Ethiopian Organic Yergacheffe FT

Ethiopian Organic Yergacheffe FT

At the Horn of Africa just under Yemen where the Mocca Matari is grown (Oh YUM!!!) is Ethiopia.  Ethiopia has a wide range of altitude that has given the country a variety of ecologically distinct areas and allows it to produce some mighty fine coffee.

The aroma in this coffee is woody and wild.  It possesses a charred smell but not burnt - more like a wisp of smoke from a camp fire.  The coffee is viscous (thick) as it seems to want to hold to the side of the cup and this produces a wonderful mouth-feel that invites us to swirl it on our palette rather than just gulp it down.

The flavor of this cup is a sweet and winey with a fruit note.  This is where the character of this coffee lies as the flavor brings up nostalgic images of times spent in nature.  I personally kept visualizing my past of days walking the Belle River only to rest a while with a fire made from damp wood.  Yes, I know it sounds sappy, but I do love remembering my times in nature like that.

Bali Blue Moon

A Syrupy mouth feel and a sweet sort of spice.  Confused? Sorry that's about the best that I can describe this cup.  My wife and I tasted this cup (again) this morning and we both were stymied to come to any concrete conclusions about it.  

She said it simply smelled like coffee but admits that her sniffer was still snuffed from the evening sleep.  I thought it smelled thick - like warmed maple syrup and a touch on the sweet side as well.  Not sweet like maple syrup but as a memory of it.

My wife described the flavor like this - "It reminds me of BBQ'd meat, like something from a pot luck at your mother's church."  Uhm, Really?  I would fire her for that description but then again tastes are always subjective.  I on the other hand could not imagine BBQ in my best Alice In Wonderland dream that this coffee tasted like BBQ'd meat.  I was enchanted by the flavor because I could not peg it down.  It was slightly sweet from the citric trees that surround and mulch this coffee with its fallen fruit.  As I tasted each sip I was looking for a descriptor for the flavor but it was the mouth feel that kept begging to be noticed.  I was simply looking in the wrong direction for the wrong thing and so I was confused as I explored this cup.  However, all is right in the world again as I discovered this coffees real richness lies in its body.

This Bali Blue Moon is a well known treasure among roasters. This growing region that has been very regulated by Bali's government which means that both the quality of the stock and the handling processes are in our favor.  If you ever get a chance to try this coffee you will not be disappointed.

Cold Brewed Coffee

I made my first batch of cold brewed coffee today.  It was good but to be honest I want to play with the ratio more and use a different coffee so that I have something to compare it with - stay tuned.

I used my 8 cup French Press coffee maker and filled it with 1-Cup of coffee grounds.  Then I filled the rest with room temp filtered water and let soak for 24 hours.  I stirred it once at 12 hours because the grounds made a sort of crust on the top and I wanted to make sure that all the grounds were being steeped by the water.  After I stirred the grounds they did not form a crust again but rather sank to the bottom and steeped fully for the last 12.

I used an initial 1 to 3 concentrate to hot water ratio to make the coffee but then I landed on a 2 to 3 ratio.  It was good coffee.  There was no bitter and the acidity seemed non-existent.  In the morning I am going to try a 1 to 1 ratio and see how that works out - I am expecting great things.  I liked that the coffee was immediately drinkable as the hot water mixed with the cool concentrate made it nice.  i suspect that tomorrow's 1 to 1 ratio will make the coffee too cold as the concentrate is in the fridge tonight so it will be cold rather than room temp and the 1 to 1 ratio will make there be more cold in comparison to the hot.  If I like the flavor better using a 1 to 1 ratio then I will have to make a more dense concentrate and go from there.  Again, stay tuned.

Brazilian "Sweet Yellow" Deterra Estate

She said "It smells like yellow". 

Huh, I did not know that yellow had a smell but as I nosed the cup I discovered that she was right.  I like the fact that my wife is sensitive to smells and tastes at times.  Today as she sampled the "Sweet Yellow" for the first time I was keen to listen to her responses. 

She said it "smells yellow - like a vegetable."

And she was correct, it has a sort of sweet smell like buttered corn or something. 

Then she tasted it and she said, "Wow, that's smooth.  That has to be the smoothest cup of coffee that you have ever had me sample - even more so than that expensive coffee, that Blue Mountain stuff - And more character too."

My wife is correct, the Brazil "Sweet Yellow" from Deterra Estate is fantastic!
---

https://www.facebook.com/anchorbayroasts

http://www.anchorbayroasts.com/

Audio Ad - 8/22/2012

Hi there, since I have been in the business of selling the coffee that I roast (and not just experimenting with it) I've been posting less to my blog. I'm sorry about that and yes, I do miss the experiments to find the best coffees in the world. However, since I have been in this business I have been a part of a business networking group and every week I have to write a new 60 presentation about my business and what I want the people in the group to pass on to their spheres of influence. So since I have to write them I figured I could record them easily enough and post them here. 

Any way, enjoy!

http://www.anchorbayroasts.com/audio/ABR%20ad%2008222012.mp3

A True Home-Schooled Family...

My wife has said for years that we are not really a home-schooling family until we have a home business that the whole family participates in.  Well today we have officially become a home-schooling family because more than half of the family was participating in the coffee roasting process.

I finally got over my control freakishness and asked my lovely wife and daughter to help with the grinding, weighing, and bagging process.  There they are smiling for the camera as they work together weighing and bagging some Colombian 58.  Then they are grinding some Indian Monsooned Malabar in the photo to the right.  It was more than nice to be left free to work on some of the packaging while they managed the shop.

I've been asked what the secret to my success has been and I usually reply "I will tell you when I am successful".  Today, as I look at these pictures I think I have an answer to that question.

Customer Words of the Colombian 58

I have created a signature coffee roast that I have named Colombian 58 - people really seem to like it.  


My grandma likes it - she told me so this morning - but since grandma's can be biased where their grandsons are concerned (and the fact that she gets FREE coffee) I figured I should add some other non-biased customer reviews of the Colombian 58.


Click on the images to get a larger size so you can read them...

This Colombian is a “58” roasting profile which has taken this coffee to a new level of experience.  It is just raw enough to retain a good amount of the all-natural God given flavor of the bean (as well as the majority of the caffeine) but it is also roasted with enough heat to let you know that you are drinking a very fine coffee.  From the moment the coffee touches your palette you think that you are going to experience the bitter but then you are pleasantly veered to the side as the bitter never materializes.  All you experience is a smooth flavor with an even smoother finish.

2 Huge Truths About Coffee Flavor – And 1 Giant Lie (Part 3 of 3)

2 Huge Truths About Coffee Flavor – And 1 Giant Lie (Part 1 of 3)

2 Huge Truths About Coffee Flavor – And 1 Giant Lie (Part 2 of 3)

If you have been reading all of the posts in this series (see links above) then you know already that coffee shouldn’t taste the same when it’s grown in different areas – it is just not likely.  Coffee from different locations will necessarily taste different because there are too many variables (such as soil, water, mulching, climate, and sun) for two crops from two different locations to ever taste the same.  If you can taste any coffee and tell which of the national chain roasters has roasted and distributed it, then you taste a branded flavor that they have added – and not the pure coffee itself.  Sorry, that’s just how it goes.  People who drink their coffee black should be able to easily recognize the coffee that they are drinking as coming from this chain or that one.  If you travel across the country and get a black coffee from your favorite brewer and it tastes like it did a thousand miles back home then you have to wonder – How is this possible?  Well, the reality is that it is not likely – unless some sort of signature flavor has been added to the beans.

This then is the Giant Lie of Coffee:  what you think is simply plain black coffee is often just the cheapest bean at the market flavored with the coffee roaster’s branded signature flavor.  For a purist like me, this matters.  Does this make me mad?  No.  Do I still get my coffee from my favorite chain while I am on the road?  Yes.  So why then do I bring it up?  Because I want you to love your coffee for just the coffee itself, and this can be hard to do unless you get fresh-roasted, single-origin coffee with nothing added – not even raosting oils that accidently flavor the beans.

So the next time you have coffee (maybe even now as you read this), I invite you consider how pure and natural the coffee is that you are drinking.  If it matters to you, then I invite you to join me, and together we can seek to experience the most perfect natural-tasting coffees from around the world.

2 Huge Truths about Coffee Flavor - And One Giant Lie (Part 2 of 3)

(Click here for Part 1 of 3)

Roasting...

There is a whole range of possible coffee roasts, from green to charcoal.  The possibilities are just about endless.  Every kind of coffee bean responds best to a particular variety of roasts in order for the best natural flavor to be released, and like with wine tasting, the fun is in tasting them all to determine what we like best.  For now though, I want to tell you how roasting affects the flavor and caffeine content of your coffee.

When coffee beans are green they possess all the flavor qualities that God has grown into them(see part 1 of this blog series).  As the green beans are roasted, the natural flavor is cooked out and traded for the flavor of the roast.  This trade-off is good, because a weakly roasted bean is often a bit bitter and sour, and the roasting process corrects this and brings about a very good brew.  This is where the Roast Master needs to become well-versed in his coffee types, because there is a point where a single-origin coffee bean is roasted so much that all anyone can taste is the roast and not any natural flavor of the bean– so any old bean would have worked.  The Roast Master becomes worth his salt when he learns which bean needs to be roasted to which level in order to bring about the best flavor.

There is another important facet to the level of roasting, and that is the caffeine content.  As a coffee bean is roasted, its caffeine content begins to diminish.  So, the darker the roast, the less the caffeine.  This means that people who get espresso coffee for the caffeine kick are actually getting less caffeine than what is in a regular cup of lightly-roasted coffee.

I don’t know why, but most of us assume that when a coffee is roasted darker, it has more flavor and more caffeine, but this is not the case.  I guess it is like a Filet Mignon steak.  If you really want the steak to melt in your mouth and have the best flavor, you need to have it cooked rare to medium-rare.

In the next part of this blog post, I want to bring out the lie of all lies for those of us who love coffee, so check back in a day or two.

2 Huge Truths About Coffee Flavor – And 1 Giant Lie (Part 1 of 3)

There are 2 huge realities concerning the natural flavor of coffee and here they are…

Location, location, location…

The first reality about coffee flavor is the bean itself, because each coffee bean is from a specific crop, and each crop comes from...you guessed it...a specific location.  Just as fine wine connoisseurs know wines by the specific grapes that were used to produce it, so also fine coffees are known by the beans that were used to brew the coffee.   For instance, Yemen’s coffees are known for their dominant mocha notes, the Jamaican Blue Mountain is known because of its perfectly balanced flavor and smoothness, and the Bali Blue Moon is known because of its a dominant fruitiness.  The Bali Blue Moon has developed its dominant flavor trait because it is grown between tangerine trees, and the fruit that falls from those trees is what mulches the soil in which this coffee grows.  

After considering the location where the bean was grown, we take a look at the weather in that location.  That’s right, the weather impacts the flavor of coffee beans.  Each crop of coffee has grown with a very specific amount of moisture in the air, rain fall, sunlight, and ambient temperature.  All of these “acts of God” will shape the development of the flavor from each crop of coffee that is grown.

Then, after God has had His way with growing our coffee, mankind gets our crack at influencing the flavor of our coffee through processing, roasting, and flavor additives.  Processing is a topic of another post, and please don’t get me started on flavor additives.  However, in the second part of this blog post I do want to talk about a couple of basic realities concerning the roasting of coffee.  So please stay tuned…

---

ADDENDUM:  The flavor of your coffee is determined by a variety of factors (the water, freshness of the bean, and the ratio are big – see past post - but today I was speaking of the innate flavor of the bean itself.