Posted on April 20, 2001 - by deCadmus

Who’s got time to write? I’m busy roasting!

Who’s got time to write? I’m busy roasting!

For a couple weeks I’ve found myself shuttling beans straight from the roast chamber into the hopper on the grinder. For the most part this is not a bad thing. After all, coffee just can’t get much fresher than that, right? But it *can* be more flavorful. That is, some roasts — particularly darker roasts — continue to develop their flavors during a rest period of anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. Exactly why this is is a subject of endless speculation and rhetoric [as is much of the specialty coffee world.]

Aside from that, just-roasted coffee is brimming with CO2–the fizzy stuff in soft drinks. Put that CO2-laden coffee in your brew-pot and add water, and some of the CO2 and water mixes to create carbonic acid… fine for a cola, but not so great in coffee. I usually grind the just-roasted beans and let the ground coffee rest for a few minutes before I brew. The ground coffee has more surface area exposed, so the CO2 outgasses more quickly.

Anyway, I finally caught up a bit today, and now have a reserve supply of Sumatra Mandheling on-hand [the base for nearly all my blending] as well as a couple of espresso blends. I’m ready for my cappuccino tomorrow morning… if I can manage to wait.