Archive for December, 2001

Posted on December 22, 2001 - by deCadmus

Hacking the Hearthware Gourmet

Yesterday I roasted nearly four pounds of coffee… in three ounce batches. Today I attacked my Hearthware Gourmet with a spoon [and a drill, and some electrical supply bits]. It’s now a 6 oz. roaster.

I’ll put a picture essay up on Bloggle sometime soon [though very likely after the holidays] but here’s the low-budget version…

It’s pretty clear that air flow is constricted on the Gourmet — there’s plenty of oomph generated by its built-in blower, but there’s very limited inflow and outflow where the roast chamber itself is concerned. I made three modifications…

1) I enlarged the outflow of the base unit… the “air-scoop” type vents. By using a sturdy spoon I was able to retain the same general shape: flat on the surface, rounded below, so as not to overly muck with the general airflow properties. [I figure the vents are shaped as they are with reason... and I don't have any particular cause to question it right now]. I enlarged the vents, best I can tell, between 1 and 2 millimeters, leaving plenty of room, still, between the lower portion of these vents and the heating element, below.

2) I enlarged the inflow of the roasting globe. An operation very similar to the base unit, I again employed my trusty spoon to increase the size of only the *larger* vents, taking some care to leave the shape of the opening pretty much intact. Once again, I modified these vents by 1 or 2 millimeters… they are still small enough that I don’t expect any coffee beans would fall through the cracks.

3) I drilled out the “lid” of the chaff collector… I removed the knob and plastic medallion on the lid, and drilled a pattern of small holes in the area of the lid that the medallion formerly covered. I made a trip to the hardware store and picked up some aluminum window screen fabric, and a round, galvanized steel fitting, used as an extender for household wiring boxes. I drilled two more holes in the lid to match the holes in the electrical fitting, and sandwiched screening between the two.

The results — very even roasts. Surprisingly so. The beans in the center of the chamber begin a wee bit less roasted then their compatriots [you can note a difference in color] but as first crack nears the difference is negligible, and near second everything is fully integrated and happy. Importantly: no tipping, and no scorching.

The air-scoop enlarging and lid drilling was matched with a number of test runs… tweak a bit, load in some beans and check airflow… tweak some more, load more beans, etc. With this setup I can do 6 oz. green at *room temperature*. A test run outside demonstrated that these mods cannot compete with the heating requirements of 40 degree temperatures. However — and this is the sweet part — if I simply add the plastic medallion to the top of the lid [thus covering my grid of extra outflow holes and restricting airflow] I have essentially a stock roaster, and I *can* roast outside, albeit with a normal 3 oz. batch.

I expect I’ll tweak the chaff collection further [I'm thinking of dispensing with "collection" devices altogether, and instead building a deflector that shunts chaff into the kitchen sink, which I can fill with water to "catch" the chaff as it blows off. But that's another day.]

I don’t see any real downside [other than the obvious warranty voidance bit] and I expect this is just a precursor to mounting an external blower with variable temperature and air control… I expect this roast globe is good for better than 8 oz. of beans.

Happy roasting.

P.S. Hey, this is just what *I* did, and I don’t recommend you do anything remotely like this. You could put yer eye out, kid!

Posted on December 20, 2001 - by deCadmus

You love ‘em or you hate ‘em…

Virtually nobody walks the middle of the road where it comes to flavored coffees. For some, flavored coffees are the very definition of Gourmet Coffee. For others, flavored coffees are nothing less than the bane of Specialty Coffee. How’d we get here?

Since Kaldi first found his troop of dancing goats, folks have been flavoring their brew. Historically, Turkish and Arabic coffees were mixed with any number of spices — cardamom, nutmeg, black pepper, cinnamon, nuts and citrus rinds. When coffee found its way to Austria — as part of the loot of a failed Turkish siege — F. G. Kolschitzky used the spoils to open Vienna’s first coffee house, spiking the bitter brew with honey and milk to better suit the milder European palate.

Since then most everything under the sun has been used as a coffee additive — whether to make the bean more palatable, to ration it, or to disguise beans of inferior quality. And that seems to be where the trouble begins… In the 1970s, a number of large roasters popularized heavily flavored coffees — from Hazelnutty Whatzit to Irish Creamything — that used poor quality coffees as a base. The resulting drink was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike coffee. And it sold.

These flavored coffees still sell briskly, accounting for a third or more of today’s retail specialty coffee trade. Retailers and roasters will be quick to assure you, however, that today’s beans entirely qualify as specialty grade coffees — usually quite decent Central and South American beans, themselves with mild flavor profiles.

Those same coffees are, however, a nuisance. Coffee flavorings — even natural ones — are as volatile as they are aromatic. Roasted coffee beans are highly absorptive, so flavored beans require air-tight storage and separate grinders; they must be completely isolated from non-flavored beans. And still, chances are when you walk in to a shop that stocks flavored beans you smell vanilla, and peppermint and hazelnut.

Therein lies the most powerful argument of the coffee purist, the aficionado of single-origin beans and artisan blends: coffees that are made distinct only by subtleties and nuance can be rendered completely and irrevocably awful by a moment of neglect, or chance intermingling. One moment a Yemen Moka Hirazi dances with wildly complex fruit and earth… the next it’s an unhappy vanilla-nut surprise.

Flavored coffee — much like religion, politics and art — is ultimately a question of personal preference, and perspective. And while those who choose to adulterate their beverages have more than 400 years of history on their side, maybe they’ll yet see the light. ;)

Posted on December 19, 2001 - by deCadmus

LOTR

LOTR
An epic dream come to life on-screen. Haunting and beautiful, and both at once, Peter Jackson’s film is faithful to Tolkein, without constraint. It is, in a word, remarkable.

Posted on December 14, 2001 - by deCadmus

From the clarifications department…

Simon writes from the UK to suggest I clarify the prior post… to wit: what I described is an espresso macchiato, or an espresso marked, or stained, with milk. There is also a drink that’s comprised of the inverse… steamed milk marked with espresso, and it is known simply as a macchiato.

Good point.

Merely ordering an espresso drink can be quite the bewildering exercise. If you begin with the myriad permutations and names you might find within a particular establishment, and allow for the stunning array of different names you might find for the *very same* drink from shop to shop, it’s no wonder that folks — even those particularly fond of espresso drinks — opt for a plain ol’ cuppa joe.

Consider my favorite eye-opener… a cup of brewed coffee with a shot of espresso dropped in for good measure. When I first encountered this particularly potent potion, it was aptly named a red eye. I have since found it referred to as a depth charge, a hammerhead, a slammer, and — my favorite — a brewed awakening.

So what’s in your cup?

Posted on December 12, 2001 - by deCadmus

M-m-m-macchiato…

I ordered a macchiato at the in-boxstore-plus-supermarket Starbucks a while ago, and the PBTC steamed a largish pitcher of milk, pulled a double… and then consulted her book.

“I’ve never done one of these before,” she said.
“No problem,” says I. “First, put the book down.”
She does.
“Pick up your pitcher and swirl it really hard so it’s all happy froth.”
She does.
“Now take your spoon and get a dollop of froth and drizzle it on top of the espresso.”
She does, and looks at me expectantly…
“Perfect.”
She beams.

She hands me my drink. I hand her a tip. She will go far….

Posted on December 12, 2001 - by deCadmus

Winter Angst

It would appear that winter has arrived in the heartland this year with a thud, a clink and a plonk. Sleet, the size of hail-stones, is raining down. While it’s a surprisingly effective way to achieve a winter transformation, there’s a squirrel just outside the window that’s a bit peeved about its method of delivery — as he appears for all the world to shake his tiny fist at the sky each time an icy pellet whacks him on the nose.

I think I know how he feels.

Posted on December 11, 2001 - by deCadmus

Your First Time?

Do you remember your first time? Shy? Uncertain? A little nervous? Now that Google has made its 20-year historical archive available, you can revisit your very first UseNet experience… way back when you were a newbie, too.

Posted on December 11, 2001 - by deCadmus

Roaster Ghost

After just shy of 300 roast cycles [or 56 pounds of coffee] my Hearthware [Home Innovations] Gourmet roaster has given up the ghost. It would seem that the circuit board is no longer on speaking terms with the heating element. Hearthware responded to my email request for service within 24 hours, and I am told a replacement board is on its way. Meanwhile I’ve been sampling with the FreshRoast again… it *really* does a spiffy job of preserving the bright characteristics of single origin beans like Kenya, and the Central American beans. Still, it has great difficulty pushing dense beans into second crack [after having roasted 80 pounds or more itself] so I’ll be without fresh espresso beans until I get the Gourmet repaired [or until the FreshRoast Plus arrives]. This could be a problem….

Posted on December 11, 2001 - by deCadmus

FreshRoast Plus

Freshbeans has just released the FreshRoast Plus, a step up [it would seem] from the FreshRoast. While I’m having difficulty getting the nitty-gritty specifics, it appears that the capacity has been upgraded from 2oz to 3.5 oz [.5 oz more than the Hearthware line] and it sports a new chaff collection system. All this for… the same price? I should be receiving one of these around December 20, and I’ll post my impressions here.

Posted on December 10, 2001 - by deCadmus

Dear Santa

I hope you’re sitting down.

Maybe I should start by thanking you for all those years that you really came through for me. The drum set for my fifth Christmas completely blew me away. And even though I never really showed much talent for it [despite Dad's best intentions with that Sandy Nelson album] I enjoyed thumping on it, anyway.

The sled when I was 8 was a real winner… I couldn’t count the hours we kids spent sledding Pee Dee Hill — little maniacs hurtling headfirst down that frozen track — and the long, shivering walk back home, where Mom’s hot chocolate waited.

When I stop and think about it, you’ve been awfully generous. And I understand that some of my requests simply weren’t very practical — the pony, for example. And sometimes I got a little carried away… like last year’s Aeron chair. This year, things are different. Really.

Santa, this year, all I want for Christmas is a job.

I don’t really care if it comes with a nifty title, or a huge salary. It’s just that… well, I *still* think it’s important that web sites be easy to use. Easy to understand. Easy to navigate. And I can’t help but believe there’s a company out there that thinks the same way, and could use somebody like me.

So Santa, maybe you could play matchmaker… or maybe just point somebody at my resume?

Thanks, Santa. Look for milk and cookies as always. Espresso chcocolate-chip this year.

Best wishes,

-Doug-

P.S. Um… world peace would be cool, too.