You Charge How Much?!?!?

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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