company - education - coffee

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Charlotte and the SCAA, last day....

While in Charlotte I hit the Daterra Booth to see what was cooking. Got some
coffee. First cup in Charlotte actually. Great peopl and honestly one of the
better moments in the trip.




Of course I had to drop some props at the CoE booth. Must remind Peter he needs
to get his Guatemala CoE judge invite.





Dropped in on the Clover. I somehow missed it early on after spending a lot
of time with the guys at Espresso Craft Talking shop and about the online community
as well as why no one makes multiple sized baskets for research. Why not make
a range of baskets based on millimeter depth as opposed to 'grams' since different
density beans can have the same volume in basket but different gram weights.
I wouldn't have found the Clover booth if not for the help of Andrew
Barnett
.

First off I had a bag of Terroir's Tegu
that Andrew suggested I offer up on the Clover.

I discovered something from this event that I had suspected for a long time.
People don't get George's Coffees. You have to understand more about them to
really get the most out of them. Sometimes, you have to brew them at heavy doses
and lower temps to get the most out of them. At work, we brew terroir offerings
at 198F with a heavy dose and a coarser than normal grind. There seemed to be
some snickering among the group as at first the coffee was not popping. The
comment was thrown out that it was very Terroiry. It was dulled by a higher
temp and a lower dosage and coming out dry. Once I communicated the way we brew
it at work, it was only a brew later that we hit it. I had one of those ode
to joy moments where the coffee finally tasted like it does when I brew it or
when we are in Acton at the warehouse.





The Tegu was popping and it was passed around. It was one of those moments I
really wished PeterL was there. Still, I really enjoyed it and we burned through
most of a bag.



The Tegu did allow me to cross paths with Tony Konecny
and Kyle Glanville. Tony got me on film but I got him first. Here's a picture
of me talking to Tony that Hong took. I have to say I found Tony to interesting
and hope we cross paths again.




Shortly thereafter I bumped into Chris Owens
of NY. I do hope he takes me up on the offer to visit our cupping club. Maybe
I can persuade Adam to come in from Beverly to attend also.

Great trip overall, even spent a whole day visiting family in TN.


It was so damn good to be back in Boston though.