homecoffeeroasters

Hey there player haters,  here is the cup I purchased during our one night in Vegas. I had originally intended to get one that said  “Venetian” on it to commerate our stay, but this one with the skull kind of jumped out at me at the gift shop. I also like the dice. This cup is sort of a false advertisement, since I am not really too much of a “player”. In fact, I think I blew only 20 bucks on the slot machines while in Vegas and spent the rest of the time being dragged around to all the various sites and attractions. But then again, Vegas is not really about gambling  anymore. It is really anout the attractions and the shows.

So anyway, lets get down to brass tax and discuss some coffee shall we.  At this very moment I am trying to roast up a whole bunch of coffee to send to all my friends in family for the Holidays. This has been my grand plan for the season, but I am now getting muddled by the overall logistics of it. You see, I want to send this coffee out nice and fresh, but I am having trouble getting it all done with my little Nesco roaster with its quarter pound capabilities. It is times like this, that I wish I had a Behmor, which is capable of roasting a full pound of beans at a time.  Oh well, maybe next year.

On top of that, I was also planning to spread the holiday cheer with my new favorite bean: The Tanzanian Blackburn estate, but I am actually down to just a half of pound and I really do not have time to order more from Sweet Marias at this moment.  I really dig this coffee, so much so, as I was roasting up a batch last night to send to my brother, I started harboring thoughts about keeping it myself as it finished roasting and the sweet caramel smell of the bean permeated the air.  Bad BS, bad, bad.

I guess that besides the Tanzanian, I am probably going to send out a bunch of the “coincidentally perfect” moka java blend, which I also really enjoy, although not on the same level as theTanzanian Blackburn.  I also have some aged sumatra lintong in my stash that I plan to give to a select few.  Given the size of my family, I just hope that my little Nesco makes it through the season and that the  postage does not break me. I also hope that my little spreading of the homeroasted cheer will help  turn my family onto the whole fresh roasted coffee craze. We are a coffee drinking clan, and I do not think that any of them would even think of buying sanka, but I know that they still like
to buy the stuff in the can.

Hello there my coffee loving fans. This is another addition to my coffee cup family. I got this mug  at the giftshop in Scotty’s Castle as we were leaving Death Valley. The day before,I had already purchased a “Death Valley” cup at the Ranger Station, but when I saw this one with the cool looking skull, I just had to get it. One can never have enough coffee cups you know.

This morning, I plan to fill this cup with some newly obtained Kenyan AA Auction lot #407-giakanja, which I purchased from Sweet Maria’s along with five another pounds of coffee (most of which I plan to roast and send to family and friends this Christmas). This Kenyan  giakanja is described by Tom as having a “wild” flavor profile when compared to other Kenyan offerings,  which is what drew me to the bean. Well, that and the unusual moniker- Giakanja, which to me, sounds Japanese, but after a bit of Googling turns out to be the name of the Co-operative mill in the Nyeri Region in Kenya from which this bean comes from.

The Nyeri region in Kenyan is the highest altitude which coffee is grown there and the coffees from this area have a tendency to be overly acidic in their flavor.  This acidity is something that is not for everyone, but I kind of like it in relatively small doses ( like a pot or two).

I roasted this Kenyan Giakanja up in my trusty little Nesco roaster for the usual 24 minutes that I like to start off all my new roasts on, achieving a nice uniform browm city plus roast. After letting it sit a day, I brewed some up in my Chemex and then poured it into my Scotty’s Castle cup to enjoy.

At first sip, I really did not know how wild this coffee is, but then again, it is supposed to be “wild” when compared to other offerings from Kenya. It is definitely acidic as all hell, leaving my mouth cottony and dry after each swallow, with the bitter sweet flavors lingering about the sides of my mouth. As it cools in the cup, its initial taste morphs into something that is almost akin to lemon grass tea and the citrusy taste begins to linger around a bit longer.

Drinking this coffee, pushes me down the old memory lane, back to when I still resided in Lansing Michigan where I was a steady card carrying patron of a local coffee chain called Beaners (which recently changed thier name to Bigby’s). Unlike blend happy Starbucks, good old Beaner’s was much more about the single origin coffees, and one of the brews I remember quite fondly was their Kenyan AA, which tasted a lot like this, with its acidic overtones, and winey fruited undercurrents.

Ahh, those were the days.