free cup" at a popular doughnut shop. I guess I should have jumped on the bandwagon huh? Well, it's not yet too late.

For everyone who submits an original poem about their love of coffee at the Anchor Bay Roasts website between now 11:59pm tomorrow night - I will put into a drawing for a 2.5oz package of my new Sumatra - Iskandar Premium. This Sumatran will not only make your vocal chords reflexively say "YUM" but I am betting that the lucky winner will become a coffee snob for life because all other coffee will pale in comparison. So let me hear the depth of your coffee love. (Sorry, no international shipments or Alaska & Hawaii.)

Sumatra - Iskandar Premium

2011-09-28T14:20:00.002-04:00

When the farmers (all women) pick the Iskandar berries they immediately remove the beans from the pulp and hand wash them in order to remove any excess pulp. Then it is sent to the processor where it is sun dried and cured being raked and turned many times. After the beans have dried they are hand inspected for quality and then only the best beans are allowed entrance into the Premium bag.

It would take an economist to figure out how many man hours goes into each bean and then how many beans goes into each cup!

First off I noticed that the aroma shouts the character of this cup. It rolls along with a rich earthy scent that begs you to come back for more. My wife wondered if I was drinking her cup as I brought it to her but I merely had my nose buried in and smelling the wonderful promise.

I sat with my cup and blew and smelled for a while. Then when I took a sip it was a perfect temperature. I was delighted with a deep-earthy flavor that was pregnant with botanicals - but not flowery. The body was creamy and rich setting heavy on the tongue and not at all watered down. It was one of those coffee that illicited an audible "YUM" from me.

When I start my monthly coffee klatch roasting club (something that is begging to be begun) I think I will certainly be presenting this Sumatran.

New Service for Birthdays...

2011-09-26T09:08:00.001-04:00

A friend asked me to make 5lbs. of coffee for her husband's birthday gift. I declined. Do I need the business - yes. So why did I give up the opportunity? Because 5lbs. will sit in someone's cupboard, fridge or freezer for quite a while. Since coffee goes stale in just 2 weeks I don't want people making my coffee and thinking to themselves that it tastes just like the rest of the stale coffee that they drink. So, I created The Coffee Gift and made it one of the services that I provide at Anchor Bay Roasts. Check it out and get your co-worker, friend, or loved one one of the best gifts that you could ever get them.

A New Experience

2011-09-25T16:54:00.000-04:00

Please do not worry, I am now and will always be a coffee drinker, but I need to discover a fun experience for my non-coffee drinking clients. Today, I made a pot of tea with something called a "flowering" tea. This is a hand-stitched bunch of teas that are sewn into a ball and when boiling water is added it slowly absorbed the water and blooms into a beautiful flower. After 4-5 minutes the tea is ready to be drank.

This was a fun experience for the whole family because the kids liked watching it bloom as well as tasting the result. The tea seems to me to be what tea should be but the experience made it something that I would have loved to have done on a first-date. ;-)

On another note. There is still time to visit www.anchorbayroasts.com (the landing page) and find the easter egg to be put in the drawing for the free coffee. Good luck!

Which is True?

2011-09-24T14:46:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid I always used to see my grandma with her coffee cup. As I grew I learned that she did indeed drink coffee in the mornings but in the evenings it was actually Pabst Blue Ribbon in her cup.

I once went to a hoity-toity wine tasting in Lansing, MI and as I was standing behind a lady to get some wine I watched her get a glass of Merlot and ask the server for "a couple of packets of sugar" to put in her glass. I was not actually appalled but I did find it amusing that she had not even tasted the wine and she was asking for an additive. You know, good wine does not need sugar and if wine does it is not actually good wine.

The same is to be said about coffee - it actually has a good-tasting God-designed flavor that can be experienced in each cup. If it does not then you either have bad coffee or you do not really like coffee to begin with.

What's in your cup?

anchorbayroasts.com

Do You Have a Poem in Your Soul?

2011-09-23T22:13:00.001-04:00

Besides being a great warrior, King David was a man of great passion. His Psalms are the music of the souls of men - and have been for thousands of years. Like King David, many of us have deep emotions that spill from us like rains from the Michigan sky in the forms of the words that we write. Do you have a passion for coffee? Would you share it with the class? We would be much obliged.

http://www.anchorbayroasts.com/poetry.html

You Charge How Much?!?!?

2011-09-23T14:13:00.001-04:00

Well crap! I had to increase the cost of the coffee that I produce or I was not going to be producing it for very long. It is still less expensive by a 1/3 than most of the brick-and-mortar producers but it is not as silly inexpensive as I had first quoted.

Please click here to read about it.

My House Does Not Smell Like Fish...

2011-09-23T08:26:00.000-04:00

The other night our family had baked tilapia and the house smelled of fish for a while. This morning it smells like dark roasted coffee. ;-) (See the last post to learn why).

Also, this morning I received my 2nd email alerting me that the easter-egg on the Anchor Bay Roasts homepage has been found. That means there are now 2 people in the drawing to win FREE coffee. Visit the website to find the easter-egg and you could be the third.

3.5 Pounds of Coffee...

2011-09-22T23:18:00.002-04:00

Today I worked on roasting a couple of orders for Fresh Roasted Single Origin coffee. In all I had to roast 3.5 lbs. of ground coffee which means that I had to begin with 4.3 lbs. of green coffee beans. (Yes, coffee does lose 20% of its weight when it cooks.) I really need to work on some things if I am going to proceed.

First, I need to work on becoming efficient in the process. It took me 4.5 hours to roast, grind, & bag the order. I seriously underestimated the labor when I determined the price. I think I priced the labor at $4.00 per pound - go me, I was paid a whopping $14.00 for today's performance. ;-)

Second, I need to work on getting better ventilation in my kitchen. At one point the house was so thick from smoke that you would have thought it was a VFW hall at Happy Hour. Having all the windows open in the winter is not going to cut it so I need to figure something out.

Third, I need to learn to train my children and then trust them to help. They want to be a part of this but I keep seeing images of coffee grounds getting spilled on the ground and the shrinkage of my product increasing. Yes, I know that I am a control-freak and I need to get over it. I think I need some therapy.

On another note. Someone found the easter-egg on www.anchorbayroasts.com today. This is the first and only person this month who has found it so unless someone else does the drawing for the FREE coffee will be easy. If you want to look its somewhere on the very first page.

And It Begins...

2011-09-21T21:55:00.004-04:00

I have been contracted to supply VOX Church with Fresh Roasted coffee each week. This means that the people who come to church this Sunday (and each Sunday going forward) will be enjoying the (dare I say it?) the very most awesome best coffee available in the whole Anchor Bay area.

This week I will be roasting up a Yemen Mocca - Sanani and a Peru Organic Royal Select Decaf. The Mocca is an excellent coffee which sports a faint chocolate flavoring that becomes more dominant as the brew cools. The smell is like the smell of a warm chocolate pudding that grandma used to make on the stove when I was a kid.

The Peruvian has a fantastic flavoring which when roasted dark makes the taste-buds do a little dance. This decaf has been water treated which is the mildest and most natural way to remove caffeine from coffee beans. So if you do not have plans this Sunday join us at VOX Church and experience freshest cup of coffee in town.

And oh yeah, in case you are wondering. When coffee is this good, you'll find that worshiping our creator takes on a whole new relevance in your soul.

Rwanda - Bugisu

2011-09-20T07:02:00.004-04:00

I have had this coffee before and my opinion HAS changed - I am really unimpressed with this coffee. I am a purist and I don't like coffee additives but this roast begs character - even character that comes from cream, sugar, and other flavorings. I realize that coffee tasting is purely subjective so I will refrain from any further bashing of this bean, but for my tastes, I would prefer some Maxwell House.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: If you have been to Anchor Bay Roasts and have not been able to find the easter-egg, I will give you a hint - it's on the landing page somewhere in the image.

Easter Egg & Email Sign-up

2011-09-16T14:17:00.000-04:00

Did you know that there is a couple of ways to get FREE Coffee from Anchor Bay Roasts?

1. There is an Easter Egg somewhere on the landing page - find it and get entered for the FREE Coffee.

2. If you have not yet done so, simply sign-up with your email and you will be automatically entered for the September drawing.

Click over to www.anchorbayroasts.com and get registered for FREE Coffee now.

Funeral for a Friend

2011-09-15T21:47:00.000-04:00

I'm just heart broken, I have been using this 3cup French Press for a couple of years now. I have made many hundreds if not thousands of cups of coffee with it. And last night while washing it I whacked it on the faucet and shattered it. It's silly to be so fond of a dumb $10 Meijer item but trying to replace it seems to be problematic.

Just the other day I found and purchased a 3cup coffee maker on eBay because the dumb things are sort of rare - and thus expensive. So it came in and it looked decent enough but I chose to just keep my old one and sell the new one as part of my business. Low and behold not a week later I destroy this one but luckily I had the new one on hand so I broke it out and used it. Yikes! It is terrible. The glass beaker is about 5mm larger in diameter and so it the screen. This caused the screen to buckle in a spot rather than seal and thus I have grounds in my coffee. I actually got it work with the parts from my old friend so I guess a part of it is still with me.

On the bright side. It was good that I actually used the new one and learned that it is poorly engineered. I was planning to buy 10 more and sell them at my demonstrations but now - no way! I don't want to get into the customer service and returns business.

Email Sign-up & FREE Coffee

2011-09-14T08:11:00.003-04:00

I just added an email sign-up at anchorbayroasts.com. If you sign-up you will be put into a drawing for FREE coffee for the month of September.

Also, find the easter egg on the website and get FREE coffee. If you sign up for email I will send you clues.

Coffee with Great-Grandma

2011-09-13T21:53:00.000-04:00

Every Monday morning I pick my grandmother up and she accompanies me to work. For those who do not know it, I am a local missionary/minister and I conduct Christian worship services for people who live in nursing care facilities with The Sharing Org. So anyway, I pick my grandma up on Mondays and she accompanies me to my first 2 morning services. While I have never told her, I secretly wait for her feedback between the first and second services about how she liked (or disliked) the message. While grandma is not what I would consider a theological-giant or anything, for-better-or-for-worse she is my barometer for how effectively I communicated the Gospel. Like a little boy I seem to need my G-ma's approval.

This morning my wife and eldest daughter went out of town which left me with my youngest 2 (ages 2.5 and 5.5). So I decided that after me and the kids ran our errands we would head to their great-grandma's and make her some coffee in my new Syphon brewer. The kids played with the dog (until the dog molested the 5.5 year old) while we made coffee and I told her all the interesting facts about the Indian Monsooned that I was preparing.

After about 15 minutes the coffee was done and G-ma took her first sip. She immediately told me how good it was but not in a proud-grandma-let's-not-hurt-Johnny's-feelings sort of way but in a my-golly-my-eyebrows-almost-left-my-forehead-because-they-jacked-so-high-in-delight sort of way.

You could tell that this cup of single-origin bean tasted incredible to her but what I think really made the difference was that for the first time in her life she was invited to not just drink the coffee but rather to experience it. When she sipped it she was tasting the weather in India, the monsoon rains that drenched the beans and the monsoon winds that blew the green out of them and left them a bleached-light-tan color. She tasted the mountain mist of the Malabar territory on the Western shore of India and the nutty taste produced by the earth in which the beans grew. She recognized that the particular cup of coffee she was drinking was a one-of-a-kind crop never to be repeated again. As a crop, the Monsooned Malabar grew in a soil in a particular area of the globe, with a particular amount of sun, rain, and temperature. Then as it was cured for a year it experienced a monsoon season that would not be repeated in the same way again. The cup that she was drinking had a definite history with a story uniquely its own and all of it was communicated to her in the taste.

As me and the kids left for home she expressed to me how much she enjoyed learning about the coffee that I made her and she looked forward to doing it again some time. As I left I got that weird feeling inside because I had just gotten my G-Ma's approval.

MORE FREE COFFEE!

2011-09-13T07:12:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Pat for winning the drawing for FREE coffee! She browsed through www.anchorbayroasts.com and made some observations, offered her suggestions, and her name was thrown into the hat along with the thousands of others (ok, I am just imagining that number) who responded. I heard and I responded - I hope I got it right this time. I'll be getting that FRESH ROASTED COFFEE shipped out to Pat as soon as I cook up another batch. (maybe this morning?)

With this new site I have created an Easter Egg for you to find. When you find it you will get a code for the September drawing for more FREE coffee. I hope that I did not make it too difficult to find - let me know.

Thanks,
John

www.anchorbayroasts.com

My New Love

2011-09-12T12:32:00.002-04:00

Regina the Coffee Roaster

Please allow me to introduce to you the latest member of our family. Her name is Regina and she is my knew coffee roaster. My wife tells me that I had a smile from ear-to-ear when she was delivered. ;-)

I was scheduled to do a coffee roasting demonstration at church (VOX Church) on Sunday and by Saturday the new roaster had still not arrived. But then, that afternoon (around 3pm) a package was hand delivered by the Fed-Ex guy - it was Regina. So that evening I learned how to use and present her and I was in my glory because I was indeed ready for Sunday morning.

Indian Monsooned Malabar

I took a picture of Regina and the resultant beans - the beans were perfectly Full-City Roast and you wanted to cry they were so yummy.

www.anchorbayroast.com

FREE Coffee

2011-09-09T23:02:00.004-04:00

Well the website for Anchor Bay Roasts is about complete and I need feedback. So for anyone who participates I will place their name in the hat and pick someone to send a 2.5oz. (enough for one 12-cup pot of coffee) package of coffee.

I have just 3 questions...

What are your general impressions of the site?
What is/are the thing(s) that need to be made clear(er) on the site?
Please indicate 1 grammatical or punctual error.

That's it. Please locate my email on the site and shoot me your answers and I will enter your name into the drawing. I will select the lucky winner on Tuesday, September 13 and let everyone know then.

Thanks,

John

www.anchorbayroasts.com

I was a Beauty Queen Doing a Pee-Pee Dance!

2011-09-08T08:07:00.000-04:00

I saw the UPS truck across the way and I think I was literally experiencing shortness of breath in anticipation. I am waiting for my new coffee roaster to be delivered and I feel like a contender waiting to be crowned Miss America. As I stood watching the UPS truck driving around I was rocking from foot to foot in a little anticipatory dance. When it arrived it brought something else - not the roaster - but happy I was to get my new packaging stuff to make individual packets of coffee.

BTW. Anchor Bay Roasts now has its own website - www.anchorbayroasts.com! While it is still very much a work in progress (Dreamweaver is giving me some fits) I'll be adding more content as time goes on. I also have a new email - john@ that domain name.

Coffee Roasting Demonstration

2011-09-05T17:45:00.001-04:00

Since I am scheduled to begin supplying the fresh-roasted coffee at our church (VOX Church) I am going to be doing a coffee demonstration this Sunday and feature the Indian Monsooned Malabar. I plan to roast and brew so that people may watch the process and sample the freshest coffee this side of the equator. If you're not doing anything on Sunday come on out and taste the goodness. (learn about VOX)

Getting Ready

2011-09-02T19:50:00.001-04:00

Well, I am in the process of getting everything ready to make a real business out of the coffee roasting. I don't have too many details to share at this time but I do hope to have things ready in the next couple of weeks. But I do have one thing to share right now though - 100% of the profits will be used to support the ministry of The Sharing Org.

More to come later - stay tuned...

Syphon Brewer

2011-08-30T21:07:00.019-04:00

Today I received a new coffee making apparatus. It is most commonly referred to as the "vacuum" method of brewing coffee but it is technically called a "Coffee Syphon."

I waited like an anxious little child who was anticipating his birthday presents for this coffee maker to come today. You would think I was more mature than that - I'm not. I received the package by UPS around 5pm and I was tasting my first brew at 5:40pm.

There are 5 major pieces to this system: The bottom carafe, the infusion chamber, the filter, the infusion chamber holder, and a big old coffee measure/spoon. The photo to the left shows that there is a black top on the infusion chamber but I took this picture before I read the directions and learned that the top is actually a stand to hold the infusion chamber (as seen in the photo below).

I made the first pot of coffee and it was fun to watch and experience. I saw how the "vacuum" actually worked. We made this one of our home-school science experiments and we had an impromptu science class.

I was not sure how to make the coffee so I stuck with the way that I use to make coffee in the French-Press. That is, I used a ratio of 1:0.042 liquid ounce of water to ground roasted coffee. When the coffee was finished it was noticeably weak but it tasted fine for someone who likes their coffee weak.

I then made a second pot using the suggested amounts on the side of the box which is 1:0.1. This made a stronger cup and it was indeed flavorful but still too weak for my pallet. However, this was still a very good and solid cup of coffee.

The process what pretty straight forward. The water is put in the bottom carafe and the infusion chamber with the filter is seated on top. As the water is heated it rises up through a tube into the cooler infusion chamber. 60 seconds after all the water has transferred into the infusion chamber the heat is turned off and the bottom carafe gradually becomes cooler than the upper infusion chamber which means that the carafe now has a void that wants to be filled and draws the coffee from the infusion chamber back down through the filter into the carafe. Once this process is complete the upper infusion chamber is then unseated from the carafe and placed to cool in the stand (that I thought was a top). The whole process takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

While the coffee was not (as I already stated) as good to me as my French Press coffee, it was, however, still a good cup of coffee. It tasted to me like coffee made in the percolator but because the experience was more fun I think I prefer the taste of this coffee better. However, I will have to have a side-by-side comparison - but that is another post.

Tonight I have a bunch of coffee in a glass pitcher in the fridge that I will be microwaving and drinking tomorrow. Yes, I might be a coffee-snob but I am still too cheap to dump good coffee.

Indian Monsooned Malabar

2011-08-27T13:13:00.006-04:00

Like the fallen leaves on an autumn day, I loved this cup as much as I love the fall smells and colors.

This was the first time that I tried the Monsooned Malabar. I roasted it just until the second-crack began in order to keep more of the original flavor of the bean than infusing the flavor of roast.

What I noticed as I roasted was that the beans smoked pretty good but then the smoke seem to diminish and the chaff was very limited. This Monsooned worked its way through the expected roasting stages without complaint. After about 8 minutes it was finished and I started it to cooling.

I roasted 3oz of the green bean for a 2.5oz yield of roast (16.7% shrinkage). I placed 1oz of whole beans in 750ml glass container, topped off with water, corked the bottle and sat it in the sun for the day. I am attempting to make sun-coffee. I will let the beans soak in the sun day-after-day until all of the beans have sunk to the bottom of the bottle. I'll post again after I have sampled the brew.

Then I brewed a cup of the coffee in a French Press. I ground the beans medium and added a 1/2 ounce (by wieght) to 12 ounces of boiling filtered water. When I added the water to the grounds the grounds frothed with freshness and there I left it to steep for 4 minutes. I then poured 2 - 6oz cups and me and the wife sampled the brew.

As I smelled the aroma I noticed a very cocoa note where my wife said it smelled like a casserole but she could not name the casserole. In any respect, the aroma was different - but in a good way smelling very distinctly of a rich character. As we tasted the coffee my first thought was that it was very smooth to the pallet and she mentioned that it was very mild to the taste. It was both of those with a very homey-type flavor that made me wish that I were in the woods enjoying the songs of birds, the sight of the fallen leaves from trees, and the smells of a damp-autumn and sun-shiny day. All in all this was a very good roast with a great character worthy of being one of God's great creations.

Oh, I almost forgot, I ordered a syphon brewer today - I'm as excited as a young maiden lying in wait for the ball with the prince. I'll post about this in a few days.

Coffeeeeeeeeee!

2011-08-25T16:00:00.004-04:00

I just received 18 pounds of coffee - green beans today. Can you say "Excited"! I had a long talk with the UPS guy about coffee and how to become an official coffee snob. He did not want to put the time into roasting his own and I forgot to tell him that he could simply buy it from me. Oh well, I'll catch him on the next trip. ;-)

Kimel Peaberry

2011-08-21T09:26:00.001-04:00

This is still my favorite coffee. It is smooth, it is strong, and it is characteristic beyond measure. Really, I sit here with my eyes wet with tears sipping this batch that I roasted this afternoon and I swear that there must be a Thanks Giving meal in this cup. I think if it were a dietary supplement that it would make you thin, if were a make-up it would make you beautiful, if it were a hair gel it would grow new hair, and if it were a little blue pill like Viagra it would - well, you know.

Anyway, I really believe that this is the best coffee in the world...

It's Official!

2011-08-20T06:19:00.006-04:00

That's what he told me after he drank the last pot of liquid heaven that I roasted for him. "You have officially now become my coffee provider."

Our pastor at church is a budding coffee snob. Many months ago I gave him a gift of roasted coffee and now that's all he wants. Also, I have been asked to roast the coffee for the church so the VOX can have the freshest and best coffee for their guests. So, I've been learning about the legal side of roasting coffee as a business - you know, getting the food inspector involved and everything. But as intimidating as it was to get the Michigan Department of Agriculture involved, the most daunting task has been figuring out how to price the stuff. Without going into all the details I have landed on a position. What I provide is unique in that the coffee that I sell is #1 - Fresh and #2 - Small-batch/hand-roasted.

When I say that what I sell is fresh, what this means is that every batch that I sell just came from the roaster. Coffee stales two-weeks after roasting so this means that the coffee that you buy from the store is most likely already stale. People never really notice this because they have never had fresh before. And when I say that I hand-roast a small-batch I mean that when the large stale-coffee providers roast coffee they will dump a 50# bag of green beans into a computer-controlled-commercial roaster where I only roast 2/3 of a cup of green beans at a time. Roasting good coffee is more of an art rather than a science and coffee is finished cooking when the beans declare it - not when the timer dings. Each cup of blessed nectar is (and should be) it's own spiritual experience.

So now, it is official. Under the rules of the great State of Michigan's Cottage Food Law I have begun selling my fresh roasted coffee to my friends and family for $.875 per ounce which equates to just $14.00 a pound. I compared this to the coffee that is for sale in the local grocery store and I saw a 12oz. bag of char-bucks for almost $10.00 which equates to about $.833 per ounce. Is there cheaper coffee to buy than mine - yep. Is there better coffee than mine? Maybe, but my pastor and the people of VOX Church will be hard pressed to locate it.

There is a God!

2011-08-02T13:27:00.004-04:00

I just spent 6 nights with my family travelling to and from Dubuque, IA. I've had coffee in hotel rooms, lobbies, and restaurants during that whole time and now that I am home I have just roasted the last of my Salimba from Zimbabwe and brewed a very fresh cup..... Yes, my friends, if you have ever contemplated the existence of God allow me to assure you that he does truly exist. How do I know? Because He has put goodness in my cup, it overflows, and my face is wet with tears of sheer joy from the overwhelming urge to worship.

It saddens me that so many people still do not roast there own coffee beans.

Well Done...

2011-06-28T08:07:00.007-04:00

I have not posted in like forever, however, I have nothing to write about. So rather than bore you with a bunch of drivel that sounds like a preacher trying to stretch an inane 20 minute sermon into a 45 minute time slot I just don't write anything.

However, today a friend of mine sent me a link for a video that was very well done about the caffeine that is contained in coffee. Did you know that caffeine is actually a poisonous? Ahh but we love it so don't we? Sort of like LSD. Well not really LSD because I don't love it but you get the point right?

Enjoy!

Peet's Coffee

2010-10-08T14:54:00.002-04:00

It has been quite a while since I have posted - I've been roasting but I have had nothing new to report so I have been silent. However, a few minutes ago I opened a bag of Major Dickason's Blend coffee from Peet's Coffee & Tea company. I have to admit that as biased as I am against store bought coffee this is a very good cup of Joe. It is smooth, rich, well balanced, and most of all it tastes good - very good.

While nothing beats the freshness and flavor of a self roasted coffee, this is a very good bean to have on hand for those rare days that you do not have any beans roasted.

Sulawesi

2010-03-30T12:21:00.002-04:00

Kalossi

I just roasted the very last of my Sulawesi. What I discovered was that I like this bean roasted to just into the Second Crack. I have been roasting it very dark as I prefer a French Roasted coffee but this bean seems to exhibit a flavor not noticeable when dark roasted.

When roasted just into the Second Crack this coffee smells rich when ground and its flavor possess a hint of sweet-wine flavor. Have fun with your own roasting experiences and let me know how they turn out.

Peaberry Showdown

2010-03-05T15:43:00.008-05:00

Papua New Guinea - Kimel Peaberry
Kenya - Kahura Peabery
Tanzania - Kigoma Peaberry

When only one can be the best, I am on the job, and I put the coffee to the test. The other day my wife suggested that we do a taste test and explore the three types of Peaberry coffees that I currently have. So we did. She and I both sampled all three types, and we rated them according to Aroma, Flavor, Body, Complexity, and Uniqueness. Here were the results.

*****Kimel Peaberry*****

Aroma: John- 7 Megan- 8
Flavor: John- 8 Megan- 8
Body: John- 6 Megan- 4
Complexity: John- 4 Megan- 4
Uniqueness: John- 10 Megan- 10
TOTALS: John- 35 Megan- 26 (61)

*****Kahura Peaberry*****
Aroma: John- 7 Megan- 6
Flavor: John- 8 Megan- 6
Body: John- 5 Megan- 7
Complexity: John- 4 Megan- 8
Uniqueness: John- 10 Megan- 6
TOTALS: John- 34 Megan- 35 (69)

*****Kigoma Peaberry*****
Aroma: John- 9 Megan- 5
Flavor: John- 7 Megan- 7
Body: John- 4 Megan- 8
Complexity: John- 7 Megan- 7
Uniqueness: John- 10 Megan- 7
TOTALS: John- 37 Megan- 34 (71)

Since I am writing this I will describe my experience as my wife will have to speak for herself.

As I roasted these beans I had a tough time hearing them crack and so I ended up with 3 different levels of roast with each batch. The Kimel was Dark Roasted, the Kahura was darker roasted, and the Kigoma was sweating oil when I was finished with it. (Mmmmmm - French Roasted coffee)

I liked the Kigoma best for its Aroma. This one jumped out at me but It is completely possible that it had the best aroma because it was the darkest roasted. But, for whatever reason, it was a great Aroma.

The Kimel and the Kahura were the best tasting as they both demonstrated a complex Flavor that made you happy to be alive. This is not to say that the Kigoma made you wish for death but either my palatte was tired by time I got to it or it was not as good as the rest as far as Flavor went.

The Kimel seemed to have the best Body but then after loking at how the Body numbers dropped with the progress of the sampling I suspect that my subjectivity may have been in question.

With Complexity I was looking for definite taste attributes like floral, woody, and nutty. In this arena the Kigoma stood out as it had a definite nutty/woody attribute in its flavor.

I scored each of the 3 coffees with a 10 for Uniqueness because each of them are wholly unique from regular Arabica or Robusta coffees. I did not compare them against one another but with coffee in general.

By the end of our testing my favorite wound up being Kigoma with a combined score of 37 points. I attribute this to it having the best Aroma and only being one point below the rest in Flavor. So there you have it, if you are ever at the coffee shop and the person behind the counter ever asks you what type of Peaberry you would like, look then straigt in the eye and proudly proclaim that you would like a cup od Kigoma Peaberry... (snort) I'm only kidding, none of the coffee shops around you are sophisticated enough to actually serve anything but the swill that you are used to. (snort, snort)

Moving on... Upon completion of the testing I simply blended all three types of the Peaberry together and made a super tasting brew with an awesome body. When blending coffees it will ussually combine the good and the bad and the resultant coffee is either one or the other but since none of these three was ever bad the result of the blend is that the strengths of each Peaberry strengthened the experience of the whole cup.

Until next time - Happy Roasting!!!

You know? If I were to start a coffee shop I would sell coffees by individual type, roast the green beans while you wait, grind it in a fancy-shmantcy Burr grinder, and serve it to you in a one cup French Press as you sit in an over-stuffed chair with your favorite book. Aww, who'm I kidding? That sort of coffee shop would be too expensive to own and operate. Oh well, one can dream can't he?

Salimba

2010-02-10T08:11:00.003-05:00

Zimbabwe

As I sit here, my face is wet with tears for I weep at how good this coffee is.

I French-Roasted this batch and this Salimba is as good as anything that I have ever tasted. Its flavor is traditional yet not at all typical. Uh oh, I feel the bubblings of artistic expression rising in my soul.......

Hath not doth my soul to praise,
Your glory for I am made,
Creation cries out for salvation
And with Christ (and I believe coffee) you did save.

Phew, that needed to come out.

Anyway, if I were to start a coffee supply company, I am confident that this would be my number one seller and I am pretty sure that you would be a loyal customer.

Sulawesi

2010-01-30T09:29:00.004-05:00

Kalossi

This coffee is not the Backwoods Chocolate Smothered dessert at the end of the meal it is more like the wake-up at the crack of dawn and watch the sun rise over the lake while the camp fire brews your first cup of morning glory. It does not make you glad for taste buds but rather this coffee roasted to a very dark French Roast wipes the cobwebs away and makes you aware that God did a good thing when he created them in the first place.

If you roast you own beans, this is a bean well worth getting. If you don't then all I can say is that I am very sorry for you.

I sure am sad that I am not in the business of selling coffee.

Kigoma Peaberry

2010-01-23T18:38:00.008-05:00

Tanzania

My wife suggested that I roast this batch well past the second crack but just before charcoal. She said that the peaberry always seem to have a green taste and she wanted to know if French roasting the beans would knock the green out of it. It did -and how.

This roast was so good that I thought I had a professional roaster make these beans. The only thing missing was the snobbish barista, the calming brown colors, and the college beatnik sitting in the corner trying to look cool with his Oxford Dictionary of Modern Poetry. Had Little Orphan Annie's Daddy WarBucks tasted this brew he would have commissioned me to full-time employment in the making of coffee beans.

This bean makes roasting easy and encourages the lowly roaster to have great aspirations of hope among a world that is too easily tricked into drinking bad coffee because of the cream, sugar, and flavors galore.

If I were in the business of roasting beans, I would sell this coffee at a premium - and you would buy it.

Pluma - Don Edwardo

2010-01-22T08:36:00.002-05:00

Mexico

You smell the lilacs in the late spring and you know that the world is alive... Yeah, this Pluma is sort of like that. However, it is the flavor of this brew that awakens the senses - not necessarily the aroma. The flavor invites you to life and blankets your taste-buds with a shawl that wards of the south wind that sometimes threatens a world of summer.

Oh how I wish I was in the business of roasting coffee, because this coffee would make you happy you were alive for another season of life.

Marcala (Organic)

2010-01-12T08:55:00.003-05:00

Honduras

When the first rays of sunlight caress your face and you smell nature before any deer have awoke to take the day's first drink from the lake - you will only then most intimately know this coffee. It's aroma can only be described by feeling and its flavor can only be realized with the methodical rhythm of Argent's Hold Your Head Up. This is a coffee that demands to be experienced and begs to be beheld.

I sure wish I sold this stuff so that you too could experience the very best of God's glorious creation.

Mocca Matari - 5

2010-01-09T03:49:00.004-05:00

Yemen

Like school kids in the lunch-line on pizza day - this coffee made me happy.

The aroma was rich, thick, and warm like an evening fire. It was robust with nostalgia and made you say "wow". The flavor was as committed as Little Ann was committed to Old Dan. Thick and solid this coffee did not let you down, chasing down the ring tails of satisfaction.

That said, the Mocca Matari is a demanding mutt - as fickle as a cat. Some beans you can roast without too much attention and still brew a cup that contains the flavor that you expected. However, the Mocca in this bean will not be realized until it has been roasted quite dark - well into the second crack. Though the flavor is good at the cinnamon level the potential will still be in the bean waiting for the maturity that comes only with a fuller roast.

Kahura Peabery

2009-12-19T14:48:00.002-05:00

Kenya

I just roasted another Peabery - this makes the forth kind so far. As I type I am waiting for it to fully steep so that I can taste it. I am so excited I might just wet myself (ok, not really but I am excited).

This bean seemed to be more dense than any other bean. I usually roast 2/3 C of green beans without incident but this time the air was not moving the beans to roast them evenly. So, I did what anyone would do - I stood there shaking the roaster.

(Be right back, I have to get the coffee and I think I hear the baby crying)
(Alright, I got the coffee and the baby is babbling and contained safely in her crib)

This cup smells wonderful, like an autumn evening after the leaves have fallen. I mean, this cup smells "take her home to mother" good. It is a pleasure to just sit and smell her beauty and imagine that first kiss. When I dared to lean over for a peck on the cheek I was rewarded with a passion that only a woman can deliver. The flavor is woody and nutty with a depth that only Alice's rabbit hole can know. This flavor begs for a pallet to cause to rejoice and it makes the angels sing. If only I were in the business of roasting coffee - the world would know peace.

I highly recommend this Kahura Peabery...

Kigoma Peaberry

2009-12-04T21:49:00.001-05:00

Tanzania

Just like the Paupa New Guinea, this Peaberry possesses a sophisticated flavor that only the most seasoned coffee lovers will appreciate. Like the flavor of Borolo Pio Cesare, this coffee is full of complexity.

This is a good coffee but one I fear will not be liked by most poeple. It really must be drank like a wine because one must approach it like the connesuer of wine rather than a teenager drinking a Budweiser. I do appreciate it for a change but the flavor is odd (sort of like chickory flavoring) and so it will not become my favorite.

Biggby Coffee

2009-12-02T03:16:00.002-05:00

Alright, alright, I realize that I have been spending way too much time trying and posting about store bought coffee. You are correct to be getting sick of it and considering me a turn-coat because this site was founded upon the purism of freshly home-roasted coffee. I promise, I will return to my roots but for now, well, I have to use this store bought coffee before it gets any more stale.

I don't know if you have noticed one of the 150 or so Biggby stores that have popped up in 6 states. But they are around us and I've noticed. I would like to do some research concerning their business model and how they plan to compete with Starbuck's and the others but I'll leave that for another day. Today I'll simply talk about the coffee.

I could say it is "AWESOME!", I could say that it is "great", I could say that I have been converted from my home-roasting ways but then I would be a liar. At best the Biggby Coffee was a lot better than the Ugly Mug and light years passed the Seattle's Best. I would concede that it is on par with Dunkin's Coffee and less burnt than Charbucks. So if you want a really great cup of coffee learn to home roast.

Ugly Mug Coffee

2009-11-07T05:27:00.004-05:00

It would seem that my latest coffee exploits have veered away from the original scope of this blog (to review my home roasted coffees) - but hey, at least I am still posting.

I tried a new coffee from the store called Ugly Mug Coffee. It's not all that great but a heck of a lot better than my Seattle's Best sample. The best part of this Memphis brew seems to me to be the packaging and the dreadful morning pictures of people that they use on their packaging and website.

Oh. The taste review? Hold on a sec while I go brew a cup...... Alright, here it is.

This roast is called "BOLD" and while it is certainly dark roasted the flavor nor the aroma calls out to me. This could be in part because the package indicates that it would have been best if used by last month but hey - that explains why it was on sale. However, the flavor is good enough that I am not trying to figure out what I can mix it with to mask any annoying attributes.

This brew does remind me of a cup of coffee that I can only get in the office break room, early in the winter morning when it is still dark and nobody else is there to disturb the few moments of peace before the work day begins. The coffee made from a mass packet of grounds that has been in the cupboard for only God knows how long and brewed with office sink water. In those moments it is not the flavor of the cup that stands out but the peacefulness and warmth of the moment.

So Ugly Mug Coffee is not exceptional coffee but it does seem to have a nostalgic quality about it.

Dunkin Donuts

2009-10-19T20:59:00.003-04:00

I purchased a bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee to have on hand when I was out of fresh roasted beans. I have to say that I was expecting something really extraordinary by the way people gush about the stuff. I found it a little bitter with a flowery note. It was better than Seattle's Best - but then again Folger's is better than Seattle's Best is.

To correct the DD's bitter and floral taste I did add a 50% mix of Seattle's Best to the mix and it was not a bad blend at all. I need to sample it again but I think I found a decent blend of store bought coffees. I'll keep you posted.

Seattle's Best Coffee

2009-10-14T10:53:00.004-04:00

I've not been able to roast coffee as quickly as I drink it so I have a stash of store bought coffee that I use when I am empty. I picked up a bag of something called Seattle's Best Coffee and I must say that this stuff is horrible!!! It is considered a "dark roast" which simply means that it is burned, they could be using any bean from anywhere because there is no flavor to this cup except the taste of burn. They call this sludge Seattle's Best Coffee and I cannot help but feel sorry for the folks in Seattle if this is the best that they have. The name reminds me of that beer Milwaukee's Best which is also pretty sad for the people of Milwaukee.

El Salvador Organic - Cuzcachapa

2009-09-01T08:56:00.003-04:00

The fun of this coffee began the moment that I tried to pronounce its name. I finally have it phonetically but I am quite sure that my accent is way off. ;-)

I roasted this bean to just through the 1st crack and it ground just slightly darker than cinnamon. The flavor is very full and is supposed to have a definite chocolate note. I did not notice this, what is dominant to me is the floral qualities of this bean. I am sensitive to the florals because I'm especially fond of them.

The body of this cup is wonderful! As it cooled and I could take a full swallow I realized that this is a very viscous coffee which makes it more a meal than a warm and comforting drink.

The next time I roast this bean I will take it through the 2nd Crack and explore the flavors through caramelized sugars.

Indonesian - Timor (Organic)

2009-08-26T16:07:00.002-04:00

This has been a nice tasting coffee (it could be the coffee or is could be that I drank the Columbian House from the freezer for a week before I got around to roasting). I roasted these beans just seconds into the second crack which gave me a grind that smells faintly of cocoa. Even my 5 year old daughter commented how good it smelled.

This is an organic coffee which always leaves me skeptical but the coffee is surprisingly flavorful. It has a fruity note and as it cools there is a definite chocolate flavor that emerges.

I gave this coffee to friends as a gift and one of the recipients emailed me that they really loved the coffee. i suspect that it is the first time that they ever had a coffee that was roasted less than 24 hrs of its brewing and consumption.

Boqette - Carmen (Panama SHB)

2009-07-22T14:19:00.004-04:00

The name "Boqette" is very fitting from this Panamanian bean. While roasting the floral perfume fragrance is very noticeable and when this coffee is brewed the house smells of its aroma.

The flavor is rich and satisfying without the least trace of bitter. Even as this cup cools the flavor is stable and always pleasurable.

It was a very fast transition between the 1st and 2nd cracks so I had to be very careful not to over-roast these beans.

Cepicafe - Peru

2009-07-22T14:14:00.003-04:00

This is an organic Peruvian coffee. It has been quite a few weeks since I last sampled it but what was noteworthy was that the flavor in this bean required that it be roasted well into the 2nd crack. If it was not French Roasted then the flavor was not pleasant, but after it had been roasted to very-dark the flavor was indeed good.

How Much Coffee You Drink...

2009-04-18T09:24:00.005-04:00

25 people responded to the question "How Many Cups Of Coffee Per Day Do You Consume?" Here's how it shook out.

The survey was flawed in that it did not allow people the option to choose "Ewwww! - NO Cups." SO it is a good thing that I am not getting paid for this.

However, for the 25 cultured people who responded, the majority (68%) said that they drink 5 or less cups of coffee per day while just 12% said that they drink more than 5 and 20% responded by indicating that their only source of fluid intake is coffee.

What are the implications of this survey's results? First, that only a lousy 25 people in over 30 days came to this blog AND could bother clicking a button (no, no, I'm not bitter). And second, that 20% of the survey group probrably need to drink some straight water once in a while - I mean really, your kidney's need a break once in a while.

Sulawesi

2009-04-17T11:23:00.006-04:00

Kalossi

The taste of the this Sulawesi is unique in a peaberry-ish sort of way. Its dominant attributes are its remarkable, almost chocolate, aroma and its Spicy note which makes it flavor akin to the peaberry.

The raw beans were a darker green - indicating a higher moisture content. They roasted to a very nice Full City without creating much chaff. The smell from the roasting process lingered quite a long time (in comparison to other beans) which made the house quite pleasant.

I am going to like the rest of these beans for sure.

Coffee Link of Great Importance

2009-03-21T17:26:00.002-04:00

I feel that following my absence I should post a link to a coffee thought of great importance.
Here is this gem: Ominous Comma
Please consider it a public service.

Kigoma Peaberry

2009-03-21T16:41:00.006-04:00

Tanzania

Just like the Paupa New Guinea, this Peaberry possesses a sophisticated flavor that only the most seasoned coffee lovers will appreciate. Like the flavor of Borolo Pio Cesare, this coffee is full of complexity.

This is a good coffee but one I fear will not be liked by most people. It really must be drank like a wine because one must approach it like the taster of dine wine rather than a teenager drinking a Budweiser. I do appreciate it for a change but the flavor is odd (sort of like chicory flavoring) and so it will not become my favorite.

NEW Coffee Arrived!

2009-03-04T05:19:00.005-05:00

I just received 35 lbs. of green beans! It took over 3 weeks to get my order because the sale at the supplier was such a success that they ran out of some of the beans that I ordered. So, as a way of mollifying me they gave me 4 cork coasters which are pictured at the bottom corners of the photo.

I tried to expand my horizons with this order. I got a pound of Panama Boquette SHB which I am looking forward to trying, as well as a Mexican Altura Pluma. I also got more of some of the beans that I really liked the last time - such as a 5# bag of the Papua New Guinea - Kimel Peaberry. (One thing that is really meaningless but makes me happy is that the 5# bags are burlap sacks which adds a bit of ambiance to the whole process.)

With this new batch of beans I plan to be roasting on a regular basis again and will post new content with each new experience.

Finca Pastoral Bourbon (Blend #7)

2009-02-07T12:33:00.003-05:00

1oz - Nicaragua - Finca San Jose
1oz. - Guatemala - Antigua Pastoral
1 oz. - Rwanda - Washed Bourbon

This blend was alright but nothing spectacular. I liked that the acidity was very low (if at all detectable) which made it a very smooth flavor. However, I noted a floral quality in the nose with the after taste which was not overpowering nor was it bad - I just hapen to not especially care for the floral notes.

How Many Cups Do You Drink?

2009-02-05T12:05:00.003-05:00

I have just been informed that there is a flaw with the above poll. There is no option for 0-cups per day.

Huh.. Silly me, this is a blog about coffee and so I did not figure it appropriate to add zero cups as an option. But, since my wife reads this blog I guess I will have to consider her as an option.

Sorry honey.

How You Drink Your Coffee?

2009-02-04T14:28:00.005-05:00

I posted a survey on this blog and 33 people responded. Here's the skinny.

54% of this blog readers drink their coffee the way that God intended - black!
18% drink their coffee with just cream
21% drink coffee with cream & sugar
6% add some sort of flavoring to their brew

This means that almost half of the people who responded to the survey don't really drink coffee but rather some form of coffee drink. Now, far be it from me to tell people how to drink their coffee (but I will anyway) but if you need to add something to your coffee then the coffee that you are starting with is not very good. And if all you are served is Charbucks, Maxwell House, or Folgers then your dilemma is clear - you need some good coffee.

I hope that through this blog that you will discover good coffee - sooner rather than later. Stay posted as I will continue to explore the wide range of single-crop and blended-coffees in the time to come.

Buy Only Michigan Grown Coffee

2009-02-04T07:53:00.002-05:00

We all heard Governor Granholm's appeal in last night's State of the State Address to buy Michigan products. So I am posting this list of the very best coffee grown in Michigan.

Study - Coffee a Cure for Everything

2009-02-03T20:38:00.006-05:00

I was given this study. I have no citations. But I do have a link to MSNBC which is as good as having it written on tablets of stone.

You may not agree with my assessment of MSNBC - BUT it does not matter. Coffee, according to science, CURES EVERYTHING!

Now before you poo poo this - it is science. I have it in a print out on my desk. You must believe it.

"NEW YORK- . . . a new study suggests that middle aged adults who regularly drink a cup of java may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life."

Hello - has no one noticed that I drink coffee and am brilliant? (note Coffee Shock post for proof )

"coffee drinkers have lower risks of several diseases. . ."
Does anyone else see an answer here to the health care crisis that Democrats and Republicans can get behind?

The article has it's own moments of dementia such as the one where it says "no one is recommending that people start drinking coffee. . ." Hmm - the rest of you non coffee drinkers just go ahead and die - leave the coffee, and the world, to us.

"Researchers do not know if it's components of coffee itself — like caffeine or certain antioxidants — or something else about coffee drinkers that explains the recent study observations." Hello??? All of the above. Since the whole world is reading this blog they ought to know that by now.

"More research is needed to determine whether coffee is truly protective, but for now, Eskelinen said, 'those people who have been drinking coffee can still do so in good conscience.'"

Well - I for one will do my part for science and do my research. I shall continue to post my findings here in the interest of science until the Anchor Bay people (or the guys in the black helicopters circling around outside) silence me.

Coffee Shock

2009-02-01T17:40:00.007-05:00

Well - after the first roasting experience (see the smoke filled pics in Thom's Rebuttal post) I went out and bought a air popcorn popper. Rushing home I put some green coffee beans in and plugged it in.

Out they all popped! So I tried again with fewer beans. Out they came too.

So I emailed our illustrious blogger the "Mr. Reverend, John Rock" of Anchor Bay fame.

His response - are you putting too much coffee in the roaster?

WHAT!!! How can the words "too much" and "coffee" ever go together. I mean - can you have too much love? Can there ever be too much care and peace in the world? How can anyone have too much coffee. Too much "running with scissors" perhaps. Too much fun with a slinky (which frankly after you send it down the stairs once kind of looses its appeal) - but too much coffee?
But I tried, I went back and put ONE bean in the popper. OUT it came!

Well I emailed Mr. Rev. Rock again - he is the coffee guru (or was until the next advice).

"you may need to open the machine and install a resistor to the fan circuit."

OK - I am smart - I have a Ph.D. and can figure things out. In fact - I am the smartest guy I know. Of all the people I like to listen to - my favorite is me. So here goes, I open my new (though now that I have opened it - no longer under warranty - popper) and put in a resistor. All the while talking my ever so smart self through the process. I am very cool like that.
I can already taste the roasted goodness of the coffee on its way.

Small amount of test beans added. Looked at wall socket and put plug in. . . .

Well - a few hours later - hands still shaking - clothing freshly laundered - I went back to roasting in the fry pan (batteries now out of the smoke detector).

And this morning I had a cup of good coffee.

Thom will be stopping by Thursday to pick up his coffee beans - more roasting wisdom from the brilliant team of Thom and Malcolm will be posted as they are made available.