February Event - 02/18/2012

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

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...

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

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.