I’m sort of jumping the gun on writing this, but, considering the long hours and seemingly endless days of test-roasting and taste-testing, I think can be forgiven if I let spill a small portion of the proverbial beans. Besides, Michael John Butterworth requested more than one blog post a month, and I’m not about to… [Read more…]
August 31, 2011
The past several weeks — months, really — have been mildly crazy. Lots and lots of work, with not a whole lot of reprieve. I’m fine with that, though, as I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to learn and explore, all the while being paid. Right now, this very moment, I have several batches of… [Read more…]
June 28, 2011
One coffee professional recently told me, with regard to building an espresso blend, “Espresso is so varied and personal.” I liked hearing that a lot. In a sense, it was comforting to me, since all of my espresso roasting and subsequent blending had been, for the most part, very much against The Rules. In the… [Read more…]
January 15, 2011
“Mmm… kind of.” That’s my standard response to the question, “So, are you excited?” About the roaster, that is. In case you haven’t heard, Quills acquired a roaster a couple days ago, a Diedrich IR-3. When it’s (un)officially fired up for business, I’ll be there, doing most of that firing. Lots of folks know this,… [Read more…]
January 6, 2011
If I had a full post’s worth of writing to put on here, I would definitely post a full post. But, since I don’t have a full post, and only a bunch of half-baked ideas for posts that won’t do as fully-developed posts, I’m not going to write a full post. Instead, I’ll post a… [Read more…]
December 19, 2010
So, after thinking about it a bit last night and this morning, I decided I could have pulled that blend at a slightly higher temp, maybe 200° or 201°, which might have helped to take the edge off the brightness a bit and bring out more of the middle and lower-toned notes in the coffees.… [Read more…]
December 18, 2010
Last Saturday night, I roasted a few batches of coffee with the intention of blending them together and pulling them as espresso: Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca La Maravilla; Kenya Tegu AB; and Ethiopia Guji Oromo. All three coffees are washed, and I developed all three of them to a roast level just shy of second crack…… [Read more…]
November 6, 2010
I really need to learn more about the C Market. It hurts my head enough as it is. Some people think of names for bands. I think of names for espressos or espresso blends. Like Bertie Bott’s, or Mr. E. S. Blend, or, for the Kentuckians out there, Bourbon Trail. I charge my roommate fifty… [Read more…]
September 30, 2010
Here’s a quick thought, one that I’ll try to flesh out as best I can: Some of my favorite coffees are ones that I’ve been able to work with for months. In the past year or so, I’ve developed an aversion to coffee judgments that seem to be, to me, at least, a little… underdeveloped. Yes,… [Read more…]
August 19, 2010
“Lucky judges.” On Sunday, I headed down to Nashville with Ryan Soeder to chill at CREMA in Nashville. They were hosting a cupping led by Aaron Blanco of The Brown Coffee Company. Aaron is, without a doubt, one of the coolest guys in the specialty coffee scene; if you don’t believe me, at least heed… [Read more…]
October 5, 2011
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