Archive for December, 2001

Posted on December 30, 2001 - by deCadmus

CoffeeGeek

It still wears a beta label but Mark Prince’s new site, CoffeeGeek, is online. It’s CoffeeKid on steroids, and bravely crosses the line into a semi-commercial offering. Mark and his team have assembled a cadre of subject matter experts and a nifty review and ratings engine. Register now… win stuff.

Posted on December 30, 2001 - by deCadmus

In the Middles

Between Scylla and Charybdis is a cozy place.
Driven indoors by the late but inevitable arrival of a Midwestern winter, and routed out of the house by the keening wail of the smoke alarms [not to mention the deploring looks of both wife and golden retriever] I find myself roasting coffee in a cozy corner of the garage. All in all, it’s a happy compromise.

The garage is bounded on two sides by the house, shares its attack, and boasts insulated doors all around. Consequently it maintains a temperature around 50 degrees [Fahrenheit, or 10 Celsius for our metric friends.] Bundled in my favorite rag sweater it’s plenty comfortable… and my sweater now smells like just-roasted coffee.

My expanded capacity roaster cannot, on its own, compete with that ambient temperature, so I’m roasting in a bucket. To my delight, I’ve found that I can vary the intake temperature of the roaster by adjusting how deep the roaster sits in the bucket, simply stuffing odds and ends from the garage underneath the roaster itself. This affords me still more control over my roast profiles. In particular, it’s allowed me to lower the finish roast temperature by about 20 degrees, which has revealed new layers of flavor that the hotter roast had apparently muted.

This has dividends for every coffee I roast. I’m able to roast bright coffees [Centrals, especially] to a deeper version of City and Full City roasts — caramelizing a bit more sugar and offering a sweeter finish — without burning off the high notes. For beans that want a darker roast, I’m able to bring them to their first sweat of oil [or beyond] without any sort of carbony tastes, while keeping more of the chocolatey mid-tones in the bean. My espresso roasts have been particularly tasty.

I’ve only just started to experiment with storing some green beans in my new “roasting room” temperature. I wonder, will roasting a batch of beans that are themselves 50 degrees allow me to get still sweeter coffee? Hmmm.

Posted on December 28, 2001 - by deCadmus

10 True Things

Ya just gotta love these guyz…
If you read nothing else on the Web today, read this: 10 things Google has found to be true. Can it really be just that simple? Yes. Absolutely, yes. -Link lifted from Christina at elegant hack.-

Posted on December 28, 2001 - by deCadmus

Whither the Great Colombian

So what’s the deal with Colombian coffee?
Juan Valdez notwithstanding, I just don’t get it. I’ve tasted some great coffees that claimed to be Colombian. Despite my best efforts, I’ve yet to roast one, though I’ve tried a goodly number of varietals, fincas, and roasts. Today I roasted Colombian Narino Reserva del Patron, a coffee good enough to be brokered by McAlpin’s La Minita operation.

Balanced? Sure. Full-bodied? Okay. Tasty? Nope.

What about you? Had a good Colombian lately? Post your picks and pans through the comments link, below.

Posted on December 27, 2001 - by deCadmus

Still more decaf data…

Since I had till only recently avoided decaffeinated coffees altogether, I had likewise avoided the various and sundry methods that are used to decaffeinate coffee. Each has its benefits and drawbacks… and the story of which is a plus and which is a minus can vary quite a lot, depending on who’s telling the tale.

The “original” chemical process — KVW, or European processing — uses methylene chloride as its decaffeinating agent. Methylene chloride is a powerful solvent, and it’s been identified as a probable cancer causing agent. Its use is, consequently, strictly regulated by the FDA… and even more strictly regulated by the European Union, which oversees the process in Germany, where much of the world’s coffee is decaffeinated. KVW persists as a popular method because it results in arguably the best tasting coffee… because this solvent so aggressively leaches out caffeine it has little impact on the bean’s flavor.

A second chemical process is increasingly popular — Ethyl Acetate, or Natural processing — uses ethyl acetate in a process that’s virtually identical to the KVW method, except that the solvent is itself naturally derived [it can be found in an entirely organic state in some fruits, like apples. peaches and pears.]

Next are two methods — Swiss Water process, and CO2 — that each make a claim of being chemical free. These claims aren’t entirely accurate. Water is a chemical. CO2 is a chemical. They are, each in their own way, solvents. They are, however, far more common and inert chemicals than either of the ethyl-based solvents.

The Swiss Water process involves stewing the green coffee beans in very hot [nearly boiling] water, which extracts not only caffeine, but virtually every flavor agent in the bean. After this “flavor saturated water” is filtered to remove the caffeine, new coffee beans are added. The theory is that this next batch of coffee will lose only its caffeine, as the water is already saturated with coffee flavor compounds. My own experience suggests that at least some of the flavor-carrying coffee oils are forever lost in this process, and the coffee’s brightness is irrevocably muted.

The CO2 process would seem to offer tremendous potential for decaffeination. The CO2 process compresses carbon dioxide to a liquid state, which is circulated with wet, warmed green coffee beans. In its highly pressurized state, the CO2 acts as a particularly selective solvent, binding with the caffeine to carry it to another chamber. where the caffeine is removed, and the CO2 is recirculated. It’s an elegant method — though one that is perhaps not yet perfected… all CO2 processes are apparently not created equal, nor are their results.

On the whole, the same can be said of all decaffeinating processes.

Posted on December 27, 2001 - by deCadmus

Remember: Coffee

From the coffee is good for you department…
A study finds that drinking caffeinated coffee is an aid to memory retention in older adults, offering “…good news for older adults, and vindication for those of us who live with a coffeepot always at the ready.”

Posted on December 24, 2001 - by deCadmus

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all…
And so begin the holiday rounds, which will likely keep me from my keyboard for a few days. Very probably a good thing. Let me take the moment to wish you and yours a warm and happy holiday, whatever day and whatever reason you choose to celebrate.

…and to all, a good night.

Posted on December 23, 2001 - by deCadmus

By leaps and bounds…

More nifty notes from Google — information about the archivists [folks who knew that, some day, this whole Internet thing just might take off] and statistics that tell the tale:

Number of articles per year (roughly):

1981:       4 000 (from May 11)1982:      27 0001983:      62 0001984:     108 0001985:     158 0001986:     101 0001987:     117 0001988:     185 0001989:     480 0001990:   1 203 0001991:   2 085 0001992:   9 920 0001993:   8 011 0001994:  14 737 0001995:  21 064 0001996:  52 635 0001997:  80 044 0001998: 107 063 0001999: 129 113 0002000: 132 585 0002001: 149 808 000 (through Dec 20)

Posted on December 22, 2001 - by deCadmus

Decaf stinks.

No, I don’t drink decaf. But Mom does, since the good doctor suggested it. Ever the good son, I suggested trying another doctor. Meanwhile, I picked up some “green” decaffeinated coffee beans and roasted a batch. I’m told it was good… and Mom made a point to add, “it’s all gone.” So I’m roasting more…

Decaf coffee beans are an odd lot. They are a muddy gray-brown and could be mistaken for having been roasted, but that they clearly haven’t gone through the popcorn-like explosion of first crack… all a result of the very curious process of decaffeination. The most curious part, I suppose, is that there’s any flavor left in a decaffeinated bean at all.

Decaf coffee stinks as you roast it. Stinks. This is not the vaguely grassy stuff of roasting coffee… it’s something altogether different. It’s the smell of something that’s hotter than it wants to be… hotter than it should be, maybe. Like burning tires. Or red-hot iron.

First crack is not what you’d call percussive, so much as the occasional pop and crackle from the fireplace. Second is similarly muted… there’s really very few coffee divots popping off — the effect is more like stress fractures that appear at the seams of the bean. The best way to know when decaf coffee is done roasting, I’m advised, is to note when it stops stinking. I suspect I over roasted the first batch… it didn’t quite smell like coffee yet. And till it’s cooled a bit, it won’t. And then, only a little.

There is very little caffeine in quality arabica coffee… pound for pound half of what you’d find in a pre-ground can of Folgers or Yuban. So if some good doctor tells you to drop caffeine from your diet, get a second opinion. Preferably from a roaster. ;)

Posted on December 22, 2001 - by deCadmus

Holiday Blends

I recently recounted in some detail my adventures in roasting and blending coffees to give as gifts for the holidays. And, as it happened, I ended up with *two* blends that are gonna be wrapped up with little bows on ‘em. The unexpected blend happened when I messed up, and plunked some fairly dark-roasted Harar in the wrong bowl, where it landed in a pile of Uganda Bugisu Mbale. Lo and behold, an eye-opening, syrupy morning cup was born… it’s now in little jars with tags on it reading “Christmas Morning Blend.”

I wonder how many of our very favorite blends are on purpose, and which are happy accidents?