homecoffeeroasters

I was not planning to write anything today, but after drinking a large mug of the Ethiopian Organic  Menno’s Misty Valley, I feel the urge to say something about it.  Coffee from Ethiopia is always distinct in its texture and flavor and the Menno’s Misty Valley is no exception. Ethiopia, besides being known as the place where most anthropologists say the modern human emerged, is also the birthplace of the Coffee Bean.  In his book Coffee: A dark History, Anthony Wild  postulates that the caffeine filled berries of the wild coffee trees might have had something to do with the emergence of the modern human species. This of course is just entertaining speculation, yet it is something that makes one pause and think. Especially after tasting such an invigorating cup of coffee from the motherland.

I really do not know what I did to make this cup of the Menno’s Misty Valley so dang good, but I must of done something right. I had roasted it several days ago, making it a little darker than the previous batches. Perhaps, the dark roast was key, maybe my tastebuds were yearning for a taste of something a little less bright than what the Panamanians were giving me. Perhaps it was the time I let the beans sit. They do say that the peak taste arrives around forty-eight hours after the roast time. The EMMV certainly did not taste this great the day before (it was good, just not great) .  Perhaps I am finally getting the hang of brewing with the Chemex, which can get a little complicated. It was probably a mix of all these factors, I do not know. All I really kow is that I got myself one fine cup of coffee this morning. One worth writing about.

Ahh, Yes. There is nothing like a little vacation to make one appreciate the comforts of home, especially when you forget to bring any coffee you. The girlfriend and I took a little trip to dah U.P. of Michigan  to visit my family this past week. It was fun, we took a lot of pictures and she got to meet my nieces, nephews and grandparents, but  I must say I was sure missing my Nesco coffee roaster after being forced to down the swill that my old man concocted for me in their filthy little coffee maker. Okay, do not get me wrong, I did have some decent joe while I was there. Both my mom and my grandmother have the seemingly miraculous ability to produce a good cup of coffee from the canned stuff (my mom uses an old percolator and gets good results) and there is even a place up there that sells some decent roasted coffee, yet it was still not the same. I guess the worst of it came on the drive home when I was forced to down some horrible, watered down garbage from subway in order to keep myself awake as I traveled down the deer addled highway on my way back to the Minneapolis St. Paul  Airport. The stuff made me outright cranky.

It was such a relief to come home and brew up a good pot of the Panama Boquete Golden Peaberry. I had had some of this coffee before I left and did not really think to much of it (it tasted a little too citrusy) but now it tasted as if it was manna from heaven. Oh how I missed the flavor of freshly roasted coffee, so subtle yet full of complexity. I savored the initial lemony peach taste of this Panamanian offering and mellowed in its lingering  chocolate aftertaste. Mmm, so good. I had roasted this bean very light (around 23 minutes in my Nesco) and brewed it in my chemex  coffee maker. It is a very bright bean with lots of acidity and just enough body. It would make an excellent breakfast blend.

Next time I travel I will probably consider packing some beans to take along with me. I do regret not taking any with me to the U.P. and turning my family on to the joys of homeroasting. But, then again, the little break away from the old coffee labratory made me fully appreciate my  hobby.

I guess I was feeling a little guilty for not really liking the last Panamanian  pound of coffee that I purchased.  I just went a little Panama crazy with my latest order from Sweet Marias. I got one pound of the Panama Don Pepe Estate Dry process as well as a bag of some Panama Boquete Golden Peaberry.  I really liked the review of the Don Pepe estate dry process that Tom from SM gave and decided to give it a whirl. I  am still a little unclear about the  differences in the processing  of certain coffee beans. I  know that some are wet processed, in which the husk and the fruity pulp of the coffee cherry are  washed off of the beans, while others are dry processed in which the husk and pulp are peeled away from the bean manually.  Dry processed beans apparently can end up having more character since the process involves manual labor and the resulted batch of picked beans will have a certain inconstancy that makes for an more layered taste. The rub is that the dry process can leave you with a coffee that tastes unclean and musty.

Anyways I roasted my first batch of the Don Pepe in my trusty little Nesco for 25 minutes, deciding I wanted a bit darker roast this time around.I was hearing the second crack a minute before the cooling cycle kicked in. The beans came out dark and oily and smelled terrific.  I made up a batch with my Chemex the next day, but made it way too strong to really get a good sense as to how this coffee was. (I am still tweaking with my chemex brewing method trying to find a good middle ground) Today, as I am writing this, I think I finally got it right and I am right now, enjoying a fine cup of coffee with a strong initial taste of smoked almond and licorice with a pleasant lingering aftertaste of dark chocolate. Perhaps they are right about Panama coffees and their tendency to be underrated. After this experience I will certainly be willing to give Panamanian beans another look. The dry process method is also, I think, underrated. Perhaps it is not for those who only want a clean cup of coffee devoid of any character, but for the rest of us who like a little adventure, it is worth a shot.

The new kid on the block.

After two weeks of trying and failing to use some filters I bought from the supermarket, I finally ordered myself up some genuine Chemex coffee filters from Sweet Maria’s (along with a couple of pounds of coffee beans of course). The store bought filters kept collapsing on me as I poured the hot water over the grounds. I would be pouring away thinking about how good this coffee was going to be, then suddenly the the filter would start shaking and making funny sounds and then collapse in on itself and slide sown the hole and land on the bottom of the coffee maker with a plop. The Chemex Brand filters look like folded napkins out of the box and have a very coarse consistency. They are much heavier than the other filters I had been using and also much bigger, the triangle tops rise out of the inverted cone lik wings of an albatross.

I decided to use some Finca El Robles that I had roasted very light as my first test subject. This coffee, at city roast, had come out very citrus like when I brewed it in my French Press and I was curious to see what the chemex would turn it into. The resulting cup was par excellent. It was nice and smooth, yet had body that you usually do not get when doing the drip. My only complaint was that it was a little too clean and bright without any bitterness. I know that the chemist who invented the chemex, did so in order to get the perfect cup of coffee free of bitterness, but honestly, I like a little bitter in my brew. Still it was a great cup and I plan to use my new toy until I get sick of it.

It looks like I completely neglected to mention this bean; the last of the quarto of beans that I had purchased from Sweet Maria’s  last month. Perhaps it is because there is nothing overly special about the cup that causes me to take pause and ponder up some prose related to it. Alas, it does happen to be what is left of my stash until I re-order, so I might as well say something about it.

I roasted it at about 23 minutes, hearing the first cracks at around the 13 minute mark and hearing the second cracks  start up  just at it was going into the cooling cycle. The beans came out a nice uniform dark brown. The taste is nothing overly spectacular or identifying though.  It just tastes like a nice cup of coffee, having nothing to it that distinguishes it from the rest of the pack. I have roasted three different times so far and I have always come up with this ho-hum result. At first I thought that it might just be me being bored with coffee, but after some serious thought and experimentation, I realize that I could never get sick of coffee. Never! So, it must be the coffee itself. I will probably not give this bean any more chances to bore me. I will chalk it up as one that is just not my cup of, err, tea.

I decided to to try to make a signature blend out of the Liberica and the longberry, along with some left over Kona the other day, and ended up with a coffee that is way to lemony for my tastes. I was initially inspired by this really tasty blueberry wheat beer that I buy all the time from Trader Joe. This brew  goes down well with a little slice of lemon, so my thinking was that the lemon nuances of the remaining ounce longberry cultivar would mix well with the blueberry taste of the of the several ounces Anohki I had left. I also had a couple of ounces of some kona left, so I decided to throw that in as well, to kind of balance the whole thing out. Sounds like a good plan right?. Having a Nesco and not wanting to make a bunch of small batches, I just threw them all in together and roasted them for 24 minutes.

The end result was a really acidic coffee with an overpowering lemon taste.  I could barely finish a cup, let alone a pot. It was a good thing that I still had some of the Menno’s Misty Valley left over, to wash away the taste of this lemon of a blend. Well, I suppose that is the downside of experimentation, sometimes you get a pleasant surprise, and other times you get a lemon.