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I am leaving on a jet plane….

Okay and now I am back again

Why is it that the week you go on vacation ends up feeling like only a weekend? Perhaps this is a overstated sentiment, but still that is what our (the girlfriend and I) whirlwind week in Maui felt like. It seemed like as soon as we jumped in our rented mustang convertible and headed off to Lahaina, we had to turn right back around and drive it back to the airport  to get on the plane and go back to Oaktown and back to work.

If it wasn’t for the 300+ pictures, the suitcase full of coconut bras and grass skirts and the depleted checking account, I could swear that we were hardly there at all. Okay,while I am spending most of this blog bitching about how short vacations seem, I must admit that we had a whole lot of fun on the Valley Isle. We created a lot of nice memories, got some tanning in and even dipped our toes ( and rear ends) in the warm ocean water.

For those who have never been to Maui, there is a whole lot fun stuff to do than just sitting around and baking in the sunshine. The road to Hana was an adventure, Iao point was inspirational, The Eco adventure Zip line was a rush, as was Ufo Parasailing, even the full body massage from Zensations was worth it, oh and I cannot forget the magnificent luau at the Hyatt Regency that featured a kick ass fire dancer . But of course, for me, the highlight of the trip happened to be our visit to not one but two actual coffee plantations.

Maui Grown Coffee…

Okay, so everybody knows about Kona coffee that is grown over there on the big island of Hawaii and how smooth (and expensive) it is. Maui, however,  has been  gaining  a reputation for producing some pretty good coffee in its own right. While the coffee farms tend to be at a slightly lower elevation than the big island, the coffee itself is nice and earthy and above all much more affordable then the primo Kona stuff.

Another nice thing about Maui grown coffee, is that there happens to be a large coffee plantation that you can visit right across the street from the famous Kaanapali Beach.Suffice it to say that I was tickled absolutely pink when the nice guy at the Maui Grown Coffee Company (a store located by the smokestack in Lahaina) told me that I could actually just drive up there and take a up close and personal gander at actual coffee being grown

We had just come back from a tour of the Maui Tropical Plantation which also featured coffee but only got to see it fleetingly as we rode through on a little tram. So I was actually salivating at the idea of being able to walk through fields of coffee plants with ripe and ready cherries dangling before my eyes.

Okay, I am pretty sure that we were probably supposed to view the fields from the “viewing platforms” but I could not resist walking through the fields themselves and getting all up close and personal with the plants (just take a right at the little red truck).  My uber patient girlfriend also obliged me on this and even took a large number of great pics of the plants like the one posted above.

I felt like I was in heaven and wished I could just move right into one of the luxury homes that they were building on he property, but unfortunately we did not have 2 million conalis in out bank account having spent it all of coconut bras.

The nice guy at the Maui grown coffee company store was also more than obliging to show me the whole coffee growing, picking, separating, hulling, and processing process that their coffee went through and was also more than happy to sell me a big ol’ 10 lb bag of certified Red Catui green coffee beans that happened to be harvested on this vary same plantation.

The store itself only features one pound bags of the green stuff, but if you ask the guy if he has anything bigger , he will bring you the back where the bigger bags are. He also informed me that they actually have a annex in the port of Oakland where I can go pick up bigger bags (hundred pounders and such) of the stuff if I was so inclined to do so. After sampling a few different varieties there, I decided that the best choice would be the Red Catui which had a very appealing  taste and aroma. Maui Grown Coffee Company’s best known varietal is the Maui Mokka, but I wanted something that I could actualyl roast in my Behmor without too much trouble, and the Red Catui also seemed to taste a bit better.

Anyways, I will save that review for later

Aloha and Mahalo baby.

I got some nice 8 oz degassing bags from the Green Coffee Buying Club  last month. Here is a a batch of Tanzanian Blackburn Estate AA resting in one after being roasted. This batch was sort of an experiment with my Behmor in which I Roasted 13 ounces on the 16 oz (thats 1 elbow to you slines*) setting. I roasted it on P3 for about 19 minutes. I heard the first crack 17:30 into the roast and the second crack came 30 seconds into the cool cycle.

Now you may ask why I did this. Especially with the remainder of the beans that I have been raving about for the past year. Why would I waste the last of my precious batch one  a foray into the unknown. Well, to tell you the truth, I have no idea why I did it. I just felt the need to fill the bag.  A compulsion that came to me last week.

It all started with the Mogiana…

The  Brazilian Dry Process Mogiana to be precise. This bean turned out a real kick in the head (in a good way) and I had decided that I wanted to share this with one of sibs who happens to be addicted to coffee almost as bad as I am.

I wanted to give her a bag of this stuff. But I did not what to give her a bag that looked half full, which my new bags look when I roast up  only 8 oz.   I thought that this would look kinda tacky, so I decided to fix the problem by going for whole LB of the Mogiana (she loved the name btw). This gave me a whole bunch of beans, enough to fill the bag plus have a little left over for me.

This however then gave me the idea of always making enough to fill my new bags. Xmas is coming up after all and I do not want to be sending out tacky looking gift bags that look half full. So, the experimentation has begun.

Roasting 12 to 10 oz’s on the pound setting also gives me the benefit of hitting a darker roast that I can never get to before the cooling cycle in the Behmor hits. And now that I know a little bit more about the curves,I am pretty sure I can handle it.

Of course, I have been keeping a close eye on it to make sure no fire starts.

Well, it has been a long, hard process, but I think I am finally getting the hang of the Behmor. I have done around a dozen roasts so far and have tried most of the profiles available (except for the fifth profile which I have not got around to using yet). So, far I have gotten the most consistent results with P3 and find myself as using in as the go to button on many of my roasts.

However, I keep thinking that those other buttons are there for a reason and I have been trying to force myself not to play it too safe and use the rest of the profiles. I even want to give P2 another shot even though the 8 oz  Indonesian Flores Organic Manggar that I roasted on it came out really bad.

Really, really bad.

I had roasted it for 14 minutes on the P2 profile. It had started cracking 13:30 into the roast, and for some reason I let start to cool a mere 30 seconds later instead of adding the extra 30 seconds I had in the bank.

The roast came out patchy and light. Not pretty at all. I did not know whether it was the profile, the organic nature of the coffee or my own stupidity. The beans looked cooked, but there was just something about their look that was really off putting.

The resulting brew was far from great and left me feeling both sour and gassy. It had a very “foresty: taste that might have came out better if it was darker. It tasted somewhat more palatable when I mixed it with lemony Guatemalan that I roasted afterward but that gassy sour feeling was still there. The negative experience has forced me to let the rest of the bag sit around, not wanting to waste any more of my precious  roasting time on it. Perhaps, I will try making a dark roast in my Nesco, to see if was merely the setting not the bean. Although it was a free pound that came with my Behmor, I really do not want to waste it.

I will be sure to let you all know what I do.

I went and got myself some Organic Java Kajumas from sweet marias this week. Since it was a Java and I have been on a blending kick, I decided to also get me some of that Ethiopian Kembeta that went so coincidentally well with the other Java that did not happen to be organic. I roasted two 4oz.  batches of each of these puppies seperately in my trusty little Nesco (which i am hoping to replace some day with a bigger badder Behmor) for 24 minutes each, getting both to a nice and mild full city and let them sit seperately overnight.The next morning a did a sort of half assed job blending them and made up a pot before work. It tasted even better than the coincindentally perfect blend.The organic Java kujamas has a nice earthy undertone that blends well with the  wild Ethiopian kembata making for one great cup. This blend taste good, if not better as it starts to cool. I usually need go to a microwave to warm up my neglected coffee mug later in the morning, but not this time. The cooled blend tasted great, so I just sipped it a little chilled.  

Greetings and salutations my friends. I hope your turkeyday was a pleasant one.  Aside from the debacle that was called a Lions game, mine was pretty good.  I made some pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkins that turned out great. I enjoyed it with some  great coffee of the moka-java variety.

Speaking of Moka Java, After partaking with the “coincidentally perfect” moka java blend suggested by the peeps over at SM, I decided to do alittle experimenting with the remaining Java Kajumas Curah Tatal, to see what else it might blend well with. I had three ounces of the Yemen Mohki Sharesi sitting around and I thought to myself, Mohki, Moka Hmmm…

I roasted the three ounces of the Yemen Mohki for around 22 minutes in the Nesco getting a nice dark full city blend. (Since the amount was small, the beans roasted darker in less time which was why I roasted it for a much shorter period). I then did the same with the Java Kajumas. I blended these two dark roasts together in one jar,  mixing them real well like some mad chemist.

I have been enjoying this blend side by side with the Coincidentally perfect blend, seeing if my Mohki Java idea was up to snuff and low and behold I think I may be up to something. While the Ethiopian Kembata and Java Kajumas do seem to blend together real smooth, I believe my experiment holds its own quite well. I am currently sipping on a pot of the stuff, on its  fourth day of rest, I do believe I had  caught it ats its peak condition.  The Mohki, which I do not recall really liking too much seems to blend really well with the smooth java and the dark roasted  flavor brings out the chocolate charcoal tastiness.

I think I might do a little more Moka Java experimentating this month to see what other beans go well together. Well maybe. I do have plans to do some serious pre christmas roasting to prepare some gifts for friends and family so I might have to hold off a bit on the experimenting and stick to the tried and true roasts.

Hi there folks. Sorry it took me a full week to get back to tending my blogpire, but I guess I was so caught up with shouting Obama!, Obama! that I neglected my duties  to my coffee empire. I tried my best to turn this plain white cup into a commerative election cup, but I cannot get the sticker to go on smoothly. Oh well, I guess I can’t have a cup for every occasion.

Ok now, down to brass tax, I was going to discuss this excellent Guatamalen Peaberry that I was gulping down with abandon earlier this week, but I am going to have to come to that since I just absolutely have to discuss this mocha java blend that I been brewing up recently. It so dang good, it makes wanna throw rocks at grandma.

First a little history lesson. I know you are probably wandering what the hell does Mocha Java mean. For some reason, I always associated the name with some flavored crap you find at a gas station and did not realize that Mocha Java was in fact one of the worlds first blends of coffee.  Back in the early days   coffee usually came from  one source: the Yemen port of Mocha  that sat on the Red Sea. Because of this most of the coffee that was grown in Yemen and neighboring Ethiopia was given the moniker of Mocha (or Moka, Moki, Mocca ect). Later on the Dutch started growing their own coffee on the island of Java.  The mocha region coffee  had a wild and robust taste with strong fruited notes while the Java was more subdued and clean tasting. Somebody then got the bright idea to put these two polar opposites together and see what happens, and presto change-o: the world first coffee blend was born. The muted subdued taste of the java complimented the wild berry taste of the mocha, making for one complex cup of coffee

Now with that little history lesson out of the way (google Ken David if you want a more in depth discussion about this) Let me get down to my own particular Mocha Java blend. Well, ok, its not really mine since I got the idea from Sweet Marias. I decided to purchase a pound of the Ethiopia Kembata Grade 4 dry process along with a pound of the Java Kajumas Curah Tatal simply because SM mentioned that blending the two makes a “coincidentally perfect mocha java blend.” Being a sucker for things that happen to be coincidentally perfect as well as wanting to try a little blending action, I decided to give it a try.

I roasted up the Java Kajumas for about 26 minutes in my Nesco, coming up with a full city plus roast and then after the machine cooled a bit, I roasted the Kembata at about 24 minutes to a nice medium full city. The next morning I got ready to do my blending. I decided it would be best to use my postal scale and combine exact amounts of both the Java Kajumas and the Ethiopian Kembata for my first go at it. I simply weighed out about a ounce each and then stirred them together in a plastic storage container then ground them and brewed a big ol’ pot of it in my Chemex.

This blend just blew me away. I had previously tasted the Ethiopian Kembata on its own and found it to be your typical rustic Ethiopian with heavily fruited notes. Blending it with the Java Kajumas  gave it a completely different complexity as well as smoothness that it was lacking before. The intitial combined taste is a bit hard to describe. It has a chocolately smoothness as well as something else, a note that give it this extra character that make the taste unforgetable.

The next morning I dumped the remaining beans toghter and stirred them up real good and have been sipping on this blended brew for the past three days. Perhaps I should have wieghed both batches before throwing them together though, since the blend does not taste as “coincentally perfect” as the first day’s , but it is still pretty dang good.

Happy Halloween everybody! Ok, I am a day late, but I had stuff to do. Here is a pic of the pumpkins Lalaine (my girlfriend) and I carved to celebrate the occasion.  The one I did is on the left, I think it is a little scarier looking than her pumpkin, but her’s has much more detail. Ok, enough about our annual pumpkin carving competition and lets get down to what this blog is really all about….

I guess to get into the Halloween spirit, I should be drinking some pumpkin flavored latte or some other crappy flavored coffee concoction available at the gas station nearest you.  Instead I decided to roast up the El Salavador cup of Excellence Winner: The Finca Malacara.  Finca Malacara, hmmm, kind of sounds like a new Latin dance. Everybody get in line! Were doing the Finca Malacara! I decided to purchase the  coffee from Sweet Maria’s because I had not yet tried a green coffee from El Salvador and I was also intrigued by the whole “cup of excellence” title. At nearly ten bucks,  a pound of the Finca Malacara cost almost twice as much as the other three coffees I had selected for my latest procurement, but it also had the best review.

I roasted its excellency for a smidgen under 24 minutes in my  Nesco, engaging the cool cycle a little early, after hearing the second cracks start up. The resulting cup was a nice middle full city roast with a uniform darkish brown color throughout. Since I still had a bit of just roasted Tanzanian Blackburn estate laying around, I was going to let it rest for a second day, but my curiousity got the best of me and I brewed up a batch of it the next morning. After my first sip, I knew I should have waited. The taste was ok, but I could tell that it had not really fully developed yet.

The next morning (halloween) it tasted a bit better and I was beginning to see why this coffee took home the title, but I think I was too busy ogling my girlfriend in her princess Leia costume to really appreciate the cup’s subtle nuances.  I do not know what it is with those little hairbuns, but they drive me wild.

So today I just brewed up the last of it and I am doing my best to fully concentrate on the flavor and character that this winner of the El Salvadorian cup of excellence surely must have. I mean they don’t give those awards out to just anybody like door prizes at a Bingo game.

My first impression of this coffee is that it is very clean and bright. A very good wake up and face the day kind of coffee. I do not what happened to me in the past month, but for some reason, I now prefer these clean and bright coffee as opposed to the darker ones with more body. I even had trouble finishing up the Guatamalen Oriente whose extreme taste was exactly what I was looking for this past summer. Perhaps, it is a seasonal thing.

I taste a hint of berry and oat, no wait a minute, I think that is from the berry clusters cereal that I had just ate. This coffee has more of a elegant citrus hint to it, something a bit sweeter than an orange. Perhaps a clementine or a tangerine would best describe it.  It also has a particular smoothness that is akin to the Gesha, although not as chocolately. The taste that lingers in my mouth after I swallow is one of stawberries that are still a bit on the sour side.

After these ruminations, I must say that this Finca Malacara is an excellent cup indeed, and it was something that truly hit the right notes with me this morning. Perhaps it is because, I was  focused it on it for once instead thinking about pumpkins and sexy princess leia costumes. I will write more on this one later.

My last couple batches came out a bit darker than I intended, so I decided to knock a few minutes off of my roast time to see if maybe I can get something more in the full city range.  I usually get a nice  “full city on the plus side” roast at 24, but lately the Nesco has been really cooking the beans. I do not know if I need to clean it, open it up and fiddle with it, or start saving up for a new roaster that is both bigger and badder.  I was also thinking it was maybe some kind of power flux thing or whatever. The dang thing just seemed to a little off.

This time however, I think it cooked them exactly as a 22 minute setting should and I ended up with a pretty light roast. It looked about city plus, since it had a bit of uniform brown to it, but it was not even close to the second crack.

Well, anyway, at least is wasn’t vienna again. I was getting a bit tired of the overwhelming body and cocoa-charcoal like flavor I was getting from all of my coffee and would welcome something a bit more bright and acidic.  The unique lemon-berry taste of this guatemalan import really comes out in this ultra light roast. It makes for a cup the is brighter than sunshine itself. Sometimes, I have to look down to make sure that I am not really drinking warm lemonade. Well not as potent as the liberca, the kind of odd taste of the bean kinda of grows on you.

If only I had gotten it just a bit darker.

I might need to buy another batch, just to see if I can get this baby nailed. Excuse me as I go wash my Nesco.

When I decided to order a pound of the Mexico Organic Chiapas Proish Coop, or MOCPC as  the cool kids like to call it, I really was not expecting too much from this crop from our southern neighbors. My line of thinking was that, Gee wilikers, I never roasted a Mexican before, I guess I better give it a try.  I think this was one of the cheapest green coffees  I ever purchased from Sweet Marias (a paltry 5.20) and the reviews of it were so, so (It is a decent coffee, nut nothing super). However, being determined to try every single coffee on Sweet Maria’s long list, I went ahead and ordered it. And guess what.

I roasted a Mexican and I kind of liked it.

I think perhaps this coffee benefitted by coming after the wild tasting Guatemalan Oriente. It has a much cleaner profile than its southern nieghbor and almost felt like a breath of fresh air the first time I tasted it. As much as I enjoyed the Guatemalan Oriente, my palate was also a bit tired of the overpowering taste sensation. The MOCPC is a nice nutty cup, especially if roasted on the lighter side ( I roasted mine at a nice city plus).  Well, the cup lacks any character that distinguishes it, it is still nonetheless, A pretty decent cup of Joe with a slight mango infusion. I cannot say whether I will be ordering this again, or if I will tire of it after the third batch, but for now: Viva Mexico!

Sometimes, I do not know how my girlfriend puts up with my obsession for the go go juice. This past weekend, we went on a little camping trip to Yosemite with her mother, her sister and her sisters boyfriend. I used the trip as an excuse to buy a brand spanking new thermos to , you guessed it, bring along my favorite beverage. I had originally thought of buying a little camping percolator, but had decided that it was maybe going a bit too far. When I came home with this Thermos, my girlfriend just laughed,  shook her head and then took a photo of me and my latest coffee related possession…

Well,  this is a later photograph that she took at the campsite, but as you can see it is a big ol’ honking thermos.

The morning before our departure, I got up and brewed up a big pot of one of my latest aquisitions from Sweet Maria’s : Guatemala Oriente: Dry Process. It was probably the largest amount I ever attempted to brew in my Chemex and it was just enough to fill the thermos, plus have a cup left over to enjoy as we waited for our ride.  I picked this coffee due to the fact that Tom from SM compared it to the Liberica Anohki, as well as the Aged Sumatra Lintong in overall intensity and flavor. Since I happen to really like both of these coffee, I figured my liking for this Dry Processed coffee from Central America was a shoe in.

The GODP does have the same intense blueberry profile that you find in the Anohki, and the  smell that lingers out when you are brewing it is almost spot on. However, the initial taste, while still good, is not as mind blowing as the Liberica . It does have a good Harrar like taste to it and it is definitely unlike anything else that I have experienced from Latin America thus far ( an region known for its bright and clean coffee profiles).  The aftertaste leaves your mouth feeling a bit dry, like you just finished drinking a good Hefewiezen , with the fruity notes still lingering for a few minutes afterward.  Like the Aged Sumtra, this coffee is full of body but rather low in acidity making it more of a evening coffee as opposed to a breakfast cup.

The Yosemite weekend camping trip turned out to be a very cold one, but thankfully the coffee in my Thermos stayed warm until late that night. The next morning, I did wish that I had brought some sort of coffee making  apparatus and had to resort to drinking hot cocoa. I did try to down the remainder of the coffee in my mug, but the 20 degree temperatures that occurred that night had turned the last remaining cup into a cold muddy mess that just was not palatable even if I had found a way to heat it up.

I do have a feeling that my palate will probably grow tired of the GODP  after this batch, but I still find it an intriguing cup worthy of further examination. I think that it might make a good blending bean.  As much as I love my new thermos, I think I might of gone overboard on the size. It is too big to to take to work with me (I bike) and our little camping trips do not occur all that often. But still, I feel justified in plopping down thirty bucks for something that will probably last my lifetime.