ROASTe Blogs

When do coffees come into season? Does anyone know when coffees from the different regions come into season, I would assume that not all coffees become available at the same time. I have seen out of stocks on several coffees over the years and have never really been given an answer as to when they will be back or when they come in. Currently Klatch's Kenya AA Plus NGUVU is out of stock, but other Kenya AA's are not. Is the isolated outage due to Klatch buying from one estate? Are there any rules/ laws coverning lableing? Are some roasters selling other Kenya coffees?

威爾Family ♥ Ryan,Will,Lilian / Stock Photos

One of the minor annoyances of being a stay-at-home worker in a town that doesn't have much of a coffee culture is that people just don't get you. I mean, they really don't get you. When you start talking about flavor nuances and water temperatures and the relative benefits of a Beehive vs. a Clever, their eyes glaze over. And heaven forbid you want to figure out exactly WHAT that little hint of flavor is that you can't identify. "What do you taste?" you ask. "Uh... coffee?" Well, I'm totally tickled this morning to announce that I've come up with the solution to the problem: I raised me a homegrown coffee geek!

Recently, I came across a new community outreach project that Counter Culture Coffee is starting called, "Save our Soil." The basic gist of the campaign is that convential farming is depleting the top soil that allows for plants to flourish, and that is is especially true for coffee growing regions. In order to prevent soil degradation orangic farming practises need to be implemented, and the only way to do that is if we the consumers buy organic coffee.

A while back Chamie posted about a neat looking new coffee maker from Bodum.  I got offered the chance to play with one of these and didn't want to pass up on that opportunity.  The Bodum Bistro brewer came in the mail today - since I am off from work and it's rainy here in my part of North Carolina the timing couldn't be better. Also, my wife just received a visitor so I have been dismissed to the coffee den while she catches up with her friend Christine - it's good time for me to play with this new toy!

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Neven recently visited our Roastery here on the Malahide Road in his search for the perfect coffee to feature in his recipe. Neven met with our Master Roaster Paul O’Toole and his expert team of roasters and baristas. He received expert training from Paul in the art of coffee cupping and sampled Bewley’s extensive selection of filter blends, single origin coffees and espresso blends.

One of the nice things about making coffee at home is the ability to adjust your coffee to your own preferences. One of my own preferences is to make a very low amount of coffee for drip brewing. When I mean low I mean low I like it at about 30 grams per liter, which is half the 'golden' amount that is recommended by most coffee roasters 60 grams per liter. I just find the coffee made from a drip brewer preferable at this range.

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Should local roasters be allowed to sell their products at local farmers' markets? I love coffee. I love coffee roasters. I love shopping at farmers' markets. I never thought about combining the two before reading an article in yesterday's Washington Post about coffee roasters being barred from many local farmers markets. My first reaction to the headline was -- well, duh! Local. Farmers. Coffee is not ever local produce, so where's the controversy? Then I read the article and started thinking about it...

So I ordered a pouring kettle directly from a Japanese shop. It was fun! As far as online shopping goes. It was a bit of a minefield navigating those address boxes but somehow, and for a mere, $20 bucks or so, it arrived here after 3 (!) days! Faster than UPS Ground, and even after that shipping charge, I saved about 30% off the typical US retail price. Oh, and about 500% off the Blue Bottle price. Blue Bottle being Blue Bottle.

This is the eleventh post on the coffees I’m working my way through. Up this time is PT Roaster’s Sumatra - WAHANA ESTATE - Natural.

From Google image search for Trifecta MB -- this does my heart proud.

Sleep Deprivation

First -- fair warning. The video quality is really poor -- I was playing with new tools and I'm a coffee person, not a production person. That said, I figured I'd share my big coffee roasting oops this weekend:

Some Encouragement 

For you stalwart inquirers into the art of brewing the absolute best cup of coffee, and whether said holy grail is (shudder) even approachable utilizing the Bunn Trifecta MB, and furthermore whether patiently following this particular blog will eventually pay off in erstwhile long-promised carefully qualified prose deriving from empirical evidence of Trifecta goodness, badness, or meh-ness, take heart:

We are having relatively nice weather. I was sitting out today and was reading. Suddenly I hear a lapping noise and see my dad reach for the camera. The dog was drinking my iced coffee. I stopped him (it is not good for dogs) but he followed me when I moved the cup out of his reach (I know - dogs are not supposed to drink coffee). He wanted to drink more! I gave him fresh water (which he promptly snubbed). I guess the dog has discriminating taste. ;p   For the record he was drinking my Guaremala Santa Isabel Single Estate Espresso that I was drinking as iced coffee. 

I am a gambler at heart. I will buy something based on the name alone. I was looking over a couple of purchases that I have made on Roaste and so far (knock on wood) my impulse buys have been good. At least for me.  The names that come to mind for me were:

Klatch Poizon Blend -Klatch Coffee

White Done Wright Coffee-Avion Coffee

Guatemala Santa Isabel Single Estate Espresso - The West Bean

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