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Am I crazy or is this beautiful???

Fri, 16 May 2008 05:39:37 +0100

Tanzania Peaberry beans right out of the roaster. As I get older things like Tulips and coffee beans are so exciting.

Say what?

Thu, 15 May 2008 17:50:26 +0100

Searching for adjectives to help describe coffee, I found a blog post with a nice starting palette for the budding palate on the Londonium Espresso Blog.
Aside from the rather common "nutty", "chocolaty" and "winey" the following I found compelling:

Quote:

Animal-like - This odour descriptor is somewhat reminiscent of the smell of animals. It is not a fragrant aroma like musk but has the characteristic odour of wet fur, sweat, leather, hides, or urine. It is not necessarily considered as a negative attribute but is generally used to describe strong notes

...

Rubber-like - This odour descriptor is characteristic of the smell of hot tyres, rubber bands and rubber stoppers. It is not considered a negative attribute but has a characteristic strong note highly recognisable in some coffees.

I'll have to throw in some European spellings of words like "odour" and "tyres" to add some posh to my posts. I must say I'm jealous of the overall design of the blog!

More here.

nokia n800 can now make coffee!!

Fri, 02 May 2008 15:22:35 +0100

Now it just needs to roast and grind the beans!

The Blend: fine art or act of desperation

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:42:57 +0100

OK, so my first order of beans from Sweet Maria's is getting pretty slim. See the reviews for some thoughts on each of the beans (that is if we actually get around to reviewing them, Fat_Hen?).

So what do you do when you just have a few beans of each variety left? You make a blend! OK, so in true Chicago style, I threw together "The Suicide". You know, like when you go to the soda fountain and fill your cup with a little coke, sprite, root beer, lemonade, oh no don't put any of that strawberry soda in there or you'll ruin it! a little bit of everything basically.

The results? Fat_Hen shrugs his shoulders, "A little whiney". OK, so I guess there is more of an art to this.

Coffeehouse and Coffeemaker are one (and scary)

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:06:54 +0100

Brewing Jeff's fancy, home-roasted coffees and being eager to expore new ways to enjoy the hearty bean (colonics excepted), I was amazed and horrified on so many levels by Javabot(gizmag)

Quote:

[Javabot] delivers a coffee with your favorite blend of seven beans, plus how they are roasted, ground and the temperature at which the coffee is brewed, all inside 30 seconds.

All in all, I think this is representitive of the way coffee has become commodified. Basically this machine is a minature version of something Hills Bros would use in their factory to maintain some kind of coffee status quo. The whiz-bang here comes from the idea of putting "exotic" and "gourmet" beans into a tiny factory that Jack-Starbuck? can walk into, bark commands to a button pusher, and make his worst guess for roasting and blending in the least amount of time.

We even joke about the nature of our coffee-wiki here because a good cup of coffee is not just about quasi-scientific study and documenting it in the least accessible way on-line. Good coffee is about sharing the whole ritual with some friends, making assanine assumptions on what will affect flavor and digging wikipedia-deep into the rich history of coffee and pretending to be a know-it-all about vacuum-pots, ibriks and the sacred french-press.

What it all comes down to is visiting someones house or restaurant and letting them share their coffee heritage with you, be it hand roasted in a pan, ground in a pestle, and brewed in a copper ibrik or bubbling from an electric castiron percolator in your drunkard uncle's trailer galley, its the love of coffee.

I just want to scream "Take your mechanical grippers off my coffee, you damned shiny Javabot!"

What is a Burr Grinder and why should I spend $80 on one

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:11:27 +0100

Once your beans are roasted you'll need to grind them. Experts suggest you let them sit for 4-24 hours in an airtight container away from direct sunlight.

You can grind your beans in a blade grinder, but there are two problems. First, your beans won't grind evenly, unless you employ the Fat_Hen shake. Make like you are Tom Cruise in "Cocktail" shaking up some fruity drink for Gina Gershon. It helps if you do the beans in small batches not all at once. The second problem with the blade grinder is that if you leave it on for too long, the blades heat up and scorch the coffee. If that happens you will get an ear-full from Fat_Hen about how your coffee tastes bitter.

The solution is a conical burr grinder. Only problem is they are expensive. I got a Kitchenaid A-9 off eBay. Of course, you can also mod your burr grinder.

today at work

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:58:54 +0100

today at work some guys were drinking coffee and talking about gardening, the coffee had a distinct smell of ... coffee. Jeff made me smell it. I decided to stick to water.

How the Frak do I roast these anyhow?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:48:59 +0100

The West Bend Poppery II

Don't waste your time searching Bed, Bath and Beyond, Target, Linens and Things and whatever other hellhole for a popcorn popper. Go straight to eBay and get the West Bend Poppery II before they are all gone. The Poppery employs a special design which will keep you from burning your house down. Spend all that time you saved modding your new coffee roaster.

Step one:
Measure out 3.5 ounces of green coffee beans. You do have a scale, yes?

Step two:
Dump them in the popper, set a timer to 6 minutes

Step three:
put a bowl under the popper to catch all the chaff that will come flying out.

Step four:
when properly roasted (??? the magic question ???) toss them into a colander and shake them around to cool them off.

Where do you get green coffee beans?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:38:43 +0100

OK, so one door to the south of Ras Dashen there used to be a store that sold green coffee beans by the pound in unlabeled ziplock bags. It's not there anymore, but the guy who runs the new Ethiopian restaurant was happy to sell me some. Only $6 a pound, wow, so that $13 a pound for Intellegentsia was a little steep, huh?

Now-a-days, Sweet Maria's seems to be the internet source and Metropolis I hear is a promising local spot I've yet to explore.

Prequel

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:32:22 +0100

OK, so this whole thing is the fault of Chef Zenash Beyene from Ras Dashen. One night, my wife and I were sitting at a table eating when she came out of the kitchen carrying a frying pan full of fresh roasted coffee beans. It was smoking. She performed part of the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony carrying it around to each table so everyone could see what was inside and, more importantly, smell what fresh roasted coffee smells like. At that moment, everything changed and suddenly coffee became much more complicated.