Sweet Yirgacheffe

I had a pretty solid cup of Yirg today. Teramed from Idido for those in the know. It was interesting because the hot cup had a few issues and the brewer was possibly set to over extract a bit but the cup was still great. Juicy candied sweet as it cooled. The acidity was toned and a brown sugar caramel note just jumped from the cup. I grabbed it in a to-go cup and was surprised by the syrupy floral coming from the cup. Hint of lime and honeysuckle flowers.

Moments like that are what it's really about for me. Sitting in a car quietly sipping a coffee simply in awe wondering what the heck happened to create that cup in that instance. I have a lot of things circling me right now, projects up in the air and big ventures about to begin but it's great to simply remind myself what I want to work towards. When a consumer can sit and have that same moment like that, that's when I will have succeeded. It's not about outdoing the next guy or being right, it's about presenting that unique taste experience.

The Green Monstah

Wally, originally uploaded by Ed Karjala.

This post is for Nate, Snoz, and the Fettered by Secrecy Roasting Society (FSRS).

At my last time on bar, I had no real idea how important each phase of roasting was besides an understanding that it was hard because even the best struggled with it. I knew that sometimes the roasts were ashy, sometimes they were flat, and sometimes bright as there was a lot of variance batch to batch. Each week, it was a new experience and a test of patience. How can you raise the bar if the base is shifting?

After struggling for months to get evenly dried sample roasts while working the wettest/highest grown/most expensive green we could find, I have a few thoughts to offer. I now have suffered enough to realize that there are several layers of difficulty in roasting that the majority of people aren't always able to piece together. This site isn't a roasting how-to so let me give you a few things to chew on and think about for yourself instead of spoon feeding you something. Let's play myth buster for a moment.

Myth Number One: Light roasts are grassy, you have to roast darker to avoid this.
Truth: Light roasts that are dried properly will not be grassy. If you don't know what that means, it's time to do some research.

Myth Number Two: You have to slow down.
Truth: Yes and no or rather a maybe. Some people slow down and bake which does nothing positive but does mask the hot cup character a lot without fixing the real problem. Since each roasting setup is different, you figure it out for yourself.

I am theorizing that most of the major errors I am seeing in commercial roasts appear to be a product of improper drying either inefficient or uneven. If you can't get the head right, what good is finessing the tail? The pretty labels sure don't help and the barista can't change a thing.

What does 'bakey' taste like? What does 'green' taste like? Got something to chew on now, eh?

Coffee tasting at Hi Rise

Hi Rise Bakery, originally uploaded by browncoffeeco.

October 20th at 5pm
Hi-Rise Bread Company
[where: 208 Concord Ave Cambridge, MA 02138-1335]

Coffee cupping event. Free to the public. Coffees from local roasters, vac pot, pour over, and other brew methods just for fun. Sorry, no espresso planned at this time.

Should be good fun. Hopefully some local roasters will come in to present their own coffees on this stage. Hi Rise has a great community following and really is a solid place to have events like this. I am really looking forward to it.

Date and time subject ot change so keep tabs on us.

An array of roasters

壯觀吧, originally uploaded by SIWA COFFEE.

Roasting is about scale. Simply put, bigger is more consistent, but it isn't finesse. How do you overcome that? An array of small batch roasters so you can finesse your roasts.

It's an idea worth borrowing.

Here and there

Big props to my friend Edwin for sending us some monogrammed cupping spoons. It's actually the first real cupping spoon I ever had. I don't think I ever really thought about buying one for myself because that's how we are. I kinda cringe at being the person who walks into a cupping with spoon on belt/over the ear/tied to arm. Yep, we all know one of those types.

Still, it's sweet to have one so maybe I'll have to get a bandanna for my arm to carry it around now.

I am looking forward to Eddie and Nina's visit and hopefully it will prove as entertaining as when Blanco dropped in.

This all goes to remind me that Friday will be a travel day out to Hingham to visit Bob's outfit, Redeye. Interested to see how he roasts the Panama 'Diamond Mountain' and the Gayo among others. Kaminsky and I will join a new kid who is opening a shop somewhere in the Boston area.